To prove any thing Sinless and Lawful then it is not necessary to produce a Law or Example for it since a Law commanding it would render it not barely Lawful but necessary but it is enough that there be no Law against it Answ. Very right for till a Law forbids a thing there is no sin in it Quest. What is a Wilful Sin Answ. A Sin against Knowledge or doing what we know to be displeasing to God. And this either when we are aware of the Evil at the Time we commit it or should have been so but that we have accustomed our selves to it which makes us sin without observing that we do so Quest. If a Man by custom brings himself to Swear or Lye or the like without thinking of it his Sin you say say is wilful for all he doth not bethink himself in committing it Answ. No doubt of it for he wilfully contracted this Custom and Habit which is so far from being an excuse for his Sin that it is one of the greatest aggravations of it The Habit of Sin is called the Law of sin Rom. 7. 23. and the Body of Death ver 24. Quest. What if a man has such a mind to a Sin that he will not see it but checks and stifles all Thoughts that would arise in his mind against it Nay perhaps endeavours to deceive himself and come to a Persuasion that there is no Fault or it may be some Praise in it Answ. He is a wilful Offender indeed because his own Will makes him ignorant as it did the Pharisees and other Jews who were wilfully Blind Mat. 13. 15. Quest. When is a wilful Sin against Conscience Answ. When 't is acted against the present checks of our own minds and under Fears and Relentings Quest. And when is a Sin against Conscience called Deliberate which I suppose is a higher pitch of Wilfulness Answ. When 't is committed after Fears and Debates and we consider'd and disputed with our selves for some time whether to do it or no before we ventur'd on it Quest. What is a sin of Ignorance Answ. When we do an Evil thing not knowing it to be a sin nor seeing its sinfulness Quest. Doth Ignorance excuse any Offences Answ. Yes when men are not ignorant through culpable Neglects nor blinded by wicked Lusts. For in this ease 't is said Christ can have compassion on the Ignorant and Erroneous Heb. 5. 2. But when they have no mind to see a Thing nor care to find it out that Ignorance is faulty because chargeable on their own wills Quest. What say you when their Judgments are resolv'd on the wrong side and they act under Erroneous Opinions Are they not excusable in any Actions so long as they only follow their Conscience Answ. No except their Conscience Errs so pitiably as to be reasonably qualified for excuse The Jews followed their Consciences when they crucified Christ Act. 3. 17. and 1 Cor. 2. 8. but yet God esteemed them wicked Murderers Act. 7. 52. Paul verily thought that he ought to Persecute the Church Act. 26. 9. But in that he declares he was the greatest of sinners 1 Tim. 1. 13 15. The times are coming saith our Lord that they who kill you will think therein they do God service Joh. 16. 2. But yet God would take vengeance on them for the Blood of these Righteous Persons Mat. 23. 35. 'T is no sufficient warranty in what a Man doth that he follows his Conscience except he take care to have a right Conscience or when 't is wrong it err only through misfortunes not out of a wilful Neglect a wicked Lust or an unteachable Temper Quest. What is a Sin of inadvertence Answ. When in the general we know a thing to be a sin but are not free at the time of acting it to consider and reflect upon its sinfulness This generally happens because we do the evil suddenly e're we can bethink our selves whence they are called sins of Surreption i. e. which steal upon us unawares and sins of Surprise And thus it falls out in the many sudden envious lustful repining or otherwise ill thoughts or Desires the beginnings of Anger the rash Words and Censures Good People are Guilty of All which till they can come to observe them if then they are careful to check and Repress them are pitiable inadvertences and surprises which because we are all apt daily to fall into more or less are call'd sins of Daily incursion Quest. What think you of sins of Passion when either mens own Consciences or other Friendly Monitors tell them they are doing ill but they go on notwithstanding because Passion is strong and Lust or Anger hurries them away being very high in them Answ. These are not perfectly wilful because when their Passions are at such height their Wills are captivated and have little Power over them for that time But they are punishable as wilful sins are because it is Mens voluntary Fault if they do not mortifie all such inordinate Passion and they that belong to Christ must not suffer Passion to arise so high that it can captivate and reign in them They that are Christ's have Crucified the Flesh with the Affections or Passsions and Lusts Gal. 5. 24. Quest. From what you have said I perceive what Sin is but what is meant by the Forgiveness of it Answ. A Release of the Punishment which is due to it For then God forgives a sin when he acquits Men of the Punishment of it And because this is a passing over sins as if they had never been and taking no notice of them it is called covering sins and not imputing them Rom. 4. 