he speakes not onely of Christ as dying for us but also as he is our Advocate in heaven with the Father propitiating or pacifying his anger towards us in procuring actually the forgivenesse of our sinnes and acceptance with him By the whole world therefore he understands such as confess their sins such as whose sins God forgivs cleansing them from all unrighteousness such as have Christ their Advocate with the father for whose sins he is a propitiation c. which are onely the faithfull and that not onely of the Iewes intended in these words and not for ours onely but of the Gentiles also as the whole world here and els where by Christ and the Apostles opposed to the Iewes Mark 16. 15. Iohn 3. 16. specially Rom. 11. 12. where as here by the world is meant the beleeving Gentiles obtaining salvation opposed to the Iewes And this our limitation in just proportion the very next place cited by our adversariâ—s confirmeth The whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1. Ioh. 5. 19. that is all such Iewes and Gentiles as are not born of God v. 20. not Iohn or other beleevers one or other The Apostle Peter 2. Epist. 3. 9. speaks not at all of Christs death but of Gods patience that none might perish but all repent By which all he means all the elect which were in their time to repent and so to be saved for whose sakes and not in slackness as the mockers accounted he deferred his judgments Reve. 6. 11. we haue this poynt notably exemplified And it was sayd unto them that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fuâ—filled For which purpose it must be minded that Peter sayth The Lord is long suffering towards us not willing that any should perish opposing us as the elect to the reprobate Scoffers at God both in his word and works The last place being 2. Chron. 36. 16. is impertinent as neither meant of Christs death of which the question is nor of mans salvation by it but of a bodily and visible judgement in which kind of works God tieth himself to no certain form of proceeding Against their error of universall redemption by Christs death I thus argue Them whom God and Christ love to wit with that speciall loue of mercy they love unto the end and therefore never come to hate them as they do the wicked and damned But for whomsoever Christ dyed God in giving his Sonne and he in giving himselfe to the death for them love with the most speciall love of mercy that can be Therefore they for whom Christ died never perish but in time haue wrought in them faith and repentance and are kept in the same by the power of God to life Christ therefore dyed effectually and in his and his fathers intention of love for them onely that are saved and perish not This is also more manifest Ioh. 17. whence may be drawn many arguments to prove that all for whom Christ died are saved seeing all that are given to Christ of the Father keep the word of God and haue eternall life given them by him Now it cannot be denyed but that all for whom Christ dyed are given him of the Father that he might redeem and save them by his death Furthermore the death and bloodshed of Christ is every where called the price of our redemption and a ransome for sinners Vpon this holy foundation most clearly layd in the Scriptures these men and others would build a more hatefull Babell then that of old in the East by which they would as it were scale heaven and depriue God of divers his most glorious Attributes by name his Wisdom his Power and his Iustice. His wisdom they â—mpeach in affirming that he would buy with so rich precious a price as the bloud and death of his onely begotten Son that and them whom he certainly knew before he should never possesse by it for that end for which he bought them their justification sanctification and salvation Secondly it impeacheth Gods power and makes him unable doe he what he can to save any more then he doth save though he desire it never so much For look for whom he would do the greatest thing that possibly he could which was the giving of his onely begotten and beloved Sonne to the cursed death of the crosse for them and their salvation without all doubt hee he will doe whatseever other good as lesse that possibly he can Whereupon it should follow that God cannot possibly give the Gospell to more then he doth and by it convert and confirm them to and in his grace which are lesse things then the former it being the foundation they but the building upon it it being the meritorious and deserving causeâ— and they effects thereof Thirdly this conceit makes God unjust in taking a full price and ransom for mens sins at the hands of their surety Christ as was his death and obedience and yet not resting satisfied with it but exacting the debt of their sinnes at their hands by eternall punishment which is the condition of many thousands in the world ADVERSARIES OTher things follow tending to prove Gods purpose to save all even such as slew Christ blasphemed and resisted the spirit of God to their condemnation c. Act. 3. 25. 26. 5. 30. 31. 7. 51. 13. 46. 15. 6. DEFENCE I Answer that the persons of whom those Scriptures speak were the peculiar people of God and not yet wholly cast off by him The argument therefore from Gods will and work for the saving of them is stretched beyond its reach to prove such purpose will or work of God to save all which are not his people as they were Secondly I grant that where the Gospell is preached there the Lord truely wills that is commands the conversion of sinners and their turning from iniquity as the text hath â—t approving and rewarding the same with salvation in them in whom it is found as it is ordinarily in some of them to whom the Gospell is preached and so was in some of the persons to whom the men of God spake in those places who before were elect of God and redeemed of Christ and were in their time effectually called to that grace whatsoever before they had done or been Now the Apostles not knowing which in particular were elect and redeemed in the secret purpose of God and Christ were to sow the seed of grace upon all grounds and to preach to all indifferently as they had occasion hoping in charity that this and that and any one particular might be of the elect vessels and good ground in Gods destination by whose preaching such as were preordained to life beleeved actually The Lord tels Paul abiding in Corinth that he had much people in that Citie and that therefore he should speak the word there and not hold
