Christs Church which is his mystical body are inseparably knit together to Christ and to one another Hypocrites may be externally by outward profession and separably united to the Church and Christ but true believers in Christ abide in Christ Joh. 15. 2. they are inseparably united to Christ else as was said before Christ may lose his peculiar people yea be a head without a body for if one of his members may be eternally separated from See Dr. Field of the Church his Appendix part 1. p. 833. That the elect called according to Gods purpose have that grace that excludeth sin from reigning and that this grace once had by them is never totally nor finally lost him then others may also and if others then all of them may be so separated from him for there is the same reason of one that there is of another yea of all Our Saviour saith Not one of them his Father gave him is lost John 17. 12. yea the Apostle speaks fully that nothing shall be able to separate us that are in Christ Jesus from the love of Gââ which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 35 36 37 38 39. Those whom Chriââ loved he loved to the end John 13. 1. Isa 54. 8. But with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeeââ Jerem. 31. 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefââ with loving kindness have I drawn thee Jerem. 32. 40. And I ãâã make an everlasting covenant with thââ that I will not turn away from them ãâã do them good but I will put my feââ Vide King James his Declaration against Vorstius wherein he called the Doctrine of the Apostasie of the Saints taught by Bertius a Scholar of Arminius that enemy to God an heretical blasphemous and wicked Doctrine in their hearts that they shall not depart from me and Rom. 11. 29. ãâã gifts and calling of God are witââ repentance Gods decree of Eleââ is unchangeable and therefore thâââ gifts that flow from it are imââ table too God taketh not thâââ away from them neither can thââ that have them lose them Chrâââ prayed for them John 17. 9 15 19 20 24. and Bishop Mountagââ himself confesseth that Christ was ever heard in what he prayââ for ART IX That the corruption of our nature commonly called Original sin which remaineth in truly regenerated persons after Baptism is not properly a sin THis I renounce 1. because 't is contrary to the sound Doctrine of the Church of England in Homily of Christs Nativity T. 2. p. 167. where we may read how excellently man was made after Gods own Image and that Adam falling into sin had in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness but being altogether spoâted insomuch that he seemed to be altogether a lump of sin and therefore by the just judgment of God was justly condemned to everlasting death and this plague fell not only upon himself but also upon all his posterity and children for ever as St. Paul Rom. 5. By one mans offence sin entred upon all many were made sinners by which words we are taught that as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin that is became mortal and subject unto death having nothing in themselves but everlasting damnation both of body and soul they became as David saith corrupt and abominable they went all out of the way there was none that did good no not one And in the Homily of the Death of Christ T. 2. p. 184. Is not sin think you a grievous thing in Gods sight seeing for the transgression of Gods Precept in eating of one apple he condemned all the world to perpetual death and would not be pacified but only with the blood of his own Son And in Homily of Christs Resurrection T. 2. p. 195. Hard it is to subdue and resist our nature so corrupt and leavened with the sowre bitterness of the poyson which we received by the inheritance of our old Fatheâ Adam But more fully the Church of England in her 9th Article of Religion of Original sin thus Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is ingendered of the off-spriââ of Adam whereby man is very far gone from Original Righteousââ and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the flesh lusteth ãâã ways contrary to the spirit and therefore in every person ãâã into this world it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation and ãâã infection of nature doth remain yea in them that are regeneratââ whereby the lust of the flesh called in Greek ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whiââ some do expound the wisdom some sensuality some the affectioââ some the desire of the flesh is not subject to the law of God ãâã although there is no condemnation for them that believe and ãâã baptized yet the Apostle doth confess that concupiscence and ãâã hath in it self the nature of sin In which Article is declared 1. That Original sin doth not consist in following or imitating of ãâã in sinning against God as Pelagians vainly teach 2. That Original sin is the FAULT AND CORRUPTION of ãâã nature of every man that by ordinary generation descends from ãâã Psal 51. 5. Rom. 7. 15. Gal. 4. 17. Jam. 1. 17. 1 Pet. 2. 11. 3. That Original sin deserves Gods wrath and damnation in every âââson so born into this world Rom. 7. 23 24. Gal. 5. 17. Ephes 2. 3. 4. That Original sin is and remains in every person so born eveââ them that are regenerated Rom. 7. from vers 7. to vers 25. 5. That concupiscence oâ lust hath in it the nature of sin Rom. ãâã 11 14 15 17 18 19 20 21 23 24. Gal. 5. 17. Now sum up what the Church of England saith of Original sin ãâã then judg whether she doth not affirm that Original sin is propââ a sin 2. Because 't is contrary to the sound Doctrine of other reformââ Churches to be seen in the Harmony of Confessions Sec. 4. p. ãâã 1. 'T is contrary to the latter Confession of Helvetia Man was frââ the beginning created of God after the Image of God in righteââ ness and true holiness good and upright but by the instinct of ãâã âârpent and his own fault falling from goodness and uprightâââ became subject to sin death and sundry calamities and such ãâã one as he became by his fall such are all his off-spring even ãâã ject to sin death and sundry calamities and we take sin to be ãâã natural corruption of man derived or spread from those our ãâã parents unto us all through which we being drowned in evil ãâã âupiscences and clean turned away from God but prone to ãâã evil full of all wickedness distrust contempt and hatred of Goââ can do no good of our selves no not so much as think of any 2.
