whereof take these few John 1.13 Which were born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit 1 Cor. 2.14 15. For the natural men perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him Neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned But the spiritual man discerneth all things but is discerned of none 1 Cor. 15.22 For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive and verse 45 46 47 48 49. As it is written the first man was made a living soul but the second Adam was made a quickening spirit Hewbeit that was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and then that which iâ— spiritual The first man is of the â—â—rth earthy the second mâ—n is the Lord from heaven as is the earthy such are they that are earthy and as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly and as we have born the image of the earthly so must we bear the image of the heavenly c. More particularly we answer That this one by whom sin entred into the world is not meant our first parent Adam but our own earthy or natural man which is called Adam and Edom from the earth of his foundation For the apostle shews that Adam our progenitor was not the original or first sinner 1 Timothy 2.14 For Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression according then to your Doctrine the apostle should have said By one Woman sin entred into the world But you hear before how Solomon Eccles 7.29 and the Lord himself Hos 14 1. scribe our fall to our selves This is yet clearer out of the 14. verse here where the apostle speaks of some who sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression but makes mention of none that sinned in him where he had fair occasion to speak of it yea if he had been of your belief he had committed a grievous neglect totally to omit it in silence Secondly here by the world into which sin entered we must understand the world of fallen and corrupt men as our Saviour doth Joâ—n 3.16 17. and John 15.17 18. and not all mankinde as you do c. Thirdly by death is not meant the bodily death which doth not presently ensue upon our fall no more then it did upon our first parents but a death unto righteousness or the life of innocencie with the contrary body of sin and so obnoxiousness to eternal death is hear meant Fourthly these words and death passed upon all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are thus to be rendered in as much or so far forth as all have sinned and as Moses in the 14. verse is not he that was the Lawgiver but the work of the Law drawing us to God so neither is this man the litterall Adam For Paul here saith That death reigned from Adam to Moses which must be understood necessarily thus from the fall of our natural Adam till the work of the Law came For otherwise the extent of the reign of sin should reach from the first man to the last and not to Moses onely Which thing the 13. ver holdeth out more plainly that he meant by Mose the Law For it is there said That until the Law sin was in the world which must be conceived that until the work of the law sin is in the world that is likewise in the faln corrupted men undiscovered which is plain from the latter part of the 13 verse where it is said sin is not reputed nor regarded as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies and so Coverdel translates it and not imputed when there is no Law for that is false that sin was not imputed when there was no Law extant for it was imputed to Cain Gen. 4. and he was punished So to the old world and they punished Gen. 6 so to Babels builders and they punished Gen. 11.7.8 so it was imputed to Sodom and Gomorrab and they punished Gen. 19. when there was none of Moses law extant but it is a very truth that sin is not reputed not regarded when there is no work of the Law discovering sin unto the man so St. Paul saith of himself Rom. 7.9 that he was alive without the Law and verse v. he saith he had not known lust but by the Law and Rom. 3.20 it is said that by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin Thus you see how death raigned from Adam to Moses yet not from the first individual Adam to Moses the Law-giver but in the 2. part of the 14 ver it is not affirmed that any sinned in the first individual Adam for he saith Some finned not after the similitude of Adams transgression over whom notwithstanding death reigned Now that expression hinteth these two things First Some sinned like Adam not in Adam others sinned not after the similitude of his transgression but some other way as after Esau's transgression Hebr. 18.16 17. or the like according to that Eccles 7.29 Surely if the Apostle had beleeved any such thing as the raigning of death over all men by the first mans sin he would not have omitted that and onely mentioned from Adam to Moses for all may perceive his main designe is from verse 12. to the 15. to set forth the inlet and extent of deaths reigning over sinners therefore he would have used the fullest and plainest expression serving to that purpose but the 19. verse is more plain against universal corruption by the first mans disobedience for there the Apostle useth the word many and saith by one mans disobediene many not all were made sinners Therefore all fell not in the first individual Adam If any yet reply That many in that place is tant ' amount and equivalent to the word all We Answer That then by the same reason the word many in the latter part of the verse must have the same latitude allowed for the Apostle setteth down a full comparison of equals in that verse here the verse must be thus interpreted That as by one mans disobedience all were made sinners so by one mans obedience all are made righteous If any yet reply and say By one mans obedience all that repent and beleeve are made righteous then by the same inter retation By ones mans disobedience all are made sinners that imitate him and sin like him after the similitude of Adam 's transgressions Thus all men may see there is nothing gained by interpreting the word many by a Synecdoche for all are made sinners by one mans disobedience for the latter part of the verse must have the word many so explained which to affirm namely that all are righteous by Christ by an absolute and uniuersal Justification is accounted as detestable an Heresy as it hath been hitherto to deny that
all and every one to be sinners by the first individual mans disobedience but grant that the word many in both parts of this 19. verse must be explained by the word all how clear then without any darkness is the meaning when it is said by one mans disobedience namely the natural Adam 's disobedience all are made sinners because all that ever sin sin in that natural Adam for John 3.9 he that is born of God sâ—â—neth not neither can he sin because he is born of God Hence by the obedience of one that is the heavenly Adam many that is all are made righteous according to that Cor. 15.48 As is the earthy so are they that are earthy and as is the heavenly so are they that are heavenly and therefore as we have borne the Image of the earthy by our disobedience so let us seek to bear the Image of the heavenly That as Rom. 5 19. by one mans disobedience we all may be made righteous Thus we hope it plainly appears that no place in the fifth of the Romans asserteth the imputation of the first mans sin to all posterity though it do affirm that by one man sin entered into the world which must be understood of the one natural man or common Adam in and upon us all according to that 1 Cor. 15.22 For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive That is as all die in the earthy Adam that do die so all that live are made alive in Christ the Heavenly Adam We come now to answer the arguments brought à simili whereby you deceive your selves and others As first It is usually said That Traytors are not onely punished themselves for their Treason but their posterity also have their blood tainted and deprived of their inheritance But we demand by what Law Is this by Gods Law and Command that the posterity of a Traytor should be so tainted and deprived or by mans law without warrant from Gods Law If so That doth not argue God will deal with Adams posterity to taint them for his sin and deprive them of an inheritance immortal which the Lord giveth and not man for the first mans sin But to apply our selves to your simile We answer That none but the fathers are punished with death for that sin their children are onely disinherited of the lands and honours which are hereditary but are not made uncapable of new and though all this be done In terrorem yet it leaves Traytors life and being with manyfold capacities of well being but you leave a great part of Adams posterity for his sin by you imputed to them no hope of salvation yea you expose them to eternal destruction for that same they never consented unto nor could avoid Another Objection à simili is this That as the soâ—â— of Achan Josua 7.24 perished with him for his sin so may we justly perish with the first Adam for his sin We answer First Achan's sons being acquainted with the hidden Treasure and approving the thest as it is probable they might were involved in the fin and worthy to be partaker of the punishment Secondly It was but a temporal death which his sons suffered and not an eternal destruction Lastly It is objected That as young Vipers or Serpents are killed with the old ones because we know they have the poysonous nature in them So may Adams posterity â—e destroyed with him We answer That the similitude cannot hold for as we have proved already Adam's posterity are created innocent yea righteous still even in the nautral man besides a spiritual Adam that lieth hidden in all men True it is That by a voluntary fall and the addition of manifold rebellions many men as John calleth them Matth. 3.7 make themselves a generation of vipers but they are not so born by their descent from the first finful Adam Thus we need not throw dirt in the face of our first parents nor transfer the guilt of our fall to those which lived almost six thousand years before us if we rightly understood what we our selves have done yea if we understand that one man before spoken of Rom. 5.12 to the end of the chapter to be opposed unto or paralleled with Christ in a contrary way or course then we may conceive that one man as properly if not more truely to be meant of one personal yet common Adam as of our first progenitors to defame him which will be more fully declared when we speak of Christ the other member of the collation or parallel in the 5. chapter that is concerning Christ the Mediator We beseech you to pardon this our long aboad upon your third Section because we know by experience our opposing the tradition of original sin in children will be most stumbled at and wondered at by them that never surveyed the Scriptures about it In your fourth Section you proceed and say From this original corruption whereby we are utterly indisposed disabled and made opposite to all good and wholly inclined to all evil do proceed all actual transgressions Where to your former error of deriving both the guilt of Adams fall and the corruption of nature to his posterity you add three more according to the multiplying nature of error But first you will not deny that Adam was in the estate of regeneration before he begat any of his children and what true reason can there be given why grace and the renewed Image of God being inherent and connatural should not be derived to his seed as well as his corruptions which were not either universal or perfect in degree even before he by grace was renewed again as we have already proved but of that enough before II. How do you prove that the first fall which we call original sin whether happening in Adam or our selves doth presently render us both unable yea and altogether indisposed and opposite to any good For the whole Image of God is not blotted out at once Doth not the Lord testifie of Jeroboams son-who was sick That there was some good thing left in him towards the Lord and therefore he is taken away before that those last sparkes be extinguished 1 Kings 14.13 III. As the Image of God is defaced gradually so corruption is contracted by degrees so that all men are not corrupted in every part nor alike deeply corrupted so Judah by continuance in sin in process of time had more polluted her self then Samaria her elder sister or Sodom her pounger Ezek. 16 45 46 47. c. The last age of the old world upon which the deluge was sent was more corrupt then any that went before it and thereupon it was destroyed Therefore that which the Lord speaks in complaint of that age is not equally applicable to all ages and muchless to all persons Although that is true of all grown men which the Lord speaks Gen. 8.21 That the imaginations of mans hears are evil from his youth that is from the first times of his
Of which as you here make no mention at all so we justly fear you have no fight nor feeling Yet do these ensuing Scriptures with many others give a luculent testimony of the same Rev. 13.8 He is the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world If you here answer That he was so in Gods decree we reply that Gods decree is said to be before the world and before all ages The Prophet Isaiah Chap. 53. speaks throughout of the sufferings of Christ as a thing past and done both in himself and others where the ninth verse cannot be verified of Christs sufferings in the flesh And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death For though Christ was crucified with two theeves yet he was buryed alone in a tombe which Joseph a righteous man had prepared for himself In which place the Holy Ghost holds forth two things the place of Christs inward burial and the cause of his death For Christ is slaine and buryed in two sorts of men first in the openly wicked and secondly in those that are rich in the wisdom and holiness of the flesh sudh as were the Scribes and Pharisees The cause why we let him dye or slay him is for that he will not consent to do any violence nor is deceit found in his mouth See also Gal. 3.1 For the further proof of what we have in hand where the Apostle cryeth out O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you before whom Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified in you and among you Now we all know that Christ in his humanity suffered at Jerusalem Revel 11.8 and not in Galatia So Heb. 6.6 The Apostle tels them who fall away from Christ That they crucifie afresh the Son of God which he could not truely charge upon them if they had not crucified him once afore Finally St. James saith chap. 5.6 you have condemne◠and killed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which words must needs be understod of Christ within us as the following words evict and he resisteth you not for Christ for a time suffers patiently in us and that as a lamb led to the slaughter but if men repent not he will rise up like a Lyon to devour them We here say nothing that the Farmers of the Vineyard which is our heart do not onely evilly entreat the other motions and messengers of God but kill the heir also Matth. 21.38 39. Nor that John hath foretold us that all Nations shall look upon him whom they have pierced and bewail the same in a time of grace to which he saith Amen Revelations 1.7 In your fift Section you comfort your selves and followers with vain words the dreams and devices of men for though it is true which you spake in your last Section that Christ was made under the law and did perfectly fulfil it yet hath he not by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself which he through the eternal spirit once offered up to God fully satisfied the justice of God for us in any regard but to take away the curse of the Law which was due unto us Gal. 3.13 Nor is it true that he hath purchased a ful reconciliation for men with God by that his outward obedience nor finally doth it appear out of the Scripture◠that by the same means he hath purchased an inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven for all or any of those whom the Father hath given unto him And though the proof of what you have affirmed on the contrary lyeth on your part yet we will briefly shew you our remonstrative reasons First It is certain that as Christ was a man and so a creature he did owe unto his Father a personal and perfect obedience in fulfilling the Law how then could he perform the same for us also Secondly All men in Adam were created to perform perfect obedience to Gods Law and Will in their own persons neither doth it appear that God hath since released them of that obligation nor did David think that he was or could be discharged there from when he thus confessed and prayed Psal 119.73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me O give me understanding that I may learn thy Commandements Thirdly The Moral Law requires of us a perfect observation of it not by a deputy or surety but in our own persons In which regard the renewing and assisting grace of Christ is most requisite for us Rom. 8.4 That the righteousness of the Law might be sulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit But his outward active obedience therein helps us no further but as an example to be followed Fourthly There is yet no other way unto life left for the sons of men but by the fulfilling of Gods commandements witness our Saviour's own words Mat. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven and Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that keep the Commandements that they may have right unto the tree of Life and may enter through the gates into the Citie Fifthly Our Saviour saith thus unto us by way of anticipation Mat. 5.17 18 19. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil for verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled And least we should dream that he by fulfilling the Law for us hath exempted us from it or any way abated its requiring he saith at the next verse Whosoever threfore shal break one of these least Commandements and teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven But whoso shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven how then can Christ by his outward obedience satisfie Gods Justice for us or in our behalf nor is there any one Scripture which so much as colourably speaks for you but that Rom. 5.19 which yet will bear a better sense For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one man shall many be made righteous for we have proved before and shall now again evidence it further out of the 14 verse that there are more Adams besides our first progenitor and namely one within us by whose disobedience especially if not soly we are made sinners And it it is more clear that there is a Christ within the beleevers as well as without them by whose grace and spiritual obedience many are made holy and righteous For the first of these namely the 14 verse you may observe that there is an Adam from whom death raigns the which say we is our Adam our earthly or natural man Secondly That there is a spiritual Moses or time in us till which death raigns namely the time of Gods drawing grace
cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his fight Where you may take these things into consideration First Whom he reconcileth All the members of the Church who are regenerate Secondly From what from the enmity in their minds whereby they are set upon wicked works Thirdly Where through the spiritual blood of the Covenant or the spirit of grace which is called the blood of his cross because it is then sent unto us and poured down upon us when we are upon the cross with him and suffer with him not yeelding unto temptations Fourthly That Christ is said to be still doing of that work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly In what way as a precedent for us he hath done it to wit in the body of his flesh through death as these ensuing Scriptures shew 2 Tim. 2.11 12. 'T is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer wiâ—h him we shall also raign with him see Rom. 6.8 But that it is unpossible to have reconcilement and communion with God unless it be in such a way the Apostle witnesses likewise 1 John 1.5 6 7. This then is the message we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darknesâ— we lye and haue not the truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Thus far of Christ's spiritual and true reconciling us unto God which is then perfected and consummate when besides the slaying of the enmity aforesaid he hath made us in all things of one spirit with the Father For which unity and reconcilement he prayeth John 17.21 That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Now for the purchasing of an everlasting inheritance for us eternal life is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 8.23 And as the Father hath it in his hand to bestow so it is in the Sons gift likewise and consequently as it seems to us he needs not to purchase it But if you will call the fulfilling of that way and process whereby the faln man must attain it the way race of obedience aforesaid a purchasing of it it is by the inward and spiritual obedience of Christ especially that we attain Heb. 10.36 For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the promise Howbeit his outward passive obedience was requisite thereunto without which as we could not be delivered from the curse so neither could we come to inherit life By this you see we stand in need of an inward and spiritual mediation from Christ aswel as that outward of which alone you here speak Nor can we partake of the benefit of the outward till qualified and prepared first thereunto by the work of the inward In your Sixth Section you proclaim your great ignorance or small regard of our great and most necessary redemption from the power of sin and Satan saying That the work of redemption was not actually wrought till after Christs incarnation For were not the fathers before and after the flood with the Prophets and other holy Saints in the Old Testament in their respective times spiritually saved and redeemed by Christ And much more doth that great secret of the Father's sparing and forbearing us along time for his Sons sake who in patience and meekness hath been led as a lamb to the slaughter and the end of whose long sufferance in us is salvation as St. Peter speaks Epist 2 3. Chap. 15. seem to be hidden from you Yet here you grant some truths at unawares as that Christ is the promised enmity against sin who must break the Serpents head and consequenly that his power and Kingdom must be within us where Satan is to be trodden down Rom. 16.20 You grant also that he is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world But whereas you add for a proof thereof out of Hebr. 13.9 That Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever That speakes of his immutable Deity and not of his humanity though now made unchangeable Yet this we say brethren ere we leave this Section that you hold forth a very lame and imperfect redeemer which which hath indeed redeemed us by his death from the curse of the Law when our iniquities are put away from us but who must redeem us from all our corruptionsâ— who must save and deliver us out of the hand of all our enemies who must inable us to keep and fulfil the Law of God who must renew the Image of God in us Is not the true Christ made of God unto us wisdom righteousness and sanctification as well as redemption 1 Cor 1.30 In your Seventh Section As we grant it to be true that Christ in the entire office of a Mediator acteth according to both natures joyntly or severally as occasion requires doing by each that which is proper to its self so perhaps it may be granted that sometimes in the Scriptures by reason of the unity of the person that which is proper to one nature is attributed to the person denominated by the other Howbeit the places to which you refer us do not prove so much for that of Acts the 20.28 It s true First of Christ in the Godhead that he hath purchased his Church with his own blood having redeemed it from the power of Satan by his Spirit Secondly To that of John 3.13 it may be said that as Christ is spiritually born in us he is the Son of man which comes from Heaven and is or dwells in the heavenly being Finally To 1 John 3.16 It may be truly answered that Christ the Son of God hath laid down his life for us while he died in us to keep off the deserved wrath of God from us and to preserve us from the death threatned in the Law as also to set us an example how we may in following him overcome sin and recover life again we seeking his grace and help thereunto In your eighth and last Section being like checquer-work you have black as well as white errour as well as truth where your first affirmation That Christ doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate his redemption to all those for whom he hath purchased it will prove false in what sense soever it be taken For first If we here understand Christ's outward redemption as you undoubtedly do that being made for
should them compel Which men at will in sacred things deprives Of will as that which no man drawes but drives Hence threats and promises man hath no merit Nor preach nor teach He is a block no spirit Which takes away the Law or its best fruits As not performable by best recruits In vain 't was writ man made and grace distilld If by Christs help it cannot be fulfill'd Which saith the Saints may will not further go Doth not God grant to will and then to do Which will have God to justifie the lewd While they with sanctity are not endu'd Nor are nor will be justified within As men devoted to inherent sin Which freeth all men both from sin and hell By Christ his outward cross and passing-bell Not urging once the needful death of sin Nor th' inward cross which victory must win Most pretious we hold his blood and merit But first we should be purged by his spirit Such a physitian which maketh Christ As doth not heal the Lepry with the priest But hides the sore from th' eye with cloth or plaster Were men of old so healed by this master Which in beleevers all good works destroyes Whilst it their phansy filleth with these toyes Faith alone saveth do but this believe Do not thy self with further trouble grieve Which cals the called to security Saying none such though they may step awry Can finally or totally relapse With such soft pillowes some men get long naps Which saith what hurt doth sin Christ for't was kil'd What need obedience he hath all fulfill'd Which Satans kingdom stronger makes then Christ For not till death his kingdom is dismist Thus death a passive stronger is then life Then Christ himself to end this ghostly strife Go on with this thy Christ drink rant and whore He is the purse bearer and payes the score He is thy porter all thy burdens beares But all without thee nought within repaires How wide the way how broad mak'st thou the gate Which leads to life But Christ hath made it strait What prodigies doth this new blazing Star This faith of thine bring forth O Synod rare Recount thine articles see how they thrive With five begun they end with three times five Five Amoritish Kings were hang'd but now do rise These Amorites vain talkings signifies O Midian now do thy five Kings return Midian is strife her raised heads we mourn See Philistins your cities rais'd from death Ashkelon Ashdod Ekron Gaza Gath. Goth is wraths winepress Ashdod wasting sore Ekron a rooter out of rich and poor Ashkelon false weights in judgement useth Gaza the knowing wealth which most ammuseth Philistins are men involved in ashes Or such as fall down drunken with their glasses The five sons of the Gyants now revive Errors of many cubits high do strive The Horim clothed in white specious sins The Emims terrible with force and grins Zanzummim with their perverse thoughts wee find The chained Anakims stay not behind Builders of Babel of a triple sect Gomarist Papist Lutheran erect With strife war and bloodshed a Babel new Which counts her self the spouse of Christ most true Yet from his life doth lewdly go astray With world sin Satan doth the Harlot play Three unclean frogs their own respective catt'l Of God Almighty's wrath prepare the batt'l As Midianites fell by intestine strife And Edom Moab Ammon lost their life So this divided Babel now shall fall And blood shall drink who unto Christ gave gall A remnant of each Sect with Lot escape Which eat not of the Sodomitish grape Then fly from Babel and her sins forsake Least thee her judgements chance to overtake Dismiss this Faith with her more monstrous brood Then Nilus beares that Monster bearing flood Your faith a fidle ill tun'd instrument Shall we dance to 't and sing in one consent Become a child again and go to School Who will be wise must first become a fool Forbidden fruit of knowledge thou must hate Obedience to life sets ope the gate Learn first with Christ to dye with him to live Ere thou of Christ true testimony give True faith brings down from heaven the fire of love This firy Chariots mounts men up above What Cov'nants promise what the law doth will Both law and prophets Love doth all fulfill What 's tree of life what 's Paradise above What 's Edens stream what 's bliss eternal love What 's God but love No Mars no Cupid blind This darling vertue doth inflame his mind FINIS ERRATA PAge 10. line 4. for relations read revelations p 19. l 4. before essential put in attribute so p 20. l 32. for inward and r inward or p 24. l 10. of the chapter for work r rocks and l 15. for knowledge r foreknowledg p 30. l 5. for that not r not that p 31. l 21. for would r could p 32. l 21. after Angels put in And men p 43. l 8. for no r out p. 98. l. 19. for intentive r. incitative p. 99. l. 20. for spirit r. spiritual p. 110. l. 36. after when r. as p. 125. l. 10. for view r. review and l. 23 for all r fall p. 126. l. 1. for but r. one And l. 18. for Remalia r. Remaliahs son p. 127. l. 30. for unregerate r. unregenerate p. â—â— l. 1. for retain r. return p. 140. l. 15. for the r. your p. 144. l. 36. for interminate r. indeterminate p. 155. l. 15. for that r. the. And l. â—â— for makers r. workers p. 156. l. 15. for person r. personal p. 158. l. â— for repeated r. revealed p 174. l. 32. for justified r. sanctified p 201. l. 12. after against his put in will p 208. l. 20. for hopes r. hopers p. 221. l. 1â— for whom r. when p 22â— l. 32. for fourthly r. fifthly p 24â— l. 12. of the chapter for would r. could p 250. l. 28. for being by 1. Beingly p. 270. l. 9. for possibility r. visibility p 273. l. 13. for of r. iâ— l. 23. put out odde p. 274. l. 8. for be not r. not be p 276. l. 9. put opt delusion and l. 23. after passeth put in with p 280. l. 10. of the châ—â— for tumble r. jumble p 285. l. 5. for certifie r. rectifie p 297. l. 28. for of his r. of this p 298. before l. 2. add And p 310. l. 24. for verticum r. viaticum The late SYNODS Confession of Faith EXAMINED CHAP. I. Of the Holy Scripture ALthough the light of nature and the works of Creation and providence do so farr manifest the goodness wisdome and power of God as to leav men unexcusable a Rom. 2.14.15 Ro. 1.19.20 Psal 19.1.2.3 RoÌ„ 1.32 with Chap. 2.1 yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary unto salvation b 1 Cor. 1.21 1. Cor. 2.13.14 Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal himselfe and to declare that his will unto his
last Election hath foregoing works for his motive Revel 3.4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy and Rev. 7.14 15. These are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lambe Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple c. In your Sixth Sextion you affirm That as God hath appointed the elect unto glory so he hath by the eternal and most free purpose of his will fore-ordained the means thereunto Which is true of all those that in mankinde are elected in general as well as of the special elected or chosen ones But whereas you add these words Wherefore they who are elected being fallen in Adam are redeemed by Christ are effectually called unto faith in Christ by his spirit working in good season are justified adopted sanctified and kept by his power through faith unto salvation This part of the Section taken conjunctively cannot be verified of any elected ones but those which are the final and special chosen aforesaid Thus far the words of this Section wisely and warily understood may pass for truth but the last words of all contain manifold falsehoods which words are these Neither are any others redeemed by Christ effectually called justified adopted sanctified and saved For though it be true that none are saved but onely the Elect yet all the â—est of that complexed speech being resolved into several propositions will prove so many false positions For first Many others are redeemed by Christ besides the Elect which shall be saved 2 Pet. 2.1 But there were false prophets amongst the people even as there shal be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and shall bring upon themselves swift destruction Yea all mankinde is redeemed by Christ 1 John 2.1 2. And if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours onely but for the sins of the whole world Yea he came to redeem Singula generum every man in particular Hebr. 2.9 That by the grace of God he should taste death for every man Secondly Many others besides those special elected ones are called Mat. 20.16 and Mat. 22.14 For many are called but few are chosen Thirdly some are justified for a time that is have their sins purged away and forgiven and yet by new rebellions and Apostacy perish afterwards Mat. 18.32.33.34 Then his Lord after he had called him said unto him O thou wiked servant I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me shouldest thou not have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pitty on thee And his Lord was worth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him 2 Pet. 1.9 But he that lacketh these things is blinde and cannot see afar of and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old fins Lasty Some are sanctified in some measure yet afteâ—wards fall away and so come short of salvation 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then when they have known it to turn from the holy commandements delivered unto them But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb The dogg is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the miâ—e In your seventh Section you come to Gods preterition saying The rest of mankinde God hath pleased according to the unserchable councel of his own will whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth for the glory of his soveraign power over his creatures to pass by and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for ther sin to the praise of his glorious justice Here We pray you give us leave to propound these Queries to you First who are the rest of mankinde of whom you speak Are they all those who are not elected But we have shewed before that all are elected in general upon condition Did not God make his Covenant of Grace with all mankinde in Adam after his fall and afterwards for them with Noah Gen. 9.8 9. Yea he covenanted with Abraham for all generations and Nations and People Gen. 12.3 and 18 18. and that with an oath Gen. 22 16 17 18. Acts 3.24 Gal. 3.8 Whereupon all Nations yea all people are called upon to praise the Lord for this his great merciful kindness and for the truth of his promise which endureth for ever Psal 117.1 2. which being undoubtedly true there can be none of mankinde passed over from eternity But if you mean that All but those final and special chosen ones before mentioned are passed over from eternity without any purpose of grace or mercy to be extended towards them in Jesus Christ your assertion is not onely false but most dangerous For God is the Saviour of all men but especially of those that beleeve 1 Tim. 4.11 Secondly If Gods counsel herein be unsearchable how came you to know it Thirdly Since it is clear that Gods merciful kindness is towards all men as before and that he hath concluded all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all Rom. 11.32 who are they from whom he withholdeth or to whom he extendeth not mercy Surely they can be no other but such as thrust it away from them first or last at least wise in its conditions and requiring Acts 13.46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life we turn to the Gentiles Prov. 1.24 5 26. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I will also laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh c. See Psal 8â— 8 9 16. Isa 48.17 18 19. Hos 7.1 and 11.1 2 3 4. Mat. 23.37 38 Heb. 4.1 2. Heb. 6.4 5 6. and 10.26 27 28. 2 Cor. 6.1 2 3. Fourthly Is not God's Soveraign power placed in one that is both most righteous and also most merciful and not in tyrannical hands Fiftly Is not that soveraign power most glorified in punishing offendors after mercy hath been offered and contemned or rejected Sixthly If these be passed over for their sins as you affirm How could this preterition be from eternity For men sinned not till they were