work our regeneration and again of God by the power of his word and spirit shewing man the benefite of life c. If they consider the spirit onely as the Authour of the word speaking in the men of God why doe they not say the Spirit and the Word rather then as they do the Word and the Spirit Or how doth God send the spirit thus understood to work regeneration in men If they answer that God is ready to giue the spirit and so doth to them that will receiv it first to be ready to giue is not to giue or send secondly they should understand that to be willing to receiv spirituall things is a main fruit and effect of regeneration and therfore not a cause as they mistake For the will thus holily bent presupposeth the understanding divinely enlightned whose direction it follows and without which going before it is blind and brutish Neither can a man possibly will a thing but as he understands it to be good for him If the understanding be divinely inlightned and the will holily bent then the whole man is before regenerated that is begotten before of God by the spirit of regeneration In truth they but speak of Gods sending his Spirit to work in mans regeneration as Senacherib by Rabsakah spake of Gods sending him against Ierusalem He to cover the pride of violence and they to cover the pride of free-will in bending it selfe of itself to receiv grace offered To conclude this Head referring the Reader to the Arguments of conviction formerly laid down I onely add thus much that if God onely bend the will by perswasions of promises and threatnings and works not otherwise then by force of reasons and by using strong arguments and perswasions as they expresly affirm then that whose contrary both the Scriptures and experience confirms would ordinarily come to passe namely that the wise and prudent should haue heavenly things revealed unto them and discern them much more easily and effectually then babes and weak persons and so should be converted sooner then they specially sooner then harlots and light persons considering how much better they mind and understand arguments and reasons of all sorts then the other We therfore conclude with the Apostle that God works in us both the will and the deed not onely by his word working on us but by his Spirit working in us not onely by sending Paul to plant by propounding strong arguments of perswasion but also by giving the increase by the most effectuall work of his Spirit inlightning the eyes of the understanding to see the force of those arguments opening the heart to attend unto them and so writing them in the same heart and most inward parts as they cannot be blotted out CHAP. V. Of the Originall estate of Mankinde THE main question here to be discussed is whether all Infants sinned in Adam and so be guilty of death and condemnation naturally and without mercy in Christ or not This I will proue God willing against them answering and disproving what they bring to the contrary and that in their own order as followeth ADVERSARIES INfants had no life nor being as Adam had at that time when God gaue the Law to Adam and therfore no Law was given unto them and therfore sinned not nor were guilty of condemnation DEFENCE I Grant that infants had then no life and being as Adam had to wit actuall and distinct but affirm that they had both after a sort and as the branches in the root Odegos the guide of the blinde as Rom. 2. 19 affirms pag. 114 that mankind was in Adam in bodily substance they had therfore being in Adam after a sort namely so far as they were in him If they had being in Adam any way they had life also in him for nothing in Adam was dead but all living their being therefore so far as it was in him was a living being We reade Hebr. 7. 9 that Levi payed tithes to Melchisedeck in Abraham But how could this be might one say seeing Levi had then no life and being The Apostle answers that he was in the loyns of his father Abraham when Melchisedeck met him And reason teacheth that none can doe any act but he must first be nor doe it otherwise then as he is Levi therefore then had a kind of being and that living and reasonable also as he performed that act of paying tithes He in Abraham as a particular root Mankind in Adam as in a generall root 2 That Infants had a Law given them I thus proue First the word of God Gen. 2. 17. In the day that thou eatest of the tree of knowledge of good and evill thou shalt die the death shew that whom God threatneth with death to them he gaue the Law The punishment Gen. 3. 17. 18. 19 reacheth to all Adams posterity and so the threatning and by consequence the Law Secondly the Apostle teacheth Rom. 2. 15 that the Law is written in the hearts of the Gentiles according to which Law of nature written in their hearts though they had it not written in tables of stone as the Iews they shall be judged at the day of the Lord v. 15. 16. 