The Confession of Bohemia or Waldenses A second kind of sin is Original sin naturally ingendred in us and hereditary wherein we are all conceived and born into this world Behold saith David I was born in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me and Paul We are by nature the children of wrath Let the force of this hereditary destruction be acknowledged and judged of by the guilt and fault by our proneness and declination by our evil nature and by the punishment which is laid upon it 3. The French Church saith thus We believe that all the off-spring of Adam is infected with this contagion which we call Original sin that is a stain spreading it self by propagation and not by imitation only as the Pelagians thought all whose Errors * One of his Errors was that Original sin is not truly and properly a sin but a punishment we detest and we believe that this stain is indeed sin because it maketh all and every man not so much those little ones excepted which as yet lye hid in their Mothers wombs guilty of eternal death before God we affirm also that this stain even after baptism is in nature sin 4. The Confession of Belgia which is this We believe that through the disobedience of Adam the sin which is called Original hath been spread and poured into all mankind Now Original sin is a corruption of the whole nature and an hereditary evil wherewith even the very infants in their Mothers wombs are polluted the which also as a most noysome root doth branch out most abundantly all kind of sin in man and is so filthy and abominable in the sight of God that it alone is sufficient to the condemnation of all mankind neither are we to believe that this sin is by baptism utterly extinguished or plucked up by the roots seeing that out of it as out of a corrupt fountain continual floods and rivers of iniquity do daily spring and flow 5. The Confession of Auspurg saith thus And this Original blot is sin indeed condemning and bringing eternal death even now upon all that are not born by baptism and the Holy Ghost 6. The Confession of Saxony Art 2. treats largely of Original sin Where she approves the Doctrine delivered to us by the first Fathers Prophets and Apostles and the Apostles Scholars even unto Augustin and after his time and condemns the Doctrine of Pelagius and all those who have scattered in the Church like doting follies to those of the Pelagians and they ãâã like not the usual definition given of original sin viz. Originalââ is a want of Original justice which ought to be in us and afâââward they say That these wants and this whole corruptioââ sin and not only a punishment of sin Harmony of Confessions ãâã 4. p. 76 77. 7. To this may be added the Confession of the Chââ of Ireland which Article 24th is the same with the Churchââ Englands 8. The Confession of the Church of Scotland may ãâã seen in the Confession of Faith made by the late learned and ãâã thodox Assembly of Divines c. 6. Articles 5 6. This corrupââ of nature during this life doth remain in those that are regââ rated and although it be through Christ pardoned and moââ yet both it self and all the motions thereof are truly and prââ sin every sin both original and actual being a transgression oââ righteous Law of God and contrary thereunto doth in its ãâã nature bring guilt upon the sinner whereby he is bound oveââ the wrath of God and curse of the Law and so made subjecââ death with all miseries spiritual temporal and eternal Now if these Churches Confessions suffice not to prove orââ sin to be properly a sin give me leave I pray humbly to offer ãâã further Confirmation and Explication these things that followââ 1. That Original sin is either Imputed or Inherent 1. Original sin imputed is the inobedience of Adam in whose ãâã all meer men were and sinned is imputed to all his posterity ãâã they in their own persons had acttually violated the Law of Goââ eating the forbidden fruit Rom. 5. 12. Wherefore as by one ãâã entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men ãâã that all have sinned that is in that one man in Adam legallyâ ãâã they stood under his Covenant naturally as they bear his Imaââ as they were in his loins as two Nations are said to be in the ãâã of Rebeccah Gen. 25. 23. and Levi to have paid tithes in the ãâã of Abraham to Melchisedeck Heb. 7. 9 10. the slavish estate of thââ parents is imputed to their children The natural man thoughââ may think himself frâe yet is sold under sin Rom. 7. 14. as reââ lion of great persons against their King not only hurts their own persons but stains their blood and is imputed to their posterity so is Adams first sin imputed to us who were in his loins and are natural ordinary partakers of his nature and Rom. 5. 13. 't is said that sin was imputed for until the law that is of Moses sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no law that is where there is no law broken 2. Original sin inherent is hereditary corruption naturally propagated Vide Homily of the Nativity of Christ T. 2. p 167â supra unto us from the fall of our first parents making us guilty of temporal and eternal punishments whereby we are utterly indisposed disabled and made opposite to every thing that is good and wholly inclined to all that which is evil from which do proceed all our actual sins whereby every meer man is so corrupted in his understanding that he doth not cannot know any thing sufficiently concerning meerly divine things belonging to his eternal salvation without the special grace of God Matth. 16. 17 18. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven 1 Cor. 2. 14. For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can be know them because they are spiritually discerned and this is called sometimes blindnesâ Ephes 4. 18. Vanity and carnal-mindedness in the mind and understanding Ephes 4. 17. Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be hardness in the conscience who being past feeling Ephes In Adamo nos omnes rei facti fuimus quia nos omnes fuimus quod ille imus erât unde naturae corruptae ad nos quâânor emanarunt vulneraâ ignorantia in intellectu malicia in voluntate infirmatas in iraââibill rebellio in concutiscihââ appetitu Aquin 12 ae q. 84. Ex Beda saith learned Bishop Pridiaux fascic controversiaââ c 3 de peccato q. 5. p. â2â 4. 19. Pravity or perversaess in the will which is commonly called concupiscence in the appetite and this is formally a turning or