Seventhly If it were for sins what sins did better deserve such a preterition then mens own personal and actual sins yea then their contempt and contumacy against grace offered Eighthly If this preterition was for the praise of God's glorious justice must not his justice first be apparent and conspicuous in this his passing by them But he accounts it neither honorable for him that the Son should die for the sin of the Father Ezek. 10.1 2 3 20. nor yet just for he hath forbidden the self same thing in the Law Deut. 24.16 Lastly Is there no difference betwixt a vessel of dishonor and a vessel of wrath Many vessels are made by the Potter for dishonorable uses yet none of set purpose for destruction Finally Your Caution in the last Section is very good where you say that The Doctrine of the high mystery of Predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care that men attending the will of God revealed in his word and yeelding obedience thereunto may from the certainty of their effectual vocation be assured of their eternal election Where you should have added and from their perseverance in that obedience till the death of sin be assured of their spiritual final and everlasting election there being a twofold election from eternity as hath been said But this caution of yours you your selves have not very well observed and kept And whereas you add in conclusion So shall this Doctrine afford matter of praise reverence and admiration of God and of humility diligence and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel We report our selves to your own consciences and to all men whether your Doctrine or ours here set forth is likely to produce the good effects here by you remembred But now we come in the third and last place to answer such objections as seem to lie as so many rocks of offence in your and other mens wayes Object It is written of Hophni and Phineas the sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2.25 That they hearkened not unto their father because God would destroy them Answ It is true God now had a purpose so to do for their abominable wickedness which they had committed but it doth not follow that the Lord had so decreed from eternity unless it was out of prevision of their lewdness and in order thereunto Object 2. It is written Prov. 16.4 That the Lord made all things for himself even the wicked for the day of â—â—il Answ The first part of the text speaks of God's ends the latter part of the event as it is now fallen out through their own default as Hosea speaks in a like expression Chap 9.13 Ephraim as I saw Tyrus is planteâ— in a pleasant place But Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer that is eventually not industriously and so are the wicked created for the day of evil Object 3. It is said of Rehoboam 2 Chron. 10.15 So the King hearkened not unto the people for the cause was of God that the Lord might perform his word which hâ— spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat Answ This Text speaks not of Gods eternal Decree but of his wise and just providence leaving a man sufficiently wicked before to follow his own counsels for a temporal punishment of his own and his Fathers sins Object 4. Jeremiah saith Chap 52.3 For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem till he had cast them out from his presence that Zedekiah rebelled against the King of Babylon Answ This Scripture imports no more but that wicked Zedekiah for a just punishment of his own and Judah's rebellion against the Lord wat left at length in the hand of his own Counsels to rebel against his Lord and King upon Earth who was able to punish him and did it accordingly Object 5. Mat. 11.25 At that time Jesus answered and said I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes Answ This is to be understood of the second grace withholden from those who refused the former and did shut their eies against the first light and so is that place also Deut. 29.4 Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and cies to see and eares to hear unto this day For God reveales his secrets to wit his further counsels to them that fear him Psal 25.14 see Matth. 13.12 13 14 15 c. For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that which he hath but useth not as wee see in him that hid his talent Mat. 25. â—â— 19. Object 6. Acts 13.48 It is said that when the Gentiles heard that they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life beleeved Whence it seems to be clear that some persons are not so ordained Answ The original Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is wrested and forced in the translation For it signifies not ordained but prepared or disposed and such onely are they who are good willing to leave their sins and to follow after righteousness according to the requiring of the Gospel Titus 2.11 12. for to such the Angels wish peace and happiness as knowing them onely capable of it Luke 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to God on high and in the earth peace to men or in men of good will For so did St. Jerome St. Augustine and many of the Ancients read that Text in their daies and so it is yet found in the best Greek copies Yet we could give another answer if the Text before alledged were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is fore-ordained to wit that so many as then and there were out of Gods special fore-knowledge predestinated to life did at that time beleeve which notwithstanding hinders not but that many more yea all there present were appointed to life conditionally as is there partly testified of the unbeleeving Jewes by the Apostle vers 46. Object 7. Rom. 9.6 It is said That they are not all Israel which are of Israel It seems then that all are not elected Answ The Apostle intimates that the carnal Israel or all that are come of Jacob surnamed Israel are not the Israel to whom the promises of salvation are absolutely and finally made Though in the general the conditional promises belong to all Israel as the Apostle shews vers 4. and to the Gentiles also vers 24 25. That we may not be misunderstood know that there are among others seven promises made to the overcomers Revel 2 and 3. Chap. and such as persevere in the Christian race unto the end of it or to the death and burial of sin Now these and the like promises belong unto the Elect that are chosen out of the furnace of affliction
monitions commandements and requirings you seem to lay some default upon God himself saying That he withholdeth that grace from them whereby their hearts that is their wils and affections might have been wrought upon which both derogates from Gods mercy and is inconsistent which innumerable Scriptures testifying the contrary as Esai 5.4 What could I have done more for my vineyard that I have not done Mat. 23.37 How often would I have gathered thy children as a ben gathereth her chickens under her wings but see would not Acts 7.51 Ye stifnecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost as did your Fathers so do yee CHAP. VI. Of the fall of man of Sin and of the punishment thereof OVR First Parents being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of Satan sinned in eating the forbidden fruit a Gen 3.13 2 Cor 11.3 this their sin God was pleased according to his wise and holy counsel to permit having purposed to order it to his own glory b Ro 11.32 II. By this sin they fell from their original righteousnesse and communion with God c Gen 3.6 7 8. Eccl 7.29 Ro 3.23 and so became dead in sin d Gen 2.17 Eph 2.1 and wholy defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body e Tit 1.15 Gen 6.5 Jer 17.9 Ro 3.10 to 19. III. They being the root of all mankinde the guilt of sin was imputed f Ge 1.27 28. and Gen. 2.16 17. and Act 17.13 with Ro 5.12 15 16 17 18 19. and 1 Cor 15.21 22 25. and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation g Psa 51.5 Gen 5.3 Job 14.4 Job 15.14 IV. From this original corruption whereby we are utterly indisposed disabled and made opposite to all good h Ro 5.6 Rom 8.7 Rom 7.18 Col 1.21 and wholly inclined to all evil i Gen 6.5 Gen 8.21 Rom 3.10 11 12 do proceed all actual transgressions k Jam 1.12 15. Eph 2.2 3. Mat 15.19 V. This corruption of nature during this life doth remain in those that are regenerated l 1 Joh 1.8 to Rom v. 14.17 18 23. Jam 3.2 Pro 20.9 Eccl 7.20 and althoug it be through Christ pardoned and mortified yet both it self and all the motions thereof are truely and properly sin m Ro 7.5 7 8 25. Gal 5.17 VI. Every sin both original and actual being a transgression of the righteous Law of God and contrary thereunto n Joh 3.4 doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner o Rom 3.9 19. whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God p Eph 2.3 and curse of the Law q Gal. 3.10 and so made subject to death r Ro. 6.23 with all miseries spiritual Å¿ Eph. 4.18 temporal t Rom. 8.20 Jam. 3 39. and eternal u Matth. 25.41 2 Thess 1.9 CHAP. VI. Of the fall of man of Sin and of the Punishment thereof examined IN this Chapter of mans fall you have given sufficient evidence of it for except the first and last Sections all parts of it are a resemblance of the depraved man you spake of sufficiently corrupted In the second Section these are your words By this sin they that is our first parents fell from their original righteousness and communion with God and so became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties of soul and body In which words we finde the fruits of the forbidden tree evil as well as good error as well as truth That they fell from their former communion with God from some degree of original righteousness and that they became dead that is liable to eternal death we grant you but that they fell wholly from original righteousness at the first Act of their Apostacy or that they presently became so wholly defiled as you speak are great mistakes As to the first of these did not the Image of God in which they were created consist in holiness and righteousness Now you know habits are not lost by one act or two Again the thing that God threatned was a gradual punishment as well as a certain In dying ye shall die Furthermore those that fall away from inchoated grace and that renued Image of God which is not at first so strong and vigorous as Gods similitude was in the first man though they die and being in a great decree of languishing are said to be dead yet they die but gradually after great debilities and decay may be kept alive and recovered Rev. 3.1 2. I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found thy works perfect before me Now as for the second that they became wholly defiled in all parts and faculties no Scripture speaks it nor could it be till the whole Image of God was extinguished by contrary corruptions True it is that if the Lord had wholly left them to themselves as he did the rebellious and backsliding Angels it would have fared no better with them in the end then you speak of but the father of mercies was pleased to appear unto them in the cool and declination of the day before it was dark night with them and by his covenant of grace to help them up again In the third Section you say They being the root of all mankinde the guilt of the sin was imputed and the same death in sin and corrupted nature corveyed to all posterity descending from them by ordinary generation where that they were the root of all mankinde is undoubtedly true but all the rest of that Section may be justly questioned And first that passage where you tacitely exempt Christ from the imputation of this sin made unto him for doubtless that with all other sins of ours were laid upon him But secondly it may be upon good ground hoped that it neither was nor shall be imputed to any of their posterity who are not the imitators of the same in actual rebellion for that just Lord doth not onely forbid the punishing of the children for the iniquity of their parents even with temporal death Deut 24.18 but he swears also by his own life that he will not do that thing Ezek 18.1 20. Then what you there affirm in the second place is more improbable then the other to wit That the same death in sin and corrupt nature is conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation is yet more improbable For first that some men are sanctified from the womb as Jeremiah and John the Baptist were and the Virgin Mary might possibly be none will deny And secondly that all others are still created innocent in some measure of Gods image there are not a few Scriptures which seem to testifie it of which Genesis the 9.6 is one where the
that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should have brought forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes Unto which interrogatories the church if they had believed your doctri◠might have answered thus Thou mightest have done much more for thy vineyard then thou hast done if thou hadst created us all in Gods Image as thou didst our first parents a thing very easie unto thee And how wouldest thou O wise and righteous Lord expect that we should bring forth any other fruit but wild grapes since by our depravation derived from our first parents we are a meer wild vine But as the choisest vine with which God planteth his vineyard is Christ from our creation planted in us being called Ja. 1.21 The ingrafted word which is able to save our souls so this vineyard is our heart or inward man into which al are hired or sent by the Lord to work therein to keep dress the same from the 3. unto the 11 hour yet some at one hour and some at another are more excited to labour therein Matth. 20.1 2 3 16. And the wickedness which by our fall from God we have brought in and planted is the vine of Sodom that is of their secret or foundation of which the Lord complains Deut. 32.32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah their grapes are grapes of gall their clusters are bitter A seventh place which lets his voyce be heard without fear is that of Jeremiah 2.21 where the Lord justifies himself but justly blameth Israel Yet I had planted thee a noble vine wholly of a right seed How then are thou turned into the degenerate plant of a wild vine unto me Now the whole nation of Israel was yet never thus planted any other way but by an upright creation for they were not all made such by way of regeneration in any age or generation which was heretofore Eighthly when God by the same Prophet expostulates with them about their falling from him and not rising again and returning chapt 8. verse 4 5. doth not the Lord implie that they once stood before they fell yea and that they had not yet lost all abilitie of returning when by precedent grace they where excited thereunto Moreover thou shall say unto them Thus saith the Lord shall they fall and not arise Shall he turn away and not return Wherefore is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual back sliding They bold fast deceit they refuse to return Ninthly the Lord in Hosea chapter 3. verse 9. laies Israels destruction upon her self and not upon her first parents O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help and so he doth their fall likewise chapter 14. verse 1. O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Tenthly doth not our Saviour declare the state of children both to be innocent and blessed when first he makes it terminus ad quem unto which in our conversion and regeneration we must return and then tels us that the kingdom of Heaven belongs unto such and is replenished with such saying Matth. 18.3 Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And again Matth. 19 1◠he saith Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Eleventhly doth not the Apostle Paul remove not onely from children malice but all evil of iniquity when he would have the Corinthians in that behalf conformed unto them 1 Cor. 14.20 saying Brethren be not children in understanding Howbeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in malice or iniquity be children but in understanding be perfect or of a ripe age Lastly to omit many other Scriptures which might be produced upon this account the Apostle James affirms that men are still created after Gods Image chap. 39. saying Therewith to wit with the tongue bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God If it be here objected that the Apostle here ment onely such as were regenerate we reply these three things First that the verb here used signifies to create or make but to create or make but not to regenerate without some other exprssion in the text so to limit it Secondly that the Saints to whom St. James did now write do not use to curse each other Thirdly without doubt the holy Apostle and Disciple of Christ here restraining and reproving the cursing of men would make his restraint as large as his master did who would have us to love all mankinde even our enemies and not curse any of them but to bless and benefit them all herein following the example of our Hevenly Father Mat. 5.44.45 But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that dispitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust It is all mankinde therefore that James would exempt from being cursed and consequently no less number that are made after Gods Image Thus we have proved that neither the guilt of our first parents sin was imputed nor their spiritual death in sin and corrupted nature was conveyed to all their posterity or to any one of them by ordinary generation contrary to your assertions in your third Section And though this your doctrine hath gone from hand to hand a long time by tradition yet neither did the Scribes and Pharisees nor yet the Disciples of Christ and much less Christ himself hold forth any such doctrine nor were any of them leavened with this opinion of yours and your long mistasten predecessors for the Pharisees with the Jewes being highly displeased with him who was born blind and whose eyes Christ had opened for defending his Saviour and blessed Occulist said thus unto him John 9.34 Thou wast altogether born in sin and dost thou teach us Whence it is evident that they did neither conceive all men in general nor yet themselves to be by propagation conceived and born in sin And when Christs Disciples asked him saying John 9.23 Master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blinde Jesus answered neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him Where according to your doctrine our Saviour should have answered positively that both he and his parents with all his progenitors even as far as Adam had sinned and were all as many descended from Adam by ordinary generation from one generation to another conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity But our Saviour taught no such doctrine nor did his Apostles when rightly understood hold forth any thing
