5.1 Act 15.10 11. and in greater boldness of access to the Throne of Grace h Heb 4.14 16. Heb 10.19 20 21 22. and in fuller communications of the Spirit of God then believers under the Law did ordinarily pertake of i Joh 7.38 39. 2 Cor 3 13 17 19 II. God alone is Lord of the conscience k Jam 4.12 Ro 14.4 and hath left it free from the Doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his word or beside it in matters of faith or of worship l Act 4.19 Act 5.29 1 Cor 7.23 Mat 23.8 9 10. 2 Cor 1.24 Mat 15.9 so that to believe such doctrines or to obey such commands out of conscience is to betray our liberty of conscience m Col. 2.20 22 23 Gal 1.10 Gal 2.4 5. Gal 5.1 and the requiring of an implicit faith and an absolute and blinde obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also n Rom 10 17. Ro 14.23 Isa 8.20 Act 17.11 Joh 4.22 Hos 5.11 Rev 13.12 16 17 Jer 8.9 III. They who upon pretence of Christian liberty do practise any sin or cherish any lust do thereby destroy the end of Christian liberty which is that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies we might serve the Lord without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life o Gal 5.11 1 Pet 2.16 2 Pet 2.19 Joh 8.34 Luk 1.74 75. IV. And because the powers which God hath ordained and the liberty which God hath purchased are not intended by God to destroy but mutually to uphold and preserve one another they who upon pretence of Christian liberty shall oppose any lawful power or the lawful exercise of it whether it be civil or Ecclesiastical resist the ordinance of God p Mat 11.25 1 Pet. ◠13 14 16. Ro 13.1 to 8. Heb 13.17 and for their publishing of such opinions or maintaining of such practises as they contrary to the light of nature or to the known principles of Christianity whither concerning faith worship or conversation or to the power of godliness or such erroneous opinions or practice as either in their own nature or in the manner of publishing or maintaining them are destructive to the external peace and order which Christ hath established in his Church they may lawfully be called to account and proceeded against by the censures of the Church q Rom 〈◊〉 32 with 〈◊〉 Cor 5.1 5 11 13 2 Jo 10.11 2 Thes 3.14 1 Tim 6.3 4 5. Tit 1.10 11 13. Titus 3.10 with 18 15 16 17. 1 Tim 19 20. Revel 2.2 14 15 20. Revel 3.9 and by the power of the civill Magistrate r Deut 13.6 to 12. Rom 13.3 4. with 2 Jo 10.11 Ezra 7.23 25 26 27 28. Revel 17.12 16 17. Nehem 13.15 17 21 22 25 30. 2 Kings 23.5 6 9 20 21. 2 Chron 34.33 2 Chron 15.12 13 16. Dan 3.29 1 Tim 2.2 Isa 49.23 Zach 13.23 CHAP. XX. Of Christian liberty and liberty of Conscience examined THis head of liberty is not now unseasonable when liberty hath got such head that almost every one affects that freedom which Tully describes Potestas vivendi ut velis but if we may use that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we would both give and take you have too much restrained your Christian freedom in your first Section and liberty of consciences in your second contradicted your selves in your third and perhaps set the Governors too far at liberty in you fourth and last In your first Section you faile in three things first in that your enumeration of Christian liberties and freedoms is to defective secondly in that you reckon them up preposterously and thirdly in that you mistake some of them you name For the first of those you have first left out our freedom from the bondage and bewitchment of carnal wisdom and holiness Gal. 3.1 Who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth 1 Pet. 1 18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers See Gal. 5.1 Col. 2.20 21. Secondly The exemption from the great bondage of fear wherein some are held all their life long justly expecting wrath and vengeance is by you omitted Heb. 2.15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Thirdly Freedom for Christian Subjects from the judicial Law as well as from the ceremonial by your own confession in the last chapter especially where other Laws not contrary to the word of God are imposed upon them 1 Pet. 2.12 13 14 15 16. Fourthly A liberty to observe and omit some ceremonial Laws for the edifying of others and our own peace and indempnity of which liberty in Christ the Apostle speaks expresly Gal. 2.3 4. And as he used it himself at Cenchrea Acts 18.18 and in circumcising Timothy there Acts 16.1 2 3. and that he did the like also with the advise of all the Apostles Acts 21.22 23 24. So he chargeth that we should let no man condemn us for such things but either do them or omit them as it is required or expected at our hands by the people with whom we are to converse Col. 2.16 17. Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or new moon or the Sabbath which are the shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ Fourthly You leave out our freedom from sorrow pain c. Revel 21.4 7 17. Lastly you have omitted the great freedom of the Spirit when he in fulness is poured upon the Saints or when the Jerusalem which is from above descends upon them which yet is not a freedom to sin but an immunity from fin to walke with freedom yea with delight in all the wayes of righteousness Gal. 4 26. But Jerusalem which is from above is free which is the mother of us all 2 Cor. 3.7 Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty To which liberties some add two more one is a license to observe any outward thing not forbidden in the word of God which shall be enjoyned by Ecclesiastical or civil powers because the things that are without us defile us not Thus say they Paul became all things to all men that he might win the more To the Jews he became a Jew to them that were under the Law as if he were still under it to them that were without Law as without Law also being always under a Law to Christ 1 Cor. 9.19 20 21. And 2dly a liberty to eat of things that had bin offred to Idols when it offends not others 1 Cor. 10.27 28 29. If any of them that beleeve not bid you to a feast and ye be disposed to goe whatsoever is set before you eat asking no question for conscience sake
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
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
hath he by the eternal and most free purpose of his will foreordained all the means thereunto m 1 Pe 1.2 Eph 1.4 5. Eph 2.10 2 Thes 2.13 Wherefore they who are elected being fallen in Adam are redeemed by Christ n 1 Thes 5.9 10. Tit 2.14 are effectually called unto Faith in Christ by his Spirit working in due season are justified adopted sanctified o RoÌ„ 8.30 Eph. 1.5 2 Thes 2.13 and kept by his power through Faith unto salvation p 1 Pet 1.5 Neither are any other redeemed by Christ effectually called justified adopted sanctified and saved but the Elect onely q Joh. 17.9 RoÌ„ 8.28 to the end Joh 6.64 65. Joh 10.26 Joh 8.46 1 Joh 2.19 VII The rest of mankinde God was pleased according to the unsearchable 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 dishonor and wrath for their sin to the praise of his glorious justice r Mat 11.25 26. Rom 9.17 18 21 21. 2 Tim 2.19 20. Judg 5.4 1 Pet 4.8 VIII The Doctrine of this high Mystery of Predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care Å¿ Rom 9.20 RoÌ„ 11.32 Dâ—u 29.29 that men attending the will of God revealed in his word and yeelding obedience thereunto may from the certainly of their effectual vocation be assured of their eternal Election t 2 Pet 1.19 k Rom 9.11 13 16. Eph 1.4 9. So that this Doctrine affords matter of praise reverence and admiration of God u Eph 1.6 Ro 11.33 and of humility diligence and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel w Rom 1â— 5.6.20 2 Pet 1. â—0 Rom 8.33 Luk 10.10 CHAP. III. Of God's Eternal Decree examined IN this Chapter you begin well in the first Section and end not much worse in the last if you had added a word or two more and had observed the advice therein given but in the rest you fail much Here then we must crave your patience as elsewhere that you will suffer your failings to be represented your errors detected and those objections which have been so many stumbling blocks to you and many others and may prove works of offence hereafter also if not timely removed to be answered and cleared Your failings are here specially two First you forget your selves and contradict what you have spoken before in your describing of Gods holy nature and Secondly you distinguish not things but differ very much as First Betwixt Gods general knowledge whereby he sees and knows all persons and things before-hand Acts 15.18 known unto God are all his works and his special foreknowledge of some mens wayes and courses and these either evil and disapproved in themselves as was the obstinacy and envy of the Jews into whose hands Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God Act. 2.23 and Acts 4.28 or else foreseen and