7 8. Quest. What are the Punishments due to Sin Answ. Death and Diseases and all the Miseries of this World. But especially the Eternal Torments of Hell Fire in the next Quest. The Eternal Pains of Hell must needs be acquitted when a Sinner is pardon'd For we can never think any sin pardon'd whilst the Sinner is eternally suffering for it But when the everlasting Punishments of the other Life are released are all the Temporal Inflictions in this Life struck off too Answ. No for Death is the Wages of sin and that still is all Mens Portion And when Men by their sins have greatly dishonoured God or given great Scandal unto others to manifest the justice of his Providence God oft-times here chastiseth them by present Judgments yea even after they have Repented and he has thereupon remitted to them all eternal Pains Thus when Nathan told Penitent David that God seeing his Repentance had put away his sin so that as to the last account he would be acquitted Yet because thereby he had given occasion to the Enemies of God to Blaspheme he should be punished here and the Child should die for it 2 Sam. 12. 13 14. And at Corinth several of those who on the score of their Repentance should not be condemned with the Wicked World at last Yet for their
Scandalous Prophanations of the Lords Supper were sickly and weak and fell asleep at present 1 Cor. 11. 30 32. And the Man of God from Judah being pitiably seduced by a Dissembling Prophet without any thing that appears of an Evil intent and having first faithfully and boldly declared God's Message against Jeroboam's Altar we may reasonably hope was mercifully spared as to the other World. But yet here God met him by the way and devoured him by a Lion for yielding to a Seducer to eat Bread against the Word of the Lord 1 King. 13. And this ought mightily to restrain us all from acting any great dishonour to God or crying Offences for which God may judge us in our Persons Estates or Families in this World when upon our true Repentance he acquits us in the next Penitence is not so good a Preservative against the sting of these as innocence is For such Offences do always justly expose us to Temporal Calamities and sometimes make it necessary for us that we should be severely corrected in this World. Which consideration ought to restrain all that regard either their own or their Families welfare in this World from ever being guilty of them Quest. When are these punishments relaxed and what is the time of Pardon Answ. The solemn full and irreversible declaration of it is at the Day of judgement But before that God pardons the sins of good Men in this life giving them a general pardon of all sins in Baptism and of all particular Failures afterwards as they repent of them So on David's repentance for the matter of Uriah Nathan told him God had put away his Sin 2 Sam. 12. 13. Quest. Is this forgiveness in this World perfect and irreversible so that when once any sins are struck off they are never more placed to account Answ. No but limited and suspended on Terms viz. mens perseverance in repentance for if after their pardon they fall off and relapse into the same wickedness they shall be unpardon'd all again and stand accountable for all former Transgressions If the Righteous man turn from his Righteousness to iniquity saith God in Ezekiel all the Righteousness he hath done shall not be mention'd to him but in his Sins that he hath sinn'd shall he dye Ezek. 18. 24. 33. 12 13. And when the Debtor to whom his Lord had pardon'd all his great Sums had render'd himself unworthy of that grace by his merciless usage of a small Debtor among his fellow Servants his incensed Lord cancel'd the Pardon and exacted all the dispunged Accounts And so says Christ will my Heavenly Father do with you in like case Mat. 18. 24 27 30 34 35. Quest. Do we believe the forgiveness of all Sins Answ. Yes except the Sin against the Holy Ghost and willful Apostacy from the Faith of Christ for which there is no forgiveness Quest. I have seen already that there is no Pardon for Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost But is there none also for willful Apostacy from Christianity Answ. No for if we sin willfully i. e. by willful Apostacy after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin i. e. Christ's Sacrifice is not designed to expiate such offence Heb. 10. 26. Quest. Is that Sinning willfully willful Apostacy from Christianity Answ. Yes For these Sinners saith the Apostle tread under foot the Son of God i. e. affirm Christ to be still in the Grave not risen from the Dead and count the blood of the Covenant or Christ's Blood an unholy Thing i. e. as the Blood of a Malefactor and say it was justly shed and do despite to the Spirit of Grace i. e. despite the Holy Ghost which confirm'd Christianity and reject all his Miracles as Satanical delusions v. 29. So that these Sinners were plainly Apostates who ceased to own and had begun to accuse Christ as the Jews and Heathens did And the same Apostacy St. Paul speaks of in another place when he tells us if Christians fall away i. e. from their Christianity whereby they Crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh or joyn in Condemning him with his Crucifiers it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance Heb. 6. 