that tends this way more then the Prophets their Predecessors or the Prince of the Prophets their Master did in which point all are silent if not cleerly opposite unto you The Lord commanded by Moses that Cities of fefuge should be set apart in all the coasts and habitations of Israel for such persons to flee to as had slain any man at unawares that the avenger of blood should not slay the innocent with a temporal death Deu. 19. c. And will the Lord pursue the innocent seed of Adam and hold them guilty for their Fathers sin perpetrated ere they were born yea will he himself be the avenger of the blood against these innocents Amaziah is commended for his justice and his obedience in that behalf to the Law of the Lord in not slaying the sons of those that murderd his father Joash but only the fathers that did the Villany 2 Ki. 14.5 6. And wil ye Brethren father upon God the fountain of all justice and the Father of mercies a cruelty forbiden in his own Law Deuteronomy 24.16 who was so far from destroying the infants of Nineveh though but an handful compared to the vast harvest of Adams posterity that he spared the whole Cities mainly upon that accompt next after the peoples repentance as he declares unto Jonas who was not a little displeased to see by this means his prediction contradicted or come to nothing Ionah 4.10 11. But having here vindicated the justice and mercy of the Lord from this your putative most putid imputation of the first Adams sin to all his succeeding off-spring as also derived innocency and righteousness in some measure from God the true Author of it instead of propagated corruptioÌ„ to the ensuing generations let us now come to answer such objections as seem to stand in our way or the passage of others who are willing to be brought to the knowledge and imbracement of the truth First here it is objected that the Lord saith Gen 8 21. The imaginations of mans heart are evil from his youth Answer Even as Esau or Edom though he had a birth right yet sold it in his youth to satisfie some strong desires kindled in him So men though created innocent do in the time of temptation and tryal too often and too soon yeeld unto the temptation and sell or forfeit that their innocency and birth right and so their imaginations become evil from their youth but are not so from their birth unless you here understand a spiritual conception and birth in sin by our personal fall Object 2. Job saith chap. 11.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Answer Job here confesseth that himself was unclean and that ever since his personal fall and therefore he of himself could not bring forth an obedience or righteousness that was clean and pure no nor the adaequate fruits of righteousness which might pass for such before the Lords judgement of a long time though he was holpen by grace for grace is not had all at once Object 3. Job 15.14 15 16. Eliphaz speakes thus What is man that he should be clean and be that is born of a woman that he should he righteous Behold he puteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water Answer this is an hy perbolical speech of his tending to the further accusation of Job whom he had more then sufficiently yea very unjustly charged before For first God doth put trust and confidence in his Saints and Angels whom he dayly employeth Secondly The heavens and all other creatures as they come out of the Creators hands are pure and good in his sight And thirdly though some men are so accustomed to sin that they have contracted an hypodropical chirst thereunto yet neither Job of whom he means all this in hypothesie nor any other of the Saints upon earth do drink iniquity like water But suppose all men did so yet it doth not from hence follow that we are all so deeply tainted and corrupted by sin drawn from Adam our first parent For as he corrupted himself by his personal Lapse disobedience so may any other man and so doubtless do all lapsed men do likewise See Psal 14.2 3. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if ther were any that did understand and seek after God They are all gone aside they are all together become filthy there is none that doth good no not one Of this fall and corruption Pilagius unmindfull in pleading mans ability in and of himself still to keep and fulfill the law which Saint Austin grants ought to be done by grace not by corrupt nature The like answer we give to those words of Bildad Job 25.4 5 6. How then can man be justified or how can he be clean that is born of a woman behold even to the Mâ—on and it shineth not and the Stars are not pure in his fight How much less man that is a worme and the son of man who is a worme for as it must be granted that man since his fall cannot by himself be either made just or clean so it is false that the Moon and Stars are not pure in Gods sight Thus Jobs friend would make good their unjust charge against him with false principles and glarifie God with lies for which he is afterwards justly displeased with them as he is with all other that plead for him in a wicked way Job 42.7 The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends for ye have not spoken of me the things that as right my servant Job hath Object 4. David saith Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me which words seem expresly to speak of his conception and birth in the corruption by you set forth Answer we would first gladly know of you whether it be not Davids scope in this confession to aggravate his sin But if he here pleadeth the inevitable corruption of nature which you hold forth his words will be found a meere extinuation of his offences if not a throwing of all or most of the blame upon God who had brought him forth so corrupt so averse to all good and so propense to all evil and that without hope of an absolute cure while he was in this world Secondly for the clearing of the truth let us first consider whether David had no other parents but Jesse and his wife and then if he had which is the mother that he here speak of As to the first besides our natural parents we have spiritual Fathers and mothers whether for our begetting in the evil and iniquity or for our regeneration in grace and goodness Concerning our procreation in sin our Saviour speaks thus unto the Jewes Iohn 8.44 Ye are of your father the devil and his
lusts will ye do Now this father makes use of a twofold mother to beget men in wickedness besides their own lust which when it is intised and drawn away by temptation conceiveth and bringeth forth sin Jam. 1 14 15. The first is the lying word and promises with which he deceiveth men as he did Eve saying Gen. 3.4 5. Ye shall not dye for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be openâ—d and ye shall be as Goâ—s knowing good and evil The second is the false Synagogue which through Satans help begets men in a false faith religion and worship Thus the Lord speaks to Ammi or his own people which were in the false Synagogue of Israel or the 10. tribes Ho. 2.1 2. Say unto your brethren Ammi and to your sister Ruhama plead with you mother plead for she is not my wise neither am I her husband let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her fight and her adulteries from between her breasts c. On the other hand in the work of the new birth as God is our father so the word of truth is our inward mother Jerusalem or the Church which is begotten from above is our outward spiritual mother Ja. 1.18 Of his own wil begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kinde of first fruits of his creaturs Gal. 4.26 But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all Come we now to enquire which of these mothers David here speaks of Not of his natural mother doubtless for as his father Isai which signifies a gift was a pious man in Israel so no doubt is to be made but his mother was a godly matron and being both of them well grown in grace ere they begot this their youngest son they were more likely to convey grace and holiness if that be communicable then sin unto him since at this age they must needs be well grown in goodness and very mortified persons But that it was the lye or lying promises of Satan with the folly therein contained by which he was shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin as our first parents were and all their faln posterity have been since procreated no man of wisdom will doubt And this is here the more evident to be Davids meaning because in the next verse following he by way of opposition having now hope after his late fall to be holpen up again speaks of a new Spiritual Father and Mother saying verse 6. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me know wisdom which wisdom is a mother and hath her children Mat. 11.19 But wisdom is justified of her children as the lie and folly or Belial hath her brood likewise unto whom the Lord speaks thus Isai 57.3 But draw near hither ye sons of the Sorceress the seed of the Adulterer and of the whore So we read often of lying children or the sons of the lie and of the sons of Belial yea David himself attributes his sinnes to his folly 2 Sam. 24.10 saying I have done very foolishly Of these two Solomon speaks thus Prov. 14.8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way but the folly of fools is deceit and Prov. 15.21 Folly is joy unto him that is destitute of wisdom and the Apostle saith the like Gal. 3.1 5. Objection It is said Psal 58.3 That the wicked are estranged from the womb they go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies Answer First we may here take notice that the Prophet speaks not this of all men but of the wicked onely Secondly it must needs bee the womb and birth of iniquitie and not the natural birth of which he here speaks For otherwise how can men go astray or speak lies so soon at they are born The 6. Objection Ezek. 16.3 The Lord speaks thus unto Jerusalem Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite Answer The Lord doth not here upbraid the Jews with the corruption derived from our first parents but with wicked poslutions learned from the Canaanites although the name Amorite serves fitly to represent the Divel with his lying promises for it signifies a vain-talker or man of words as the name Hittite sets forth the soul that is prostrate to him The 7. Objection Paul confesseth thus much concerning himself and the Jewes Ephes 2.3 Among whom we all likewise had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh serving the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Answer it is one thing to be sinners from our first Nativitie and another in time to become the children of wrath by our personal fall and actual disobedience which also coming to pass in our natural man and by his desault we may truly be said by nature to be the children of wrath especially when sin by custom becomes a second nature unto us Yet doth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated by nature import no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is really and truly such by disobedience as the same word signifies Galat. 4.8 Howbeit when ye knew not God ye did sert vice unto them which by nature are no Gods The 8. Objection But the grand objection which our opposites bring is that of Rom. 5.12 c. where it is said That by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed over all men for that all have sinned Unto which we first answer in the general That this Chapter seems to be one of those places unto which Saint Peter aludes 2 Epist 3. Chap. vers 16. saying In which to wit the Epistles of Saint Paul are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction For here are seven things rightly understood by few but perveretd by many First the Justification of faith whereby we have peace with God verse 1. Secondly the time of our small strength in the natural man when we first fell through the power of temptation Christ dyed in us and for us v. 6. Thirdly the love of God then in letting his Son die for us and not destroying us v. 7 8. Fourthly the bloud of Christ through which we are justifie by faith v. 9. Fiftly the death of Christ or rather his like death through which we are reconciled to God v. 10. Of all which we shall speak in their due places Sixthly that one man Adam in us through whose disobedience all are made sinners And lastly That one man Christ in us through whose obedience many shall be made righteous which two Adams are not onely paralleled and opposed here with their fruits and effects but in many other Scriptures likewise
fal for so they then begin to be True it is that the great wickedness which the Psalmist complains of in his enemies and the persecutors of Gods people Psal 14 1 2. and Psal 36.1 2 c. as also that which Isaiah confesseth to God Chap. 59.2 3 4 c. is to be sound in too many and that not alone in those that are meer strangers unto God but in many members of the visible Church and therefore the Apostle applies those sayings to the Jews to prove them guilty of sin and death as well as the Gentiles Rom. 3.9 10 But though it must of necessity be granted which the Apostle affirms there afterwards Rom. 3.23 That all both Jews and Gentiles since the fall have sinned and come short of the glory of God Yet it will not follow from hence that all are alike deeply corrupted as they imply And this is your second mistake in this Section Lastly Whereas you say in the close of this Section That all actual transgressions do proceed from this original corruption of which you here speak It is false undoubtedly For Satan tempts men to many sins whereunto they have no previous inclination and suggests unto some of Gods servants such blasphemies as they abhor so far are they from being natural or familiar to them cannot that subtile powerful adversaries now tempt men aswel without corrupt inclinations as he did our first parents in their innocency Lastly to take a view of your fifâ—h Section you do not only affirm gross untruths there but seem to contradict your selves also As first That this corruption of nature doth remain in the regenerate during this life of which afterwards And then you adde Though it be in Christ both pardoned and mortified What do you say brethren Is it mortified by Christ and yet doth it remain Secondly Is it pardoned and yet doth it abide still in us For the first of these must it remain in us all our life time when then must it be quite purged out Must it be done in Purgatory hereafter or must men carry the remainders of sin with them into Gods Kingdom whereinto no unclean thing can enter Rev. 21.27 Surely you did not foresee what a world of absurdities would follow hereupon Must we not be implanted into the similitude of Christs death his total death that we may be implanted into the likeness of his resurrection Rom. 6.5 Certainly as the pattern was not a bare wounding or an half death in Christ so must our mortification be no less then a full death likewise Can Christ also be frustrate of the end of his coming who gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Ephes 5.25 26 27. Since this washing as the Apostle speaks must be by the water of the word surely it must be effected in this life Thirdly Is corruption a thing so well pleasing to God and his Chirst that he will not depart with it or wholly lose the presence and society of it See 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial and what agreement hath the temple of God with Idols Is not sin and corruption an enemy to Christ as well as death Now the Apostle faith That the last enemy which shall be destroyed is death If death then be the last enemy then of necessity sin must be destroyed before But since you are wont to object many things against this Let us take a view of your objections First you say That as the Canaanites were left to prove the faith and obedience of the Israelites Judg. 3.1 so the Lord in the beginning of our regeneration leaves many corruptions to exercise our faith love and obedience likewise Answer It is true that they are left at the first for that end But would the Lord have them alwayes to continue in us On no For as the Lord was displeased with his people Israel for permitting those Nations still to dwel among them when they should have subdued them or cast them out Judg. 2.1 2. so will the Lord be highly offended with us if we roote not out these wicked Nations through the help of his Christ 1 Cor. 15.25 It is certain that David a man after Gods own heart subdued all the Canaanites so that when Solomon succeeded him there was neither enemy left nor evil occurrent 1 King 5.4 And so hath Christ the promise that all his enemies shall be his foolstoole Psal 110.1 Acts 2 34. Yea he is given to us for our final deliverance from them and conquest over them Luk. 1.71 John 3.8 Secondly You say That corruption is lest to keep us humble least we grow proud Answer If all corruption were purged out what should become of pride Are not the Angels and Saints in Heaven most humble Thirdly you alledg that which Salomon speakes 1 King 1.48 's For there is no man that sinneth not Answer peradventure it may be granted that there is no man that ordinarily lived to mans estate who hath not often sinned Christ excepted Howbeit it doth not follow from hence that the regenerate shall always do so for St. John 1 Epist cap. 2. ver 1. writes to the Saints not to sin see also cap. 4. vers 17. Fourthly You are wont to urge that place Prov. 20.9 who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Answer First that kind of interrogation doth not always imply a nullity but sometimes a paucity onely as Isa 53.1 who hath beleeved our report Secondly No man can say that he hath done this by his own strength Fifthly Some also object that place Prov. 24.16 the righteous falleth seven times and riseth again Answer The words following shew that this is to be understood of affliction not of sin which words are these But the wicked fall into mischief Sixthly That place Eccles 7.20 is much insisted upon For there is not a just man in the earth which doth good and sinneth not which place may be three wayes answered and yet the saying hold true First That though there were no such man in Solomons time being the infancy of the Church yet after-times might bring forth many such when a fuller dispensation of grace should come James 4.6 and Hebr. 11.40 God having provided some better things for us that they without us should not be made perfect Secondly It is not improbable that there hath been no man in any age Christ excepted who hath not sinned or done that which is good continually as we said before Thirdly There is an Earth of sin and corruption in which there is no man but sinneth often Colos 3.5 Martifie therefore your members which are upon earth Fornication Vncleanness
