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
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
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
sin must be left behind and so his first position is overthrown likewise And here is another of his contradictions yea a twin or a double one But to this his advice he joyns his new Letany to which we fay Amen And from blind Jesuiticall guides with their false pretended new lights in a dark Lanthorn their feignedlies pretended revelations but delusions Good Lord deliver us But who pretends to new lights or insists upon extraordinary revelations or who hath a darker lanthorn then himselfe or what Jesuit useth the trade of lying so often as he doth in which conflict it s now known he himself would carry away the whetstone So that if Diogenes came at noon-day again with his lanthorn either to find truth in his assertions or common honesty in the author of them he would operam oleum perdere Note also that here again he cals us Jesuits But he is pleased to salute us at the table saying much good may their perfection on earth doe them sure we are that if we can attain it it will doe us no harm But by way of return we say well may he fare with his much affected imperfections and corruption similis lactuca labris but Christ also Rev. 22.11 saith he that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still but he that is justified let him be justified still and he that is sanctified let him be sanctified still for what a man most affects in these things that shall be his portion in the end Howbeit with his lips or pen he begs to have his imperfections discovered and to be humbled in the sense of them so long as he liveth as if the Lord delighted more in our dejectment for them then ejectment of them that he may cry always with the poor Publican but doth he beg healing and cleansing mercies that he might offend no more or only pardon for his offence toties quoties committed and so to end his days Surely he should then have been but a poor Publican in the end though he had a rich office But he will also at leastwise in words make an emulator of Saint Paul who forgat what was behind and pressed forward towards the mark and put forth we wish he means not quite out of doors all the strength that the Lord shall please to send him and improving all opportunities to the best advantage for the mortifying of all sinfull corruptions in him and for the growing in grace untill he attaines unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ But lest all this should be had too soon in the world but here by the ministery of the word the work is to be carried on even to perfection Ephes 4.11 12 13. he contradictingly saith which shall be after grace consummate hereafter in heaven and so desperately concludes As for him that can find perfection here on earth let him never look for it in heaven As if it could not be had in both places or estates in several degrees contrary to Pauls hope 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the good fight I have kept the faith I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness Doth not the holy Ghost say Rev. 14.13 that those that die here to sin in the Lord that they may rest from their own works and labours as the fourth commandement requires that their works shall follow them But in the last place he tels us that he will lay down some of our arguments and some Scriptures which we wrest to maintain them Wherein he shews himself a better diviner then a divine for he had none of them as yet from us unless those which he findeth in the argument of Doctor Draytons sermons of which he mentioneth very few First he saith that we deny original sin Which thing in his sense is true But we say every mans first fall is his original sin Secondly we say as he tels you that original sin is taken away from the Saints on earth we say that it either is or ought to be there being sufficient grace and help offered and afforded in Christ to us for that end and therefore that such mortified Saints cannot derive it to their posterity What is this to the question in hand yet we confess more that neither the first Adam nor any parent descended from him can convey any such stain of sinfull corruption by generation to their children because a most holy God creates both soul and body innocent and without sin But as this argument of his is none of ours so his solution or answer is a meer figment of mans brain for he saith there are three things in sin the offence the guilt and the pollution or stain being an inclination to fall into the like sins Of which saith he the two first are taken away but the last which is the worst is left behind during this life Where ye may take notice of these absurdities or contradictions First that Gods hates the offence as he saith in his dearest Saints and as he saith it is abolished and blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ If it be abolished as he saith it is how can it remain in them still and if it remain still how can it be but hatefull to God For the second the guilt or obligation to punishment he saith that is pardoned but as we have often shewed no sin is pardoned till it s left and forsaken Prov. 28.13 As for the third the pollution which he cals the pure essence of sin a very pure essence indeed if one look well upon it that saith he doth not reign in a regenerate man yet the life and being of sin is not taken away page 36. But he cites a Text there wherewith he cuts his own throat if rightly rendred Psal 103.3 Who is propitious to all thine iniquities and healeth all thine infirmities or diseases The latter words explaining the former and certainly where diseases are healed they are wholly removed or taken away they leave no life nor being behind them and then follows vers 4. who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with loving kindness and mercy for where any life or being of sin is left there is so much destruction or condemnation left also as we shewed out of Rom. 8.2 True it is that the Lord doth heal our souls gradually as this puny Emperick speaks but he leaves not we say the full perfecting of the cure to the life of glory or yet to the hour of death But page 36. he feigneth a second objection of ours and then forgeth an answer for it as he did before Regenerate parents cannot convey the guilt of original sin to their children because to themselves it is pardoned Which objection is a strong barre against him though not made by us And upon this score the guilt of the first Adam's sin after his personal repentance could not be charged upon his
