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A97232 Chonoyterion he Sion. The refinement of Zion: or, The old orthodox Protestant doctrine justified, and defended against several exceptions of the Antinomians, methodically digested into questions, wherein many weighty and important cases of conscience are handled, concerning the nature of faith and repentance, or conversion to God: of his eternal love, and beholding of sin in his dearest children: of justification from eternity, of of [sic] preparations to the acceptance of Christ, of prayer for pardon of sin, and turning to God: of the gospel covenant, aud [sic] tenders of salvation, on the termes of faith and repentance. For the establishment of the scrupulous, conviction of the erroneous, and consolation of distressed consciences. By Anthony Warton, minister of the word at Breamore in Hampshire. Warton, Anthony. 1657 (1657) Wing W987; Thomason E914_2; ESTC R207476 171,315 250

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risen though perhaps that might not be the very first moment of the rising thereof when this was spoken and the Suns shining upon the wall is made a sign or an evidence and manifestation thereof And even so in like manner when our Saviour saith Her sins which are many are forgiven her his meaning was that they were really forgiven though not at that instant onely but from the first moment of her conversion And he maketh this manifest by his next words from her abundant love which she so many wayes shewed and expressed towards him saying For she loved much I know Mr. D. will not here say with the Papists that her love to Christ was the cause that he pardoned and forgave her her sins but that he drew an Argument from thence to prove and to evidence that her sins were forgiven And so this conjunction causal for est causa consequentiae non consequentis is only the cause of the consequence in his Argument or in his reasoning but not of the thing it self whereof he speaketh that is of the pardon of her sins He would prove also from the judgement of Protestant Interpreters that our Saviour speaketh not of remission of sins really but of the manifestation thereof because when we pray in the fifth Petition of the Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses they make this to be the meaning hereof that the Children of God whose sins are already pardoned do pray for more assurance thereof But I have shewed already Quest 9. that they make this to be the meaning thereof only in part and not the full sense of that Petition as Mr. D. would have it Recon of God to man pag. 43. Another place of Scripture which he perverteth and corrupteth by a novellous and strange Exposition are those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God The meaning hereof he will have to be that they shall not enter into the Kingdom of God here on Earth which is his Church But in expounding these words thus he commeth far short of the meaning of the Apostle for albeit it is most certain that the unrighteous are no true members of the Church though they be in it for a time yet the Scripture when it speaketh of the inheritance which Christ hath purchased for his Saints from which the unrighteous are excluded referreth the possession thereof not to this World where we sojourn for a time as Pilgrims in a strange Country but to that happy life that is to come Thus our Saviour at the day of judgement will say unto his Elect people and righteous Servants Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world St. Paul also telleth us that flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15. neither shall corruption inherit incorruption Which words it were absurd to refer unto the Kingdom of grace or to say that the Apostle excludeth all such out of the Church here on earth who carry about them corruptible flesh and blood St. Peter also in plain words so speaketh of the inheritance of Heaven as of a thing the possession whereof is not to be had in this life but in the World to come Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you who are kept by the power of God 1 Pet. 1.3 4 4. through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time When St. Paul therefore saith that Fornicators Adulterers and such unrighteous persons shall not inherit the Kingdom of God his meaning is that they shall never enter into the glorious Kingdom of Heaven but be excluded thence and be cast into Hell 3. As strangely doth he expound those words of the Apostle Heb. 12.14 Recon of God to man p. 43 44. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord that is saith he with spiritual eyes or with the eyes of faith whereas the Apostle speaketh not here in praesenti of that Vision or seeing of the Lord which is to be had in this present World but in futuro of our seeing of him hereafter to our endless comfort in his Kingdom and in his glory in the same sense as St. John doth 1 Joh. 3.2 We know that when Christ shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Most false therefore it is which Mr. D. saith To see God and to inherit the Kingdom of God are nothing else but to believe in God and in his Son Jesus Christ When we come to Heaven faith in Christ shall cease and yet we shall not cease then to see God Another place of holy Scripture 1 Cor. 13.13 Confer with a sick man pag. 7. 