Inâ—rdinate affection evil concupiscence and coveâ—ousness c. This is that Earth which is opposed to be the Heaven of Gods holiness Eccles 5.2 For God is in Heaven and thou upon the Earth For the Lord is present in this outward Earth aswel as we in this Earth all men sin but there are some places in the new Testament also which you oppose us with as first that Luke 17.10 So likewise you when ye have done all these things say ye are â—â—p ofitable servents But this place if well considered makes more against you then for you for our Saviour there implyes that we may do all things which are commanded to wit through his grace yet having so done we are unprofitable servants to God for we have done but our duties and that through grace also and so have added nothing to the Lord. But a second and a grand objection is made out of Rom. 7.14 15 16 17 18 19. c. For the Law saith the Apostle is spiritual But I am carnal sold under sin Answer Although this place is commonly taken as if the Apostle spoke here of his own personal and present estate yet it is certain he did not first because elsewhere speaking of that estate he contradicts what is here spoken by him as 1 Cor. 4.4 For I know nothing by my self but here the person spoken of knowes much evil by himself and Phil. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me but he that is here intended though to will is present with him yet findes no means or power to do any good yea that which the Apostle speaks of his present estate chap. 8. of this Epistle to the Romans verse 2. is directly opposite to what is complained of verse 23 of this 7 chapter for in that 23. verse the complaint speaketh thus But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my minde and bringing me into coptivity to the law of sin which is in my members Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But Rom. 8.2 Paul saith For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death what can be more contradictory then this last place is to the former So that of necessity the fist place must be understood of babes in Christ whom Paul here personates instructs and comforts and the latter of his own present condition and victorie as Occumenius and others well observe and what was more usual with the Apostle then to speak of that which concerns others in his own person 1 Cor. 4.6 And these things brethren I have in a figure transferred to my self and Apollos for your sake 1 Cor. 13.11 c. When I was a child I spake as a child c. Thirdly You alledge against us and this truth the words which the Apostle speaks to the Galatians chap. 5. verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contraeâ—y the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Here say you the Apostle describes that combat betwixt the flesh and the spirit which must continue while we endure in the body Answer But where do you read that this conflict must last so long The Apostle saith a good space before his death 2 Tim. 47. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Were not the Galatians Babes in Christ so young and weak that the Apostle had no sooner left them then they were ready to be drawn away from Christ by the false Apostles See Gal. 1.6 with 3.1 2. Now to make their estate the highest pitch growth of a Christian in this life is as if we should take the scantling of a child and conclude that it is the full stature of mankinde and that no man is or can be of a taller groth Fourthly You object what St. James writes chap. 3.2 For in many things we offend all where you imvolue him and his fellow Apostles in that plural number To which we answer That the Apostle can no more be there implyed then in the 9 verse where he saith again and that plurally With the same tongue we bless God even the Father and with the same tongue we curse men which are made after the similitude of God Was James or the Apostles now of the number of those that still cursed men But it is frequent for lenity sake and in a winning way for the Prophets and Apostles of Christ to speak in the plural and sometimes in the singular number those things which concern not themselves but their hearers onely Nebem 5.10 I pray you let us leave of this usury saith the man of God who was no wayes guilty of that sin Isa 59.10 the Prophet speaketh this We groap for the wall like the blind and we groap as if we had no eyes Lastly It is objected out of 1 John 1.8 That the Apostle saith directly If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Answer The same Apostle implyes ch 4 17. that he and his fellow Apostles were now without sin Herein is our love made perfect that we might have boldness in the day of Judgement because as he is so are we in this present world There is no fear in love but persect love casteth out fear The Apostle therefore speaks the former words to those that were young in Christ and yet imperfect as is evident chap. 2. verse 1. My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not c. Yea he explains himself so Chap. 1. verse 10. that he may be safely taken into the number If we that say we have not finned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us And thus much of your first erroneous proposition in your 5th and last Section Your other Thesis wherein you affirm That though this corruption remains in the regenerate during life yet it is actually pardoned is false also and contradictory to these ensuing and many other Scriptures Prov. 28 13. Luke 24.47 Acts 8.20 Acts 26.18 or as we shall shall shew at large chap. 11. by Gods assistance Now for a conclusion of this last Section give us leave to propound these Queries unto you First whether those ten unbeleeving spies did not highly displease God and much hinder injure and prejudice the people which hearkened unto them who cryed that there were such Anakiâ— in the way that they could not be subdued by them and Cities so high that they were walled up to Heaven and therefore not 〈◊〉 be scaled Numb 14. Did not the people too slothful and averse before to fight the Lords battail against the Canaanites become therethrough wholy unbeleeving even despairing of victory and altogether indisposed to the fight enjoyned by the Lord Were not both they and those their leaders
2.3 4 5 6. 2 Pet. 3.9 Secondly you are here deficient in setting forth Gods stipulation in this Covenant for you say That God requires faith in Christ that men may be saved but the Lord insists not onely upon faith but upon obedience also to all his commands yea obedience unto the death to wit the death of sin Mark 16.16 Act. 2.38 39. Act. 3.19 Heb. 5.9 Rom. 6.8 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Rom 2.7 8.13 Matth. 24.13 Revel 27.11 17 26. Revel 12.5 Thus of your defects here but whereas you say in the close of that Section That God promiseth to give unto all those that are ordained unto life his holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe it is not true we would gladly have you produce anyone such promise yet dowe grant that the Lord is pleased to enlighten and teach all sinners that are out of the way and capable of instruction in the way to life again so that they may believe repent and turn if they will Psal 25.8 Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners in the way The text to which you refer us Ezek. 36.25 26. is a promise made to the house of Jacob in the latter dayes and that of such a clensing from sin as you will not believe or admit but not of faith though the work of regeneration there promised implyeth a precedent faith and therein both illumination on Gods part and assent or credence to the truth revealed on ours In the fourth Section you say That this Covenant of grace is frequently set forth in Scripture by the name of a Testament and so is the Covenant upon Mount Sinai likewise Gal. 4.24 for those saith the Apostle are the two Testaments But secondly whereas you add That this name is given to that Covenant onely in reference to the death of Christ the Testator and to the everlasting inheritance with all things belonging unto it therein bequeathed You herein fall short again for the believer who is the other party to the Covenant must in following of Christ dye with him and there must follow the death of this Testator likewise Rom. 6.8 For if we be dead with him we believe that we shall live with him Rom. 8.13 For if we live after the flesh we shall dye but if we mortifie the deeds of the body by the spirit we shall live So 2 Tim. 2.11 12. In your fifth Section you are defective likewise in two things and mistaken in a third For first whereas you say That this Covenant was differently administred in the time of the Law and of the Gospel your saying is true but much too short to express the various administrations of the Covenant for it was administred after one manner before the Law after another under the Law after a third under the prophets and all this before the time of the Gospel before the Law as it was at the first made with Adam and renewed with Noah but more solemnly reinstituted with Abraham for the blessing of all Nations and generations of mankinde so all this time it was administred without outward ceremonies and services more then commemorative sacrifices of Christs inward sufferings That Lambe slain from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 which yet were intentive likewise to a dying with Christ unto all sin and wickedness but under the Law as you truly speak it was administered by promises prophecies the Paschal Lamb and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of Israel in general and not to the Jews alone as you set forth And it was partly set forth as a Covenant of works if not to mind us of original innocencie yet to be our Schoolemaster to Christ shewing us our inability in our selves to keep the law with our sins and miseries and what manifold need we had of Christ Gal. 3.24 and partly as a Covenant of grace also finally under the prophets it was dispensed principally by promises and predictions Isa 9.6 Isa 11.1 2. Jerem. 31.34 35 36. Jerem. 32.38.39 Ezek. 11.18 19 36 25 26 c. But as you were defective in saying That those types sacrifices and services under the Law did onely figure out Christ to come whereas they did teach the Israelites the whole way to life also in following of Christ so you are in saying that the Covenant of grace in regard of the former dispensations is called the old Testament as you do also in saying That in the Gospel it being under other dispensations is called the new Testament in the sixth Section For according to the Scripture and the minde of God the Old and New Testament are thus to be distinguished The whole word of grace whether administred by Prophets or Apostles is the Old Testament that is a foregoing Testament administred by true Elders but the work of grace in purging out sin renewing us in righteousness writing the Law of God in our hearts and sealing the everlasting forgiveness of sins unto us is the new Testament So that the Old Testament is the Covenant which we should observe and keep or endeavor so to do but the new Testament is the work of grace which God hath promised in and through Christ Thus Christ is called the mediator of the new Testament Heb. 9.15 and his spirit blood the blood of the new Testament Mat. 26.28 Yet we do not deny but that both the Prophets and Apostles were able Ministers of the new Testament as true publishers of this promised grace and not of the letter onely as were the Scribes and Pharisees 2 Corin. 3.6 Not that the writings of Moses and the Prophets comparatively to the writings of the Apostles are or should be called the old Testament as they seem to be termed 2 Cor 3.12 for this we say that the writings of the Apostles may be so called likewise and are no other in relation to the promised work of cleansing and renewing grace which God alone both can and must effect Howbeit we do not condemn the common distinction and distribution of the books written before and since Christs incarnation by the penmen of the Holy Ghost into those of the old Testament or instrument and the other of the new because they set forth the new Testament more plainly In you sixth and last Section besides the mistake before touched we crave leave to rectifie you in these ensuing things First whereas you say That now in the new Testament Christ the substance is exhibited If you conceive that the incarnation of Christ is the substance of all that was foreshewed required or promised in the times of the Law and the Prophets it is a great mistake for not onely his sufferings and resurrection but our conformity in following him with the whole process and work of salvation was thereby set out manifoldly and clearly under the Administrations of those times Secondly whereas you say That now under the Gospel the ordinances under which the Covenant of Grace is or ought to be
corrupted that without it we could not have been saved or brought to communiō w th God again by that his other conceptiō alone in the womb of the Virgin Mary as neither could infants be saved without his other presence spoken of before Thus is Christ both the resurrection and the life Joh. 11.25 viz. a life preservation to the innocent a resurrection to the dead who beleev on him obey him In your 3 Section you are first much mistaken and afterwards no less defective Mistaken in these things 1. That you say That the Lord Jesus in his human nature was sanctified above measure For though it is said of him Joh. 3.34 that he receiveth not the spirit by measure yet that is spoken of the God-head which alone is infinite As for his humanity it being a creature must needs be finite though spiritually enriched above any other creature 2. Whereas you say or imply That in his humanity likewise all treasures of wisdom are hidden it is a mistake likewise For that place Col. 2.3 to which you refer us speaks of the Diety likewise The same we say concerning Colos 1.19 where it is written that it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell by you appropriated but amiss to his human nature 2. Though it must be granted also to be true which the Aposte speakes Heb. 7 26. that he is holy hormless undefiled and separate from sinners and made higher then the Heavens yet the last words transfer this honor to the Deity especially and not to the humanity alone as you would restrain them And thus he is throughly furnished to do the great office of a Mediator which Office as you truely say Christ did not take upon himself of his own head but was there unto called of his Father who hath put all power judgement into his hand Thus of your mistakes deficient you are in setting forth what and wherein the Mediatorship of Christ doth mainly consist especially in his works of spiritual Mediation Intercession and Redemption In your 4. Section you have in part set forth Christs twofold state in the humanity the one of humiliation the other of exaltation but if you will confider what you have here omitted you will have more cause to be humbled then exalted For 1. You make no mention at all of that great work of his wherein Gods justice and severity against sin is so conspicuous and the love of Christ towards mankind is so illustrious to wit Christs descending into Hel his suffering there for us the torments due to the sins of the whole world Which grand article of the Faith though retain'd in the most ancient Creeds confessed in the most Orthodox Councels is by you suppressed to the eternal blemish of this your confession But Consider we pray you was not Jonah three daies afflicted or tormented by the sense of Gods wrath upon him in the belly of Leviathan as a type of our Saviours future sufferings See Jonah 2.2 Out of the belly of Hell have I cried unto thee compared with Mat. 12.40 For as Jonah was 3 daies and 3 nights in the Whales belly so shall the Son of man be 3 daies and 3 nights in the heart of the earth Doth not the Apostle also expresly say Ephes 4 9. Now that be ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth Where take notice of two things First Of the comparative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lower which is according to an usual Hellenism in the New Testament put for the superlative the lowest as utter darkness is put for the utmost darkness And Secondly That the heart of the earth afore-named Matth. 12. and the lower parts of the earth here mentioned cannot possibly be understood of Christs Sepulther which was upon the superficies of the earth Thirdly Doth not Christ comfort himself with this that though he knew he should go into hell yet he fore-saw that God would not leave his soul there alwayes Psal 16.10 for thou wit not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffe◠thine holy one to see corruption Doth not St. Peter seconded with the other Apostles and all filled with the holy Ghost in the day of Pentecost expresly affirm Acts 2.24 the God raised up Christ from the dead loosing the paines of death c Now Christs body while it remained in the grave was not in any pain therefore it was his soul that at the hour of his resurrection was loosed from those paines and torments But here two things seem to puzle you First That saying of Christs upon the Cross not long before his expirement John 19.30 crying it is finished Secondly That he sayeth to the penitent theef this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 To which we answer severally as followeth To the first We object a like place John 17.4 where our Saviour saith unto his Father some space before his death I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do that is I have almost finished it And how much more then might Christ so say when he had suffered so much more in the garden before his Judges and upon the cross If you reply That in the former place he speaks of his ministery we will rejoyn that he speaks here of the sacrifice and offering up of his corporal life both to fulfil the types of the Old Testament and to set us an example of dying with him To the second we answer with Gillebert in Bernard That as man consists of three distinct parts body soul spirit 1 Thes 5.23 seconded with Hebr. 4.12 So did Christs humanity also consist of the same parts Psal 16 9 10. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption Where the heart is the soul and the flesh the body so the glory was his spirit which Jacob also calls his honour Gen 49.6 O my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united Which two are dissevered again by a gradation Isa 26.9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early The which distinction of parts being most clear we say then that the spirit of Christ at his death immediately ascended to God according to those words Luke 23.43 aforesaid This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise his body also was laid in the grave yet saw no corruption but his soul went to hell there to suffer for us the condign punishment of our sins in the proper place of punishment Oh justice upon the surety to be trembled at for ever O love in Christ never to be forgotten Secondly You are deficient in setting forth the inward and spiritual crucifying death and burial of Christ within us ever since our fall
