is not such righteousnesse as may stand before God according to the Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord c. Secondly they who are converted can no further retaine good inclinations thoughts affections or purposes to persevere and goe forward therein then as the holy Spirit worketh and preserveth these in them for if he guide and rule them they judge and doe aright but if he withdraw they are blind and wander and slip and fall yet so as they parish not if so be they were ever truly converted according to these places 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received c. 1 Philip. 4. and 2 Philip. 13. and John 15.5 and 1 Cor. 1.8 1 Cor. 10.13 and 1 Pet. 1.5 In the fourth estate after glorification after the end and consummation of this present life In this liberty the wil shal only be free to chuse good and not to chuse evil and this shal be the perfect liberty of our will by which we shall not only not sin but shall abhorre nothing more than sin and also shall not be able to sin any more No place shall be for ignorance or for error or any doubting of God or for the least stubbornnesse against God Because in the mind shall shine perfect knowledge of God and his will In the will and heart a most perfect and exceeding inclination to obey God an exceeding love of God a joy and resting in God and an agreeablenesse and conformity with God so much and in such manner as such Created vessells are capable of And this shall continue for all eternity they shall be continually ruled by the holy Ghost in all their actions So that it cannot possibly be that any of their actions there should once swerve from righteousnesse and therefore it is said they are as the Angels of God in heaven Mat. 22.30 The liberty of the will shall be truly conformed and perfected to chuse only good to obey and love God with unexpressible alacrity for ever And thus having laid down the four-fold state of man and the four-fold liberty of will answerable to his four-fold state it may serve for one ground to confirme the point in hand That sinne will have a being in the best of men so long as they are here Their renewed state upon earth being but begun not perfected their state being but a growing in grace and profitting more and more and prevailing in mortifying their corruptions but not attaining in this mortall life to have grace consummate nor corruption abolished but sin in part remaines and will remaine till they lay down the body and be compleatly sanctified in the state of glory And for farther confirmation I shall lay you downe the testimony of the Scripture the Confession of the Fathers and some Reasons grounded upon and backed with the Word of God First for Scriptures see Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation c. In which words we may observe the Apostle doth not say that there is no sinne to them that are in Christ but he saith there is no condemnation to them In the fore-going Chapter he had confessed that he did the evill which he would not doe and that he saw a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind But now he rejoyceth in Christ that sin in him is not able to condemn him But here I expect from my friend either Cajetan or Aquinas false exposition or that of Mr. Parker that the Apostle spake this when he was a Babe in grace But I desire withall that they will acquaint us what state it was when the Apostle acknowledgeth himselfe the chief of finners 1 Tim. 1.15 The glorious Gospel was then committed unto him enabled by Jesus Christ counted Faithfull and put into the Ministery as you may see in the fore-going verses And yet then saith he notwithstanding all this This is a true and faithfull saying JESUS CHRIST came into the World to save sinners Whereof I am chief Mark the present-tense not preterperfect-tense he doth not say whereof I have been but whereof I am Nay I pray see the second Epistle 1. from 6. to the 13. was all this when he was a babe in grace I would faine know how long it was between the time of writing these Epistles to Timothy and his Epistle to Philemon 1. for there verse 9. he was then Paul the aged But these Jesuiticall Cavillings and reasonings are too well known They never doe nor never shall prevaile against Gods truth Againe in the second verse for the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death Here we may observe that the Apostle saith not that we are fully freed from sinne in this life but from the law of sinne That is both from the commanding and condemning power of sinne Sinne doth not now reigns in our mortall bodies neither now hath it any more power to detaine us under death But as for temptations of sin Christian experience teacheth that there is no sort of men more troubled with them then they whom God hath begun to deliver from the law of sinne For Sathan being impatient of his losse seeks dayly to recover his former dominion By which it may appear That Our deliverance from sin is but begun now not perfected But we know our God is faithfull by whom we are called he shall also confirm us to the end Phil 1.6 even He who hath begun a good work in us Blessed be the Lord where before we were Captives of sin now the case of the Battell is altered and changed Sin is become our Captive through Christ It remains in us not as a Commander but as a Captive of the Lord Jesus The bolts of sin are yet upon our hands and feet to admonish us of our former miserable condition We draw the chains of our sins after us which makes