the law by our own strength and the doing of it by the help of grace it is apparent that we can never be justified by the works of the law by what means soever we do them whether by the strength of nature or by the law of grace But he neither understands this Scripture wherein the Apostle is the obscurer because he is concise nor fits or states the opposition here aright For first no man can be saved or justified by believing alone that God raised Christ from the dead that is not the Apostles doctrine or meaning but he that will be saved must believe that Christ likewise rose again for our justification that is for to cleanse us from sin and make us just Rom. 4.23 24. Now it is not written for his Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed to him but also us to whom it shall be imputed if we believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification by faith to sanctification and the opposition is clearly made by the Apostle between the fulfilling of the Law by our own strength and between the doing of that work by the help of grace in Christ or by faith in him Rom. 3.21 22. were it rightly understood Rom. 8.3 4. and chap. 10.5 6 7 8 9 10. for as Moses saith Deut. 30.14 concerning the knowledge of the law that the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it so speaketh Paul here concerning Christs spiritual word whereby we must be sanctified to fulfill the Law vers 6 7 8. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to â—ring down Christ from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ from the dead But what saith it the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart it is the word of faith which we preach to wit an inward living word Christ to quicken us in all righteousness for the purging out of sin and the fulfilling of the law and then it follows verse 9.11 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth in way of earnest prayer the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath for this end even thy justification raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved to wit from all sins spiritual enemies and the wrath to come And this is the Apostles doctrine every where Gal. 1.2 3 4 5. chapters Ephes 2.1 10. so it is most evident out of Phil. 3.8 9 10. where the Apostle having said vers 9. that I may be found in Christ not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is by the faith of Christ even the righteousness that is of God by faith which he at the tenth verse by way of explication sets forth what that is thus that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and for the overcoming of sin the fellowship of his suffering to suffer our every temptation with patience to the end and so may be made conformable unto his death the onely way in Christ unto life if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead first in the power of Christs resurrection here Rom. 6.5 and then at the last day Thus both the Vindicators suppositions and conclusions do fall to the ground or earth and place from whence they came But Bellarmine saith he in his first book de justificatione cap. 19. labours to prove by three special arguments that all works of the law are not excluded from our justification Which thing he might justly do say we if he had understood the works of justification aright First because faith is a work and that there is a law of faith as well as of works and therefore if all works were excluded from our justification then faith it self must be excluded and so to be justified by faith were to be justified without faith Secondly because the Apostles intent is Rom. 3. that neither the Jews by the observation of Moses his law nor the Gentiles by their moral works and so neither Jews nor Gentiles could be justified by any works that they could do before they believed in Jesus Christ Thirdly because the Apostle shews Rom. 4.4 that the works which he excludes from justification are those works to which wages are due by debt and not by grace and those saith Bellarmine are all such works as are done by our own natural abilities without the assistance of any supernatural grace Unto which he or some other answers page 63. thus But unto all those I say we confess faith to be a work and it is the commandement of God that we believe in Jesus Christ but we deny that faith justifies us as it a work is performed in obedience unto this command but as it is an instrument embracing yea seeking Jesus Christ aforesaid it is not the act of believing but the thing holden he should have said first sought and gotten and possessed by believing that is our righteousness True if he understood rightly what that is or should be Secondly he saith that Bellarmine is mistaken in the whole scope of the Apostle and St. Paul doth not give us the least intimation of what he meaneth that we are not justified by any works done by our natural strength The which is false as we have fully and truly proved as well as formerly but rather sheweth that inasmuch as we are all sinners against the Law therefore by our obedience done to the Law however done by grace or without grace no man can be justified in Gods sight But this as we shewed before is contrary to many expresse Scriptures see Psalm 15.1 and 112. Isai 33.13 17. Ezek. 18.5 9. he is just he shall surely live saith the Lord God Mat. 12.37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Rom. 2.13 For not the hearers of the Law are just but the doers of the Law are justified See Jam. 1.22 1 Joh. 3.7 Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousnesse is righteous as he is righteous 1 Joh. 4.17 18. as before Thirdly he saith to Rom. 4.4 cited by Bellarmine the Apostle intendeth no such distinction of works as Bellarmine alledgeth but he excludeth all works as well those that are done by the help of grace as those that are done without grace from the justification of Abraham for those works of Abraham are excluded wherein Abraham might glory before men true but these are the works saith he which he did by the helpe of grace Oh absurd for who made him to differ from other men or what had he in that behalfe which he had not received and why should he or any other boast before men as if he had not received that grace 1 Cor. 4.7 for
following are false and his are his old picklocks for first he saith though the Saints do grow up under the word and Sacraments yet it is not to the attainment of an exact obedience in this life to be without sin in this life and to have grace consummate but they grow and edifie one another in love But we speak not here what the Saints do actually but what they may and ought to do nor of their mutual edification of each other but of the words design and abilitie to build them up to the top or the finishing of the edifice for a skilful and a faithful builder gives not over till the structure is finished Secondly he saith that the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ is attained onely in glory Which in his sense is false for here we may have a perfection of degrees as well as of parts to wit the perfection of sanctification or grace which we call the perfection of the way as we have often proved before whatsoever he saith to the contrary In the ninth place he brings in two or three Scriptures together out of Doctor Draytons sermon upon one and the same head as he might have found more of the same kind there They are these that the Apostle prayes for the perfecting of the Saints Heb. 13.20 2 Cor. 13.9 1 Pet. 5.10 and surely they prayed for things feasible and attainable nor can the prayer of Christ for the same be in vain John 17.25 I in them and they in me that they might be made perfect in one Unto which page 47 he gives in the old lying and sinful distinction for an answer namely That the Apostles prayed for the perfecting of the Saints and so did our blessed Saviour and they obtained what they prayed for that is to say to have them sincere in this life and to have grace consummate in the state of glory But we have proved that the sincerity which Paul prayed for in the behalfe of the Saints was a state devoid of sin and to be had before and in order unto the kingdome of glory Phil. 1.10 11. That ye may approve the things that are excellent and that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ and that ye may be filled with the fruits of righteousness 1 Thes 5.23 Now the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God that your whole spirit soul and body be reserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ But he brings in two replies of ours by way of Anticipation likewise the first of which is this is sin pardoned and mortified and doth it yet remain Which he answers with his old crambe centies posita It is so pardoned as not to be imputed it s so mortified that the power and dominion of it is taken away yet it remaineth to be more and more mortified and wholly cast out at the death of the body and death shall be destroyed at the general resurrection and so it is the last enemie that shall be destroyed But though he and others have often and confidently affirmed that sin shall be cast out at the death of the body they could never bring one Text of Scripture for this article of their belief nor should they be able to do it though they live to the age of Methushelah whose name and life is a dart of death against sin and their position Then he brings in our second reply which as he saith is this When must sin be purged out if not in this life must we carry the remainders of sin into the kingdome of heaven whereinto no unclean thing shall enter Rev. 21.27 To which he gives us his old thred-bare and beggarly we had almost said and lowsie answer that men shall not carry the remainder of sin into Gods kingdome with them but they shall lay it down at the death of the body Then there is hope that none shall go to hell for corruption or thereby be debarred from heaven there is hope also that the Vindicator may then lay down his lying and his other lewd prrctises against God and man at that day The thief saith he onely converted shall be that day in paradise Therefore he may safely continue in his sin till the hour of death But what if that thief had repented long before even from his first apprehension or perhaps from the committing of the fact for this is possible and the Scripture hath nothing to the contrary Yea what if he belived on Christ afore having heard of or seen his miracles though he had not the opportunity to confess him till now nor to pray unto him face to face nor doth he understand what paradise this was into which Christ and he entred for the first paradise is a submission unto Gods will even under the punishing hand of God and the last is the third heaven unto which Paul was caught by way of vision 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. And as for Rev. 21.27 he saith it is confessed by our own fraternity to be the state of the Saints in patria It s true all the reformed Churches and that of England whose first reformation might have been a pattern to all the rest doe almost generally conceive that the new Jerusalem or heavenly City of God spoken of Rev. 21 22. chap. is the state of the Saints in patria and so do the Papists also for the greatest part which of those then must be our fraternity But there are some of both Religions that hold the new Jerusalem to be an estate attainable in this life because John saw it descending down from heaven unto men as a tabernacle of God wherein they were to worship him and he heard a loud voice following and saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himselfe shall be with them and be their God Rev. 21.1 2 3. But herein all doe agree that men must cease to be of Mr. Tondrings fraternity before they can enter into this state for there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye Rev. 21.27 Then he concludeth with the like confidence as he begun And thus have I briefly proved unto you the truth of the point which yet hath not one point of truth in it That sin will have a being in the best of men while their souls have a being in these houses of clay And this I hope saith he may be sufficient to satisfie the people Yea and perhaps some of the Priests also who are very easily perswaded to sleep still in sin and loth to be put upon an hard encounter against the Canaanites for such are apt to believe the unbelieving spies and much more the Scout-master-generall who like his Master doth go to and fro compassing the earth and walking up and down in it And if saith he I shall meet with any
they by him to wit in a cooperative way onely he actually performed so did they also and they by imputation yes if you take that for his free gift and contribution of his help he by vertue and merit internal they by gift grace Thus all his words are in some sort true but not in his sense And thirdly saith he as touching the beginning of inward and outward obedience in this life for this is the love of God that we keep his commandements 1 John 5.3 But here he is twice mistaken for first that obedience is the same thing which we speak of and he should have done if he had understood himself in the foregoing member and secondly that Text of St. John doth not in that Scripture speak of an inchoative obedience only but of a complete observance of the Law the which he and his fellow-Apostles with divers other other brethren had already attained But the Law is impossible saith he to the regenerate in respect of God that is saith he as he is the perfect outward and inward obedience of the Law Which is false but how proves he it Page 50. he first cites that of Psal 143.2 which we have had so often before Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord and there he alledgeth some of his former reasons First they fulfill not perfectly because they do many things against the Law But are the Saints necessitated to do so unto the end of their lives for in many things we offend all saith James c. 3.2 and I am sure he hath oftener then once offended in wresting this Scripture against the Apostles and perfect Saints which James speaks to the younger believers Then he adds out of Psal 19. who knoweth the errours of his life Surely not till God revealeth them which he doth to his servants who desire to be humbled for them and healed of them Phil. 3.15 And if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal it unto you Is 30.21 And thine ear shall hear a voice behind thee saying this is the way walk in it when ye turn to the right hand or to the left Secondly those things which the regenerate do according to the Law are imperfect what in their youth and old age in Christ also for there are in the regenerate saith he as I have shewed in my former position but with much ignorance and errour many sins remaining as original sin ignorances and impurities he measures all men by his own last which they acknowledge and bewaile Is 64.41 But that is the Prophets confession in the behalfe of the unregenerate We have been as an unclean thing and all our righteousness is as filthy raggs which words we fear the Vindicator may use concerning his present estate for all his pretense to the work of regeneration for his life and doctrine bear witness unto it Then he comes to a second distinction or thesis the perfect obedience to Gods Law is fulfilled in us two wayes first by application of Christs righteousness unto us to wit like one of his outward emplasters he is our head saith he what of the evill doers and we his members what when we give our members as weapons of unrighteousness to sin and corruption and are so rivited with him that we are not to be taken asunder but as one body with him Which is true only of those which are first implanted into him by the similitude of his death and after by the likenesse of his resurrection as we said before but the Vindicator and his party hold neither of those estates attainable in this life By vertue of which communion saith he it comes to passe that that which is ours is his yes when we yield the whole desire and delight of our hearts over to him and his service in all righteousnesse and that which is his is ours then we can neither want understanding to know nor power to keep his Law for he hath both so that in our head that is in our conceit and imagination we have fulfilled the Law and satisfied Gods justice for our sins saith he as I have shewed before But to satisfie Gods justice for our sins is one thing which Christ alone hath done for them that leave their sins and to fulfil Gods Law is another which we also must do by and through Christ working in us and with us Rom. 8.4 otherwise all these are meer dreams and delusions of Satan to make men secure if not presumptions under the reliques if not the whol body of sin Secondly it wil be fulfilled within us whether we sleep or wake as he supposeth by and in our perfect sanctification to wit in another world though now our obedience is but in part The Lord Jesus saith he at the last day when the last enemy which is death shall be destroyed shall bring it in us unto perfection But what shall those that dye before want their consummation in grace and obedience till the generall resurrection and how is death the last enemy when our sins by perfect sanctification shall not be-destroyed and purged out till after death How doth this man contradict himselfe who said that in our personal death sin shal be perfectly purged away and grace consummate unto glory This is the end saith he which Christ hath proposed unto himselfe and whereof he cannot be frustrate Ephes 5.26 As he hath begun it so he shall finish it But what think you is that to us and how shall this be sought and attained by faith obedience and prayer as our full renovation must be He shall then conform us to the Law the righteousnesse thereof shall then be fulfilled in us saith he But Paul commands us Rom. 12.2 in the mean time not to conform our selves to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God Then the Vindicator goeth on with his swelling words of vanity promising liberty unto others when himself is the servant of corruption as the false teachers were always wont to doe 2 Pet. 2.18 19. and saith that there shall not be left in our nature so much as a sinful motion or desire but he shall at the last present us pure and without blame unto his Father he shall make us perfectly answerable to the holinesse which the Law requireth and shall bring it to passe in his own good time which is in this life time say we for the other life is a time of harvest and of reaping those things which we have done in the body 2 Cor. 5.10 For we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or evil and unto this Judgement we must goe as soon as we give up the Ghost for it is appointed for all men once to die and after follows the judgement Heb. 9.27 and
