Regula Vitae THE RVLE OF THE LAW VNDER THE GOSPEL Containing A Discovery of the pestiferous sect of LIBERTINES ANTINOMIANS and sonnes of Belial lately sprung up both to destroy the Law and disturbe the faith of the Gospell Wherein is manifestly proved that God seeth sinne in iustified persons By THOMAS TAYLOR Dr. of Divinity and Pastour of S. Mary Aldermanbury London Numb 12. 8. Wherefore were ye not afraid to speake against my servant Moses Imprinted at London by W. I. for Robert Dawlman at the Brazen Serpent in Paules Churchyard 1631. The Preface to the godly Reader WHat Mr. Luther in his last Sermon at Wittenberg observed and foretolde we see in these our dayes fully performed and accomplished hee had observed thirty severall sects and sectaries raised up by Satan in his time against that holy doctrine preached by himselfe all which had hee not beene able by the Scriptures to have resisted and refuted he must have beene as himselfe said of thirty severall religions Among them he mentioneth the Anabaptists Antinomists Libertines Servitians c. of all whom he foretold that though now they saith hee by the power of the word and by the vigilancy of godly teachers lye close and still yet will they be intent and ready on all occasions to rise and raise up their damnable errours to disturbe the peace of the Church and the prosperity of the Gospel And indeede accordingly have we observed the Church of God in all times since lesse or more infested with these dangerous sectaries I meane the Libertines the professed enemies to the Law of God and to the holy obedience of it Against whom as St. Augustine in his time wrote two books against the Adversaries of the Law so Mr. Calvin dealt worthily in his time in his booke intituled Against the furious sect of the Libertines and many other godly men since that time Let not us be offended that the spawne and succession of those lewd libertine sectaries are now issued forth in troopes amongst us nor marvaile that the hatred of Gods most righteous Law prevaileth amongst a rude multitude the sonnes of Belial whom Mr. Calvin calleth a prodigious and belluine sect furious and madded in their opinions and fierce as unbroken coltes against whosoever would curbe them and straiten the reines of their unbridled licentiousnesse But rather let us observe 1. Satans malice in sowing tares where good seede was sowne and that in the Lords field 2. Gods just permission of so many schismes as tares rising with the graine and therein revenging the contempt and disobedience of his word he hath sent strong delusions that many should believe lies who received not the truth in the love of it 3. The levity wantonnes and instability of unsetled Gospellers that are in every new fashion of opinion with every new man that hath the tricke of molding novell conceits against received truthes that if thirty new-minted fansies should rise up in their age they were like enough to be of thirty religions and of every last praise God that the truth was never truly preached till now 4. Let us excite our selves to the love of truth to the hatred of errour and to the fencing of our selves against seducers importuning in serious invocation the God of truth not to punish our wantonnesse in profession with taking the word of truth utterly from us and thus shall we temper poyson to a remedy and turne that to an help which the enemy intends for our hurt For the setling of mine owne people some of them looking that way I delivered lately some grounds both to enforce the rule of the Law upon the regenerate as also to refute the contrary errour of our new audacious Antinomists and Libertines and Famelists who as the olde Manichees and Marcionists abolish the whole Law and that wholly One preacheth that the whole Law since Christs death is wholly abrogated and abolished Another that the whole Law was fulfilled by Christ 1600 yeares agoe and we have nothing to doe with that Another that to teach obedience to the Law of God is to teach popery and to leade men into a dead faith Another that to doe any thing because God commands us or to forbeare any thing because God forbids us is a signe of a morall man and of a dead and unsound Christian. And upon these hollow and deceitfull grounds doe these masters of errour bottome a number other ridiculous conceits which yet they deliver as oracles and anathematize whosoever shall not so receive them As 1. That the Law being abolished to the justified God can see no sinne in them for hee can see no Law transgressed 2. That the regenerate cannot sinne for where is no Law is no transgression according to that Luciferian principle rife among them Be in Christ and sinne if thou canst 3. That being in Christ they are Christed with Christ as pure as Christ as perfect as Christ as farre beyond the Law as Christ himselfe the right brood and spawne of the olde Catharists and Puritans 4. That the Law is not to bee taught in the Church and they are legall Preachers that doe so and preach not Christ. 