Spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony heart out of you and I will give you an heart of flesh that flesh of Christ of which we spake before and will put my Spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my commandements and do them Luk. 1.72 73 74 75. To perform the mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy covenant the oath which he swore to our Father Abraham that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the dayes of our life With which agrees that which follows 2 Pet. 11.4 whereby exceeding great and precious promises are given unto us that by them we should be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust In both which places we may take notice that there are but two grand benefits promised in Christ the first in order of time and nature is deliverance from our spiritual enemies or our escaping out of corruption and the second is a partaking of the divine nature whereby we may serve God cheerfully and without fear in holiness and righteousness all our dayes Here is no mention made in these promises of the remission of sins either because it is an appendant to the first benefit God taking away the guilt with the corruption and fault or because the Lord counts it so inconsiderable a benefit in comparison of the other two that he makes no mention of it but casts it in over and above as Christ speaks Matth. 6.33 Seek ye first the kingdome of God and his righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you The fourth Topick shall be That this full obedience through the grace and help of God is made the condition to the greatest part of Gods promises and his spiritual blessings in special Exod. 19.5 6. Now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine c. And Exod. 23.20 21 22. Behold I send an Angel before thee the Angel of the covenant to keep thee in the way and to bring thee to the place which I have prepared Beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name or being is in him But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak then I will be an enemy to thine enemy and an adversary to thine adversaries See Levit. 26.13 all manner of blessings are promised upon this score Deut. 11.8.9 Therefore shall ye keep all the commandements that I command you this day that ye may be strong and go in and possesse the land whether ye go in to possesse it and that ye may prolong your dayes in the land which the Lord sware unto your Fathers to give unto them a land flowing with milk and hony which land is a type of the heavenly Canaan Deut. 28.1 15. And it shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to serve him and to do all his commandements which I command thee this day that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth and all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God blessed shalt thou be in the city c. Joshua 1.7 8. Onely be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest Isaiah 1.19 If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land Ezek. 33.15 If the wicked restore the pledg give again that which he robbed walk in the statutes of life he shall surely live he shall not die Matth. 5.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called least in the kingdome of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdome of heaven Chap. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Chap. 28.20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you to the end of the world Luk. 10.25 26 27. And behold a certain Lawyer stood up and tempted him saying Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life he said unto him what is written in the law how readest thou and he answered and said thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self And he said unto him thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live See John 15.10 If ye keep my commandements ye shall abide in my love even as I c. 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Heb. 10.36 For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the promise Rev. 21.14 Blessed are they that do his commandement that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city The fifth Topick shall be The end of Christs coming to fulfill the law in us according to Gods covenant aforesaid Psal 22.30 31. A seed shall serve him it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation he shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath done this to wit wrought that righteousness in them Isaiah 53.10 He shall sow his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand See chap. 61.1 2 3. before cited Jer. 23.5 6. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a King shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice upon the earth in men in his dayes Judah shall be saved from their enemies and Israel shall dwel safely And this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord our righteousness to wit that righteousness which he executeth and worketh in his Saints Dan. 9.24 Seventy weeks are determined upon the people and upon the holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophesie and to anoint the most holy by bringing in the everlasting righteousness aforesaid Matth.
such-like that he would intercede to his Father saying Father forgive them for they know not what they say 4. Querie Whether it be not interest and self-love in any to maligne others for what they hold out to the world for doctrines according to godlinesse before the said maligning persons do confute by plain Scriptures the said doctrines held out to be contrary to godlinesse and likewise give the said maligned persons freedom and time to make reply and answer for themselves for you may see what Festus said Act. 25.27 5. Querie Whether they do well and do as they would be dealt with who charge men for preaching poysonfull doctrine before they themselves have heard such kind of doctrine from them whom they charge with it or have received some information from others either viva voce or under their hands that the persons charged have preached such kind of doctrine 6. Querie Whether the holy Scriptures commonly called the word of God be not the rule and the only extornal rule to confute all error and confirm all truth by because it is said Isai 8.20 to the Law and to the testimony 7. Querie Whether an errour in Divinity be not a Scripture-axiome commonly mistaken and not understood As an Anabaptist for so some are called by others of divided judgments mistook that Scripture-axiome Matth. 20.25 26. where it is said The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they who are great exercise authority over them but it shall not be so among you From which exceptive particle but in the last clause the said person denied magistracy to be exercised over Christians for which cause he was some years since as it s said imprisoned in Lincoln-Castle and indicted upon the next opportunity before the Judge of Assise for that County Upon which Indictment he produced his Bible and desired the Judge that the place might be read where it is said but it shall not be so among you But who was most in fault for his said opinion the poor misunderstanding man who out of conscience did adhere to the translated Scripture or they who did translate the said two verses amisse and so led him from the mind of Christ to the said misunderstanding for the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth ofttimes contrarium adversus being added to the verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must make the said verbes to signifie to abuse and pervert their rule and authority which was no doubt our Saviours meaning when he said to his disciples but it shall not be so among you namely not to abuse any authority committed unto them which is a good caveat to all Christian magistrates to use their authority rightly and Christian-like according to which if the foresaid words had been translated as they ought to have been the foresaid conscientious man had no question submitted to Christian magistrates and so have been kept out of prison for who will not submit to magistrates out of obediential love while they exercise their ruling power and authority according to rules of justice prescribed by God without respect of persons because then there would be no complaining in our streets But saith Christ wo be to them by whom offences come Matth. 18.7 7. Querie Whether it be not the most compendious way of right judging every pretended divine controversie to put the said controversie into a Scripture-axiom or axioms and consider whether both parts which are commonly called the subject and predicate of the said axiom be expresly or equivalently contained in the Scripture as for instance It is said by the Romanists that Papa Romanus est caput Ecclesiae that the Pope of Rome is head of the Church and that Maria est mediatrix gratiae that Mary Christs Mother is the intercessor to her Son for grace and help for us in time of need Now it s confessed that caput Ecclesiae which is the prodicate or last part of the foresaid axiom is in the Scripture but we cannot find the subject or first part of the aforesaid axiom Papa Romanus in the Scripture which surely must be therein contained if ever we think to prove by Scripture that the Pope of Rome is head of the Church So must we find mediatrix gratiae in Scripture the predicate or latter part of the second axiom before we do with confidence affirm that Maria est mediatrix gratiae that Mary is the intercessor to her Son for grace to be given to us in our time of need therefore why should we believe the said assertions for divine truths when we cannot find those axioms to be expresly or equivalently laid down in Scripture 8. Querie Whether the sense we put upon an axiom expresly laid down in Scripture ought not to be proved to be expresly or equivalently in some one Scripture or other of Gods word that so we may justifie our said sense of the axiom to be the very mind of Christ according to the Scriptures As for instance Saint John saith of himself Rev. 1.10 I was in the Spirit on the Lords day In which words are these two divine axioms First That there is a Lords day Secondly that Saint John saith I was in the Spirit on the Lords day Now he that will presume to fix his proper sense upon the first axiom affirming what is meant by the Lords day or upon the second axiom what is meant to be in the Spirit on the Lords day must not he first prove that his said sense is plainly declared in some Scripture or other to be a Scripture-sense and so the mind of God otherwise he may justly be questioned why he putteth such a sense upon the said axiom which the holy Scriptures do not expresly hold out in some place or other of the said Scriptures And in case some other place of Scripture do fully declare his sense of the axiom to be divine according to his assertion yet he must prove by the context if not by the text of Scripture that his sense imposed is the sense and meaning of the axiom he hath laid down in the said place otherwise it had been much better for his advantage to have chosen the axiom in Scripture which expresly holdeth out his said sense then to put a sense upon an axiom which he cannot prove by the text or context to be the genuine sense of the said axiom The sense which too many Divines put upon Saint John's words is that Saint John meaneth by the Lords day the first day of the week which they call our Christian Sabbath in contradistinction to the Jews Sabbath to be set apart as the Lords day which we must solemnize and keep sacred as a day to the Lord commanded by him to be solemnized by all good Christians in holy duties as preaching the word hearing the same administring the Sacraments publickly with prayer and thanksgiving and also spend the remainder
of the day vacant from publick duties in private reading prayer and repetition of Sermons c. It is true and we confess it that the foresaid duties are most needful to be practised by us and that a day to do them in is most needfull to be appointed and assigned and as for our selves we do profess to all whom it may concern that we are most ready to perform the same duties enjoyned on the said day in every capacity we stand related unto yea we acknowledge our selves bound in obligation of Scripture and Conscience to observe the said day now set a part to be observed by this nation from outward and bodily labours so farre as we can do it without transgressing some other command of God incumbent at that time upon us and thus we acknowledge we cease from our said works as a figurative Sabbath which imports a cessation to rest and as an instruction to put our selves and others in minde to cease from thinking of our own thoughts words and actions Is 58.13 which are our sinful thoughts words and actions as being most properly ours because Saint James saith every man is drawn away of his concupiscence James 1.13 14. which we must cease from that so at length we may come into the true rest which is prepared for the people of God Heb. 4.9 This is our confession of faith in this particular aforesaid and if the Christian magistrates we are to live under do appoint two such Sabbaths aforesaid in a week to be observed by the nation we are ready to do what is required of us accordingly in every capacity we stand in But we still querie the said Divines whether they can prove by text or context that Saint John in the foresaid place Rev. 1.10 did mean by the Lords day the first day of the week or whether the first day of the week is specified in any place of Scripture in plain terms to be our Christian Sabbath and so to be used and set apart as aforesaid for the Lords day Thirdly what place is there in the New Testament which calleth the first day of the week the Lords day for Christians to observe as the Lords day in cessation from all bodily labours which are appointed for the benefit of the natural life because if there be no such day specified in the Scriptures as aforesaid it is lest to Christian magistrates to order and appoint a day of cessation from bodily employments in reference to the performance of such pious and needful duties aforesaid to the glory of God and good of our souls which must be cared for in special manner for Christ saith What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul Matth. 16.26 Secondly because if the said day be set apart by God to the ends and purposes aforesaid and in such a manner as is pretended then we must be bold to tell the Christian magistrate that he hath no more liberty and authority to dispense with any civil affaires to be done on that day then any private man hath unless there fall out some present and unavoidable necessity to transact some performances for the preventing or suppressing of some imminent and destructive mischief In other cases we say if it be as aforesaid the Christian magistrates must not allow and tolerate such civil affairs to be done on the Christian Sabbath as are ordinarily and frequently allowed to be done for Christ who said Give unto Caesar the things which are Caesars said also Give unto God the things which are Gods Matth. 