imputed to believers for Justification but that Mediatory righteousness of Christ whereby he suffered for our breach of Gods most righteous Law which deserves Gods curse Gal. 3. 13. and actively fulfilled the whole Moral Law of God for us which we were bound to do Levit. 18. 5. Gal. 3. 13. Gal. 4. 4 5. Mat. 3. 15. If a Creditor cast his debtor into prison for non-payment of such a sum of money as he owed him till he be payed the money or otherwise satisfied for his debt upon his sureties or friends coming to him and paying him all the money and he taking accepting and allowing of it as full and perfect satisfaction to him for the debt doth impute it or reckon it or put it upon his account and consequently to him as though it were paid and made by his debtor in person himself and doth therefore in manifestation thereof deliver up his bond or cross his Book and release him out of prison So 't is here Gods accepting taking and allowing of our Saviour Jesus Christs our sureties active and passive obedience for us as though actually and personally performed by us as full and perfect satisfaction to his Justice and thereupon we applying it by Faith pardoning our sins delivering of us from the curse of the Law formally punishments and eternal death doth thereby impute his obedience or righteousness to us that by Faith in Christ do make application of it to our selves Now the Minor is the express Doctrine of the Church of England and Ireland Homily for Salvation p. 13 14 15 16 17. And this Justification or righteousness which we so receive of Gods mercy and Christs merits imbraced by faith is taken * Mr. Fowler himself makes Justification and acceptance with God all one Free Disc p. 134. accepted and allowed by God for our full and perfect justification And again Homily for Good-Friday T. 2. p. 175. Neither was it possible for us to be loosed of this debt of our own ability it pleased him that is Christ our Surety to be the payer thereof and to discharge us quit his paying our debt meritoriously discharging us quit necessarily implys that God did accept of the merits of his death and doings for us And Ibi. p. 177. Christ was obedient to his Father even to the death and this he did for us all that believe in him And such favour did he purchase for us of his heavenly Father by his death that for the merit thereof if we be true Christians indeed and not in word only we be now fully in Gods grace again and clearly discharged from our sins those expressions that Christ did purchase for us Gods favour and clearly discharged us from our sins manifest it to all the world that God did accept and take and allow as full satisfaction of what Christ did for us Again Ibi. p. 187 188. Christ by his own oblation and once offering himself upon the Cross hath taken away our sins and restored us again into Gods favour so fully and perfectly that no other sacrifice for sin shall hereafter be requisite or needful in all the world And in the 34th Article of Religion of the Church of Ireland they say thus We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jâsus Christ applied by Faith and not for our own works or merits And this righteousness which we so receive of Gods mercy and Christs merits imbraced by Faith is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect and full Justification And in 35th Article they say thus And whereas all the world was not able of themselves to pay any part towards their ransome it pleased our heavenly Father of his infinite mercy without any desert of ours to provide for us the most precious merits of his own Son whereby our ransome might be fully paid the Law fulfilled and his Justice fully satisfied So that Christ is now the righteousness of all them that truly believe in him He for them paid their ransome by his death he for them fulfilled the Law in his life that now in him and by him every true Christian may be called a fulfiller of the Law for as much as that which our infirmity was not able to effect Christs justice hath performed And this Doctrine viz. that Christ hath for us made a full and perfect satisfaction to Gods Justice is the express Doctrine of the Church of England in her Order of the Communion which saith there That Jesus Christ did suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption and that he made there by his own oblation of himself once offered ãâã full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world And Homâly of Christs Nativity T. 2. p. 169. Christ made perfect satisfaction by his death for the sins of all people And that God doth take accept and allow it as full and perfect satisfaction for the sins of all his elect people is most evident by the holy Apostles Creed which the Church of England also believeth as well as by the holy Doctrine of the Canonical Scriptures which hold that Jesus Christ did not only die and was buried and was for a time held under the power of death and the grave which was as his imprisonment but that he was raised again for our Justification which declared that God was fully satisfied with what he had done and suffered else he would not have let him out of Prison Rom. 4. 25. And that he ascended up into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God and that from thence he shall come to iudg both quick and dead Rom. 8. 34. Heb. 1. 3. And God hath declared that in him he is well pleased Mat. 3. 17. Mat. 17. 5. And that we are compleat in him Col. 2. 18. And that we are justified in and by him Rom. 3. 24. And that we have peace with God through him Rom. 5. 1 2. And that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. And that he saves his people from their sins to the uttermost Mat. 1. 21. Heb. 5. 25. Of which you may see much more hereafter in the 13th particular concerning Purgatory To pass by many more arguments 4 Sacred Scripture doth evidently hold it forth unto all that will not wilfully shut their eyes or that are not judicially blinded 1. Jer. 23. 6. This is the name whereby Christ shall be called that is by all Gods people the Lord our righteousness * See Bishop Andrews his Sermon in locum All Gods people shall profess that they have their righteousness from Christ which is in effect the same with Isa 45. 25. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory All the spiritual seed of Israel that is all Gods Elect shall be justified that is shall obtain remission of their sins and right to everlasting life by virtue of the Son