us indeed goe forward the more slowly But they are not able to detein us in that bondage wherein we lay before We are delivered from the law of sin whilest we live and the nature of death the wages of sin is so changed That it is not the death of the man but the death of sin in the man mors est Sepultura vitiorum saith Ambrose Death is the buriall of all vices and as Chrysostome saith As the Worm which is bred in tho Tree doth at last consume it So death which is brought out by sin doth at last consume and destroy sin in the Children of God sin will remain though not raign Again in the 13. verse If ye mortifie the deeds of the body whereby the Apostle sheweth That after regeneration by Grace and before glorification Grace is not consummated nor is corruption wholly abolished For although the Apostle affirmed before in the 9. verse that these godly Romans were not in the flesh yet now he exhorts to a further mortification of the lusts of the flesh which exhortation
say our adversaries had he not subdued his body and brought it into subjection 1 Cor. 9.27 I answer first Paul fought a good fight and finished his course being now ready to be offered up yet not so as to obtein exact perfection of Grace and so as to be without all sinne inherent of which he complains Ro. 7. Peter also led whither he would not when he was to suffer John 21.18 Paul kept the Faith and he who said to him my Grace is sufficient for thee my power is made perfect in weaknesse enabled him to overcome though he had corruption remaining and buffettings of Sathan Secondly Paul by fasting and prayer kept down his body to bring it into subjection that he might not be rejected of God And this shews his continuall warfare against the flesh as Aug. saith of himself I have continuall warr with fasting c. noting that by fasting prayers and tears he fought against corruption remaining Script 8 Eph. 4 from the 10. ver to the 15. God gave guifts and teachers from Heaven to bring us to a stature of perfection in Christ for the edifying of the body of Christ c. I answer We grant that the ministry of the Word is given not only to convert men from sinne but after to perfect them in holinesse But yet as the same Paul speaketh Acts 20.32 which is able to build you up This is all to edifie and build up the Saints more and more Yet though they grow under the Word and Ordinances they doe not attain to exact and compleat perfection so as in this lâ—fe to be without sinne or to have Grace consummate but still grow and edifie one another in love But the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ is attained in the state of Glory not in Earth in the state of Grace we are growing but not exactly perfected till we are glorified in Heaven Here we have perfection of parts there perfection of degrees The last objection which hitherto I have met with that is necessary to be answered is this They say That the Apostle prayed for the perfecting of the Saints Heb. 13.20 2 Cor. 13.9 1 Pet. 5.10 and surely they prayed for things feasable 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 may be made perfect in me I answer the Apostles prayed for the perfecting of the Saints and so did our blessed Saviour and they obteined 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 Rep. But they reply Is sinne pardoned and mortified and yet remains I answer It is so pardoned as not to be imputed it is so mortified that the power and dominion of it is taken away Yet it remains to be more and more mortified and wholly cast out at the death of the body the last enemy that shall be subdued is Death sinne shall be cast out at the death of the Body and Death shall be destroyed at the generall Resurrection and so be the last enemy destroyed Rep. But say they when must sin be purged out if not here in this life Must we carry the remainder of sin into the Kingdome of Heaven whereunto no unclean thing shall enter Rev. 21.17 I answer Men shall not carry the remainder of sinne into Gods Kingdome with them but they shall lay it down at the death of the Body The Theif only converted shall be that day in Paradise the souls of Saints departed goe home to God and Grace is consummate into Glory and as for that Rev. 21.17 It is confessed by their own fraternity is the state of the Saints in Patria not in via And thus briefly have I proved unto you the truth of the point That sinne will have a being in the best men so long as their Souls have a being in these houses of clay and this I hope may be sufficient to satisfie the people If I shall meet with any new argument from my Friend against the truth of the point God assisting I shall endeavour to answer them by way of replication for their full satisfaction as for the old arguments truly they are so stale that they stink before God and good men Romes good Creatures excepted They have been so fully answered and confuted that were not men past shame set on work by Hell and engaged for wages to Rome they would forbeare thus to disturbe the peace of Gods Church But we doubt not but maugre the malice of Men and Devils truth shall be hereby made more manifest and shall prevail And the folly of those that resist the truth shall be made manito all men The Lord grant that we may obey the Apostles command From such to turn away and the Lord in mercy strengthen our faith in the beliefe of that promise 2 Tim. 3.9 that in Gods good time it shall be performed The promise is They shall proceed no further Come we now to the second