22.21 And likewise Christ-saith Math. 15.19 Let none teach for doctrines the traditions of men hence all especially in authority must be wary how they publish any thing to be Gods mind for to bind others to its observance as the positive command of Jesus Christ unlesse it be plainly expressed according to their sense in some Scripture-axiom or other for as an axiom is onely true or false so a divine axiom is always true 9. Querie In case it be a plain Scripture-axiom which is affirmed or denyed whether then to find out the true meaning and scope of the said Scripture-axiom as it s translated whether we say it be not requisite first to consider if the words of that axiom be rightly translated out of the original tongue or language in which the axiom was first written that is whether the words of the axiom in the translation do bear the same and as full a sense as the words in the original do evidently import Secondly whether the verbs if there be any in the said axiom be translated in the same mood and tense which the original language will bear and are usually put into when there is great reason for to make good sense so to do As for instance Solomon saith 2 Chron. 6.36 If they sinne against thee for there is no man saith our Translation in the said place that sinneth not and thou be angry with them c. Those words in the parenthesis for there is no man which sinneth not are offered and premised as the reason of the hypotheticall axiom if they sinne against thee Now it s as true as an usual saying that hypothesis nihil point in esse a supposition doth not put the thing absolutely but in possibility onely as 1 Sam. 12.25 But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King now none can conclude from thence that they must needs continue to do wickedly or that there is not a possibility to abstain from doing wickedly but the hypothesis or supposition in that place doth onely declare that there was a possibility for them still to do wickedly or not to do so any more Hence also the hypothesis 2 Chron. 6.36 doth only declare a possibility to sinne or not to sinne against God if they sinne against thee Now Solomons words which are by him brought as the reason why he said to God if they sinne against thee which are those in the parenthesis aforesaid are so translated that they make the hypotheticall axiom if they sinne against thee ridiculous and nonsense because if it be true that there is no man that sinneth not then its ridiculous and nonsense to say to God or any other if they do sin when it is prejudged and declared that there is no man which sinneth not but it is most apt sense to say if they sinne against thee for there is no man which may not sinne or that is not in a possibility to sin by reason of the mans weaknesse for a long time and the manifold temptations he is liable unto Hence the Translators ought to have translated the said verse to make it good sense if they sinne against thee for there is no man which may not sinne which is the Potential mood of the verb and present tense of the same mood which the Translators ought to have rendred the verb In to sinne or transgresse though it is true that the
himself and many others in this life saying 1 John 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment But saw first many thousand servants of God of every tribe sealed And after I beheld a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands who came out of great tribulation here and had washed their robes and had made them white in the blood or spirit of the lamb Rev. 3.14 And the like spectacle he saw chap. 14.4 5. of men that follow the lamb wheresoever he goeth being redeemed from among men and made the first fruits unto God and the lamb and in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God The eleventh Topick shall be the two parts of all practical truth in Christ of which before out of Ephes 4.20 24. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupting through the deceitful lusts and be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds and put you on the new man which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth The last Topick shall be the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven which in its coming is called the Lord our righteousness from the presence of the holy Ghost or rather of the whole Trinity Jer. 33.15 16. At that day and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land in those dayes Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwel safely and this is the name wherewith he shall be called The Lord our righteousness Which Jerusalem is promised to every overcomer of sin and Satan Rev. 3.12 as before and it is an estate to be had in this life as Mr. Brightman and most of the best interpreters among the the Protestants and Arrias Montanus among other Papists doth confess out of the clearness and evidence of the Text Rev. 21.23 And I John saw the holy city new Ierusasalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and he shall be with them and be their God And at vers 9. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death viz. spiritual death which is either sin or the wages of sin neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more spiritual pain which being effects of sin are with their causes taken away before for the former things are passed away So our obedience to the law must go before as a preparative and a qualification hereunto Lev. 26.3 and 11.12 If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandements and do them then will I give you rain in due season c. and I will set my tabernacle among you and my soul shall not abhorre you and I will walk among you and I will be your God and you shall be my people See Ezek. 37.27 My tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and Psal 128.1 5. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord and walketh in his wayes and vers 5. The Lord shall bless thee out of Sion and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem to wit the spiritual Jerusalem aforesaid all thy dayes Thus much of divine authority now for humane Justine Martyr in Resp ad Orthodoxos saith That which is possible to one man is possible to any as to saile by sea for even as the Scripture saith that certain of them who live under the law were unblamable in righteousness so it was possible unto all those who lived under the law to have been alike unblamable for Saint Luke the Evangelist saith of Zacharie and Elizabeth chap. 1.6 that they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandements justification or righteousness of the law blameless But what is the total righteousness of the law even to love God above thy self and thy neighbour as thy self which is not impossible unto those men which apply their will and desire thereunto Wherefore that saying By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified was not spoken or used by the Apostle because we cannot perform impossibilities but because we will not frame our selves to do things possible Origen in his ninth homil upon Joshuah saith Doth not that man seem unto the Worthies to be reckoned among women who saith I cannot observe or do that which is written And again in the same place he that saith I cannot fulfill them doth he not manifest himself worthy to be ranked among the feminine sort who can do nothing that is virile or like a man or worthy of that sex Cyprian serm de Baptis Christi Neither doth this written law in any thing differ from the natural but the rejection or refusal of evil and the election of good are so infixed into the rational soul from above that no man hath just cause in this behalf to complain because there is neither knowledge nor power wanting unto any man for the prosecution and performance of the same because we know what ought to be done and have power to effect what we know whereas if the precepts were impossible or invironed with so great difficulties or thy will therein so abstruse and hidden that the thing could not be understood which thy Highness or Majesty requireth of us albeit no man sins against his will yet he might many ways excuse his offence or sin unless the equity and moderation of that which is commanded and the clear knowledge of the truth and the distinction of things to be done or not done had been sufficiently provided for us by an intelligible authority and therewith the possibility facility and power had therein embraced each other Basil Magnus homil 3. It is impious to say that the precepts of Gods Spirit are impossible And in Psalm 119.155 he saith I knowing that thou beholdest me have not onely fulfilled thy commandements but I have done it also with a fervent mind Chrysost homil 19. in Heb. Christ commandeth nothing that is impossible in so much that many go beyond the commandements and homil 18. de poeniton And if it be demanded who ever did this he presently answers Saint Paul Saint Peter and even the whole chorus or quire of Saints and homil de poenitent 8. Do not in any wise accuse the Lord for he doth not command things that are impossible Hieron Symbol Apost Epist 17. We detest their blasphemy who affirms that
claiming their ministration as aforesaid will prove themselves their successors whether included or not included in the words Math. 28.20 who are mentioned Ephes 4.11 and so the Ministers of Jesus Christ then they must demonstrate themselves to be men of honest report amongst Apostolick-men if there be any and full of the Holy Ghost and wisdome even that wisdome specified Jan. 3.17 and not be pufed up with pride and shewing bitternesse and wrath and carry themselves Diotrephes-like loving so far to have the preeminence as to have power to receive whom they think fit into the Ministerial office and to reject whom they affect not because they are not of their mind though peradventure better qualified with saving truths then themselves yea do not only so but forbid or hinder them that would receive them or cast them out of their livelyhood Hence we sayagain that if they derive their claim as aforesaid to be their successors they must be qualified like those Pastors which we have proved to be qualified as aforesaid by reason it is said Ephos 4.11 they were of Christs own making and gifted with his immediate gifts v. 8. which cannot be lesse or fewer then fit for the ends they were appointed unto v. 12 13. the ultimate whereof is to become a perfect man which most of our Ministers deny to be in this life unto the measure of the stature or age of the fulnesse of Christ Therefore the Ministers of England if they lay claim to be the successors of the foresaid Pastors and Teachers and so the Ministers of Jesus Christ they must be such Pastors so made by Jesus Christ inwardly for their outward ordination is but a ceremony which they most frequently apply where there is not the thing signified namely such gifts in those ordained men which if there be then they must first understand those gifts to be and own them yea imploy them for those ends expressed Ephes 4.12.13 which ultimate end is denied by many to be attained in this life and their great contest and zeal is to lay claim to the said succession for to justifie their office and not to have the office of Presbyter Ministers and Bishops to be extinct out of their Church but we heare no disputes nor can we see such zeal and animosities put forth to defend their claim to their predecessors gifts but they can be content to say yea to excuse themselves to be like other men save only in the Grecians wisdome and literature 1. Cor. 1.22 in passions and conversations if not below other men as too often it s to be feared but their office forsooth they would have looked upon as to be the Ministers and Bishops of Jesus Christ when the gifs aforesaid of such Pastors Ehes 4.11 and of such Bishops Deacons which are specified 1 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5. c. are not to be found yea not be believed can they be in these days so that if the Son of man come again as he will come will he find faith as it s said Luk. 18.8 on the earth amongst these sorts of men to believe that there is any who can come while he liveth to a perfect state in holinesse though it s declared to be the end that all these officers are appointed Ephes 4.12 13. The foresaid men are so sollicitous and careful to prove their office of ministration to be from the Apostles downward that when they are reproched as to have their office from the Pope and Popish Bishops because those did once rule in England that they presently deny it and say having brushed their vesti tures and pickt out the Crosse that they have cast off the reliques of Rome and only retain they said the office which indeed the Popes had from their immediate predecessors and so they run to the top of the scale or ladder to see the Apostles descending like the Angel on Jacobs ladder Gen. 28.12 to justifie them to be their successors for matter of office without their gifts as aforesaid But we believe that Christ meant by that place of Scripture otherwise then such a continued future succession to follow to the end of the world for the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am with you all the days to the end of that age Hence why may not we think Christ meant the like dayes of which he biddeth them rell Herod that fox Luk. 13.23 24. Behold I do cures to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfected so all the days of their age or dispensation he would be with them to assist them in the accomplishment of their cures or work which like dayes are intimated Hosea 6.2 After two days he will revive us and in the third we shall live in his sight which Christ we believe calleth the last day and not the end of the world when he saith and I will raise him up at the last day Joh. 6.39 40 41. in a parallel respect to the Lord Jesus day who was raised up at the last day for it is said he was dead and buried and the third day he rose again so it is said Rom. 6.4 5 6. c. We are buried with Christ by baptisme into death c. for if we have been planted together into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection which work of mortification to a new life the Apostles were appointed to preach v. 19 20. until the accomplishment ' of the age of the fulnesse of Christ Ephes 4.13 In this foresaid sense the words may be justified to be truly spoken to the Apostles in their own persons but not in the sense the words are translated into Lo I am with you to the end of the world for so they cannot be literally true therefore such as desired to hear of such a succession aforesaid and finding no fitter place in their apprehensions they presently fancied Christs meaning to be in their successors by saying ' Lo I am with you to the end of the world that is with you in your successors and then the next inserence is themselves are the Presbyters and Ministers of Jesus Christ because Christ meant as aforesaid I will be ' with you in your successors to the end of the world which yet he may be with the Apostles successors and yet none of the publique ministration of England may be the said Ministers of Jesus Christ that is according to his constitution and order though many of them we deny not but acknowledge them to be God-fearing men and wel meaning servants for Jesus Christ but yet we cannot believe them to be Ministers of Jesus Christ that is by his order and appointment by reason that we are more then confident that Christ would not have the office of the Apostles in their ministration separated from the gifts concomitant and needfull thereunto which we cannot yet find to be in them yea they disown them to be unattainable and therefore