of Gods righteousness which shall be applied to them by Faith So Diodate in Isa 45. 25. 2. Rom 4 6. Blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works Now that righteousness is not cannot be inherent properly in our persons for that is not without works it must necessarily therefore be Christs righteousness which is imputed to him that is blessed 3. Rom. 5. 17 18 19 For if by one mans offence i. e. Adams death reigned by one i e. by Adam much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ therefore as by the offence of one that is Adam judgment came upon all men unto condemnation even so by the righteousness of one that is Christ the second Adam the free gift camt upon all men that is that are elected in Christ unto justification of life This next verse makes it most clear For as by one mans disobedience that is Adams many that is all that were naturally in Adam by ordinary generation were made sinners so by the obedience of one that is of Christ many that is all Gods Elect shall be made righteous Not efficiently and meritoriously only but formally as by Adams disobedience we weââ made sinners not efficiently and meritoriously only but formally for his first sin was imputed to us and made our sin so are believers Christ formally made righteous by the Imputation of Christs righteousness them 4. 1 Cor 1. 30. Christ is made to us of God wisdom and righteousneââ and sanctification and redemption Where the blessed Apostle doth ââpresly distinguish righteousness from sanctification the righteousness ãâã Christ imputed to us from inherent righteousness wrought in us 5. To this might be added this That no righteousness but the rigâteousness of Christ who is God and man in one Person is now ãâã to satisfie the justice of God and purchase for us remission of our ãâã and perfectly fulfill the Law of God for us and therefore St. ãâã who understood himself very well Phil. 3. 8 9 Counted all thing but dung that he might win Christ and be found in him not having his oââ righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith That is clothed witâ the righteousness of Christ imputed to him as not only Dr. Featly bââ all our sound Divines that have written upon the place expouââ it 6. Before I leave this point I pââ observe * Tilen Syntag. de Justif p. 724. Wendâlin Theol. lib. 1. c. 25. Thes 8. p 491. with Divines That remissââ of sins or absolution from the curse of tââ Law and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ are not two divers or distiââ integranting parts of Justification or two acts in number and really distinct but one and the same act respecting two terms à quo ad queâ from which and to which As darkness is by one and the same act expelled the air and light introduced into the air so by one and tââ same act of Justification is the sinner absolved from guilt and pronounced just by one and the same act is the sinners sin pardoned and the righteousness of Christ imputed to him Remission of sins and imputation of righteousness are not two divers or distinct parts secuâdum essâ but only secundum dici in nature but name and sound foâ either of them taken asunder doth express the whole nature of Justification as appears Rom. 4. 6 7. where the Apostle purposely handling this argument doth use to remit sins and to impute righteousnesâ as things or phrases of equal force or signification David describeââ the blessedness of man unto whom God imputeth righteousness withoââ works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven Psal 32. 1 ãâã To these arguments I might add what Cardinal Contarenus in tractaââu de Justificatione doth teach to be seen in Dr. Ames his Bellarminus Enervatus T. 4. l 6. c. 1. p. 128. and what Cardinal Cajetan also saith to the same purpose there to be seen but I forbear because I am now to deal with Protestants in profession though Papists indeed in those points about Justification And that you may see I do not wrong them I shall here insert what Mr. Fowler * And I hope I may without offence call them so seeing they hold the very same that Papists do in their tract of Justification seeing he calls us Antinomians for holding the Doctrine of St. Paul saith that he and his party do hold Free Discourse p. 1. p. 125. he saith That those men are angry with those Preachers that is his Latitudinarian party that preach a truly â As if those he writes against did not preach such a moral and real righteousness as well as they and as though Christs righteousness which is imputed to believers were not such moral and real righteousness because they hear no talks from their Pulpits of an imputative righteousness And p. 126 he saith They do not use the phrase so often but they believe the thing in their sense that is so to handle the doctrine of imputed as to shew the necessity of inherent righteousness that is as he explains himself elsewhere to the justification of a sinners person before God which whether it be not downright Jesuitical or if you rather will Socinian-Popery let the judicious and indifferent Reader judg This then is their notion of Christs imputed righteousness that those which are sincerely righteous and from an inward living principle allow themselves in no known sin nor in the neglect of any known duty which is to be Evangelically righteous shall be dealt with and rewarded in and through Christ as if they were perfectly and in a strict legal sense so 'T is certain I acknowledg that those that are justified are sincere but that their sincerity doth antecede or copulatively or concausally concur to the Justification of their persons before God with the righteousness of Christ imputed to them is a grosly false notion of Christs imputed righteousness and amounts to no more than what the Papists teach That Christ hath merited that our works might merit and is directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England as I have shewed before And besides he speaks not out plainly but saith they shall be dealt with and rewarded in and through Christ but how whether as the efficient or meritorious or formal cause he doth not shew The latter he cannot mean because he denies the Justification of a sinners person before God upon the account of the imputed righteousness ãâã Christ And p. 127. he saith thus I am confident that this which ãâã immediately before gave is the only true notion of the imputed righteousness of Christ And p. 128. The true notion he saith of those mââ he writes against of the imputed righteousness of Christ is this that Christs righteousness * Christs righteousness