5. They hence disclaime all obedience to the Law and raile at the precepts and practise of sanctification as good for nothing but to carry men to hell and cry out on the Ministers as Popish and as having Monks in their bellies who set men on working and doing and walking holily 6. They renounce and reject all humility confession and sorrow for sinne they scorne fasting and prayer as the seeking not of God but of our selves One saith that neither our omissions nor commissions should grieve us and another Neither doe my good deedes rejoyce mee nor my bad deedes grieve mee They deride and flout the exercise of repentance and mortification and upbraid such as walke humbly before God What say they Will you repent all your dayes and You cannot sinne but you must repent an whole fortnight after Nay they are set upon so merry a pin as they can thinke of their former sinnes with merriment I am glad of my sinne saith one because it hath drawne me to Christ and why doest thou not mourne that by those sinnes thou hast pierced Christ 7. They reject the Saboth as Iewish wholly abrogated with all other commandements as one of them professed that were it not for offence of men he would labour in his calling on that day as well as any other These with many other consequents of the same stampe all tending to loose the conscience from all awe of God from all care of duty from all feare of sinne and judgement to come though they walke in all licentiousnesse and prodigious courses are such as a right bred Christian cannot but tremble at and were there but a few droppes of modest blood in their veines the Masters of such lewd and libertine opinions could not but blush at who cannot answer before God without
they could the light and devise to speake as in the riddles and oracles of old in ambiguous and new-minted phrases of their owne as if the phrase and expressions of the Scriptures were onely to be rejected in opening of the mysteries of Scriptures But leaving these bolde impostours to set the holy Ghost to schoole to teach him to speake wee acknowledge wee have not onely a rule of doctrine prescribed us in the Scriptures but also a rule of speaking unto which we must frame our selves and utter wholesome doctrine in wholesome words and words of understanding and all other lofty arrogant and subtle manner of speaking so as that which is uttered cannot be well understood the Apostle rejects it as an idle beating of the ayre 4. Nourish the grace of humility for God teacheth the humble beware of curiosity and affectation of novelties be wise to sobriety and thinke it an high wisedome to be established in ancient and received truthes The ficklenesse of hearers and unsetlednesse in the grounds of holy truth together with the wantonnesse of opinions have opened a wide doore to impostours and while for want of judgement men are ready with Salomons foole to beleeve every thing all the labour and diligence of able and godly Ministers is too weake to keepe multitudes from running after the Ministers of Satan furnished with all arts to deceive and to cheate them of the truth which is according to godlinesse Against whom while I endeavour to establish others I may seeme to forget my selfe and that I must incurre many censures and contempts from this lawlesse generation of men but my labour is with the Lord and my reward is my conscience of well-doing I shall contemne their contempt love their persons hate their errours and studie while I am to be as serviceable to the Church and the faith once given to the Saints as I can CHAP. 1. Containing the ground of the following discourse and dispute out of Rom. 6. 14. For ye are not under the Law IN the words of the Apostle are to be enquired 1. What is meant by the Law namely The Morall Law in the ten Commandements containing our whole duty to God and to our neighbour 2. What it is to be under the Law namely not under the rule and obedience of the Law for our Apostle looseth no Christian from that but Christians are not under the raigne of the Law by the raigne of which sinne raigneth unto death This being the Apostles reason that the raigne of the Law puts them under the reign of sin 3. Who are these that are not under the Law Yee that is beleevers justified and sanctified persons that are dead to sinne and alive unto God in Iesus Christ our Lord verse 11. and onely these seeing the naturall man is yet in his sinnes and under the whole power of the Law in the rigour and extremity of it Rom 7. 6. We are delivered from the Law being dead unto it wherein we were holden But who are these those that serve in newnesse of spirit not in oldnesse of letter that is which now serve God in a new spirituall manner excited and wrought by the spirit and not according to the olde corruption of our nature before grace nor according to the externall letter of the law which onely breedeth externall actions And that it is the priviledge of beleevers appeareth by these reasons 1. Because Christ was made under the Law to redeeme those that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sonnes Galat. 4. 4. The reason is good Christ was under the Law therefore Christians beleeving are not under it and Christians are redeemed from being under the Law and therfore are no longer under it 2. As many as are under the Law are under the curse But it is the priviledge of beleevers not to be under the curse for they that are of the faith of Abraham are blessed with faithfull Abraham Therefore they are not under the Law 3. It is the priviledge of beleevers to receive the spirit of Christ. Rom. 8. 14. As many as are Christs are led by the spirit of Christ and therfore they are not under the Law Gal. 5. 18. If yee be led by the spirit yee are not under the law 4. It is the priviledge of beleevers to have eternall life and the inheritance by promise and not by the tenour of the Law and therefore all they and only they are free from being under the Law Gal. 3. 