and withal T. E. as you cannot but observe is so unconstant to his own assertions and confused in his notions of Perfection and the right fixing the notion of things being necessary in order to the clear proceeding in affirming or denying any thing concerning them I will digress a little to state the Case and that in three particulars By which many of my Adversarie's objections will fall without taking any further notice of them We shall therefore consider 1. What is meant by Perfection and what is to be granted or denyed concerning it 2. Whether the best of Men can attain such a Perfection as that they need not or ought not to acknowledge themselves sinners and Offenders 3. What is the result tendency and consequent of asserting or denying such a Perfection Par. I shall be very glad to have a just account of these particulars Min. I begin with the first It 's very evident that Perfection or being Perfect is taken in different senses in Holy Scripture sometimes in a Positive sense and sometimes in a Comparative A positive Perfection is that which includes such a compleatness wherein nothing is wanting or deficient to the answering and coming up to those measures by which it is to be judged and examined Now the measures by which the Perfection of Men must be judged of are of two sorts First The Capacity of our Nature taken in its best and sinless estate and the holy and perfect Law of God to which it is in every respect exactly conformable And hence the first sense of Perfection is when a Man is in a state of enjoying as great good and satisfaction and as high purity and freedom from all stain of evil as either the Nature of Man can arrive unto or as the perfect Law of God do's require This was our state in Paradise and will be in Heaven This is the Perfection spoken of 1 Cor. 13. 10. and probably Eph. 4. 13. Heb. 12. 23. and elsewhere The second Measure by which a Man's Perfection is to be judged of is the capacity of our Nature since the â—…all and the terms which the Gospel Covenant prescribeth and the Mercy of God accepteth Hence the second sense of Perfection is when a Man lives as holily as ever he can in this frail estate sincerely striving to do all Christian duties and to avoid all sin and supplying his failings by Faith and Repentance So that God accepts him upon the terms of the Gospel as perfectly righteous in and through Christ This may be call'd Evangelical Perfection and is spoken of Heb. 10. 14. and 13. 21. Iam. 3. 2. And this is oft exprest by the Perfect heart And in this sense Perfect is opposed to Wicked Iob. 9. 22. and is explain'd by being upright Psal. 37. 37. And this may be consistent with some failings That there are two measures of Perfection appears by that instance I gave you of St. Paul who acknowledges himself Perfect according to one measure and yet not perfect according to another Phil. 3. 12 and 15. compared So according to this second measure and God's gracious acceptance Asa's heart is said to have been perfect all his days 1 King 15. 14. yet came he far short of a sinless perfection For the high places were not taken away ibid. And he was sinfully passionate against Hanani 2 Chron. 16. 10. Who did but his Office in reproving him for relying on the King of Syria ver 7 And being lame on his feet sought not to the Lord but to the Physicians ver 12. Now let Ellwood ask what Notion the Holy Ghost has of Perfection who records Asa both perfect and a sinner Therefore upon the account of this second sense of Perfection the Hebrew word for perfect is by our Translators often render'd upright and made use of to express the necessary qualification for obtaining God's favour Psal. 15. 2. compared with ver 1 5. and Psal. 18. 23. Elsewhere it is exprest by a heart that is sound in God's Statutes and made to be a ground of sure hope and confidence in God's mercy Psal. 119. 80. Yea the Hebrew word signifying perfection is translated sincerity Ios. 24. 14. which T. E. seems to deny p. 72. This for the Positive sense of Perfection The next sense of Perfection is Comparative by which is meant such a Perfection as is not exactly compleat in it self in respect to the first and highest Measures but only more compleat than some other to which it is compared And this applied to our case consists in outdoing the lower sorts of Christians and coming up to the higher measures and degrees of knowledge and practice and in this sense Perfection is taken Heb. 6. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 6. Now to apply this threefold distinction of Perfection The attaining a comparative perfection is not only desirable and useful but possible nay 't is actually arrived to by some though not by all who notwithstanding may be true Christians The attaining an Evangelical perfection is not only possible but also absolutely necessary to all true Christians But an absolute Perfection in the first sense about which the dispute lies though it be the Crown we aim at yet is not attain'd by any in this life which is my next particular of which I shall now give you an account Par. As you propounded it before it was this Whether the best of Men can in this World attain to such a perfection as they need not or ought not to acknowledge themselves sinners and Offenders Min. To which query I reply by laying down these propositions First That there being two Measures by which we may judge of our Perfection Namely the perfect and exact Law of God and the Terms of the Gospel Covenant the first of these is the Rule of our Duty the second is the condition of our acceptance which are not one and the same under the Gospel The Covenant of Grace as a Covenant requires not the first sort of perfection in order to our acceptance though the Law do's still call for it For if it did Salvation were impossible for us in our faln and frail estate Yet still the Gospel is a dispensation of purity as well as grace nor is it the design thereof to cancel our Obligation to obedience but rather to advance it and therefore it rejects not any Moral duty nor allows any thing that is Morally evil For as it cannot be that any thing Good or Evil should cease to be so under the Gospel So it is unsuitable to the design of that Doctrine that establisheth God's Kingdom to discharge Man from the obedience which he owes as a Creature Whence it follows Secondly That all even the least evil is a sin because the transgression of a Law as well as the grosser Acts of sin All evil thoughts irregular desires and disorderly passions and also the omission of the due exercise of good thoughts and desires as well as of good words and actions are breaches of God's
Holy Law now incur His displeasure deserve His wrath and need His pardon for Man's present inability to keep the Law in the rigour of it do's by no means excuse him of his duty to keep the whole Law because his weakness is the effect of his own sin and fall and he is accountable for it Thirdly The Perfection of Practice in avoiding all evil and performing every Duty which God requires ought to be endeavour'd after yet such an Absolute sinless Perfection in the whole course of our lives is not attain'd in this life nor was it ever actually attain'd by any meer Man since the fall which though I formerly proved to you in the Conference yet will I now take more pains with you to confirm it Perfection is opposed to Moral imperfection and signifies a state and condition absolutely sinless in rigour of Law such as comes up to the first Measure and our primitive Capacity before we Fell Thus the word ought to be taken in this Controversie And now I shall tell you how far we dispute against it and this I shall do both Negatively and Affirmatively First We do not deny it to be desirable for it is the matter of our highest aims and hopes Nor Secondly As wholly and for ever impossible to us for we believe we shall attain it when we reach the Heavenly Mansions Nor Thirdly As impossible for God to effect now in our present State who can do every thing which implyeth not a contradiction Nor Fourthly Do we discard sincere endeavours after it For we constantly maintain That sincere endeavour to perfect Holiness and to live without all manner of sin is the Condition of Salvation For what Divine ever affirmed it lawful to allow our selves in any sin That therefore we Assert is as followeth We maintain First That the absolute perfection here explained is not the condition of Salvation seeing even Babes in Christ who are far remote from it may be saved Secondly We maintain that it is not the ordinary condition of Christians but is to be reckoned though not among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things simply impossible if God were pleas'd to use His power yet among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that do not actually come to pass in this World which they that please may call Morally impossible that is so difficult that Men will not actually arrive to it in this lower State wherein it hath pleased God to set us And the Grounds of our Assertion are these First The many expressions of the Saints of God in Scripture who testifie of themselves that they were not absolutely sinless in rigour of Law and the constant experience of the People of God since the Scripture times Secondly The inconsistency of such perfection with the present weakness of Man's Nature and the many deplorable circumstances which are the consequents of his Fall Thirdly The end of Gospel Institutions which are plainly design'd for an Imperfect State and of no use if it were otherwise in the foremention'd explained sense Fourthly Abundance of Scriptures commanding us to grow in Grace therefore we can never be past growing in this life We must abound more and more These and many others suppose plainly that we come not to our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our ultimate perfection in this life Fifthly Those Scriptunes which shew the danger of standing upon terms with God and the misery we are in if God should deal with us in rigour of Law Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified Psal. 143. 