have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ãâã dained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your frââ should remain Where 't is clear that the Apostles who reprsented not only Ministers of the Gospel but also all Gods Churcâ which consists only of his Elect did not chuse God first but ãâã chose them first And that he did not ordain them to eterâââ life because he did foresee that they would go and bring for t fruit and persevere in well-doing but that they and by conââquence we might do so So 1 Joh. 4. 10. Herein is love not that ãâã loved God but that he loved us That is first as the 19 verse ãâã pounds this tenth We love him because he loved us first 6. Gods Election of man to Salvation cannot be from his foâ seeing that man would believe and do good works for ãâã hath not since his Fall sufficient power of himself to will to bâlieve or do good works for it is God that worketh in us both ãâã will and to do Ephes 2. 13. Yea the Apostle speaks plainly Epââ 2. 8. That we are saved by grace through faith and that that faith is not ãâã our selves but that 't is the gift of God And so holds the Churââ of England frequently in her Book ãâã Homilies For it is the Holy Ghost ãâã Homil. of the Nativity of Christ T. 2. p. â67 no other thing that doth quicken ãâã minds of men stirring up good and gââ motions in their hearts which are agreeable to the will and commanâment of God such as otherwise of their own crooked and perverse ââture they should never have That which is born of the flesh is fleââly as who should say man of his own nature is fleshly and câânal and corrupt and naught sinful and disobedient to Gââ without any spark of goodness in him without any vertuous or goââ motions only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds as for the fruit of the Spirit the fruit of faith charitable and godly motions if he haââ any at all in him they proceed only of the Holy Ghost who is the ãâã worker of our Sanctification and maketh us new men in Christ Jesââ ãâã Homily concerning the coming down of the Holy Ghosâ p. 209. We must needs agree that whatsoever good thing is in us either of grace or nature or fortune is of God only as the only authââ and worker Verily that holy Prophet Isaiah beareth record and saitâ O Lord it is thou of thy goodness that bast wrought all our works in us not we our selves And to uphold the truth in this matter against all justitiaries and hypocrites which rob Almighty God of his honour and ascribe it to themselves St. Paul bringeth in his belief We be not saith he sufficient of our selves as of our selves once to think any goodthing but all our ableness is of Gods goodness for he it is in whom we have all our being our living and moving It is meet to think that all spiritual goodness cometh from God above only Homily for Rogation-Week p. 217. 3. 'T is contrary to the Doctrine of the reformed Churches The French Church saith thus We believe that out of this universal corruption and damnation wherein by nature all men are drowned God did deliver and preserve some whom by his eternal and immutable counsel of his own goodness and MERCY WITHOVT ANY RESPECT OF THEIR WORKS he did choose in Christ Jesus and others he left in that corruption and damnation in whom he might as well make manifest his justice by condemning them justly in their time as also declare the riches of his mercy in the others The Confession of the Church of Belgia is this We believe that God after the whole off-spring of Adam was cast head-long into perdition and destruction through the fault of the first man hath declared and shewed himself to be such a one as he is indeed namely both merciful and just merciful in delivering and saving those from condemnation and from death whom in his eternal counsel of HIS OWN FREE GOODNESS he hath Aliud est in Christo legi aliud in Christo esse in Christo elegi est ex mundo numero periuntium ãâã Christo ut redemptus ab ipso fide donatus in ipso Mac. red Th. Pol. ãâã 7. q. 4. p. 67. chosen in Jesus Christ WITHOUT ANY REGARD AT ALL OF THEIR WORKS Harmony of Confessions Sect. 5. p. 86 87. The Church of Ireland in the 14th Article of her Confession of Faith saith thus The cause moving God to predestina te unto life is not the foreseeing of faith or perseverance or good works or of any thing which is in the person predestinated but only the good pleasure of God himself for all things being ordained for the manifestation of his glory and his glory being to appear both in the works of his mercy and of his justice it seemed good to his heavenly Wisdom âo chuse out a certain number towards whom he would extend his undeserved mercy leaving the rest to be spectacles of his justice And ãâã former part of this Article is the Doctrine of the Church of Eââland also in express terms set down in the second Article of ââbeth to be seen in the end of this book how and by whom Arââ bishop Whitgift and several Bishops Fletcher Elect of London Vââhan Elect of Bangor Tindale Dean of Eli Dr. Whitaker Mr. Perkiââ Mr. Chaderton c. and upon what account Dr. Heylin in part shââ in his Cyprianus Anglicus lib. 3. p. 2â 204. viz. Peter Baroes venting Arâânian It cannot be denied but that the same Doctrine is maintained by Arminius and that it is the very same with that of the Church of Rome as appears by the Council of Trent Coââ 3 4. Heylins Introduction to his Cyp. Anglicus p. 36. which as Dr. Heylin himself câââfesseth is agreeable to Franciscan ââpish Doctrine and which the Parliment of 1628. remonstrated to the ãâã and Kingdom to be a cunning ãâã bring in Popery the professors of ãâã opinions being common disturbers of ãâã Protestant Churches and incendiarieâ ãâã those States wherein they have gotteââ head being Protestanis in shew but Jesuits in opinion and practise ãâã Angl. l. 3. p. 181. Now that the Articles of Lambeth are the seââ of the Doctrine of the Church of England may be gathered not ââly from A. B. Vshers taking these Articles into the Articles of Religââ of Ireland and King James his approving of them but also by ãâã declarations of the Commons Assembled in Parliament in or abââ the year 1628 June 14. We ãâã Commons of England now Assembââ Declaration of the Commons in Parliament do claim profess ãâã aver for truth the sense of the Aââcles of Religion which were established in Parliament the ãâã year of Queen Elizabeth which by the publick Acts of the Churcââ of England and the general and current exposition of the
