to provoke their Lusts as soon as ever their Penances are over but that they take all the care they can when they see them in earnest in Religion to instruct them in the Doctrine of the Gospel That though they are great sinners and have so and so transgressed the Commands of God and a very particular Confession of Sin enjoyned them if not to their Spiritual Guide as was done to John the Baptist yet at least to their God is very useful and I think necessary as searching the Wound is in order to a Cure and especially a sense of the sinfulness of their corrupt Nature and there may be many particular Directions necessary for many particular Cases yet I say they are to be instructed That though they have so and so transgressed the Commands of God yet they must not think they can make amends to God for what they have done amiss or come to do the Will of God in their own strength or ever come up to a full perfect unerring Obedience in this Life But that they must seriously consider the Redemption that Christ hath wrought for them by the sacrifice of himself and that their only course is to believe the satisfaction of Christ for sinners and so to give up themselves to Christ to be his servants and pray to Christ and to God in Christ for his Spirit to enable them to leave off all Sin and exercise themselves unto Godliness in all the parts and instances thereof And that whilest they do faithfully endeavour to leave every Sin and to get every good habit and disposition of Honesty Sobriety Purity Justice Charity and Godliness in the Strength of God they are accepted of God through the Death and Intercessions of Christ This Spirit of Faith and Love which are in Christ Jesus Ephes 6.23 2 Tim. 1.13 can only set them free from the Law of Sin and Death It is worthy of an excellent Pen to express these things more at large but I hope I have in some satisfactory manner signified the Necessity of this Course to be taken with Men since the Apostle makes so much of it in his seventh Chapter to the Romans what ill effect the Law hath upon convicted sinners when they seek a Remedy from it only under their Convictions And that the Discourse of the Apostle Rom. 7. When the law came c. is plainly meant of the Moral Law which is perpetual and everlasting binding the Conscience of every Man and Woman in the World and not only the Ceremonial Law which I acknowledge the Jews much boasted in and sought Justification by the observation of were very easie to be demonstrated So far I had written as the end of this Use when a worthy Friend of mine to whom I communicated my Papers for his censure of them advised me to evidence this Assertion That the Discourse of the Apostle in Rom. 7. When the law came c. is plainly meant of the Moral Law which I am loth here to fall upon the proof of because I would not willingly interrupt my proceeding to the Uses which I am yet to make of the foregoing Discourse and therefore shall cast it into an Appendix at the Conclusion In the third place I address my self to the Deists of the Age we live in Use III By way of Conviction We have indeed a great many Atheists and more perhaps than ever were in any Age the Lord be merciful to us But there are a sort of better natured and more civil Persons that abhor Atheism as contrary to the Light of Nature and the Interest of all Government and Civil Society itself For that there can be no trust in any Man where there is no obligation upon Conscience but every Man is left to act as he judgeth it convenient to his present interest I say there is a sort of Men that acknowledge a God and Providence and the reality of Moral Good and Evil Just and Unjust but they suspend their Belief of the Gospel and they are apt to applaud themselves and think themselves in a very good condition if they live honestly and vertuously and depend upon God's Providence for protection in the way of Vertue and conclude it shall all go well with them hereafter But how far are these removed from the strict observation of the workings of their own Hearts which we find in this 7th and 8th Chapters to the Romans They ought not only to acknowledge the Law of Nature which no question they find some of them at least written in their Hearts according to what the Apostle Paul writes in Rom. 2.14 15. But they ought to find how hard it is to keep the Law how this Law convinceth them of Sin and then when they think to amend their ways and to do good how they are plunged by it into more Sin and the more strict they are upon themselves and the more rigidly they deal with themselves towards mortification of any Extravagancy the more they shall find their Lusts enraged or perhaps fall into another extreme Vice For I question not but it might be demonstrated by an able Pen That all seeking to mortifie Lusts by the Law only commanding and condemning will in the end make the better side the worse and though Men may be as it were alive without the Law and enjoy themselves very pleasantly yes when they come strictly to call themselves to account for their Actions Intentions Rules Conduct and Management of themselves as under the Law of God and seek in earnest to reform themselves by the Law they shall raise such a Confusion Combustion and Fermentation as shall make them almost distracted and desperate The Law â—s the most rigid School-master that ever the World had it lasheth Men with Scorpions it kills them with a thousand Deaths it makes them weary of their Lives No wonder then at the