2. If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand Psal. 130. 3 c. Sixthly Those Scriptures which shew our need of Mercy at death and judgment The Lord grant unto him that he may find Mercy of the Lord in that Day 2 Tim. 1. 18 c. Seventhly We may confirm it with respect to the times of the Old Testament from Lev. 16. 6. and Heb. 9. 7. where Aaron the Saint of the Lord with his Successors is enjoyned yearly to offer a Sin-offering as well for himself as for the errors of the people Which shews plainly that the Saints in the Old time had not attain'd to an unsinning perfection And with respect to the New Testament the same is proved by the description of the Gospel Righteousness consisting in having sin pardon'd Rom. 3. 6 7 8. Eph. 1. 7. 1 Ioh. 1. 8 9. So that after all this Fourthly We ought not to be discouraged as to our final estate because this unsinning Perfection is not the terms of our acceptance with God nor will the want of it cause our final rejection For to assert this would make void the Covenant of Grace which admits repentance proposeth forgiveness and accepts sincerity because though it be as I said the design of the Gospel to prohibit all sin and to allow none yet if through infirmity a Man fall it provides a Remedy 1 Ioh. 2. 1. And upon performance of the conditions of our acceptance secures Salvation Par. I see not why Men should require more than God is pleas'd to accept and we in a capacity to perform So that you need enlarge no further in the proof of these Only let me understand What is the result tendency and consequent of denying the Quakers absolute unsinning State and asserting the Evangelical Perfection which was your Third particular Min. We deny the Quakers absolute Perfection not only as unattainable and inconsistent with the condition of faln Man but as it is apt to deceive some Men into a Groundless pride to make them neglect the means of remission despise the mercy of the Death of Jesus Christ and rely on their own Merits as it confounds the Covenant of Works and Grace and as it stands as that two-edged sword Gen. 3. 24. keeping the way of the Tree of life and making them despair of ever attaining everlasting Glory when they once find themselves deceived But then there are no ill Consequents as is falsly pretended by our denying this absolute unsinning righteousness or perfection First 'T is no discouragement to Christian care and diligence and the most vigorous endeavours that any Christian can use while he attains at present an Evangelical Perfection and peace and reconciliation with God and the favour to be owned as his child and an heir of Glory and of that State of absolute Perfection in Heaven yea and of a greater degree of Glory according to his growth in Grace here Secondly It 's no Doctrine of looseness or encouragement to sin since that Grace which tenders remission of sin to the sincere and penitent will never accept the slothful and careless And it 's sufficiently proved that the Gospel gives no allowance to sin but promiseth greater rewards to greater degrees of Piety Lastly The asserting this Evangelical Perfection hath many good consequents For it directs to the performance of many considerable Duties which else would have
not consider what they were rather than from whom they came To these questions they will then be as speechless as he in the Gospel that was found without his Wedding Garment And it will not be Thomas Ellwood that will then be able to open their mouths Par. You have said enough to convince me both of the weakness and naughtiness of this Plea which he has taught the people and by which they encourage themselves to sleight their Teachers and their Doctrine for the least failing they find in them Min. This will neither justify the impiety of these men nor the Separation of such as have already left the Church on that pretence of the Teacher's not following his own directions which is as absurd and preposterous saith St. Augustin As if a Traveller should think he must go back again or leave the way because he saw the Mil-stone with its inscription shewing him the way but not moving in it at all it self But there are too many that rejoyce at the faults of Ministers where they find them and invent and impute them where they find them not that they may have a pretence for their Separation To which purpose rightly saith St. Augustin in the same place Men seek not so much with Charity whom they may Commend in order to their Imitation as with ill will whom they may Carp at in order to their own Deception Some cannot find out Good men being ill themselves and others fear to find such