justifying Grace to be donum in Animainhaerens Renovation and Regeneration Against this our Protestant Divines have sufficiently testified Indeed no man who understands either himself and his own Errata's or the necessary distinction which is to be made between Justification and Sanctification can assert it And now nothing remains to be our Righteousness in Justification but the Obedience and atoning Blood of Christ and these cannot be applied to us and become ours but by Imputation By this it appears that the Blood of Christ doth not only confirm the Covenant but that it justifies us also And this further appears by the place quoted by the Author Moses sprinkled the blood on the book and on all the people Heb. 9.19 He did not only confirm the Covenant but sprinkled the People too this was the Type or Figure but Christ who is the Substance not only confirms the Covenant but sprinkles the hearts of Believers by his Blood Hence their hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience Heb. 10.22 and they have the sprinkling of the blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.2 But to go on The Scripture saith the Author uses these phrases promiscuously to be justified by Faith by Christ by Grace nay by believing that Christ is the Son of God or risen from the dead To which I answer All these concurr to the same Justification but not in the same manner Grace which is the inward impulsive Cause of Justification is not Christ or his Blood the Blood of Christ which is the Matter of our Righteousness is not Faith Faith which is the Hand to receive Christ and Grace is not the Gospel the Charter of Justification which contains the Evangelical Axioms such as those touching Christ's being the Son of God or touching his Resurrection from the dead are These are distinct things and not to be confounded As for that place Eph. 2.14 15 16. the Apostle speaks indeed of reconciling Jews and Gentiles but that is not all he speaks too of reconciling both to God ver 16. and of making them one new man in himself ver 15. which notes a further reconciliation than that among themselves even a conjunction with God and Christ according to our Saviours Prayer That they maybe one in us Joh. 17.21 Christ saith the Author abrogated the Mosaical Law I answer He did so as to Types and Ceremonials but the Moral Law which is immortalized by its intrinsecal Sanctity stands to this day and the Grace which was under the Old Testament was not abrogated but made more illustrious than it was before The Gentiles saith the Author were at a distance from God But if they had natural Faith and could by it please God the distance was less and more tolerable though they were but in the outward Court of the Temple nay though they were a thousand miles off from it they would do well enough in the other world Mr. Sherlock Thus the Jews are said to be redeemed from the curse of the Law by the accursed death of Christ upon the Cross Gal. 3.13 Because the death of Christ put an end to that Legal dispensation and sealed a new and better Covenant between God and Man and the Gentiles were redeemed from their vain conversation received from their fathers that is from those idolatrous and impure practices they were guilty of not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1. Pet. 1.18 19. Now the Gentiles were delivered from their Idolatry by the preaching of the Gospel which is called their being redeemed by the blood of Christ because we owe this unspeakable blessing to his death Thus the Jews are redeemed from the curse of the Law by the accursed death of Christ Answer Gal. 3.13 so the Author and thus Socinus De Servat part 2. cap. 1. Ad Judaeos tantùm pertinet This belongs only to the Jews But the Curse which fell upon Christ was not a ceremonial one but a real such as put him into Agonies and a bloody Sweat neither were the Jews only redeemed from it but the Gentiles also what else was this to the Galatians who were Gentiles Were not the Gentiles also under the Curse and by nature children of wrath No doubt they were the Apostle saith That Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ ver 14. And surely he would not argue from the Redemption of the Jews only to the Benediction of the Gentiles but from what was common to both of them The Gentiles were redeemed from their vain conversation that is from their idolatrous practices with the blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. that is they were delivered by the preaching of the Gospel So the Author But when they were redeemed from their vain Conversation they were redeemed from the guilt of it and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this was not the Gospel but the precious Blood of Christ who was a Lamb without blemish and without spot Those men are injurious to the Blood of Christ Mr. Sherlock who attribute no more to it than a non-imputation of sin That by his death Christ Dr. Owen Com. 193. bearing and undergoing the punishment due to us paying the ransom due for us delivered us from the wrath and curse of God And thus by Christ's death all cause of quarrel is taken away But then this will not complete our acceptation the old quarrel may be laid aside and yet no new friendship begun we may be not sinners and yet not so far righteous as to have a right to the Kingdom of heaven So that the Blood of Christ only makes us