or imputed righteousnesse yet he justifieth the ungodly that turn from their ungodlinesse and that both by a proper and an imputed righteousnesse as we have shewed Secondly by the office of a mediator that was to undergo for us or rather to do for us whatsoever was required of us to be done But may not this be done as well within us by Christs grace and cooperation for us yea vvith much more piety and justice every man being created to a personal obedience tovvards God and his Lavv. Thirdly 〈◊〉 a recuperation or recovery of happiness vvhich could not be attained without perfect righteousnesse because the death of Christ as he saith freeth us from erernal death to wit when we are dead with him unto sin and the obedience of Christ that within us only brings us to eternal or everlasting life All which you must take upon his word and credit for he knows not how to prove it And therefore we say quoth he that Christ was born for us not only auferre peccata to take away the sins of the world to wit by sanctification by his voluntary suffering of the most bitter death of the cross but that only takes away the guilt and shews us how in order thereunto we should sacrifice flay and consume all our sins but adferre justitiam to bring righteousnesse unto us but how by his plenary obedience within us not without us to the most holy Law of God Which is yet unproved And therefore those Scriptures saith he that do ascribe our falvation unto Christs death which none do are not to be taken exclusively or as denying the active obedience of Christ to be imputed unto us but Synecdochically for the accomplishment of the whole obedience of Christ that was to be performed for us But none such was to be performed for us or upon our score as we have often affirmed nor can the contrary be proved out of the holy Scriptures And with this affirmation of his saith he agree the main and major part for his tooth and dyet as aforesaid of all orthodox he should have said heterodox Divines and most of the Fathers To wit since Calvins days Secondly saith he the passive obedience of Christ is all the sufferings of Christ both in life and death for our sins Yes and much more also in our inward man for us while we went on in our rebellion against God of which he never thinks because the justice of God required that we should never be freed from death without a just punishment in Christ like death also laid upon our selves or on some other for us both which we grant And therefore saith he the prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah should be wounded yea had been so as we said before for your trausgressions and bruised for our iniquities chap. 53.5 And Daniel saith that he should be cut off but not for himselfe Daniel 9.26 and St. Peter saith should hear our sins in his our body on the cross but for what end that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousnesse and then it follows by whose stripes or fellow-sufferings ye are healed 1 Pet. 2.14 and St. John saith Rev. 1.15 that he washed us him and his fellow-Apostles and Saints who were throughly clensed from sin in his own blood or Spirit Rev. 1.5 And here we must observe saith he that this obedience of Christ is of sufficient merit to satisfie for all sins and for those that were repented of and left more especially by reason of the dignity of the person that did obey or suffer for the hypostatical union of the Manhood of Christ with the Godhead makes the obedience of Christ to be of inestimable value or price Act. 20.18 True but that Te◠speaks of the blood of Christs Spirit for with that also is the Church of God purchased or redeemed from among men Rev. 14.3 4. Thirdly the formall cause saith he of our justification actively considered is a free imputation of Christs actual righteousnesse we say the inhesive whereby the merit of Christs obedience is applied unto all beleevers that is the accounting of us just and righteous for the merits of that obedience which Christ effected for us saith he pag. 71. But this is more formally then truly spoken for as we saith he apply unto our selves the righteousnesse of Christ and make the same our own by faith and acceptation he should have said by meer imagination so God himselfe saith he applieth it unto us by imputation according to his putation and accepts us for righreous for the righteousnesse of Christ which we have not and this imputation of righteousnesse saith he is a work of grace which God never spake or thought of not of nature a communicating of another righteousnesse and not a conferring of any real therein saith he truly or habitual righteousness upon us But without such a real or habitual one righteousness shall no man that hath polluted himself be justified or saved And this is a sweet exchange saith Justine Martyr if he belie him not or mistake not his sense in Epist ad Diog. that one should be sin for many and that the iniquity of many should be covered yea blotted out say we with the righteousness of one to wit his internal righteousness or that the justice or kindness of one should make many that are and were injust to be reputed yea to be just to omit that most of the Fathers which he had read speak to this purpose Frier Tarrus saith in serm de Dom. Advent Christ hath made all partakers of his justice and merits so say we that they might be able to stand in his sight and sustain the judoment of God see 1 John 4.17 18. often before alledged by us Because saith he there is no mortal man living whose righteousness to wit his own can be sufficient to obtain eternal salvation But if the Frier meant it as the Vindicator doth we hope the Vindicator will turn Frier also But saith the Vindicator Christs righteousness is made ours not because it is infused or translated into us Oh take heed of that for it would drive out sin too soon to abide habitually in us but because it is imputed and reputed unto us rather by him and his party then God as if it were theirs when it is not whom God doth acquit from sin and actually count just for the justice of Jesus Christ And therefore the force of our justification however I easily beleeve it is not any habitual sanctity subjectively remaining in us but the righteousness of Christ of which in his sense there is no mention in the Scriptures freely imputed unto us and so though it be without us and they without it yet it is made ours by right of giving if he knew by whose gift The Apostle saith he remarkably in Rom. 4.6 7. joyneth both the imputation of righteousness and the remission of sins together as the two special means to make us happy And so do we
3. idem Serm. de fide lum nat God hath justified us using thereto no works of ours such as we work of our selves but onely requiring faith in Christ so say we also and without faith no man obtaineth life But I am able to shew saith he page 74. that a faithful man hath lived and obtained the kingdome of heaven without works Do it then and give Saint James the lie who saith chap. 2.14 What doth it profit my brethren though a man saith that he hath faith and have no works can that faith save him So the thief saith he did onely believe and was justified But was not his reproving of his fellow-thief the condemnation of himself and his partner in those evils and the accepting of his punishment the justifying of Gods justice and the clearing of Christ as innocent the owning of him for his Lord and his prayer for mercy besides all his former repentance which as we have shewed was both possible and probable was all this we say as no workes and fruits of his faith we may justly question whether the Vindicator hath ever shewed such fruits of his repentance and evidences of a true faith howbeit you see he makes much of this thief alledging him again and again as if he would fulfil the proverb Similis simili c. And Basil quoth he de humilitate saith This is to glory in the Lord when a man doth not boast of his own righteousness but acknowledgeth himself destitute of righteousness and justified onely by the faith of Jesus Christ Who doth not so yet do we not relie upon a false and meer imagined righteousness in Christ as the Vindicator doth Thirdly the material cause of our justification passively considered saith he or the persons to whom justification belongs these are rather subjects and objects then a material cause are those sheep of Christ that are known of him of whom no doubt a great part are fully justified already and he known to them that hear his voice and follow him whom he predestinated to life and elected before the foundation of the world Rom. 8.30 Moreover whom he did prodestinate them he also called and whom he called those he justified in a sanctifying way and whom he justified he glorified And Rodolph saith he in Levit lib. 17. cap. 2. That the blood of the High Priest was the High priest wont to be slain then was the expiation of the sin of all believers and so Christ hath taken away not onely the original sin but also all actual sins in respect of the guilt punishment and dominion of sin but not in respect of the corruption and pollution of sin which still remaineth in the best Saints But this Rodolphus is not a good Agricola for so Christ who came to perfect or present his Church holy and without blemish before God should have the worst thing and that which of all other is most hateful to God namely the pollution of sin to be left behind which to say is blasphemy against him And besides this saith he out of Haymo in Rom. 5. He hath given unto them everlasting life and to none other doth justification belong saith he and the reasons may be these All those that be justified in full shall be glorified for whom he justified them he glorified Rom. 8.30 But all men shall not be glorified because the kingdome of heaven shall be given but onely unto them for whom it is prepared Matth. 20.23 Secondly but that Text speaketh of sitting at Christs right hand or left Christ is called Jesus for that he should save his people from their sins that is none at all fully according to his doctrine Matth. 1.21 But though all men are his people jure creationis saith he that is by right of creation yet all men are not his people jure donationis given him to be redeemed from their sins and corruptions for of them thou gavest me I have lost none yes the Son of perdition John 17.12 And ye believe not faith Christ because ye are not of my sheep Joh. 10.26 therefore he shall not justifie all men thereby to save them from their sins But whose fault is that Christs or theirs for he invites all that are weary and heavy laden to come unto him Matth. 11.28 29. and Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the bride say Come and let him that heareth say Come and whosoever will let him take of the waters of life freely Yea though no man can come unto Christ unless the Father which sent me draw him and those he will raise up at the last day John 6.44 yet who is it that the Father doth not draw first to himself if he will come and after to his Son to be justified and saved by him Hosea 11.3 4. I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their armes but they knew not that I healed them I drew them with the cords of a man even with the bonds of love and I was to them as they that tooke off the yoke and I laid meat before them See Job 33.29 30. so all these things worketh God oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living and chap. 36.10 11. He openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from iniquity if they obey and serve him they shall spend their dayes in prosperity and their years in pleasure but if they obey not they shall perish by the sword and they shall die without knowledge And Christ who tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 saith of the Jews and might do it of others also whom he and his Father draweth John 9.40 and ye will not come unto me that ye may have life but men are in a special manner given unto Christ by the Father when they are first converted by him and after brought to believe on the Son for salvation from all their spiritual enemies John 6.37 46. Thirdly the formal cause of our justification passively considered saith he page 75. is the particular application of the righteousness of Christ which in his sense is monstrum informe unto every saithful soul But is this application an act or passion wherein two things are to be considered saith he first that faith must apply unto us all the benefits that Christ hath effected for us Is the work done to our hands is he to effect nothing in us for our justification Secondly that every man in particular must apply these things unto himself if he desires to be deluded as he is for the first saith he this is one of the manifest differences betwixt the faith of Gods elect of which he knows little or nothing and the faith of Devils and wicked men that the godly do apply unto themselves all the benefits of Christ Or rather do apply themselves to the seeking of the same according to the promises and the other know them but have not true grace to apply them But what are