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
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
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
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
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
ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this for you saith the Lord. Matth. 1.21 And thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins and 3.11 12. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into his garner but he will burn up the chaffe with unquenchable fire Luk. 1.70 71 74. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began That we should be saved from all our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us Rom. 6.14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace and 11.26 There shall come out of Sion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and chap. 2.1 2. My little children these things I write unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin we have a comforter with the father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins by way of propitiation and purgation of them and not for ours onely but for the sins of the whole world A third Tropick is this That our subduing overcoming and rooting out of sin is made the condition of manifold spiritual and heavenly promises which would be frustraneous and void if the condition were not feasible by grace And such conditional but performable promises are these Psal 24.3 4 5. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord even righteousness from the God of his salvation Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall obtain mercy Isaiah 1.16 17 18. Wash ye make ye clean take away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well c. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be as wool Jer. 4.14 Wash thine heart O Jerusalem that thou mayest be saved And Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matth. 16.24 25. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life of sin shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it Chap. 24.13 But whosoever shall endure to the end of his race and mortification the same shall be saved Rom. 6.5 For if we be planted in him into the likeness of his death we shall be also into the likeness of his resurrection vers 8. For if we be dead with him unto the sin we believe that we shall also live with him Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye shall mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit ye shall live 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a Father unto you and ye shal be my sons and my daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 7.1 Wherefore dearly beloved having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Hebr. 3.6 But Christ as a Son over his own house whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end to wit the end of sin as before vers 14. for we are made pertakers of Christ in the Spirit after the likeness of his resurrection Rom. 6.5 If we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh all sins temptations and spiritual enemies will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God vers 11. He that overcometh sin which is the first spiritual death Rom. 7.24 he shall not be hurt of the second death which lay lurking and hid therein vers 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he which receiveth it vers 26 27 28. And he that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end aforesaid to him will I give power over the nations to wit all the powers and faculties of the outward man or the natural being and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessel of a potter they shall be broken in shivers if through any new temptation they shall offer to rebel Rev. 9.27 even as I received of my Father and I will give him the morning-starre and Rev. 3.5 He that overcometh shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my Father and before his Angels vers 12. him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the house of my God and he shall go no more out And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God which is new Jerusalem that cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name vers 21 22. to him that overcometh will I give to set with me upon my throne even as I overcame and am set down with my Father upon his throne Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith unto the Church which condition we had six times before in the former and this present chapter The fourth Topick shall be the end for which Christ was given by the Father and for which he gave himself for us which on his part cannot be disappointed cannot be frustrate if we be not wanting to our selves Isa 42.6 7. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and will give thee for a covenant to the people for a light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes to bring the prisoners out of prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house So again Isaiah 49.8 9. Isai 61.1 2 3. as before The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted who are troubled about
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