Position which is this I deny that any man by grace in this life can perform such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same or to be thereby justified otherwise than in and through Christ of grace given And this God assisting I shall clear as the former dividing the same into three branches First That no man by grace can perform such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same Secondly That no man can be justified by the works of the Law or by his obedience thereunto Thirdly That we are only justified by the righteousnesse of Christ And first of the first No man can by grace in this life perform c. For the better understanding the point we must know that grace is an equivocall word and it is taken two waies in Scripture First pro gratia gratis data For the free guift of God infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost And secondly pro gratia gratum faciente for the free favour of God whereby he makes us acceptable to himself and in this sense we say that we are justified by Gods grace that is by the free favour of God whereby he imputeth not our sin unto us But accompteth us as just by imputing the justice of Christ unto us Now according as grace is taken in the first sense I say that so no man by grace can perform in this life such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same or to be thereby justified c. God never gave or ever will give such grace to any to fulfill the righteousnesse of the Law in their own persons and so thereby justified or found righteous by the same for it stands not with the glory of Christ that any such grace should be given from above And the reason may be this If by our infirmities the strength of Christ is made
this wise If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved ver 6.9 And therefore seeing the Apostle opposeth doing of the Law and believing in Christ and not doing the Law by our own strength and doing the Law 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 doe them whether by the strength of nature or by the help of grace But Bellarm. in his first Book cap. 19. de justific laboureth to prove that all works of the Law are not excluded from our Justification by three especiall Reasons First Because Faith is a Work and that there is a Law of Faith as well as of Works and therefore if all Works be excluded from our Justification then Faith it self must be excluded And so to be justified by Faith were to be justified without Faith Because the Apostles intent Rom. 3. That neither the Jewes by the bare observing of Moses Law nor the Gentiles by their morall Works And so neither Jewes nor Gentiles before they believed in Jesus Christ could be justified by any Works that they could doe Because the Apostle Rom. 4.4 sheweth That the Works which he excludeth from Justification are those Works to whom wages are due by debt 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 But for answer unto all these I say That we confess Faith to be a Work and it is the Commandement of God That we believe in Jesus Christ But we deny Faith to justifie us as it is a Work performed in obedience to this command but as it is an Instrument imbracing the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ It is not the act of beleiving but the thing holden and possessed by believing that is our righteousness Secondly I say That Bellarmine is mistaken in the whole scope of the Apostle and that St. Paul doth not only not give us the least intimation that he meaneth that we are not justified by any works done by our own naturall strength But rather sheweth that in as much as we are all sinners against the Law therefore by our obedience to the Law howsoever done by grace or without grace no man can be justified in Gods sight Thirdly I say That the Apostle in Rom. 4.4 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 that are done without grace from the Justification of Abraham For those Works of Abraham are excluded wherein Abraham might glory before men but these are the Works that he did by the help of grace for otherwise if he were justified by the Works done without the help of grace he might as well glory before God as before men But the Apostle tells us That although by these Works done by the help of grace he might glory before men yet not before God And therefore not justified by these works in the sight of God For if we could be justified by any works howsoever done by grace or not grace then the wages that is eternal life is not counted of favour but of debt But when we cannot be justified by our works but by believing in him that justifieth the ungodly that is in Jesus Christ that we are justified by his righteousness and saved by his merits Then Faith saith the Apostle and not any kinde of Works is imputed unto us for righteousnesse Romans 4.5 I shall then close this point with these conclusions First That no man which is a sinner can be justified by his own obedience to the moral Law Secondly That no man which hath offended the Law can be justified by his own satisfaction for his transgression First Whosoever is a transgressor of the Law cannot be justified by his obedience to the Law For by the Law commeth the knowledg of sinne Rom. 3.20 That is the Law convinceth all such to be sinners and condemneth them as transgressors And therefore they can never be pronounced guiltless by that Law which proves them guilty But every man is a Transgressor of the Law as the Scripture teacheth Rom. 3.9 Gal. 2.1 John 1.8 