claiming their ministration as aforesaid will prove themselves their successors whether included or not included in the words Math. 28.20 who are mentioned Ephes 4.11 and so the Ministers of Jesus Christ then they must demonstrate themselves to be men of honest report amongst Apostolick-men if there be any and full of the Holy Ghost and wisdome even that wisdome specified Jan. 3.17 and not be pufed up with pride and shewing bitternesse and wrath and carry themselves Diotrephes-like loving so far to have the preeminence as to have power to receive whom they think fit into the Ministerial office and to reject whom they affect not because they are not of their mind though peradventure better qualified with saving truths then themselves yea do not only so but forbid or hinder them that would receive them or cast them out of their livelyhood Hence we sayagain that if they derive their claim as aforesaid to be their successors they must be qualified like those Pastors which we have proved to be qualified as aforesaid by reason it is said Ephos 4.11 they were of Christs own making and gifted with his immediate gifts v. 8. which cannot be lesse or fewer then fit for the ends they were appointed unto v. 12 13. the ultimate whereof is to become a perfect man which most of our Ministers deny to be in this life unto the measure of the stature or age of the fulnesse of Christ Therefore the Ministers of England if they lay claim to be the successors of the foresaid Pastors and Teachers and so the Ministers of Jesus Christ they must be such Pastors so made by Jesus Christ inwardly for their outward ordination is but a ceremony which they most frequently apply where there is not the thing signified namely such gifts in those ordained men which if there be then they must first understand those gifts to be and own them yea imploy them for those ends expressed Ephes 4.12.13 which ultimate end is denied by many to be attained in this life and their great contest and zeal is to lay claim to the said succession for to justifie their office and not to have the office of Presbyter Ministers and Bishops to be extinct out of their Church but we heare no disputes nor can we see such zeal and animosities put forth to defend their claim to their predecessors gifts but they can be content to say yea to excuse themselves to be like other men save only in the Grecians wisdome and literature 1. Cor. 1.22 in passions and conversations if not below other men as too often it s to be feared but their office forsooth they would have looked upon as to be the Ministers and Bishops of Jesus Christ when the gifs aforesaid of such Pastors Ehes 4.11 and of such Bishops Deacons which are specified 1 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5. c. are not to be found yea not be believed can they be in these days so that if the Son of man come again as he will come will he find faith as it s said Luk. 18.8 on the earth amongst these sorts of men to believe that there is any who can come while he liveth to a perfect state in holinesse though it s declared to be the end that all these officers are appointed Ephes 4.12 13. The foresaid men are so sollicitous and careful to prove their office of ministration to be from the Apostles downward that when they are reproched as to have their office from the Pope and Popish Bishops because those did once rule in England that they presently deny it and say having brushed their vesti tures and pickt out the Crosse that they have cast off the reliques of Rome and only retain they said the office which indeed the Popes had from their immediate predecessors and so they run to the top of the scale or ladder to see the Apostles descending like the Angel on Jacobs ladder Gen. 28.12 to justifie them to be their successors for matter of office without their gifts as aforesaid But we believe that Christ meant by that place of Scripture otherwise then such a continued future succession to follow to the end of the world for the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am with you all the days to the end of that age Hence why may not we think Christ meant the like dayes of which he biddeth them rell Herod that fox Luk. 13.23 24. Behold I do cures to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfected so all the days of their age or dispensation he would be with them to assist them in the accomplishment of their cures or work which like dayes are intimated Hosea 6.2 After two days he will revive us and in the third we shall live in his sight which Christ we believe calleth the last day and not the end of the world when he saith and I will raise him up at the last day Joh. 6.39 40 41. in a parallel respect to the Lord Jesus day who was raised up at the last day for it is said he was dead and buried and the third day he rose again so it is said Rom. 6.4 5 6. c. We are buried with Christ by baptisme into death c. for if we have been planted together into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection which work of mortification to a new life the Apostles were appointed to preach v. 19 20. until the accomplishment ' of the age of the fulnesse of Christ Ephes 4.13 In this foresaid sense the words may be justified to be truly spoken to the Apostles in their own persons but not in the sense the words are translated into Lo I am with you to the end of the world for so they cannot be literally true therefore such as desired to hear of such a succession aforesaid and finding no fitter place in their apprehensions they presently fancied Christs meaning to be in their successors by saying ' Lo I am with you to the end of the world that is with you in your successors and then the next inserence is themselves are the Presbyters and Ministers of Jesus Christ because Christ meant as aforesaid I will be ' with you in your successors to the end of the world which yet he may be with the Apostles successors and yet none of the publique ministration of England may be the said Ministers of Jesus Christ that is according to his constitution and order though many of them we deny not but acknowledge them to be God-fearing men and wel meaning servants for Jesus Christ but yet we cannot believe them to be Ministers of Jesus Christ that is by his order and appointment by reason that we are more then confident that Christ would not have the office of the Apostles in their ministration separated from the gifts concomitant and needfull thereunto which we cannot yet find to be in them yea they disown them to be unattainable and therefore
produceth to confirm his position with that sin will remain as aforesaid and because they cannot be had therefore he offers them his pamplet of non-sense to delude them with who are hasty to believe him And whom can he mean by weak capacities but such as he is afraid are not stoutly resolved to stand to his positions but that he doubts they will be drawn off if they search the Scriptures from believing such pernicious doctrine to their souls as that sin will remain in the best Saints so long as they live What can he mean by those words in his next paragraph where he saith that he doth endeavour their satisfaction and confirmation but that he desireth to confirm sinne to remain in them as long as they live that so they may be satisfied with it And therefore he saith he present them with some few collections if he had presented none it would have been more for his credit and comfort in the end to perswade them that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live and that without dispute if they will take his word for it who is most frequent in lying What can he mean by those words his collections seriously to be weighed and digested by them but that he would have them so setled rivetted in weak capacities as that they may never forget his tenents that they and the best Saints must live in sin while they live among men and that upon all occasions when the enemies to his doctrine talke of mortifying all sin in this life they may reply and say as the Lady Abbesse did to her wanton daughter both justified by the Vindicators positions By Saint Peter and Saint Paul Daughter sinners are we all for so this Veterator doth impudently maintain that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they lâ—ve and therefore needs must it remain in the Lady Abbesse and her daughter even to live a wanton life as their excusable infirmities because the best Saints must have their failings What can he mean when he saith in the same paragraph these collections may by the blessing of God enable the meanest capacities c. but that he desireth God may bless them so as to remain where they are and to live in sinne if he mind his position while they live a mortal life What can he mean in his next paragraph where he saith I desire to blesse God for what others have done but that it is his prayer and thanksgiving to God for such men who preach up sinne if he mind his position and maintain that it will remain in the best Saints as long as they live else he resolveth to be none of the best if any Saint at all What can he mean by his next words in the same paragraph if that which I have now done be any thing serviceable it hath obtained its end but that he had no other end in his eye and thoughts in writing this pernicious Vindication and destructive to a good life but to petswade men to live quietly in sinne and not to trouble themselves and grieve for that they cannot help because as he saith sinne will remain in the best Saints as long as they live What can he mean when he further saith I am willing to spend and to be spent for the Israel of God but that they are the Israel of his God who prevail if he mind his position against the grace of Christ for to remain in sinne as long as they live for Christ came to redeem his Saints from all iniquity Ti. 2.14 and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and for whom will he spend and be spent but for such prevailers who can prevail if he mind his tenents against all gain-sayers that sin will remain in the best Saints as long they live For these and with these he will spend his patrimony and all he can get besides by his practise as an Emperick at large What can he mean when he addeth further that he will be spent but that he expecteth at last to be spent in a sinful life himself for he saith in his Vindication that death onely putteth an end to a sinful life And what can be the sense of those words in the same paragraph that being the end for which we are what we are but that he looketh on himself and those of his mind and way to be appointed by some let him name by whom if he mind his positions to maintain that sin will remain in all Saints so long as they live and that is the end for which he is become what he is in shamlesness to maintain that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live What can he mean by those words in his next paragraph where he saith to his allies and Levites you are now upon the stage fight the good fight of faith but that if he mind his position to remain in sin and disobedience is the object of his faith and that he doth understand Saint Jude when he biddeth them to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints v. 3. of that Epistle that he biddeth them contend for so this Veterator doth that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as thy live as the faith which was once delivered to the Saints if any do deny it and contradict the same What can he mean by his words be couragious fight c. but he would have them to fight for it if he do mind his position that sinne wil remain in the best Saints as long as they live that so he and his friends may go for eminent Saints as long as they are in this world whatever they are accounted to be in the world to come When he telleth them they are upon the stage what can he mean in reference to his position but to put them in mind that they are above and Doctor Drayton must stand below to hear thiâ— forsworn Veterator make oath to a senselesse article namely that Doctor Drayton should say that when we have fulfilled the Law then Christ would be as a bridg to carry us over to Heaven which is too senselesse to come from Doctor Drayton who knew I say once again more divine truth then all the contrary-minded Divines in Wiltshire besides I do attest it to to be falsely laid to Doctor Draytons charge for I was present at the same time when and where it is said the same or like words were spoken by him What can he mean also by those words sight the good fight of faith but that it is good for them if he mind his position to fight against us who plead for a possibility of a total mortification of sin in this life and do deny their rash assertion of sinns necessary remaining in the best Saints as long as they live Was there ever Veterator that abused Scripture-phrase more then this one doth in a Preface that must relate to his
page 48 in his differencing of gratia gratis data and gratia gratum faciens you will find him as excellent a Schoolman or schoolboy rather Page 2. he saith that in Religion the Law is our marke or way from which if we swerve we sin But is not the Gospel our way therein also and that in a speciall manner of our Christian Faith and Religion That defect is the general nature of sin but is not excess which is the other extreme sinfull also That this defect is an inclination or action repugnant to the Law But what thinks he of evill words as false accusation lying cursing and swearing such as he frequently useth are not they sinfull also That there is in sin a double formality repugnancy to the Law and guilt But guilt is the effect and not the form of sin That the former of these two is a comparison with the Law but it is a disparison or dissimilitude therewith that the first fin of man was the disobedience of our first Parents in eating the forbidden fruit But if he understands it of their actuall eating of that fruit he is much mistaken for as the womans actual eating thereof did go before the mans so many gradual evils did precede them both as first diffidence incredulitie to Gods word who had expresly said in the day that thou shalt eat thereof dying thou shalt dye Secondly too much eare and credence given to the devils lying promise who said ye shall not die but be as gods knowing good and evill Thirdly the too much liking and approbation of the forbidden fruit Fourthly the hungring or thirsting after it Fifthly contempt of Gods justice Sixthly ingratitude towards him for all his former goodnesse And lastly their consenting to Satan and resolution to eat of that fruit That in the generall all our corruption and misery is sprung from that first sin of the first Adam Contrary to what the Lord saith Hosea 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thine helpe But here he saith more particularly that eternall death came upon all their posterity by that first sin Contrary to Gods express Law Deut. 24.16 where God will not have the son to suffer a temporall death and much lesse an eternal for the fathers sin and directly contrary to Gods oath Ezek. 18.3 4. As I live saith the Lord God ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the father so the soul of the son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall die So ver 20. The son shall not be are the iniquity of the father neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be upon him Num. 16.22 Shall one man sin and wilt thou be wroth with all the Congregation That the corruption aversnesse of our nature came from that fall aforesaid Pag 3. that all our actuall sins doe spring from thence See to the contrary Eccles 7.29 That the first sin of man is the cause of all other sins and punishments which is true of each mans personal fall and disobedience and not of the other That the Spirit by the Law entitles us to Adams sin He means the first Adams as a derivation from the root to the branches as poyson is carried from the fountain to the cistern and as the children of traitors have their blood tainted with the treason of their fathers and as the children of bondslaves are under their parents conditions But all these similitudes are but shaws to catch woodcocks for neither was the first Adam either the root or fountain of our soules which are Gods immediate workmanship Isai 57.16 for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made nor are our bodies unclean by birth being created to be Temples for the Holy Ghost nor are traytors children usually tainted with their fathers treason though by the civil Law of some Countreys in proditionis terrorem they are ignobled in their blood and dignity nor was Adam himselfe a bond-slave to sin but by the grace of regeneration Gods free-man Rom. 6.18 before he begat any children nor doth the sinful corruption of our parents pass to us more then the graces and virtues of those that are or were righteous for both these are spiritual things which nature cannot convey but he seeks to prove what he saith by some Scriptures long since worn thred-bare by allegation to that effect Joh. 3.5 Rom. 5.12 20 21. 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. Ephes 2.3 Iob 4.4 Psal 51.5 Isai 48.8 Gen. 8.21 To all which we will give answer in the order set down with what brevity we can having answered the same at large in our Examen As for that Ioh. 3.5 Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh it is true of the wisedome of the flesh and of the righteousnesse of the flesh as well as of the open sin but Christ speaks not here of the naturall birth of men but of a spiritual be it true or false As for Rom. 5.12 13 20. the Apostle speaks there thus Therefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death went over all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as all have sinned for so Chrysostome and Erasmus and others read those words for untill the Law sin was in the world but where there is no Law sin is not imputed or reputed for sin Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that is to come But not as the offence so is the free gift for the judgment was of one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification for if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of Righteousnesse shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life for as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Unto which long Text we give this short answer First that it is a parallel and opposition betwixt Adams mischief and Christs remedy and cure but few in these days of supposed rather then true light understand either the one or the other aright for besides the first Adam or man whom the Vindicator with many more for want of a true Judicator here understands there are foure Adams mentioned both in the Scriptures and other writers The first is our natural or earthly man which is the creature of this world of whom our Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15 41. The first man is of the earth earthly The second is