Exclamation Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death And after this close Press they have been in which will make them swear even drops of Blood they shall never attain to any true rest till they come to say I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. I pity much these ingenious civil and half-vertuous Gentlemen that think they have made great Attainments in Religion by coming to acknowledge That there is a God and Athenian-like are still inquiring after some innocent new Discoveries in Nature or the Politicks c. But they little think of their rumbling into Hell for want of going further on in Religion For if Christ came from Heaven to satisfie the Law and to make a new and living Way to God in his own Blood he will not suffer himself to be so neglected by the Gentile secure Deist as not to be so much as inquired after how and which way he is to be a Saviour that they must see they have offended the Law and are condemned by the Law and have no Refuge but in him
Sanctification by Faith VINDICATED IN A DISCOURSE ON THE Seventh Chapter of the Epistle OF St. PAUL to the ROMANS Compared with the Sixth and Eighth Chapters of the same Epistle Written by ZACHARY MAYNE M.A. To which is prefixt a Preface by Mr. Rob. Burscough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysostom de Apostolo Paulo Peccata Populi Ennumer at Persona sua Quod Apostolum in Epistola ad Romanos facere legimus S. Hieronymus in Daniel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 15.9 Licensed Sept. 11th 1693. LONDON Printed by W. O. for John Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange MDCXCIII THE PREFACE THE Christians of the first Ages were such Ornaments of their Profession and such Examples of Piety and Zeal of Humility and Patience and all other Vertues that the World beheld them with astonishment Many of their Enemies concluded that so heavenly a Conversation proceeded from a Principle that is more than Human and were thereby induced to embrace the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it must be acknowledged that there were many that assum'd the Name of Christians who by their various Heresies and detestable Practices caus'd the Way of Truth to be blasphem'd Yet * Vid. Iren. advers Haeres lib. 1. cap. 1. pag. 26 28. cap. 9. pag. 73. Clem. Alex. Paedag. lib. 1. cap. 6. pag. 107. Tertul. de Praescript Haeret. cap. 41. p. 217. did they stile themselves The elected Seed and boasted of an extraordinary Perfection They pretended that they understood more than Paul or Peter or any other Mortal and that they were no more polluted with the Sins they committed than Gold was diminished in its Substance or corrupted with Dirt. I know not whether any amongst us be arriv'd to such Arrogance and Folly But it is too evident and it is sad to consider that as there is no small number of debauch'd and profligate Wretches even in these Times of so much Light who set their Mouths against Heaven and like the prophane Antiochus speak marvellous things against the God of Gods So there are many others that profess to know God but in Works deny him and to have a special interest in the favour of Christ but hate to be reform'd by him They flatter themselves into a belief that they have made an exchange with him of their Sins which nevertheless they resolve not to part with for his Righteousness which they are willing he should keep to himself They are not concern'd about it nor are they solicitous to know whether the advantageous Bargain with which they are so much affected have any other ground but in their own imagination Because a just Enquiry into this Matter would frustrate their great Design which is to live wickedly and as comfortably as they can and to reconcile their Vices with the hopes of Salvation This disposes them to advance or defend such Doctrines as are most suitable to their corrupt Inclinations and from hence it is that instead of bringing their Actions to the Rule they warp the Rule into a compliance with their Actions Or as St. Basil speaks * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil in Hex Homil. 2. p. 17. of those that adulterate the Truth They do not accommodate their Mind to the Scripture but pervert the Scripture to their own Will And thus they seek to cover their shame under the shadow of a Divine Authority as Seneca tells us †Vitiis dediti luxuriam suam in Philosophiae sinu abscondunt Senec. de Vit. Beat. c. 12. the Epicureans hid their Luxury in the Bosom of Philosophy Amongst all the parts of the Holy Scripture that have been thus perverted I think none have suffer'd more than St. Paul's Epistles in which as another Apostle assures us there are some things hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3.16 And such are the things which Men of corrupt minds are wont to set upon the Rack * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych that they may extort a Confession from them in favour of Immorality The plain and necessary Rules and Precepts of Religion they neglect and from obscure Passages they wrest those Conclusions that are only fit to support a false Peace in the way to destruction For this purpose they serve themselves of the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and they seem to me to argue more plausibly from thence in vindication of Impiety than from any other part of the Apostle's Writings Which may shew what care we ought to take to inform ourselves of his meaning that we may avoid their Mistakes of which both the Causes and