allowed as the faith obedience and perseverance of the Saints Rom. 8.29 For whom he did foreknow those he did predestinate to be made conformable to the Image of his Son Secondly Betwixt Gods predestination from everlasting and his destination in time Thirdly Betwixt a predestination of things and those either good such as are good works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Ephes 2.10 or evil to wit the evil of punishment as Tophet was ordained of old Jsai 30.33 and betwixt the predestination of persons and those either to some office estate or condition here as Jeremiah was ordained of God to be a Prophet Jer. 1.4 Paul an Apostle 1 Tim. 2.7 or to an eternal estate hereafter of life or death Fourthly Betwixt an absolute predestination either unto life and so onely is Christ ordained or unto death and so is the spiritual Antichrist and that great son of perdition appointed to death and betwixt a conditional predestination either to life or death under which not onely Angels fall but men also as Rom. 8.13 For if we live after the flesh we shall die but if through the Spirit ye shall mortifie the deeds of the flesh ye shall live Fifthly Betwixt a general Election unto life which is alwayes conditional as first of the Angels in case they should persevere in obedience and so retain their first estate And then secondly of men and that in a twofold estate For in the state of Innocency they were ordained to life in case of perseverance in obedience and the retention of God's Image in which they were created And secondly after their fall in case they imbrace the grace that shall be offered and fulfil the conditions or requiring of the same And betwixt God's special Election of some persons both Angels and men out of foreseen perseverance c. Sixtly Betwixt the special Election of God which is from eternity out of foreseen Faith Love Obedience Perseverance c. or that which is made in time actually and that is either conditional as of those which by regeneration are called out of the sinful estate wherein other men are yet captived and so all called ones are said to be chosen John 15.16 19. and Election in this notion is all one with calling 2 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your calling and election sure Which persons are chosen or called to life conditionally that they persevere in Faith and Obedience c. Rom. 11.22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God towards them that fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness therwise thou also shalt be cut off Or else the Election of God in time is absolute such was the Election and choice of the blessed Angels after their perseverance in the fear and love of God when others had fallen therefrom And such is the Election of men spoken of by the Lord Isai 48.10 Behold I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction These have fulfilled the conditions aforesaid of peseverance in Faith Obedience and Mortification And therefore were absolutely and finally chosen to eternal life These are the Elect that cannot be deceived Matth. 24. and who shall never fall Seventhly Betwixt some that were onely typically Elected or passed by in God's providence as figures and representatives of those which should be saved or perish as Isaac and Ishmael the two sons of Abrabâ—â— were Gen. 17.16 and Rom. 9.6 7. without any prejudice to the salvation of either And those which are really elected or rejected For as Moses and Aaroâ— were debarred entrance into the land of promise for their doubting or unbelief for a warning to all unbeleevers Heb 4.1.11 Revel 21.8 yet without any peril of their own exclusion from eternal life none that we know of making the least doubt of their salvation so it was not prejudicial to the salvation of Ishmael his father Abraham having obtained life for him
by his prayer to God Gen. 17 20 21. that he carried the type of those who should not be heirs of life Gal. 4.22 c. and peradventure the like may be said of the person of Esau who at the meeting of his brother Jacob was turned into another man Gen. 23.4 and did ever after sweetly accord with him although Hebr. 12.16 he carries the type of a spiritual fornicator and profane person that sels his eternal birthright for a morsel of meat here in this world and of him that losing his first grace or blessing obtaines not a second But here we would not be misunderstood for though we brought Isaac as an instance of a typical or representative seed which he was in opposition to Ishmael Rom. 9.6 7. yet we do not deny but that he was one really elected out of Gods special foreknowledge nor do we doubt but Ishmael might be so likewise howsoever he was generally and conditionally elected as was also Cain Gen. 4.6 7. where the Lord saith unto him Why art thou wroth And why is thy countenance fallen If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted c. Eighthly Betwixt these that are unchangeably designed to life or death out of foreseen faith or unbelief perseverance or Apostacy and those that are absolutely and peremptorily without any condition or respect to standing or falling rising again through grace or lieing still retaining or losing grace received For after this last manner none are irrevocably designed either to life or death from all eternity among Angels or men Ninthly Betwixt a soveraign power invested in a most wise just gratious loving and merciful Prince which may be used to his greater glory and the same placed in a rigourous and cruel Tyrant which last to affix upon God is no small degree of blasphemy Tenthly Betwixt an absolute preterition of some from eternity before they have done or thought good or evil yea had any being which is not found in God towards any of his future rational creatures and a passing over of some in time for their personal ingratitude and contumacy against him as the fallen Angels are declined after their fall and some men after grace often refused and others after grace abused are lest to walk in their own wayes Eleventhly Betwixt the not extending of grace at all after a needless and wilful Apostacy as the Lord dealt with the proud and presumptuous Angels which fell and the withholding of mercy from some persons which were not so strongly and well situated in grace and which fell through the temptation of others and thus God withholds not his first grace which iâ— also a sufficient grace from any of the sons of men though they are fallen in Adam Twelfthly Betwixt the withholding the first or converting grace from fallen men which is not kept back for any till they resist it and the withdrawing of his second or subsequent grace from such as have wilfully cast off the first in the just requiring of it and so do despite of the Spirit of Grace These few necessary distinctions being first premised we proceed Now for your errors and mistakes in your several Sections First we say that your assertion in the second Section is very false and erroneous where you say That Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions yet hath he not decreed any thing because he foresaw it as future or as that which should come to pass upon such conditions For did not the Lord foresee that if he created the Angels free Agents some would fall and others stand still in their integrity That if he created our first parents with liberty of will that they would fall That if he offered fallen men his grace to help them up again some would embrace it and some refuse it That his offered grace being conditional some which received it would persevere and fulfil those conditions and some would fail in the performance after they had begun well That Judas being returned to his former covetousness would betray his Master for gain That the Jews out of obstinacy and envy would condemn and deliver Christ to the Gentiles That Pilate out of favour to men would yeeld him up to be scourged and crucified All which and a thousand things more the Lord foresaw would conditionally or supposedly come to pass and did thereupon decree or determine that they should so do because he could turn them to his glory yet do we not say that the Lord was necessitated so to do alwayes but when he foresaw that the effects and productions arising out of such supposed conditions were not conducible to his wise and holy ends he both could and in time did put a stop thereunto at his pleasure Thus he foresaw that the men of Keilah out of their wicked and ingrateful disposition being left to themselves would deliver and betray David into the hands of Saul and therefore he did both decree not to permit it and did actually hinder it by advertifing David of it that he might timely escape In your third Section there is truth and error to be found accordingly as your words are taken for you speak generally and ambiguously saying By God's Decree for the manifestation of his glory some men and Angels are predestinated unto eternal life and others fore-ordained to everlasting death To which we answer thus First That men and Angels are not in all things and every way disposed of alike in God's eternal Decree For though no fallen Angels are ordained to life yet by your own confession many fallen men are appointed to salvation in Jesus Christ Secondly We say that all both men and Angels are first predestinated to eternal life in case they should continue in their first created estate by answerable obedience The truth whereof appears sufficiently in the confirmation and blessing of those holy Angels which persisted in their allegiance who are therefore called the Elect Angels Thirdly We affirm that all men though fallen are appointed to restauration and life by grace conditionally that they beleeve on that grace and obey its requiring Ezek. 18.23 have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord and that not he should return and live Ezek. 33.11 Say unto them as I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of the wicked 1 Tim. 2.3 4. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth Whereunto add that of Tit. 2.11 12. which holds forth both the universality of grace it self and its condition For the grace of God that 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 But lastly we grant notwithstanding that some both Angels and men were appointed for destruction yet conditionally through their own default and disobedience as
the Apostles shew both of the one and of the other and first of the Angels 2 Pet. 2.4 God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down into Hell Jude 6. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darkness to the judgement of the great day And secondly concerning men 2 Thes 2.12 That all might be damned who beleeve not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Now these and some other Scriptures by us alledged do not speak immediately of Gods eternal Decree yet we know that God works all things in time according to the counsel of his own will from eternity Ephes 1.11 In your fourth Section you declare your selves more fully in this point of Predestination saying These Angels and men thus Predestinated and fore ordained are particularly and unchangeably designed and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either encreased or diminished Which words of yours we will grant to be true First of the Angels after some had stood fast in obedience and others had fallen but this was a destination in time not a predestination from eternity Secondly Of Angels and men out of the special fore-knowledge of God whereby he certainly foresaw the perseverance of the good Angels in obedience when the wicked spirits fell as also the persistance of the Saints in faith and obedience towards grace which should be exhibited on the one hand with the Apostacy of the lapsed Angels and the obstinacy of the impenitent men and backsliding temporaries on the other hand and so accordingly determined that the one part should be saved and the other perish But that Gods decree in the general toward Angels and men was onely conditional and did no wayes necessitate either to sin and damnation or to obedience and salvation it is evident out of these ensuing texts and many more As for the Apostate Angels the fault of their Apastacy is wholly and clearly ascribed to themselves 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. as before And as for men it is said Luke 7.30 the Pharisees and Lawyers did frustrate the counsel of God against themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which things would not possibly be done unless God's counsel was conditional add 2 Pet. 3.9 But God is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance which is spoken aswel of singula generum as of genera singulorum and you had before God's oath Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked To confirm his affirmation Ezek 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die And as there is no enforcing necessity from Gods decree to dispose Angels and men to obedience or disobedience life or death so neither was there any necessity of nature that is want of liberty in their wills or inability to obey before their fall whatsoever there is left afterwards in mankinde But if you mean by this particular and unchangeable designing men and Angels an absolute irrespective and peremtorie or inevitable dispose of some Angels and men to life and of others to destruction and that from eternity you do not onely make God a respecter of persons in those that are appointed to life from which the Scripture vindicates the Lord frequently Acts 10.34 Rom 2.11 Deut. 10.17 1 Pet. 1.17 But this contradicts what you speak concerning God Chapter the second where you describe him to be most wise most holy most loving most gratious most merciful and most righteous c. When you ascribe to him such a peremtory and irrevocable Decree of condemning thousands of Angels and men everlastingly and that before they had done or purposed any evil against him or yet had any being Consider this we pray you could any of you which is a father and scarce hath one drop of love mercy and goodness compared with God's ocean appoint one or more of your little babes which yet never offended you to be burned to death How far then must it be from the gratious disposition of him that is love it self and whose bowels of Compassion are infinite inevitably to designe so many millions of Angels his children by creation to endless and insufferable flames of fire before they had any existence in nature or capacity of offending In your Fifth Section you say that those of mankinde that are predestinated unto life are chosen by God before the foundation of the world was laid according to his eternal and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will in Christ unto everlasting glory out of his meer free grace and love All which is true both of Gods general and special election But whereas you add these words in conclusion without any foresight of Faith or good works or perseverance in either of them as conditions or causes moving him thereunto It is a most dangerous error and falsehood For was not that counsel of God which Paul declared to the Churches Acts 20.27 briefly comprehended in that Doctrine whereby as he himself saith he testified bâ—th to the Jewes and also to the Gentiles repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 20.20.21 Doth not the same Apostle tell us Rom. 8.29 That those whom God foreknew he did predestinate to be made conformable to the Image of his Son Doth not Saint Peter tell the believing Jews that they were elect according to the foreknowledge of God through sanctification of the Spirit to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ 1 Peâ— 1.2 Doth not Saint Paul declare the counsel or will of God to be conditional when he saith 1 Tim. 2.3 4. For this is good and acceptable before God who will have all men to be saved and to that end to come to the knowledge of the truth Are not the words of Saint Peter clear also to that effect 2. Pet. 3.9 Who willeth not that any man should perish but that all men should come to repentance Is not the saving grace of God which hath appeared to all men conditional by the Apostles own testimony Tit. 2.11 12. For the Grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men bath appeared teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Is not the Gospel it self which is a declaration of the whole counsel of God to be published conditionally Mat. 18.19 20. Mark 16.15.16 Go yee into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Doth not God best know what his own will and counsel is and was from eternity when he tels us Ezâ—k 18. and 33 and almost every where else in the old Testament that the obstinate sinner shall die but such as convert to him shall live Yea the finall and
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
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
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
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
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