17. These Gentiles cannot be imagined to haue this Law thus written any other way then as God in the beginning created Adam and all mankind in him after his Image in righteousnesse and holinesse in which respect also they are said to doe by nature the things contained in the Law having also a naturall conscience in them which without a Law were vain Vnder which generall Law binding the reasonable creature to faith and obedience in all things in disposition before use of discretion and in act afterwards the particular Law Gen. 2 is conteyned and to be referred unto it Thirdly if infants haue reasonable soules then haue they the faculties of understanding and will though not the actuall use of them as men haue This understanding cannot be conceived by any to be without all disposition and pronenesse either to the knowledg of God or to ignorance errour and doubting of him nor this will to bee without all disposition and inclination to will according to or against Gods will As the yong whelps and cubs of Lyons Beares and Foxes haue in their naturall and sensitiue faculties a pronenesse and inclination to raven and every beast pronenesse to the things of its kind after actually performed and practised by them so haue infants necessarily in their reasonable faculties a disposition one or other to understand and will things specially such as concern God by reason of the most naturall necessary and indossolible relation between the reasonable creature and the Creator and that specially in those most noble faculties The objection from Rom. 7. 1 hath in it no colour of truth for neither are there any such words that the Law is given especially onely which must be added to them that know it neither doth the Apostle there intend
me to defend which considers man as fallen in Gods account as the object of the Predestination in question But I will not use all my lawfull liberty but as he that will overtake and hold a malefactour must follow him not onely in the high and beaten way whilst he keeps it but in all the out-leaps also and turnings which he makes So God assisting me purpose I though it be troublesome to follow and prosecute these Adversaries in this and other their particular straglings if any way pertinent to the generall controversie I affirm then that Gods decree and ordination about Adams fall was such as that the same could not but follow therupon not as an effect upon a cause working it God forbid but as a consequent upon an antecedent or as an event necessarily following upon a most holy wise and powerfull providence so ordering and disposing that the same should so come to passe infallibly though performed by Adams free and freely working will If any demand how this can be that God who forbiddeth and hateth sinne yet should so order persons and things by his providence and so from eternity purpose to order them as that the same cannot but be I answer by free acknowledgment that the manner of Gods working herein is to me and to all men unconceiueable and withall avouch that he who will not confesse that God can and could in Adams sin by his infinite wisedom and power most effectually and infallibly in regard of such event order and dispose of things without violation to his holinesse or violence to the creatures will as no mortall man is able to conceiue the manner therof is himselfe in a high degree guilty of that pride which was Adamsâ—uine â—uine by which he desired to be as God in knowledge Who is able to understand the manner of Gods working in giving the Holy Ghost to men and in directing the tongues and pens of the Prophets infallibly and so as they could not erre Much lesse discernable is Gods manner of working in and about the creatures sinfull actions And because many take great offence at this doctrine of truth and work of God I will the Lord assisting me plainly and briefly as I can proue that all events even those most sinfull in regard of the creatures work in and of them come to passe necessarily after a sort in respect of Gods providence as being a hand steady and which swarveth not in ordering the creature in and unto the same My first proofe is from Act. 2. 22. 23 ch 4. 27. 28. Him to wit Christ being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God ye haue taken and by wicked hands haue crucified and slain And again Herod Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gathered together to doe whatsoever thy hand and thy counsell determined before to be done What words could the Holy Ghost make choise of more liuelily to expresse Gods effectuall work according to his eternall purpose Here is expresly mentioned not onely his foreknowledge upon which the event necessarily followeth except God goe by guesse onely but his determinate counsel yea his hand as the effectuall instrument of working as if the Holy Ghost should haue said That which the heart of God unchangeably purposed sâ—ould be done touching the killing of hâ—s Son by wicked men that his hand powerfully ordered to be done accordingly ADVERSARIES THeir evasions else-where are that God decreed to suffer them to doe that which they did but decreed not that they should so doe and that God might haue appointed some to sacrifice his sonne Christ as he did Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac And againe that although God determined certainly that his sonne should be slain yet he might haue been slain without sin DEFENCE THat God suffered and so decreed to suffer the wicked to kill his sonne is plaine If he had not decreed to suffer them he had not suffered them if he had not suffered them they could not haue done it but that he onely suffered them is against the expresse words and meaning of the text which sayth the wicked took him being delivered by Gods determinato counsell Is to deliver by determinate