and 10. and our Consciences testifie it to our faces Therefore no man can be justified by his own obedience to the Law Secondly 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 trangression And the Law being broken there is no way to be justified by the Law but only by making a plenary satisfaction for the transgression But this no sinners satisfaction can doe because a finite Act can never be of sufficient value to satissie the offence that is done against an infinite goodnesse And likewise because all that we can doe is required of us as our duty to the Law and therefore cannot be rendred as a payment for the breach of the Law To conclude this branch We are not under the Law for justification of our persons as Adam Nor for satisfaction of divine justice as those that perish but we are under it as a document of obedience and a rule of living It is now published from Mount Sion as a Law of liberty and a new Law not as a Law of condemnation and bondage The obedience thereof is not removed but the disobedience thereof is both pardoned and cured The observance thereof is necessary as a fruit of faith not as a condition of life and righteousness necessary necessitate Praecepti as a thing commanded the transgression whereof is an incurring of sin not necessitate Medii as a strict undisponsible means of Salvation the transgression whereof is a peremptory obligation to death And thus much briefly of the first branch wherein I have cleerly shewed unto you That no man can be justified by the obedience to the Law nor the works of the best Christians cannot justifie them Come we now to the last Branch and that is That we are only justified by the righteousnesse of Christ We believe and maintain as the Scripture teacheth us That we are acquitted and absolved from all our sinnes and so justified in the sight of God by and for the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one Judgement came upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life And in 2 Cor. 5. last vers He that knew no sin God hath made him to be sin for us that we should be made the righteousness of God by him And in Act. 13.39 For all things which yee could not be justified by the Law of Moses by him every one that believeth is justified And 1 Cor. 6.11 Ye are justified that is in whole from the guilt and punishment
not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 Secondly Subordinately for our Sanctification That we may be partakers of his holinesse Heb. 12.10 Secondly Propitiation is a reconciling us to God through the blood of Christ and it is the accomplishment of that which was typified by the Mercy-Seat Exodus chap. 30. For first As God gave his Oracles unto the people out of the Mercy Seat so he did reveal his will unto us by Jesus Christ John 1.17 Secondly As God was said to dwell between the Cherubims which covered the Mercy-Seat so in Christ the fullnesse of the Godhead dwelleth bodily Coloss 2.9 And thirdly As God was made propitious and favourable to his people to assist them and blesse them by the blood which the High Priest sprinkled before the Mercy Seat so is God pacified and reconciled unto us and procured to enrich us with spirituall blessings through the blood of Jesus Christ Col. 1.18 Again The ground of those benefits or meritorious cause thereof is the most perfect and absolute obedience which our Saviour Christ performed unto his Father for our sakes and is to be considered first actively secondly passively First the active obedience of Christ is a most perfect performance of Gods Law even to the utmost tittle thereof Touching which we must consider First That although Christ as Man fulfilled the Law for himself that in both natures he might be a holy High-Priest to offer Sacrifice unto God Yet as Mediator as God and Man he became subject to the Law and did fully and perfectly execute the same for us For Christ is not only our redemption by that ransome which he paid for our sinnes but he is also the perfection of the Law unto Salvation unto every one that believeth And there be three things that prove the necessity hereof to be performed for us First The Justice of God that will not justifie the wicked Pro 17 15. Exod. 20.5 but such as are just and righteous either by a proper or imputed rigteousnesse Secondly The Office of a Mediator that was to undergoe for us whatsoever was required of us to be done Thirdly Our recuperation or recovery of happinesse which could not be obteined without perfect righteousness because the death of Christ freeth us from eternall death and the obedience of Christ brings us to everlasting life And therfore we say That Christ was born for us not only auferre peccata to take away the sin of the World by his voluntary suffering the most bitter death of the Crosse But afferre Justitia to bring righteousnesse to us by his plenary obedience to the most holy Law of God And therefore those Scriptures that doe ascribe our whole Salvation unto the virtue of Christs death are not to be taken exclusively or denying the active obedience of Christ to be imputed unto us But Synechdochically for the accomplishment of the whole obedience of Christ that was to be performed for us and with this agrees the major and melior part of all orthodox Divines and most of the Fathers Secondly The passive obedience of Christ is all the sufferings of Christ both in life and death for our sinnes because the justice of God required that we should never be freed from death without a just