some vertues more then to others The Pharisees though inclined to pride and covetousness were not so propense to sensuality and uncleaness as some of the Publicans were Luke 18.11 12. and consequently they did not so much abhor sobriety temperance and chastity as the others did nor did the other so much aversate sincerity liberality and humility as the Pharisees did Secondly You may take notice that all faln men are not alike intensively depraved sinners do gradually sinks into sin by custome and continuance therein so the Lord saith Ezek. 16.46 47. That Jerusalem had more deeply corrupted her self then her elder sister Samaria or her younger sister Sodom and by consequence she was more averse to good then either of them both And our Saviour affirms that Corazin and Bethsadia were more averse from repentance and amendment then Tyre and Sidon Luk. 10.13 And though it fares thus with the divel and his Angels yea and with all those men who through pride malice and desperation are incorporated into him yet we hope that the case or state for the present is not so evil or desperate with any other as you here would make it with lapsed men For to be utterly averse from all good is a most forlorn and deplorable condition and their very incorrigible state of whom the Lord complaines Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopaâ—d his spots then may ye also do good who are accustomed to do evil Now for your ground improperly and impertinently applyed That because man since his fall is dead in trespass and sins Eph. 2.2 5. he cannot therefore by his own strength convert himself or at all prepare himself thereunto To this we say It is neither a lively nor a forcible kind of arguing for it must be considered to what kind of life men by their fall become dead not to their natural life surely for the Apostle speaking of her that liveth in pleasures saith that she is dead whilst she liveth 1 Tim. 5.6 Here then as he chargeth her with a spiritual death so he grants her a natural life still remaining It is then to the former light of Christ or life of righteousness that we are dead by our fall as it is written Act. 8.33 That the life of Christ is taken from the earth and Isa 58.8 That he was cut off from the land of the living Agreeably hereunto the Apostle tels the Ephesians that in their unbelief they were at thee time without Christ Eph 2.12 and consequently without power to do good till we receive that again by grace But what is that to the willing and nilling faculty which is a natural and essentiall property to the soul Must that be dead in the man also and he become a meer passive block or a dead trunk as you would have him we have proved before that even the faln man can both will and act some kinds of righteousness at leastwise towards man witness that young man in the Gospel before spoken of But here to disintangle you and others we will first breifly â—istinguish concerning the use and exercise of that faculty and then secondly shew some causes why men do not ordinarily choose the good and nil the evil even then when it is in their power so to do For the first of these we must distinguish between freedome of will and coaction the latter of which may befal man but not the will of man Secondly betwixt a will that willeth or nilleth with full consent and a mixt will wherein the one party is predominant Phil. 1.23 For I am in a strait between two desiring to depart and to be with Christ which is best of all Thirdly Betwixt an indifferency of will or aequilibriuâ— to good or bad and a will enclined more to that which is good then to the evil This we take to have been the state of will in or first parents if not of all men yet before they fall Fourthly Betwixt a will more enclined to the evil then to the good and a will inflexible The former of these may be found after our fall gradually in men according to their inchoated or more perfect habits in evil The latter of these is found in no man till he be wholly incorporated in the pride and malice or desperation of the divel That the will of man after the fall is not wholly inflexible till such a diabolical incorporation we prove by these few instances instead of many First Pharoah that proud and obstinate Tyrant although at the first he was most averse to obey Gods voice and let Israel go yet he was brought to it by degrees untill he fully consented by Gods Judgements upon him and his people together with their perswasions Secondly Those six hundred thousand Israelites brought out of Egypt who harkening to their unbelieving spies or searchers of the good land refused to go up fight against their enemies afterwards being made sensible of Gods displeasure against them did of their own accord go up and fight against the Amalekites in the mountain even then when Moses forbad them and threatned them with capital danger Numb 14. A most evident example of the vertibility of mans will Judas himself though he would not be warned by our Saviours discovery of his treason aforehand nor by his threatning of the ensuing danger Mar. 14.18 19 20 21. Yet afterwards his will turned and he brought the money again which had corrupted him truely confessing his great wickedness Wisdome it self or Christs declareth Prov. 1.20 30. though many will not turn to him at his calling or reproof yet when it is too late the door of mercy being shut against them in the time of their great calamity this will turn to him and seek him early that is diligently So that mans will is never finally obstinate till it be wholly indevilled But from these last instances we should be warned to seek the Lord while he will be found Isa 55.6 Where the Psalmist concluds thus Psal 32.6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in the time when thou maist be found Surely in the great waterfloods of Gods destroying calamities they that is the wicked shall not come nigh him But to go on in our distinctions we must in the fifth place distinguish betwixt freewill and power voluntatem arbitrium for the one may be had where the other is wanting Rom. 7.18 Lastly Between a free will or agency and some strong inclination of nature to this or that object both which may stand together As first in God who is strongly inclined to the good and Sathan who propends wholly to the evil yet doth act freely without compulsion though not without some necessity or strong influence of nature Now in the second place the causes why the faln man doth not will the good which he might are these among others The first is the ignorance of that good ignoti nulla cupido Thus the ignorance of things promised hinders
contradict your selves in other places yet you have here and there your illegalities and mistakes also in this Chapter In your first Section you truly say That God gave to Adam and all his Posterity such a Law and covenant of works as you describe with power and ability to keep it And is he not the same God still in wisdom mercy and justice requiring nothing at any mans hand but what he will enable him to doe by his preventing or assisting grace if hee seek it In your second Section you say and that truly That the Law given to Adam being the same in effect with the Moral Law delivered upon mount Sinai continued to be a perfect rule of Righteousnesse Nor must the Israel of God think to obtrude upon the Lord any other acceptable righteousnesse for ever then is therein required and described Deut. 6.24 25. And the Lord commanded us to doe all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good alwayes that he might preserve us alive as it is this day And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to doe all these Commandments before The Lord our God as he hath commanded us Psalm 119.144 the righteousnesse of his testimonies is everlasting For the performing of which righteousnesse because it was become impossible to the fallen Man Christ is freely bestowed upon us Rom. 8.3 4. And so it is the end and drift of the law to send us unto Christ to seek our power wisdom and righteousnes from him Rom. 10.4 Gal. 3.22 23 24. But whereas you say in the end of that Section That the four first Commandments contain our duty toward God and the six last our duty to Man Perhaps it will prove a distribution more common then sound For as the whole Law is spirituall Rom. 7.14 so it seems first to require duty toward God in all the ten Commandments and then to call for Service toward men in the second place For the first four Commandments which St Augustine and some of the Ancients reduce to three only your selves doe not deny it Let us then take a view of the rest Doth not the fifth Commandment enjoyn us first of all to honour our heavenly Father and the Wisdom or Hierusalem from above our spirituall Mother 1 Sam. 2.20 For them that honour me I will honour Mal. 1.6 If I then be a Father where is mine honour Matth. 11.19 But Wisdome is justified of her children so Luke 7.35 Gal. 4.26 But Jerusalem which is from above is free which is the Mother of us all Prov. 7.4 Say unto Wisdom thou art my Sister and call understanding thy Kinswoman Doth not the sixth Commandement forbid spiritual murther in the first place to wit the killing of Christ the quenching of the Spirit and the destroying of the inward messengers and motions Jam. 5.6 Ye have condemned and killed the just one and he resisteth you not Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit 1 Thess 5.19 Quench not the Spirit Thus the Apostles complaines of the Apostates that they crucifie afresh the Son of God and put him to an open shame Heb. 6.6 Doth not the seventh Commandement first prohibite spiritual whoredom against God Hos 4.15 Though thou Israel play the harlot yet let not Judah offend Jam. 4.4 Yee adulterers and adulteresses c. Doth not the eighth precept first restrain us from theft and robbery against God Malac. 