by Canon bound to follow the Fathers that Protestantism waxeth weary of it self that Calvinism is accounted * For proof read Dr. Heylins Cypr. Anglicus and its Introduction Cypr. Angl. l. 4. p. 414 415 416. there you 'l see the agreement made betwixt the Pope or his agents and some of our Clergy men and that which ââey call the ancient Catholick Religion is nothing but Popery only abatement in some things at least for a time ãâã Cyprianus Anglicus was setled in his pontificalibus heresie at the least and little less than treasoâ I say much of this Heylin saith was truth and he himself in his Introduction to that History and other books makes very manifest What Chillingworth answereth to this bold charge of the Jesuit you may see in Dr. Cheynells rise and growth of Socinianisâ c. 6. The âanterburian Religion not the true Protestant Religion p. 70 But to return to my business Bellarmine is answered by learned Dr. Ames a Nonconformist in his Bellarminus Enarvatus T. 4. l. 2. de peccato originali c. 3. p. 34. ad p. 46. which I have read and Bishop Jeremy ââ I hear is answered very learnedly and fully by Mr. Henry Jeanes ââother Nonconformist which I have not read how conformable ââe Bishops Doctrine is to the false Pelagian condemned Doctrine of ââe Church of Rome and Nonconformable to the true and approved ââoctrine of the Church of England let the indifferent and judiciââs Reader judg Vide Maccovium Rediv. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Arminiaââruâ c. 9. p. 118. That Original sin inherent in us is properly sin I prove thus 1. That which hath the name and nature of sin properly so called ââs sin properly so called but original sin inherent in us hath the ââe and nature of sin properly so called ergo it is sin properly so ââlled 1. It hath the name of sin properly so called given unto it in saââred Scripture The Reverend * Sum of Christian Religion p. 144. A. B. ââsâer tells us That all other sins have ââeir special names but original sin is ââoperly called sin and â Amand. Polan Syntag. l. 6. c. 3. p. 336. Polanus beââre him saith that 't is called absoââtely sin Rom. 7. 8. because it is the ââring and fountain of other sins pecâatum peccans sinning sin Rom. 7. 13. ââeccatum inhabitans indwelling sin Rom. 7. 17 20. and Mr. Hilderââam upon Psal 51. p. 283. tells us that the Spirit of God expresly ââlls it sin Psal 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity ââd in sin did my Mother conceive me and so Dr. Mer. âasaubon * In locum Musculus and Dr. Ames expound the place âhich place Bishop Prideaux * Fasciculus controversiarum c. 3. q. 5. p. 112. saith âânnot be understood but of original sin ââd its propagation as both ancient and ââter Divines expound the place and in ââree Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans viz. 6. 7 8. 14 times at ââast and Heb. 12. 1. Rom. 6. 6 12 13 14. Rom. 7. 7. I had not known sin âât by the law for I had not known lust that is to be sin except the ââw had said Thou shalt not coveâ Where 't is clear that lust by which ãâã meant the first unlawful desires or motions which have not the âânsent of the will lust in the habit or disposition inclination imagiââtion as well as lust in the act is forbidden in the Tenth commandâânt as not only Beza Parâus Calvin and Peter Martyr but also Dr. Willet and Wilson and Dr. ãâã and Diodate upon the place ãâã B. Prideaux Fasc controvers c. 3. q 5. p. 112. Sharpius Symphon âa Novis Epoc. p. 397. Andrews and Dr. Mayor upon the ãâã Commandment and Bishop ãâã and Sharpius elsewhere assure ãâã verse the 8. For sin taking occââ the Commandment the more ãâã ââ the more it bursteth forth â A. B. Vsher Sum of Christian Religion p. 144. ãâã streams do that cannot be stopped till God by his holy Spirit ãâã it wrought in me all manner of concupiscence for without the ãâã was dead that is it seemed so to him because he knew it ãâã felt it not but when he knew the law he knew sin and ãâã activity and found 't was alive so verse the 14. But I ãâã sold under sin Man is said to be carnal two ways 1. Quââ carni because he serves the flesh so unregenerated men ãâã nal 2. Quia proclivis est carni because he is inclined to ãâã the flesh that is original corruption which is called flesh ãâã 1. Gal. 5. â7 so Paul was carnal though he had mortified ãâã he had some relicts or remainders of it an inclination to thââ of the flesh he was carnal in opposition to the law that ãâã ritual that is he was not so spiritual as the law required ãâã der sin slaves to âin are of two sorts 1. Some sell themsââ sin original sin and its lusts they willingly obey the lusts ãâã flesh so did Ahab and such are wicked men 2. Some arââ another and such a slave was Paul even after his actual conââ for he was a slave against his will he desired to escape from ãâã ster he served him unwillingly as may be seen verses the ãâã ãâã It is no more I that do it but sin that is original ãâã tion that dwelleth in me So verses 23 24. so Rom. 8. 2. he ãâã have added Rom. 5. 12. As by one man sin entred into the ãâã death by sin so verse the 13th For until the law sin that is ãâã ginal sin was in the world which the Apostle proves ãâã death was in the world till Moses v. 14. 2. Original sin hath the nature of sin properly so called ãâã I prove thus 1. Because it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a transgression of ãâã which is the definition that the Spirit of God gives of ãâã perly so called 1 John 3. 4 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sin is the ãâã gression of the law as we translate the words but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is dââ from Alpha a Privitive Particle and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lex the law and ãâã ãâã a want of conformity to the Law of God Now that Original ãâã is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I prove thus 1. Because it is a want of that righâousness which all men ought to ââave * Vide Dr. Barlow Exercitat 2. Scholastical Divines define ââ to be oarentia rectitudinis debitae a ââ of rectitude which ought to be in ââ reasonable creature And this I Homily of the coming down of the Holy Ghost p. 209. Mân of his own nature is fleshly and carnal corrupt and naught sinful and disobedient to God without any spark of goodness in him without any vertuous or godly motion only given to evil thoughts and wicked deeds ââight prove out of Aquinas ãâã ãâã 82. a. 3. con Cum originale peccaââum justitiae originali opponatur nihââââiud