to commiserate others who yet through ignorance or infirmity sometime stumble and fall Therefore it is false which he there by way of conclusion speaketh pag. 10. That strive we what we can our infirmities will incompass us and our corruption will be about us so long as we carry flesh about us as we may see in the forenamed instances for Job and others saw God face to face afterwards Job 42.2 as did Abraham Joh. 8.5 6. and Moses Deut. 34.10 That this thorne of sin will be still in our flesh Did Pauls thorne continue alwayes That our Canaanites will be still in our side Did not David subdue all the Canaanites in his time by his sons confession 1 King 5.3 4. so that there was no adversary left That our twins will still be in our womb What did Rebecah go alwayes big That our counterfightings and our counterwillings will still remain Then Christ hath taught us in vain to pray Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven That though we be like unto Christ per primitias Spiritûs is he himself so yet we are unlike him per reliquias vetustatis but John saith 1 Epist 3.1 3. that every one that hath a true hope to see Christ in his glory purifieth himself as he is pure and Paul Ephes 6.13 and having done all stand fast That not to sin is here our Law Which Law he makes to be impossible and so void but that in heaven it shall be our priviledge which heaven by grace some attain here at length Psal 32.2 and in whose Spirit there is no guile And 119.23 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and seek him with their whole heart they also do no iniquity they walk in his wayes That all our perfection here is imperfect True in comparison of a greater yet it may be without sin and adequate to the Law Jam. 2.3 8. If ye fulfill the royal Law according to the Scriptures thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well Chap. 3.2 If any man sin not in a word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body 1 Joh. 2.5 6. But whoso keepeth his word in him Verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him 1 Joh. 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this present world Doth this man read the Scriptures yet saith he further that sin hath its deaths blow given it yet like a fierce and implacable beast it never lets its hold go till the last breath animamque in vulnere ponit it never ceaseth to infest us till it cease to be in us but that may fal out long before we die the natural death as Paul confesseth that old things were past away and all things become new with him 2 Cor. 5.16 and that he was crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 In the six next pages he hath a new digression about the four-fold state of man Pag. 19. by miscount be saith that in the state of innocency the will was free to good or evil And so it is still while we remain in innocency That it might persist in good God preserving it So it may still First that it might fall into ill God forsaking it So it doth but we forsake him first That God did not confirm the first man against the fall yet he did by his commandement warning and threatning And so he doth still but he never did nor ever will confirm any man by force against his will That he permitteth the first man to be seduced and to fall into sin and death that as many as were saved out of the common ruine might be saved by mercy alone But the common ruine is ours by personal fall and not by our first parents as we have shewed That if in the world there had been no misery there had been no mercy Yea Gods mercy is over all his works Psalm 115.9 yea his mercy is from everlasting We answer it is true for the object of mercy is a miserable creature and there had been goodnesse and bounty to man if he had not sinned That if there had been no misery there had been no need of Christ Yea both to create and to preserve that which is created Heb. 10.1 2 3. That if there been no sin there had been no matter to shew his justice Yes there is justice in rewarding the obedient as well as in punishing the disobedient as we see in rewarding of the good and bad Angels Pag 20. by miscount That sin or the fall is necessary in regard of Gods decree Why did that necessitate man to sin then God must be the first author of sin That the Creator was not bound to the creature to preserve him in his goodnesse True not by any outward Law but by his own goodnesse he was bonitatis enim est creare bonum conservare That God willed the fall to be an occasion of bestowing his greater grace and benefits Then that Grace must be at leastwise as universal as the fall was That mercy ought not to fight with justice Nor doth it if it be offered to all that need it That it is most just that more regard should be had of the chief good then of the creatures Then we must not make him unjust in damning those which never offended him in their own persons to uphold new blasphemous doctrines yet the chief good is most far from all selfenesse and injustice That man at his first creation had not power to will what he would do Yes he had that power so to will but was not forced thereunto nor being created a free agent ought he to be forced to choose this or that That God ows no creature any thing Yes that which he was pleased to promise Pag. 21. That man is fallen by being born of corrupt parents No but by his own personal disobedience Eccles 7.29 Psal 14.23 and 53.23 Hosea 13.9 and 14.1 as before That mans will after the fall works freely but is carried to evil only But doth not Paul allow a man both power to will and run after good though not to be saved thereby when he saith So then it is not in him that willeth or that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 That in this fallen state man can doe nothing but sin What will he say of the Gentiles spoken of Rom. 2.14 When the Gentiles which have not the Law doe by nature the things contained in the Law those saith he having not the Law are a Law unto themselves and of Abimelesk Genesis 20.6 who by Gods own testimony did something in the integrity of his heart That after the fall of the first man ensued the privation of the knowledge of God But neither all at once nor upon his posterity by that fall Rom. 1.19 20 21. because that which may be known of God is manifest in
that such as are in Christ who are truly incorporated first into his death and then into the similitude of his resurrection that they have no sin in them for they walke not after the flesh but after the spirit that Paul rejoyceth here that sin was not able to condemn him though it was in him as he had confessed in the former chapter that the evil that he would not that he did and that he saw a Law in the members rebelling against the Law of his mind But this sin will condemn any man where it remaineth as the Apostle saith Rom. 6.23 that the wages of sin is death and that of corruption Ephes 4.22 that ye put off the old man which is corrupting or destroying with its deceitful lusts for so the best Translators read the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being the Apostles argument why he would have the old man put off But he saith that here he expects Cajetan's or Aquinas his false exposition and he shall have it to do him a pleasure out of his own book pag. 23. by the former account Cajetan one of their own fraternity saith damnatum est peccatum non extinctum Yet the worst of these two Epositors here are and will be of better repute even among the Protestants then the Vindicators glosses ever were or will be He saith further that here he expects that of Mr. Parkers that the Apostle spake this when he was a babe in grace But this is another of Mr. Tendring's lies for he saith onely the contrary and proveth it out of Rom. 8.2 1 Cor. 4.4 Phil. 4.13 that Paul was not now in that weak and corrupt estate complained of Rom. 7.14 24. and that therefore he speaks it not of his own condition though figuratively in his own person but in the behalfe of such as were babes in Christ Pag. 26. by the former account he citing Pauls words 1 Tim. 1.15 that Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am cheif bids us mark it that Paul speaks it not in the preterperfect tense of whom I have been chief but in the present tense of whom I am cheif as if Paul at that time were the chief of sinners But did ever any man besides himself that was not besides himself think or say so Is there not such a figure in the Scripture as Enallage temporum the putting of one tense for another Doth not Paul 1 Cor. 15.8 9 10. Ephos 2.4 5 6. Titus 3.3 4 5 6 7. and even at the 13 vers before set forth his corrupt estate of unbelief as a condition that was past But he goes on out of Paul his 2 Epist to I know not whom or what Church for none is named chap. 1. from vers 6. to the 13. to prove that Paul was not now a babe or child in Christ but rather an old man as he cals himself Paul the aged in his Epistle to Philemon Truly as old as the Vindicator would make himself he shews himself very young and childish in that his reasoning for we know none that affirms the thing that he goeth about to disprove but he loves to fight with his own shadow In conclusion he saith that these Jesuitical cavils which yet are his own are too well known and never did nor shall prevail against Gods truth Then he goeth on from Rom. 8.1 to the second verse upon which he makes as learned observations as he did formerly upon the first verse for whereas the Apostle saith that the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Here saith he we may observe that the Apostle saith not that we are fully freed from sin in this life but from the Law of sin But first it is evident that Paul saith that he was made free from that Law of sin of which he had so much complained chap. 7.21 22 23. Secondly that he cals it a Law of death as he doth chap. 7.24 a body of death because it hath death and condemnation appendant to it and involved in it And thirdly that he was now actually even in this life and for the present freed therefrom And lastly that it was not the death of Christ that had thus freed him to wit from guilt leaving the pollution behind as this Champion of corruption speaks hereafter but it was the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that had now freed him both from that Law of sin and of death its concomitant so that he cannot possibly speak of his present condition in chap. 7. from ver 14. to the 24. And whereas he adds in the close of that page that Christian experience shews that no sort of men are more troubled with temptations then they whom God hath begun to deliver from the Law of sin Though this be true yet what is this to his purpose or the proposition which he would now maintain for we speak not what befals regenerate men at their first conversion but of that which they do or may attain by grace in the end Nor do all temptations arise from corruption they may proceed immediately from Satan and assault such as have no sin or corruption left in them as they did our first parents in innocency and Christ himself as he was man Heb. 4.15 Pag. 19. by the latter account he rols the old stone with Sysiphus saying that our deliverance from sin is but begun not perfected here but that God is faithful by whom we are called Then they are unfaithful that seek not to have the work finished Phil. 1.6 And there he breaks out into a great rapture saying blessed be the Lord that whereas before we were captives to sin now the case of the battel is altered Why what battel did we fight against sin before grace did convert us unto God That sin is become our captive through Christ Was it so with them in whose behalf Paul complaineth but I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members we trow not sin was here too often the superiour That it remaineth in us not as a commander but as a captive of the Lord Jesus But doth it not till it be subdued often circumvent us and prevail against us and if so then that of Peter is true 2 Pet. 21.19 Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage at leastwise for a time He saith further that the bolts of sin are yet upon our hands and are left to admonish us of our former miserable condition What are we under bolts and Irons and yet no prisoners or captives But Christ is sent to preach deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to those that are bound and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to wit against his enemies Esay 61.1 2
3. Luk. 4.18 19 20 yet contrary to this and other promises he saith that we draw the chains of our sins after us which make us move the more slowly But it is the portion of the wicked to be in chains 2 Pet. 2.4 Psal 107.10 11. and to be bound hand and foot Matth. 23.13 There are some that draw iniquity with cords of vanity Esay 5.18 that is with vain excuses and distinctions or ungrounded promises wo to such saith the Prophet Is 5.18 wo c. But these chains saith he are not able to draw us into the bondage that we were in before Yes they have done too many 2 Pet. 2.19 20. That death which is the wages of sin is so changed that it is not the death of the man but the death of the sin in the man What doth this babler say the death that is the wages of sin is the second death in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 14.9 10. and chap. 20.10 15. Sin is the first death and this is the second how then can this be any thing else but the death of a sinner There is another death indeed that is the death of sin and not of the man which is a suffering out of all temptations and a dying with Christ unto all evil Psal 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints of which see Rom. 6.7 8. Rev. 14.13 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Of this death and not of the corporal death did Chrysostome and Ambrose whom he cites speak or else they were as much mistaken as the Vindicator is in this matter saying there that the death which is brought out by sin he should have said by Christ doth at the last even destroy and consume it in the children of God and that sin will remain though not reign Yes if its will may take place it will reign also and that for ever But he goes on and comments thus upon Rom. 8.13 If ye mortifie the deeds of the body hereby saith he the Apostle shews that after regeneration by grace and before glorification grace is not consummate nor is corruption wholly abolished But with what spectacles did he read this Text when he found these things couchant in it for out of the whole verse he might have learned these saving truths for his better information and reformation also First that God doth suspend his final purpose and promises of our salvation upon Ifs or conditions on our parts to be performed For if ye live after the flesh saith Saint Paul ye shall dye but if ye mortifie the deeds of the body by the spirit ye shall live Secondly that the remaining corruptions in the Saints such as these Romans were have death and condemnation attending upon them Thirdly that therefore they are not to be wounded only but mortified that is absolutely killed And lastly that this is not to be done by the death of the body but by the power of the Spirit which we are to seek by grace and with which we are to cooperate in this life till the work be done His conclusion then from hence pag. 19. and 20. by the new account is false That as long as we live in the body there is some life of sin remaining which we had need to mortify and put off But not as he doth to put it off til our natural death But he addes Saint Augustine saying that our life here is bellum not triumphus a warfare not a trophee of victory Yet may our warfare have an end here and so to have our triumph and victory follow Esay 40.1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith our God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is ended that her iniquity is pardoned Ephes 6.13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand 2 Tim. 4.6 7. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness But he contradicts himself in his next speech pag. 20. by the new account saying that in this battel we must fight without intermission untill we have gotten the victory for who can say that he hath in such sort cut off his superfluities that he hath no need of reforming Yes Paul could say it 2 Cor. 5.17 and the holy Apostle John 1 Ep. 4.17 and 5.5 with many thousands more to whom Christ bears witness Rev. 7.14 15 20. and 14.4 5. That when sins and superfluities are unregarded they kindle again That it is true that the same spiritual temptations may return after the former are quenched but at length the Devil is by Christ to be cast out with all his works Rev. 12.10 11. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now is come salvation and strength and the kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down who accused them before God day and night Yet he saith further That whosoever he be unless he dissemble he shall find within himself something that had need to be subdued But such a Pigmee in grace as he is if he be under grace must not measure the growth and mortification of Gods faithful and sanctified Saints by his pitch But he brings in some sentences which he fathers upon Ambrose as this velis nolis infra sine tuos habitabit but he saith habitavit Jebusaeus subâ—ugari potest exterminare he should have said exterminari non potest that will thou nill thou the Jesubite will dwel wit hin thy coasts and borders he may be subdued but not rooted out This is true of temptations especially for a time after our first conversion but this conslict if we bestir our selves aright shall have an end here as we have proved of late some Jesubites are our sins and corruptions which must be rooted out again some Jebusites are our native faculties as they are corrupted disordered and poysoned with rebellion These also may be subdued and brought into obedience but neither can be cast out nor ought to be howbeit we have sure promises that all our sins and corruptions shall be subdued if we will sue out the benefit of the same Mich. 7.19 He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue all our iniquities and thou will cast their sins into the depths of the sea Insomuch as that there shall not be one Canaanite left in our soul which is the house and the temple of the Lord So Zech. 14.21 And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts Yet he goes on saying saying That the great deceitfulness of mans heart of which the Lord complaineth Jer. 17.9 saying the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it it is attributed to all men