3.8 Will a man rob God but ye have robbed me Rom. 2.22 Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit sacriledge See Act. 12.22 in Herods example Doth not the ninth also first inhibit a false testimony against the Lord Jeremy 5.12 They have belyed the Lord and said it is not he 1 Cor. 15.15 Yea and we are found false witnesses of God c. Yea though the tenth commandement may seem to lay restraint upon us only in the behalf of our neighbor yet who hath so neer vicinity to us as God in whom we live move and have our being so that not only an open these against him in taking that which belongs to him as Achon did but even to assume or once desire that which belongs unto the Lord is impious as we see in Herod who took and consequently affected the glory that was due to God Acts 12.22 23. Nor doth the Lord want a house Isa 56.7 Mat. 21.12 13 14. Nor is he destitute of a wife Ezek. 16.8 And I sware unto thee and entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou becamest mine See Re. 2. or of men servants and maid servants Psa 116.16 Truly O Lord I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid Nor is he without his Oxen and Asses 2 Cor. 9.10 Mat. 21.1 2 3 4 5. which if they be alienated from him in our desires it is a sin of concupiscence-against the last Commandement So that it is most true in this regard which Saint James speaks chap. 2.10 For whosoever shall keep the whole low and yet offendeth in one point is guilty of all for any one sin against God breaks all the Commandements It is Idolatry witcheraft murther adultery c. 1 Samuel 5.15.23 And as the six last first oppose sin against God so the four first in the second place restrain sins against man Thus we may not impose a false God upon our neighbor nor set up a false worship before him nor swear falsly to his hurt nor by prophaning the Lords Sabbath or everlasting rest before our neighbor insnare his soul And what we speak of the negativepart is true of the affirmative or possitive throughout all the Commandements so that the great duty of love to God and our neighbor seems to run through the veins of every Commandement And as these two are inseperable in the new creature so the whole Law by the Apostles own Testimony is fulfilled in this one Commandement Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self Rom. 13.8 Gal. 5.14 which cannot hold true except the Lord be our first neighbor who is to be loved in the first place and surely if we should not offer that wrong to God which we would not admit were we in his stead we should not sin as we do In your third Section you set not forth the whole extent of the Ceremonial Law which was to represent Christs inward death and sufferings as well as his outward He being the Lamb slain in us from the foundation of the world Rev. 13.8 and to be a document unto us shewing how we must follow him unto eternal life Howbeit you seem to go too far in saying It is wholly abrogated now under the new Testament for though the costly and burthensome yoke thereof is taken from the Gentiles yet some part of it by the words of the Prophets may remaine in use among the Jews after their calling and restauration Isa 66.23 And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before
me saith the Lord Zach. 14.16 c. And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the Nations that came against Jerusalem shall even go up from yeer to yeer to worship the King the Lord of Hosts c. In your fourth Section you yet seem to digress further from the truth in saying That the judiciall law did expire with the state of the Jewes for doubtless whensoever their Commonwealth shall be restored that Law shall be revived yea how far it may now oblige all Christian states to follow it is worth your inquiring You say That the general equity of it may still continue In which words you recommend the whole upon the matter for what is there to be found in it but equity it self can ever the Christian Nations hope to finde out better political Laws then those which first came from Heaven Yea what by the Testimony of almost all men were more to be wished for in a Christian state then that their Laws might be few in number just in themselves and eafie to be known as those would be if they were gathered into a body and that such as have controversies might have a speedy dispatch as in Moses his dayes In your fifth Section you do justly maintain the continued authority and obligation of the moral Law over all persons under the Gospel Where you truly affirm That Christ doth not any way dissolve but muchst engthen this obligation which thing he doth by his Doctrine Mat. 5.16 17 18 19. by his example John 15.10 and especially by the end of his coming which is to fulfill it in us Rom. 8.3 4. and not for us otherwise then we have shewed before as you in your next Section partly imply In your sixth Section though you do not shew what it is to be under the Law yet there you truly set forth many most precious uses of that law even for the regenerate Nevertheless you forget a singular peice of service it did them in their first converson by God their fathers cooperation when it first made known their sin and misery unto them and was their Schoolemaster unto Christ Galatians 3.22 23 24. At which time while we were under the work of the Law breeding fear of wrath for we alwayes remain under the rule of it till it be dead we were troubled with the spirit of bondage which made us justly fear the wrath and vengeance to come Rom. 8.15 And this was the first great bower and encliner of our wils to leave our wicked wayes and keep Gods Commandements yet an impulsive out of self love and self preservation for the present till faith in Gods gracious promises did kindly melt and charge our hearts to bewaile and leave sin as also to work righteousness out of love and good will to him that was so gracious towaâ—ds us And in this sense we may grant you that which you speak of in your seventh and last Section of the Spirits subduing our wils for it is by the work of the Law that our pride is first brought down and our strong inclination to sin with ouâ— utter aversness to righteousness becomes broken in us but our wils are sweetly attracted and framed to choose the good and nil theevil by the apprehension of mercy and grace from God whom in our own sense by the sentence of our own consciences we deserved nothing but peâ—dition Lo this is that wise powerful and gracious work of God in the conversion of a sinner which you call Gods irresistable working and yet is nothing less then a compulsion though it wants not strong impulsions at the first to work upon our stiffe yet not inflexible wils That these forementioned uses of the Law are not contrary to the grace of the Gospel but either make way for the same or sweetly comply therewith as you speak in this last Section is undoubtedly true And therefore the believer under the Covenant of grace remains still in some sence under works But yet if the Spirit of Christ both can and usually doth subdue our wils and inable us freely and chearfully to do the will of God revealed in the law as you here speak what letteth but that our corruptions may be abolished our sanctification perfected and our obedience to the law made compleat especially if we seek that grace contrary to your former doctrines Yea if Christ by his Spirit can and will so fulfill the Law in us which of the Saints made perfect in the world to come you will not deny what great need can there be at that time may some say of Christs outward obedience to be our righteousness But of that sufficiently before For a conclusion then of this Chapter as you here tacitly oppose the Antinomians and other such adversaries to the law so we pray you remember that it is upon your own grounds here and elsewhere that they desert the Law for they thus argue If Christ hath fulfilled the Law for us in his active and personal obedience to make us compleatly righteous before God what need is there of our obedience to the same Yea some of them are so bold as to say They see not how God in Justice can require obedience to his Law the second time at our hands which he hath both exacted and obtained already from his Son in our behalf yea why should any still perish for their disobedience against the Law who yet believed on Christ as some do Mat. 7.21 22 23. Thus they argue for themselves out of your own principles so dangerous a thing it is to lay a sandy foundation in the bottom of the structure But is not the keeping of Christs words and sayings and therein the fulfilling of the Commandements through his grace and help that immoveable rock which he hath commended to every wise builder for a sure foundatition Mat. 7.24 25. CHAP. XX. Of Christian liberty and liberty of Conscience THE Liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the Gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin the condemning wrath of God the curse of the moral Law a Tit 2.4 1 Thess 1.10 Ga 3.13 and in their being delivered from this present evil world bondage to Satan and dominion of sin b Gal 1.4 Col 1.19 Act 26.18 Ro 6.14 from the evil of afflictions the sting of death the victory of the grave and everlasting damnation c Ro 8.28 Psa 119.71 1 Cor. 15.54 55 56 57. Ro 8.1 as also in their access to God d Ro 5.1 2. and their yeilding obedience unto him not out of slavish fear but a child like love and willing mind e Rom 8.14 15. 1 Joh 4.18 All which were common to all believer under the Law f Gal 3.9 14 but under the new Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in their freedom from the yoke of the Ceremonial Law to which the Jewish Church was subjected g Gal 4.1 2 3 6 7 Gal