reason of its pride and contumacy neither can it be by reason of its pravity and perversness The flesh saith Diodate is not only incapable to submit to Gods will through weakness but also through ââtural repugnancy To which may be added Rom. 7. 14. For ãâã know that the law is spiritual and the law is spiritual because it binds not only all the humane creatures intents and purposes but his whole force and power and all the thoughts and ãâã ãâã oâ his heart to an holy inward obedience as well as to an outward compleat conformity to the will of God whicâ if he did as he ought to perform he should be spiritual too aââ free from death but I am sold under sin contrary to and averââ from the law St. Paul after he was regenerated was like other men in part carnal through the proclivity of his nature to commit those sins which according to his regenerate part he hated and would not so our sound and learned Divines expound the place and urge the following verses to prove that concupiscence is properly a siâ and in the regenerate after baptism 2. Concupiscence is properly sin because 't is forbidden in the law of God Rom. 7. 7. I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust the sudden motions of mind unlawful desires and affections which arise in the soul and have not the consent of the will as our Orthodox Divines expound the word that is to be sin except the law had said thou shalt not covet Where 't is clear that concupiscence is called sin and that 't is forbidden in the law of which before To which may be added the 9th Article of our Church of England which saith thus Yet the Apostle doth confess that concupiscence and lust hath of it self the nature of sin and the Article saith that 't is a FAULT and corruption of the nature of every man Bishop Jeremy Taylor himself confesseth that 't is in the Latin Copies called vitium naturae which I think in Morals is Englished vice in Theologicals sin and if virtutes Ethicorum sint splendida peccata sure their vices are proprie-dicta peccata which yet the Bishop with the Jesiâââ denies 3. Concupiscence is contrary to the Law of God because we are commanded to put it off Ephes 4. 22 23 24. That ye put of concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in rigâteousness and true holiness Where original sin is called the old man as 't is in * Calvin Pareus Peter Martyr Diodate Willet Dr. Featley Wilson in locum and Bishop Reynolds of the sinfulness of sin p. 139. Rom. 6. 6. that is the body of sin not nature but our corrupt nature which we have contracted from our old Father Adam as all our learned and sound Divines expound the places and the phrase 4. That 't is properly sin I reason thus that which rendreth persons obnoxious to the wrath of God is sin properly but original sin rendreth persons obnoxious to the wrath of God ergo original sin is properly sin the major is undeniable because nothing that is not properly sin doth render us obnoxious to Gods wrath God is angry with nothing but sin or for sin the proper object of a Christians hatred should be sin and 't is of God's as being only contrary to his nature and law Gal. 3. 10 the minor may abundantly be proved by plain Scripture Rom. 5. 12. As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned and Rom. 6. 23. For the wages of sin is death by which in regard the Apostle speaks absolutely without any limitation he meaneth death in general of what kind soever temporal and eternal Gal. 3. 10. 1 Thes 1. 10. Rom. 5. 18. And because Bishop Taylor * Explanat of original sin p. 469 470. denies it of death eternal I pray read what the Church of England saith of it in her Homilies of Christ's Nativity T. 2. p. 167. and Homily of Christs Death T. 2. part 2. p. 181. and 184. set down before in the beginning of this Article * Man was justly condemned therefore condemned to everlasting death p. 103. and Ephes 2. 3. We are by nature the children of wrath We are not so by pure nature then we must needs be so by corrupt nature and that is original sin inherent in us Children of wrath are subjects of sin and through desert of sin subject to wrath that is the wrath of God which he hath threatned against sinners for sin death and damnation and temporal judgments Ephes 5. 6. Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience only children of disobedience are children of wrath where there is no sin or disobedience there God hath no wrath and our 9th Article of Religion saith plainly that this original sin in every person born in this world deserveth Gods wrath and damnation and so our Church * Questions of Baptism Catechism saith For being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath and it cannot be understood of lust with consent of will for that Paul brought up at the feet of Gamaliel without doubt knew to be sin and that also is actual sin and not original of which the Article treateth 2. Because infants conceived and brought forth in sin who never committed any actual sin in their own persons have died as you may see in Davids child 2 Sam. 12. 18. and experience daily shews it and Rom. 5. 14. proves it Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression that is actually committed any sin in their own persons over them that is over infants who sinned not actually or by imitation but only by an inherent corruption of nature in them so our Reverend Divines A. B. Vsher and Bishop Prideaux Archbishop Ushers Sum of Christian Religion p. 143. Bishop Prideaux bis Fascic controver c. 3. q. 3. p. 113. Pareus in locum and many more of our sound Divines as well as the ancient Fathers expound the place and in the order of our burial 't is said that by Adââ all die 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. Obj. But it will or may be objected that infants sinned in Adam in whose loins they were and that they are punished with death ãâã for their own inherent corruption of nature that is in them but for the sin of Adam in whose loins they were imputed to them Answ To this I answer 1. That neither Bellarmine nor Papists nor Bishop Taylor nor any compleat Conformist in the Church of Englanâ can well object this for they hold Concil Trid. 5. Sec. 5. Can. Bel. de Sacrament baptismi c.