Effects are very deplorable and be able to defend Christianity from their Assaults and the Reproaches that they would cast upon it You see says St. Chrysostom †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chryst t. 3. p. 100. Ed. Savil. speaking of this place that unless with due fear or circumspection we consider his Words and have an eye to his Scope there will follow infinite Absurdities And of this Admonition I think there is sufficient reason Indeed if St. Paul speaks of himself in the state of Sanctification where he says that he is Carnal and sold under Sin with other things of the like nature a Man may then at once be engaged in the Service of God and Mammon and be in Communion both with Christ and Belial He may reconcile things that are most inconsistent and be at the same time a Child of Light and of Darkness He need but say The Evil I do I allow not and therefore it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwelleth in me and this would justifie the greatest Enormities To know his Master's Will and not to do it to confess it to be holy just and good and to be under convictions from it and yet to neglect it would secure him from future stripes for his disobedience to it And to bite the Chain that holds him fast and to frâ—â— at the wretched Slavery he endures would be an Argument of a Glorious Liberty To violate the Laws of God with reluctancy and against the dictates of his own Conscience would be a mark of Sanctification and of this Consolation he could never be depriv'd unless he lost all sence of good and evil and being past feeling rush'd furiously into Sin without any consideration or apprehension of Divine Vengeance If these be just and natural Inferences from the Interpretation which I have mention'd as I think they are this is cause enough to reject it For they that are skill'd in the Art of Reasoning lay this down as a Maxim * Docent nos Dialectici si ea quae rem aliquam sequantur falsa sint falsam illam ipsam esse quam sequantur Cicer. de Fin. Bon. Mal. lib. 4. sect 19. and it is generally receiv'd as an evident Truth That if the things are false which follow from certain Premises these Premises are also false And our blessed Saviour tells us
Law of God But to what purpose was this small delight in the Law of God which had no influence upon Practice or the mortification of his Flesh for he plainly acknowledges that he saw another Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind Verse 23 The Law of his Mind was a Rule in his Conscience that he ought to do all good and to avoid and eschew all evil But the Question is Which Law prevails Why he tells us plainly and why should we not believe him And bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members The two Laws indeed did both war but the Law of Sin was the conqueror And of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought under bondage 2 Pet. 2.19 And then being captivated no wonder he crys out in the 24th Verse Verse 24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or this Body of Death Now when the Law hath perfectly left him for dead in a spiritual sence a condemned Wretch strugling for life by the help of the Holy Law which yet could afford him no comfort nor help here we must imagine as I conceive that God in wonderful Mercy made a discovery of Christ and Grace to him the Law was his School-master to bring him to Christ Now Christ is precious to him as the only Saviour that was before utterly lost and undone in himself and as to all hopes from the Law Now I suppose this Verse is that which hath misled all those Interpreters and good Christians that mistook this Chapter as if St. Paul had spoken it of himself after conversion The Expression indeed is admirable and truly Evangelical but I take it as I said before as a new discovery made to him under his Bondage and Captivity under Sin by which he might attain unto true deliverance from the guilt and power of Sin I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 25 Not a word of Christ before in all this struggle and agony wherein the personation is made of one under Convictions and Condemnations and Irritations unto Sin accidentally from the Law till the Man is utterly undone and crys out for deliverance I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 25 So then with my mind I my self serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin This I take to be added in the close of this Chapter as the summa totalis or the Epitome of all the foregoing Discourse But yet even in it though there is one little word added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I my self because the Mind is indeed more principally a Man's self than his Flesh or Body is yet it is to me very insignificant to prove what Men would have for as long as the Law of the Members prevails against the Law of the Mind and brings the Man into captivity to the Law of Sin What is that Service of God with his Mind worth 'T is the predominant Party in the Man that denominates him spiritual or carnal and indeed he allows the Denomination quae sumitur a Majori in the fourteenth Verse I am carnal and I am a person sold under sin And so I dismiss the seventh Chapter and hasten out of this cold shivering Water as I called it above into the other hot Bath of the eighth Chapter which will more evidently and demonstratively clear the sence and importance of the seventh and was given us as I said above as another surety for the seventh that the seeming ill sence