counsell to suffer onely So where it is sayd that Gods hand determined that which was done it shewes that God was a doer in the businesse and not a sufferer onely If God onely suffered them that is hindred them not he had no hand in it at all but with-held his hand from medling in it How then could his hand and counseli determine before whatsoever was done Besides if God onely suffered the death of his sonne all the worth of our redemption by his death vanisheth away seeing that which God suffers onely is onely evill and not good Also by this perverse exposition neither the Father gaue his sonne nor the sonne himselfe for us to the death which the Scriptures every where affirme Lastly hee that considers the end of the Churches prayer Act. 4. will plainly see how they meant therein to ascribe unto God more then the sole suffering of those things The end was to comfort themselues and other Gods servants against the threatnings and rage of the wicked in all their persecutions But what comfort I marvail can the servants of God draw from this consideration that God suffers the wicked in rage to persecute them and hinders them not This were indeed rather matter of discouragement and dispaire then of comfort unto them But herein stands their comfort firme that God by the hand of his providence orders all these things according to the fore-determination of the counsel of his will Neither wil their vain imagination helpe them that Christ might haue been slain and become our sacrifice yet without sinne For howsoeevr it bee not for them nor me to determine what was possible to Gods absolute power yet we know considering the declaration thereof both by the Scriptures and event that in regard of Gods decree it was necessarie that Christ should dye as he did by the conspiracie and rage of wicked men as both the expresse words and plain drift of the places proue Lastly it is an erroneous presumption that God might haue appointed some to haue sacrificed his sonne Christ as he did Abraham to sacrifice his sonne Isaac to wit in obedience to Gods commandement considering how expresly the Scriptures did even before his death teach the contrary and that the sonne of man must suffer many things and be killed by the Elders and chiefe Priest Also that Christ ought to suffer to wit what he had suffered by the Priests and Rulers which had delivered him to bee condemned to death and had crucified him which manner of death by being hanged upon the tree so becoming a curse for us that he might free us from the curse of the Law was as well foretold by the scriptures as his death it selfe If that cannot but be which the Scriptures fore-tell
a necessity which takes away freedom and voluntarinesse from men but then they rather suffer then doe For example the striking or thrusting of a man with such violence as that he is compelled thereby to stagger or fall this necessity of compulsion depriues me of all freedom to this bodily motion so as I stagger or fall unwillingly but this comes from an externall principle or beginning working violently and from without me But this is nothing to that other necessity in regard of God causing and effecting the good in and by the creature according to its kinde and suffering and ordering the evill person and thing according to its kind with which mans freedom may well stand And first whatsoever God doth he doth it both most freely and most necessarily well So the elect Angels doe the will of God most voluntarily and yet most necessarily So did Christ as man the will of his Father so freely as none can doe any thing more and yet as necessarily as it was necessary for God not to sinne On the contrary the devils doe evill both most necessarily being by these mens own grant unchangeably evill and yet most willingly as carryed thereunto withall their power Christ saith it must needs be that offences come and the Apostle that there must be heresies in the Church If then freedom of will can stand with no manner of necessity the authours of these heresies and offences sinne not therin for all sinnes specially of this kinde are voluntary I add in the last place that the better any man or Angell is he doth good the more both necessarily and willingly and the worse any evill both waies Neither will it seem strange unto us that one and the same action comes under so divers considerations as in one regard to be voluntary contingent and casuall and in another necessary if we consider how divers agents concur and meet together in producing it No work of man is so mans alone as that God hath not some hand in it in sustaining and ordering the person and work yea in effecting that which is good in it as all that is which hath in it any created being or order What hinders then but that the same thing may in regard of man as the particular and immediate cause be voluntary and contingent and yet in regard of God the highest and generall cause necessary We daily see the truth of this in proportion amongst men the meeting of Ahab and Eliah was in respect of Ahab casuall but in respect of Eliah of destinate counsell These things thus cleered we will come to the exposition of the words of Ezechiel so oft and vehemently urged by these men and others which are that God takes not pleasure in the death of a sinner but that he turn from his way and liue I answer first that the Lord takes no delight in the death of a sinner that repents and turns from his wicked way but otherwise if the sinner repent not the Lord takes delight in his death not for the misery of the creature but for the glory of his justice shining therin Of such the Lord testifies that he wil laugh at their calamity mock when their fear cometh And considering that the death and