John Tendrings friends must acknowledge if he be not alwayes a jugler that he meant this preface though varnished with Scripture-phrases should relate as consentanies together and also he would be found a consentany to them both in reference to his ultimate end namely to maintain though he cannot do it that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live Hence when he saith in the front of his salutes To all lovers of Gods truth we ask all unbiassed and understanding men whether he can mean if he intend the maintaining his positions any others but such that love his sinful positions and love that sin will remain in them as Gods truth as long as they live When he wisheth grace to them what grace doth he wish them but grace to keep themselves in a sinful life for he saith it is the Orthodox Protestant doctrine that sin will remain in the best Saints at long as they live When he wisheth them peace what can he wish but that they may be quiet not disturbed by endeavouring to mortifie all their sinnes in this mortal life because he affirms to his friends that sin will remain in them as long as they live When he saith grace and peace through Jesus Christ what can those words through Jesus Christ intend if considered in reference to his positions but that he would fain have Christ and sin dwell and be yoked together in him and his friends though it be contrary to the Apostles dehortation 2 Cor. 6.14 15. and so to have peace in a way quite contrary to that Ephes 2.14 15. where is hinted that the partition-wall of sin is to be broken down what is it but a plain mocking of Christ absit blasphemia dicto to call him the faithful redeemer of all his Saints and yet he doth not by the Vindicators doctrine redeem them from all sin in this life as if Christ either cannot or will not redeem them from all sins that they may serve the Lord without blame in righteousness and holiness all the dayes of their lives Luk. 1.74 75. Ephes 1.4 And whom can he call in his first paragraph his beloved friends if he mind his positions but such as stick to him in maintaining that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live and also will be ready to do us all the envious mischief they can for opposing them in teaching the contrary truths for none that read his book and have heard his scandalizing of us can believe that he accounteth us and them of our mind beloved friends What times can he mean when he saith these are the times foretold c. must not he mean if he will have his sinful positions still maintained the times wherein there is a falling away from this positions a defectioÌ„ from believing them Must not he mean when he saith as a forerunner of the great and terrible day even the forerunner of the great and terrible day to the man of sin 2 Thes 2.8 by the the downfall of his positions when Jannes which signifieth as an Onomastick saith one to be brought under and Jambres one who hath a sea in his head according to that Isa 57.20 shall proceed and prevail no further 2 Tim. 3.8 9. so that our Vindicator is more then bodily afraid he and his party shall be put out of credit if our doctrines of a possibility of a total mortification of sin in this life be once resenned and received Must not he mean when he saith there are many false Prophets among us such as prophesie and evidence the Scripture against his tenents aforesaid wherefore they are to him and his friends like Michajah to Abah who said that Michaâ—ah never in his sense of goodness spake good to him who sold himsellf to do wickedness Must not he mean by such false Prophets whose study is to deceive poor souls even the very elect those whose study and labour is if he mind his positions to undeceive poor souls by perswading them that sin shall pot if they will be baptized into Christs death Rom. 6.2.4 5. remain in them as long as they live and must not he mean by his elect if he mind what he saith of his positions such as are ordained and chosen let himself name by whom to remain in sin for his posâ—â—ion is that sinne will remain in the best Saints as long as they live When he calleth them men confident in an arme of flesh can any wise man who mindeth and understandeth his position think that those words can reach us who perswade all men to believe a possibility of mortifying all sin in them through the grace and help of Christ but that they reach only such men who like himself teach and maintain with bold confidence that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live because that sin is called flesh as aforesaid And therefore to maintain sin as the Vindicator and his friends do is to be confident in an arm of flesh And can a wise man believe his words do reach us where he saith Goliah -like the great Giant against little David when as the Veterator doth boast they are a hundred to one or two of us who said with him in his opinion and also such as were ready to joyn with him in petition to the higher powers against us with confidence they shall prevail though we know it will not be with dint of arguments but by dint of sword if they do prevaile against us and if so surely the Veterator and his complices are Goliah-like men confident in an arme of flesh when they would be willing to take such conâ—ses against us But let us have but our liberty to preach in their Pulpits our doctrines of a possibility of a total mortifica tion of sin in this life through the grace and help of Christ then as the Prophet said 1 King 18.24 Let the God which answereth by fire to purge away the filthinesse of Jerusalem by the spirit of judgment and burning Isai 4.4 be God and therefore if the doctrine of a possibility of a total mortification in this life be of God it will stand Act. 15.38 39. if not let Baal plead for himself Judg. 6.31 32 33. But to proceed what can the Vindicator mean in the next words of his preface of which number we have to deal with but with them as our selves do who plead against Baal and against the necessity of sins remaining in the best Saints as long as they live for that is his assertion in his Vindication that sinne will remain as aforesaid and therefore they are such as contradict his positions that he will deal with for he professeth that he will maintain them to the utmost of his little wit What can he mean where he saith in his next pargraph he regardeth not how he is esteemed of in this world for ingaging in this quarrel but that he regardeth not what contrary-minded men to himself
an inward portraiture of righteousnesse a glimpse of the heavenly man yet earthy naturall and mutable which we all beare at the first and so are said to have born the image of the earthly 1 Cor. 15.49 This is opposed verse the 14 of this 5 chapter of the Rom. to Moses another inward state or work of the Law discovering the deadlinesse of sin unto us with lightnings thunderings and terrors Heb. 12.18 19. The third Adam is the old man of sin The fourth is the last Adam the Lord from Heaven who is not as the first was with his weak image of Righteousnesse a living soul but a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 It 's the first then of those soure the Adam of our earthly or naturall man who yet with the help of the second is the image of him that is yet to come to the beleevers to wit the Lord from heaven in whom we first sin and die by our personal fall according to 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adam all die which doe die so in Christ shall all be made alive who are quickned for we proved before that no man did or could dye by the first Adams sin both by the Law and Gods oath thereagainst As for the first 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. we have shewn that it makes for us and not against us As for Ephes 2.3 Paul there confesseth that since his fall he and the fallen Jews as well as others were not children of God by love patience and meeknesse as in their first creation but children by the nature of the wrath for so the words run in the Greek and consequently the children of the prince of the power of the air as well as others according to Rom. 3.22 23. Unto the words of Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean We say that since the mans personal fall and corruption he can neither by his own strength cleanse himselfe nor bring forth any righteousnesse or holinesse that is in it selfe clean or pure Unto Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me or warm me we answer that David speaks here of his own first personal fall and disobedience or his first conception and forming not in his natural mothers belly but in the womb of sin accordingly as it is said of Eve who was at the first created after the similitude of God that when she fell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tim. 2.14 But the woman being deceived was begotten in the transgression Thus the Jews speak to the blind man Joh. 9.3 4. Thou wastaltogether born insin and dost thou teach us And David himselfe complaineth of some noted wicked ones the wicked are strangers from the womb they goe astray as soon as they be born they speak lies Psal 58.3 4 5. If he had spoken of their natural birth he could not truly have said that they had either gone astray or spoken lies as soon as they were born This mother that conceived David in sin was his consent to the first Temptation Jam. 1.15 Lust when it hath conceived c. Unto Esay 48.8 I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously and wast called a transgressor from the womb I say that men could not from the natural womb deal treacherously and therefore it is a spiritual womb of which the Lord speaketh here And Hosea 9.11 As for Ephrains their glory shall flee away like a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception to wit in the sin or in the false righteousness Finally unto Gen. 8.21 For the imaginations of mans heart are evil from his youth I say that is true for before that time men usually lose their innocency and corrupt themselves But what is that to innate corruption And whereas he brings in Augustine saying in uno vniversi It is granted while we were in Adams loines we were all one and so we are still in the natural Adam at the first birth earthly but innocent and in the old Adam of sin all one when we are fallen and depraved that is are corrupt and sinful but are not all such in the same measure and degree But his following positions are these page 4. That we were all in the first Adam legally No but seminally onely That there was a stipulation and Covenant between God and Adam for all mankind That we were all parties with him to any such Covenant That we were liable to the curse that belongeth to the breach of that Covenant All which are the meer figments of mans brain That we had interest in the mercy promised in that pretended Covenant Of all which there is no footstep to be found in the word That being in him naturally we were unavoidably subject to all the bondage and burthen which he or the humane nature then contracted Not so unless it were some temporal calamity with which God might justly plague his posterity for his fall and sins Yet he goes on in page 4. to prove that we are guilty of the first Adam's sin but by false principles or with true principles misapplied as followeth That every thing which is born carrieth with it the nature of that which did bear it as touching the substance and accidents proper to the special kind This is a truth and therefore the soul which is born and breathed from God must needs be pure and the natural earthly man must needs be good in his kind as all other natural living creatures are that which is born of the Spirit in a way of regeneration is Spirit but what is born of the Flesh is still Flesh as this mans Wisdome and Doctrine is of which birth Christ speaks John 3.6 as before That we being all born of corrupt and guilty parents do in our birth by nature draw their corruption and guilt Which is false for guilt and corruption are not natural but spiritual and adventitious things as is aforesaid That by the death of Christ who is the second Adam howbeit not as he was man but as he is a quickning Spirit and the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15.45 47. we receive a double grace of Justification and Regeneration Wherein are two false grounds layed down First that justification and regeneration are two distinct things which St. Paul makes but one and the self same thing Titus 3.4 5 6 7. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heires according to the hope of eternal life And 1 Cor. 6.11 And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God The second false ground is that we
that such as are in Christ who are truly incorporated first into his death and then into the similitude of his resurrection that they have no sin in them for they walke not after the flesh but after the spirit that Paul rejoyceth here that sin was not able to condemn him though it was in him as he had confessed in the former chapter that the evil that he would not that he did and that he saw a Law in the members rebelling against the Law of his mind But this sin will condemn any man where it remaineth as the Apostle saith Rom. 6.23 that the wages of sin is death and that of corruption Ephes 4.22 that ye put off the old man which is corrupting or destroying with its deceitful lusts for so the best Translators read the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being the Apostles argument why he would have the old man put off But he saith that here he expects Cajetan's or Aquinas his false exposition and he shall have it to do him a pleasure out of his own book pag. 23. by the former account Cajetan one of their own fraternity saith damnatum est peccatum non extinctum Yet the worst of these two Epositors here are and will be of better repute even among the Protestants then the Vindicators glosses ever were or will be He saith further that here he expects that of Mr. Parkers that the Apostle spake this when he was a babe in grace But this is another of Mr. Tendring's lies for he saith onely the contrary and proveth it out of Rom. 8.2 1 Cor. 4.4 Phil. 4.13 that Paul was not now in that weak and corrupt estate complained of Rom. 7.14 24. and that therefore he speaks it not of his own condition though figuratively in his own person but in the behalfe of such as were babes in Christ Pag. 26. by the former account he citing Pauls words 1 Tim. 1.15 that Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am cheif bids us mark it that Paul speaks it not in the preterperfect tense of whom I have been chief but in the present tense of whom I am cheif as if Paul at that time were the chief of sinners But did ever any man besides himself that was not besides himself think or say so Is there not such a figure in the Scripture as Enallage temporum the putting of one tense for another Doth not Paul 1 Cor. 15.8 9 10. Ephos 2.4 5 6. Titus 3.3 4 5 6 7. and even at the 13 vers before set forth his corrupt estate of unbelief as a condition that was past But he goes on out of Paul his 2 Epist to I know not whom or what Church for none is named chap. 1. from vers 6. to the 13. to prove that Paul was not now a babe or child in Christ but rather an old man as he cals himself Paul the aged in his Epistle to Philemon Truly as old as the Vindicator would make himself he shews himself very young and childish in that his reasoning for we know none that affirms the thing that he goeth about to disprove but he loves to fight with his own shadow In conclusion he saith that these Jesuitical cavils which yet are his own are too well known and never did nor shall prevail against Gods truth Then he goeth on from Rom. 8.1 to the second verse upon which he makes as learned observations as he did formerly upon the first verse for whereas the Apostle saith that