4 5 6. Quest. But all other Sins you say we may believe and trust to have the pardon of Answ. Yes thro' the merits of Christ and the mercy of God. So Christ Commissions his Apostles to Preach Repentance and Remission of Sins to all Nations Luk. 24. 47. And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father and he is the Propitiation for our Sins 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. And all manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but that against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven Mat. 12. 31. Quest. You would have no Sinners then to despair of Mercy or think their Sins greater than Christ's merits or God's grace and too big to be forgiven Answ. No by no means For Christ by his most precious death has gain'd a full Pardon for the greatest Sins and sends out his Apostles to Proclaim it to the greatest Sinners David was guilty of Adultery and Murder Paul was a cruel and bloody Persecutor and Blasphemer Peter was perjuriously false and denyed his Master But all these were forgiven and none need or must despair as if when they Repent God had not pardon enough in store Quest. These indeed are instances of the greatest sins But is there forgiveness for them when they are committed with the most aggravating Circumstances Answ. Yes For David's Murder and Adultery was with much deliberation and contrivance and against so many struglings and reluctances that thereby he became almost quite hardned and of a seared Conscience And Peter's denyal was repeated several times and those considerably distant to allow space enough for remorse and that too with false Oaths and bitter imprecations But both these obtain'd mercy on their true repentance Quest. You say on true Repentance Is all this forgiveness then upon some Terms and Conditions Answ. Yes for God's grants of grace are as in consideration of Christs Sacrifice so also of our Faith and Repentance And therefore neither to Infidels nor impenitent Persons Quest. Upon what terms must we believe God will forgive us any willful Sins Answ. When we repent of them and forgive others Quest. Will he not pardon them 'till we repent and amend them Answ. No for to all the willful Sinners of the World the Apostles were to Preach Repentance and Remission of Sins And of these 't is said he that confesses and forsakes his Sins shall find mercy Prov. 28. 13. Quest. But when we have repented and left these Sins will he not forgive us still unless we forgive others that have trespass'd against us Answ. No there is no forgiveness neither for impenitent nor uncharitable Persons For if ye forgive men their Trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men
1. 21 22. 2. Reforms our Practice The Numbers that believed acceptably turned unto the Lord saith S. Luke Act. 11. 21. The Faith which availeth worketh by love says S. Paul Gal 5. 6 it overcomes the world saith S. John 1 Jo. 5. 4. it makes us free from sin says our Saviour Jo. 8. 32. It must carry us on to good deeds as it did Abraham to leave his country Heb. 11. 8. and to sacrifice his son Jam. 2. 21 22. and as it did Rahab to receive the spies verse 25. A working Faith is the only Faith that lives for faith without works is dead Jam. 2. 20. as the body without the spirit is dead so is faith without works dead verse 26. It is the only Faith that profits for if a man say he hath faith and have not works what doth it profit verse 14. It is the only Faith that saves and justifies If a man shows faith without works can faith save him Abraham was justified by works verse 21. and Rahab was justified by works verse 25. ye see then how that by works a man is justified together with Faith and not by faith only verse 24. Quest. If there is no Justification by any Faith but what reforms the heart and practice I perceive in the question of Justification we must no longer oppose Faith and Obedience but take care to secure both it being as S. Paul saith a working faith or as S. James faith and works together that justifies us Ans. Very right Quest. But doth not S Paul when he speaks of our justification say it is by saith without the deeds of the law Rom. 3. 28. Ans. Those deeds are the deeds of the Jewish Law chiefly such distinguishing ones as Circumcision Sacrifices Jewish Holy-Days and observing the Mosaick differences of clean and unclean Meats These some Zelots for Moses pressed upon the Gentile-Converts in many Churches saying Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved Act. 15. 1. And when some started up at Rome to press the necessity of the same to Justification there S. Paul opposes all such deeds and tells them they must not seek to be justified as Jews but as Christians So what he rejects are Mosaick deeds or any others under such qualifications as the Jews obtruded and cried up for Righteousness Quest. Pray what are those Ans. First They set up a mere Humane Righteousness in outward Acts. This is Righteousness in Civil Courts where the Judges are Men that cannot see the Heart but judge and pronounce according to Overt-Actions And the Law of Moses being the Law of their Common-Wealth whose Breaches were triable in their own Courts they esteemed themselves Righteous in the eye of their Law as the World doth in case of other Political and State Laws when they are not liable to be brought in Trouble or Indicted upon them before any of their own Tribunals This sense of their