good and bad indifferently Christ onely excepted It is well he will except Christ himself here for he did not in his positions But he might have excepted all who were Christs truly unto the end Psal 32.2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Zephan 3.13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth See Rev. 14.5 6. And in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God Therefore all his affirmations that follow in that page are false at leastwise in his sense and notion as That all mens hearts are alike by nature True they are alike moulded at the first but not corrupt as he would have it That corruption is not from the instrument but from the Author Then God must be the Author of our corruption by his doctrine That men beget children as they are men not as they are regenerate and holy men Yet the Apostle giveth the Saints some priviledge above others saying 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your children unclean but now they are holy That nature with its corruption is derived but not grace for that is supernatural And is not corruption a preternatural and an adventitious thing also That grace makes no such change in this life but the hearts of the best are in some sort deceitful Which he presently contradicteth saying though he gave Nathaniel that praise that there was no guile in his heart Yea David saith he doth the like to any justified man Psa 32.1 2. howbeit saith he this is onely true of the spirit or regenerate part and not of the flesh of the old man who by reason of his age is often too hard for the young man where he contradicts himself in what he had said before that sin is our captive and doth not reign at any time but onely remaineth in the regenerate That it hath its deaths blow pag. 21. by the former account so that the best Expositors he meaneth for his tooth and palate read this Text thus the whole heart of the wicked is deceitful with a full strong and reigning deceitfulness and but part of the heart of the godly namely the unregenerate part but in a weaker measure as being discerned and stroven against That the heart of the wicked shews it self such in the whole course of their lives And yet by and by he contradicts himselfe saying that nevertheless the heart of the wicked may be upright in some particular actions as Abimelech was in taking of Sarah Gen. 20.6 That the heart of the godly is only deceitfull in some particular actions as David was upright in all things save in the matter of Uriah But I demand whether David might not have avoided even those sirs of bloodshed and murther by watchfulnesse and prayer as well as other Saints should have done if so he might have overcome all sinne and no doubt he did so in the end He saith further that every regenerate man is partly flesh and partly spirit True he is so at the first but not always Rom. 8.2 For the Law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death saith Paul where was then the flesh That hereupon ariseth the war in their hearts like the strugling in Rebecca's womb But did that strugling last all her life long That the regenerate here are but like the dawning of the day wherein darknesse and light are mixed But Solomon saith Pro. 4.18 The path of the just is like the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day That the regenerate may be like a cup of wine mingled with water True both at the beginning of their new birth and for a good space after yea all their life long through their own default which vessel or cup saith he is not halfe water and halfe wine but wholly wine and wholly water Doth the man understand what he saith By this saying of his and his similitude the regenerate should be wholly renewed and wholly corrupt which he contradicts with another comparison saying even as a vessel filled with equall proportions of hot and cold water it would make a dog spue to heare him it is not halfe cold and halfe hot it is both but wholly lukewarm that is partly hot and partly cold in all the parts of it If this be not a clear contradiction or an absolute piece of nonsense I know not what is such And whereas he saith that a regenerate man is partly holy and partly unholy in all the parts and powers of the body and soul what is he so in the regenerate part also of which he spake erewhile yet the denomination of a regenerate man is always given him in Scripture à parte praestantiore But he is mistaken where it hath not the upper hand it is otherwise 1 Cor. 11.3 13. And I Brethren could not speak unto you as spiritual men but as unto carnall even as unto babes in Christ I sed you with milk and not with strong meat for ye were not able to beare it nor yet are ye able for ye are yet carnal for whereas there are among you envying strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men He saith that the Lord who made the heart Pag. 22 by the new account pronounceth us all guilty of sin Gen. 6.5 Doth he so to us did we live in that age But yet it is true of every fallen man in the generall but that guilt doth not always lye upon the Saints for new sins and there he heaps many Texts of Scripture which speak of the state of the unregenerate to prove that the regenerate are here always sinful as Iob 5.2 Psalm 14.2 3 4 5. Isai 54.2 and 64.6 Rom. 3.3 19. Gal. 2.16 yea though the godly have many failings in their babeship and some in their growing up in which regard they cannot justifie themselves but must take guilt and shame to themselves as Iob doth chap. 8.29 30. and David Psalm 130.3 and 43.2 and Solomon testifieth of all men till they be throughly purged 1 Kings 8.46 That there is no man that sinneth not or may not sin yet none of those places lays upon us a necessity of continuing in sin all our days nor makes sin impossible to be subdued here by the grace and helpe of Christ which is the point that he should prove But he bids us mark what is written 2 Cor. 5.21 that Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Which we admit but not in his sense saying that the Apostle doth not say actively that we should make or work out our own righteousnesse but positively he should have said passively that we should be made the righteousnesse of God and that not by our selves lest we should glory in our own
left in them Wherein take notice that the Vindicator that cals us Pelagians is herein a Pelagian himselfe as all his fellows are Secondly that whereas he should deny the Minor that concupiscence doth not make the regenerate obnoxious to Gods wrath he admits it and takes it for granted that neither that nor any other sin doth condemn the regenerate or make them obnoxious to Gods wrath and yet he confesseth them to be sins but saith that by accident it cometh to pass that they are not reputed for such but are pardoned by grace Which is true when they are repented of and left and so cease to be sins but not otherwise The fourth objection which he brings is this In baptisme original sin is taken away therefore concupiscence is no sin in those that are baptized Uunto which he answers by distinction yet without the least instinct of truth that by baptisme the guilt of sin is taken away Which we deny against some of the Fathers and the Schoolmen as having no warrant from the Scriptures But he confesseth that the worst part of sin and that which is most offensive to God remaineth even corruption and an inclination to sin But here we first say that the guilt is not taken away before or without the corruption Secondly that children when they are baptized have neither guilt nor corruption to be taken away for the present yet may lawfully be baptized in innocency as Christ himself was for a future document and sign And thirdly that in the baptisme of men grown and newly converted neither the acts and corruptions nor the guilt are taken away by outward baptisme only there is their duty in following of Christ in his death and resurrection under the hope of his grace and help for the present and of a full remission and eternal life in the end declared unto them therein by which also they observe and fulfill an outward ordinance oblige themselves to the said duty stand under that grace hoped for and are distinguished by an holy ordinance and Christian profession from other men Pag 41. he first concludes that original concupiscence is sin Which we never denyed and then he is so impudent as to say of us that were not these men past shame they would never goe about to revive such heresies as we hoped had been long since buried among us But who revived them he or we But mark his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there But so long as there is a Divell in hell or a Pope at Rome we must never expect to be freed from such disturbers of our peace But what disturbance have we made or what peace have we broken Thus he that hath played the boutefeu himselfe and hath without cause incensed all the neighbouring Ministers and people against us where he could get access and audience chargeth us with his own wicked practise of disturbance who live quietly and cause no commotion amongst men but only seek to awaken them out of security and sloth to watch and war aright against their sins and Ghostly enemies and that out of love to God and their souls and in order to their everlasting peace as well as their present welfare in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of perfection which is love to God and men the conquering of sin and the fulfilling of the Law But we must bear his false charge and challenge in this kind with the more meekness because the holy Prophets and Apostles have undergone the like accusation at the hands of injurious slanderous and outragious men and that upon the self-same account Acts 16.21 and 18.13 and 24.5 and as long as there is a Devil in hell and his hellish kingdom hath room in mens hearts and sets their tongues on fire as Saint James speaks chap. 3.6 we must expect no better usage at their hands till the old accuser of our brethren be cast ou◠of them Rev. 12.10 See Mat. 10.25 If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub much more will they do it to them of his houshold But in the end of pag. the 41 to the end of pag. the 48. he comes with his solutive medicines to answer some Scriptures which he saith we allege and wrest to maintain our errours But this he speaks by way of divination for divers of them we have not yet produced nor have we need to wrest those that we alledge for they speak that clearly which we would prove The first saith he is that Rom. 6.6 where Paul saith of the Christians who are baptized into the faith of Christ knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin may be destroyed from thence saith he they conclude that the corruption of old Adam is quite abolished that they are perfectly quitted from sin and perfectly renewed in grace But this is one of his forged lies for we neither cite that Scripture nor inferr any such thing from it but since he by preoccupation hath quoted it for us we shall without wresting it conclude that those which truly confess the Christian faith and baptisme both may and ought to be crucified with Christ and through his grace and help to destroy the whole body of sin and so we have promised by our sureties to doe when we were baptized unlesse we will be renegadoes with him Unto this Scripture he answers pag. 42 as he had done before without fear or wit truth or modesty that the guilt of sin which the Schools term the formal of sin but indeed is the fruit and effect of sin is taken away in baptisme The falshood of which we have shewed before the baptisme which he meaneth neither takes away the guilt nor corruption of sin for Simon Magus was baptized among the other Samaritans and yet was still in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity Acts 8.20 Secondly as to the corruption he saith that the dominion of it is taken away but not the being of sin from Gods Saints because Paul saith Gal. 5.17 the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the same Apostle speaks of himselfe I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and carrying me captive unto the Law of sin which is in my members But we shewed before that the infant-state of the Galatians being new-born babes in Christ is not the full strength and stature of young men in Christ and much lesse the dayednesse of old men or elders and experienced souldiers or Saints in Christ Secondly that Paul speaks not there of his own present condition And thirdly that this Text flies in his and their faces who affirm that all dominion of sin is taken away from such babes for this sin is a prince and a Tyrant it is not our slave but makes us its slave But he adds this that the Apostle saith not let not sin be in your mortal bodies but let it not reign Which is true in regard of Satans sinful motions as we said before
but not of the old leaven of corruption which must be purged out 1 Cor. 5.7 And therefore that saying of Augustine though it pleaseth his tooth well for which he commendeth it is false that sin and concupiscence is taken away by baptisme non ut non sit sed ut non obsit not that it should cease to be but that it should not hurt us nor hinder our attainment of everlasting happinesse For as long as sin remaineth in us bringing forth the works of the flesh spoken of Gal. 5.20 21. it will barr us from entring into Gods kingdom See there and 1 Cor. 6.9 10. yea for such doth the wrath of God fall upon the children of disobedience Ephe. 5.6 Col. 3.5 6. Here he brings in the saying of Anselme also to second Augustine Not that our in-bred corruption should of a sudden be consumed in our flesh who said that it could be so consumed that liveth but that it should not be imputed when we are dead To which we say that if we be dead unto it in conformity with Christ it shal not be imputed unto us but if we live and die in it it shal be charged upon us Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die In the next place instead of citing the second place of Scripture which he fathers upon our quotation he heaps up three some wherof have small affinity with each other Rom. 6.2 How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. 7.14 Wherefore my brethren ye are become dead to the Law Rom. 8.9 The Law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sin and death 2 Cor. 5.17 Unto which last place he rather alludes then expresly refers us saying that a regenerate man is renewed in all things throughout in every part and power both of body and soul and therefore the regenerate are quite freed from all corruption of sin and indued with all perfection of grace But in these allegations he abuseth us for first we have not alledged any of them heretofore to maintain our positions Secondly that of Rom. 7.4 speaks of a freedome or deadnesse to the Law in its compulsive work and not of being dead to sin and though we might and shall conclude from Rom. 6.2 and 8.2 and 2 Cor. 5.15 17. that the regenerate may and ought to be so dead to sin freed from the law of sin and death and so renewed yet we doe not say that they all are so perfected or can be so on the sudden but in due time they may and shall be so even in this life if they quit themselves aright Howbeit page 43. he comes to answer these and the like places which speak of a totall death unto sin and a renewing of Gods image with his old distinction that it may be done inchoatively which is effected in the least infant or babe in Christ I speak of regenerate ones but not pefectively or fully Surely he is wont to cure his patients but inchoativè at the most or else if he do it perfectivè he will in his way put down Christ according to his doctrine But saith he the Spirit of God by these forms or phrases would teach us two special things what be those First that sin is now like a serpent crushed in the head Gen. 3.15 which saith he can never recover his former strength nor any ways hurt the regenerate man but only to bruise his heel that is by the wrigling of her tail to bring some temporary affliction upon him But when was sin so crushed by baptisme was it so crushed in Simon Magus but Paul tels the Romans that Satan the worker in and with them was yet to be bruised for the present Rom. 16.20 and the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly and was afraid that he might through his subtilty deceive and seduce the Corinthians from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 Secondly that it should be the main scope of the Saints to strive continually to mortifie the deeds of the flesh and to doe their best endeavours to be clean rid of them and to perfect holiness in the fear of God and this saith he is plainly intimated unto us in all the exhortations of the Scriptures as where it is said Abstain from fleshly lusts and mortifie the deeds of the body and the like But first those places or some of them as Rom. 8.2 2 Cor. 5.16 17. doe shew us that the work was done already and both those and others incite as to set upon the work vigorously and under hope to effect it with hope which he denies And thirdly we are by those exhortations which are indeed express commands from the Lord whatsoever he or Augustine saith to the contrary enjoyned to labour after such a riddance from sin and perfection in holinesse not by our own endeavours alone but by invocating the help of Christ or else we shall effect little in in the businesse which makes many unfruitful And in conclusion he adds very impertinently though pertinaciously enough If there were no lusts nor deeds of the flesh in us yes there are too many till they be subdued to what end are we bid to mortifie them To which we will superad this that if they cannot be killed and slain why are we commanded to mortifie or kill them as we are often enjoyned to doe Then he comes to a third Scripture of ours as he cals it which he saith he had quoted before to wit that in the second place but we reserve it for this where he takes upon him to answer it after his wonted manner the place is 1 Joh. 