the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Here saith he we may observe that the Apostle saith not that we are fully freed from sin in this life but from the Law of sin But first it is evident that Paul saith that he was made free from that Law of sin of which he had so much complained chap. 7.21 22 23. Secondly that he cals it a Law of death as he doth chap. 7.24 a body of death because it hath death and condemnation appendant to it and involved in it And thirdly that he was now actually even in this life and for the present freed therefrom And lastly that it was not the death of Christ that had thus freed him to wit from guilt leaving the pollution behind as this Champion of corruption speaks hereafter but it was the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that had now freed him both from that Law of sin and of death its concomitant so that he cannot possibly speak of his present condition in chap. 7. from ver 14. to the 24. And whereas he adds in the close of that page that Christian experience shews that no sort of men are more troubled with temptations then they whom God hath begun to deliver from the Law of sin Though this be true yet what is this to his purpose or the proposition which he would now maintain for we speak not what befals regenerate men at their first conversion but of that which they do or may attain by grace in the end Nor do all temptations arise from corruption they may proceed immediately from Satan and assault such as have no sin or corruption left in them as they did our first parents in innocency and Christ himself as he was man Heb. 4.15 Pag. 19. by the latter account he rols the old stone with Sysiphus saying that our deliverance from sin is but begun not perfected here but that God is faithful by whom we are called Then they are unfaithful that seek not to have the work finished Phil. 1.6 And there he breaks out into a great rapture saying blessed be the Lord that whereas before we were captives to sin now the case of the battel is altered Why what battel did we fight against sin before grace did convert us unto God That sin is become our captive through Christ Was it so with them in whose behalf Paul complaineth but I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members we trow not sin was here too often the superiour That it remaineth in us not as a commander but as a captive of the Lord Jesus But doth it not till it be subdued often circumvent us and prevail against us and if so then that of Peter is true 2 Pet. 21.19 Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage at leastwise for a time He saith further that the bolts of sin are yet upon our hands and are left to admonish us of our former miserable condition What are we under bolts and Irons and yet no prisoners or captives But Christ is sent to preach deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to those that are bound and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to wit against his enemies Esay 61.1 2
salvation but by another even Jesus Christ the righteous blessed for evermore But as the former part of his observation is false that we should not actually work out our own righteousnesse by Jesus Christ so it is evident that he understands not what he speaks in the latter words of his speech about being made righteous by another even Jesus Christ for there is no other righteousnesse for men to seek after but that which is required in the moral Law Deut. 6.25 And it shall be our reghteousnesse if we observe to doe all these commandements before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us which yet is of two sorts or degrees the one is the righteousnesse of grace and justification whereby sin is to be purged out and the other is the righteousnesse of glorification of the former the Apostle speaks thus Rom. 5.17 Much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnesse shall reign by one Jesus Christ and of the latter of these David thus Psalm 119. vers 142. Thy righteousnesse is an everlasting righteousnesse and thy Law is the truth and vers 144. The righteousnesse of thy testimonies is everlasting This is that David hoped for in the end Psalm 17.15 I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse So Psalm 24.45 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord even righteousnesse from the God of his salvation and 69.27 Add iniquity to his iniquity and let him not enter into thy righteousnesse and Paul Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousnesse by faith 2 Tim. 4 8. Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse And as both those are attained by faith so they are called the righteousnesse of faith Rom. 1.17 For therein to wit in the Gospel is the righteousnesse of God revealed from faith to faith vers 18. for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men So circumcision the signe of sanctification is called the seal of the righteousnesse of faith Rom. 4.11 and the Apostle explaining himselfe Phil. 3.9 10. what that righteousnesse of God is which he would attain by the faith of Christ saith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead And both these are to be attained by Christ in which regard he is called the end of the Law for Righteousnesse sake to every one that beleeveth Rom. 10.4 And as he is given by the Father that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.4 so he is called the Lord our righteousnesse Jer. 23.6 as is the holy Ghost the heavenly Jerusalem also in its descention unto us called likewise Jehovah sidkena the Lord our righteousnesse Jerem. 34.16 which is that life the Saints hoped for Gal. 5.5 as was said before If any man find any other righteousnesse of God unto salvation mentioned cleerly in the Scriptures let him takn it for his labour for that one mans obedience whereby many shall be made righteous Rom. 5.19 is the obedience of Christ within us to be attained by faith for the fulfilling of the Law and the former of those two righteousnesses and not his obedrence without us Let every one take heed how he casts his own soul or make the souls of others depend upon any other righteousnesse of God which hath no footing for it in the holy Scriptures but though there is no outward obedience of Christ for us that is made our righteousnesse by the Lord yet by his passive obedience Saints that forsake sin and subdue it by his grace are redemed from the curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 By which he also perfects or completes for salvation those which are sanctified by faith in him Acts 26.18 Heb. 10.14 These things thus being opened and premised we shall appeal unto all that are godly-wise whether those that are desirous to be saved are not to work out their own righteousnesse and salvation by faith and obedience in Jesus Christ See Psalm 24.3 4 5 6. Isai 51.1 Harken unto me ye that follow after righteousnesse ye that seek the Lord chap. 56.1 Thus saith the Lord keep ye judgement and doe justice or righteousnesse for my salvation is neere and my righteousnesse ready to be revealed Phil. 2.12 13. Wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence only but much more in my absence so work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure See 1 Tim. 6.11 12. But thou O man of God flee those things and follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness fight the good sight of faith lay hold of eternal life David saith Psal 119.166 O Lord I have hoped for thy salvation and kept or done thy commandements and so must all do in Christ that will be saved Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that keep his commandements that they may have right to the tree of life and enter through the gate into the city But he goeth on and saith out of Job Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Not one Nor can this man bring any clean doctrine or pure wisdome unless by tradition from others out of his impure vessel Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin To which we answered before that this interrogation implieth paucity but not a nullity of such men witness that Text Is 55.3 Who hath beleeved our report But he saith page 23 by the new account That if my friends could produce but one such man and prove it then I would yield the bucklers But if we cannot produce any such man in our corrupt blind and unbelieving age shall our unbelief make the faith and promises of God of none effect for though it is true à posse ad esse non valet consequentia so it is as true that à non esse ad non posse fieri non est concludendum especially where we have Gods help ingaged by his promises if we will seek it But because we will now lay claim to the bucklers and that upon his clear and immediate promise we will shew him John with many his fellow-Apostles 1 Joh. 4.17 as was shewed before Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this present world we can also shew him many thousands as we have done before of such perfect ones even in this life Rev. 7.9 17. and 14.4 5 6. But here he produceth by the help of some good neighbours the testimonies of the Fathers for he never read them himself unto which
and commands and all exhortations spoken and pressed in the name of the Lord and those in speciall which tend to the purging out of all sin and the fulfilling of the Law in Christ yet are not only precepts but possible to the Saints as the said Augustine elswhere confesseth The School also saith and that truly Ultra posse viri non vult Deus ulla requiri God promiseth grace to fulfil all that he requireth Secondly he saith that many of those places of Scripture do shew us not what we are now in via in the way but what we shall be hereafter in patria at the end of our pilgrimage when we shall be freed from the imperfection of our flesh and clothed with the garment of perfect righteousnesse Yea they doe in a speciall manner shew us both what we are and what we should be now in via or here now yet it cannot fully be set forth what we shall be hereafter for as Paul speaks 1 Cor. 2.9 But as it is written eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Thirdly he saith that in many places the Scripture but he cannot produce one such terms them perfect and immaculate which have defiled their garments and polluted their consciences mark saith he not with no sins which is impossible but with no grosse sins or damnable enormities which as is said before is commendable But first we think the Vindicator alloweth no sin to be veniall but all mortal and damnable though not equally such Secondly we say that while any man pollutes his conscience he is neither called or accounted either perfect or immaculate by the Lord who is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity Haba 1.13 And thirdly what though all men have so defiled their garments for a time yet it is not impossible at length through grace to keep our souls and consciences so unspotted for so had Paul done 2 Cor. 1.12 and knowing that the like grace was attainable for others he prayed for it in their behalfe Phil. 1.10 11. that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Jesus Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousnesse 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly that your whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ See also Heb. 13.19 20. before cited Fourthly he saith the Scripture pronounceth men perfect blameless and blessed not because they have no sins but because their sins are not imputed unto them Psal 32.1 2. But we have shewed before that this not imputing is a purging them away by sanctification as well as a remission Further he saith and therefore though the Saints are called righteous and perfect not only in regard of the imputative righteousnesse which is wrought in them by the Spirit of Christ but we must understand in what sense the Saints are inherently called righteous for we must not think them to be so perfectly righteous as to be void of sin or to be justified in the sight of God because that together with the sanctification of the Saints there is still in them a remainder of original coruption by the touch and stain of which their best works are corrupted and defiled and therefore we say that though the Saints and holy men of God may and have lived sine scandalo without offence and page 29. sine querela without reproof and complaint on mans part by or in the observance of all outward principles yet it is impossible the best of them should live and die sine peccato without sin So he Unto all which we briefly answer that his distinction of imputative and inherent righteousnesse is vain for they are all one as we have shewed before Secondly the Saints are or ought to be so perfectly righteous by inherent righteousness as to be thereby justified in the sight of God whether the word be taken for a purging from sin as it is Acts 13.39 or for a positive righteousnesse as Titus 3.4 5 6. for there is no other way of justification in Christ unto eternal life spoken of in the Scriptures Thirdly we have proved before that there is not nor ought to be such a remainder of original corruption always found in the best Saints as to stain and corrupt their best works Lastly we have likewise asserted by clear Scriptures that the Saints through Christ not only may but should live here at the length not alone sine scandalo and querela but sine peccato without sin as well as without scandal or just reproof for to that end Christ gave himselfe Ephes 5.24 25 26. But he tels us in that 29 pag. that Rom. 4.1 2. is a remarkable place So it is indeed but not for his purpose to prove that Abraham lived and dyed an imperfect man and with some remainders of corruption in him which words ought to be thus translated as they lye in the Greek Text What shall we say then that Abraham our father hath found according to the flesh or in his unregenerate estate for if Abraham were justified by works to wit before not after grace received he hath whereof to glory but not before God as he proveth in the following verse but of this more in another place Then here he shews by a distinction that the Saints whom he holds to be always imperfect in this life may be in a four-fold sense called perfect First in regard of their intention and aime at and desire of perfection for resting in a good condition saith he is contrary to grace grow in grace But may not the Saints rest when they are at the end of their journey and race which is the final mortification of sin through faith according to Heb. 4.3 For we which have beleeved doe enter into rest Let him here who is tantus temporum observator such an observer of tenses before mark the tenses here for the work of beleeving is past and the entring into rest is present The Saints in heaven are doubtlesse in a good condition is it against grace for them to rest in it Secondly he saith that the Saints are perfect inchoatively and because they goe on more and more but inchoation and consummation are two remote terms or stations and progression may stand at a great distance from perfection and the end of the race at leastwise in the beginning and the middle of it Thirdly he saith they may be term'd so comparatively or in respect of other mens unrighteousnesse And fourthly acceptatively because God accepteth them though not absolutely just by the reason of manifold sins and defects yet in Christ and for Christ his sake through whom all our imperfections are pardoned as just and righteous men But by his leave God accepts no man no not in Christ otherwise then as he is according to his present inward state and growth hence