because they would still be evil Par. The true Ministers were always Examples of Goodness he says but too many of these Ministers are Examples of evil p. 24 Min. Has not the Quaker forgot himself here For too many is an implicit acknowledgment that many are not Examples of evil and therefore after all his Exclamations may be Good men Par. When you cannot clear them of your own Profession says he you fall upon the Quakers whom if you can render as bad as your own you think you have done something c. p. 24 25. Min. I never endeavour'd to clear those of mine own Profession that are faulty but the Innocent and to justify the Profession it self from unjust Cavils I ever thought it a method as Ungentile as Improper to defend Truth by Personal Reflections A Zealous Turk and a prophane Christian makes me think no better of Mahometanism nor worse of Christianity But seeing the Quakers themselves have been the first Aggressors in this way of arguing and do place so much of their strength therein it was proper for me only in general terms not naming any particular persons and indeed I was engaged to confnte it by letting them see how much it reflects upon their own Faction and makes all such objections void However that the world may know it was no groundless intimation of mine being thus put upon 't I desire Sir Iames Whitlock's case as it was lately managed in Chancery and two Books the one call'd The Quakers Spritual Court the other The Spirit of the Hat written by a Quaker may be examined By this time I hope I have removed your scruples occasion'd by the Quaker's first Chapter which in his Preface he tells his Reader is Offensive As great a truth as ever he spake For I have sufficiently proved it so to be that is offensive to God to Truth and all Good men But let us now proceed to the examination of his second Chapter CHAP. II. Of saying You to a single person Par. IN his second Chapter T. E. says you seem offended with their using the wrd Thou to a single person Min. I only vindicate the use of You to a single person yet must I tell him that to take up a word or phrase tho' lawful in it self in contradiction to an innocent custom and in an affected singularity as a mark of distinction from their Neighbours this is justly offensive And to make it a necessary duty to say Thou to a single person and a sin to say You when God has neither commanded the one nor forbidden the other this is adding to the Word of God and is rank Superstition and Pharisaism in enslaving the Conscience and placing Religion in pitifull niceties Superstition being an impiety which represents God so light or so froward as to be either pleased or angry with things indifferent and of no moment Par. But T. E. says that they lay not the stress of their Religion upon words p. 27. Min. A good hearing Then may a good man without any violence to Religion say as well You as Thou to a single person But if he spoke as he thought why do they and he contend so much about a word and divide the Church and separate themselves from it for a thing they dare lay no stress of Religion upon So that he has in those words done little credit to his Cause and his whole Party in making them all Schismaticks Yet can we think that he has here truly represented his own Party or clear'd them of Superstition while we observe their strict and demure use of words and phrases to the enslaving of their own Consciences As if to say I thank you for your kindness or the like were not as good sense and as lawful as to say I receive thy love Or to say Such a one is dead were not as pleasing to God as to say He is out of the body Or to say I cannot consent to such a thing were not as proper and as Religious as to say I am not free which is a phrase they have very ready to oppose good Laws and good Counsel And if you mark the Quakers you cannot but observe that in the affected use of their distinguishing phrases tones and gestures they really esteem themselves more religious than their Neighbours whilst indeed if they understood it they are the less Religious by how they are the more superstitious and schismatical But I believe that in many of them much of this proceeds from want of knowledge who now I hope will by one of their own Teachers be at length convinc'd of their great errour in laying so much stress of Religion upon words and phrases Par. You must be cautious how you reflect upon the Quakers for the use of their phrases seeing many of them are taken out of the holy Scriptures Min. Though the holy Scriptures ought to be remembred and frequently used in our Converse for our mutual instruction Yet I would not have you so ignorant and superstitious as to think that God in revealing his will there design'd that our duty should consist in the continual use of those very forms of speech but in a due regard to those truths and Commands contained in them As for the style of the Scriptures you are to understand that it was ever accommodated to the particular dialect of that people to whom they were written and therefore varied accordingly as we find it does in the different proprieties of the Hebrew Tongue in