as is hinted in the name of Moses which also is the time of Gods delivering his Israel from under the spiritual Pharoah Thirdly That men are not said here to sin in Adam to wit our first fathers transgression but after the similitude of it Fourthly There are some which sin not after that patern but another way as we have shewed before concerning Edom the same name with Adam in the Hebrew consonants and consequently in signification also Fifthly That there is an Adam which is or was the figure of Christ and that is our personal Adam also of whom the Apostle speaketh thus 1 Cor. 15.49 And as we have born the Image of the earthy so we also shall bear the Image of the heavenly Lastly That though Christ be already come in the flesh yet here in this 14. verse he is spoken of as one yet to come which doubtless is Christs coming in the spirit John 14.21 Now for our second task You may please advisedly to consider these two things First That the Apostle at the 17. verse speaketh thus How much more shall they that receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness raign in life by one Jesus Christ Now since we cannot enter into life but by a personal obedience as we shewed before for what other intent should the abundance of grace in Christ be more needful for us then for the performing of that obedience through which we attain unto the Kingdom and righteousness of God And so by one mans obedience even that of Christ within us are many made not putatively but really righteous according to verse 19. Secondly That the Prophets and Apostles speak frequently of Christs obedience in us but nowhere of his obedience for us more then of his suffering in our stead or his setting of us a patern to be followed Isa 26.12 Thou Lord wilt ordain peace for us for thou hast wrought all our works in us Jer. 31.33 I will put my law in their inward parts I will write it in their hearts Heb. 13.20 21. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.10 But I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God that was with me Phil. 1.10 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me Rom. 8.4 That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us c. Now if the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us through the grace and help of Christ as the Apostle expresly affirms it there what great need was there that it should be fulfilled for us Frustrà fit per plura c. Furthermore as our disobedience was both begun and perfected with our own consent endeavours though not without the leading instigation and power of Satan is it not meet that our obedience likewise should be both enterprized and accomplished with our wills and best concurrences though guided and carried on yea accomplished also by the grace of God and the power of his Christ Is not that which is done in us or by u◠though in the strength of Christ in obedience to Gods Law and requiring much more acceptable unto him then that which is done without us without our knowledge endeavour or consent We in the mean time remaining enemies and rebels or but lazy and loytering servants Indeed the outward and personal obedience of Christ as it was active was necessary in him as a Mediator not onely as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or foregoer but in order also to his suffering for us for had he failed in his obedience to the Law he might have suffered afterwards for his own sins but could not have satisfied for ours And as Christ could not by his outward and personal obedience satisfie the Fathers justice for that personal obedience which we out selves ought and which by his grace and help we may perform so he did not by the same obedience purchase a reconcilement between us and God as you here affirm Amos saith chap. 3.3 Can two walk together except they be agreed Although God affects us as a work of his hands yet so long as the body of sin which is enmity against God remains in us we can neither be reconciled unto him nor he to us For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 Therefore it is said in the foregoing Chapter 2 Cor. 5.19 20. That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their prespasses unto them and bath committed unto us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God Where we pray you to observe two things First That Christ is not said to have done the work to wit by his obedience or sufferings as you conceive but to be doing of it still viz. by his grace and spirit slaying the enmity aforesaid in and for those who beleeve aright on him and follow him in his like obedience and sufferings Secondly That the ground of the emnity between us and God lieth on our part who hate him his ways and righteousness through the sin that dwelleth in us And therefore the Apostle prayes us yea in a beseeching manner to be reconciled unto God And though two places at the first view upon which you mainly ground may seem to favour your assertion yet being rightly understood they do not patrocinate the same at all the first is Ephes 2.16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross having slain the emnity thereby But here you may take notice that the body spoken of is his mystical body and the cross whereby the emnity is slain is his spiritual cross like patience or sufferance for by that we overcome every temptation of sin according to that of the Apostle James 1.4 But let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing This is that cross and not afflictions themselves as the world conceives which Christ commandeth those that will follow him into life to take upon them for the denying of themselves or the putting off the old man Matth. 16.24 Hebr. 12.1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Your other place upon which you rely is that of Col. 1.20 21 22. And having made peace through the blood of his
place in which the Lord speakes of a child shortly to be born unto the Prophet and to be called Immanuel as some most learned expositors affirm Isa 7.14 15 16. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin or a young woman for the word signifies both shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel Butter and hony shall he eate that he may know to refuse the evil and chuse the good for before the child shall know to refuse the evil and chuse the good the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her Kings Here you may please to observe these things with us First That though this place be commonly understood of our Saviour yet it is a great mistake for his proper name was Jesus and not Immanuel Secondly This child was to be born shortly after this prophecy and is given to the Jewes as a sign and token of a sudden deliverance from Rezin and Remaliah before the child should be of age and knowledge to refuse the evil and chuse the good And thirdly The prophet in the next Chap. triumphing against the enemies of the Church alludes to this very name as if the child were then in being Isa 8.10 saying Take counsel together and it shall come to nough speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Where it is in the original Immanuel The second thing to be observed is that this child even from iâ—s insancy according to the common state of mankind should have the knowledge and ability to refuse the evil and chuse the good a faculty spoken of in two verses together as before But to come to your third Section where our main contest begins Besides a mistake in the very first entrance Man that is fallen into sin being by you taken for all mankinde no smal mistake as we have proved before You are first defective in that you distinguish not of the different states of sin And secondly to maintain that which is true in it self viz. that the faln man cannot without preventing grace by his own strength convert himself or haply prepare himself thereunto you lay such grounds as are either false or at leastwise improper of which anon But first you speak of a state of sin into which man is faln as though there were but one such whereas there is a manifold state in sin one against God the Father another against the Son and a third against the holy Ghost Mat. 12.32 There is a state of sin before regeneration and another under grace Rom. 7.9 14. there is a state of sin before mans first conversion and another after their final falling away 2 Pet. 2.21 22. as there is a threefold degree of righteousness and grace wherein some are Babes some youngmen and some old men so there is a threefold state or age in sin So the Lord saith to Abraham Gen. 15.16 That the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full and complaines Jer. 9.3 That the sinners proceeded from evil to worse finally there is a sin unto death and a sin which is not unto death 1 John 5.16 Now the false grounds aforesaid which you lay for the establishing of a truth are these That the faln man hath lost all ability of wil to any spiritual good accompanying salvation That a natural man is altogether averse from from any such good The ground that you here improperly apply is That the man is dead in sin For the first of these t is a rash and ungrounded asseveration for you will not deny That to become a Christian to have our wicked thoughts forgiven us to hear the word preached to eat and drink at Christs table to keep the commandements of the second Table as they are commonly called and finally to dye the death of the righteous are all of them spiritual good things and such as accompany salvation But we finde all these things wished for and desired by those which you count unregerate for King Agrippa hearing Saint Pauls defence had more then a velleity some good measure of inclination to become a Christian Act. 26.28 Simon Meâ—us entreated the Apostles to pray for him that his wicked thoughts might be pardoned and that none of the evils they had spoken of might happen unto him to hinder his salvation Act. 8.24 Our Saviour tels us Luk. 13.26 That many will plead before him at the latter day that they had heard him teaching in their streets and had eaten and drunke at his table The young man who enquired of our Saviour what good thing he should do to inherit eternal life had from his youth kept the precepts of the second table aforesaid Mat. 19.20 Yea our Saviour looked upon him and loved him on that behalf Mar. 10.21 Finaily Balaam desired to dye the death of the righteous and that his latter end might be like his Num. 23.10 For the second ground that the natural man is altogether averse from any thing that is good it is alike erroneous with the former whether we take a natural man for the earthly man as he is still created of God in innocency or for the faln man in his unregenerate estate as you mean For in the first notion the natural man can both will and act according to his first integrity till he disables and corrupts himself by falling as Esau or Edom a type of this man did seek to please and observe his father And you may remember that the Apostle would have us in malice and naughtiness to be like children 1 Cor. 14.20 But many natural men taken in your own sense are not utterly averse from all good things even Herod himself heard John the Baptist gladly and not only willed but did many things according to his Doctrine and precepts Mark 6.20 And Moses having set before all Israel life and blessing with death and cursing Deut 30.19 he there expresly commands them to chuse life That both they and their seed might liâ—â— Isa chap. 1.19 20 elicites and excites this freewilling faculty saying If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devonred by the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Yea the very name of freewill offerings so oft mentioned in the Scriptures argues some competent remainder of that faculty unless ye would subjectum tollere but consider we pray you these two things which we have partly touched before First That all faln men are not alike extensively corrupted that is they are not all alike enclined to all fins but some to voluptuousness and prodigality more then to covetousness or the like And though David a King prayeth thus against covetousness Encline my heart to thy Testimo nies and not to covetousness Psal 119.36 Yet Luther saith That he was never tempted to that sin Whence it will necessarily follow that such a man is not equally averse to all good but to
the seeking of them Rom. 10.14 15 c. A second let is a depraved judgement Act. 26.9 for I verily thought with my self thâ—t I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus A third impediment is the want of due remembrance and serious consideration of what we know in generall Lam. 1.9 He filthiness is in her skirts she remembred not her latter end A fourth bar is the power of Temptation of which the Apostle complaines 2 Cor. 12.7.8 A filth and a powerful obstacle is habit and custome in sin of which that is verified Qui non est hoâ—iè erà s minùs aptus erat Lastly Gods final desertion one of the heavyest of Judgements is an unremovable obstacle to the willing of good because seconded with Satans power Hence we may take a view how far the faln man can will good convert himself or prepare himself thereunto namely so far forth as men have some light of nature left or new illumination and convincing grace the which of all other is most necessary for the work of a true conversion Jer. 23.24 O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps Secondly This may be done with the more facility so far as they are chastned by the hand of the Lord and make a good use of it which made the Prophet Jeremy to pray as he doth Jer. 10.24 Correct me O Lord yet in judgement and not in thine angor lest thou bring me to nothing Howbeit in all this the Lord seems to lay no violent hand upon the will but works upon it by understanding judgement and reason with the use of sense and because he is the Author of the new understanding and judgement which leads and drawes the will he is said to work the will also Phil. 2.13 for Causae causae est etiam causa causaei But the main way whereby the man after illuminating or preventing grace can prepare himself to turn his heart or will is by frequent meditation and deep consideration of what he knows by grace or nature In your two last Sections First according to an ordinary distribution you distinguish the condition of converted sinners into a State of Grace and a State of glory but albeit there be different degrees in their new Metamorphosis or change yet their least estate in regeneration is a State of Glory as on the contrary the highest degree of that change and exaltation is a state of Grace For the proof of the first of these consider what the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord are transformed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord. 2 Pet. 1.3 Through the knowledge of him who hath called us unto Glory and Vertue And for the evidencing of the latter weigh well what Saint Peter writeth 1 Pet. 1.14 wherefore gird up the loins of your minde be sober and hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought unto you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ See also 1 Pet. 3.7 as heirs together of the Grace of life But more particulary for your fourth Section As in the beginning of it you attribute too much to the first work or degree of our regeneration so you detract too much from the last and highest period of the same in the end of that Section For first you say but not truely That when God converts a sinner and translates him into the State of Grace he presently freeth him from his natural bondage under sin and by his grace alone enables him to will and to do that which is spiritually good Here brethren you go too far for the Apostle in the behalf of the young Babes or converts complains thus Rom. 7.8 9. For to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good Lâ—nde not for the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that do I. How then are they freed when the Apostle saith ver 23 He findes another Law in his members not only warring against the Law of his minde but bringing him captiue to the Law of sin in his members whereupon he cryes out verse 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of deaâ—h Is a bondage then against your wils no captivity yea it is the most grievous bondage of all others in our sense and feeling though not so perilous to the soul as a willing subjection unto sin Indeed it is true of the young in Christ which the Apostle writs to them of that age 1 John 2.14 I have written unto you young men because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked one But the Babe in Christ cannot attain thereunto while he is a chide Now in the close of that Section you flag and fall as much too short saying That this convert at his highest pitch for so you mean by reason of his remaining corruption doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good but willeth that which is evil also The which though it be true of the Infants aforesaid and perhaps may sometimes be verified of the middle ort yet it is not true of the old or aged men in Christ such as the Apostles themselves were as we have proved before In your last Section you do as you are wont wholly transferring the state of Glory in which the will of man is made immutably good out of this world but herein you are some what mistaken if we may give credit to these Scriptures Rev. 3.12 21. C. 1.2.3 4 5 6. CHAP. X. Of effectuall calling ALL those whom God hath predestinated unto life and those onely he is pleased in his appointed and accepted time effectually to call a Rom 8.30 Rom 11.7 Eph 1.10 11. by his Word and Spirit b 2 Thes 2.13 14. 2 Cor 3.6 out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ c Rom. 8.2 Eph 2.1 2 3 4. 2 Tim. 1.9 10. inlightning their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God d Act 16.18 1 Cor 2.10 12. Eph 1.17 18. taking away their heart of stone and giving unto them an heart of flesh e Ezek 36.26 Eze 11.19 Phil 2.13 Deut. 36.6 Ezek 36.27 renewing their wils and by his Almighty power determing them to that which is good f and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ g Eph 1.19 John 6.44 45. yet so as that they come most freely being made willing by his grace h Cant. 1.4 Psal 110.3 John 6.37 Rom. â— 16 17 18. II. This effectual call is of Gods free and special grace alone not from any thing at all foreseen in man i 1 Tim 1.9 Tit. 3.4 5. Eph 2.4 5 8 9. Rom â— 11. who is