Law and afterward comforted from heaven with a hope of mercy to salvation witnessed in their consciences by the holy Ghost But the words of the Greek Text are commonly mistranslated Concerning the imperfection of hope he saith little to the purpose but what he saith implieth a contradiction in it selfe and to what he would assert also for he saith that the Apostle compareth hope to an anchor for the soul which is both sure and stedfast as the Apostle doth Heb. 6.19 and yet this saith he doth no ways prove our hope to be perfect for what greater perfection can there be in an anchor then to have it sure and stedfast and to stay and preserve us against all winds and storms of Satan which he confesseth that our hope doth Nor is it the anchor that reels to and fro as he absurdly speaks but that which lyeth at anchor or the Ship it selfe but at the distance and the whole length of a cable whence its mobility by the winds and storms doth arise and not from the anchor it selfe And as for charity he goes about page 32 to prove that it must be imperfect all this life long First because our knowledge here is imperfect and but in part It is saith he a Maxime among Divines tantum scimus quantum diligimus which he or some others for him doth English thus imperfect knowledge cannot produce perfect charity But though the English saying is true yet it is not the sense of the Maxime but rather this that we have so much divine experimental and saving knowledge as there is love found in us that knowledge being always accompanied with a proportionable love 1 Joh. 2.3 Hereby we know that we love God if we keep his commandements and verse 4. he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him True it is also which the Poet speaks quod latet ignotum est ignoti but not ignotae as he hath it nulla cupido things simply unknown cannot be loved yet is not our affection always towards men according to our knowledge or acquaintance with them as he affirms for knowledge and acquaintance may be without love But yet it is true also which he out of Bernard saith we can neither desire what we know not nor enjoy what we love not and that we shall love God with an absolute perfection in heaven because that we shall so know him and that with an experimental knowledge of his goodnesse But this hinders us not from so knowing him here as to love him above all which is the perfection of love here required of us Secondly he saith that perfect charity expelleth fear but there is no Saint here without feare Yet we have often shewed the contrary out of Luk. 1.74 75. and 1 Joh. 4.17 18. Thirdly he saith that perfect charity expels sin which he denys to be exterminable here because Saint James saith in many things we all offend chap. 3.1 2. Which is truly spoken of James of the whole race of our life not of our final and best attainments for in the same verse Saint James describes such a perfect man qualis invenire posset aut debet saying If any man sin not in a word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body But to fortifie his own cause he goeth about to disable the word of Christ saying Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man then this that he lay down his life for his friend which he saith is not yet perfect for men may doe this out of ambition and for vain-glorious ends and therefore saith he our Saviour doth not bring this to prove the perfection of our love but of his own toward us so far as might be understood by outward apprehension But there is a life which if he and others would lay down in love to the Father Son and the Holy Ghost and their friends whom they should perfectly love it would be an undeniable argument of the greatest and most perfect love towards God and that is not to offer our only son with Abraham or our own natural life but the life of sin and and that is the life which he would have us hate and lay down for his sake Matth. 10.39 Luk. 14.26 Joh. 12.25 Rev. 12.11 nor is there any other life that men can properly call theirs but the life of sin for the natural life and the spiritual life are Gods workmanship and gift but so is not sin And having thus to his power mutilated the words of Christ Joh. 15.13 he goes about likewise to doe Christ the like service where our Saviour saith Ye are my friends if ye doe whatsoever I command you of which this Iohn of Burson as if he affected to be herein an Antichrist saith This is an hypothetical proposition which can never prove his perfection of charity because we can never be able to perform the condition Doth Christ then give us false marks and mock-tokens to try our selves by whether we be his friends or no was not Abraham called the friend of God 2 Chron. 20.7 Isai 41.8 Iam. 2.23 and was it not upon this very score Gen. 26.5 because saith the Lord that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my commandements statutes and my charge This brought all blessings upon Abraham and his seed after him But he goes on saying For although Bellarmine saith Gods word may be kept that is fulfilled yet he proves it not If he did not he might easily have done it and for to say that Gods commandements are grievous and to say that we can keep them not is not the same saith he yes in the Apostles sense they are Joh. 5.3 4. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandements and his commandements are not grievous and he shews the reason of it in the two next verses to the confounding of both the Vindicators positions for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world to wit that world of sin opposite to the world of the Father of which sinful world he had spoken 1 John 2.15 16. And this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith For a thing saith the Vindicator may be very light yet heavier then I can bear Surely he is either a very weak man or this is a strong mistake but how doth he prove it The commandements saith he are just and holy and good Rom. 7.12 and the yoke of obedience is easie and light Matth. 11.30 Both these are true but the former of these doth not speak any thing of the lightnesse or heavinesse of Gods Law nor yet the latter unless it be to those that are weary of the yoke of sin and come to Christ and learn of him the lowlinesse and meeknesse and all other Christian virtues which are contrary to sin and which enable men to obey that Law Now whereas he would prove that these commandements of the moral Law are heavyer then we can bear
he brings out a testimony that speaks of the ceremonial Law especially which no man could bear or fulfill of himselfe though it was far lighter then the moral Law Act. 15.10 Now therefore why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither we nor our fathers were able to beare It is not saith he the priviledge of the Church militant to have no defect or imperfection remaining It is true of the Church collectively taken but we have proved before that some have ended their warfare here before they goe hence Isai 40.1 2. 2 Tim. 4.7 Ephe. 6.13 Here saith he we pray enter not into judgement with thy servants O Lord. O that my ways were so directed that I might learn thy statutes Make me a clean heart O God But doe the Saints pray so always to the end of their life They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Gal. 5.24 and Christ only lives in them Gal. 2.20 Here saith he we still find need of Christ who is our advocate with God the Father 1 Ioh. 2.12 But who are they that need him still as a propitiator or purger out of sin for Ioh. speaks there to the babes My little children and yet he speaks to them not to sin that is not to continue in sin and for that end he sets forth a helper of them there against sin as for the young men he saith that they had overcome the wicked one Ioh. 2.13 14. how much more had the old men so done Pag. 34. He tels us that what he hath before written may suffice to satisfie them whose eyes the God of this world hath not blinded That sin will have a being in the best of men so long as our souls have a being in these houses of clay But we dare conclude that if any man rest satisfied therewith in that point that his eyes were never yet truly opened to behold the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God 2 Cor. 4.4 But he prays all the faithful to joyn with him in supplications to God for his adversaries that they may see their own sins And so doe we also for our selves and reciprocally for him and them yet will not that follow that we shall be ashamed of our doctrine as he hopes we shall For we have not drawn the same from any such puddles as he is pleased to call them to wit Pelagius Bellarmine Baily Becanns the Jesuits or from the Adamites who conceived that they were renewed to Adams first purity unlesse he will have the second Adam as he cals Christ the Prophets and Apostles to be such Adamites Nor have we learned them from Romes fraternity now crept in amongst us who are as he saith well versed in the old trade of Arch-hereticks what is that even his own handicraft in falsifying of truth or Text rather for the truth may be denyed or abused but not falsified whatsoever he saith to the contrary to maintain lyes But he doth hope and so doe we also that God will discover such in due time by us or some other of his servants and in the interim keep his who are no patrons for sin nor latrons from the due observance of Gods Law by the help of Christ from being subverted by them But he goes on what men without sin saith he Yes the Angel shewed John many thousands that had been such upon the earth as we proved before out of Rev. 7.14 and 14.4 5 6. Yea John did demonstrate some such unto us before of his own society 1 Joh. 4.17 18. and 5.18 But he scoffingly saith it was happy for the woman that was taken in adultery that her accusers were not such as these preachers Why doe we professe our selves to be without sin But it will be found our fault and his also if we live and dye in our sins now that there is such a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Ierusalem for sin and for uncleannesse Zach. 13.1 And yet it will not follow that if there had been one yea many such impeccant persons there of which none are to be found among the proud and censorious Pharisees that the said delinquent should have had a volly of stones about her ears for who are more sensible of humane frailty then such as have passed through the same or who are more merciful then such as have obtained mercy to put away all cruelty pride and wickednesse through the help of Christ yet must Christs expresse commandements be observed But he comes upon us with the Apostles Creed saying What need is there to believe the Article of the forgivenesse of sin if men may live without sin True if they could come into this world live here many years and goe out again without commiting of sin But if sin that is once in cannot be purged out again nor the image of God renewed nor the Law fulfilled what need is there to beleeve in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and earth and in Iesus Christ his only son our Lord who is called Jesus because he came to save his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 and called Christ because he is anointed for that very work Isai 61.1 2 3 4. yea why doe we believe that he is risen again for our justification or regeneration Rom. 4.25 or in the Holy Ghost that there is an Holy catholick Church whom Christ came to sanctifie by the washing of water through the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing Epes 5.25 26 27. Pag. 34 35. he gives us this advice as a point of good religion To turn the Lords precepts into prayers and to say with holy David who a little before had his secret sins and his foul sins but now is called holy David Psalm 43.3 Send out O Lord thy light and thy truth and let them lead me into the holy mountain and unto thy Tabernacle and as is Psalm 143.10 Let thy good Spirit lead me into the land of righteousnesse To which we say it is a point of good religion indeed for as the whole duty of man by the testimony of Solomon consists herein to wit in fearing God and keeping his commandements Eccles 12.13 So his father David made the 119 Psalm which is the longest meditation extant in the whole book of Psalms a devout prayer for grace to understand and fulfill Gods Commandements and left it to the Church as an holy Alphabet to know their duty both of prayer and obedience thereby But would the Vindicator have men pray in faith or unbeliefe for if the thing be not possible to be had in this life they cannot pray for it in faith and if it is attainable his second position fals to the ground And if Gods light and truth must lead us into the mountain or tabernacle of his righteousnesse then all
it was not now for God saith he no nor ever will be to bend the rule of righteousnesse to the crookednesse of our affections that so he might make it answerable to our abilities yes through his promised and premised covenant of grace in Christ but rather to set down a straight rule not in favour of our sinful nature which he hateth but to expresse our whole duty though it be impossible for us after we have lost our ability to perform it What is it so now impossible after that a new supply of grace and assistance is vouchsafed if we seek it For saith he he that hath lent a thousand pounds may without injury demand it of them and when he knoweth that thou hast carelesly spent it and as a Bankrupt art not able to pay a penny which no merciful man will rigorously do unlesse it be to evidence his prodigality and folly so God having given us power to obey his precepts may at any time justly call for the performance of the same though he know that we by our sins have disabled our selves so much as to think a good thought But his thoughts herein are very evil for we have proved before that God cannot in justice and much lesse in mercy require of us that obedience for which we in our persons never received or could receive sufficient power to perform the same Ultra posse viri non vult Deus ulla requiri Pag. 59. he propounds another objection of his adversaries to wit that the regenerate have sufficientia principia operationis that is sufficient means and causes of well doing his soul being enlightned sanctified and assisted by Gods spirit and therefore he may perform what God requires And then he goes about to answer it with mincing the truth and extenuating Gods grace saying a regenerate man is enabled to doe good but not perfectly his undestanding being still obscured his will distempered and his power of doing good hindred by many lustful temptations and therefore these principles of operation being imperfect our actions which proceed from thence must needs be imperfect likewise which he proves with his old mistaken Scriptures Who can tell saith David how often he offendeth cleanse thou me from all my secret sins ye see saith he Saints have their secret sins and he himself wants not his open and manifest enormities I may quoth he have many sins and fail in many things which no man knows of we doubt it not nor yet my selfe which yet are known to God we cannot judge mens hearts Why then doth he judge ours for hypocrisie and carying on new pretended lights in a dark lanthorn for we know not our own it is Gods prerogative to search and try mens reins Jerem. 