destruction of the wicked is Gods own just and holy work for their sins who will deny that God delights in it Secondly for sinne who was ever so wicked as to imagine that God takes pleasure in it It pleaseth him for his holy ends to suffer sin and to order the creature sinning by his own freewill election of evil as hath been formerly proved Thirdly it must be noted that the Prophet speaks there of such sinners onely as to whom the word comes saying Turn yee turn yee from your evill waies for why will yee die ô house of Israel Whence we doe gather evidently these two particulars First that the Prophet doth not here speak of all men universally as they conceiu but onely of the house of Israel or of such as to whom he◠sends his Prophets to call them to repentance secondly that he speaks not of that decree of the Lord willing which is accompanied with the powerfull work of his grace by which hee will giue repentance to wicked men instructed in the truth by his servants but onely of that degree of his will which stands in commanding that which is good and in approving of it if it be performed And so we grant it to be the Lords pleasure and will that all repent to whom the Word is preached It is true which they add that Adam and others sinned against the will of God but not that any ever sinned against the secret will of God as they affirm The will of God is no law to man till it be revealed and where there is no law there is no transgression It is also truely sayd that the Iewes unwillingnesse to be gathered to Christ was against Gods and Christs will that is his commanding will for he would that is commanded and they would not but disobeyed but that it was against that decree of Gods willing which sets his almightie power awor◠that I deny For God could if thus he would haue giuen them repentance and drawn them to his son Whatsoever he thus wills he can do That which they add as an eye-salue to cure our blindnes namely that we haue nothing to do with Gods secret wil not revealed in his word is true in regard of our obedience to God expectation from him but not absolutely as they conceiue The particular events of things in the world though not so much as insinuated in the scriptures concern us when they come to passe so as we may and ought to say it was the will of God they should so be either his will to work them if good or to suffer and order them and their doers if evill ADVERSARIES NExt comes into consideration a speciall distinction of ours which is that God is the author of the action or fact but not of the sin of the fact or crime Over which they insult and in it over all learned men though they mention Calvin onely with high contempt and great triumph before the victory calling it a merely fabulous ridle and marvellous sophistication telling us that a spade is a spade c. but in truth shewing themselues sitter to medle with a spade and a mattock then with those high mysteries Let us see their reasons In the first whereof they make us say that God is the author of the very fact and deed of Adams sin yea of adultery theft murder c. DEFENCE WE deny their charge and answer by distinction that Adams taking and eating the forbidden fruit Davids adultery Ioahs murther and the like are to be considered two waies First naturally and as they are motions in nature performed by mans natural created faculties and powers of soul and body secondly morally as
God through faith to salvation and that being born of God they doe not sin nor can to wit as the children of the devill doe because his seed remaineth in them Their objections following that by our doctrine men need not fear falling into condemnation though they fall into notorious sin nor repent having committed such sins are of no weight seeing God though he promise salvation to the truely called certainly yet he neither promiseth it neither are they to beleev it immediately but by means of fearing to sin and of repentance when sin is committed which hee also promiseth to work and put in their heart that they shall not depart from him The Lord promâ—sed by the Prophet Ieremy that after 70 years of the Iews captivity accomplished at Babylon he would visit them and cause them to return to Ierusalem And whereas it might be objected against the certainty of this promise and event What Shall they return though they repent not nor seek the Lord but remain rebellious as they haue been and their fore-fathers before them He answers that then they shall call upon God and pray unto him and seek unto him and he will hearken unto them be found of them and return their captivity He promiseth both the end and the means and hee that promiseth is faithfull in performing and providing for both temporall and eternall deliverance and the meanes thereof Their Argument taken from exhortations and admonitions in the Scriptures that we receiv not the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1 and the like hath formerly been fully answered They are not in vain either in respect of elect or reprobate neither yet will we own their absurd answer here fathered upon us that the whole Scriptures are given to keep both elect and reprobate from falling into grosse sins yet that neither the elect can be damned by transgressing them nor the reprobate saved by observing them The Scriptures haue divers ends and amongst others are given to keep all not onely from grosse but from all sins Neither doe we affirm that the elect cannot be damned by transgressing them or that the reprobate cannot be saved by observing them as they like deceitfull proctors plead for us or rather for their own advantage But this we say that the elect and truely sanctified are so kept by the power of God in his feare that