them onely that are justified in facto vel potius perfecto Thirdly whereas you grant That persons justified may by their sins fall under Gods fatherly displeasure and not have the light of his countenance restored unto them until they humble themselves confess their sins beg pardon and renew their faith and repentance This is true yet not of those perfect or consummate ones who fall not so either into sin or Gods displeasure but of the younger sort onely in the time of their progress and growing up who may not only so faile and suffer as you have affirmed but possibly may through a wilful revolt both fall away totally and remain under indignation finally As to your sixth and last Section because we have described the way and means of justification more groundedly then ye have done we can truely speak it in your words but not in your sense That the justification of beleevers in the Old Testament was in all these respects one and the same with the justification of beleevers under the New Testament But before we leave this subject give us leave to inform you of two things The first is That the means of our justification or spiritual redemption in Christ Jesus is principally his blood the blood of the everlasting Covenant his promised spirit Romans 3.24 25. Ephesians 1.7 Colossians 1.14 Hebrews 9.14 15. 22. compared with Jeremy 31.32 33 Ezekiel 36.25 26 c. Hebrews 10.29 chap. 13.20.21 Rev. 7.14 1 Joh. 1.7 9. The second is that remission of sins wherein you place justification for the main is to be had after sin is put away by sanctification and amendment and not before as you fondly dream both here and elsewhere For which purpose take these ensuing Scriptures Proverbs 28.13 He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Jeremy 33.8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me Mark 1.4 John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins Luke 24.47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations Acts 5.32 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins Acts 26.17 18. Vnto whom I now send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me 1 Cor. 1.30 Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Hebrews 10.14 For by one offering hath he perfected for ever those which are sanctified To all which we could adde that the blessedness which David speakes of Psal 32.2 lies first in the putting away of sins by sanctification as the last words there import and the rest will bear it and then in having them or the guilt of them pardoned in Jesus Christ which words may be thus rendered O the blessedness of the man whose transgression is taken away and whose sins are covered or buryed with the like death of Christ O the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity by letting him dye in his sins as one filthy and unpurged and in whose spirit there is no guile CHAP. XII Of Adoption ALL those that are Justified God vouchsafeth in and for his only Son Jesus Christ to make partakers of the grace of Adoption a Eph. 1.5 Gal 4.4 5 Ro 8.17 by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and priviledges of the children of God b Joh 1.12 have his name put upon them c Jer. 14.9 2 Cor 6.18 Rev. 3 12. receive the spirit of Adoption d Ro. 8.15 have access to the Throne of Grace with boldness e Eph. 3.12 Rom. 5.2 are inabled to cry Abba Father f Gal. 4.6 are pitied g Psal 103.13 protected h Prov. 14.16 provided for i Mat 6.30.32 1 Pet. 5.7 and chastened by him as a Father k Heb 12.6 yet never cast off l Lam 3.31 but sealed to the day of redemption m Eph 4 20. and inherit the promises n Heb 6.12 as heirs of everlasting salvation o 1 Pet 1.3 4. Heb 1 14. CHAP. XII Of Adoption examined ERROR and misconceptions in you here as elsewhere Hydra like multiplies heads needlessly for this argument of Adoption is the same with effectual calling in some measure and the self-same with that election of God which is in time of which we spake before And as that is twofold the first conditional the second final and absolute so is this and though all the children of God are capable of these your priviledges or most of them in time if they continue in their filial faith and obedience yet are not they so at the first yea some have by their faithful walking proceeded so far by Gods grace that they have left some of the lesser and foregoing prerogatives behind them Therefore you have first committed great disorder and confusion in attributing all these alike unto all not shewing which priviledges belong to all Saints and which but to some who may absolutely expect all or most of them and who may expect the same conditionally onely Secondly You take the high way here as you have done elsewhere to fill many who are not yet past danger with security and presumption For the first of these There are three degrees of Gods name Image or like being The first Which is the fathers name is written upon those that beleeve on him love and obey him The second Which is Christs powerful and saving name becomes written upon such as are brought to know him to trust in his saving office and to seek his help against their enemies and who persist so seeking The third Which is the name of the holy Ghost and the new Jerusalem with the new name of Christ is engraven onely upon those that have overcome all their enemies through the power of Christ Revel 3.12 These last are they that are never cast off and who inherit the promises as heirs of salvation But the other two If they abide not in the Father and in Christ after they know him may fall short of the promises and be rejected Those of the third form are past Gods fatherly chastisements because they now sin not 1 John 3. but the other two are not so As for the other You tell us that all which are adopted to be the children of God are sealed to the day of redemption but none are so sealed finally and absolutely save the third sort of whom we spake before the rest are but sealed conditionally yet left in good hope Yea all those priviledges which you
further recite in this Chapter must be necessarily thus understood to wit conditionally of those that are but inchoatively adopted and absolutely of such onely as have accomplished the conditions of the premises And therefore you have here adopted many errours for truth though you have spoken some truth also at unawares as That all those that are justified God vouchsafeth in and for his onely Son Jesus Christ to make partakers of the grace of Adoption This is most true of those whom God hath justified in our sense that is purged from all corruption by the blood and spirit of Jesus Christ for such and such onely are absolutely and finally adopted and enjoy all the liberties and prerogatives here by you set forth But if you here understand initiated adoption it precedes justification taken both in your sense and ours and so your affirmation is erroneous It is true also that all they who are adopted in any measure are taken into the number of Gods Children for the present but the younger and weaker sort may by their unthankfulness for so great a grace by their future rebellions and Apostacy be abdicated and cast off for ever 1 Chronicles 28.9 Romans 11.22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them that fell severity but toward thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou shalt be cut off Deuteronomy 32.19 When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and daughters Thus the Lord maketh all the regenerate partakers of the grace of conditional adoption but onely the third sort of final adoption yet all these are protected by the Father and provided for as children while they continue children but not otherwise all likewise have access to the throne of grace which is Christ Jesus who are brought to know him and beleeve in his name and who persist in that their faith and in good will but none other neither they which yet know him not nor such as by apostacy crucifie him afresh Acts 6.6 Hebrews 10.27 28 29. Wherefore Let all those who are incoatively adopted bless God for that estate and rejoyce in it Galatians 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son whereby ye cry Abba Father 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God Yet let us remember it is but a conditional estate at the first and a long time after Rom. 8.15 16.17 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirits that we are the the children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him And to the end that we may obtain a final and absolute adoption â—et us fulfil the condition thereunto required 2 Corinthians 6.17 1â— Wherefore come ye out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lâ—â—d and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a father unto you and 〈◊〉 shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty See also what the Apostle infers thereupon 2 Corinthians 7.1 2 Having therefore these promises my beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting our holiness in the fear of God CHAP. XIII Of sanctification THEY that are effectually called and regenerated having a new heart and a new spirit created in them are further sanctified really and personally through the vertue of Christs death and resurrection a 1 Cor 6.11 Acts 20.32 Phil 3.10 Ro 6.5 6. by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them b Joh 17.17 Eph 5.26 2 Thes 2.13 the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed c Rom 6.6.13 and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakned and mortified d Gal 5.24 Rom 8.13 and they more and more quickned and strengthened in all saving graces e Col 1.11 Eph 3.16 17 18. to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord f 2 Cor 7.1 Heb 12.13 II. This sanctification is throughout in the whole man g 1 Thes 5.23 yet imperfect in this life there abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part h 1 Joh 1.10 Rom 7.18 23. Phil 3.12 whence ariseth a continual and irreconcileable War the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh i Gal 5.17 1 Pet 2.11 III. In which war although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail k Rom 7.23 yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ the regenerate part doth overcome l Ro 6.14 1 Joh 5.4 Eph 5.4 16. and so the Saints grow in grace m 2 Pet 3.18 perfecting holiness in the fear of God n 2 Cor 7.1 CHAP. XIII Of Sanctification examined HAving already spoken of Justification this whole Chapter of sanctification which is but the Christening of the same thing with a new name as we have shewed before might have been superseded and as the whole discourse is superfluous so many of your erroneous and unsanctified assertions such as those which follow might profitably have been omitted As first where you say in the first Section That all they who are effectually called and regenerated have a new heart and a new spirit created in them whereas many are called and that earnestly and effectually on the Lords part as we have shewed â—lready who admitt of no change of will and affections through their own obstinacy and though all that are truly changed receive at the first a new frame of heart will and disposition yet they do not by and by receive a new heart and a new Spirit in the sense of the holy Prophets for Ezekiel shewes That not onely clean water must be poured down upon us but that we must be cleansed from all our filthiness and abomination before we can have a new heart and a new spirit created in us nor is the stony heart wholly taken from us and an heart of flesh wholly given unto us till then But this is the peculiar estate of such Saints or sanctified ones as have attained the third and last degree of regeneration when Christ according to the spirit is risen up in them as we shewed before See Ezek. 36.25 26. Of these the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.17 Old things are passed away behold all things are become new See Revel 21.3 4 5 of those to whom the new Jerusalem is come Secondly whereas you say That such persons are sanctified through the vertue of Christs death it is another great mistake for though the vertue of his death is great and of inestimable value to take away the guilt of sin and remove the curse from us
as we have said before yet we read nowhere of any power proceeding from thence in the mortifying of sin though that his suffering should be both a patern and a motive to follow him in his like death as hath been said Yea the Apostle ascribes weakness and not power to Christ in his death as that whereby he could properly suffer 2 Cor. 13 4. For though he was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God It was power indeed whereby he was raised up Rom. 1.4 And it is through the same power that those who are dead with him must be raised up again Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his resurrection c. So then there is express mention in the word of the vertue or power of his resurrection to be imployed in this work of our regeneration but none of the power or efficacy of his death yea that benefit which we have by the death of Christ followes the work of sanctification in order of nature and doth not go before it as hath been proved sufficiently before Thirdly Whereas you say or imply That the whole dominion of sin is destroyed in those that are in any measure called and sanctified it is a thing rather to be wished if it were the will of God then to be granted for truth for we find the contrary in our own experience while we are babes in Christ yea the Apostle describing the estate of such in his own person because he had been formerly in that â—state complaineth grievously of the remaining and dominion of corruption Rom. 7.23 24. But I see another law in my members rebeiling against the Law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death indeed if you had said that the former love which the least of Saints had to the body of sin and their willing subjection thereunto is in some measure destroyed you had spoken truly but is not a dominion against their wils a dominion still Yea it is the most grievious tyranny of all other and the hardest to be born So then there is left in all the regenerate a dominion and tyranny of sin till by grace they obtain power and victory against it though this dominion is now invitum imperium and not so dangerous as it was in the time of their voluntary subjection thereunto Fourthly That which you speak in the close of that Section is true or false as men bestir themselves in resisting sin and seeking Gods grace there against or otherwise neglect those duties to wit That the several lusts of this body of sin are more and more weakned and mortified and they more and more quickned and strengthned in all saving graces to the practise of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Your second Section presents but one error upon the matter but it is a material one to wit That our sanctification in this life is always imperfect and that there abide some remnants of corruption in every part that hence ariseth a continual and irreconcileable war the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh Gal. 5.17 But brethren if our sanctification must not be perfected here when or where must it be made up Is not this life the time of our regeneration Tit. 2.11 12 13. For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and that glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Must some corruption still remain in every part Why so hath God such pleasure in it Shall Christ lose the end of his comming of which the Apostle speaks in the next verse Tit. 2.24 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works See Ephes 5.25 27. of which we spake before And though while the flesh and the spirit continue there remains an irreconcileable â—ar betwixt them must that war last alwayes had not Saint Paul sought a good fight and finished his course 2 Tim. 4.7 Had he not subued his body and brought it into subjection 1 Cor. 9.27 shall we never attain to be of a taller Stature and growth then those new born babes in the Galatians That you apply their conflicts and weak estate spoken of Gal. 5.17 to all But we must pardon you for in your third Section you seem to contradict all this again saying In which war although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevaile yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ the regenerate part doth overcome and so the Saints grow in grace perfecting holiness in the fear of God but concerning this we must refer you to what we spake before upon Chap. 6. Sect. 6. Surely as God caused his word to be written that we might there through become absolute 2 Tim. 3.14 16 17. And hath given gifts from heaven unto his Apostles Prophets Evangelists and Teachers to bring us unto such a stature of perfection in Christ Ephes 4 10 11 12 13 14. So he praying for the perfecting of the Saints Heb. 13.20 21. 2 Cor. 13.9 1 Pet. 5.10 did pray for things feasible and attainable nor can the prayer of Christ for the same thing be irritous Joh. 17.23 I in them and they in me that they may be made perfect in one CHAP. XIV Of saving Faith THE Grace of Faith whereby the Elect are inabled to believe to the saving of their souls a Heb 10.30 is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts b 2 Cor 4.13 Ephes 17.18 19. Ephes 2.8 and is ordinarily wrought by the Ministry of the word c Rom 10.14.17 by which also and the administration of the Sacraments and prayer it is increased and strengthened d 1 Pet 2.2 Act 20.32 Rom 4.11 Luk. 17.5 Ro 1.16 17. II. By this Faith a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word for the authority of God himself speaking therein e Joh. 4.42 1 Thes 2.13 1 Joh 5.20 Act. 24.14 and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth yeilding obedience to the commands f Rom 16.26 trembling at the threatenings g Isa 66.2 and imbracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come h Heb. 11.13 1 Tim 4.8 but the principal acts of saving Faith are accepting receiving and resting upon Christ alone for justification sanctification and eternal life by vertue of the Covenant of grace i Joh 1.12 Act 16.33 Gal 2.29 Act 15.11 III. This faith is different in degrees weak or strong k Heb 5 13.14 Rom 4.15 20. Matth 6.30 Matth 8.10 may be often and many