18. If the inheritance be by the Law it is no more by promise But God gave it to Abraham by the promise Were beleevers under the Law they should have the inheritance by the Law but they have it not by the Law but by promise and therefore are not under the Law For the Law and the promise in the cause of righteousnesse and life will not be agreed no more than light and darknesse fire and water whose natures are most abhorring Quest. But what or wherein is this priviledge of not being under the Law Answ. This priviledge will appeare the clearer if we consider the danger of being under the Law in foure things First in that the Law wrappeth every sinner in the curse of God both in this life as also in the life to come so as hee is no where secure but lyeth naked to the curse meeting him at every corner The Law is a thunderbolt to blast him in his person in his estate in his name in his goods in his calling in his comforts in all his enterprises and occasions the sentence is passed upon him and where ever he is hee is in the way to execution It would daunt and astonish the hardiest and stoniest heart to heare the sentence of death pronounced upon it for violating the law of his Prince and Country It would marre all his merriments to conceive hee were presently to suffer but a temporall death for offending the law of man And it would much more spoyle the pleasure of sin if the sinner could with an hearing eare heare the sentence of eternall death denounced by the Law against soule and body for violating the righteous Law of the eternall God If an house were ready to fall upon a mans head how would hee bestirre himselfe and winde every way to hye himselfe out of the danger But the burden of the Law is more intollerable than the weight of all the sands and mountaines in the world and this oppressing weight is ready to fall on the head of every sinner which how should it amaze and affright them and make them restlesse till they bee gotten without the reach of the danger 2. The Law in the raigne of it shuts up heaven which receives no trangressour and setteth the gate of hell wide open upon the sinner and not onely casteth him into hell hereafter but bringeth an hell into his conscience before hell that if his heart be not dead within him as Nabals
the spirit all our worke is done to our hand and we have nothing left for us to doe and therefore the Law to us is as the seven green cords on Sampsons armes which he brake off as a thred of tow when it toucheth the fire and our selves as loose and at liberty from it as he was from them for the whole Law is abolished to us wholly Therefore we are to prove against them that true beleevers have both a true use of the Morall Law and besides their lively faith wherin they have received the spirit have need of the directions and doctrines of the Morall Law for the performance of the duties of it and that by these reasons If the same sinnes be forbidden after faith as before then is the Law in some force to beleevers But the same sinnes are forbidden them after faith as before And therefore the Law is in some force to them The proposition is cleare because the Law onely discovereth and revealeth sinne as the Gospell doth the remedy The assumption is also manifest because the Law is an eternall truth and is never at agreement with any sinne in whomsoever Concupiscence before faith is sinne and no lesse sinne after faith in the regenerate Davids murder and adultery were sins after faith and the same man that beleeved in God committed adultery with Bathsheba Object These were foule sins in themselves but not in him because he was justified Answ. Then Nathan was deceived in saying Thou art the man and David when he said I have sinned Had David sinne after faith then was David under a Law for obedience for every sinne is the transgression of the Law and where no Law is can be no transgression The like of Peter in the new Testament apparantly a beleever for Christ prayed that his faith should not faile yet after that fell into those foule sinnes against the Law rash swearing and false swearing and cursing himselfe which were foule sins in him as well as in themselves why should he else goe out and weepe bitterly Peter as full of shifts as he was to save his skin was to seeke in this shift to turne off all his sinne and sorrow at once that being a beleever and in the new Testament the Law had nothing to doe with him This argument our Novatians and Famelists can by no other shift avoid but by flying to a perfect purity in themselves for this is a dangerous and desperate principle of their Catechisme rife in the mouths of their Novices Be in Christ and sinne if thou canst and is very coherent with their other tenents for were the Morall Law indeed wholly abolished why should they not worship false Gods sweare breake the Saboth rebell kill whore steale what should hinder them from rayling and reviling all Ministers and people besides their owne sect as in a dead faith as onely morall men in state of death all this is no sinne abolish the Law and thou maist say Sin if thou canst But oh vaine men Can David sinne and for his sinne his flesh tremble with feare of Gods judgments Can Peter at the side of Christ sinne and that after so many warnings of Christ himselfe Doth Paul know but in part and after faith find a law in his members rebelling against the law of his minde and that after grace received the good hee would doe hee did not and the evill hee would not doe that did hee and are you in so high a forme beyond these worthies that you cannot sinne if you would Ponder a little these places of Scripture and if you be still mad of your perfection I will say of you as Ierom of your fellowes You had more need of physick to purge your braines than perswasion to informe your judgements Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man on earth that doth good and finneth not 1 Kings 8. 