they never transgresse as the wicked do nor can because his seed remaineth in them that they continually renue their repentance particular for sins known into which through infirmity they fall and generall for sinns unknown as David did and that even by means of those exhortations and admonitions which God opens their hearts to attend unto and giues increase accordingly And the contrary the reprobates being left to themselvs of God haue by their own and satans malice their eyes so blinded and hearts hardened as though those means of exhortation come unto them they either understand them not or beleev them not or despise them but never observ or obey them aright Their curses of the doctrine in this point received in all Reformed Churches as Atheisticall and damnable and their blessing themselvs from it is here as every where the fruit of that wilde zeale wherewith their ignorant hearts are possessed Their answers follow to the Scriptures brought against them The first is Math. 24. 24. If it were possible they the false Teachers should deceiv the very elect Whence we conclude as they say that it is not possible the elect should perish And here first they shew who are the elect of God noting indeed the persons but perverting the order of grace If in saying as they doe that the elect of God are those that receiv and obey the truth of Christ and abide in him unto the death they meant that such as are chosen of God in his decree before the world and actually and effectually chosen and called in time by the Word and Spirit to beleev and obey did so abide to the death it were but the truth which the Scriptures teach and we professe But intending as they doe that men haue onely the promise of actuall and particular election till then but are not absolutely elected and that absolute election follows this abiding in Christ till death they are like the foolish builder which would lay the foundation upon the roofe of the house By their comment upon Christs words men should be in danger to be seduced by false Prophets when they haue abiden in Christ unto death for till then they will haue none elect and the elect are here said to be in danger to be seduced That which they gather from the manifold warnings in the Scriptures to the elect that none deceiv them c. is true namely that the elect may fall from their election or rather from the grace received if they take not heed But they should withall proue that God doth ever so far leav and forsake any truely justified and sanctified in Christ as that they take no heed at all as they ought It is certain that if the very elect Angels in heaven or Christ Iesus upon earth had taken no heed to Gods commandements they could not haue observed them That which is added that many fall away not by being deceived but willingly forsaking the truth and again that many fall away willingly not being deceived is neither pertinent seeing the place in question speaks onely of such as are deceived nor true seeing a man cannot will any evill but under a shew and appearance of good so presented to the will by a deceived and eâ—â—ing understanding And so the Scriptures every where ascribe all manner of defection from God and his holy commandements to errour either in the generall ground or particular case The next place is Ioh. 10. 27. 28 My sheep hear my voyce and they know me and follow me and I giue unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any take them out of mine hand My Father which hath given them me is greater then all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand They here conceiv the purpose of Christ to be to confirm his sheep so long as they continue his sheep c. But herein they draw violently Christs purpose to their own For Christ as may be seen by comparing herewith v. 16. 26. 27 is to shew how it came to passe that some of his hearers beleeved and obeyed his voyce and some not Many of the Iews beleeved not because they were not his sheep some did being his sheep to wit by destination of God Christ saith not that they are not his sheep because they beleev not but that they beleev not because they are not his sheep that is not being of the elect of God they are left to their own impenitent and unbeleeving heart which they also willingly harden against Christs voyce Where v. 16 he saith Other
at all to shew to whom the Law was given or not but onely that the Christian Church at Rome specially many of them being Iewes as appears chap. 16 to which he wrote was not ignorant of the Law whether generall or particular to which he had reference in that place To Deut. 11. 2 besides things answered by Mr. Ainsworth I adde that Moses there excludes not onely infants but many grown men as appears v. 3. 4. The other two places Matth. 13. 9 and 1 Cor. 10. 15 exclude too many mens of years also considering how few haue ears to hear or understanding to judg aright of spirituall things For the third head and that all sinned in Adam it is so plain from Rom. 5 as they haue nothing at all to answer though they object the place onely they bring certain other Scriptures in such a manner as if they would disproue one Scripture by another And indeed what exposition can be given or evasion found considering the expressenes of the words As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death passed upon all men for that or as the originall hath it in whom all men haue sinned So v. 19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners c. If they say as some doe that all are made sinners by imitation onely they are clearly confuted first by daily experience in which it is plain that children comming to some discerning will lie filch and revenge themselvs though they never heard lie told c. It is alas too evident that they bring this corruption into the world with them Secondly by the Apostles words v. 19 For as by ones mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If wee bee made unrighteous onely by imitation of Adams sin and not by his performing it as our root naturally then we are made righteous onely by imitation of Christs righteousnesse and not by his performing righteousnesse and fulfilling the Law for us as our spirituall root in which wee are grafted by faith Lastly these Adversaries grant that by Adams sin all his posterity haue weak natures by which when the commandement comes they cannot obey and liue but sin and so die Rom. 8. 