1 Ioh. 3.14 which he grosly perverteth with a false Exposition and so goeth about to deprive the godly of the comfort which they take from it are those words of St. John We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren Many good souls have acknowledged that when all other grounds of comfort have failed them or at the least when in time of temptation they have not been able to apprehend any comfort from any thing else yet these words of the Apostle have upheld them from despairing of their Estate because their Consciences did testifie unto them that they did unfainedly love and ardently affect all that are godly Now this comfort also Mr. D. denyeth them * Confer p. 9. I do saith he for the present believe that St. John doth principally speak of our assurance whereby we know one another to be the Children of God And Conf. p. 8. He telleth us that it is before man that our love beareth witness to our Faith For he saith that St. Johns meaning is not that a man may know by his love to the Brethren that he himself particularly is in the state of grace but that the faithful in general by means of the love which they professed and shewed one to another were well perswaded one of another and believed by the judgement of charity that they were all the Children of God But this Exposition of his crosseth the main scope and drift or the purpose and intention of the Apostle in writing this Epistle which was to comfort the faithful by shewing them what signes and tokens and particular evidences they had of the forgiveness of their sins and of their salvation by Christ for so he saith Chap. 5.13 These things have I written unto you whereof their love to the Brethren was one that believe on the name of
the Sonne of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God that is perseverantly unto the end What will Mr. D. except against this Will he say as Estius and the Papists do that the Apostles meaning is not that every or any ordinary faithful man knoweth certainly that he is translated from death to life and therefore in the state of salvation but that he speaketh generally in the person of all the faithful and is thus to be understood We Christians know by an assured faith that all good faithful people of which number we severally trust that we are are translated from death to life But surely this Expositiō of his est nimis jejuna is too hungry and leane For what comfort will it be to any one to know certainly that all good Christians and true believers are translated from death to life as long as he knoweth not whether he himself be of that number but doubteth hereof Again Shall we think or can we perswade our selves that St. John wrote so large an Epistle and used so many Arguments only to make known unto the faithful that all good Christians or that all good faithful people have their sins pardoned and are in the state of salvation which they never doubted of It s certain That St. John in writing this Epistle had a farther intent and that is to make it evident unto us by many infallible signes and tokens how we may know that we are the Children of God and that we are translated from death to life which is a matter of greatest comfort and rejoycing to a Christian heart that can be Mr. D. indeed for I would not willingly do him any wrong acknowledgeth that true charity is an assured signe or mark of grace received but for all that Cor a s pag. he holdeth that a Christian cannot certainly know that he hath charity whereby he may be assured that he is the Child of God But herein he joyneth with the Papists For they say as Estius doth quantum de dilectione fraternâ certi sumus tantum de isto look how much we are assured of our love to the Brethren so much are we assured of that also he meaneth that we are translated from death to life whereof he spake before Now he hath told us that this cannot certainly be known of us and so his meaning is as also Mr. D. that we cannot certainly but conjecturally only know that we love the Brethren Thus both Mr. D. and they would make St. John a silly and sory disputant as if he would prove ignotum per ignotius that which is unknown to us by another thing which is as much or more unknown for how can we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren if we have no more certain knowledge of this then of the former Our conjectural hope that we love the Brethren will only breed and beget in us an Opinion that we are translated from death to life but no knowledge thereof at all But on the contrary St. John saith not We hope we conjecture or we think but we know that we have passed from death to life And he proveth it as effectu tanquam signo hujus infallibili by an effect of this translation as an infallible sign thereof because saith he we love the Brethren Thus he maketh our love of the Brethren an evidence that we are in the state of salvation And hereupon St. Augustine writing on these words saith redeat unusquisque ad cor suum Si ibi invenerit charitatem fraternam securus sit quia transiit à morte ad vitam Let every one return unto his own heart if he doth there finde brotherly charity let him be secure because he hath passed from death to life Surely St. Augustine would never have spoken thus if he had thought that a Christian can have no certain knowledge of his love to the Brethren For it is not an uncertain hope or an opinion grounded on conjectures that can breed and beget any security in the soul Thus Christian Reader I have given thee a tast of Mr. D. his faculty in expounding of the Scriptures after his fancy More of his detorted Expositions I cannot acquaint thee with because I neither remember any more nor have his Book by me it being restored to the owner by him that lent it me long since And indeed I should both trouble my self and the Reader in rehearsing