46. For there is no man that sinneth not Object No Hee that is borne of God sinneth not Answ. The Apostle saith not simply and absolutely that he hath no sinne or sinneth not but hee sinneth not industriously hee makes not a trade of sinne he sinnes not as the wicked doe nor sinneth not in raigning sin nor sinneth unto death without returne and repentance because the seede of God abideth in him and destroyeth in him the worke of the Divell Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I am pure from sinne Who I can say so and I can saith every Libertine my sin may be sought for and cannot be found and mine saith another is washed off that it cannot be seene and mine saith a third is as a bottle of inke dispersed in the sea and not to be discerned And indeed thus it is in the justified in respect of Gods account and imputation but while they speak so magnifically of themselves in respect of the presence of sinne they onely blow up their bladder bigger which all the while is swelled up but with stinking winde and emptinesse But they would have some places out of the new Testament as men beyond the reach of the olde And so they may Iam. 3. 2. In many things we sinne all We all all Apostles all Christians sin that is transgresse the Law in many things by daily failings and errours and therefore all we in the new Testament since Christs death though we be justified by faith are under the rule and obedience of the Law because we sin in many things 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If we say we have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Wee Who The Apostle speaketh of carnall men say some of the Libertines as if the Apostle was a carnall man but the former verse expresseth who they be that have sinne those that walke in the light those that are in communion of Saints and have fellowship one with another and those that are justified and sanctified whom the blood of Iesus Christ his Sonne hath cleansed from all sinne If the same duties be required of all after faith as before and every conscience bound to the performance then the Law in the whole use is not abolished to beleevers But the first is true and therefore the second The former appeares because where any duty is commanded there the rule of that duty is implied and this rule is the Morall Law which bindeth all men to all duties of it both before and after Christ being an eternall measure of all that is right or crooked That it is a rule of duty before Christ they deny not and that it is a rule of duty since Christ I make it plaine thus 1. Because Christ himselfe did confirme expound establish and fortify the Law by his word and authority which was the scope of his large Sermon upon the Mount in Mat. 5. 6. and 7 chapters which had it beene to be utterly abolished he would rather have declaimed bitterly against the Law as our Antinomists
loved or to prayer how can they call on him on whom they have not beleeved and so in the rest so neither can a man preach faith without some reference to the Law for can a man beleeve a remedy without knowledge search of the wound nay it is the Law that fits us to prize Christ a physitian or else would we never meddle with him no more than he would seeke out for a garment that hath no sence of his shame or nakednesse What if the Law know not nor command one to die or satisfie for another yet it doth not denie or exclude or hinder the mercy of God revealed in the Gospell but maketh way unto it The Apostles therefore did not abrogate the Law by faith nay saith our Apostle we establish it From whence the argument will rise stronger If the Apostles did stablish the Law by the doctrine of faith then is not the Law abolished to beleevers in the new Testament But they did establish the Law by faith Quest. How doth faith stablish the Law Answ. 1. In shewing that all the menaces and curses of it are not in vaine but all fulfilled in Christ who was laid under them all to free us from them 2. It fulfils the Law because it bringeth before God the perfect fulfilling of the Law for justification though not in our selves yet in our surety in whom wee have perfectly fulfilled it and shall live by it the Law must be absolutely fulfilled by us in our surety or we cannot live 3. It stablisheth the Law because faith worketh by love which love is the fulfilling of the Law so as by faith being justified as we are in a stronger obligation to the duties of it so we begin a new obedience to all the commandements and there is no duty which a Christian is not firmely obliged unto Tell me saith Augustine what there is in all the ten commandements what it is that a Christian is not bound unto 4. Because by faith we can pray and by the prayer of faith obtaine the spirit of God by whom we are supplied with needfull strength to obey the Law so August faith obtaines grace by which the Law is fulfilled and Ambrose saith that faith stablisheth the Law because faith shewes those duties to be done which the Law commandeth to be done And thus have we strengthened our fourth argument which hath proved that the Apostles of Christ abolished not the Law but established it and therefore it is not without use and force in the new Testament In whomsoever must be a constant endeavour of conformity to the Law to those the Law is not abolished This is plaine because where any thing is to be regulated there the rule is necessary But every beleever after conversion must strive to a conformity with the Law 1. in his inner man 2. in his outward man 3. in his whole man 1. In his inner man he must delight in the Law of God Rom. 7. 22. both in his minde he must serve the Law of God verse 25. and in his affections hee must love the Law Psal. 119. 97. Oh how love I thy Law Psal. 1. 1. The blessed man delighteth in the Law of the Lord not onely in the knowledge of it which an hypocrite may but in the conformity of their hearts and affections with it they carry friendly affections to the Law Our Antinomists outboast all men in point of their justification But St Ambrose his rule denieth them to be justified because they are not friends with the Law And Mr. Luther whom they challendge as their friend and favourer rangeth them among unjustified and unregenerate men of whom he saith that they love the Law as well as a murderer loveth the prison and so well love these the Law and therefore by his censure rejected among the unregenerate 2. In his outward man and action the justified man must testifie that the Law of God is written in his heart so the Apostle 1 Ioh. 2. 