innocent delivers us from guilt and punishment but if we will take the Doctor 's word for it it can give us no title to Glory this is owing to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to the Obedience of his Life But you see the Scripture gives us a quite different account of it we are said to be justified and redeemed by the Blood of Christ nay We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the Blood of Jesus Heb. 10.19 which is an allusion to the high Priest's entring into the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Heaven with the blood of the Sacrifice Thus by the Blood of Christ we have admission into heaven it self though the Dr. says That the Blood of Christ makes us innocent but cannot give us a Title to Heaven The Scripture takes no notice of their artificial Methods That the guilt of sin is taken away by the death of Christ and that we are made righteous by his Righteousness But the Blood of Christ is said to justifie us and to give us admission into the holiest of all into heaven it self nay we are made righteous by the death of Christ too 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in
odds much the worse Man As first When the whole bent and tendency of the heart is towards sin when the propensities of the Soul thereto are entire and unmixt there it is the Law of sin in the unregenerate But is every one a regenerate Man who hath some good propensities in him who hath some wouldings and velleities to that which is good then there are few unregenerate in the World Secondly which is the explication of the former when all the several Faculties of the Soul are altogether on sins side and wholly take its part then it is the Law of sin in the unregenerate where the understanding gives in its final positive dictate that sin is good represents it as eligible to the will the will upon this closes with it embraces it it cleaves to it the affections desire joy delight run out upon it where it is thus the case is determined yea without controversy But where shall we find such a Man I believe there was never such a Man born too many chuse evil though they know it to be evil for the seeming advantages of profit or pleasure but to chuse evil as believing it to be good and to rejoyce and delight in it as good and eligible for it self is such an unregenerate state as the Devil never arrived at for though he be a wicked Spirit yet he is no Fool as those must be who mistake evil for good in such plain instances The Heathens themselves at this rate were all regenerate for their consciences accused them for doing evil Rom. 2. They knew good to be good and evil evil There was never such a Man as he describes when he tells us That sin comes to the Sinner and says Art thou willing that I should rule Yes saith he with all my heart I like thy commands I am thine I submit to be at thy dispose I here swear fealty and allegiance to thee c. This Oath c. might very well have been spared for there is enough without it and yet if this be the difference that the unregenerate Man chuses sin believing it to be good and the regenerate Man chuses sin though he knows it to be evil it is plain that the regenerate is much the worse because his sins have the greatest aggravations that any sins are capable of which the sins of an unregenerate Man have not viz. That they are sins against knowledge and so according to our Saviours reasoning this regenerate Man will be beaten with more stripes Dr. Jacomb assigns the difference between the Law of sin in the regenerate and in the unregenerate Answer First When the whole bent of the heart is towards sin when the propensities are entire and unmixt there it is the Law of sin in the unregenerate But saith the Author is every one regenerate who hath some good propensities Who hath some wouldings velleities to that which is good Then there are few unregenerate Men in the World To which I answer The unregenerate may indeed have some wouldings and velleities to good not of himself for in his flesh and such he is all over by Nature there is no good but from the common motions and operations of the Holy Spirit Yet notwithstanding these the bent of his heart is to sin the power of sin is habitual in him which is all the intent and very expression of the Doctor in that place Secondly When all the faculties of the Soul are on sins side when the understanding gives in its final positive dictate that sin is good represents it as eligible to the will the will closes with it the affections run out upon it there the case saith the Doctor is determined But saith the Author Never such a Man was born as to chuse evil believing it to be good to delight and rejoyce in it as good and eligible for it self To which I answer The Authors discourse runs upon this as if the Doctor had asserted that the understanding in the unregenerate did represent sin as good that is as conformable to the Law and Will of God and so good Hence the Author tells us That the Devil though a wicked Spirit is no Fool that the very Heathen know good to be good and evil evil But all this is besides the scope the Doctor never said or meant so when he saith that the understanding dictates sin to be good No Man I presume will interpret the words thus the understanding dictates sin to be conformable to the Will of God that is sin to be no sin No the understanding knows sin to be sin sin