any more of them and this Treatise would swell and grow into too great a bulk whereby the weaker sort of Christians might be deterred and discouraged from reading of it for whose sake principally I have penned and published it that they may be setled and stablished in the truth which hath been formerly taught them and not be carried away with the deceiptfulness of novellous errors Here I made an end long since and thought to have proceeded no further but upon a second review of Mr. D. his three Treatises I started these Questions following which having discussed and determined I do here add unto the former hoping that they will not be altogether unacceptable unto not a few good Christians because the most of them may give some satisfaction unto them in divers doubts and scruples of Conscience wherewith their souls are exercised Quest 16. WHether all that are called of God and consequently that are his Children have alwayes and at all times their hearts ravished and replenished with surpassing joy and comfort Quest 17. Whether the Repentance which the Prophets taught and exhorted their hearers unto in the old Testament be the same which is taught in the new Quest 18. Whether there was any actual forgiveness of sin in the old Testament Quest 19. Whether there be not many things to be done by us before we can be saved Quest 20. Whether a man may not have a steadfast hope in God that he shall be saved who hath a care to keep Gods Law to do all things commanded and to shun all things forbidden to the uttermost of his power Quest 21. Whether a desire to believe be faith it self Quest 22. Whether he that useth the means of salvation constantly may not confidently expect and hope to be saved through Gods mercy in Christ Quest 23. Whether every one that he may be assured of the forgiveness of his sins and of his salvation is without reason or against reason to believe that his sins are pardoned and that God hath given him eternal life Quest 24. Whether he that hath oppressed defrauded or otherwise wronged his Neighbour in his goods and outward Estate can believe that his sins are pardoned before he hath made him restitution and satisfaction Quest 25. Whether the way for a wicked man to overcome and leave his sins be for him to believe that his sins are pardoned and forgiven him Quest 26. Whether every one that truly believeth in Christ be assured of salvation Quest 27. Whether every one who in his Conscience is not assured of his reconciliation to God and of his own salvation be a wicked man Quest 28. Whether a man can take no comfort in any of Gods promises unless he be first assured of his Faith FINIS
his Love as man is and not rather understand them to speak popularly of the Love of God as the Scripture it self doth in those places which I have before alleadged that is not in regard of the essence but of the efficiency and influence thereof in its gracious and most comfortable effects He hath the more reason thus candidly to inrerpret their words because they are at least some of them no such babes that they can be thought to be ignorant of the eternity and immutability of Gods Love being considered simply as it is in it self any more then of his other Attributes Quest 4. What is meant by our Reconciliation to God SECT I. Wherein is shewed What it is Reconcil of man to God pag. 48. Reconcil of God to man pag. 34. MR. D. distinguisheth hereof and saith That it is twofold 1. Gods Reconciliation to us 2. Our Reconciliation to God Of which he speaketh thus We have not one jot not one apex in all the new Covenant to be found of reconciling God to us but of our reconciliation to God Why then doth he write so much of Gods reconciliation to us not well weighing what he saith For Reconciliation importeth precedent enmity or at least some distast and displeasure taken for some fault committed or offence given For as Zanchius In Epistolam ad Coloss Davenantius and other learned do say Reconciliare nihil aliud est quàm amicitiam offensione aliqua diremptam resarcire et sic inimicos in pristinam concordiam reducere To reconcile is nothing else than to repair friendship after it hath been broken off by some offence and so of enemies to make them agree again as they did formerly In this sense our Saviour himself speaketh of Reconciliation when he saith If thou bringest thy gift to the altar Matth. 5.23 and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee that is that he is offended with thee for some fault or offence or other which thou hast committed against him leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way and be reconciled to thy brother that is go and confesse thy fault to him and give him that satisfaction which is meet and so regain his favour Now thus cannot God be said to reconcile himself unto us seeing there is no need thereof nay seeing it is altogether impossible there should be any such thing It is therefore but an improper or an abusive speech to say that God was alwaies reconciled unto us And this indeed Mr. D. ingenuously acknowledged Reconcil of God to man pag. 5. for because God alwaies loved his elect therefore saith he he cannot properly be said to reconcile himself unto them And may not I say further Because he never wronged them nor gave them any just cause of offence therefore in propriety of speech he cannot be said to reconcile himself unto them But I have no intent to carp at words so that no wrong sense be couched under them For I know th at good Divines other good Authors do now and then speak of Reconciliation as common to both parties See Estius in Lib. 4. Sent D●st 35. Sect. 7. Uxor marito reconciliatur quae offensa est Erasmus annot in 1 Cor. 7. I come therefore to the other branch of his distinction that is Our reconciliation unto God In remissione igitur peccatorum cum primis consistit haec reconciliatio in quit Zanchius in haec verba Pauli ab illo citata ad Eph. cap. 2. Reconcil of man to God p. 48. 