17.9 1 Joh. 3.20 and it is our duty with Nehemiah to pray chap. 13.12 accept mine obedience but pardon mine iniquity But the man of God doth not pray so there as we have shewed before though he had his former sins also A chosen vessel was compelled to say he knew nothing by himselfe yet was he not thereby justified of which before Thus ye see that his book is stuffed full of tautologies And this saith he may suffice for the clearing of the first branch of the second position Indeed it is pretty well cleared from probability of truth or piety But for further confirmation he dares appeal to any mans conscience that is no more careful then he is to keep it without offence to God and men how upon the consideration of Gods strict judgement and his own manifold infirmities he dare justifie himselfe in any one act not against God but before God But Abimeleck could do it as himself confessed before and Paul could do it for his habitual acts as we shewed before 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not in fleshly wisedome and much lesse fleshly lusts but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world And I doubt not saith he pag. 60. but the proudest heart would soon tremble and the boldest face save his own would blush and be ashamed to have his best works yea his prayer scanned by the strictnesse of Gods Law and justice But Job could say chap. 6.17 My face is foul with weeping and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death not for any injustice in mine hands also my prayer is pure Hath not the Lord promised Zephan 3.9 Then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may call upon the Lord to fear him with one shoulder or consent and Malach. 1.11 For from the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same my name shal be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered up unto me with a pure offering But he goes on yet more confidently saying And of the adversaries to this truth I require quâ demum authoritate this one thing that they will either produce a man and prove it that hath ever what doth he mean from his youth up without any corruption performed in his own person such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same Unto which we have answered that if ever we knew any such we should not be very forward to shew them to such unbelieving and envious spirits as he is of and we have produced many such already as Caleb Numb 4.24 Josh 14.6 John and his fellow-Apostles 1 Joh. 17.7 with many thousands more Or else saith he let them acknowledge their error with shame and forbear opposing the truth as Jannes and Jambres did Moses and disturbing the peace of Gods Church He might have said the Devils chappel if all the Ministers of Gods Church were like himself But as he is no living member of a true Church which is a congregation of Saints so neither doth our doctrine disturb but further the peace of the true Church of God Act. 9.32 Then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galatia and were edified and walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied To such Jorams or high-flown spirits as he is Iehu may answer what peace so long as the whoredomes of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many 2 Kings 9.21 for there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Isai 5.21 But he fears first by our malicious wickednesse in decrying sin and opposing Satans kingdom to set up Christs our sin may become unpardonable yet he saith that he shall pray for us as he doth for himself while he continueth in wickednesse not that God would be pleased to convince us of our errours and humble us in the sense of our sins and be merciful to our poor souls because we oppose his sinful positions But we pray that the Lord would vouchsafe him mercy in reality and truth so far as to turn him from his enterprise and then we are
sin in this life Secondly that there is a possibility of perfect obedience through the grace and help of Christ to the Law of God in this life It is true that if these two assertions be not coincident yet they consequently follow each other so that to prove one of them is to confirm the other for if sin by the grace of Christ be rooted out in this life what hinders but the Law of God may be here by the same grace fulfilled yea to be so fulfilled as to be justified thereby and that through Christ of grace given and if the Law of God may be so far fulfilled here through the grace of Christ as not tooffend against the same then doubtlesse all sins may be rooted out here by the same grace yet we shal confirm each of them apart with their respective branches both by divine and humane authority so fully and clearly that scarce any Article of the Christian faith shall have more evidence of truth and piety to plead for it then our positions shall produce for themselves And first for the former of them That all sin and corruption may be and ought to be in this life by the grace and help of Christ purged and rooted out of the Saints which we shall evince by many Topick places And first from Gods expresse commandements which if they were not possible by grace to be performed were not only unjust and unlawful but would be frustrated of their end which is observance and accomplishment and the Author of them would be argued of the want of wisedome or equity and of tyranny and cruelty Of which sort are these among many other Job 11.14 15. If iniquity be in thine hand put it far away and let not wickednesse dwel in thy Tabernacle for then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot yea thou shalt be stedfast and not fear Psal 4.4 Stand in aw and sin not Isal 1.16 Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before me cease to do evil and 55.11 Depart ye depart ye go ye out from thence touch no unclean thing go ye out of the midst of her be ye elean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Jeremiah 4.14 O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickednesse that thou mayst be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodg within thee Acts 22.16 And now why tarriest thou arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins by calling upon the name of the Lord 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new Lamp Ephes 4.20 21 22. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus Christ that ye put off as concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupting through the lusts of error or deceit Coloss 3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry for which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience 1 Thess 5.22 Abstain from all appearance of evil Heb. 10.21 22. Having a High Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with clean water Jam. 1.21 Wherefore lay apart all filthinesse and superfluity of naughtinesse and 4.8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you clense your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded 1 Pet. 2.1 Wherefore laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisie and envyings and evil speakings as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby vers 11. Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul and 4.1 2. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh so arm your selves with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin The second Topick is from the promises wherein sufficient grace is promised for the effecting that which is so often so clearly and fully required Isai 1.25 And I will turn mine hand upon thee and purely take away thy dross and purge away all thy tinne and 11.14 But with righteousnesse shall he judge the poor and with equity shall he reprove for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breach of his lips shall he slay the wicked and 25.7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people and the vail that is spread over all nations and 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins and 61.1 2 3. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bonnd Jere. 33.8 And I will clense them from all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and 50.20 In those dayes and at that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none Ezek. 36.25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and from all your filthiness and from all your abominations will I cleanse you Amos 9.8 Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon the kingdome of sin for so it is in the Hebrew and I will destroy it from the face of the earth Micah 7.14 He will turn again he will have compassion upon us who will subdue our iniquities And thou will cast all their sins into the depth of the sea the Lord will subdue them as he did the Canaanites and all other the enemies of David in his dayes so that there was neither adversary nor evill occurrent left in his son Solomon's entrance upon the kingdome 1 Kings 5.4 And will drown them as he did Pharaoh and his host of which not one escaped Zephan 3.13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies Zacha. 13.1 2. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness Malachi 3.2 3. But who may abide in the day of his coming to wit in the Spirit and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is as the refiners fire and as the fullers sope And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness and chap. 4.2 3. But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing under his wings and ye shall go up and grow as calves of the stall And
the remaining and prevalence of their sins and spiritual enemies to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God against his and our spiritual enemies to comfort all that mourn to appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garments of praise for the spirit of heavinesse that they may be called trees of righteousnesse the plantings of the Lord that he may be glorified See Luk. 4.18 19 20 21. Luk 1.74 That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear Tit. 3.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity in a purifying way and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 1 Joh. 3.8 He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil to wit by his spirit and power Rom. 16.20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Ephes 5.24 25 27. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and clense it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish The fifth Topick shall be the prayer that Christ his servants and his Apostles have made and thereby taught us to pray for this grace of a through purging from sin and victory over it and all temptations in this life who so prayed in faith that the things which they so prayed for might be obtained 1 Chron. 4.10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying Oh that thou wouldest blesse me indeed and wouldest enlarge my coast and that thy hand might be with me and that thou wouldst keep me or redeem me from evil that it might not grieve me and God saith the Text ' granted him that which he requested as he will do unto us Psal 55.10 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Hos 14.1 2. O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity take with you words and turn unto the Lord saying take away all iniquity and give good or receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips Mat. 6.13 And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil See Luk. 11.14 Joh. 17.15 I pray not saith Christ that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil 2 Cor. 13.7 Now I pray to God that ye do none evil Phil. 1.10 That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ 1 Thess 5.23 Now the God of peace sanctifie you wholly And I pray God that your whole Spirit soul and body may be kept or preserved blamelesse unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ The sixth Topick shall be the faith of the Apostles and of the elect in the Primitive Church which now and for many hundred years hath been almost quite lost in two grand benefits and works which they believed and hoped for This faith expected Christs spiritual coming and return with his Father and the Holy Ghost to set up his kingdom not only of grace but of power and glory in them here and for ever and in order thereunto they were to purge themselves by faith through his grace and help from all iniquity in the mean time as these following places do clearly witnesse and prove without all contradiction if duly looked into Joh. 14.18 I will not leave you comfortlesse I will come unto you yet a little while and the world seeth me no more but ye shall see me because I live ye shall live also At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and ye in me and I in you He that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him Judas saith unto him not Jscariot how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the world Jesus answered and said if any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him and chap. 16.22 And ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take away from you See Rom. 6.5 as before 1 Cor. 1.7 8. So that yecome behind in no gift waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also confirm you unto the end that ye may be blamelesse in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will finish or perform it till the day of Jesus Christ vers 10. that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Jesus Christ 1 Thess 5.23 be preserved unto the coming of our Lord Christ as before 1 Tim. 6.14 That thou keep this commandement without spot unrebukable untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Heb. 9.20 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation chap. 10.25 Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another so much the rather as you see the day approching vers 37. For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and he will not tarry Jam. 5.7 Be patient therefore brethren vers 8. be patient and stablish your heart for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh 1 Pet. 1.13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ All which places and many more to the like effect have absurdly been understood of Christs external last and dreadful coming to judgement which in so many ages since is not come to passe nor peradventure may arrive in many ages more whereas the former Texts speak of a day and an appearing or coming of Christ which the Saints were to expect and prepare themselves for in their dayes it being the kingdom of heaven which first John the Baptist and then Christ and his Apostles published to be at hand Mat. 3.21 and 4.17 which accordingly came to the Saints which waited for it in a right way Revela 12.10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven the Church of God wherein he dwels saying Now is