to be contrary to the Will of God yet it represents sin as good in other respects and so good as to cast the ballance in the heart on sins side it may be there are baits of profit or pleasure in it Nay it is my own thought that the pravity in sinsul actions comes sub ratione convenientiae and offers it self as congruous and so good to the corrupt Will and heart of Man the very difformity or contradiction to the will of God as intrinsecally black as it is blushes and looks fair to that Carnal mind which is enmity against God An unregenerate Man drinks in iniquity as water Job 15.16 being filthy himself iniquity though a very foul thing goes down naturally with him and is as it were his proper Element St. Austin in his Confessions speaking of his stealing of Apples saith that he was Gratis malus Confess li. 2 cap. 4.6 Amavi defectum meum decerpta projeci epulatus inde solaminiquitatem quâ laetabar fruens si quid illorum intravit in os meum condimentum facinus erat He confesses the very sin it self was grateful to him If Sinners did not believe sin to be good in some respect or other if they did look on it as evil and nothing but pure impure evil it were utterly impossible that they should chuse it or delight in it the will cannot appetere malum sub ratione mali for that were appetere non appetible which is impossible I conclude with the words of the Doctor in that place Whosoever upon deliberation judges a sinful course to be the best and thereupon chuses embraces falls in with it delights in it continues in it in this Man 't is the Law of sin this Man is as I take it a Servant of sin and willing it should rule There is as learned Bishop Reynolds saith a Covenant a virtual bargain between him and his lusts he agrees to serve and obey them But Thirdly Mr. Sherlock The Law of sin hath different workings in the People of God than in others This working of the Law of sin in Gods People me thinks is an ill thing But let us hear how it is First Where sin is committed industriously and designedly there it is the Law of sin in the Graceless unless Men be very cunning at the trade of sin they are not under the Law of it as graceless persons are
for the Question was about its necessity to salvation if we be justified and saved without it it is not necessary I answer Here we have Justification and Salvation confounded Obedience follows after Justification as we heard but now from our Church but precedes Salvation But to pass that Is nothing necessary to Salvation but what justifies Is not Sanctification necessary to Salvation and yet distinct from Justification and how then are we saved without Obedience But saith the Author Where is the Sanction of this Law Will he damn those that obey not and save those that do obey If after all those Commands God hath left it indifferent Obedience is not necessary But what a strange Supposition is this Commanded and yet left indifferent It is utterly impossible no man will say so so much as of an Humane Command No doubt at all but God will damn the rebellious and save the obedient yet our Obedience no way clashes with Christ's Righteousness neither is Eternal Life given us for Obedience as if it merited the same What follows in the Author Will the Father elect and the Son redeem none but those who are holy is a very strange Question Will they as if the Book of Life were yet unwritten and the Blood of Atonement yet unshed The Father hath elected us that we should be holy Eph. 1.4 and how can he elect us being such The Son gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 and how could we be holy before However no disregard is cast upon Holiness which though it do not antecede Election and Redemption yet it sweetly streams and issues from thence and Believers are obliged to follow after it as they will answer the End of Election and Redemption And whilest they are passing on in that pure way I dare be their Bondsman that they shall not be met with any such monstrous Conceit as if Holiness which is exaltative of free Grace were destructive of it Yet Holiness is necessary to our honour Mr. Sherlock for it makes us like to God Prophane men that they are as if the perfect Righteousness of Christ were not much more for our honour and did not make us more like to God than the rags and patches of our own Righteousness A very hard case Answer they must be profane for proving the Necessity of Holiness and likeness to God but the reason is this disparages the Righteousness of Christ A sad story but it will be proved much about the time when Christ's justifying Righteousness and sanctifying Spirit shall fall at odds and variance among themselves So horrid a thing cannot be neither let any Christian Mind start a thought of it But it is for Peace what Mr. Sherlock Peace of Conscience Must we fetch our peace from Duties and Graces Is not this to renounce Christ Miserable men must we set about correcting our Lives amending our Ways performing Duties following after Righteousness according to the prescript of the Law Why this is the course wherein many continue long with much perplexity hoping fearing tiring themselves in their way Afterwards they come to the Apostle's Conclusion By the works of the Law no man is justified and is this the way to Peace Is this the way to Communion with God by our own Righteousness Doth not all our wisdom of walking with God consist in