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin because his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Unto which he answers two ways first more largely and then more briefly but neither way to the purpose for he understands not of what sort of regenerate men Saint John speaks not of babes or young men but of such old men in Christ as with himselfe and his fellow-Apostles had the love of God perfected in them 1 Joh. 4.17 18. But let us hear what those his answers are First he saith that they to wit the regenerate do not sin unto death for they doe not wholly forsake God howbeit they may sin against their consciences and such saith Paul condemn themselves Rom. 14.20 21. but they retain some beginnings he should say seeds of true godlinesse by which as by spatks they are stirred again to repentance But here first he seems to contradict what he had said pag. 24. by the first account that the Holy Ghost withdraws as he is grieved driven away and quenched by such sins Ephe. 4.30 1 Thes 5.19 then men are blind and wander as some such regenerate ones may wholly forsake God as we shewed out of 1 Tim. 5.11 12. Heb. 10.28 29 30. 2 Pet. 2.11 Secondly he
whereas the Apostle saith that God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him where saith he the Apostle doth not say actively that we should make or work out our own righteousnesse but passively that we should be made so ex indebita misericordia of Gods free mercy the righteousnesse of God and that not by our selves but by another Jesus Christ blessed for evermore But what if he and all his adherents be herein grosly mistaken and shamefully deluded by Satans imposing a false gloss and understanding upon them if the main foundation upon which they build the hope of their salvation be sandy or rotten what will become of the whole building erected and settled upon such a basis Take notice then that the Apostles words which he here takes passively must be actively understood also and that we must get our selves to be made the righteousness of God in Christ by deriving and putting on his righteousness in the way of regeneration and renewing and strengthening grace to fulfill every commandement of God by his help and Spirit to this effect the Apostle John speaks John 1.17 For the Law came by Moses but grace and truth to fufill it came by Jesus Christ John 15.5 I am the vine and ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit but without me ye can do nothing Rom. 5.17 How much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one man Jesus Christ vers 19. so by the obedience Christs obedience in us of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 8.3 4. But what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us not outwardly for us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit for Christ is the end of the Law to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 Rom. 14.7 8 9. For none of us liveth unto himself and no man dieth unto himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords for to this end Christ both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living 1 Cor. 15.10 But by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was in me was not in vain but I laboured more then they all yet not I but the grace of God in me 1 Cor. 1.31 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who is made unto us of God wisdome that is in the understanding righteousness in the will not onely sanctification in both but redemption or glorification also 2 Cor. 5.15 And that he therefore died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again Gal. 3.24 For the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified or made righteous by faith But of this more anon in answer to the Vindicators next words And thus saith the Vindicator doth the Apostle speak Phil. 3.9 That he might be found in Christ But let us call in that whole Text to give in evidence for us against him Phil. 3.5 6. Paul tels that concerning zeal he was zealous as the Vindicator is unto persecution persecuting the Church touching the righteousness of the Law taught and required by the Jews not onely in observance of their traditions and the ceremonial Law onely but of the moral Law so far as an unregenerate man could compass the same by his own strength he was blameless then in the seventh eighth and ninth verses he tels us upon what score he gave over that righteousness and all his native priviledges as he was an outward Hebrew or Jew But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of or from God by faith Thirdly at the tenth and eleventh verses by way of exegesis he declares what that righteousness of Christ is which he so much longeth for namely first the righteousnes of grace that I may know him and the power of his reusurrection but wherein or whereunto and the fellowship of his sufferings to suffer out all temptations or to die unto sin in a suffering way is the onely way of overcoming all sin which because the world knows not they deny the possibility of the work being made conformable to his death vers 10. and then the righteousness of glory in the 11 verse if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead both partly here in this life in the similitude of Christs resurrection wherein Christ riseth in them in great power and glory and hereafter in a more transcendent estate when they obtain a glorified body which the Apostle looked for Phil. 3.21 Therefore the Vindicators conclusion hence is a non sequitur to wit that no man can by grace in this life perform such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same But in page 49 and page 50 he comes with great variety of words and little truth to shew how the Law may be said to be possible or impossible unto us and as to the first he saith it is possible in a two-fold sense first in regard of outward order and discipline But this is rather one use and effect of the Law to set up and keep such order then properly its possibility Secondly he saith it is so by the imputation of Christs righteousness by the benefits of justification and regeneration which benefits he saith be obtained by faith But we have shewed already that justification and sanctification are not two but one benefit wherein the righteousness of Christ that is of grace is freely imputed and given to the believer that seeks it aright For such saith he God looks upon in the face of his Son to wit if the Son be present there with his righteousness in whom alone he is well pleased Matth. 3.17 And his fulfilling of the Law is their fulfilling of it to wit if it came to pass within them but not without them as he meaneth though not in the same manner yet to the same and as good effect as it had been done by themselves alone which saith he is thus done He for them yea and both with them and in them
therefore all these are vain words and lying promises wherewith he would comfort himselfe and others without any ground of truth Text of Scripture But he saith pa. 51. that the Law should be fulfilled in this life is denyed by some of our own fraternity sin is condemned saith Cajetan but not extinguished But if he abuse him not let him henceforth own him for one of his fraternity as he may Bellarmine about original sin many more Papists both of the Jansenians Anti Jansenians in other points which he holds forth with Romea good creatures as he cals them yet we wil not so impudently say that he hath wages from the Pope unlesse we knew it But here he fals upon the second proposition or member of his second position telling us that the Apostle saith positively that no man shall be justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2.26 and yet the same Apostle saith Rom. 2.13 for not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified and St. James backs him saying chap. 1.22 Be ye doers of the Law and not hearers onely deceiving your own souls for none else shall be found righteous before God as we have proved before And therefore he and we had need to have recourse to Christ for grace to fulfill it in us Rom. 8.7 for which purpose that Text which he next alledgeth but in a false sense and to a deceitful purpose must be both a direction and support unto us in this case Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to all that believe nor doth that of Galat. 2.21 dissent therefrom or any way thwart the same we do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness be by the Law and our own weak and humane obedience performed thereunto without the assisting and renewing grace of Christ then Christ died in vain both as to meriting the pardon of our guilt as also to example and motive also but we say there is no way for the fallen and corrupt man to enter into life but through conformity to Christs death in the burial of all known iniquity which yet the Vindicator holds to be for attainment impossible Rom. 6.8 2 Tim. 2.11 12. 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. and yet it remains inviolate which he cites out of Gal. 3.11 That no man is justified by the Law or our own unregenerate works before God but the just shall live by faith to wit first the life of grace and then the life of glory also that 18 verse stands intire If the inheritance by the Law and our own obedience thereunto without the assistance of grace it is no more of promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise But it is false which the Vindicator subjoyns It is faith that answers the promise to wit by closing with it and deriving from Christ by way of regeneration the things promised but obedience saith he holds no proportion with it Yes the obedience of faith must do it or else actum est de animabus in some measure Matth. 7.21 Rev. 22.14 18 19. But here he first cites Rom. 8.3 But that which was impossible to the Law insomuch as it was made weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh and afterwards he gives his connexion and false gloss upon the Text saying the Apostle having in the first verse set down a proposition of comfort to those that are in Christ he confirmed it in the second where also he shews us in his own person who they are to whom there is no condemnation in Christ namely to such whom the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed from the Law of sin and death and no other are absolutely and actually freed from that condemnation but they though others that are still in the work have a conditional promise of that freedome Vers 13. but if ye mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit ye shall live But the Vindicator saith that the Apostle here shews us how Christ hath freed us from the condemning power of sin How is that not by his death alone as he would have it but by the Law of the Spirit of life in the first place subduing unto those that are dying with him the Law of sin and death But how is that done saith the Vindicator that is saith he Christ taking upon him our nature and therewith the burthen of our sins hath condemned sin in his blessed body and so disanulled it that it hath no power to condemn This is false as he understands it for sin hath a condemning power so long as it remaines unmortified in us as the Apostle witnesses Rom. 6.23 and 7.24 and chap. 8.13 as we proved before Christ hath purchased the pardon of sin by his death and hath it in his own hand to dispose of but bestows it upon none save so farre as sin is bewailed and left There is then another body of Christ which must take away the condemning power of sin and that is the body and flesh of his like sufferance and grace and that in order to that purchased pardon of which the bread broken in the supper of the Lord is a type as well as of the flesh of Christs word Jer. 15.16 And this benefit saith the Vindicator doth the Apostle amplifie shewing that by no other means we could obtain it Yet we have shewed you but even now another means which must go before the pardon of sin for as saith he there is but one way without Christ for men to come to life namely the observance of the Law which way is still retained also in Christ Matth. 19.17 Rev. 22.14 he lets us see saith the Vindicator that it was impossible for the Law to wit now that we are fallen to save us and this impossibility proceeds not from any impotency in the Law but from our selves as the Vindicator truly sets it forth and that in a three-fold respect for first it craves of us that which we cannot perform even an absolute obedience unto all the commandements and that under pain of death But whereas the Vindicator saith page 53. that that obedience may most justly now be required of us because that by creation he means in our first parents we received an holy nature and ability from God to keep this Law This is a false ground as we have proved before yet here in words he expresly contradicts his former doctrine saying that by reason of the depravation of our nature drawn on by our selves which is as much as we affirm in that kind it is impossible that we of our selves can keep or perform the Law Secondly because the Law could not give us that whereof we stood in need to wit a full discharge for our infinite debt of guilt contracted by transgression for saith he it promiseth no pardon but binds us fast to the