our faith for who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God The last Topick shall be the summe of all practical truth in Christ which Paul reduceth to two heads Ephes 4.20 21 22 23 24. as was said before But ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that ye put off concerning the former conversâ—tion the old man which is corrupting according to the deceitful lust and be ye renewed in the Spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth Then who holds out the truth of Christ we or the Vindicator let all wise men judge impartially between us Thus much for divine authority now for humane we shall first produce divers of the Fathers and some of those which the Vindicator or his friends for him have alledged against us to out-ballance him and then the authority of our own Church the best reformed of all the Protestant Churches in her established doctrine and late Liturgie For the first of these Justin Martyr in quaest respon ad Orthodoxos All men do sin not because we cannot do otherwise which appeareth from hence because all men are not intangled with all sorts of sins but some fall into these offences some into others and some men are involved with many sins some with fewer and some with none at all those of whom I spake before to wit Zacharie and Elizabeth Origen super Gen. homilia 11. But let us see how a man may be made the good savour of Christ sin is a filthy stinking thing In a word sinners are compared to swine wallowing who wallow in the filthy dung If there be any of you in whom there is no savour of sin but the savour of righteousness and the sweetness of mercifulness he is the sweet savour of Christ Cyprian serm de Baptism Christi The Law teach us to avoid sin it reproves transgressors and to the intent we should walk with washed and clean feet it foreshews all things that may offend and makes known unto us all diverticles whereby dangerous out-turnings and passages may be avoided it commands nothing that is impossible nothing that is austere or difficult Chrysos in 2 Cor. 11. homil 3. speaking of Abraham's prayer made to God in the behalf of the inhabitants of Sodom and the neighbouring cities which were to be destroyed Gen. 18. saith he that Abraham speaking there vers 27. by way of self-abasment before the Lord said Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes and thus he did Because saith Chrysostom Abraham at this time had no sin left therefore he flies unto nature it self and because the name of earth contains in it something that is honest and decorous in its kind he adds the word ashes thereunto Hieron in Epist He which desires to reign with Christ must of necessity be pure or clean from all naughtiness and guile if thou wilt have thy part or portion with Christ thou must live after Christs pattern if thou desirest the society of the Saints keep thy heart clean from the very thought of naughtiness and sin because the celestiall Court receives none but those that are holy chast simple innocent and pure Augustin de vera falsa poenitentia For he is first to be purged with the fire of purgation who deferreth the fruit of his conversion unto another world and albeit saith he this fire be not everlasting yet it is greivous after a wonderful manner for it exceedes all the pain that ever any man suffered in this life Therefore let every one so endeavour to amend his faults here that he may not have cause to endure such pain hereafter Here his exhortation and counsel is good though his ground concerning purgation wants an Index expurgatorius Idem in lib. de baptism par If it be demanded whether a man be without sin in this life I confess he may by grace of Christ and the right use of his free-will Greg. lib. 2. mara cap. 8. If we say that Job offended in his speech or words which were wickedness in us to think we should confess that God had lost the victory in his challenge or offer made to Satan concerning Jobs exposal to his sifting and trial Prosper in his book of senten ex Augustino As some parents do aggravate original sin so some do lighten or abate it but none doth take it away save he onely of whom it is said Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world to whom no good of man is impossible to work no evil is uncurable Unto which adde that saying of Bernards by the Vindicator quoted yet without his additional That kind of sin which so often troubles us I mean concupiscence and evill desires may and should be repressed by the grace of God so that they reign not in us and that we give not our members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin and then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Thus for the Testmony of the Fathers of which sort we shall alledge more in the confirmation of the second position Now for the doctrine of our English reformed Church heretofore established by law First in the Catechism is thus demanded and answered Q. What did your Godfathers and Godmothers then for you A. They did promise and vow three things in my name first that I should forsake the Devil and all his works the pomps and vanity of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh Secondly that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian faith And thirdly that I should keep Gods holy will and commandements and walk in the same all the dayes of my life Q. Dost thou not believe that thou art bound to believe and to do all as they have promised for thee A. Yes verily and by Gods help so I will and I heartily thank our heavenly Father that he hath called me unto this state of salvation through Jesus Christ our Saviour and I pray God to give me his grace that I may continue in the same unto my livesend And afterwards reciting the Lords prayer Q. What desirest thou in this prayer A. I desire my Lord God who is the giver of all goodness to send his grace unto me and unto all people that we may worship him serve him and obey him as we ought to do c. And that it would please him to save and defend us in all dangers Ghostly and bodily and that he will keep us from all sin and wickedness and from our Ghostly enemy and from everlasting death And this I trust he will do of his mercy and goodness through our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore I say Amen And afterwards concerning Baptism Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace
Arrias Montanus hath it and that from a special Author also Seventhly we would not have it slightly passed over which is written Numb 13.14 concerning the ten unbelieving spies who would neither encourage themselves nor others to go and fight against the Canaanites that so they might have inherited the promised land but disheartened themselves and others with the apprehension of impossibilities till they were excluded therefrom in the end ' for whatsoever was written in time past was written for our instruction Rom. 15.14 1 Cor. 10.6 Heb. 4.1 and so was the story of Bar-Jesus Elymas the Sorcerer Act. 13.6 who called himself Bar-Jesus that is the Son of Jesus and pretended to become a prophet but he opposed the true faith in Christ as the Vindicator and some others do seeking to turn away the Deputy Sergius Paulus from it and so perverted the right way of the Lord being an enemy to the true righteousness in which regard he is not onely called a false prophet and a sorcerer as his name importeth but smitten with blindness from which sin and all other as well as from the horrid effects thereof the Lord in his mercy preserve us all and let those in speciall find mercy at his hands who opposing the truth have done it ignorantly in unbeliefe 1 Tim. 1.13 Eighthly that a great part of the Clergy in this nation and no smal part of them in authority begin to decline from the Orthodox faith of our English reformed Church and to urge the rigid and turbulent opinions of Mr. John Knox the father of the Gomarists in Scotland whose doctrine and discipline in an hundred years space hath not brought forth so much reformation of life in that nation as our late erected Government hath done there though for the most part by awe and constaint Lastly that as this doctrine deviates from the Apostles faith Rom. 6.8 for if we be dead with him we believe that we shall live with him so it swerves from the right end of both the Sacraments for by baptism we are buried into the death of Christ that like as Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father even so we should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together into the similitude of his death so then shall we be into the likeness of his resurrection Rom. 6.5 6. and in the Lords supper we are to shew forth the Lords death in dying with him unto all iniquity until his coming again unto us in the power of his resurrection 1 Cor. 11.26 Which two estates are by the Vindicators doctrine opposed as things of impossible attainment in this life and so the summe of the Gospel the right belief and true Christian race hereby denied decried and openly opposed in this Vindication by which the Vindicator hath verified as if his name were ominous in reference to his design another anagram of his Name O hindring net God hath his net and so hath the Devil Both nets are daily us'd about the evil Gods net draws fish out of the sea of sin The Mare clausum Satan casts them in Where Satans drudger-man is still impli'd To watch and draw Gods fish on his shore side This work to do John Tendring he is set To plead for sin hence call'd O hindring net True Doctrine is Gods net his fisher men Are ministers of righteousness and then False doctrine must be Satans net to draw Men from their due observance of Gods law By which they love to God and man forget And such thy book doth prove O hindring net Having finished also the catasceuastical part of our Revindication in the next pirce we shall presume to offer some Queries because we desire to lay open our hearts and minds for the trueths cause to such as are held to censure and rashly to judge of those whom they beleive are contrary-minded unto themselves 1. Querie Whether do you or any of you pretend to an infallible Spirit whereby you do not nor can erre in what you affirm or deny to be divine truth according to the Records commonly called the Scriptures The reason is because the late Synod confessed cap. 31. of their Confession that Councels and Synods have erred as themselves have done else why do they not answer the Examen against it in the materal points out of pity to the examiners who pitied them to undeceive them and the well-meaning people Secondly because if it be true as aforesaid then why do the Committees for trying in one place and ejection in every County though some are more moderate then others put the Article at the foot of other Articles That he is ignorantand insufficient for the work of the Ministry when sometimes the person the said article is put upon is a grave Doctor of Divinity and may be their catechisers Father for age in years and learning Thirdly because many are put out and others kept out of a livelyhood in the way themselves live and grow with other additionals rich by because they cannot ex consciencià subscribe and own their masters opinions Et jurare in verba magistri and yet these masters by their own confession may erre as their masters did whose servants were the miser men John 7.45 46 47 48 49. 2. Querie What do you aim at in your preaching with such bitterness especially in Wilts against us whether to maintain a combination and faction of self interest or that the people you preach unto may live a peacable and most holy life and their souls saved in the day of the Lord. The reason of this Querie is because the Apostle saith James 1.14 If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not also you lye against the truth and vers 16. where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work vers 17. and that the fruit of righteousnesse sown in peace of them that make peace Therefore Heb. 11.14 the Apostle saith follow peace with all men without which none shalt see God 3. Querie Whether such doctrines as hold out a possibility of a total mortification of sinne through the grace and help of Christ and a perfect obedience to the Law of God are not the Doctrines which do perswade people to live that most holy life but lead men as some have said from Heaven to Hell if Hell be where no sin nor unclean thing can come and Heaven be where much sinne will remain it is confessed according to the Vindicators attestation and position The reason of this Querie is offered by reason we have heard from an intelligent and present hearer thereof that a Minister in Salisbury but it is said he was late a New-England man did pray to God in his ignorant real before many people that he might never believe such a doctrine as a possibilty of a total mortification of sin in this life And we pray God of his mercy not to say Amen to his prayer but pray unto the Lord Jesus for him or
interpretation of two other Scriptures namely Isai 64.6 Phil. 3.10 which are much abused and prophaned too frequently and of late by Mr. Ditton and Mr. Phelps Grandees in the Committee of Wilts for ejection c. and have been fierce men against us for that purpose in a letter to a person of Honour and of better divine principles then themselves for in the said letter they declare that the true Church of God doth account all her righteousnesse to be as filthy rags and do specifie Isai 64.6 for their warrant but with their good Worships favour we confidently deny it yet not without reasons but first from the relative respect wherein the 6 ver standeth unto the 5. ver which said two verses are disposed together in a compound discrete axiom thus Thou meetest him who rejoyceth and worketh righteousnesse those that remember thee in thy ways behold thou art wroth for we have sinned in those is continuance and we shall be saved ver 5. But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesse is as filthy rags and we do fade like a leaf our iniquities like the wind have taken us away ver 6. Here we may evidently perceive the righteousnesse in the 5 ver is set in a dissentany respect with the righteousnesse in the 6. ver and is so to be disposed by the particle but in the 5 ver as both of them are to be considered and judged together in the form of a discrete axiom of which that particle But is the signe Now in a discrete axiom the parts are dissentanies or disagreers Hence the righteousnesse in the 6. ver is not the same with that in the 5. ver because disagreers are not thesame Secondly in a discrete axiom the disagreeing parts which are here disagreeing adjuncts to their subject do but disagree in some Logical or accidental respect unto their subjects which argueth that though their natures in abstracto are opposites yet they do but so disagree in reference to each others subject as they can likewise agree to be upon occasion in eithers subjects For instance they which had the righteousnesse as filthy rags ver 6. might have had that righteousnesse ver 5. which God who rejoyceth not in filthinesse doth rejoyce in and meeteth them who work it ver 5. yet still those two righteousnesses are not the same in those two said verses because they are disposed in a discrete axiom which doth comprehend disagreeing parts otherwise the axiom in a discrete form is ridiculous as for instance rationality and risibility are agreeing respects or arguments to man because he is a risible as well as rational though not by the same way or from the same principle Now to dispose them in a compound discrete axiom saying a man is a rational but a risible creature it were but ridiculous to wise men to say so Hence we conclude that the righteousnesse in the 5. ver is not the same with that in the 6. ver because they are discretely or diversly disposed in a discrete axiom as aforesaid And therefore it cannot be that the Churches best righteousnesse is as filthy rags Secondly it cannot be so because it is said God meeteth them who work that righteousness v. 5. for God loveth not wickedness neither can evil dwell with him Psal 4.4 But we shall presume to mind them of divers Scriptures which will demonstrate the said opinion of the true Churches best righteousnesse to be most impious It is said Ephes 5.27 28. that Christ sanctifieth and cleanseth his Church with the washing of water by the word that it may be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing holy and without blemish and is the righteousness of this Church as filthy rags