our acquaintance with Christ God is Light we darkness he Life we dead he Holiness we defiled he Love we hatred surely this is no foundation of Agreement or Communion the foundation then of this Peace is laid and hid in Christ who is our peace and the Medium of all Communications between God and us So that if this Gentleman's that is Dr. Owen's memory had not failed him he would never have told us that Holiness is necessary to our peace and Communion with God All this is but a mistake Answ for want of distinguishing between the Foundation of our peace with God and the Sense of it The Foundation of our peace is not laid in our Works or Legal Righteousness but in the atoning and satisfying blood of Jesus Christ which speaks peace to all believers Melch. Adam in vit Jureconsult A notable instance whereof we have in that German John à Berg Father of Joachim who in all his life was a zealous Papist standing on his works and legal righteousness but upon his death-bed cast away those fig-leaves and poor coverings and reposed himself in the merit and expiation of Christ as the only foundation of peace But the sence of this peace is found in a way of holiness whilest the believer is there the love of God coming down in the witness of the spirit and ecchoing in conscience makes such a pure serenity in the heart as outrelishes all things in nature Now whether there be any inconsistency between the foundation of our peace and the sence of it I leave to the Reader these may as well stand together as Christs attonement and our Obedience However Holiness serves for the conviction of enemies Mr. Sherlock how so when it is not essentially necessary to his Friends and it is for the conversion of others why so when men may be converted without it It keeps off the Judgments of God from men But why cannot Christs Righteousness do this more effectually than the holiness of men Holiness casts forth a convictive Ray and Glory into the dark world Answ yet it is not essential to Believers to justifie but to sanctifie them It hath a Divine tendency to convert others yet the first act of conversion precedes in habitual Grace and actual Holiness or Obedience follows after Christs righteousness without which there would be nothing but wrath and judgments is the great fundamental reason of keeping them off but Holiness ministers under it to the same end But it is necessary in respect of the state and condition of justified persons Mr. Sherlock for they are accepted and received into friendship with an holy God therefore they must cleanse and purify themselves what need of this when they are cloathed with the Robes of Christs Righteousness which is the only foundation of our Commuuion with God And pag. 267. They fulfill the Righteousness of the Law not by doing any thing themselves but by having all done for them by having this perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to them And pag. 423. The Doctor places Christs righteousness in the room of ours to be not only the foundation but condition of the Covenant And then makes it an expression of our chast affections to Christ quite to thrust out our own righteousness and to allow it no place in our Religion And pag. 427. The foundation of their love to Christ Is a fond imagination that he will save them by his righteousness without any righteousness of their own What! Answer Doth imputed righteousness
to wait for the Sun to have all Grace come down to us in the healing Beams of the true Sun of Righteousness Jesus Christ And as for the second thing a sense of our unworthiness so as to submit to God whether he will save or damn us it is no such strange thing to me that poor finners should lye prostrate at Gods feet acknowledging their worthiness to be for ever condemned and Gods Soveraignty in dispenfing Grace as he pleases it is no more but only to subscribe to that of the Apostle He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9.8 Theodorus Cornhertus though in his life he had writ against Calvin and Beza in the point of Predestination yet at his death professed to God Se animam suam à Deo possidere quam Deo integrum sit pro suo beneplacito servare vellet an reprobare sibi nil esse quod conqueratur Either we have power in our hands to work true Faith in our selves to regenerate our own hearts or not 5 if we say we have such a power in our selves how shall those Scriptures be salved which tell us That God begets us of his own will James 1.18 That he worketh the will of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.13 That the regenerating spirit bloweth where it listeth Joh. 3.8 That faith is not of our selves but the gift of God Eph. 2.8 How shall Gods Royal Prerogative which is to make a new heart to take away the stone of it to sprinkle the clean water to put his Spirit into men as we have it Ezeck 36. ever be preserved inviolate It cannot be but if as becoms us we fay that God is the great Worker of regenerating Graces in us how can we do less than lye prostrate at his feet and pleasure for it The case is very short either Gods will must depend on Mans or Mans will must depend on Gods and one would think it very reasonable that Man a Creature a meer Receiver should depend on him who is a God and great Donor of all The Fathers in the second Arausican Council Can. 4. determine thus Si quis ut à peccato purgemur voluntatem nostram Deum