Legal Righteousness was currant among the Doctors And Josephus a learned Jew who lived and flourished in the Apostles own Days asserts it in no less an instance than that of Sacriledge wondering at Polybius an otherwise Praise-worthy Writer as he says for ascribing God's exemplary Vengeance on Antiochus Epiphanes to his Sacriledge only design'd upon the Temple at Elymaïs Whereas says he If he only intended but did not execute and effect it he did not deserve to be punished for it And accordingly in S. Paul's accounts of the Jewish Righteousness he is careful still to call it a Justification or Righteousness of works as consisting only in things brought on to act and practice And measuring themselves thus only by External acts as cognizable before Humane Courts the orderly Livers among them made no more scruple of asserting their Righteousness in the Eye of their Law than any good Subjects do in pleading their innocence as to the Laws of them several Countries As we find the young man did to our Saviour when he posed him upon the Ten Commandments saying all these things have I kept from my youth up Matth. 19. 18 19 20. And as S. Paul did in setting off his Jewish Confidences saying That touching the Righteousness which is in the Law he was blameless i. e. not to be blamed before any of their Tribunals Phil. 3. 6. Quest. But did not some things in the Jewish Law extend to Mens Hearts and Spirits Particularly among the Ten Commandments is there not One viz. the Tenth which forbids all inward coveting of what is our Neighbours Ans. Yes but there being no notice taken of these nor punishments inflicted for them in their Courts the Doctors as may appear from what I have said looked on them rather as Counsels of Perfection than strict Laws of Righteousness Or if as Laws yet such the Breaches whereof were sufficiently atoned by their Daily or Annual Sacrifices which sanctified as S. Paul saith to the purging of the flesh i. e. to indemnifie them before Men as to their Carnal Secular Interests though not to clear them before God or make them perfect as pertaining to the conscience Heb. 9. 9 13. Quest. What other Qualifications did the Jews cry up in those Works which they depended on to make them Righteous Ans Secondly Their merits For they set up a proud boastful Righteousness which should challenge the reward by way of merit and equivalence not being content to reap all the Benefit unless they could also arrogate all the Glory and Honour of it to themselves Quest. Whereon could they pretend to erect this Ans. On two Foundations First The Power of natural free-will affirming their good deeds to be wrought in virtue of their own strength without which whatever Glory there might be in them it could be none of theirs They thought they had Ability enough for all the Righteous works they were to do upon the stock of Nature and needed no inward and enlivening Grace but a meer external Revelation or dead Letter as their Law is stiled in Scripture And all this Power they ascribe to Natural free-will since the fall For the good which Adam did before it say they was as a pure intelligence out of necessity of Nature But his eating of the forbidden tree of the Knowledge of good and ill brought him and his Posterity down to free will or an indifferency to either Which liberty they make most absolute ever since and accordingly interpret that common saying among them All things are in the Hand of God but the fear of God to note such absoluteness of our free-will to good as has nothing to controul it Secondly On the intrinsick worth and value of their own deeds making them to deserve Heaven by way of equivalence They were the great affecters and aspirers after merits saying That happiness by way of reward is far greater and more magnificent than by way of mercy And they were the great asserters of them claiming the reward on such deeds as excluded
Persons in his days but only of all that will be his true followers and govern themselves according to Prince Messiah's Laws and Practice For that which shall prevent all doing hurt among them says Isaiah is the full knowledge of the Lord which restrains only such as will practise what they understand Isaiah 11. 9. And they who shall beat their swords into plow shares says he again are the many people whom Messiah shall rebuke which according to the usual Phrase of Scripture may imply their amending upon his rebuking them Isaiah 2. 4. They were the sincerely devout and honestly obedient who say to one another Let us go up to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in them verse 3. But as for the inviolable maintenance of this Probity and Peace by those who are only his nominal Servants or by the universality of Men in his days that doth not follow from these places nor doth it well comport with the present state of human Nature which is mixt with many angry and incroaching Passions nor suit with other Prophecies before-mentioned that speak of much wickedness after Messiah's coming and of many still retaining their old genius which Predictions must all be accomplished as well as these Quest. But if this Peace and Probity are to be so limited and conditionate in the event how come they to be expressed so generally and absolutely in the Prediction Is it not odd to speak of an effect as universal