afterwards being taken in due time may be recovered and revived by the respective means which you here set forth Yea whatsoever you here surmise to the contrary as we have proved it may be finally and irrecoverably lost by security presumptuous rebellions finall and total Apostacy See 2 Joh. 8. Look to your selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought Rev. 3.11 Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown But the absolute and final assurance of which we speak is neither subject to shaking nor any diminution and much less to a total and finall amission as the place before cited proves For when a man attaines to that estate his seed remaineth in him and can never be lost as we said before 1 John 3.9 See Revelations 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out c. And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is new Jerusalem that cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name and verse 8.10 of that Chapter Jeremy 32.40 John 14.16 23. Hebrews 17.28 Revelation 7.14 15 16 17. Revelation 21.3 4 5 6. Wherefore we ought as you say in your former Section to give all diligence to make our calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 as neither of which is sure or absolute at the first And this we must do not by searching out certain markes and tokens which proves us to be in some estate of grace but by adding vertue to vertue and a spiritual progress even to the end 2 Peter 15 6 7 8 9. Wherefore adde unto your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patienece godliness and to godliness brotherly kindnesss and to brotherly kindness love where the Apostle sets forth seven steps of spiritual progress beyond saith which you take to be the highest estate of grace in this life and then addes this encouragement upon our respective proceeding verse 12. For so an entrance shall he abundantly Ministred unto you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ CHAP. XIX Of the Law of God GOD gave to Adam a Law as a covenant of works by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal entire exact and perpetual obedience promised life upon the fulfilling and threatned death upon the breach of it a Gen 1.26 27. with Gen 2.17 Ro 2.14 15. Rom 10.5 Gal 3.10 11. Eccl 7. â—9 Act 2â— 28 II. This Law after his fall continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness and as such was delivered by God upon mount Sinai in ten commandements and written in two Tables b Jam 1.25 Jam 2.8 10 11 12. Ro 13.8 9. Deut 5.32 Deut 10.8 Exo 34.1 The four first commandments containing our duty toward God and the other six our duly toward man c Mat 22.37 38 39 40. III. Besides this Law Commonly called morall God was pleased to give to the people of Israel as a Church under age ceremonial Laws containing several Typical ordinances partly of worship prefiguring Christ his graces actions sufferings and benefits d Heb 9. c. Heb 10.1 Col 2.17 Ga 4.1 2 3. and partly holding forth many instructions of moral duties e 1 Cor 5.7 2 Cor 6.17 Jud. v. 23. all which ceremoniall Laws are now abrogated under the New Testament f Col. 2.14 15 16. Dan 9.27 Eph 2.15 16. IV. To them also as a body Politicke he gave sundry Judicial Laws which expired together with the state of that people not obliging any other now further then the general equity thereof may require g Exod 21. ch Ex 22.1 to 29. Gen 9.10 with 1 Pet 2 13 14. Mat 5.17 with v. 38 39 1 Cor 9.8 9 10. V. The moral Law doth for ever binde all as well Justified persons as others to the obedience thereof h Ro 13.8 9 10. Ep 6.2 1 Joh 2.3 4 5 6. and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator who gave it i Jam 2.10 11. neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way dissolve but much strengthen this obligation k Mat 517 18.19 Jam 2.8 Rom 3.31 VI. Although true believers be not under the Law as a Covenant of works to be thereby justified or condemned l Ro 6.14 Gal 2.16 Gal 3.13 Gal 4.4 5. Act 13.39 Rom 8.1 yet it is of great use to them as well as to others in that as a rule of life informing them of the will of God and their duty it directs and binds them to walk accordingly m Ro 7.12 22 25. Psa 119.4 5 6. 1 Cor 7.19 Gal 5 14 16 18 19 20 21 21. discovering also the sinful pollutions of their natures hearts and lives n Ro 7.7 Ro 3.20 so that examining themselves thereby they may come to further conviction of humiliation for and hatred against sin o Jam 1.23 24 25. Ro 7 9 14 23. together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of his obedience p Gal 3 24. Rom 7.24 25. Rom 1.3 4. It is likewise of use to the regenerate to restrain their corruptions q Jam 2.11 Psal 119.101 104 128 in that it forbids sin and the threatning of it serve to shew what even their sins deserve and what afflictions in this life they may expect for them although freed from the curse thereof threatned in the Law r Ezra 9.13 14. Psa 89.30 31 32 33 34. The promises of it in like manner shew them Gods approbation of obedience and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof Å¿ Lev 36.1 to 15 with 2 Chr 6.16 Eph 6 2 3. Psa 37.11 Although not as due to them by the Law as a Covenant of works t Gal 2.16 Luk 17.19 So as a man doing good and refraining from evil because the Law encourageth to the one and deterreth from the other is no evidence of his being under the Law and not under grace u Rom 6.12 14. 1 Pet 3.8 9 10 11 12 with Psal 34 12 13 14 15 16. Heb 12.28 29. VII Neither are the forementioned uses of the Law contrary to the Grace of the Gospel but do sweetly comply with it w Gal. 3.21 the spirit of Christ subduing and inabling the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God revealed in the Law requireth to be done x Exek 36.27 Heb 8.10 with Jer 31.33 CHAP. XIX Of the Law of God examined TRuth it self hath no such cause to wage Law with you here as elswhere most of those things which you have here set forth especially concerning the moral law being legal just and true though herein you
But if any man say unto you this is offered in sacrifice to Idols eat it not for his sake that shewed it and for conscience sake conscience I say not thine own but of others for why is my liberty judged of another mans conscience Yea some grow so far as to alow a liberty upon occasion to be present before an outward Idol without superstition or adoration in the heart because that the true beleevers well informed know that such an Idol is nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8.4 That is say they neither such a God as some out of a superstitious devotion would make it nor such a Divel or defiling thing as others out of their superstitious conceits and feares would have it to be this practise they would justify from Ezekiels presence before Idols Ezek. 8. throughout and Pauls present beholding of Idols and Idolaters at Athens Acts 17 23. And from the answer which Elisha gave to Naamaus quaere and scruple 2 Kings 5.18 19. True it is indeed That the great Idol is the God of this world and next to him our lusts and corrupt desires Col. 3.4 covetousness but any other thing by too much esteem love or fear of it or trust and confidence in it may be made an Idol even our Authors ministers shepherds may be Idolized Zac. 10.2 Zac. 13.2 Your second fail in this first Section as we said is your preposterous placing of the Christian liberties which you recite for you set freedom from the guilt of sin the condemning wrath of God and the curse of the moral Law before deliverance from bondage to sin and Satan which in order of nature must go before as we have proved before Your third fail is in mistakes for the sting of death is sin it self 1 Cor. 15.5 6. which if it cannot be subdued wholy in this life as you affirm then the sting of death cannot be wholy taken away or we freed from it here So likewise the victory which the Apostle there speaks of is not that of the Grave but of Hell which is the inward condemnation of conscience against both which the Apostle triumphs With thanksgiving to God for the victory that is to be had in Christ Jesus for all true beleevers In your second Section you straighten liberty of Conscience as much as you did Christian freedom in the first for though the requiring of an implicite faith be destructive to Liberty of Conscience and the imposing of the doctrines and precepts of men upon us as if they were the commandments of God from which your selves are not free in the next chapter and elsewhere is very injurious likewise yet the Liberty of Conscience may be divers other wayes invaded and infringed As first By violent means to seek to alter conscientious mens judgments and their present perswasions for it is the office of him that is the Lord of Conscience To lighten and change mens mindes when and how he pleaseth Phil. 3.15 Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveale this unto you Secondly By like forcible means to incite anothe to will and act against his Conscience and much more by imprisonment mulcts terrours or threats Romans 14.15 20 21. For this is to make him destroy his soul verse 20 23. Thirdly we may not disturbe the peace of mens Consciences or make their hearts sad with our invectives or menacing them causelessly with terrours from the Lord Ezekiel 13.32 Because with lies ye have made the hearts of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad c. In your third Section you do deservedly oppose the practice of any sin and the cherishing of any the least sinful lust upon pretence of Christian Liberty But whereas you add ' That this is to destroy the end of Christian Liberty which you there place in two things deliverance from the hands of our enemies and a freedom to serve the Lord without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the daies of our life you in some sort contradict your selves in calling these the end of our Christian Liberty which you had in the first Section made two main parts of our Christian Liberty as indeed they are In your fourth Section you have set good bounds betwixt the subjects or subordinates and the Governours saying That they who upon pretence of Christian Liberty shall oppose any lawful power or the lawful exercise of it whether it be Civil or Eclesiastical resist the Ordinances of God Wherein your Doctrine is sound and good whatever your practice hath been or may be to the contrary For God is the Author of order and not of confusion and he which hath armed superiors according to their state and degree with authority hath imposed subjection in all lawful things with many other respective duties upon the inferiours and subordinates It is true likewise That no such opinions should be published or practises maintained as are contrary to the light of Nature to the known and received Principles of Christianity in all Ages especially those of the Primitive and purest times whether they concerne Faith Worship or Conversation or are opposite to the power of Godliness But how far the different opinions and judgements of men may by learned men who yet want spiritual eies be judged erroneous prejudicial to the power of Godliness either in their own nature or in the manner of publishing and maintaining them we know not We are as much for modesty and sobriety in men and as far from any thing that is destructive to the external Peace and Order which Christ hath established in the Church or Common Wealth as your selves or any other But we would not have you assume to your selves or attribute unto others a power to lord it over mens Faith and Consciences especially when men walk obediently towards those that are in places of Rule and Authority and live a Godly honest sober peaceable and unblamable life If Men will do wickedly and pretend a liberty in Christ so to do let them be liable to the sword of Justice for so doing But far be it from us so much as by example to draw a weak brother a Saint and fellow servant of the Lord whom no man can accuse but for his different judgement to do any thing against Conscience whereby he should condemn himself as the Apostle speakes Romans 14. How much more ought Governours to be tender and abstemious in the use of violent and coercive meanes to precipitate men into such perilous and destructive courses All Authority is given of God for mens welfare and much more for the Preservation and not the Destruction of the Soul But Brethren you which are so punctual in teaching the Subject his duty to free your selves from flattery temporising or partiallity might have done God and his people yea the Governours themselves no disservice in minding them of their duties also and so setting due limits and boundaries
Covenant of grace a Ro 4.11 Ge 17.7.10 immediately instituted of God b Mat â—8 19 1 Cor 11. to represent Christ and his benefits to confirme our interest in him c 1 Cor 10 16. 1 Co 11.23 25 26. Gal 3 17. as also to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the world d Ro 15.8 Exo 12.48 Gen 34 14 and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ according to his word e Ro 6.3.4 1 Cor 10.16.21 II. There is in every Sacrament a spiritual relation or sacramental vnion between the sign and the thing signified whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other f Gen 27.10 Matth. 26.27 28. Titns 3.5 III. The grace which is exhibited in or by Sacraments rightly used is not conferred by any power in them neither doth the efficacy of a Sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it g Rom 2.28 29. 1 Pet. 3.21 but upon the work of the Spirit h Mat. 3.11 1 Cor 12.13 and the word of institution which contains together with a precept an authorizing the use thereof a promise of benefit to worthy receives i Mat 26.27 28. Mat 28.19 20. IV. There be onely two Sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord neither of which may be dispensed of any but by a minister of the word lawfully ordained k Mat. 28.19 1 Cor. 11.20 23. 1 Cor 4.1 Heb 5.4 V. The Sacraments of the Old Testament in regard of the Spiritual things thereby signified and exhibited were for substance the same with those of the new l 1 Cor 10.1 2 3 4. CHAP. XXVII Of the Sacraments in General examined IN this your general Doctrine of the Sacraments you have in a general manner kept the road of truth though here and there you deviate following your misleading guides but first we allow you the retention and use of the word Sacrament though not found in the Scriptures because the thing thereby signifyed is frequent there and the term hath not onely been long retained in the Church but was at the first borrowed from a military oath obligeing the Souldier to obedience and faithfulness towards their general to express our like oligations to God and his Christ Then as to your several Sections we take no acceptions at all to your second but must crave leave to certifie you somewhat in most of the other As first in the first Section where you setting forth the ends of the Sacraments do put that in the last place which was the first and principal end of their institution that is solemnly to engage men to the service of God in Christ for it is evident that Circumcision was ordained for that end mainly Gen. 17.10 This is the Covenant which you shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee that every man child among you shall be circumcised Deut. 10.16 Circumcise therefore the fore-skin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked Jer. 4.4 Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the fore skin of your bearts ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem the like we finde written concerning the Passover Exod. 12.17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread for in this self-same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt therefore shall ye observe this day in your generatious for ever 1 Cor. 5.8 Therefore let us keep the feast not with the old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth And as the Sacraments of the Old so those of the New Testament are instituted to instruct us in duty also Hence Baptism is called the Baptism of Repentance Mark 1.4 And Christ in the institution of the Lords supper saith do ye this in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.24 and verse 26. As oft as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup shew ye the Lords death till his coming viz. That spiritual coming which he promised John 14.19.23 Howbeit we do not deny but that spiritual benefits are to be expected in the performance of these duties so the repentance taught by Baptism hath remission of sins annexed to it Mark 1.4 and the spiritual body and blood of Christ of which we shall have occasion to speak in the 29. chapter are in the Sacraments of the Lords Supper assured to those that are mindful of his death and suffer with him in resisting temptations by which they are enabled to hold out and overcome when they are tempted but these benefits are signified and sealed unto us but conditionally and in the second place onely Your third use of that distinction between the people of God and the world we also allow but you have omitted one main end which the Lord had in instituting the Sacraments which was thus even by degrees to build up his Tabernacles of righteousness that was fallen down to wit the first part of it in Circumcision the second in the Passover as also in the Lords Supper and the third in his breathing upon his Disciples and saying unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost John 20 22. For which last end both the feast of weeks in the Old Testament and Baptism in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost were instituted in the new especially that third part of Baptism Secondly Whereas you say in your third Section That the efficacy of a Sacrament doth not depend at all upon the piety and good intention of him that doth administer it you therein speak very unadvisedly For wheras the efficacy of a Sacrament is either obligement unto duty or the assurance of grace and help are not both obstructed by him that administers it if he be ignorant and not able to declare the Mystery of the Sacrament or if he administers the same in a profane and absurd manner or to other ends then it is ordained for or being a wicked person hath his prayers for efficacy rejected And on the contrary do not the spiritual abilities of the Minister his piety and fervent payers conduce much both to the edifying of the people in that service and the drawing down a blessing upon himself and them therein Thirdly Though we must grant you in the fourth Section that there are but two proper and compleat Sacraments in the New Testament yet there are many as it were semi Sacraments to be found there which are holy signes instituted by God in the time of the Gospel or before of which some represent our duties some the grace of God and some both such is the washing and wiping of the Disciples feet John 13.4 15. Secondly The anointing with oyl such as were sick and to be healed by the Disciples and Elders of the Church Mark 6.13 And they cast