17. He that fulfilleth the commandement abideth for ever What is this commandement and what is it to fulfill it The commandement is the same which he had delivered in the former part of the chapter consisting of two branches 1. To beleeve in the Sonne of God as our onely satisfaction our onely advocate and the reconciliati on for the sinnes of the world v. 1 2. That we embrace him as our unerring patterne of our lives and walke as he walked v. 6. Quest. How did hee walke Answ. 1. In the generall observation of the whole Law 2. In speciall In the perfect love of the brethren v. 9. and in the contempt of the world Now must Christ walk in the obedience of the commandements and must not the Christian Yes saith the Apostle Every Christian must fulfill the commandement Object What will you teach justification by workes Answ. No we call not men to legall fulfilling of the commandement but evangelicall as 1. when the minde delighteth in the Law of God as holy just and good 2. When the heart hides it to conforme unto it 3. When the affection desireth to fulfill it rejoyceth when he can attaine to any obedience and sorroweth when he faileth in it 4. When in his actions he beginneth that obedience which shall end in perfect fulfilling this the Gospell accepteth and accompteth a fulfilling of the commandement Thus the Apostle Rom 8. 4. The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us which walke not after the flesh but after the spirit that is Christ by his meritorious obedience to the death hath not onely freed us beleevers from the condemning power of sinne but from the commanding power of it and so renewed our nature as that the Law of God shall be fulfilled in us and that two wayes 1. By application of his owne perfect fulfilling of it unto us with whom we by faith being united unto him whatsoever is his being the head is ours also being members 2. By our sanctification it is fulfilled in us inchoately that is by obedience begun here which at last shall be perfected so as not the least motion or desire contrary to the Law shall be left in our nature Thus is the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled not by us but in us even here below and is our rule both in earth and in heaven 3. In his whole man the beleever must grow up to the image of Christ and to the conformity of his holinesse which is no other but the perfect image of God expressed in the Law This growth in grace and sanctification is called the rising up to full holinesse as the Sunne riseth up higher till perfect day Prov. 4. 18. The way of the just is as the light which shineth more and more till perfect day But this cannot be done without the helpe of the Law the onely rule by which and the scope unto which it must be directed For 1. how should a beleever free from
see and confesse and bewaile his sinne even past and pardoned therefore himselfe seeth them much more For we have no eye nor facultie of minde to discerne any thing but from him that enlighteneth every man that commeth into the world Iohn 1 Doth he work in us the knowledge oâ— our sinnes and hee not know them Nay doth he enjoyne the Saints to set before his eye daily their sinnes in the humble confession of them and prayer for pardon and doth he not yet see them Doe we not heare David confessing the sins of his youth long after they were not onely committed but remitted Psal. 25. and doth he not confesse with humility those foule sinnes after he had a speciall message from God that they were pardoned Psal. 51. And in the new Testament did not Paul long after his conversion and justification confesse sinnes pardoned I was a blasphemer and a persecuter c. And did not God now see and know these sinnes past and pardoned or not heare their confessions 6. If the spirit of God maintaineth a continuall combat against the sinnes of the justified then he sees those sinnes against which he fighteth for wee must not thinke that the spirit of light and wisdome either fighteth in the darke or blindfold or that the elect can ever find the power of the spirit subduing those sins which he cannot see 7. Hee that recordeth the sinnes of the elect many yeares and ages after they are pardoned seeth sinne in the justified for how could hee inspire his servants in that which he did no way see But so doth the Lord. For of David was said long after his death that hee was right save in the matter of Vriah Rahab was called an harlot many ages after her and yet the holy Ghost forgat not that she was a beleever Heb. 11. 31. By faith Rahab the harlot perished not Elias was said to be a 〈◊〉 subject to the same infirmities Iames 5. God that sees the infirmities of the Saints so many ages after seeth and knoweth greater errors much more though not to impute them Object But these were in the olde Testament but since the death of Christ God cannot see sinne pardoned Sol. O grosse ignorance Was the death of Christ lesse efficacious in matter of remission of sinne and righteousnesse to beleevers in the olde Testament than to us in the new was hee not the same lambe slaine from the beginning of the world even the same yesterday to day and for ever 2. Doe they never reade the Scriptures or doe they reade them and winke at such pregnant and plentifull examples of beleevers recorded and yet many ages before pardoned 1 Corinth 6. 