punishment laid upon our selves or upon some other for us And therefore the Prophet Isay prophecied That the Messias should be broken for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities Esay 5.35 And Daniel saith He should be cut off but not for himsef Dan. 9.26 And St. Peter saith He did bear our sinnes in his own body on the Crosse 1 Pet. 2.24 and St. John saith Rev. 15. That he washed us from our sinnes in his own blood And here we must observe that this obedience of Christ is of sufficient merit to satisfie for all sinnes by reason of the dignity of the person that did obey for the hypostaticall union of the Manhood of Christ with his Godhead makes the obedience of Christ to be of unvaluable value Acts 20.28 Thirdly The formall cause of our justification actively considered is the free imputation of Christs actuall righteousnesse whereby the merits of Christs obedience is applyed unto all believers that is the accompting of us as just and righteous for the merrits of that obedience which Christ hath effected for us For as we apply unto our selves the righteousnesse of Christ and make the same our own by Faith and acceptation So God himself applyeth it unto us by imputation and accepteth us for righteous for the righteousnesse of Christ And this imputation of righteousnesse is a work of Grace not of nature a communicating of anothers righteousnesse unto us and not a conferring of any reall or habituall righteousnesse upon us And this is a sweet exchange saith Justin Martyr in Epist ad Diogen That one should be made sinne for many and the iniquity of many should be covered with the righteousnesse of one and that the justice of one should make many that are unjust to be reputed just To omit what most of the Fathers speaks to this purpose I shall only note one of their own Fryar Farrus Ser. 1. in Dom. 1. Advent where he saith Christ hath made all his partakers of his justice and merits that so they might be able to stand in the sight and to sustain the judgement of God Because saith he there is no mortall man living whose righteousnesse can be sufficient to attain unto eternall Salvation And therefore his righteousnesse is made ours not because it is infused or translated into us to abide habitually in us But because it is imputed and reputed unto us when God doth acquit from sinne and adjudge us just for the justice of Jesus Christ And therefore the force of our justification is not any habituall sanctity subjectively remaining in us But the righteousnesse of Christ freely imputed unto us and so though it be without us yet it is made ours by right of giving The Apostle remarkably in Rom. 4.6.7 joyneth both the imputation of righteousnesse and the remission of sinnes as the two speciall means to make us happy Blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without works And blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sinne But this righteousnesse of Christ imputed unto us must be considered in a three fold respect First In respect of the truth of our imputed righteousnesse And so we say that we are as truly righteous before God as Christ himself because we are righteous with the sime righteousnesse as he is righteous Secondly In respect of the quantity But so we deny that it is in the same measure in us as it is in him for in him it is in its fulnesse and largest measure but in us it is only received so farre forth as it serveth to justifie any particular Believer 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
condemned but not extinguished for in many things we offend all James 3.2 Again hereunto besides many these and many more testimonies of Scripture that might be alledged the suffrages of pure Antiquity in a sweet harmony doth agree I will quote some few of the Fathers it was the prerogative of Christ alone to know no sinne and to be found solus in hominibus qualis quaerebatur in peccoribus alone such amongst men as was sought amongst the beasts an immaculate Lambe without spot and all we like sheep have gone astray Esay 53.6 Gal. 3.22 optat l. 2. Aug. cont Relag l. 2. C. 32. so Gregory l. 3. in Reg. 6. saith There is no man which hath not in him some corruption which he may and should lament So Lactantius cont Gent. l. 6. cap. 13. No man can be without sinne so long as he is burthened with the garment of the flesh So Hierom. cont Jovin li. 2. No man is clean from sinne though he live but one day on earth So Bernard in Cant. Serm. 23 non peccare Dei justitia est not to sinne is the justice and property of God but the remission of sinnes is the justice of man And therefore as the Ivy will not dye untill the Oake be hewn down so our sinne will not dye as long as we live neither will it ever be abolished untill death ends the conflict betwixt the flesh and the spirit Again Ambrose de poenitent li. 1. cap 6. It is not saith he the voyce of thy family I am whole and need not a Physitian but heal me O Lord and I shall be healed Also he spake thus to the Novatian Hereticks of his time and it may fitly be turned over to the Jesuits of our time Darest thou O Jesuit call thy self clean and holy albeit thou wert clean in regard of thy work this one word were enough to make thee unclean With him agrees Aug. Serm. 29. de verb. Apost Sunt quidam inflati viri spiritu electionis pleni non magnitudine ingentes sed superbiae morbo tumentes ut audeant dicere invenire homines absque peccato There are saith he some that be like unto Vessels blown up with wind filled with a