hath Christs death and resurrection and intercession and strengthening in tribulations accompanying it Argument IV. THey that have their sins taken away are iustified a But the elect have their sins taken away before they believe Ergo the elect are iustified before they believe The maior is proved Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgteen and whose sinne is covered Rom. 4.7 The minor That the Elect have their sins taken away before they believe b is proved Joh. 1.29 Behold the Lambe of God that takes away the sins of the world and Esay 35. ◠The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all and 1 Pet. 2.24 Himselfe bare our sins in his own body on the Tree and Rom. 6.6 Our old man is crucified with him that the body of sinne might be destroyed Did Christ take away sinne or not Did he beare them Did he destroy the body of sinne If you say c No how will you escape the Sword of the Spirit If you say Yea I desire no more An Answer to Argument IV. YOu say a they that have their sins taken away are iustified you prove it Rom. 4.7 Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered By this you intend to prove a man is iustified before he believes But your own expressions and allegations are against that 1. Expression For sins are not taken away which is a Physicall act by Gods meere mentall thoughts of iustifying but when he pronounceth the blessing of justification he saith withall in whose heart is no guile Psal 32.1 2. which is the place the Apostle quotes Rom. 4. See reall actuall iustification take our sinnes from us and our hearts from our sins 2. Allegation And with the same breath almost with which the Apostle saith Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven he saith also To him that beleeveth on him that iustifieth the ungodly is his faith counted for righteousnesse Rom. 4.5 6 7. You go about to prove that the elects sins are taken away before they believe b by that Isa 53.8 1 Pet. 2.24 Eph. 1.29 What do you intend by these generall places would you by the two first places have it that Christ takes away the sins of all the Jewes contrary to Rom. 11.7 c. or by the third place that Christ takes away the sins of the whole world contrary to Rom. 8.30 yet either you must take them in that false generall sense or else they make nothing to prove justification before faith That place you alledge out of Rom. 6.6 is flat against you For if sinne be not destroyed till crucified then not till mortified For crucifying signifies mortifieation which is a part of sanctification Gal. 5.22 23 24. And the body of sinne signifies not the guilt but the filth and power Rom. 7. And therefore this place supposeth justification by faith even as faith is mentioned to precede that crucifying in the place last alledged Yet in the close you seeme to triumph c as if you had sheerly carried away the gerland upon the hornes of an unanswerable Dilemma Saying if we say Christ did take away sinne did bear them did destroy the body of sin you desire no more Thus you We answer Christ doth take away sinne doth bear the sins of men but for whom onely for the elect And when doth he take away sinne and make his bearing to lighten men Even when comes that justification by faith that as you say brings with it a crucifying of the body of sinne when comes that iustification mentioned Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. Argument V. VVE were made sinners in the first Adam before we had done good or evill a Therefore we are made righteous in the second Adam before we have done good or evill This consequence is proved Rom. 5.18 19. As by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life for as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If you shall place the Emphasis of this Text in All and many you will cause the hearts of the * universall Gratians to leape for joy which I beleeve you would not willingly do Therefore you must be forced to place the Emphasis in As and So As we sinned all in the loynes of the first Adam So were we all made righteous in the loynes of the second Adam The Lord Christ And this agreeth with the ministerie of Reconciliation b to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5.19 Truly this Argument was of so great force c that it did wring out of Cardinall Bellarmine this confession as the Apostle teacheth Rom. 5. That Christ may be put on without a proper act of our soule I confesse I differ from the Cardinall in his meanes of putting on Christ yet this his confession I acknowledge to be true An Answer to Argument V. IT is plaine by the place you alledge Rom. 5. c That you meane not a making of us sinners in the first Adam by Gods bare decree accounting us so And if you do not so meane but meane that we are actually accounted sinners in the first Adam since we came from his loines before we had done good or evill I admire how you dare affirme a thing so contrary to Scripture For the Apostle most evidently affirmeth in that Rom. 5. That though all that are come of Adam have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression ver 14. that is have not sinned actually in their particular persons as infants not any sinne nor any men that particular sinne of Adam yet ver 12. it is said expressy that death passed over all men for that all have sinned or the Greeke will beare it In whom all have sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former part of the verse favours this reading in these words As by one man sinne entred into the world Then concludes all have sinned Which how can it be true of infants in their conception as Psal 51. unlesse they be said to sinne in Adam But however we read the same conclusion will necessarily follow that all children and all in the wombe even Jacob and Esau have sinned originally in the common nature at first existing in that publike father of mankinde I say originally As true as we have our bodies from our Grandfathers so from the first Adam we had all the same corrupt senses and appetite in him though actually in our own persons we sinned not that sinne nor do infants as Jacob and Esau actually sinne as persons of ripe years when as the Law speakes they are capaces doli can do evill and give a seeming reason for it So then in briefe our answer is That Adams sin is imputed to all because