11. speaking of theeves covetous c. And such were you but now yee are justified now yee are sanctified Did not God and his spirit see sinne past and pardoned in the justified Rom. 6. 19. Yee did give up your members weapons of unrighteousnesse These were sinnes past and pardoned in justified persons in the new Testament and after Christs death Ephes 2. 11. Remember that yee were Gentiles in the flesh without God aliants without hope it seemes God saw and remembred sinnes past and pardoned and putteth them in remembrance of them Col. 3. 7. The Apostle chargeth the Colossians with what they had beene and in what fearefull sinnes they had walked though now they were justified Did the Lord charge them with that hee did not see I might be abundant in such testimonies but if these places cannot cleare this truth to them let them still shut their eyes against the Sunne and hide themselves in their owne thickets to enjoy more securely all their licentious courses as those wicked men that say Tush God seeth us not there is no knowledge in the most High CHAP. 6. Containing foure other as libertine and dangerous Errours as the former 9 ERROR That God is not displeased with the sinnes of the justified and much lesse correcteth them for hee is fully satisfied in Christ for all the sinnes of the elect and how can he be displeased with them for that for which hee hath received full satisfaction Answ. 1. The perfect good must for ever hate that which is perfectly evill so as God can never be at agreement with sin in any nay he so hateth sinne even in the justified that he maintaineth in them a perpetuall combate and irreconciliable warre against it 2. They conceive not that anger and love may be at the same time tempered in a father to his children whom because he loveth he chasteneth But this hatred is not a simple hatred or an hostile wrath or a revenging anger such as hee putteth forth upon contumacious sinners but a loving fatherly and fruitfull chastisement upon sonnes neither doth this wrath redound and seaze upon their persons but upon their sinnes But these confused men not distinguishing betweene persons and sinnes cannot conceive how God can hate their sinnes and at the same time love their persons Neither can they apprehend aright the nature of reconciliation which is a freedome from revenge upon the persons because they are sonnes but not a freedome from the chastisement of their sinnes for then saith the Apostle they were bastards and no sonnes Object But haâ—h not Christ borne all the punishment of the sinnes of beleevers Answ. Yes all the punishment of malediction which is indeed properly called punishment but not of correction for we must daily beare his crosse and fulfill the remainders of the sufferings of Christ. 2. Christ hath most fully satisfied the justice of God for the sinnes of the elect so as no punishment satisfactory remaineth to purge or satisfie for sinne past but there remaineth a monitory castigation to bring the Saints to mourne for sinne past and to watch against sins to come Object But can God punish one sin twice once in Christ and againe in the person himselfe Answ. No if we understand it of the punishment of divine revenge and not of fatherly correction intended not for perdition but for â—rudition and caution and to make them partakers of his holinesse Object It is true the godly are afflicted but these afflictions have no respect to sinne but onely for tryall Answ. What none are they not merited by sinne are they not from the just God whose justice cannot punish the guiltlesse Farre be it from thee to doe this thing to punish the righteous with the wicked Gen. 18. 25. Surely correction must needs imply offence and affliction commeth not without respect of sinne either past to correct it or present to mourne for it or to come to prevent it Micah 1. 5. For the wickednes of Iacob and for the sinne of Israel is all this Lam. 3. 34. Man suffereth for his sinne Micah 7. 9. The Church will beare the wrath of God because shee had sinned Object Yea this was in the old Testament but since that time Christ hath dyed and actually borne the
punishment of sinne and you can bring no such place out of the new Testament Answ. Hath Christ done lesse for beleevers in the old Testament than in the new did they beare more wrath for their sin than we or did not Christ carry as much wrath from theÌ„ as from us was not his death as vertuous to the first ages of the world as to the last or did the vertue of it begin at the time of his passion or is not the faith of Messiah to come alike precioâ—s as the faith of him come already 2. But have we no place in the new Testament to shew beleevers corrected for sinne What is that 1 Cor. 11. For this cause many are weake and are sicke and many die It is too rash to say as one that these were carnall and hypocrites unlesse they be carnall and hypocrites that must not be condemned with the world 1 Pet. 4. 17. Iudgement must begin at Gods house Heb. 12. 6. He scourgeth every sonne whom hee receiveth Why because they are sonnes or because they have sinnes Object Ioh. 9. 3. Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents therfore afflictions are not for sinne and Iobs afflictions were all for tryall not for sinne Answ. 1. In generall The difference of the judgements of the godly and the wicked is not either 1. in the meriting cause for both are merited by sinne 2. Nor in their matter being materially both one the same sword the same plague the same famine the same blindnesse sicknesse and death 3. Nor in the ground of them for both are threatned and inflicted by the same Law 4. Nor in their sence and feeling for there is no difference between the smart of sonnes and slaves But the difference is in 1. the person inflicting 2. in the persons bearing and suffering 3. in the end of God which is not the same 4. in the fruit and issue which are much different in different persons the serious consideration of these grounds would let them see wherein their errour lurketh if they will not be willingly ignorant 2. For the instances First of the blinde man I answer that the position of one cause is not the remotion of another where many concurre neither doth the affirming of the principall cause deny the lesse principall God in this judgement principally intended his owne glory in the honouring of his Sonne and not principally the sinne either of the parents or sonne 2. Christ speaketh not of the meritorious cause of this judgement but of the finall cause and so the objection is not to the purpose Secondly The like we may say of Iob the principall end of his affliction was for tryall and not for correction but this excludeth not the meritorious cause nor proves that there was no correction in it at least might not be Object But Christ was extremely punished but not for sinne and therefore there are afflictions without sinne Answ. This is as impertinent a cavill as the case is singular Christ had no sinne in him but had sinne on him he had none inherent but had enough imputed he had none of his owne but the infinite burden of all the sinnes of all his members lay upon him for which he was plagued of God because he stood before God as the greatest malefactour that ever was not because he had proper sinne but appropriated not because he did any sinne but was made a sinne for us â—hat we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Gods justice could not have punished him if he had not stood before him as a sinner So the objection turneth quite against themselves Object But Christ by his Kingly power reigneth to maintaine in the conscience the peace procured both against the Law and sinne and the Divell and the world and worldly reason Answ. Peace without disturbance neither within nor without the Apostle knew not Rom. 7. nor yet Christ himselfe who so left his legacy of peace of his Disciples as that notwithstanding in the world they must have affliction 2. It is enough that Christ reigneth to maintain our peace by weakening and subduing the power of sinne daily although he totally and wholly abolish it not here below and fatherly and loving correction rather furthers and strengtheneth his reigne than hinder or weaken it in us 10 ERROR That justified persons have no more to doe with repentance and to repent of every particular sinne is to beleeve that a man is not perfectly justified or at once but by peece-meale as sinne is committed yea it is to undervalue the sufferings of Christ as not haâ—ing sufficiently satisfied for all sinnes past present and to come Answ. A desperate principle as much abolishing the Gospell as any of the former doth the Law and indeed no enemy to the Law can be a friend to the Gospell But we must know 1. That never can man be free from repentance till he be free from sinne to be repented of which can never be shaken off in this world The whole life is but one day of repentance and repentance is the work of that whole day and who but a profane libertine would not have his Master find him so doing We sweepe our houses every day and wash our hands every day because one contracteth dust and the other soyle every day much more have we need to cleanse daily the houses of our hearts See my treatise inâ—ituled The practise of Repentance Cap. 10. and therein many reasons for conâ—inuance of repeâ—tance 2. They forget that David and Peter repented after saith That the Church of Pergamus that kept the name of Christ and had not denied the faith must yet repent her selfe else Christ will come against her Rev. 2. 12. and 16. And how much cause have the best men to repent of their daily sinnes that must repent daily of their best duties which they must confesse are as a filthy clout 3. Although the spirit by faith assureth the beleever that all his sinnes are satisfied by the death of Christ yet the spirit also perswadeth the heart that in this way of humiliation and repentance we shall receive assurance of remission of daily sinnes and particular infirmities for else the spirit should faile in his office which is to bring even the house of David and the inhabitants of Ierusalem that is true beleevers to the fountaine of grace and stir up in them deepe sorrow and earnest lamentation in seeking pardon for daily sinnes and speciall provocations against the Lord whom by their sins they have pierced 4. Prayer for forgivenesse of daily sinnes is an act of repentance enjoyned by Christ on him that hath formerly repented is justified and calleth God Father as in that petition of his most holy prayer Forgive us our trespasses 5. They that overflow with love and outboast all others in their pretence of love which is so strong and active as they need no other mover forget that increase of love to God must