haughty spirit not sollidly great but swelled with the sickness of pride Who dare be bold to say that men are found on earth without sinne Of such as these saith he I demand What saiest thou then that art just and holy this Prayer Forgive us our sinnes Whether is this a Prayer to be said by Chatechists only or to be said of such as are believers and converted Christians Surely it is the prayer of regenerate men yea it is the prayer of the Sons of God for they call God their Father in heaven Where then are your just and holy ones in whom are no sins If the Regenerate and Sons of God have need to crave remission of sinnes What are you who say you have no sinne Liars saith the Apostle 1 John 1.9 And our blessed Saviour Luke 10.17 When you have done all you can yet say c. But against this they have a silly subterfuge albeit say they we were never so righteous yet for humility sake we should say we are unprofitable I answer them as Aug. answered the same objection in his time Propter humilitatem ergo mentiris then saith he for humilities sake thou liest But it is certain Christ never taught man to lie for humility This is but one of their old forged falshoods Again Bernard in Annunciat Mariae who lived in a very corrupt time yet retains this truth Quis meliori Propheta saith he de quo dixit Deus inveni virum secundùm cor meum tamen ipse necesse habuit dicere Deo Ne intres in Judicum cum servo tuo Who better than the Prophet David of whom the Lord said I have found a man after mine own heart and yet he had need to say Enter not into judgement with thy servant Bernard in Cant. Ser. 23. saith It sufficeth me for all unrighteousness to have him reconciled unto me whom I have only offended To be without sinne is the righteousness of God Mans righteousness is Gods indulgence pardoning his sinne We conclude therefore with him In serm contr vitium ingrat Wo to the miserable Generation to whom their own insufficiency seems sufficient for who is it that hath so much as aspired to that perfection which the holy Scripture commands us I grant that in some sence godly men are called perfect in holy Scripture in the 3 to the Phillip about the 14. it is written Let as many as are perfect be thus minded He moves the question seeing he had said immediately before that he was not perfect How doth he now rank himself amongst those that are perfect How agrees these two that he was perfect and not perfect Aug. in Ser. 38. answers he was perfect secundùm intentionem non secundùm preventionem perfect in regard of his intention and purpose but not in regard of prevention and obteining his purpose And hereunto agrees that of Bernard in Cant. serm 49. That great chosen Vessel saith he grants perfection that is a going forward but denies perfection for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not only he who hath come to the end but he also is walking to-towards it We are so perfect in this life that we are yet but walking to perfection Therefore St. Ambrose in Rom. 8.9 Apostolus aliquando quasi perfectis loquitur aliquando perfecturis aliquando laudat aliquando commonet The Apostle speaketh unto Christians sometimes as unto men that are perfect other times as unto men who are perfect in that which is required of them that is some-sometimes he praises them for the good they have done and otherwhiles he admonishes them of the good they have to doe And as for that place Luke 1.6 where it is said that Zacharias and Elizab. walked in the Commandements of God without blame The Jesuits of Rhemes wrest this to confirm their error this making not for them August hath two reasons whereby he proves out of the same Scripture That Zacharie was not without sinne First because he was a Priest and was bound to offer as well for his own sinnes as for the sinnes of the people Heb. 5.3 Secondly in that the Evangelist saith he walked in the commandements of God c. It is an argument he had not attained to the mark for they that are at their journeys end sit still To the which we may add a third out of that same place the dumbnesse inflicted upon him for his misbelieving evidently proves that he was not so perfect as to be without sin Besides this the Apostle constantly distinguishes betwixt peccatum crimen betwixt sinne and crime that is some grievous offence that gives slaunder and is worthy of crimination We affirm saith August That the life of holy men may be said to be without crime but not without sin And again he saith Men
not doe it being a doctrine that shews us the way of life but doth not minister grace unto us to walk therein But all these which the Law could not doe Jesus Christ by whom commeth grace and life hath done unto us Therefore there is no life to be found in the observance of the Law It being impossible for the Law to give They therefore that seeke life only in the observance thereof shall never find it Again the Apostle in another place calls the Law the Ministery of death and condemnation and that because it instantly bindes men under death for every transgression of her Commandements So that he that hath eyes to see what an universall rebellion of nature there is in man to Gods holy Law Yea what imperfections and discordance with the Law are remanent in them who are renewed by grace may easily espy the blinde presumption of those who seek life in the ministry of death Yet so universall is this error that it hath overgone the whole posterity of Adam Nature teaching all men who are not illuminated by Christ to