expectare contendit non autem ut etiam purgari velimus per Sancti Spiritus infusionem operationem in nos fieri confitetur resistit ipsi Spiritûi Sancto You see they make Mans will hang upon Gods and not è contrà This submission to Gods will is not as if we might be indifferent whether we were saved or damned but that we must lye at Gods feet humbly confessing our desert of eternal damnation on the one hand and the Soveraignty of Gods free Grace on the other And that such a man is in his wits hear the judgement of learned Bishop Reynolds Sinful of sin 262. That man who can in secret and truth of heart willingly and uncompulsorily stand on Gods side against sin and against himself for it giving God the glory of his Righteousness if he should condemn him and of his unsearchable and rich mercy that he doth offer to forgive him I dare pronounce that man to have the Spirit of Christ for no man by nature can willingly and uprightly own damnation and charge himself with it as his due portion Thus he But saith the Author I find God is very hard put to it to humble the Soul thus For he is forced to stir up original corruption which is a very unfit office for an holy Being To which I answer God is too high to be put into an office and too wise to do that which is unfit yet in Scripture we find him withdrawing from and hardening of men The Church cries out O Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy way and hardened our hearts from thy fear Isai 63.17 Nevertheless God doth what he doth in a just decorum in a way congruous to himself so that his Holiness or any other Attribute suffers not thereby and withall in a way profitable to men When God left good Hezekiah to fall I doubt not but it was so far profitable to him as it did humble him for the pride of his heart when he withdraws and leaves the humbled sinner to the stirrings of inward corruption it hath a very merciful issue if it carry him out of himself to Christ The very withdrawings of the Spirit are by it self made use of to make the sinner hasten out of himself to Christ Mr. Shephard saith Mr. Sherlock That true Faith is the coming of the Soul not unto duties of Holiness which is obedience properly but unto Christ Which notion of our union to Christ is such that according to it wicked men who live in sin may be united to Christ But the Scripture places the formal nature of our union to Christ in a subjection to his Authority and obedience to his Laws an holy life must not only follow our union to Christ as an effect of it but must at least in order of nature go before it because by this we are united to Christ We are not real members of Christ till we sincerely obey him till our minds are transformed into his Image Our union to Christ is more or less perfect according to our attainments in true Piety and Virtue The first and lowest degree of Vnion to Christ is a belief of his Gospel which in order of Nature must go before Obedience to it But yet it includes a purpose of obeying it and in this sence we must be united to Christ before we can be holy because this belief of his Gospel is the great principle of Obedience as our Saviour tells his Disciples Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bring forth fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Joh. 15.4 But then our Vnion is not perfected without Obedience This makes us the true Disciples of Christ when we are fruitful in good works as he adds in vers 8. Herein is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit so shall you be my Disciples A belief of the Gospel and a purpose of Obedience is all can be expected from beginners but this doth not give an actual title to all the promises of the Gospel unless we actually obey it But when in the strength of this Faith we conquer the world and the flesh and improve all opportunities of doing good This makes us the Disciples of Christ indeed and heirs of Glory Nothing can be a greater dishonour to our Saviour nor a greater contradiction to his Gospel than to affirm that wicked men while they continue such are actually united to Christ and thereby have an actual right to pardon and eternal life St. John understood not this Doctrine when he told us God is light and in him is no darkness at all If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness live in any
Grace is consistent with taking all fair opportunities of sinning so we do not design it before hand Secondly When the temptation easily prevails then it is the Law of sin in the unregenerate This is an Argument indeed that a Man is a willing Slave but when a Man is conquered by a temptation though he make some resistance it is an Argument that sin is his Master which rules and governs especially if this be often such a Man surely is none of Christs freemen and therefore not to fail Thirdly When sin carries it in spite of all opposition against all external discouragements threatnings of the Law the Scepter of the Gospel the Love of God and his Wrath the Death and Wounds of Christ Reproofs Resolutions Vowes Promises c. then it is the Law of sin So that it seems when sin carries it in despite of all external oppositions only it is the mark of an unregenerate Man but when it carries it against internal and external oppositions that is a sign of a regenerate Man for a regenerate Man has the same external oppositions to preserve him from sin that an