mee No the more is your sin and shame Doe you preach amongst a tumult of artizans and illiterate men so as our Ministers cannot understand you what is the reason you doe so hide your selfe seeing light feareth nothing but darknesse and truth nothing but to be hid I must say to you as Ierome of the crabbed Poet Persius If you will not be understood you ought not to be read so if you will not be understood you ought not to preach unlesse perhaps it may be more beneficiall to the Church that if you doe preach you be not understood Alas that men professing the doctrine of godlinesse and pretending the practise of wisedome and sobriety should by the pride of their hearts become thus disguised and transported into raptures and fits next to frenzie and madnesse But against this windy conceit of perfection I will now say the lesse because I have dealt more fully against this pernicious errour before in the third chapter Yet here 1. let it be considered wherein the Scripture placeth the perfection of Saints here below and that is not in the want of sinne but in the fight against sinne and not in the absence but in groaning in the presence of sinne For 1. would Christ teach men without sin to pray daily for forgivenesse of sinne 2. Would hee command those to pray daily not to be led into temptation that cannot sinne if they would 3. Did hee ordaine the Sacrament of the Supper for men perfect that want nothing to whom nothing can be added or to the sicke who neede the physitian and to such as hunger and thirst after righteousnesse which is a senâ—e of defect not of perfection 4. Are they in holinesse and perfections of grace beyond the Apostle Paul who many yeares after regeneration complaineth that he found evill present with him and a law in his members rebelling against the law of his minde and professeth that he had not attained and that all is here in part and imperfect till that perfect come 5. Are they perfect without sinne why doe they then as other sinfull men doe hath death any commission where is no sinne or if their sinnes be gone and their persons justified and yet they die why deny they that any correction abideth any whose sinne is pardoned unlesse they will say they die onely for triall Secondly Sanctification hath three degrees in this life the highest of which is imperfect 1 Is the death of the body of sin Which is not all at once but resembleth the death of Christs body on the crosse which was diminished by degrees till his spirit by his last breath was surrendred to his Father Thus is it in the christian whose last breath of sinne and of the body goe out together The Second degree is the buriall of the body of sinne which is a further proceeding in mortification as buriall is a proceeding of death and a consumption of the dead body not all at once but by little and little So mortification is not an act of a day but of the life The Third degree of sanctification is a raising from the grave of sinne to a new life by vertue of Christ his Resurrection that looke as a graft set in to a new stock draweth juice and life from that stock not all at once and then no more but still draweth and by drawing groweth by degrees unto the full height and age of it eveÌ„ so is it here christian life is continued as naturall by dayly supply and addition of that which is daily wanting God indeed if he had pleased might in a moment have freed his servants from all sinne as well in life as in death but he wold not because his wisdome procures himselfe more glory in his protection and assistance of the Saints and in the victory of his servants against sin than if they were free from sinne The fiercer the enemies were that rose up against Moses in the wildernes and against Iosua in the Land of Canaan the more it turned to the glory of Gods mighty power in giving them possession in despight of them all And so greater honour returneth to the Lord because greater is his grace in making the sinnes of the Saints remedies of sinne to humble them for sinnes past to shame them for sinne present and to worke in them feare watchfulnesse against sinne for time to come then if he should at once abolish sinne in them All which these men shake off their hands as easily as Sampson did the greene cords when the Philistins came upon him Thirdly As he that exalteth himselfe must be brought low so the Scriptures shew those to be in highest estimation with God that have beene and are least in their owne eyes Abraham seeth himselfe but dust and ashes Iacob seeth himselfe lesse than the least mercie Gideon saith of himselfe Who am I or what is my Fathers house but the least in all Israel Iudg 6. 13. Iohn Baptist than whom a greater was not borne among women said I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his shooe The Centurion I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under the roofe of my house Peter Goe from mee Lord for I am a sinfull man Paul I am the least of all the Apostles but the chiefe of all sinners But we never read nor heard those vaine voyces from any truely regenerate man I am perfect I am pure so as nothing can be added unto me I cannot sin if I would Gods eternall power can see no sinne in me I am beheld no otherwise then Christ himselfe for I am Christed with Christ and Godded with God I will neither greive for my sin nor pray for pardon of sinne and the like No no true grace which St. August calleth the first second and third grace of Christians would keep the heart from these high staires and straines of pride it would fetch them off such mounted thoughts and change them into mournefull complaints that they must needs will they nill they admit the Cananit and Iebusits within their borders that they must finde sinne in them as a law forcing them to the evill they would not Rom. 7. 24. And godly experience concludeth that humility is a signe of worth but hautines is never without emptinesse and vanity Emptiest vessels sound lowdest and the husbandman liketh better those heavie eares of corne that hang downe their heads than the light and empty ones that stand so upright Fewer words would serve wiser men I will onely say to this proud perfectist as Constantine the great did to Acesius one of the proud Bishops of the Catharists Set up a ladder Acesius by which thou alone maist climbe to heaven CHAP. 8. Discovering the third proper ground of this opposition which is affectation of licentiousnesse and love of a lawles liberty ioyned with hatred of holinesse and the power of godlinesse AS pride attends ignorance so an inseperable fruit