of that might have no evil influence upon us nor give any disparagement to our noble Gospel-Religion But I shall take along with me as Ariadnes thread that Expression which was put into the dying and otherwise despairing Man's mouth in the 23th Verse of the seventh Chapter when he had said gaspingly O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And from that Expression I take my rise to begin to explain the first Verse of the eighth Chapter ROMANS Chap. VIII THere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Verse 1 Now I see by this last discovery made to me when I was even giving up all for lost that to avoid condemnation which the Law inflicted and could not otherwise chuse but thunder out against a sinner we must all betake ourselves to Christ so the Illative therefore may well convert this eighth Chapter with that Expression in Verse 25. of the foregoing Chapter Therefore if you will flee from condemnation you must flee to Christ for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Why who are they that are in Christ Jesus It follows who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Ay they are the Men indeed and none but they free from condemnation The Man in the seventh Chapter was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the flesh Verse 5. and therefore was followed with condemnation but they that are in Christ Jesus walk after the Spirit their state is altered and therefore no wonder they are freed from their Desperations But the second Verse makes all clear For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Verse 2 hath made me free from the law of sin and death There are several things very observable in this Verse 1. Here is the personation continued in the first person I and me hath set me free as much as to say I that before was a captive to Sin under the Law of Sin and Death am set free 2. Here is a quite different Law never before mentioned viz. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus 3. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sets the person free that was captive under the Law of Sin and Death Now let it be allowed Disputandi Causa that the word or person I all along the seventh Chapter was St. Paul yet sure they will not deny that me which is but the Accusative Case of I is St. Paul also Let all then depend upon this word And then it will plainly appear that Ego non sum Ego The I in the seventh Chapter though spoken of the same person is not spoken of the same person in the same state here In the seventh Chapter he is led into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death In this Chapter the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set him free from the Law of Sin and Death Therefore the Man in the seventh Chapter that was led into captivity to the Law of Sin Verse 23. needed the Gospel which is here called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus to set him at liberty from this Law of Sin Therefore he was before only a miserable Man under the convictions and condemnations of the Law and not converted which was the
Sufferings and teacheth us not only to call them but account them light it teacheth us to live by Faith and Hope it teacheth us lastly fully to acquiesce in the holy Will good Will and Favour of God as unconquerable and invulnerable and makes us to tryumph in God and in our Lord Jesus as inseparable from his Love by all that can befal us here and so makes us the glory of Christ here by bearing and doing all for him which must needs end in being glorified with him in the Heavens The Words which I thought fit to transcribe out of Dr. Hammond's Commentary upon this Subject you may find at the Letter d on the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans I had not known sin Dr. Hammond Rom. 7.7 It is an ordinary figure saith the Doctor to speak of other Men in the first Person but most frequently in blaming or noting any fault in others for then by the putting it in this disguise fastning it on one's own person it is more likely to be well taken by them to whom it belongs So saith St. Chrysostom of this Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he mentions things that are any way grievous or likely to be ill taken he doth it in his own person And St. Hierem on Daniel Peccata populi enumerat Persona sua quod Apostolum in Epistola ad Romanoâ— facere legimus Confessing the Sins of the People be doth it in his own person which we read practiced by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans that is most probably in this place Thus the same Apostle 1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawful to me but all things are not expedient that is those things which are by you look'd on as indifferent if they be yielded to may be very hurtful in you And 1 Cor. 13.2 If I have all Faith and have not Charity that is if you want Charity to your other Gifts So Gal. 2.18 If what I have destroyed I build the same again I make myself a transgressor that is whosever doth so or whensoever ye do so it must needs be a fault in you Thus Rom. 3.7 If the truth of God hath more abounded by my lie unto his glory why am I also judged as a sinner Which words are certainly the personating of an impious Objector which speaks or disputes thus not of the Apostle himself And the same Scheme or Fashion of Speech or Writing is very frequent among all Authors Secondly By the severals affirmed in this Chapter which cannot belong to St. Paul it appears that St. Paul did not speak these things of himself For that Paul was at the writing of this a reformed regenerate person there is no doubt but if we compare the severals which are here mentioned with the parts of a regenerate Man's Character given by the same Apostle in other places we shall find them quite contrary Here in the eighth Verse he saith That sin had wrought in him all manner of concupiscence whereas of the regenerate Man it is affirmed Gal. 5.24 they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Here in the ninth Verse it is said sin revived and I died whereas of the regenerate Man it is said Chap. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Here in the fourteenth Verse it is said I am carnal whereas of the regenerate Man it is affirmed Chap. 8.1 that he walketh not after the flesh but after the spirit Here again in that fourteenth Verse 't is said I am sold under sin whereas of the regenerate 't is affirmed Chap. 6.18 that be becomes free from sin and becomes the se vant of righteousness Here Verse 20. Sin dwelleth in me and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accomplisheth worketh that which I will not like not with my mind and conscience And so 't is said Ver. 23 24. That the law of the members carries him into captivity to the law of sin and who shall deliver him from this body of death And so that he is under the power of the law of sin and death that he obeys the law of sin Ver. 25. Whereas Chap. 8.2 of the regenerate 't is affirmed That the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the law of sin and death Nothing can be more contrary and irreconcilable to a regenerate state in these so many particulars than what is here affirmed of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I he person here represented And indeed unless sinning against Conscience be the only way of alleviating and not aggravating sin it is impossible that the doing that ill he would not the not doing the good he would Ver. 19 20. can be deemed a fit Ingredient in the Character of a regenerate Man 'T is certain this was in the Person of Meâ—ea made by the Heathens the highest pitch of Villany to see and like that which was good and to do the direct contrary and therefore cannot in any reason be thought to be the Apostle's description of a regenerate Man a good Christian I add much less of himself And now methinks these Lines that I have quoted and transcribed out of Dr. Hammond are so grave learn'd and wise that I look upon what I have written as trifliâ—g in comparison with them which in two or three Pages contain in a manner the substance of all that I have written Yet I am not utterly discouraged from making it publick because that may please and convince one that may not have the same influence on another And what I have written I hope I have done in the fear of God and with true zeal for the good of Souls and there is certainly an Use of various ways of Expressing and Arguing for the Information of various Capacities I come now therefore to my promised Work of going through the several Verses of the eighth Chapter for that in that Chapter what follows in several Verses is a mighty confirmation of what hath been delivered and a great improvement of the Discourse by several gradations shewing how the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sers a Man still more and more at liberty from the Law of Sin and Death and leads him up to his high places as Habakkuk's phrase is Hab. 3.9 The Lord God is my strength and be will make my feet like hind's feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places Proverbs 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise to deliver from hell beneath And indeed till a Man be enlightned in the Gospel and lifted up by the Spirit of God as it were to walk over other Mens heads he is as nothing in the World 1 Cor. 2.19 The spiritual man judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man For they that are after the flesh Rom. 8.5 do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit The Apostle
flies from one Country to another with her Familiars and Enchantments and exerciseth such mad passions as I confess I cannot bear the Description of in reading them without a great discomposure of thoughts And where is then the Stoick or Peripatetick with their two distinct wayes But now when we come to Christ who hath satisfied the Law and leave our old Schoolmaster our old Husband as being dead in all its Condemnation by the Body of Christ crucified and do not so much as pretend to exact Obedience to the Law but yet honestly endeavour to give all due Conformity to its Precepts yet without the fear of being cast into Hell for every Failure serve Christ and God in him as an honest Son serveth his Father or an honest Servant his Master allowing ourselves no idle haunts no extravagant ouâ—lets of any kind enjoy the good things of this Life as other Men do but in moderation do the work of our Callings Trades Occupations Studies but without carking cares as being assured that if we be diligent God will provide and will let us want for nothing Here all is quiet we have or may and ought to have a sweet Calm nothing disturbs us If we walk according to this Rule To do all to the Glory of God and in dependance upon him giving Thanks for so great a Saviour peace shall be upon us as upon the whole Israel of God If we are guilty of Negligence we must presently go to God by Prayer confess our sins charge ourselves honestly severely bitterly