Antichrisis or opposition between our Passivenesse and Gods Act vers 5. There God is said to quicken us and that with Christ Now how or whom shall God be said to quicken but by taking into construction that clause us that were dead in trespasses and sinnes That as Christ being dead was quickned Hebr. 13 So we from the death in sinne are quickened together with him 2. As for other Translations The Hebrew Copy and the Syriack Copy put at the word us in verse 4. their full stop or Period Nor doe I fee any other Translations point it as you would point 2. From words let us come to matter If we should lend you this Proposition that God loved us with his great love VVHEN we were dead in trespasses and sinnes what would you gaine For these kind of Whens in the Scripture as here when you ware dead and Rom. 5. when we were enemies and Ezek. 16. When thou wast in thy Blood doe but import an order of Nature or working not a difference of time That is at the same instant when wee were dead enemies in our blood in the same instant did God put us into Christ by faith and made us lovely and actually loved us with his great love in him So is the very scope of the Apostle here to shew wherein did appeare Gods great love namely in quickning us to a spirituall resurrection with Christ verse 5. And in raising us to a speciall Ascension with Christ verse 6. And so Rom. 5.8 9 10. God commends his love towards us that when we were enemies c. we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne And so in other whens They doe but shew the matter God makes lovely in Christ not a sinfull condition that he can love out of Christ In common Speech When must of necessitie so be taken to signifie order of things not antecedency of time As one saith I married my wife when she was a Widow This cannot be meant that when shee was a widow shee was married or made a wife And so God converted mee when I lay in a most profane unregenerate condition It cannot be meant that when a man is regenerated he is unregenerated So when it is said God loved us with his great love WHEN we were dead in Trespasses and sinnes quickning us together with Christ This cannot be meant that God loved us with great love being still in our state of sinne and out of Christ For why then is he said to be wroth with the self same Ephesians whiles out of Christ and unregenerated and unquickened verse 1 2. Your 5. Proof Pag. 15. Rom. 9.11 12. The children not yet borne and having done neither good nor evill that the purpose of God might stand according to election Answ The Apostle expressely in your quotation applies this to election And election is called even here as oft else-where a purpose and wee cannot say that in regard of us or upon us that Gods purpose of love is actuall love God distinguisheth himself between his Purpose and Act Ephes 1.3 4. and 2 Tim. 1.9 10. Of which at large afore Upon this place of Jacob you make an Objection pag. 16. What if Jacob after this had turned to be a notorious and profane Person would or could the Lord have continued his love to such a person as this I answer boldly say you yea For Gods love and mercie are mercies of eternitie Psal 103.17 Ps 136. Malach. 3.6 Should the Lord change as often as we change he should be more variable then the winde Answ By these your words and the Obiections of some that heare you as a Commentary upon them you seem to conceive that if the Lord should not love us with as great love in a profane and unconverted condition as after then there were a change in God and in his love which to be your minde is yet more plaine by many former Passages already alleaged and especially of that place out of Ephes 2. And that touching Paul after in pag. 23. That God loved him with as great love when he persecuted the Church as when he preached the Gospel But this inference will no wayes follow That if God doth not actually love us from all eternitie in the same manner that therefore there would be a change in God and his love O that in such deep things you would speak debitè in proper termes as a man that hath skill in Divine reason Let me aske you a question Whether God having chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the World that wee should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ c. can save us without our being in Christ without holinesse c. If not for his purpose is unchangeable whether he doth not love to see us in Christ rather then out to see us holy rather then not c If so then there is a change in Gods acts though not in his purpose O that you would discrecely mixe your sweet drinkes lost they make your Ratients burst Poyson is sooner taken down lap'd in gold or sugared Keckerm Syst Theolog. lib. 3. cap. 1. Evermore say the Learned and Godly Schoolmen wee call not the Papists in put a wide difference between the Decree of God and the execution of that Decree The Decre is eternall but the bestowing or giving of the end by the means is done in time So Keck And he saith well For though Gods Decree be eternall yet the World was made in time in sixe dayes Therefore when God actually looked upon it and approved all as exceeding good Gen. 1. that was done was in time So Christ was sent in due time to die for us and to save us in him either at Third Sixt Nineth or Eleventh houre Rom. 5.6 Matth. therefore God doth actually love us in him in time Yet all this doth not alter Gods purpose but answeres to his purpose Medul Theolog. lib. 1 cap. 6. and is the perfection of his purpose carrying on it self to its designed end To effect worke or doe saith D. Ames taken actively as they are in God the Agent differ not really from God himself For there is no composition or change of Power and Act in Gods most simple and immutable Nature mark not in his nature But saith he to effect worke or doe doth adde a certaine relation of God to a reall effect And there belongs unto God an active power in regard of the creature which gives to the creature a posse recipere a power to receive which produceth an appearance of that act which formerly was not So hee So that Gods essentiall purpose is like himself is himself eternall and unchangeable but his outward actuall working is in time And it is as great contradiction to conceive an outward action of God upon the creature without all time as to conceive hee should make a body that should be in