wholly by the Spirit If he do believe him not Par. I shall not be so ready hereafter to believe pretences as I have been But to your other instance of Saint Iohn writing to the Elect Lady c. T. E. answers Who she was and in what relation John stood to her or how far her temporal power might extend do's not appear ibid. Min. He is in the right The relation he stood to her in do's not appear therefore a Title may be given where there is not even so much as an appearance of any relation Par. Lady he says signifies no more than Mistress or Dame ibid. Min. Mistress Dame and Lady are all exprest by the Latin word Domina and by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though in common usage they be distinguisht But suppose it no more than Mistress or Dame the Quaker will gain little by the plot For Saint Iohn was her guide and Instructer and surely that great Apostle stood in no relation of servitude to her and had no temporal Office under her If so then you may collect from hence that according to this Quaker its lawful without the appearance of such relation he talks of to call a Woman Mistress but not a Man Master Par. I pray you seeing T. E. trades so much in Beza Has he no note upon this place Min. Yes having translated it Domina he adds thisingenuous Note For ne ither do's the Christian Religion reject such lawful Titles as far as it is just and equal So that it is as if he had written TO THE LADY OF EMINENT DIGNITY Par. St. Iohn writing to Gaius T. E. says He do's not call him Rabbi or Mr. Gaius but simply says The Elder to the well beloved Gaius ibid. Min. I never heard that Gaius was one of the Rabbies or a Person of Quality above the Common people If so no wonder St. Iohn gave him no Title Par. But he concludes his remarks upon St. Iohn thus If therefore the Priest will have it that John gave the Title of Lady in Complement only let him prove it ibid. Min. By his good leave the Priest neither writ nor thought any such thing The Priest believes that St. Iohn gave the Title in truth and sincerity as answerable to her Quality But is this ingenuous of the Quaker from a supposition of his own making to put me upon proving what I never affirmed Par. You said Sarah was commended not only for obeying Abraham but calling him Lord To this he answers Abraham had a Lordship or Power over her as he was her Husband here was Government and subjection for Lord or Master which imports the same was a relative title to it p. 48. Min. If he means the Husband hath such a Despotick power over his Wife as to make her stand in the same relation to him with his Servants This will not be granted for the subjection of the Wife is of a more ingenuous sort Indeed the Jewish Doctors affirmed Men to have a real Lordship over their Concubines because they took them without the solemnity of Law as our Quakers do their Women who yet are still in worse circumstances for thereby their children are incapable of inheriting their Fathers Estates and themselves of having any advantage by Dower or Alimony Let this suffice for a Caveat to Women how they adventure on Quakers As fâ—… his reflexions upon the Government and Polity of our Church with which he concludes his Chapter of Civil Respects I shall in his own terms tell you that it is an old and over-worn objection long since baffled and confuted by the Learned pens of the incomparable Mr. Hooker and Bishop Sanderson and of late by the Author of the Friendly Debates and by Mr. Falkner in a good Book call'd Libertas Ecclesiastica to which I shall refer you for satisfaction Now I shall leave it to the consideration of all sober men Whether of these two is more Christian To add a Title to a Name or an Adjunct A Title to express our Civility and Charity or an Adjunct to express malice revenge and bitterness CHAP. IV. Of Confession PAR. T. E. tells his Readers that from contending for empty Titles you come to Confession of sin and that in his own opinion not without reason because you defend such vain flattering and untrue words as he says Titles are p 50. Min. I doubt not but the unprejudic'd Reader who has observ'd how this Quaker has proved himself truly guilty of that whereof he unjustly accuses me will judge it more reasonable for him than me to come to Confession if his pride would suffer him but he is so far from it that he writes against it as if he were one that needed no repentance Par. Yet he owns it the duty of every humble Penitent to confess his sins p. 51. Min. Either then T. E. is no humble penitent or neglects his duty Par. But he says the question is whether a constant course of Confession be a duty ibid. Min. No good man ever made a question of it Indeed those Hereticks the