under Messiah which shall not appear universally in all under him but only in those that will hearken to him Ans. No for in an effect wherein both he and they are joyntly concerned his saying all shall do it implies they shall so far as concerns his part and that he would do all which behoves him towards it And this Jesus has done giving a Law as apt to engender and preserve Peace as any Law can be and taking away all separating and dividing rites introduced by Moses which were apt to make difference between Jews and Gentiles And to say all Men shall do a thing when God has done his part to make all do it though through their obstinate wickedness many of them will not do it in the event is a form of Speech usual in Holy Scripture Thus it is particularly in Ezekiel when God foretels the taking away all detestable Idols and yet in the same place speaks of several who would still retain them and thereby incur his heavy indignation Ezekiel 11. 18 21. And in Jeremy when God foretels his peoples living again in their own land after the captivity most piously and peaceably Jer. 32. 37 c. although through their stubborn wickedness which nothing would amend things fell out contrary Quest. But though these Prophecies do not imply that every Man shall live so when Messiah comes yet however they seem to note that many will who would not otherwise and that Godliness Peace and Justice shall mightily increase in the World by his appearance And has this been fulfilled by Jesus Ans. Yes it was eminently verified in the first times For then the Christians were remarkably as the most virtuous livers and honest dealers so most kind and friendly among themselves See said the Gentiles how the Christians love one another They were absolutely the best Neighbours being so far from offering any injuries that they durst not requite them but with Prayers and Kindnesses They were indisputably the most tame and peaceable Subjects overcoming all the outragious violence and oppressions of their Persecutors not by fighting their way through them but by Faith and Patience under them And like effects his Religion has produced in all other times upon all those who were true followers both of him and them and were Christians in very deed not only in name and profession It has improved all peaceable tempers and sweetned many sowre and smoothed many rough ones and brought Men of the most different Complexions Estates Interests and Abilities to live fairly and sociably together Indeed all Men are not thereby made godly just and tame as we must not expect they ever will be in this World for Men will be Men and shew human passions and errors under any institution But yet the common estate of the World is much amended and things generally much more fairly and equitably managed and the true God more duly and devoutly worshipped and all Virtue and Piety in greater repute and Injustice much curbed and both private and publiâ—… Quarrels much more frequently prevented and more fairly and speedily composed since Christ's coming amongst us than they were before So that although the improvement of these Virtues among us is little in respect of our aids and opportunities yet is it great in comparison with the former face of the World and may pass for a New Righteous and reformed Statâ— in respect of what it was in days of Heathen ignorance And this is as much accomplishment as 't is reasonable to require in such Prophecies which being made of men who have frail and corrupt Natures and converse in the midst of temptations ought not to be strained beyond what is consistent with the condition of this World and with human Nature and Circumstances But if the above cited Prophecies did really speak of a more universal effect than has been hitherto accomplished there is time enough still behind ere Christ resign up the Kingdom to the Father wherein to make it good For of the things predicted to fall out under Messiah some came to pass at first and others in the long flux of time ever since have still been successively fulfilled but many are still behind and to have no accomplishment till near the day of Judgment Quest. You have fully shewed how Jesus appears to be the Christ from ancient Prophecies whereby I plainly perceive how deserved 〈◊〉 in the Revelations the Spirit of Prophecy is called the testimony of Jesus Rev. 19. 10. But do the Jews to whom these Prophets all spake and who not only had the keeping but were also most diligent and careful in examining these Oracles understand these places as Predictions of Messiah which appear to have had such clear and undeniable accomplishment in our Jesus Ans. The old Jews who lived before Christ generally did as is plain from Rabbi Nehumias and others and from their general expectation of him about the time prescribed according to those Prophecies And so did numbers of their earliest and most renowned Doctors since as learned Men have shown abundantly from their Writings But many of the later Rabbins not daring to denie the suitableness of the events in Jesus have chose rather to wrest those places against their plain meaning and the opinions of their Ancestors to other purposes and deny them as spoken of Messiah And what should make this difference and cause later Men to go off from ancient times even from those who lived near to some