seek salvation in their own deeds that is to stand to the covenant of works But the Supernaturall doctrine of the Evangelist teacheth us to transcend nature to goe out of our selves and to seek salvation in the Lord Jesus And so to use the Law not that we seek life by fulfilling it which here is impossible but as a School-master to lead us unto Christ in whom we have remission of our sin sanctification of our nature acceptance of our imperfect obedience benefits which the Law could never afford us Thus you see it is impossible for us in our own persons to fulfill the Law of God no such grace being given from above as I shewed you before or if we could yet it is not possible for the Law to save us not in respect of any desert or imperfection in the Law For the Law is just good and holy Rom. 7.12 But in regard of the corruption of our nature which is not able to yeeld such perfect obedience unto the Law as the Law requireth Nay I say further that although the Law be good yet it is not good to this end neither was it ordained of God for this purpose For the Law was given to a double end First common to all men Secondly proper to two sorts of men First to the Elect and Reprobates First in respect of all men the Law was given First to shew unto all men what was sin for by the Law commeth the knowledge of sin Rom. 3. and I had not known that lust had been sin had not the Law said thou shalt not lust Secondly to shew the wrath of God for sinne and by the transgression thereof to make all men see how justly they be worthy of eternal death And therefore the Apostle saith in 1 Cor. 3. that the Law causeth wrath and is the ministry of condemnation because it sheweth unto us how justly we deserve wrath and condemnation Thirdly to be a rule of righteousnesse to restrain all men from sin and to retein them in a civill course of living for the common good of humane society Secondly the Law was given to these two proper ends First in respect of the Reprobate to make them without excuse because the Law teacheth them what should be done and what should be left undone And therefore it leaves them without excuse if they leave the one and commit the other Secondly In respect of the elect the Law was given to be a means by the sight of their sinnes to seek out a Saviour that should deliver them from their sinnes And in this respect As he that informeth us of some dangerous disease doth tacitly advise us to seek for some expert Physitian So is the Law said to be our Schoolmaster to teach us by the manifestation of our sinnes to seek unto Christ for our deliverance But the Law was never intended to that end that it should justifie us and of it self bring us to eternall life For first if eternall life had been promised only to them that keep the Law then the promise had been made vain because it was impossible for our corrupt nature to perform it Secondly if righteousnesse could have come by Law then Christ had died in vain because it was superfluous for him to dye for us when as we might procure life by the works of the Law And therefore it is apparent that by the works of the Law no flesh living can be justified Thirdly For hypocriticall Gospellers such as seem Saints in ostentation that they may play the Divels without supicion which say they have Faith but shew no works that are not vayled with hypocrisie and intended to wrong ends let Esayas tell you how acceptable these works are to God Esay 1. and whether they be like to justifie them before God or not For the Lord complayneth that he is weary of them that his Soul hateth them and biddeth them to bring no more such sacrifice unto him Fourthly For the true Christians that are born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh but of God If any works could justifie it must needs be that their works wrought in them and thorow them by the Spirit of God should justifie them And yet we say that the best works of the best regenerate men cannot justifie them before God And thus we prove it First Because all the Graces that we receive in this life are but in part given unto us as I shewed in the proof of the other position and so imperfect Graces Not that the Spirit of God works imperfectly but that he means not here to inrich us with any Grace while we are conversant with sinfull men in this vale of misery but only so farre forth as he seeth fit to bring us to the Kingdome of perfection where that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 and therefore our inherent justice being but as our knowledge in part and therefore imperfect it is impossible that it should perfectly justifie us before God Secondly Because that although our good works are perfect in respect of Gods Spirit which effecteth them Yet seeing as fair water is defiled by running through a dirty Channell so our best works are tainted when they passe through us that are so subject to sinne and so many times polluted with so many iniquities It is unpossible we should be justified before him in whosepresence nothing in the least manner polluted can stand uncondemned and therefore as the Prophet saith all our righteousnesse is as astained clothe Esay 64.6 And as Gregory saith Moral lib. 21. cap. 15. lib. 5. cap. 7. All mens righteousnesse should be found unrighteousnesse if God should strictly Judge it And Aug. Wo to the most laudable and best life of man If God laying aside his mercy should discusse the same in the strictnesse of his Justice for alas who knoweth not that God is a God of