Pelagians and Donatists did And you shall hear what answer they had from the Holy Fathers of the Church Confess always saith St. Augustine for thou hast always matter to confess He is taught that he sins daily who is commanded to pray daily for the remission of his sins saith St. Cyprian on the Lords Prayer who lived 250 years after Christ. Therefore thou must daily say this Prayer saith St. Ambrose that thou may'st daily ask pardon for thine Offences And that the publick Prayers of the Primitive Christians had always a Form of Confession in them is what all the Ancient Liturgies do manifest This is according to the practice of the Servants of God in all Ages David was far from the temper of a Quaker who professes that he will declare his iniquity and be sorry for his sin Ps. 38. 18. And confesses that his sins are more in number than the hairs of his head Ps. 40. 15. The lower a Christian is in his own thoughts the higher he is in God's favour Let then this Perking Pharisee tell God that he is not as other men are and that he has no sin to confess unless he belie himself God grant I may follow the example of the humble and penitent Publican in my Prayers to God to be merciful to me a sinner Par. But T. E. says a constant course of confession implies a constant course of Sinning ibid. Min. I answer 1. Confession of sins past implies no such thing Some Authors report that St. Peter rose betimes every Morning to weep for the denial of his Master 2. A constant general confession of our being sinners implies no wilful course of sin but the quite contrary in them that do it sincerely viz. a constant sight and sense of it a constant sorrow for it a constant desire and endeavour to reform it This we deny not that such Confession implies
daily need of Mercy but then this is no more than what becomes the best of men while even such do find themselves not yet deliver'd from all infirmity Bradford whom the Quaker himself acknowledges an Eminent Martyr used in his confession to say Thou art Heaven and I am Hell We are sure the Quakers have the disease of sin as well as others but alas not the same hope of Cure because they will not see the need they have of a Physitian Par. Now the question is Whether it be our Duty from day to day c. to confess that we are still guilty of those sins which by God's Grace we have forsaken and which God hath forgiven us ibid. Min. 'T is our Duty no question to confess our sins after we are perswaded that we have forsaken them and have obtained the pardon of them Confession is a general Duty commanded in Scripture without limitation Do's not David confess his sins Psal. 51 Which as appears by the Title of the Psalm was after that Nathan had already assured him from the mouth of God that his sin was pardoned Elsewhere he confesses and begs the pardon of his sins long since committed and reformed viz. the sins of his youth Psal. 25. 7. Remember not the sins of my youth Now let the Quaker speak out and say in his Style to David This confession of thine is an untruth which I am sure is no Man's duty Par. Some among the Corinthians before their Conversion had been Fornicaters Idolaters Adulterers c. Paul says to those Corinthians Ye are washed c. Had it been the Duty of these Corinthians after they were thus washed to have said we are such still We are Fornicators still c. This would have been the way to have made them lyars still p. 52. Min. What a pitiful piece of Sophistry is this Might they not for all that have said in reference to the time past that they had sinned by Fornication by Idolatry c. Have pardoned sinners no reason to grieve and accuse themselves any longer than till they think they have gained their pardon Yes surely they have a new occasion a greater reason than they had before a higher instance of the goodness of God to engage them to renew their repentance than they had at first to lead them to it while they sadly consider how good a God they offended a God so Good as upon their Reformation to forgive them But then let Ellwood shew where the Church of England makes any publick Confession in the Present tense They run in the Praeter-perfect tense as We have erred and strayed c. We have offended c. and in the publick they are always General Now where is the untruth May not the most perfect Man in the World say all this Par. But you still call your selves miserable sinners Min. That he and all may see it is our judgment only thus to confess I shall here in Ellwood's own form produce a very authentick Witness Basil Sirnamed the Great Who advising to Confession of sin hath these expressions Though thou knowest no wicked thing by thy self thou oughtest to say thus I truly O Lord am not worthy to speak to thee because I am a grievous sinner for there is none free from sin but God alone We are all in the construction of the Law Miserable sinners and should be found so if God should Arraign us at his Tribunal and try us by the rigour of it David has told us as much Psal. 103. 