50. St. Paul sheweth us wherein this doth consist when he saith that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them For hereby he giveth us to understand that our reconciliation to God consisteth in his pardoning of our sins and accepting of Christs Passion as a satisfaction unto his justice for them But Mr. D. taketh it in another sense For he distinguisheth of mans reconciliation to God and saith that it is either Original whereby our nature was reconciled unto God by the death of his Son without any condition or qualification wrought in us or Actuall which he calleth the reconciliation of our persons or consciences and saith that it is wrought within us although not by our own power Now he understandeth hereby nothing else Reconcil of man to God pag. 51. but that I may use his own words the manifestation of Gods reconciliation to us and of the reconciliation of our nature to God in Jesus Christ But surely not only our natures but our persons are reconciled to God by the death of Christ Heb. 9.14 Yea the blood of Christ as the Apostle saith doth purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God because Christ by his death hath purchased not only the pardon but the purging away of our sinful corruptions By Christs death then we are reconciled to God in regard of merit but we are actually reconciled unto God when by Faith we do receive Christ and do apply his merits unto our souls Of the former the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 5.19 20. viz. Rom. 5.10 Eph. 2.16 when he saith God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and in the other places alledged by Mr. D. Of the latter when he saith We pray you in Christs stead that ye be reconciled unto God Now how the former can be said to be Original and the Reconciliation of our Nature I cannot see nor conceive seeing it was wrought for us by Christ without us and is not originally neither propagated to us nor inherent in our Nature as Original sin is Again what reason hath he to call the manifestation of our Reconciliation to our consciences by the name of actual Reconciliation For though nothing doth appear or shew it self unto us until it doth actually exist Yet many things do actually exist and have being though they are not presently discerned of us SECT II. Objections answered Object BUt saith Mr. D. We were never out of Gods favour he alwaies loved us by our actual Reconciliation therefore unto God can be meant nothing else but the manifestation of Gods Reconciliation to us and of the Reconciliation of our Nature to God in Christ and not any actual bringing of us into Grace and favour with God Answer Hereunto I answer That although we were never absolutely out of Gods love and favour to speak of his Love as it is in it self yet notwithstanding he did not approve of us but disliked us and was offended and displeased with us while we continued in our sins we were in this regard therefore reconciled unto God until we were converted unto him and did by Faith lay hold on Christ even as David though he alwaies loved and favoured Absolon yet when he had slain his brother Ammon was offended and displeased with him and would not admit him into his presence until Joab wrought the means of his reconciliation But here it
with his own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins Acts 5.31 To whom also hath God promised remission of sins Verily not to those that do live in sin but that do leave their sins and return unto GOd Ezek. 18.21 22 23 24. Pardon of sin therefore or which is all one justification and absolution from sin is not to be had until a man do repent and become a new man But what need I to heap up any more testimonies or to use any more reasons seeing St. Paul shutteth up his disputation of justification in these words Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Rom. 3.28 It will not serve M. D.'s turn to say That Pauls meaning is that we are justified declaratively to our own consciences by Faith only and not by works For St. Peter who spake by the same Spirit that St. Paul did teacheth us That by the constant practice not only of Faith but of other vertues and good works also we are to make our Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 2.10 that is to our own souls and consciences Consequently therefore by the same works may also be assured in our consciences of our justification before God and of our reconciliation to his Divine Majesty For he that is assured of his Election and of his effectual Vocation is assured of his justification and salvation Mr. D. therefore setteth a false glosse upon St Pauls words when he saith that his meaning is not that we are actually justified before God by Faith only but declaratively to our own consciences for thus are we justified by other Vertues as well as by Faith SECT II. Mr. D. his Objections answered ALL these plain Testimonies and many more Mr. D. thinketh to avoid and put off by saying that we were justified actually by Christs righteousness before we did believe even at that very time when he suffered his bitter Passion and bare our sins on his Body on the Tree and that therefore as I intimated before the Scriptures which say we are