sinning and so never sin But if thou say its impossible so to resist and that he must needs give way to temptations and so commit sin Then is this not to be counted a sin which thus is not willingly committed but as an enforced passion and is of the same accompt with a Rape which a woman may suffer without any guilt of sin section 52 T.L. Whether though none of our Hearers in this life either are or can be free from the reliques and remainders of sin Ro. 7.23,24 yet whether many of them are not perfectly freed from the condemnation of sin Rom 8 1 33,34 yea so far from the dominion and power of sin Rom 6 14 that though sin be in them yet they are not in sin but that we may comfortably believe that testimony of them which the Scripture gives of Iob Iob 1 1. That they feare God and eschew evil And that notwithstanding their human frailties and infirmities yet neverthelesse their hearts as the heart of Asa was are perfect all their dayes 2. Chron. 15.17 so perfect as to be sincere and upright Answ Concerning the righteousnesse and perfection of your Hearers I Answer That by their fruits they are known And if they be not free from sin then not dead to sin and so under the Law and not under grace Rom. 7.6 Rom. 6 18 22 In Rom. 3 23,24 Paul declareth his warring estate at which time he was carnal sold under sin verse 14 brought into the captivity to the law of sin verse 23 At which time he also cryeth out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death But the same Paul in other places doth witness a far different estate from this for thus he saith When we were in the flesh verse 5 Ye are not in the flesh Rom. 8.9 For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8 2 How can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin Rom. 8.10 See also Rom. 7.6 From these and many other places that might have been alleaged it is most evident That Paul in this seventh Chapter to the Romans treateth of his warfare of the condition he then was in while yet he was not wholly dead to sin nor had yet obtained the victory over the carnal part and so was not yet delivered from under the thunders and tempest of Sinai's condemnation section 53 T.L. Whether any of you received the mystery of Christ by Revelation the same way that Paul did who received it by Christs speaking to him in the Hebrew tongue compare Eph. 3.3,4,5 with Acts 26.14 Answ This seemeth to me a very silly quaere as though the language in which God speaketh when he calls any one to the Ministery or other service were of any consideration or moment as in respect to the validity of such a Call and authority thereby received Let the Reader compare these two Scripturers in the quaere and he shall find the latter end of this question yet worse than the beginning section 54 T.L. Whether those faithful men at Ephesus to whom Timothy committed those things that he had heard of Paul 2 Tim. 22. and 3.14 And whether those Elders that were ordained in Creet by Titus whom Paul left there for that purpose Tit. 1.5 might not be truly stiled Ministers made by Jesus Christ i. e. by Christs appointment though they were not Apostles Prophets or Evangelists Answ 1. To that of Timothy I Answer 1. They were to be faithful men 2. It follows not That this committing of things heard c unto them did make and constitute such men ipso facto Christs Ministers 3. Timothy was able to judge who were fit and able To teach others also Did such a man or men as Timothy was give any of you commission to teach others Of this before Answ 2. Neither doubt I but Titus had good Authority to Ordain those Elders so as the place importeth And had your Ordainers as good also I should as little doubt theirs too Answ 3. If your Ordainers had Ordained such Ministers as Paul there describeth and appoints to be Ordained Tit. 1.6,7,8,9,10 I believe I should readily own and embrace them For such had been blameless sober just holy temperate and not given to Filthy Lucre c. which are such vertues and graces we cannot yet see in any of you no not though we stand never so near you Whereas the contrary vices are so vigorous in you that you yield a bad scent wherever you come with them that have senses incorrupt to smell it Answ 4 And is it not rather to be said That this ordaining of Elders was not a constituting of Ministers simply but an assigning or appointing of them that were such before to some new and special or particular charge or service The word is as well if not better englished Settle Place Also this sence the cohering words do favour In every City He saith not of such or such a place or Church nor yet Elders simply Finally It 's here to be remembred what kind of Ordination was in use in those Primitive times For this see Sect. 3. section 55 T.L. Whether Christs promise That he would be with his Apostles unto the end of the World Matth 28.19,20 can be any otherwise made good then in his being present with ordinary Pastors that should succeed in the Church to the end of the world Answ If the place be so to be understood as the Quaerent taketh it then where were those Pastors and Successors to the Apostles and how was God with them for so many hundreds or years even during all the time of Popish Apostacy which began even in the Apostles age But your main business is to prove your selves to be true Pastors of Christ which ye never can do so long as ye continue Hirelings See Iohn 10.12 section 56 T.L. Whether ordinary Pastors and Teachers are not as well said to be given for the Work of the Ministry c as well as Apostles Prophets Evangelists Eph 4 11,12 and that till we all come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ vers 13. which is not cannot be till the end of the world compare Ephes 4.11,12,13 with 1 Cor. 12.28 Answ 1 I deny your distinction of Pastors into ordinary and extraordinary taking the word Pastor as distinct from Apostle c This is your case ye are asham'd to claim to your selves the name of Apostle or Pastor in a Scripture sense which you seem to call extraordinary This one name therefore ye craftily divide into two that being driven from the possession of the one i. e. exttaordinary ye may yet as a reserve have the other to flye to imitating herein after a sort those Spirits that being commanded to go out of the man prayed they might have leave