2. Enter not into Iudgment with thy Servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified The least obliquity from or falling short of the absolute perfection of the Divine Law being enough to render us Sinners and to make matter of Confession He that has but once offended may ever after justly deserve the name of Sinner A regenerate Man is conscious of having committed sins though he be not guilty of the present Dominion of any The fact done cannot be undone A Heathen could say Ne non peccaram Mors quoque non faciat But after all this I must ask our confident Quaker 1. How he is infallibly certain he has obtain'd to an absolute unsinning state of Perfection For he must grant that he ought to confess and ask pardon till he be infallibly certain of his being pure from all sin and without all spot and blemish as pure as Adam before he fell as the Angels in Heaven and the Spirits of just men made perfect for he must grant that he ought to confess and ask forgiveness of all even the least Moral weaknesses and all defects of Obedience whereby he falls short in the smallest degree of the absolute perfection of the Law until he is thus sure his performances are without all defect and himself without all infirmity And is T. E. indeed sure he is so and do's he know the hour and minute when he first arrived to this state and might take confidence to conclude of his absolute perfection But if neither we nor he himself be sure of this or of the possibility of it I think 't is very safe for us to continue the Confession of sin yea and for him too lest perhaps he should be mistaken and in some small degree be yet imperfect For as there is little danger of his displeasing God by any excess of humility in the continuance of such confession though he were really arrived to such a perfection so on the other side in the Case of our State towards God there being a great deal of danger in our mistaking I think it is good for him to consider of it and for us to go on in our course of Confession till we be sure 2. I must also ask him how he infallibly knows that all his sins are for ever pardon'd for I suppose he will grant that he ought to confess and to ask forgiveness till he be sure of a pardon Par. He will say he knows they are forgiven because he hath forsaken them Min. That indeed is the best ground of hope if he have it but not such as to make Fear or Confession needless For seeing First according to his own assertion the state of the best and most perfect Men here is not immutable but that they may fall from it Secondly seeing perseverance to the end is a necessary condition of final pardon and salvation it will follow that though T. E. were perfect yet it were not at all improper for him to confess and ask forgiveness of his former sins because according to his own Principles he is not sure but he may fall into sin again which may cause his pardon to be revoked And as there is no danger of displeasing God as is said before in any excess of humility in these Confessions so the practice of this humility and the fight and sense of our former sins is a very expedient and indeed a necessary means
to preserve us from falling into sin again For this is that saith St. Bernard which makes it necessary for us to be solicitous with fear and trembling and always humbling our selves under the Mighty hand of God since though we can know in part what we are yet it is utterly impossible for us to know what we shall be Finally then since our sin is certain our pardon conditional our Enemies vigilant and we frail whatever Ellwood thinks of himself We think we ought to call and esteem our selves Miserable sinners till God upon our perseverance hath sealed our absolute pardon Par. Is there but one Lesson says T. F. for all degrees p. 53. Min. Yes there are several Lessons for several States of Men but this Lesson suits them all This Confession like those of the Primitive Church being design'd for the publick where are Men of all degrees Children young men and Fathers is made in such general terms that all may joyn in it The particulars we leave to every Mans Conscience and to his Closet to supply But since we all agree in this to live together in a miserable sinful World and we all have sinned and as T. E. acknowledges we all may sin therefore it is not unreasonable we should all agree to confess that we are miserable sinners If this will not suffice Let Ellwood use his captious question to St. Paul O Paul dost thou say thou art the chief of sinners thou wast so at thy first coming into this School What No proficiency no improvement No going forward After thou hast spent thy Age in this School if we measure thee by thine own Confession thou art not one step nearer thy Iourneys end no whit better than when thou camest first in and therefore worse Par. But to conclude