unregenerate Man hath and besides these he hath internal oppositions the checks of his own conscience which he says the unregenerate Man has not And Fourthly When it is sinning and no sense of sin no after Repentance for it then it is the Law of sin Now what bad Man is there who does not at one time or other repent of his sins complain of them And how many are there that repent of their sins and make large Confessions of them and return to them again There are no Men but do at one time or other express some sorrow for their sins which he calls Repentance and there are a great many who pretend thus to be sorry for their sins who it is to be feared are never the better Men for it and yet were there any such who sin without any sense of it they would be much better then those regenerate Men who feel the gripes of conscience for sin and yet return to it This working of the Law of sin in Gods People is an ill thing Answer Oh! that we had perfection But while we are here sin will be in us and whilest it is in us it will work in some measure Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith St. Austin De Temp. Serm. 45. The first mark in the Doctor is sinning industriously and designedly and this is a sure one and found in all the unregenerate although all of them are not alike cunning and Artists at the Trade of sin all more or less make provision for the Flesh the frame of their Heart stream of their Thoughts run this way The Flesh as the Doctor speaks hath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the projecting and forecasting ability at command in them thus it is not with the regenerate The Second is The temptation easily prevails in the unregenerate and what more certain The old heart is as dry tinder ready to take fire upon every little spark thus it is not with the regenerate who hath a higher and a better Spirit than his own to guard him against the temptatation If he be overcome in a particular Act of sin sin is not yet his Master because it cannot gain the bent of his heart and the course of his life The third is When sin carries it against all external Discouragements against the threatnings of the Law the Scepter of the Gospel the Love and Wrath of God the Wounds of Christ Reproofs Resolutions Vowes c. then it is the Law of sin Upon which the Author inferrs thus It seems when sin carries it against external oppositions only it is a mark of an unregenerate Man but when it carries it against internal and external oppositions that is a sign of a regenerate Man To which I answer It is true when sin carries it in a regenerate Man it carries it against such internal helps and principles of Grace as are not in the unregenerate but then it carries it only in a single Act But in the unregenerate it carries it in a course of life too against Law Gospel Wrath Love the Blood of Christ the smitings of Conscience Reproofs Promises Judgments still he will sin on whilest he is unregenerate thus the regenerate doth not The Fourth is When 't is sinning and no sense of sin no after Repentance for it then it is the Law of sin But saith the Author What bad Man is there who does not at one time or other repent of his sins and yet were there any such they would be better than those regenerate Men who feel the gripes of conscience for sin and yet return to it Unto which I answer Surely all bad Men do not repent of their sins such as God gives up to a reprobate mind to a fat heart to a spirit of slumber to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a brawny hardness which feels nothing do not do so and yet I suppose these are the worst of Men Sinning against gripes of Conscience is a great aggravation but an hard senseless heart is the worst state imaginable on Earth But suppose bad Men have some kind of Repentance is it such as the regenerate have after their falls No surely the regenerate as the Doctor hath it are greatly humbled they recover again by true Repentance they rise after their falls thus unregenerate Men do not It is wonderful to consider Mr. Sherlock how little a matter will serve for an evidence of Grace after all their talk of Sanctification when they come to administer comfort to distressed consciences Oh saith the Soul I find sin prevail Sheph. Sts Jewel and how can I be comforted not by Sanctification sure Answ I will subdue your iniquities and cast your sins into the midst of the Sea Obj. But the Devil will be busie with me Ans God will tread him down Obj. But I cannot go to God by Prayer to fetch comfort Comfort what hast thou to do with comfort get quit of thy sins first and then it is time enough for comfort Ans Though it be so yet believe and thou shall have thy desire But I doubt the Soul that cannot pray cannot believe neither Obj. But I am afraid I shall fall away from God Afraid of it thou art fallen from God already if sin prevail so much for sin is the great Apostacy from God Answer None can pluck thee out of Christs hands neither sin nor the Devil But how if they be not in Christs hands yet sin I doubt may keep them out if God cut off barren Branches there is some danger of putrid ones God hath said I have made an everlasting Covenant with thee I will not turn away from thee Obj. This is good news had I a right to the promise but alas I cannot believe and take a naked promise Ans Doest thou desire to believe and to have Christ and say thus If it