according to the neglect but we must not despond but endeavour to double our Diligence and Watchfulness In this way God hath the true Glory of an hearty Obedience the Law of God is no whit dishonoured for we bid not the least defiance deny no Duty of Conformity to it but we are free from the danger of its Condemnation being secured by a Surety and Advocate Thus the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And whilst we remain faithful to our God in this way of fincere constant uniform Obedience we have free Access to God as a Father If we presume to Sin wickedly against our God we must expect to be dealt with as Deserters and Apostates and though even some of those may possibly be renewed again unto and by repentance yet it is an evil and bitter state indeed and God alone knows when they shall recover their boldness and liberty of Access to God by a Spirit of Adoption And in this plain Account I hope is contained the true Moral Philosophy or rather Theosophy which we need all to learn and practise by And here I hope I may with very good pretence make an humble Address to the Reverend Heads of Colleges and learned Tutors in the Universities which I would do with the most submiss Deference to intreat them That in preparing Instructers of the People for the next Generation they would teach them the Truth as it is in Jesus and I would bespeak them in the words of the Apostle Paul Ephes 4.20 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Apostle is speaking of the evil state and conversation of the Gentiles But ye have not so learned Christ By learning Christ I doubt not is meant their learning the Doctrine of and concerning Christ as Scholars and Students learn Authors and study Philosophers Ver. 21. If so be that ye have heard him The Ephesians never heard Christ in person but they heard him preached And been taught by him or in him How could they be taught by Christ Only by his Word and by his Spirit And what were they taught by him The Answer follows As the truth is in Jesus This is the greatest thing that you Scholars are to learn and you are to teach I say not that it is the only thing But this is the true Philosophy without which all that they can learn is perfect folly Rom. 1.22 speaking professedly of the Philosophers I do not pretend to teach you but only humbly to mind you of that which you cannot but know I humbly beg you for God's sake for the Honour of our Lord Jesus and for the Interest of so many Souls as all Yourselves and present Pupils may be concerned with and for in Preaching and in the Press that you make a most accurate distinction betwixt Law and Gospel that Moses may not sit in our Saviour's Seat You see how the Law-Preachers among the Galatians blended the Law and Gospel together and thereby transferred their Auditors from him that had called them unto the Grace of Christ or in the Grace of Christ to another Gospel Gal. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is not another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diversum non aliud There was but one Gospel and could be but one yet this might be so diversified by legal mixtures as to be called another Gospel And. I shall give no further proof of this at present than the foregoing Discourse which I have thought necessary or at least convenient to make in which I hope I have made it appear That the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is not to be understood of St. Paul as in his regenerate Estate but as under legal Convictions or rather of a third person personated in the first which is so far from being rightly understood that perhaps the greater half of Divines understand it of St. Paul himself So subtile an evil is that of Legality or seeking to be justified by the Law that it cannot easily be understood in the clearest Gospel-light But Qui bene distinguit bene docet and if any Monopoly be fit to be claimed by an Academy I humbly conceive it is that of Distinctions Your Students are taught learned and polite Ethicks but if they be not taught how to avoid the Condemning Power of the Law by the Grace of the Gospel the Law will condemn them If they be not well warned of the enraging irritating force of the Law occasionally upon all their Lusts when they seek to be reformed by it alone that which was ordained unto Life will be found Death unto them and Sin taking occasion from the Commandment will work in them all manner of Concupiscence and Sin that it may appear Sin working Death in them by that which is good will by the Commandment become out of measure sinful Rom. 7.10.8.13 Here I have a very fair and just occasion to speak to those that I doubt will have little mind to hear or read what they should Use VI but if any such chance to read this Paper let them consider it If those that endeavour in some seriousness and earnest to reform themselves by the Law yet for want of understanding the Grace of Christ cannot attain unto true Holiness and Peace What Peace what Comfort belongs to those that heed not either the Precepts of