3. Can they which are accustomed to doe evill doe well Or will these men never leav their godlesse custom of corrupting the words of the text for advantaging of an evill cause For flesh which the Text hath they put nature wheras it is without all question that by flesh the Apostle there understands properly sin and sinfull flesh as he expresly calleth it and as is plain in the whole context v. 1. 2. 4. 5. 6. 7 c. In all which hee opposeth the flesh to the spirit and the sinfull life of the one to the righteous life of the other And I would know of these deep Divines what but sin could possibly make Adams posterity unable to keep the Law This flesh or nature as they will haue it must be contrary to this good and holy Law and resist it And is not that properly sinfull and unholy which resists and is contrary to that which is good and holy Lastly this enemy to the Law of God in a man must be in his soule And what else can it be then a disposition in the understanding to ignorance and errour touching God and heavenly things and an inclination in the will and affections to evill Which is as properly sinne as their acts and effects are properly sinfull Infants therefore bring sin properly into the world with them Two things they here object First that Christ often accounts children innocents as Math. 18. 3. 4 19. 14. I answer first not as they mean that is such as haue in them nothing vertuous or vitious good or evill but as being humble and without pride and such as unto whom the Kingdom of God and his blessing did appertain Secondly He speaks not of all children but of those of and in the Church Their second objection is that our soules being the subjects of sin are created of God imediately But to this objection they that referrs the soules originall imediately to Gods supernaturall and indeed miraculous work do giue divers answers which these Adversaries should haue refuted Amongst others Mr. Ainsworths answer is worthy the consideration But let us consider their proofs for the soules immediate creation The first is Act. 17. 26 Of one bloud God made all mankind c. But this place makes rather against them seeing the body alone makes not mankind but the soule with it by which specially the man is The next place is Heb. 12. 9 whence they gather that Adam is the Father of our bodies and God the Father of our Spirits But first the Text neither mentions Adam nor can agree to him in the state of creation seeing in that estate there was no use of correction Secondly it saith not the fathers of our bodies but of our flesh nor the father of our Spirits but of Spirits And the meaning seems unto me with due respect had to other mens different judgment onely to be this that if we giue honour to men our carnall or fleshly fathers chastening us as they think good how much more owe honour to our spirituall father chastening us for our eternall good And surely God in his kinde is the father of the whole man not of the soule onely So is man in his kinde the father of the whole man and not of the body onely Lastly seeing the drift of the place is to shew that God as a father chasteneth his sons which he loveth and on the contrary that they that are not chastened are not sons and so haue not God for their Father I see not how the Apostle can speak of the creation of soules seeing in that respect wicked and godly children and bastards haue God alike their father The Preacher ch 12. 7 speaks of the manner of the creation of the first man Adam onely but no more proues that our soules or spirits are created by God imediately then that our bodies are made of dust immediately That ch 8. 8 hath no colour of proof in it Against our fourth and last assertion that all by Adams sin are guilty of death Rom. 5. 12 they cavill that we were not in Adam to bring any soule to hell for the breach of that commandemant Thou shalt not eat Where first to passe by their incongruity of speech they free Adam himselfe from the guilt of condemnation of which our question is as well as his posterity by that his sin seeing it brought not him himself to hell But secondly for the thing it selfe They grant acording to the Scriptures that death as a part of the curse came over all Adams posterity for his sin And will they then deny that eternall death was also due by the same law of justice Is
