marrying have shewed that as omnia prius tentanda quam belle expertendum so all means should be used first to get the gift of continency before people incurre the wants cares burthens sorrows and distractions of the marriage yoke Secondly since our first parents were not joyned together till both were settled in the Image of God that the Lord might have a godly seed upon earth Mal. 2.15 you might have declared that not only maturity of judgement but that grace and regeneration especially in the Church of God is first to be sought before an husband or wife that they may live in the fear of God together and bring up their seed in that fear Thirdly you speak nothing of the advise and consent which children should ask of their wife and godly parents and guarcians before they dispose of themselves in marriage Fourthly in setting forth the ends why marriage was Instituted you have omitted the maine which the old rejected Liturgy did not forge to wit that it was ordained for a figure and representation of the mistical union betwixt Christ and his Church and that therein it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great mystery a kinde of Sacrament of which hereafter Fifthly you are silent concerning the reciprocall duties of the marryed persons such as cohabitation 1 Pet. 3.7 mutual benevolence 1 Cor. 7.2 3. of abstinence sometimes either by consent 1 Cor. 7.5 or by injunction from the Lord Levit. 18.19 nor do you set forth either the duties of husbands to their wives or of wives toward their husbands in their specials or particulars Lastly you set not forth this That persons may commit spiritual adultery against God even in marrying while their hearts are more set upon the pleasures of carnall copulation then upon spiritual communion with God The mistakes which we would represent unto you are these First you say That those which profess the true reformed Religion should not marry with Infidels where we desire your advised resolution to these two things since there are several Religions each by their own respective professors accounted the true reformed Religion which of these will you pitch upon Lutheran Calvinistical Socinian Attainian the English formerly established by law all which are different To say nothing of the subordinate Sects of Antinomians Seperatists Anchaptists Independants Levellers Illuminates Ranters or Gods of Godmanchester with their adherents Secondly wherein doth he that professeth the reformed Religion and yet is in the state of unregeneracy and unbelief yea perhaps of a most profane heart and life deserve so well that he may not marry with an Infidel many of the Heathen whom you account infidels being men of better life and more truly conscientious though they know not Christ in the flesh then thousands that are called Christians and living in the Cities and Countries of the reformed as you call them Secondly you say That such professors of the true reformed Religion may not intermarry with Papists Why we pray you Because the Lord reproves Judah for marrying the daughter of a strange god Mal. 2.11 But do not the Papists believe in the same God with the Protestants even in the Father the Son and the holy Ghost though they differ in some articles or branches of articles of their belief and in their way of worship Yea are not some of the Papists regenerate conscientious and vertuous persons If then the Protestant and Papists be both Saints or sanctified persons then they have both one Father in Heaven If they be both unregenerate the divel is yet father to them both But you will say that difference in judgment must needs breed alienation in affection disturbance in the service of God if not seducement We answer that first it is the similitude of natures and dispositions which conciliates love Secondly they may take one another upon those termes of not intermedling with each others Religion Thirdly why may there not be a toleration of different judgements in the family as well as in the Church or Commonwealth Lastly you say that those professors of the true reformed may not marry with any other Idolaters Do you mean any other Idolaters then themselves for all men till by regeneration they be brought to know God and serve the living God in his living righteousness are Idolaters Is not Satan the God of this world 2 Cor. 4.4 The Covetous man is an Idolater Eph. 5.5 So are they that make their belly their God Phil. 3.19 as some of the Clergy themselves do serving their own bellies and not the Lord Christ and the Apostle saith That they which cause divisious and offences are of that number Rom. 16.17 18. All that serve the pleasures and desires of the flesh more then God are Idolaters Eph 2.3 Tit. 3.3 may not the people make an Idol of Monarchy or some other Government of a King a Parliament of an Army or any other civil thing Yea may not a jealous people and religious in their way make an Idol of a Shepherd or teacher See Zac. 11.17 may they not make an Idol of an outward day as outward worship or the like but peradventure you can espie Idolatry no where but in the Mass or the worshiping of Saints or of Images made of wood stone gold silver c. if these