It is said Is 4.3 4. That it shall come to pass that he who is left in Sion and he that remaineth in Ierusalem shall be called holy and when namely v. 4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughter of Sion c. by the spirit of judgment and spirit of burning and what will the righteousness of these holy ones be still as filthy rags It is said 2 Cor. 3.18 of the true Church that they are changed into the image of Christ from glory to glory as by the Spirit and is their best righteousness as filthy rags It is Christs testimony to his Church his Spouse Cant. 1.8 10 11. and 4.1 Thou art all fair my love there is no spot in thee Christ doth not say in himself but in thee and is her righteousness yet as filthy rags what cannot the Lord discern or is he so partial that he will not see it or say it is so if it be as filthy rags but say to his Church or Spouse thou art all fair there is no spot nor wrinkle in thee Can. 4.4 It is said 1 Cor. 6.11 of those that they were washed sanctified justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of my God and was all their righteousness but as filthy rags It is said Rev. 19.8 The fine linnen with which the Saints are clothed is the righteousness of the Saints and is that fine linnen filthy rags see what is said Rev. 2.5 And what is the new man created after God in righteousness and true holiness which the Ephesians were exhorted to put on Ephes 4.23 was it but as filthy rags If the late Doctor Drayton had spoken as blasphemous doctrines as his Judges and Examiners have done he had been deservedly accounted ignorant and insufficient for the work of the Ministry but sic fata volunt that the ignorant ofttimes sit in the chair and the intelligent stand at Barre But they say further that our great Apostle did ' count all his own righteousness as loss and dung Phil. 3.9 10. He did indeed account all his Pharisaical righteousness in which he had boasted himself with a Pharisaical devotion and zeal but loss and dung Phil. 3.3.45 which he calleth ' the righteousness of the law without the faith of Christ v. 4 5 6. but did he acknowledge the righteousness he had attained unto by an operative faith which giveth victory over the world 1 John 5.4 as filthy rags What was the righteousness to which the crown was promised him and all who loved the appearing of Christ was that righteousness we ask again but loss and dung Paul fought a good fight indeed he finished a fair course in such a righteousness and he kept a fruitful faith indeed which brought him to no more righteousness but that which is but dung and loss O but it is said he called it so in comparison of Christs righteousness or that which he had by faith in Christ It is true he saith that ' he desires to be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ even the righteousness of God by faith v. 9. It s worth observing what expressions Paul useth in that
Divines as it s reported told the said Synod that they were not sent to debate that rigid and horrid question of absolute reprobation but that well-pleasing question of absolute love and election of God to some who be from all eternity elected though from the demonstration of this any of ordinary capacity might easily conclude what they must needs think concerning reprobates and their reprobation We say again if Synods are called and convened as aforesaid we cannot expect Gods blessing upon their endeavours how specious soever their meeting seemeth to be For all such as God will blesse to such a work must be unbiassed and holy men of God besides their acquired learning for only such will say if allured or threatned by higher powers as the Apostles did to the rulers Act. 4.19 whether we should obey God or you judge ye 12. Querie Whether it be a sinne to pray for grace and help from Christ to live here without sinne and in perfect obedience to all and every one of Gods commandements which consist in our operative love to God and man Matth. 22.37 to 41. The reason because the doctrine of perfection is deemed an innovation and heresie and to pray therefore for such a thing must be evill 13. Qu. Whether if we ought to pray as aforesaid it be a sinne in any of the Saints to believe and expect that God will give grace and help by Christ unto such praying Saints to live without sinne and transgression to his laws in this life as aforesaid 14. Qu. Whether it can be demonstrated clearly out of Scriptures for it s often affirmed to be so that what Adam received of God for himself he received as a common root and by vertue of a covenant of God with Adam relating thereunto for all mankind and what he lost in himself by his personal sinne he lost likewise for all his posterity and they must for ever lose the same without they repent of Adam's sinne and saved by an absolute decree of election Our reasons of this Querie are these First because it will then follow that if Adam had stood in his integrity as he might have done untill he had had a child of thirty years of age which might have lived a most holy life as Enoch did on earth yet upon Adam's fall or transgression afterward his said child or children must have lost all and been inwardly defiled with Adam's sinne and under the condemnation for it though untill that very time they had lived most innocently in personal obedience to all Gods lawes for many say without book because God did as they say so covenant with Adam that what he lost by transgression he and his posterity should lose ipso facto the same and his posterity be as truly defiled with his sinne as himself Secondly because if it be so as aforesaid then in case Adam had stood and persevered in obedience to his lives end as he might have done for it is said James 1.13 14. God tempts no man to sin but that every man is drawn aside of his own concupiscence then though his posterity yea hitherto had broken Gods righteous laws yet the just God must not have been angry with them nor punished them as sinners because Adam himself did not sinne in whom the Lord as they say made such a covenant as aforesaid and therefore what he received and did not forfeit by his own transgression they must likewise receive and must not lose by vertue of the said covenant with Adam notwithstanding their personal frequent rebellious and disobedience Orighteous God cause us to see and consider what dangerous sequels may be inferred directly opposite to thy justice and mercy from such a fictitious covenant as is pretended by many Divines that God made with Adam for himself and all his posterity 15. Querie What dishonour and wrong is offered to Gods justice and mercy or to any attribute of God by unbelieving and disowning the old tradition of original sinne from the first personal Adam Let the more zealous then considerate defenders of it produce the clear Scriptures to prove that our denial of it doth wrong Gods justice and mercy that so he may be justified in his saying and pure when he judgeth according to the said tradition 16. Querie What cause have parents to quarrel or grieve that they hear their children be born innocent and fit members for the kingdome of heaven Matth. 19.14 15. Matth. 18.3 let them produce Scripture plainly to prove that its more for Gods honour to ordain them to come into the world as firebrands of hell the reason is because St. James telleth us ' mercy rejoyceth over judgment and the Psalmist saith Psal 14.59 that ' Gods tender mercies are over all his workes which in the foresaid case of being under wrath for Adam's sinne cannot be rightly attested and declared and Is 57.16 ' the Lord maketh the souls and also the Lord restored Adam into his favour from his guilt c. before he had any children therefore if Adam's posterity were under the condemnation for his sinne the mercies of God are much obscured towards the posterity of Adam 17. Querie What honour and excellency is taken from Christs merits and saving grace by declaring that our justification or making righteous is from Christ within us Col. 1.27 not without us and from his saving grace communicated to us in our obedience to his laws The reason of this Qu. is because there is so much pleading that our justification is by Christs imputative righteousness residing in himself and not communicated to us but putatively onely and so our pollution may remain still if we be justified in Christ by the said external imputation of his righteousness onely for there is no inward cleansing by that means communicated unto us And peradventure the observing of the common transgressions committed by most men yea professors of religion like those Tit. 1.16 very frequently first brought in the imbelief because men ' resist not striving unto blood against sinne Heb. 12.4 that all our sinnes cannot be purged away in this life we say the observing and believing as aforesaid brought in without doubt the perswasion of a justification by Christs righteousness imputed onely to us and not by inherent righteousness within us that we might have quiet consciences notwithstanding our iniquities 〈◊〉 us in our faces by dreaming we are justified by 〈◊〉 imputative righteousness without us and not wrought in us through our obedience by the help of his grace and holy Spirit 18. Qu. Whether these who cry out against others for heresies and blasphemous opinions ought not to be sure before that they are so lest it be retorted on them as Paul did against his contenders Act. 24.14 by the way that ' you call heresie so worship we the Lord our God and especially to be careful they are sree themselves from all heresie for Turpe est doctori cùm culpa redarguit ipsum 19. Qu. Whether the Lord
he cast into the Sea then that he should offend a little one 9. Qu. What is meant by that Math. 7.2 where ' it is said With what measure thou metest it shall be meted unto thee again 10. Qu. What is meant by the false ballance Prov. 11.1 ' where it is said A false ballance is an abomination to God but a just weight is his delight See Prov. 16.16 20.10 Levit. 19.35 36. The reason of this Querie is because ' it is said Dan. 5.27 that the King was weighed in the ballance and found too light therefore other things are weighed besides natural or artificial things 11. Qu. What doth the Psalmist mean by those words ' Psal 119.126 It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy Law 12. Qu. What is the scope and intent of the Lord in those words Mal. 2.8 9. Ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts v. 9. Therefore have I made you contemptible and base before all according as you have not kept my ways but the people have been partial in my Law 13. Qu. What did David mean by that 1 Sam. 26.19 For they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying go serve other Gods 14. Qu. What is meant Heb. 8.10 11. After those days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people v. 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me from the least unto the greatest 15. Qu. What is the meaning of those words of the Psalmist Psal 119.98 99 100. Thou through thy commandements hast made me wiser then my enemies for they are ever with me v. 99. I have more understanding then all my teachers for thy testimonies are my meditations v. 100. I understand more then the ancients because I keep thy precepts 16. Qu. What is the meaning of that 2 Cor. 8.13 Not that one should be eased and another burdened but that there may be equality 17. Qu. What is the meaning of that Ezek. 17.18 19. The reason is because of the sore threatning declared by the Prophet for breaking oath with the King of Babel and we see that the Lord calleth it the despising of his oath and the breaking of covenant with him What will the Lords displeasure be lesse against such who have lifted their hands to him to reform in doctrine and discipline according to the word of God Exitus actu probabit what will you do in the latter end thereof Jer. 30.23 24. 18. Qu. What is the meaning of that Revel 2.2 3 4 5 6. The reason is because the Lord threatens to remove the Candlestick unlesse they repented for that they had left their first love 19. Qu. What is the meaning of that Jam. 1.20 where it is said The wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousnesse of God 20. Qu. What doth the Apostle mean v. 26. where he saith If any seem to be religious and refrain not his tongue that mans religion is in vain 21. Qu. What is meant by that Math. 23.25 where it is said These things thou oughtest to have done and not to have left the other undone 22. Qu. What is the meaning of that Jam. 2.7 where it is said 'Faith without works is a dead faith The reason is because we are said by many to be justified by faith alone without works which if so then we are justified by a dead faith according to St. James and its contrary to the justification of Abraham v. 21 22. 21. Qu. What is the meaning of that Gal. 6.1 Brethren if a man fall by an occasion you who are spiritual restore such a one with the spirit of meekness considering thou thy self maist be tempted one way or another The reason of this Querie is because of that mentioned v. 1. Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ Rom. 15.1 You that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak which are but such for a time 1 John 2.12 13 14. 22. Qu. What is the meaning of that 1 Cor. 15.26 where it is said ' The last enemie which shall be destroyed is death The reason is first because it s said v. 25. ' Christ must reign untill he hath put all his enemies under his feet and death is said there to be the last therefore what death is meant there is worthy of Divines enquiry Secondly if it be so that death is the last enemy then all sin must be destroyed before death come and so sinne shall not remain in all Saints as long as they live 23. Qu. What is the meaning of that 1 Cor. 11. v. 26. where it is said So ost as you eat c. you shew forth the Lords death untill he come The reason of this Querie is because it is spoken to every one who rightly receiveth the Lords Supper and if so it cannot be meant of his last coming which is so much spoken of among Divines 24. Qu. What is the meaning of that Luk. 18.8 where it is said ' When the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth The reason of this Querie is because we believe that it is not likely to be meant of the rarity of the faith to be-lieve that Christ came to save sinners or that he was made man to suffer for our sinnes 25. Qu. What is the meaning of that Rom. 8.4 where it is said That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The reason of this Querie is because it is usually affirmed that Christ hath fulfilled all righteousness of the law for us and the Apostle saith that it might be fulfilled in us 26. Qu. What is the meaning of that Mark 16.17 18. And these signs shall follow them that believe In my name shall they cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly poyson it shall not hurt them and they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover The reason of this Querie is because these signs are declared to follow not the Apostles who were to preach the belief in their order every believer as to know â—hether they believe a right or not which is set down ver 16. to be of that ' necessity that he who believeth not shall be damned therefore it concerneth us much to know whether we believe aright yea or not hence these signs shall follow them which believe and the believers shall do these ensuing things in their order It doth therefore concern us to find out what is contained under those stupendious expressions that every