this Subject T. E. tels us It is not the duty of any Man to propose to himself a constant and common Course of Confession because whosoever do's so must first propose to himself a constant and common course of sinning p. 54. Min. That which is lawful and fit to be used as I have proved Confession to be till we have persevered and be absolutely perfect without all infirmity is lawful to be proposed to Mens practice and may be so without any proposing to our selves a common course of sinning because the proposal of this course of Confession most properly proceeds from a con-contrary cause viz. from the consideration of our infirmity and mutability from humility a pious fear prudence and sense of duty Therefore the Quaker's Pride and Scoffing shall not make us out of love with the Medicine that God hath provided for us It may shame us says Tertullian that we sin again but to repent when we have sinned should not shame us We have another kind of Judge than Ellwood who sees our hearts and will account with him for his malicious censure of our Penitence and of the devout and Orthodox Constitutions of our Church So that my Adversary has taken much pains here to prove himself not only weak but wicked And truly I am apt to believe that in this abuse of Piety and so necessary a Duty as Confession is T. E. is too much a Socinian to please all even of his own party or any Man that is considerate And I wish the Quakers would at last open their eyes to see by what seducers they are led that at length they may withdraw from them and make choice of more upright more orthodox and safer Guides CHAP V. Of Perfection Par. WHAT Ground T. E. has lost in his Four first Chapters will surely be regained in his Fifth of Perfection a Doctrine which he says has not met with opposition from the hands of most sorts of Men since the time it was first Preacht in this later Age of the World p. 54. Min. If the oldest things in Religion be best then the newest must needs be the worst But if it will not make the Quaker too proud I will tell him that his Doctrine of Perfection is of greater Antiquity then he is willing to allow it For it was Preacht before the latter Age of the World And if it please him to look again into Goodwin's Antiquities and particularly into that instance he gives me of the seven sorts of Pharisees he will find that one sort of them were called quid debeo facere faciam illud from their boasting of a perfect power to keep the Law And that Author thinks that the young man mention'd Luk. 18. 21. was of this Order So that Elwood might have learnt that the Pharisees were Quakers in this Point yet Hypocrites in Christ's account And upon a further search into this Controversie I find this Doctrine much ancienter than I thought when we first discourst it For the Gnostick Hereticks and particularly that herd of them called the Valentinians did exalt themselves calling themselves Perfect saith Epiphanius After them the Novatians call'd themselves Cathari i. e. Pure But those who call themselves pure saith the same Epiph. are confuted by their own words for whosoever doth call himself Pure doth perfectly condemn himself that he is Impure Next after them the Pelagian Hereticks held that a Man may be without sin Which the Holy Augustine confutes by many of the same Arguments which this Quaker derides me for using And Celestinus the Pelagian used such false Mediums as his Friend Ellwood has stoln from him to justifie this Doctrine and this may be seen in that Book which he writ against him Now will this bold Quaker tell these Orthodox Fathers who opposed this notion of Perfection that some through ignorance mistook it others through interest reviled and gainsayed it as foreseeing it destructive to their Trade and profit c As he tells his Reader p. 55. Par. I perceive then this Doctrine of Perfection was condemned for Hereâ—…ie by the Holy Fathers of the Church But did not the Quakers first broach this Opinion in these later Ages Min. Quakerism it self cannot plead the prescription of One Age. But this Doctrine was Preacht by the Popish Fryars as a Foundation for their Merits and Works of supererogation The wild Anabaptists about 140 years ago pretended also to Perfection And it 's the Socinian Doctrine that we may perfectly fulfil the Law of God But all Orthodox Protestants ever opposed these Men as much as I do the Quakers herein who may go and boast that they have the Pharisees the old Hereticks the wild Anabaptists and the Socinians on their side in this matter whilst we by Gods Grace do and will hold the constant Doctrine of the Catholick Church Par. You have said enough to make me aware of this Quaker who wonders that you should own Perfection and yet deny it to be an unsinning State Therefore he asks What kind of notion you have got of Perfection who would be perfect yet a sinner ibid. Min. Seeing I believe you sincerely desire to be inform'd