justified by Faith must be thus understood That Faith justifieth declaratively that is that our Faith declareth and maketh it evident unto our consciences that our sins are forgiven and that we are justified before God But the Scriptures as I have shewed do speak so plainly that they will not suffer themselves thus to be wrested Notwithstanding he goeth about to prove this his exposition by these Arguments following Object Confer p. 14. Rom. 4.5 Rom. 5.10 1. That the Act of our Faith is a Consequent of our justification and not an Antecedent is plain For God justifieth the ungodly And we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son when we were enemies Now saith he Believers cannot be called enemies but friends But we were reconciled when we were enemies The answer hereunto is easie to wit Answer That we were ungodly and so enemies antecedenter ad reconciliationem nostram that is before we were reconciled but not when we did actually believe The Apostle therefore in these words of his denotat tatum terminum à quo istius reconciliationis non terminum ad quem that is And so speaketh in the same sense as Isay doth c. 3. when he saith The lame man shall leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb sing which as Chamier saith must be understood in sensu diviso non in composito he sheweth what manner of persons we were before we were reconciled to God not what we are being reconciled He speaketh therefore in the same sense as our Saviour doth when he saith Math. 11.5 the lame walk and the deaf hear The meaning whereof no man will conceive to be that the lame still continuing lame did walk and that the deaf still continuing deaf did hear but that those who formerly were lame and deaf being cured by Christ did go and hear And even so in like manner when the Apostle saith that God justifieth the ungodly and that we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son when we were enemies the meaning is not That the ungodly remaining ungodly are justified or that any are enemies to God after they are actually reconciled unto him but that we who by nature and of our selves were ungodly and therefore enemies were justified from that ungodliness of ours and reconciled unto God when we believed in Christ Objection But saith he We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Christ bare our sins in his body on the Tree Remission of sin therefore is even as ancient as satisfaction for sin and at what time Christ Jesus taketh our sins upon himself at the same time are the persons of Gods Elect just before the tribunal of Almighty God Answer Hereunto I answer That we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son meritoriè that is in regard of merit but are not actually reconciled until we do by Faith receive Christ apply the merits of his Passion to our souls In the same sense is Christ said to bear our sins on his Body on the tree that is the punishment of our sins whereby he purchased the pardon of them It doth not follow therefore neither from these nor from any other the like sayings that actual remission of sins is as ancient as satisfaction for sin nor that the persons of Gods Elect were just before the Tribunal of God at the same time when Christ Jesus took our sins upon himself Mr. D. therefore doth indeed wrest those places of Scripture which speak of the actual performance of the price of our Redemption when he alledgeth them to impugn actual remission of sins by Faith Another of his Objections is this Object Confer p. 15. They that are ingrafted into Christ Jesus are justified but we must be ingrafted into Christ Jesus before we can believe therefore we must be justified before we can believe What force and what strength there is in this reasoning of his I will request him to consider by the like Answer They that are ingrafted into Christ Jesus are holy for so are all his members but we must be ingrafted into Christ Jesus before we can believe therefore we must be holy before we can believe Will he say that this is rightly concluded from the premises No he must not for he telleth us that holiness cannot go before Faith but must follow it But to answer his Argument Confer p. 21. When he saith They that are ingrafted into Christ Jesus are justified But we must be ingrafted into Christ Jesus before we can believe If here he do understand priority of time I deny this Assumption of his For at the same time that we are ingrafted into Christ we receive power from him to believe Again seeing Christ is offered unto us in the Promises of the Gospel How can we be made partakers of Christ if we
The Type of the brasen Serpent teacheth us that we must feel our sins and be pained with them before Object 4 we can come to Christ Another of Mr. S. his Objections in this It 's right lifting up of Jesus Christ upon the Crosse as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wildernesse not for the healed to look upon Answ but the wounded But whom doth he here reason against not the ancient and Orthodox Protestant for the preparation which they require to a sinners conversion and to his Faith in Christ is that he do feel the spiritual sicknesses and diseases of his soul Now shall we say as he doth that this is to be healed I trow as long as one feeleth himself sick he is not healed But I take it his meaning is though by his words he doth not so well express it That the Israelites that were stung with fiery Serpents were to do nothing for the recovery of their health but to look up unto the brasen Serpent therefore we also are only by Faith to look up unto