unto us a spiritual verticum wereby we may be inabled to keep a spiritual Passover with him from death to life and become the more strengthened to follow him in his like sufferings and death and so to be better armed and fortified against all encounters of the enemy Thus was the sacrifices of the Old Testament accompanied with a meat offering and drink offering to shew that we must be furnished with the body and blood of Christ to help us in the sacrificing and offering up our spiritual sacrifice of sin Thus Melchizedek met Abraham when he was weary and faint with his late fight and brought him bread and wine to revive and strengthen him Thus furnished we ought to remember and shew forth the Lords death till his comming to us in the spirit 1 Cor. 11.23 26. and by eating of this one bread we also become one bread or flesh or bread with Christ and each other as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 10.16 and so this Sacrament without all controversie was ordained as you speak afterwards to oblige us unto duty and to further our communion with Christ and with each other that we may be made one bread and one body with him and in him yet not in your sens or way but as St Paul speaks 1 Cor 10.16 17. by being all made pertakers of one bread to wit his word and 1 Coâ— 12.13 by being all made to drink into one spirit as before it was shewed at large In your second Section you truely say That in this Sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father as a sacrifice for the quick and the dead but Christ here offereth himself in his Mystical flesh and blood as a true meat offering and drink offering to his true beleevers and followers nor is it advisedly said of you there That at or in this Sacrament there is no real sacrifice at all made beside the commemoration of his own offering of himself with all possible praise to God for the same for in the right celebration of this Supper we ought to offer up both the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart Psal 51.17 and to sacrifice the remainder of our sins as our daily offering in the holy of Gods Tabernacle in true conformity to Christ and through the help of his spiritual flesh and blood 1 Pet. 4.1 2. yet it is Christ himself and not his sacrifice that is the alone propitiation for all men John 12.1.2 In your third Section you set forth some of the duties of the person who is to administer this Sacrament truly but you have omitted the many parts of his office which are to declare the time and ends of its institution with the holy mysteries which it signifies and to stir up the people to lay hold of these benefits and to follow Christ unto the death with sutable prayers and thanksgivings In your fourth Section you truly affirm That the Priest or Minister should not observe or take this Sacrament alone and that he should communicate in both kindes to the true beleevers and followers of Christ and you do not without cause deny pompous elevations of and processions with the host for adoration sake and other superstitious reservations and abuses of the bread or host In your fifth you mistake much saying That the Elements in their signification have relation to Christ crucified as we have shewed before Yet it is true that the names of the Elements are attributed to the body and blood of Christ which they are designed to represent but the predication is Sacramental as you speak and lies in the verbe substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as doth signifie est for significat as Gen. 41.25 26 27. and Gen. 50.12 18. It is likewise true which you there affirm That the Elements even after consecration remain for nature and substance bread and wine still In your sixth Section you justly tax and refute the Doctrine of Popish transubstantiation and might have reproved the consubstantiation of the Lutherans also upon good grounds but if that those terms or phrases were used to teach us that we must be spiritually consubstantiated with Christs body and blood aforesaid or transubstantiated into the same it might pass in a good sense of spiritual conformity In your seventh Section you comfort your selves and your worthy receivers with vain words and hopes concerning the presence not real only but spiritual also of that body and blood of Christ which were never signified by this Sacrament so that herein the Papists Lutherans and Calvinists do litigate de lanâ— Caprina and do not once discern which are the spiâ—itual flesh and blood of Christ there intended In your last Section you say That in this Sacrament persons ignorant of the mystery though made pertakers of the outward Elements yet they receive not the things therby signified wherein you speak truly though the speech laies hold on your selves among others but it is a question whether all that come ignorantly to this Sacrament be guilty of the body and blood of Christ we for our parts hope many are not neither doth it seem consonant to reason that all wicked or unworthy receivers that are pertakers of the Elements though they sin in coming uncalled or unprepared to this ordinance should at that time be guilty of the true body and blood of Christ which perhaps they never understood but all they that esteem not aright of the body and blood of Christ when truly offered unto them and rightly understood are guilty of the profaining of the same and much more if they by Apostacy turn therefrom as we heard before Hebr. 10.29 CHAP. XXX Of Church censures THE Lord Jesus as King and Head of his Church hath therein appointed a Government in the hand of Church Officers distinct from the Civil Magistrate a Isa 9.6 7. 1 Tim 5 17. acts 20 27 28. Heb 13.7 17 24 1 cor 12.18 Mat 28 18 19 20. II. To these Officers the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven are committed by vertue whereof they have power respectively to retain and remit sins to shut that Kingdom against the impenitent both by the word and censures and to open it unto the penitent sinners by the mystery of the Gospel and by absolution from censures as occasion shall require b Mat. 16.19 Mat 18 17 18. Ioh 20 20 21 22 23. 2 cor 1.6 7 8. III. Church censures are necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren for deterring of others from the like offences for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump for vindicating the honour of Christ and the holy profession of the Gospel and for preventing the wrath of God which might justly fall upon the Church if they should suffer his Covenant and the seals thereof to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders c 1 Cor 5. chapter 1 Tim 5.20 Mat 7.6 1 Tim. 1 20 1 Cor 11.27