Ceremonies Protestants answer As if the inspiration of God did not make God the author of the fact as well as the command expressed in his word Otherwise it were lawful for the Papists to conclude by the same reason that they have authority to institute new Sacrifices and Sacraments Bellarmine replies and saith That the Congregation made a new Feast Esth 9. 1. Mac. 4. Protestants answer That the first was political the second was to be disallowed Bellarmine saith the Apostles instituted a new Ceremony Act. 15. Protestants answer That there was no new ceremony instituted but a respect to scandal in tollerating an old ceremony Bellarmine saith the Church may institute some things and ceremonies are not repugnant to the Gospel neither hath the Lord forbidden that we should add no ceremonies for the more commodious and profitable administration of the Sacraments Protestants answer 1. The Church cannot appoint any new thing by her own authority 2 Carnal ceremonies void of the Spirit as all humane ceremonies are are repugnant Hildersham proves from Job 4. 23. that humane Ceremonies are forbidden in the Gospel in loc Bishop Andrews in Command 2. p. 263 or 255. Dr. Reynolds Conference with Hart c. 8. d. 4. p. 565. John Launder Thomas Iveson John Denly Martyrs professed that they believed that the Ceremonies used here in Q. Maries days were naught vain superfluous superstitious which they sealed with their blood Fox his Book of Martyrs p. 1593 1594 1595 1598. to the perfection of the New Testament 3. Humane ceremonies can make âo more to the commodious and profitable administration of Christs Sacraments as they were administred by Christ and his Apostles than the decrees of faith made by men do make more commodiously to illustrate the faith revealed by Christ What shall we think that certain new men have a better insight and know better what ceremonies are to be used in Baptism than the holy Apostles and Christ himself So of the Supper too Bellarmine saith That ceremonies iustituted by the Church cannot be omitted without sin yea not without scandal Protestants answer There cannot be instituted Religious ceremonies by the Church without sin and therefore they may be omitted without sin and ought to be omitted 4. That we cannot fully and perfectly perform all that the Law of God requireth for Christ saith plainly That when we have done all we can do we are unprofitable servants Which shews that we cannot perfectly keep the Law for if we could we should be profitable servants getting thereby much glory to God and everlasting life to our selves Do this and thou shalt live And the Homily of the Death of Christ T. 2. part 2. p â82 saith Our acts and deeds be full of imperfectness and infirmity and therefore nothing worthy of themselves to stir God to any favour much less to challenge that glory that is due to Christs acts and merits And again in the same Page it saith thus of Adam after his fall He could not keep the Law neither if Adam and his posterity had been able to satisfie and fulfill the Law perfectly in loving God above all things and their neighbours as themselves then should they have easily quenched the Lords wrath and escaped the horrible sentence of eternal death For 't is written Do this and thou shalt live that is fulfil my Commandments keep thy self upright and perfect in them according to my will then thou shalt live and not die But such was the frailty of mankind after his fall such was his weakness that he could not walk uprightly in Gods Commandments though he would never so fain but daily and hourly fell from his bounden duty offending the Lord his God divers ways to the great increase of his condemnation all are gone astray Our frailty is such that we can never of our selves fulfil the Law according to that the Law requireth And our 15th Article of Doctrine saith thus That all we the rest that is besides Christ although baptized and born again in Christ yet offend in many things and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Yea the Popes Doctrine viz. That meer men since Adams fall can in this life perfectly fulfil Gods whole Moral Law is not only contrary to Sacred Scripture the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Homilieâ and Articles but also her Book of Common Prayers As to the Lords-Prayer wherein Christ taught his holy Apostles and all Gods children to say every day Forgive us our trespasses To our commoâ general Confession We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts We have offended against thy holy Laws We have left undone those things we ought to have done and we have done those things we ought not to have done And 't is contrary to the prayer after every Commandment for pardon of sin committed against it Lord have mercy upon us Yea the Litany might be brought against Papists in this point And Prov. 7. 20. Rom. 7. 15. 17 18 20 23 24 1 Joh. 1. 8 9 10. and contrary also to the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches to be seen in the Harmony of Confession Sect. 4. and the 43 Article of Religion of the Church of Ireland and the fourth Article of the 16th Chapter of the Confession of Faith of Scotland Yea the gates of Hell I believe will never be able to overthrow that Faith in that Confession made by that Assembly Heââ what Shelford Serm. p. 121 127 136 139 147. and White Bishop of Eli on the Sabbath p. 157. say for mans ability to fulfil the Law against the Doctrine of the Church of England and what Shelford saith for works of Supererogation Serm. p. 184. may be seen in Laudensium Autocatacrisis p 70 71. And what Bishop Forbes saith in his Book de Justificatione may be seen in the Supplement thereunto p. 300. And what Dr. Patrick saith may be seen in his Parable of the Pilgrim p. 324. who there saith thus 'T is true we are not tyed to that which we cannot do but yet the flesh will sometimes juggle and complain of impotence when there is nothing hinders it but sloth This is Bellarmines argument de observatione Legis c. 7. si praecepta c. if the precepts are impossible then they oblige none To this argument Dr. Ames gives this answer Dr. Ames his Bellar. Enervatus T. 3. c. 7. p. 191. 1. That this argument doth not prove that the Law is more possible to be kepâ by believers than by unbelievers by the just than by the unjust 2. That the obligation to keep the Law is not taken away by the impossibility that flows from our fault To which I shall say but thus that the words imply as they may well be taken one or both of these errors 1. That men now are not bound to keep the Moral Law of God Or 2. That 't