doing good Actions therefore the other part of the Antithesis must speak of doing ill Actions by bringing forth Fruit unto Death for Contrariorum Contrariae sunt Rationes Again Verse 8. Sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence 't is one thing to work it and another to discover it so it follows for without the law sin is dead that is or seems to be dead as to energy not as to discovery or being made to appear or becoming alive in its guilt only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But let this 8th Verse and the 9th and 10th following be taken in this sence For making the guilt of sin to revive Yet what shall we say to the 11th Verse For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me First this Phrase taking occasion by the commandment Arrepta occasione inflammandi per legen vetantem concupiscentiam Vatablus in Pol. Versu 8vo Multi interpretes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exponunt occasionem putantque idem dici quod vulgari proverbio intimur in Vetitum Grotius in Pol. So that this taking occasion by the Commandment is by these Interpreters understood of taking an advantage towards new Commissions 2. Again Deceived me How can sin that is indwelling sin or sinful Inclinations be said to deceive but as it had a kind of malicious Design by a Prosopopaeia here to draw the sinning person farther into actual Commissions by which also it slew him not only by charging the Guilts that had past for that is the work of the Law to kill that way by way of charge and not the work of sin or sinful Inclination called Concupiscence sin doth not charge home sin upon the Conscience but Concupiscence here called sin promotes further Commisions seduxit me i. e. in suas partes me dolose traxit ab errare me fecit longius me abduxit a via justitiae ad peccandum me pellexit c. Menochius Estius Beza in Pol. But methinks the 13 Verse plainly makes it appear that sin takes a great advantage towards strengthening and promoting itself in the Sinner or sinful Person by the Law according to the Prosipopaea wherein the Apostle makes sin an Agent and as it were a Person Was that then which is good that is the Law made death to me God forbid But sin that it might appear sin and shew itself in its Colours working death in me by that which is good that sin itself by the commandment might become out of measure sinful I would fain know what tolerable sence can be made of these words but that they must afford a plain proof of what I have been contending for 'T is true 't is sence to say that sin by the Commandment appears to be sin because it is forbidden by the Commandment and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 3.4 Every sin is a transgression of the law And it is sence to say that sin brings us to death by that which is good that is the Law forbidding it but how will this plain honest sence bear all the heighth and heat and smartness of the Apostle's arguing in this Verse But sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good that sin by the commandment might become out of measure sinful Sin appears to be sin by the Commandment but how doth it appear out of measure sinful How doth this But come in But sin that it might appear sin namely for this Reason for that it works death in me by that which is good I say how doth this But come in 'T will not bear a Discretive to say only that the Law threatens with Death a Man that doth such and such things and he sinning or transgressing falls under this penalty this is no wonder at all How doth sin appear out of measure sinful by this How doth sin shew such extraordinary Venome in this That it lays a Man under the penalty of the plain Law But now if sin that is indwelling-sin or Concupiscence hath such a mischevious devilish nature in it that it doth not only lay us under the penalty of Death but will therefore sin because sin is forbidden and will therefore break the Law because it forbids sin and take its very rise and occasion to all manner of Wickedness and work in us all manner of Concupiscence from that which is holy just and good this shews sin and that by the Commandment to be a thing out of measure sinful this sets forth sin in its true Colours and shews it to be sin indeed a thing that cannot be decyphered by any worse Name than it hath already Sin that it might appear sin c. and out of measure sinful FINIS BOOKS Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhil THE Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ c. By William Bates D. D. The Changeableness of this World with respect to Nations Families and particular Persons With a practical Application thereof to the various Conditions of this Mortal Life By Timothy Rogers M. A. A Mirror for Atheists being some Passages of the Life and Death of the Right Honourable John Earl of Rochester written by his own Direction on his Death-bed By Gilbert Burnet Lord Bishop of Sarum An End of Doctrinal Controversies which have lately troubled the Churches By Richard Baxter The Certainty of the Worlds of Spirits fully evinced by unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts Voices c. proving the Immortality of Souls By Richard Baxter The Protestant Religion truly stated and justified By the late Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter prepared some time before his Death Whereunto is added some Account of the learned Author By Mr. Daniel William and Mr. Matthew Sylvester The Christian's Converse with God or the Insufficiency of Humane Friendship and the Improvements of Solitude in Converse with God with some of the Author's Breathings after him By Richard Baxter Recommended to the Reader 's serious Thoughts when at the House of Mourning and in Retirement By Mr. Matthew Sylvester The Mourner's Memorial in two Sermons on the Death of the truly pious Mrs. Susanna Soame With some account of her Life and Death By Timothy Wright and Robert Fleming The whole Works of Isaac Ambrose Fol.