you would not have us to think there were any qualifications pag. 13. Answer 1. God made Adam afraid by his voice in the garden 2. God expounded to him the cause of his shame namely his sinne 3. Presseth upon him his sinne Gen. 3.17 and upon Eve hers vers 16. As for the Promise it fell from Gods mouth in his speech to the Serpent And then vers 20. is all the intimation of Adams Faith calling his wifes name Chavah see the Hebrew and the margin of the English Bible that is the mother of all living Your 2. Proof Pag. 13. Abraham receiveth the Promise in the uncircumcision of his flesh Answ Be it so though the Apostles observation touching Iustification is That Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousnesse in his state of uncircumcision yet doth it follow that all is done in the heart Rom. 49.10 as soon as the Promise comes to the eare Then all hearers are immediately saved at their first hearing of the Promise But to the point in a word God commands Abraham to come out of his Countrey and God promiseth to blesse Abraham and to make him a blessing Gen. 12. But it was faith that did actually derive all that upon Abraham Rom. 4. Hebr. 11. By faith he received righteousnesse and by faith he obeyed And by faith must all the spirituall children of Abraham receive blessednesse Gal. 3.9.26 Your 3. Proof 2. Tim. 1.9 pag. 14. Who hath saved us with an holy calling not according to our workees but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Now what conditions or qualifications say you were there in us before the world began I am not willing to stay my self or to stay you so long as to tell you that this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated Before the World began is not so infallibly evident to signifie eternity as that Ephes 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the foundation of the world That Calvin translates this phrase Ante tempora secularia Beza Ante tempora seculorum seculum a sequendo which may be rendred informer Ages or before these latter ages That Augustine hath a subtill dispute on this confessed by Calvin That the Greek word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies but terme of life Philem. vers 15. As the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnolam Tempus homini absconditum of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abscondere which answers to the Greek somtimes signifies but the 50. yeeres of the Jubile Exod. 21.6 sometimes a mans life 1 Sam. 1.28 But suppose this place to be meant of eternity yet 1. cry you not out What is there that is not comprehended in the word Grace For that is your challenge For though all followes upon that grace or favour here meant yet the words purpose and grace as Calvin and Beza well note comprehend no more then a gracious purpose So they or at most a purpose of grace if you dare to understand it of any other grace then of that which in order of nature goes before purpose God of his eternall grace or favour eternally purposing to save And then what actuall saving is here before actuall qualification of the soul with somewhat from Christ for Christ 2. Note the words given us in Christ So that If given in purpose it is given in Christ as when it is given in act it is given in Christ So that God doth still look at us in Christ as qualified or to be qualified in Christ from or by the power of Christ Though in us and from us there is no power or merit we disclaim the Arminians Foreseen Faith and the Papists Overseen Workes and both their power of Free-will yet God saith in his Word that he will save us actually by Faith in Christ both which he gives us Ephes 2.8 He gives Christ to us by Election and incarnation and us to Christ by vocation drawing us by the VVord and grace of Christ unto and into Christ Cant. 1.4 Joh. 6.44 which is the Third thing here in this Text of 2 Tim. 1.9 by you urged That as God doth intend us and purpose us favour in Christ and gives it us intentionally in him by election so saith the Text Wee are saved being called with an holy calling Calling necessarily supposing hearing and understanding our condition and beleeving in Christ or else how is it an holy Calling and that which saves If you doe not yeeld to these things you set up Grace by diminishing Christ And seem to make as if Christ should not be beholding to himself because he is not to man For as Christ merits so Christ also elects As Christ offers himself graciously so Christ gives man grace to receive him Iohn 1.12 If this prevaile not with you look to the very next verse to that you allcage 2 Tim. 1.10 and you shall finde that the place speakes not in vers 9. but of Gods purpose of favour And in v. 10. of actuall But is now made manifest c. Your 4th Proof Pag. 14. Ephes 2.4 5. Vers 4. But God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith hee hath loved us Vers 5. Even when we were dead in Trespasses and sinnes hath he quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved Out of this place your great designe is to prove that men are loved with Gods great love when they are dead in tresposses and sinnes And the better to make way for it you say a stop may be made at the word sinnes And so read the Text thus continuedly God loved us with his great love even when we were dead in trespasses and sins And this reading you say the Text will bear either in the Originall or in other Translations But however you say the text will hold out the same conclusion Answer If wee say the text cannot be thus read after your new way doe not say againe as it is in your book given afore hand that we are froward but with meeknesse of wisedome we would inform you 1. That the Originall will not beare it For after Gods love is described in vers 4. A Comma being put at the word us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us the next verse beginnes with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Hutter yea some Greek copy puts a Period a full stop at us in the Fourth verse As if he had as boldly read it thus as you the other way I say thus But God is rich in mercy for the love or in regard of the love wherewith he hath loved us They that know Greek doe know that this doth not straine the text And then the sense concurs in the Fourth verse is described the what Gods love is it is rich in mercy And verse 5. the wherein his Love is acted and manifested Viz. in quickning us c. And to put all out of doubt that the Text will not beare the removall of the stop observe the