curse and secondly supernatural grace to reform deformed nature and thirdly saith he but this last coincident with the former though it shews us the way of life yet it ministers no grace to walk therein nor doth his Gospel minister sufficient grace for that purpose But to make us some amends he comforts us with lies saying but all that which the Law could not do Jesus Christ by whom cometh grace and life hath done unto us But hath Christ already performed for us and in us perfect obedience to the Law and to that end fully reformed and renewed our deformed natures These two saith he cannot be done till we be perfected in glory Then he concludes for his second position or the first part of it rather but out of his false premises therefore there is no life to be found in the observance of the Law Unto which we have often replied upon undeniable grounds that there is no life to be found but in the observation or Gods Law through Christ Jesus Again he ress us that the Apostle in another place cals the Law the ministry of death and condemnation because it instantly binds men under death for every transgression of her commandements It is true the work of the Law by the help of the word doth give such a condemnatory sentence but elsewhere the Law is called the perfect Law of liberty as James 1.25 yea and our life also Deut. 32.46 47. ye shall command your children to oâ—serve to do all the words of this Law for it is not a vain thing for you for it is your life to wit when performed by the grace of Christ But mark his inference from hence so that he which hath eyes to see what an universal rebellion of nature there is in man to Gods holy Law yea what imperfections and discordance with the Law are still remaining in them who are renewed by grace to wit after John Tendring's model may easily see the blind presumption of those who seek life in the ministry of death But we know none that do so more frequently then such loose Gospellers as he who turn the grace of God into lasciviousness And sure we are that the Jews who seek life in the observation of Gods Law for the most part are more obedient to God and consequently nearer to Gods kingdome though yet they own not Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised Christ then any such libertines as he is who own Christ in words but in life and deeds deny him whose sentence he may find recorded before hand by way of premonition Matth. 7.21 22 23. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and then will I profess unto them I never knew them depart from me ye workers of iniquity The Jews are called natural branches because they avoid known sins to the uttermost of their power and follow after righteousness with all their strength but such as take liberty to the contrary are still branches of the wild olive Rom. 11. yea these last though they have Christ often in their mouths are further from the love of Christ who hath no communion with Belial 2 Cor. 6.15 then the former and it is the wicked lives of those that call themselves the Disciples and followers of Jesus that hath kept both Jews and Turks and many others from embracing the holy way of true Christianity Yet saith he so universall is this error of seeking life and salvation by their own deeds that it hath over-run the whole posterity of Adam nature teaching all men who are not illuminated by Christ to stand to the covenant of works But those who are rightly illuminated by Christ Grace teacheth to seek salvation in the works and observation of the Law yet not out of their own strength and endeavours alone but by the grace and help of Christ which grace John Tendrings vindication curtaileth But the supernatural doctrine saith he of the Evangelist page 53. teacheth us to transcend nature to goe out of our selves and to seek salvation in the Lord Jesus All this is true if rightly understood but so is not that which follows and so to use the Law not that we seek life by fulfilling it which here is impossible but as a Schoolmaster to lead us unto Christ in whom we have remission of our sins so that which is to be had in the last place he puts it in the first sanctification of our nature acceptance of our imperfect obedience what always when it should for times and means afforded be made perfect benefits which the Law could never afford us Thus saith he ye see it is impossible in our own persons but what if Christ be brought in hither to purge us and renew us fully to fulfill the Law of God no such grace saith he being given from above Oh the bold blasphemy of man against the renor of the old and new Testament Deut. 26.18 19. and 30.6 Jerem. 31.32 33. Rom. 8.4 and 10.4 Or if we could saith he yet it is not possible for the Law to save us but he confesseth that it is not through any defect or imperfection in the Law for the Law is just and holy and good Rom. 7.12 but in regard of the corruption of nature which Christ came purposely to abolish 1 Joh 3.8 yea I say quoth he that although the Law be good yet it is not good to that end neither is it ordained of God for that end Yes at first it was and still is in force yet he confesseth that the Law was given for a double end first in common to all men namely to discover sin Rom. 3.10 and the wrath of God due to us for sin and to restrain all men by its rule and discipline from sin and to retain them in a civil course of morality for the good of humane society And secondly in speciall first to the reprobate to make them without excuse because it teacheth them what shall be done or left undone But all have not the outward Law it is therefore the inward Law that doth this and especially because there is grace also afforded likewise to help us in the doing of the good required and the resisting of the evil forbidden Secondly he saith page 54. in respect of the elect to incite us by the sight of our sins to seek out a Saviour as he that informs us of some dangerous disease doth tacitly advise us to seek out some expert physician which is not John Tendring but the Law was never intended that it should justifie us or of it selfe bring us to eternal life Yes it was so at the first But he brings divers arguments to prove that which we deny not as he is very profuse and prodigal in his proof of such things For he first saith that eternal life had been
otherwise saith the Vindicator or his friend for him if he Abraham were justified by the works done without the help of grace he might as vvell glory before God as men which is not true in every behalfe for he received his internal helps from God and not from himself Psalm 100. It is he that made us and not we our selves But the Apostle tels us saith he that although by those works done by the help of grace he might glory before men where doth he tell us so yet not before God and therefore he vvas not justified by those vvorks in the sight of God But as the premisses vvere false so is the conclusion vvhich he dravvs from thence for by every grace of God he vvas justified in some kind of actual righteousnesse and purged from the contrary sin vvhich is the only justification vvhich Paul pleads for in Jesus Christ necessary to life Nor is his next reason lesse absurd vvhere he saith for if vve could be justified by any vvorks hovvsoever done by grace or vvithout grace then the vvages that is eternal life is not counted of favour but of debt Is it not so when vvithout the rich grace of God the duties required unto eternal life cannot be performed But saith he vvhen vve cannot be justified by our ovvn vvorks nor are we so justified but by believing in him that justifieth the ungodly so that he makes them godly that were before ungodly who is in Jesus Christ what are any ungodly that are in Christ see 1 Cor. 6.11 that we are then justified by his righteousnesse and saved by his merits like the hungry dreamer Isai 29.8 who dreameth that he eateth but when he awaketh his soul is empty Then faith saith the Apostle and not any kind of works is imputed to him for righteousnesse Rom. 4.5 But here the new false Apostle John of Burstou corrupteth and falsifieth the Text for these words and not any kind of works are not found there See Rev. 22.18 what his reward is like to be for if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him all the plagues that are written in this book But Pag. 64. he saith I shall here close this point with these conclusions First that no man that is a sinner can be justified by his own obedience to the moral Law Secondly that no man that hath offended the Law can be justified by his own satisfaction for his transgression But who denies either of those or to what purpose is all this unlesse as we said before to entertain his Reader with kickshaws But wanderers love extravagancies As to the first of these he saith that by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 that is the Law accounteth all such to be sinners and accounteth them as transgressors and therefore they can never be pronounced guiltlesse by that Law which proves them guilty but every man is a transgressor of the Law to wit before grace and for some time after Rom. 3.9 Gal. 2.1 Joh. 1.8 11. and our consciences testifie it to our faces Therefore can no man be justified by his own obedience to the Law But what is this to the obedience of Christ in the Saints by which alone as we have often said they may be justified freely and ought so to be Secondly he saith that a sinner which hath once offended can never by any action or passion of his own make satisfaction to the justice of God for his transgression Yet can God freely remit thousands and millions of such transgressions to the converting sinner and the Law saith he being broken there is no way to be justified by the Law but by making a plenary satisfaction for the transgression which no sinners satisfaction can do because a finite act can never be a sufficient value to satisfie the offence that is done against an infinite goodnesse as also because all that we can do yea much more is required of us now that assisting grace is tendered as our duty to the Law or Law-giver and therefore it cannot be rendred as any payment for the breach of the Law Therefore saith he to conclude this point or truth we are not under the Law for the justification of our persons as Adam was nor for satisfaction of divine justice as those that perish but we are under it as a document of obedience what perfect or imperfect and a rule of living But not as we ought to do by his doctrine T is not saith he published from Sinai but from Sion but to whom is it so as a Law of liberty what to take our sleep and swing in sin and as a new Law not as a Law of condemnation and bondage Yes it is so published still to impenitent and unbelieving men 1 Tim. 1.9 knowing this that the Law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawlesse and disobedient And yet he saith Pag. 65. that the obedience is not removed yes by his doctrine a great part of it is but the disobedience thereof is both pardoned and cured But how perfectly pardoned but inchoatively cured by his doctrine for saith he the observance thereof is necessary as a fruit of faith but mark how enormously he speaks in the next words but not saith he as a condition of life and righteousnesse yet necessary necessitate pracepti as a thing commanded the transgression whereof is the incurring of sin not necessitate medii as a strict undispensible means of salvation the transgression whereof yes if it be habitual or final is a peremptory obligation to death But we have proved before out of Mat. 5.18 19. and Rev. 14.22 that this is required by Christ as the way to life by the necessity of a medium or means as well as of a precept especially of those that have both space and means to attain unto it in Christ And thus saith he of the former of the two last branches of the second position wherein I have clearly shewed as one would shew a small and remote object in a dark night that as no man can be justified by obedience to the Law nor the works of the best Christians cannot justifie them what not in Christ And now he comes to the last branch that we are only justified by the righteousnesse of Christ which being rightly understood we also maintain We beleeve and maintain saith he as the Scripture teacheth us what is that That we are acquitted and absolved from our sins and so justified in the sight of God by and for he should have said through the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ And so do we but not in his way and sense And though we have said heretofore that justification and remission of sins are two different things yet we would be thus understood that the pardon of sins in his sense which is to take away the guilt or obligation unto punishment and leave the corruption behind and justification that is to make us just holy and good or liberative
but not in his way which will never make any happy Blessed is the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works to wit his own works before and without grace And blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin but purge it away by his grace and Spirit But this righteousness of Christ thus imputed to us saith he page 72 must be considered in a three-fold respect first in respect of the truth of our imputed righteousness which is wholly a fancy and so we say that we are as truly righteous before God as Christ himself Beware of blasphemy whorson Phanatick because we are righteous with the same righteousness with which he is righteous The clean contrary way Secondly in respect of the quantity But so we deny that it is in the same measure he might truly have said in any measure for in him it is in its fulness and in its largest measure but in us it is onely received so far forth as it serveth to justifie any particular believer he should have said dreamer that is not at all Thirdly in respect of the quality And so we say that this is not in the same manner in us as it is in him which is true enough for he is righteous actually we imputatively or passively rather he subjectively we relatively in him and by him that is not at all but by meer relation or tradition and our fond credulity And so saith he in these two last respects we cannot be said to be equally righteous with Christ no nor with the least real Christian who seeks the true righteousness by Christ though we be righteous with the very righteousness of Christ to wit as Laodicea was Rev. 3.17 18. he perfectly righteous we righteous by reason of our imputation and inchoative righteousness Which last if he have any is the best string for his bow by reason the other is a broken one Again saith he Christ is called holy and sin and yet is said to know no sin and to be made sin so likewise are we said to be just and sinful just in him or rather just out by the imputation and application of his justice without any conversion from sin and sinful in our selves by the inbred corruptions of our own flesh which is brought in by our personal fall as we said before Lastly the final cause of our justification actively considered is the glory of God which he acquired unto himself by the wonderful mixture of his justice and mercy towards men justice and mercy also that he would have his own Son die to make satisfaction for our sins yea suffered to procure us some respite of repentance and returning as said before rather then our sins should esape unpunished or we forthwith perish eternally and mercy that he would have the righteousness of his Son be imputed no derived unto his servants rather then we poor sinners should perish for or in our sins But if he have no better skill in compounding his own medicines then he hath made here in this jumble of justice and mercy he is a Physician of no value And thus much saith he page 73. of the causes of justification actively considered in respect of God now in the second place we must consider the causes of our justification passively in respect of man and first the efficient cause passively considered is wholly instrumental and it is two-fold external which is the preaching of the word and the administration of the Sacraments these are the chief outward instruments which God useth for the application of Chrsts supposed righteousness for the imagined justification of his servants and therefore the Gospel is called the word of life Acts 5.15 16. and the ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 and the Sacraments are called the seal of the righteousness of faith and our Saviour saith of the preachers of the Gospel whose sins ye remit or put away they are remitted But are the word and Sacraments passive or active instruments doth not the Apostle say that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1.16 Is the man infatuated Secondly the internal instrument whereby we apprehend he should say seek the grace of justification is onely faith in Jesus Christ But that is false for by prayer also we both seek and comprehend the same But Christ is set forth saith he to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.15 John 1.12 which place he wrests from its native sense Gal. 3.24 and therefore the righteousness of Christ but not in his sense is called the righteousness of faith and we are said to receive Christ by faith and to receive the promise of the Spirit which is the purging blood of Christ by faith Secondly saith he faith is the onely instrument he should have said the main yet no passive instrument as he would have it whereby we are justified before God The Scriptures saith he are plain and plentiful in this point Is 45.21 25. Ezek. 20.44 Hab. 2.4 Rom. 3.24 26. Gal. 1.8 Acts 13.39 But the first of these if rightly looked into cuts the throat of justification for righteousness and strength are joyned together which must intimate the inward and powerful righteousness of God and this it justifies the man Is 45.24 25. where the words runne thus Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength even unto him shall men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified or made just and shall glory Yea that place in Hab. 2.4 shews that he whose soul is lifted up with any knowledge or hope of a false righteousness is not upright in him but the just who is such by any measure of inherent righteousness shall live the full life of righteousness by faith As for Acts 13.39 40. we have spoken of that already And so saith he doth the Apostle in many other places inculcate the same truth as Gal. 4.5 24. and our Saviour saith Joh. 3.14 15. What doth he say there for the Vindicator cites no words namely thus much that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness that Israel reflecting upon their serpentine sins and rebellion might repent and not die even so must the son of man as crucified both in us and for us Gal. 3.1 be lifted up and set forth before us that whosoever believeth on him as a pattern herein as well as a reconciler through faith follows him unto the like death should not perish but have eternal life that is saith he by his false gloss be justified and so be saved onely by believing in him A short and easie way to be saved if it were true as those Israelites that were bitten by the fiery serpents Num. 21.9 were healed and saved alone by looking up to the brazen serpent The Fathers also saith he are plain and pregnant herein of whom more anon Chrysost in Rom. cap.