himself and many others in this life saying 1 John 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment But saw first many thousand servants of God of every tribe sealed And after I beheld a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands who came out of great tribulation here and had washed their robes and had made them white in the blood or spirit of the lamb Rev. 3.14 And the like spectacle he saw chap. 14.4 5. of men that follow the lamb wheresoever he goeth being redeemed from among men and made the first fruits unto God and the lamb and in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God The eleventh Topick shall be the two parts of all practical truth in Christ of which before out of Ephes 4.20 24. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupting through the deceitful lusts and be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds and put you on the new man which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth The last Topick shall be the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven which in its coming is called the Lord our righteousness from the presence of the holy Ghost or rather of the whole Trinity Jer. 33.15 16. At that day and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land in those dayes Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwel safely and this is the name wherewith he shall be called The Lord our righteousness Which Jerusalem is promised to every overcomer of sin and Satan Rev. 3.12 as before and it is an estate to be had in this life as Mr. Brightman and most of the best interpreters among the the Protestants and Arrias Montanus among other Papists doth confess out of the clearness and evidence of the Text Rev. 21.23 And I John saw the holy city new Ierusasalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and he shall be with them and be their God And at vers 9. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death viz. spiritual death which is either sin or the wages of sin neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more spiritual pain which being effects of sin are with their causes taken away before for the former things are passed away So our obedience to the law must go before as a preparative and a qualification hereunto Lev. 26.3 and 11.12 If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandements and do them then will I give you rain in due season c. and I will set my tabernacle among you and my soul shall not abhorre you and I will walk among you and I will be your God and you shall be my people See Ezek. 37.27 My tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and Psal 128.1 5. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord and walketh in his wayes and vers 5. The Lord shall bless thee out of Sion and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem to wit the spiritual Jerusalem aforesaid all thy dayes Thus much of divine authority now for humane Justine Martyr in Resp ad Orthodoxos saith That which is possible to one man is possible to any as to saile by sea for even as the Scripture saith that certain of them who live under the law were unblamable in righteousness so it was possible unto all those who lived under the law to have been alike unblamable for Saint Luke the Evangelist saith of Zacharie and Elizabeth chap. 1.6 that they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandements justification or righteousness of the law blameless But what is the total righteousness of the law even to love God above thy self and thy neighbour as thy self which is not impossible unto those men which apply their will and desire thereunto Wherefore that saying By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified was not spoken or used by the Apostle because we cannot perform impossibilities but because we will not frame our selves to do things possible Origen in his ninth homil upon Joshuah saith Doth not that man seem unto the Worthies to be reckoned among women who saith I cannot observe or do that which is written And again in the same place he that saith I cannot fulfill them doth he not manifest himself worthy to be ranked among the feminine sort who can do nothing that is virile or like a man or worthy of that sex Cyprian serm de Baptis Christi Neither doth this written law in any thing differ from the natural but the rejection or refusal of evil and the election of good are so infixed into the rational soul from above that no man hath just cause in this behalf to complain because there is neither knowledge nor power wanting unto any man for the prosecution and performance of the same because we know what ought to be done and have power to effect what we know whereas if the precepts were impossible or invironed with so great difficulties or thy will therein so abstruse and hidden that the thing could not be understood which thy Highness or Majesty requireth of us albeit no man sins against his will yet he might many ways excuse his offence or sin unless the equity and moderation of that which is commanded and the clear knowledge of the truth and the distinction of things to be done or not done had been sufficiently provided for us by an intelligible authority and therewith the possibility facility and power had therein embraced each other Basil Magnus homil 3. It is impious to say that the precepts of Gods Spirit are impossible And in Psalm 119.155 he saith I knowing that thou beholdest me have not onely fulfilled thy commandements but I have done it also with a fervent mind Chrysost homil 19. in Heb. Christ commandeth nothing that is impossible in so much that many go beyond the commandements and homil 18. de poeniton And if it be demanded who ever did this he presently answers Saint Paul Saint Peter and even the whole chorus or quire of Saints and homil de poenitent 8. Do not in any wise accuse the Lord for he doth not command things that are impossible Hieron Symbol Apost Epist 17. We detest their blasphemy who affirms that