Christ and to believe in him that we may be saved without any other preparations Now unto this Objection of his I do answer First that it is not to be expected that any one Type should absolutely shaddow out all things that were either to be done by Christ or that are necessarily to be performed by those that shall be saved by him This Type of the brazen Serpent doth excellently prefigure all these things First Our spiritual misery by sin For as the Israelites were wounded to death with the fiery Serpents so were we become guilty of eternal death through the malice of the old fiery and infernal Serpent the Devil Secondly As the brazen Serpent exalted by Moses was the only remedy against the venome of the fiery Serpents so Jesus Christ exalted upon the Crosse is the only remedy against the venome of sin infused into our nature through the malicious subtilty of the old Serpent the Devil Thirdly As the only means whereby the Israelites were cured that were wounded to death was by looking up unto the brazen Serpent so the only means whereby we are saved is Faith in Christ whereby we do with the spiritual eyes of our souls look up unto him as he was exalted on the Crosse and do put the whole confidence of our salvation him Lastly As the wounded Israelites that looked up unto the brazen Serpent being miraculously by this means cured did not dye but live so whosoever looketh up unto Christ crucified by the eye of Faith and believeth in him shall not perish but have eternal life All these things are excellently shaddowed and set forth 〈◊〉 our eyes in this most illustrious Type of 〈…〉 but otherwise it typifieth not the mystery of 〈◊〉 ●●viours incarnation by the immediate power of the holy Ghost nor the union of his two natures nor his burial resurrection from the grave ascension into Heaven sitting at the right hand of God and coming thence to judge the world yet all these are principal Articles of our Christian Faith and necessarily to be believed of us as well as our Saviours Passion upon the Crosse whereby he payed the price of our redemption We read not neither is any mention made of the Israelites thankfulnesse to God when they were cured of their deadly wounds which the fiery serpents gave t em but on the contrary that they after this rebelled against God yet I presume it will not be denied by any that we ought to be thankful to God for our redemption and salvation by Christ But to let this passe I say further that this type of the brazen Serpent teacheth us that we must feel our sins and be afflicted in mind and pained with remorse of conscience for them before we can come to Christ and by Faith lay hold of him to our salvation for it was the scalding and fiery venome which those Serpents infused into the bodies of such as were wounded by them that hastned them unto the brazen Serpent which Moses had exalted and that made them to look up unto it for the obtaining of help and health If any had been insensibly bitten by one of those Serpents so that he had felt no smart nor no pain at all he would have taken himself to have been well and would never have had any recourse to the brazen Serpent at all And even in like sort it is the sense and feeling of sin and of the burden and misery of it that driveth men unto Christ and maketh them to rely on him for salvation for such as feel not their sins do sleep securely in them without any fear and do not perceive that they stand in any great need of Christ but do rest and rely on themselves much more then they do on him This Type therefore here alledged or alluded unto by Mr. S. m●●●● for us and against him Such a felicity he hath to 〈…〉 that do confute his own Opinions and 〈…〉 Object 5. Object 5 He saith further It leaves men under greater condemnation when Christ is brought home to the soul for then there can be no objecting Lord had I been thus and thus fit and prepared then I should have received thee but I was a foul sinner at the same very time and so guilty O will the Lord answer I came therefore to pardon thee and to wash thee in my bloud because thou art foul and that is no excuse Answ Here are many words and much vehemency used to little purpose for this objection of his toucheth not us at all First It presupposeth that they which are qualified with such previous dispositions as we teach do come unto Christ Secondly That at that time in regard of these their preparations they are no foul sinners nor guilty of damnation And thirdly That they do therefore merit grace and must necessarily be accepted All which are false suppositions and not acknowledged by us as hath been sufficiciently shewed before Object 6. Moreover he telleth us That it is most agreeable to Object 6 the Gospel-way of dispensation that sinners as sinners that is that all sorts of sinners should be received by Christ whether they acknowledge their sins or no. And to prove this he alledgeth those words of our Saviour The whole have no need of the Physician but the sick Matth. 9.12.13 I came not to call the righteous but sinners unto Repentance To this Obiection of his I answer Answ that the righteous of whom our Saviour here speaketh are not such as are perfectly righteous and no sinners for thus as St. Paul telleth us there are none righteous no not one Rom. 3.19 It were such justitiaries as the Scribes and Pharisees that falsly supposed themselves to be righteous whom our Saviour saith that he came not to call and yet such as these Mr. S. will have to be the fittest of all other for Christ and for his grace Now in opposition unto these hypocritical righteous