come salvation and strength the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast out who accused them before God day and night In hope of this kingdom and in order thereunto the Saints to whom it was published purified their hearts by faith in Gods sanctifying grace to be had in Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.2 3 Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him or we shall see him as he is and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Act. 15 7 8 9. Men and brethren ye know that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel and beleive and God which knoweth the hearts bare them witnesse giving the Holy Ghost unto them even as he did unto us and put no difference between them and us purifying their hearts by faith Out of this faith and hope the souls of Gods elect do cry unto God night and day for vengeance against Gods spiritual enemies and theirs who first had crucified Christ in them and by them and afterwards did cruciate and vex them with continual temptations and assaults Luk. 18.1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men always ought to pray and not to faint saying There was in a City a Judge that feared not God neither regarded man and there was a widow in that City and she came unto him saying avenge me of mine adversary and he would not for a while but afterwards he said within himself though I fear not God nor regard man yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her lest by her continuall coming she weary me And the Lord said hear what the unjust Judg saith and hall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and hight though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Neverthelesse when the Son of man cometh shall he find faith upon earth Where now is this faith of Gods elect to be found yea where is the faith of the Apostles and their Churches to be heard or read of who looked for no life and glory by Christ unlesse they died with Christ unto all known sin Rom. 6.8 For if we be dead with him then we believe that we shall live with him and the doctrine which held forth that and no other way for the fallen man to enter into life the Apostle commends as a faithful and undeceivable word implying that the contrary doctrine and perswasions deceive mens souls in the end 2 Tim. 11.12 This is a faithful saying if we be dead with Christ we shall live with him if we suffer with him dying to sin we shall also reign with him If we deny him in this way he will also deny us The seventh Topick is the inequality between sin and Gods grace now to be had of Christ Jesus thereagainst Is 5.4.11 No weapon that is formed against the Lord shall prosper and every tongue that raiseth up against thee in judgment thou shalt condemne This is the heritage and so forth Rom. 5.17 For if by one or one mans offence death reigned by one how much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ vers 20 21. Moreover the law entred that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did superabound that as sin had reigned unto death even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ The eighth Topick is the professed resolution of the Christians in the Apostles time to die unto all sin Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin namely by Christian profession and resolution live any longer therein Colos 3.3 For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God The ninth Topick is from the true end and use of baptism to teach us this death and burial of sin in conformity to Christs death and resurrection Rom. 6.3 4. Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried 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 after we are dead and risen again with him in newness of life for if we have been planted into the likeness of his death we shall also be planted into the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead Colos 2.12 Buried with him in baptism wherein ye are also risen through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead The tenth Topick is from the admission and assertion of this mortified and purged estate every where Rom. 8.2 For the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of sin and death Rom. 6.7 For he that is dead is justified or freed from sin 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ according to the Spirit he is a new creature old things are past away and all things are become new Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Chap. 5.24 And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts The eleventh Topick is from the omnipotency of true faith in Christ Marth 15.18 Then said Jesus unto her O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt Chap. 21.21 Jesus answered and said unto them Verily I say unto you if ye have faith and doubt not ye shall not onely do this which is done to the fig-tree but also if you shall say unto this mountain of sin be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea it shall be done Mark 9.23 Jesus said unto him if thou canst believe all things are possible unto him that believeth John 14.12 Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works then these shall he do because I go to the Father Unto which joyn that of our Saviour John 16.33 In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world even Satans world which ye through faith shall be by me enabled to overcome 1 John 5.4 5. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even
signified therein A. A death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness Hence it is that our Church prayed thus at the baptism of infants And humbly we beseech thee to grant that to the person baptised he being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness and being buried with Christ in his death may crucifie the old man and utterly abolish the whole body of sin And now we hope that the Vindicator had not renounc'd his baptism by sinful positions and his own wicked course of life Secondly in our late Liturgie we are taught thus to pray in the Collect on Easter-Tuesday and to like effect in many other places Almighty God which hast given thine onely Son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness that we may alwayes serve thee in pureness of living and truth through Jesus Christ Unto which we might adde that out of the Letanie From all evill and mischief and sin from the crafts and assaults of the Devil from thy wrath and from everlasting damnation Good Lord deliver us From all blindness of heart from guile vain-glory and hypocrisie from envy hatred and strife from all uncharitableness Good Lord deliver us From fornication and all other deadly sin and from all deceits of the world the flesh and the Devil Good Lord deliver us And thus much for the confirmation of the first position Come we now to the establishment of the second That the law of God may by the grace and help of Christ be so perfectly kept and fulfilled in this life as not to offend against the same yea as to be justified and that only by Christ of grace given whch we will divide into two branches and first prove the possibility of such a fulfilling by the like Topicks and authorities as we did the former and then briefly ratifie that which will follow by consequence namely that by such a fulfilling of the Law by the grace of Christ we may be justified before God and men according to the truth of the Gospel As for the first of these we take it for granted that the Law of God requireth no more of us then what is contained in those two commandements Mat. 22.36 37 38 39. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and the great commandement and the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe Because our Saviour saith vers 40. On these two commandements hang all the Law and the Prophets Our first Topick to prove all this attainable by grace is taken from Gods predestination and election See Joh. 15 16. I have chosen and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain Rom. 8.29 30. For whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be made conformable to the image of his Son that he might be the first born among many brethren moreover whom he did predestinate those he also called and whom he called those he also justified and whom he justified those he also glorified Ephes 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love and chap. 2.10 For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God had before ordained that we shall walk in them 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God in holinesse unto obedience and in order thereunto unto the sprinkling of the blood of Iesus Christ that is his sanctifying Spirit as shall be proved hereafter The second Topick is from Gods expresse commands which cannot be impossible for they should be frustraneous tyrannical or unjust as aforesaid Gen. 17.1 I am the almighty God walk thou before me and be perfect Deut. 4.21 Ye shall not add to the words which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that ye may keep the commandements of the Lord your God which I commanded you chap. 5.32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left chap. 6.5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might and those words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them dilligently unto thy children Levit. 19.18 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self fear the Lord. Deut. 6.24 25. And the Lord commanded us to do all those statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that he may preserve us alive as it is at this day And it shall be our righteousnesse if we observe to do all these commandements before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us chap. 10.12 And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul chap. 18.13 Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God Josh 22.5 But take diligent heed to do the commandement and the Law which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandements and to cleave unto him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul Jerem. 7.25 But this thing commanded I them saying obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you that it may be well unto you Mala. 4.4 Remember ye the Law of my servant Moses which I commanded in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgements The third Topick is Gods promises to enable us to fulfill these by grace in Christ Deut. 26.18 19. And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou ' shouldst keep all his commandements and to make thee high above all nations which he hath made in praise and in honour that thou mayst be an holy people unto the Lord thy God as he hath spoken Deut. 30.6 7 8. And therefore thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live and the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies and on them that hate thee and which persecuted thee and thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord thy God and do all these commandements which I commanded thee this day Isai 46.29 30 31. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no strength he increaseth might even the youths shall faint and be weary and
Arrias Montanus hath it and that from a special Author also Seventhly we would not have it slightly passed over which is written Numb 13.14 concerning the ten unbelieving spies who would neither encourage themselves nor others to go and fight against the Canaanites that so they might have inherited the promised land but disheartened themselves and others with the apprehension of impossibilities till they were excluded therefrom in the end ' for whatsoever was written in time past was written for our instruction Rom. 15.14 1 Cor. 10.6 Heb. 4.1 and so was the story of Bar-Jesus Elymas the Sorcerer Act. 13.6 who called himself Bar-Jesus that is the Son of Jesus and pretended to become a prophet but he opposed the true faith in Christ as the Vindicator and some others do seeking to turn away the Deputy Sergius Paulus from it and so perverted the right way of the Lord being an enemy to the true righteousness in which regard he is not onely called a false prophet and a sorcerer as his name importeth but smitten with blindness from which sin and all other as well as from the horrid effects thereof the Lord in his mercy preserve us all and let those in speciall find mercy at his hands who opposing the truth have done it ignorantly in unbeliefe 1 Tim. 1.13 Eighthly that a great part of the Clergy in this nation and no smal part of them in authority begin to decline from the Orthodox faith of our English reformed Church and to urge the rigid and turbulent opinions of Mr. John Knox the father of the Gomarists in Scotland whose doctrine and discipline in an hundred years space hath not brought forth so much reformation of life in that nation as our late erected Government hath done there though for the most part by awe and constaint Lastly that as this doctrine deviates from the Apostles faith Rom. 6.8 for if we be dead with him we believe that we shall live with him so it swerves from the right end of both the Sacraments for by baptism we are buried into the death of Christ that like as Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father even so we should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together into the similitude of his death so then shall we be into the likeness of his resurrection Rom. 6.5 6. and in the Lords supper we are to shew forth the Lords death in dying with him unto all iniquity until his coming again unto us in the power of his resurrection 1 Cor. 11.26 Which two estates are by the Vindicators doctrine opposed as things of impossible attainment in this life and so the summe of the Gospel the right belief and true Christian race hereby denied decried and openly opposed in this Vindication by which the Vindicator hath verified as if his name were ominous in reference to his design another anagram of his Name O hindring net God hath his net and so hath the Devil Both nets are daily us'd about the evil Gods net draws fish out of the sea of sin The Mare clausum Satan casts them in Where Satans drudger-man is still impli'd To watch and draw Gods fish on his shore side This work to do John Tendring he is set To plead for sin hence call'd O hindring net True Doctrine is Gods net his fisher men Are ministers of righteousness and then False doctrine must be Satans net to draw Men from their due observance of Gods law By which they love to God and man forget And such thy book doth prove O hindring net Having finished also the catasceuastical part of our Revindication in the next pirce we shall presume to offer some Queries because we desire to lay open our hearts and minds for the trueths cause to such as are held to censure and rashly to judge of those whom they beleive are contrary-minded unto themselves 1. Querie Whether do you or any of you pretend to an infallible Spirit whereby you do not nor can erre in what you affirm or deny to be divine truth according to the Records commonly called the Scriptures The reason is because the late Synod confessed cap. 31. of their Confession that Councels and Synods have erred as themselves have done else why do they not answer the Examen against it in the materal points out of pity to the examiners who pitied them to undeceive them and the well-meaning people Secondly because if it be true as aforesaid then why do the Committees for trying in one place and ejection in every County though some are more moderate then others put the Article at the foot of other Articles That he is ignorantand insufficient for the work of the Ministry when sometimes the person the said article is put upon is a grave Doctor of Divinity and may be their catechisers Father for age in years and learning Thirdly because many are put out and others kept out of a livelyhood in the way themselves live and grow with other additionals rich by because they cannot ex consciencià subscribe and own their masters opinions Et jurare in verba magistri and yet these masters by their own confession may erre as their masters did whose servants were the miser men John 7.45 46 47 48 49. 2. Querie What do you aim at in your preaching with such bitterness especially in Wilts against us whether to maintain a combination and faction of self interest or that the people you preach unto may live a peacable and most holy life and their souls saved in the day of the Lord. The reason of this Querie is because the Apostle saith James 1.14 If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not also you lye against the truth and vers 16. where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work vers 17. and that the fruit of righteousnesse sown in peace of them that make peace Therefore Heb. 11.14 the Apostle saith follow peace with all men without which none shalt see God 3. Querie Whether such doctrines as hold out a possibility of a total mortification of sinne through the grace and help of Christ and a perfect obedience to the Law of God are not the Doctrines which do perswade people to live that most holy life but lead men as some have said from Heaven to Hell if Hell be where no sin nor unclean thing can come and Heaven be where much sinne will remain it is confessed according to the Vindicators attestation and position The reason of this Querie is offered by reason we have heard from an intelligent and present hearer thereof that a Minister in Salisbury but it is said he was late a New-England man did pray to God in his ignorant real before many people that he might never believe such a doctrine as a possibilty of a total mortification of sin in this life And we pray God of his mercy not to say Amen to his prayer but pray unto the Lord Jesus for him or