been disturbed and disquieted in their former opinions and purity by reason of the audaciousnesse and impudency of the opposers of his tenents we say it that we were are and we hope shall be bold in the cause of God against sin and Satan and the upholders of his kingdom but we were never so audacious and impudent as himself who in Suffolk changed his name and called himself Doctor Kendall of Pembrook-Hall How beit we will use his pretended motives for our reall incentives who saith and that truly therein that because many of the people are not able to buy volumes nor by reason of the weaknesse of their capacities and small growth in grace are able so readily to apprehend the clearnesse and perspicuity of the truth upon the hearing of them nor yet clearly to distinguish betwixt them and falshood vailed under truths svizard we have therefore for their satisfaction and the edification of all men as also for the confirmation of the truth presented unto publick view some few collections which being seriously weighed considered and digested may by the blessing of God enable the weakest if willing to discover truth from falshood Amen Now whereas he adds he is willing both to spend which is true of his own money and other mens also and to be spent for the Israel of God It is a grosse peece of hypocrisie for it is their way that he opposeth Psal 73.1 Surely God is good to Israel even to them that are of a clean heart And yet he saith it being the end for which we are what we are that is if he speaks of himself his way and practise a very Gusmond Finally he tels his Readers that they are upon the Stage Which is true of the Theatre of this world where we hope they will act Israels part better then he hath hitherto done and we will with him wish them to fight the good fight of faith which is not for sin or Satan as his Vindication tels us but for Christ against both and then we may as truly as he doth deceitfully assure them you and all the Israel of God that the victory shall be glorious more glorious then his hath been hitherto or is likely to be hereafter without a sudden and earnest repentance through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be glory for ever Amen And now we crave leave to speak a word or two to those that have abetted the Vindicator or do any way favour his doctrine and therein to advertise them of these things in the name and bowels of Christ First that this doctrine is not the Protestants doctrine though it may be called a Protestant doctrine for there are many distinct Churches all whose faith and doctrine are called Protestant because in many things they protest against the Church of Rome of which the Calvinistical is the worst and most erroneous the Lutherans is the next and in some things more orthodox then the former And the third is the ancient English reformed Protestant which is far the best of all the three for our Reformers desired to tread in the footsteps of Antiquity according to their best sight and comprehension which the other and especially the Calvinists were carelesse to do and in many things refractory thereagainst and though we in the point of original sin may seem to differ from our English Church which received that by tradition from many of the Fathers yet when occasion shall serve we shall make it manifest that we have not only divine authority for that and other things also wherein we seem to some to be out of the common road but we have the first Fathers of the Church and the first reformers as well as many of the latter on our side and what dishonour will it bring to God or disconsolation to parents whose children die in infancy that we affirm that all children are now born without original taint or guilt or why should an allegoricall speech Rom. 5. of our naturall and personall Adam or an hyperbolical speech of David Psal 51. so far impose upon us though not rightly looked into by some others in many ages as openly to contradict many other Scriptures vindicating Gods mercy and justice Secondly that this doctrine of the Vindicators which we oppose is bottomlesse like the place from whence it came that is it hath no foundation in the Scripture whereas we have brought some hundreds of Texts and might have brought more to clear up the truth and piety of our tenents for we dare challenge all the Calvinists in the world to prove any of these assertions upon which the contrary doctrine is built by clear Texts of Scripture First that we shall not be perfected in grace till the day of Iudgment so as to be presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing whereas we have remonstrated two things to the contrary first that many places which our adversaries understand of that day speak clearly of Christs second coming to us in the Spirit and inner-man and secondly that we must be made holy and without blemish not in that day but before it and in order unto it Phil. 1.6 10 11. 1 Thess 5.32 1 Tim. 6.12 13 14 15. 2 Pet. 3.14 and secondly that we shall not be perfected in grace or the righteousnesse of sanctification untill we come into Heaven or the full kingdome of God for we have shewed that justification which is all one with sanctification must of necessity go before glorification Rom. 8.30 Tit. 3.4 5 6 7. and so must full obedience and doing of Gods will if the Lord affords time and means be fore the enjoyment of the promises 2 Cor. 5.10 ' then we must receive the things done in our bodies that is a time not of sowing but of reaping reward Gal. 6.9 to wit of life and glory Heb. 10.36 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Thirdly they say that sin shall be mortified and abolished by corporal death and not by the spirit of grace only contrary to Rom. 8.13 but if ye mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit ye shall live and Rom. 12.21 be not overcome of the evil but overcome the evil with the good See 1 Joh. 1.7 9. and chap. 14. and 5.3.4 Rev. 7.14 and 12.10 11. Fourthly they say that the Spirit of God will abolish the remainders of sin in the hour of the corporal death and not before contrary to the import of innumerable Scriptures Psal 31.15 My times are in thine hand deliver me from the hands of mine enemies and 39.13 ' O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen and 41.5 Mine enemies speak evil of me when shall he die and his name perish and vers 10 11. But thou O Lord be merciful unto me raise me up that I may requite them by this I know thou favourest me because mine enemies do not triumph over me and 54.4 5. Behold God is my helper the Lord is with them that uphold my soul he
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
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
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