in theirs through Christ Iesus in whom it was confirmed In adding that the Old taught that Christ was not come in the flesh nor into their hearts at their Circumcision They make the Lords Covenant negatiue as teaching what is not and not what is A Covenant is a promise upon condition and a Testament or Will that in which Legacies are given But by this doctrine here should be nothing either given or promised It is besides very ungodlily said that Abraham in whom principally we are to consider both of the Covenant and seal thereof Circumcision had not Christ in his heart when he was circumcised Both Moses in Abrahams historie and the Apostles who well understood it affirm the contrary and that he was justified in uncircumcision by beleeving in Christ In which respect he is called the father of them that beleev not onely circumcised but uncircumcised also Haue his children that which he for substance had not even in that wherein he was their father This thing they grant in the very next page and that Abraham had the covenant of grace promised him by which promise he had salvation in the Messiah to come and therein that the Covenant made with Abraham whereof Circumcision was a seal was the Covenant of the Gospell and the same with ours now It is strange that these men who so magnifie Baptism as they will haue men made Christians by it should so vilifie Circumcision as to make it of right to appertain to godlesse and wicked men for such were and are all at all times since Adam sinned that had and and haue not Christ in their hearts Was it not an holy Ordinance of God and therfore not to be prostituted to the unholy and unpure as all unbeleevers that is all into whose hearts Christ is not come are and unto whom nothing is pure or holy Could it be to any a sign that God was their God a seal of the righteousnesse of faith a pledg of Gods protection and note of distinction between Gods people and others And yet belong to such as were wholly without Christ and so without God in the world When any of the Heathens became Proselytes they chose God to be their God came to trust under the wings of the Lord God of Israel and separated themselvs from Idolaters to the Law of God and of all this they made solemn profession by Circumcision which they must either do without faith and so not please God therein which is absurd to say they did which did it lawfully or else with faith by which Christ though not come in the flesh was come into their hearts Of the Ceremonies of Moses and so of Circumcision which Moses took of the fathers into the body of the Ceremoniall Law and of their divers considerations I haue elsewhere written at large and doe refer the Reader thither for satisfaction in that point That none of the Church of Israel called by them affectedly Abrahams seed in the flesh had the Ordinances of the new Covenant is not true They had Iohns Baptism which even now these men avowed as the Baptism of the new Testament and Christs also who baptized more Disciples then Iohn and with them the twelv had the Lords Supper also and all these whilst the Iewish Church and Ordinances stood in their full strength It is true that Iohns was not in the Kingdom of God as Christ speaks Math. 11 that in the state of the Church and Ordinances dispensed under Christ glorified Otherwise the Iews had the Kingdom of heaven which else could noâ— haue been taken from them and given to others neither could Christ haue been as he was the King of Sion So the Patriarks received not the promise that is Christ come in the flesh to which purpose the Apostle saith Before faith came c. Shall we therfore say that before Christs comming in the flesh none had true faith to salvation or that true beleevers received not Christ though to come as we now receiv Christ come in the flesh They Christ promised and prefigured by the Word and Ordinances then we Christ manifested and remembred by the Word and Ordinances now properly called the New Testament as founded in the actuall death of the Testator ADVERSARIES HEre follows an exception against me in particular which is that by the old Covenant mentioned Ier. 31 Hebr. S is not meant as I affirm that which was made on mount Sinai Exod. 19 but the Covenant mentioned Exod. 3. v. 6 c. Their reason is for that God made that Covenant with them when hee took them by the hand to bring them out of Aegipt which is mentioned Exod. 3 and not Exod. 19. For then say they did God appear to Moses and commanded him to take them by the hand and lead them out of Aegipt where the Covenant is mentioned I am the God of thy fathers Abraham c. DEFENCE FIrst to let passe that though they bid mark the words yet they cite them not I answer that these words in that day as the Text hath it cannot be restrained to that particular day when God appeared to Moses seeing the Lord did not that particular day take them by the hand to bring them out but divers daies after as is expresly affirmed ch 12. 51 Psal. 77. 12 105 27. 43. By that day therfore is not meant any particular day but indefinitely the time of their transporting out of Aegipt into Canaan as elsewhere by the day of their birth is meant the whole time of their fore-going misery So many hundred times in the Scriptures by the day or that day is meant indefinitely the time in which a thing happeneth or is done Besides where the Prophet speaks of the day in which God took them by the hand they speak of the day in which God appeared unto Moses and commanded him to take them by the hand which was whilst he was in the land of Midian God indeed then shewed his will to Moses but stretched not out his hand for their deliverance till many daies after They say further that Exod. 3 the Covenant is mentioned I am the God thy father Abraham c. But is every mentioning of a Covenant the making of it And did God make a Covenant with and become the God of Abraham Isaak and Iakob at that time That is when they were now dead divers hundred years before What can be more plain then that the Lord doth not there make a new but remembers the old Covenant made before with Abraham c. of which the bringing his posterity out of Aegipt into the promised land was an appurtenance God promised to be Abrahams God and the God of his Seed that is all-sufficient for the good things not onely of this world but also of the world to come as Christ expounds his fathers words Math. 22. 32. 33 and so gaue them accordingly the land of Canaan as a