the representing of your errours in worse part then it is meant your better information and the saving of your souls and others Finally Since you have set so good bounds between the Civil Magistrate and your selves in your last Section we will not remove the Landmark CHAP. XXXII Of the state of men after death and of the resurrection of the dead THE bodies of men after death return to dust and see corruption a Gâ—n 3 19 Act 13.36 but their soul which neither die nor sleep having an immortal subsistance immediately return to God who gave them b Lu 23.43 Eccl 12.1 the souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness are received into the highest Heavens where they behold the face of God in light and glory waiting for the full redemption of their bodies c Heb 12.13 2 Cor 5.16.8 Phil. 1 23â— Acts 3.20 Eph 4.10 And the souls of the wicked are cast into Hell where they remain in torments and utter darkness reserved to the judgement of the great day d Luke 16.23 24. Acts 1.25 Jude 1.6 7 1 Pet 3.19 Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies the Scriptures acknowledg none II. At the last day such as are found alive shall not die but be changed e 1 Thes 4.15 1 Cor 15.5 2. and all the dead shall be raised up with the self-same bodies and none other although with different qualities which shall be united again to their souls for ever f Job 19.26 27. 1 Cor 15.42 43 44. III. The bodies of the unjust shall by the power of Christ be raised to dishonour the bodies of the just by his Spirit unto honour and be made conformable to his own glorious body g Acts 24.13 John 5.28.29 1 Cor 15.43 Phil 3.21 CHAP. XXXII Of the state of men after death and of the resurrection of the dead Examined HERE we could revive a manifold resurrection by you buried in silence one of internal both righteousness and unrighteousness discovered and raised up at our first humiliation by the spirit of God and the work of his Law Rom. 7.7 8 9. Another of men raised up by a work of regeneration some to honour as those that persevere and others to dishonour as those that fall away again Dan. 12.2 Thirdly A spiritual resurrection with Christ after we have been dead with him to sin Rev. 20 6. And lastly the raising up the souls again at our dissolution that it may go to judgement which is called a resurrection Catechristically but because you are now drawing towards a conclusion we shall have the less cause to contest or debate with you These violent motions should grow more remisse and gentle towards the latter end Your first Section comprehends many Propositions which we dare not deny nor shall we much alter them That the bodies of men after death return to dust That then they see corruption That the Soul whether a distinct part from the spirit or no hath an immortal subsistence That the soul sleeps not though many of them be at rest That the spirit returns to God that gave it Ecclesiastes 12 7. That the souls go to God immediately to receive their doom That the souls of the righteous after death are made perfect in happiness not without some access of holiness That those so made perfect are received into the Highest Heaven or into Paradice That those which are so received behold the face of God in life and glory waiting for the full redemption of their bodies That the Souls of the wicked are cast into Hell where they remain in torments and utter darkness reserved to the judgement of the great day yet we could tell you of some no contemptible Authors and those no Papists who maintain a twofold delivery out of Hell the one made by Christ of the men of the old world at the time of his resurrection for which they alledge Zech. 9.11 and 1 Pet. 3.19 20. and 1 Pet. 4.6 The other to be made at the end of the Chiliasts term of their thousand years Rev. 20.5 But the rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were ended That besides these two places of the souls separatd from the bodies the Scripture for ought we yet finde makes no cleer mention of any other yet are we not altogether ignorant of what some have written concerning Limbo nor that some which favour not the Church of Rome as Jacob Behman for one do assigne a third place namely the Region of the Land of Canaan to be an Elysian field for the souls of departed Saints because the Lord sware to give the Land to Abraham and his seed for ever But whether the souls of the just shall dye imperfect and have their perfection adjourned to another world as you mean is a quere of some importance and to hold that it must be so positively may prove a dangerous errour For our parts we acknowledge that the Saints in Heaven do obtain no small access and increase as of light and wisdom so of power love holiness peace and joy also for the Apostle saith Phil. 1.21 For me to live is Christ but to die is gain To which that seems to agree which the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.1 2. For we know that if our earthly Tabernacle of this house were dissolved we have a building given us of God not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens But that the body of sin may and should be destroyed the workmanship of Satan abolished the righteousness of the law fulfilled and the Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven be fully sought and attained by us through the grace of Christ even in this life we have sufficiently proved before It remains then that we all take heed to the Apostles charge 2 Cor. 7 1.2 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit perfecting our holiness in the fear of God yea let all those that would be counted faithful Ministers in Christ Jesus labour with St. Paul Colos 1.28 to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus As to your 2d Section although the Apostle in that great larger chapter of the resurrection 1 Co. 15. seems to speak onely of the resurrection of the just yet we must grant that all the dead shall be raised according to other Scriptures and namely that of John 5.28 29. Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation But for a conclusion of this chapter may not some be mistaken in thinking the first resurrection which comes not to any till they be first dead with Christ Rom. 6 5. is past already see 2 Tim. 2.18 yea to make our future happiness sure what had been more needful here
out many Devils and anointed with oyl those that were sick and healed them James 5.14 Is any man sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord. Thirdly Imposing of hands in a threefold case First In the way of healing Mark 16.18 They shall lay their hands upon the sick and they shall recover Secondly In confirming new Disciples and communicating the Holy Ghost Acts 8.17 and 19.6 And thirdly In ordaining either Deacons or Ministers for the Churches Acts 6.6 Acts 13.1 2 3. or Bishops themselves 1 Tymothy 4.14 2 Tymothy 1.6 Fourthly The near union betwixt the Husband and the wife with their reciprocal duties figuring forth Christ and his Church Genesis 2.21 24.2.19 20. Ephes 5.25 32. Finally Some adhere the Ceremony of the Husbands praying and prophesying with his head uncovered because a cover is a token of uncleanness and he represents Christ the Head of the Church who is holy and pure but of the Wives praying and sitting to hear Prophesyings with their head covered both in token of subjection and to shew that the man her Head is through the fall unclean which things is now neither observed nor regarded in the reformed Churches See Corinthians 11.2 16. Yet let us consider advisedly whether the Apostle would spend half a Chapter about a needless thing which might be observed or omitted at pleasure To those perhaps some might be added But secondly whereas you say here in this fourth Section That the two Sacraments of the Gospel were both instituted by Christ our Lord. You are much mistaken for though the Lords Supper was so yet Baptism was ordained by God the Father who sent John the Baptist by his Doctrine and Baptism to make way for Christ his Doctrine and Office John 1.33 Lastly You truly affirm in the close of the same Section That neither of these two Sacraments may be dispensed by any but by a Minister of the Word lawfully called But here we pray you consider seriously of it whether the bare calling of man be he the Civil or Ecclesiastical Governour or both be a sufficient commission to dispense the Word and Sacraments by Perhaps in a formal Church of Professors the whole Frabrick being humane it may suffice but to administer these among the Saints and houshold of God who onely are the true Church as we said before peradventure it requires an higher call even Gods own authority or commission as the places of Scripture to which you point or some of them plainly intimate to wit Matth. 28.19 20. 1 Cor. 11.20 23. 1 Cor. 4.1 Heb 5.4 Finally Whereas you say in you fifth and last Section That the Sacraments of the Old Testament were in regard of the things signified for substance the same with these of the New it is not every way true for circumcision the initiatory Sacrament in the Old Testament did set forth the first part of regeneration especially but Baptism in or unto the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost represents all the three parts of the new birth and the Passover though it imported to eat Christs flesh yet it was ordinarily but a communicating in one kinde whereas the Lords Supper communicates in both kindes and holds forth the Blood of Christ as well as his flesh for the strengthening of those that follow Christ into his death CHAP. XXVIII Of Baptism BAPTIM is a Sacrament of the New Testament Ordained by Jesus Christ a Mat. 28.29 not onely for the solemn admission of the party baptised into the Visible Church b 1 Cor 12.13 but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the Covenant of Grace c Rom 4.11 with Col 2 11.12 of his grafting into Christ d Gal. 3.27 Rom 6.5 of regeneration e Tit. 3.5 of remission of sins f Mark 1.4 and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life g Ro 6.3 4 which Sacrament is by Christs own appointment to be continued in his Church until the end of the World h Mat 28.19 20. II. The outward Element to be used in this Sacrament is Water wherewith the Party is to be baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost by a Minister of the Gospel lawfully called thereunto i Mar 3.11 John 1.33 Matth 28.19 19. III. Dipping of the person into the Water is not necessary but baptism is rightly administred by pouring or sprinkling Water upon the person k Heb 9.19 20 21 22. Acts 2. Acts 16.33 Mar 7.4 IV. Not onely those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ l Mark 16.15.16 Acts 8.37.38 but also the infants of one or both beleeving Parents are to be baptised m Gen 17.7 9. with 17 12 Gal 3.9.14 Gol 2.2 Acts 2.38 39. Rom 4.11.12 1 Cor 7.14 Mark 10.13 14 15 16. Luk 18.15 V. Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this Ordinance n Luk 7.30 with Exo 4.25 26 27. yet Grace and Salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it o Ro 4.11 Acts 10.2 4 â—2 31 45 49. or that all which are baptised are undoubtedly regenerated p Acts 8.13 23. VI. The efficacy of baptism it not tyed to that moment of time wherein it is administred q John 3.8 yet notwitstanding by the right use of this Ordinance the grace promised is not onely offered but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Ghost to such whether of age or infants as that Grace belongeth unto according to the counsel of Gods own will in his appointed time r Galat 3.17 Titns 3 5. Ephes 5.25 Ephes 25.26 Acts 2.38 VII The Sacrament of baptism is but once to be administred unto any person Å¿ Titus 3.5 CHAP. XXVIII Of Baptisme examined ALTHOUGH some passages here are foul enough yet they have some of them been washed before As first That where in your first and last Section you would have the first and main thing signified by this Sacrament to be the spiritual grace contained in the Covenant as regeneration and remission of sins Whereas the first and principle scope in this and all other Sacraments is to inform us in and oblige us unto duty as appears out of the words of Ananias unto Paul Acts 22.16 And now why tarriest thou Arise and be baptized and wash away thy fins by calling upon the name of the Lord. See also Rom. 6.2 3 4 5 6. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buryed with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness
of life c. Secondly You say This Sacrament was ordained by Christ which was onely sanctified and continued by him but instituted and ordained by the Father as we have shewed before See Mat. 21.25 And thirdly You urge that this Sacrament is to be administred by a Minister lawfully called thereunto as you have it in the end of your second Section and by no other which we admitted before if that Minister be called of God thereunto to administer this Sacrament to his Disciples otherwise we doubt whether his commission be authentique in the true Church and the congregations of the Saints But what you write further in that second Section That the Element to be used in this Sacrament is water is true nor is there any other Element to be used nor is any other composition or sophistication needful Notwithstanding you are here two wayes defective First In not shewing what the Element signifies nor secondly how we are to be baptized in relation to the Trinity either inwardly or outwardly aright But to make a supply for your defects The water of Baptism signifies the pure Doctrine or Word of God as hath been partly intimated before John 15.3 Now are ye clean through the word that I have spoken unto you John 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth Ephes 5.25.26 Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Thus we must be born again not of the Spirit alone but of Water and the Spirit Joh. 3.5 Secondly Those that are duly baptized must be baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the name onely but to the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Matthew 28.19 20. That is to carry the name or the like being first of the Father then of the Son and lastly of the Holy Ghost The first In a love to all good and hatred to all evil The second In carrying the saving power of Christ as a conquest over and preservative against the power of sin and Satan And the third In fruition of all truth light life gifts and comforts of the Holy Ghost wherein the Heavenly Jerusalem descending from above consists Thus the Apostles were sent by Christ First with their doctrine and then with water to baptize men that they might be fitted to receive carry the threefold name which yet in the end is but one name and like being of the living God according to the capacity of creatures In the third Section you have some pretty sprinkling of Truth where you maintain and that truly That dipping or ducking in the Water is not necessary in this Sacrament but that effusion or sprinkling with water will suffice But in your fourth Section where you say That the infants of one or both beleeving parents are to be baptized your assertion is too far dipped in error For Infants are no where commanded to be baptized in the new Testament though the children of Israel were commanded at the eighth day to be circumcised nor doth Baptism succeed circumcision in that behalf or almost in any other respect unless it be first as an initiatory Sacrament for new converts And secondly so far as it is a Baptism in the name of the Father or of the Father and the Son at the uttmost for Baptism in the Holy Ghost points at a far higher estate then either Circumcision or the Passover or yet the supper of the Lord hold forth yet we do not deny but Infants may lawfully be baptized even the Infants of unbeleeving parents if some friends of theirs desire it and the superiour powers so appoint because the Baptism of Infants is no where forbidden and though in regard of innate uncleanness they have no great need of outward or inward washing from sin as we have proved before yet this Sacrament being administred in infancy and afterward known to the party baptized may be as useful to him in the way of instruction and comfort when after his fall he would return to the Lord as circumcision was to the Isralites which was administred in their Infancy Your fifth Section presents the neglect or contempt of this ordinance as a great sin which is true of new converts who should not onely admit of it being offered but even seek and desire it where it may be had as the Eunuch did Acts 8.36.37 But this is not alike true of infants who cannot desire it nor have need of it for the present nor yet of their parents in relation to them unless it be in these Countries and places where the Governors appoint all infants to be baptized for here to neglect or contemn it is a sin of contumacy against these Governours and though some scruple at it because they cannot finde Poedobaptisme to be Gods Ordinance yet they ought to submit to it as an Humane or Ecclesiastical Ordinance especially since obedience to Governors is expresly commanded and the baptizing of Infants no where prohibited The residue of that your fifth Section is very sound and good for you truely and rightly affirm That grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto baptism as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it or that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated Your sixth Section concerning the efficacy of Baptism not being tyed to the very moment of administration is true oft his and all other Sacraments whether we understand the grace held forth onely as you seem to do not without a great mistake or the duty we should learn from it and them which is no small part of the drift and efficacy of the Sacraments as hath been declared Lastly Whereas you say in your seventh and last Section That Baptism is but once to be administred unto any persons it may be either true or false as it is understood for these Disciples at Ephesus which had not so much as heard that there was an holy Ghost were baptised into Johus Baptism Acts 19.3 when they had heard Paul preach unto them were baptized again verse 4 5. so doubtless were many more of John's Disciples for though John made mention of one that should come after him And baptize his Disciples with the holy Ghost and with fire Mat. 3.11 Yet he baptized them in the name of the Father or but unto the name of Son at the furthest and not unto the Holy Ghost from which estate his office and baptisme stood at too great a distance in that his fore-running office yet it is true that those who are compleatly baptized in or unto the name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost need not to be baptized again Howbeit two things would further be enquired into First Whether the Apostle did not make some pause in the baptizing naming each person distinctly in whose name they baptized and so paused a while betwixt the first and the second and then