Idolaters be so frequent ubiquitary where shal the professors of the reformed Religion marry and yet shun Idolatrous yoak fellows must they go out of the world as the Apostles speaks 1 Cor. 5.10 For those that worship the living God in spirit and truth are very rare persons though some such are to be found even among Jews Turks and Heathens CHAP. XXV Of the Visible Church THE Catholick or Vniversal Church which is invisible consists of the whole number of the Elect that have been are or shall be gathered into one under Christ the Head thereof and is the Spouse the Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all a Ephes 1. ◠10 22 23 Ephes 5.23 27 32. Col 1.18 II. The Visible Church which is the Catholick or Vniversal under the Gospel not confined to one Nation as before under the Law consists of all those throughout the World that profess the true Religion b 1 Cor 1.1 1 Cor 12.12 13. Psal 2.8 Rev 7.4 Ro 15.9 10 11 12. and of their children c 1 Cor 7 14. Acts 2.39 Ezek 16.20 21. Rom 10.16 Gen 3.15 Gen 17.7 and is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ d Mat 13 47 Isaiah 9.7 the House and Family of God e Thes 2.19 Thes 3 15. out of which there is no ordinary possibility of Salvation f Acts 2.47 III. Vnto this Catholick Visible Church Christ hath given the Ministery Oracles and Ordinances of God for the gathering and perfecting of the Saints in this life to the end of the World and doth by his own presence and spirit according to his promise make them effectual thereunto g 1 Cor 12.18 Eph 4.11.12
further recite in this Chapter must be necessarily thus understood to wit conditionally of those that are but inchoatively adopted and absolutely of such onely as have accomplished the conditions of the premises And therefore you have here adopted many errours for truth though you have spoken some truth also at unawares as That all those that are justified God vouchsafeth in and for his onely Son Jesus Christ to make partakers of the grace of Adoption This is most true of those whom God hath justified in our sense that is purged from all corruption by the blood and spirit of Jesus Christ for such and such onely are absolutely and finally adopted and enjoy all the liberties and prerogatives here by you set forth But if you here understand initiated adoption it precedes justification taken both in your sense and ours and so your affirmation is erroneous It is true also that all they who are adopted in any measure are taken into the number of Gods Children for the present but the younger and weaker sort may by their unthankfulness for so great a grace by their future rebellions and Apostacy be abdicated and cast off for ever 1 Chronicles 28.9 Romans 11.22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them that fell severity but toward thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou shalt be cut off Deuteronomy 32.19 When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and daughters Thus the Lord maketh all the regenerate partakers of the grace of conditional adoption but onely the third sort of final adoption yet all these are protected by the Father and provided for as children while they continue children but not otherwise all likewise have access to the throne of grace which is Christ Jesus who are brought to know him and beleeve in his name and who persist in that their faith and in good will but none other neither they which yet know him not nor such as by apostacy crucifie him afresh Acts 6.6 Hebrews 10.27 28 29. Wherefore Let all those who are incoatively adopted bless God for that estate and rejoyce in it Galatians 4.6 And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son whereby ye cry Abba Father 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God Yet let us remember it is but a conditional estate at the first and a long time after Rom. 8.15 16.17 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirits that we are the the children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him And to the end that we may obtain a final and absolute adoption â—et us fulfil the condition thereunto required 2 Corinthians 6.17 1â— Wherefore come ye out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lâ—â—d and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a father unto you and 〈◊〉 shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty See also what the Apostle infers thereupon 2 Corinthians 7.1 2 Having therefore these promises my beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting our holiness in the fear of God CHAP. XIII Of sanctification THEY that are effectually called and regenerated having a new heart and a new spirit created in them are further sanctified really and personally through the vertue of Christs death and resurrection a 1 Cor 6.11 Acts 20.32 Phil 3.10 Ro 6.5 6. by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them b Joh 17.17 Eph 5.26 2 Thes 2.13 the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed c Rom 6.6.13 and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakned and mortified d Gal 5.24 Rom 8.13 and they more and more quickned and strengthened in all saving graces e Col 1.11 Eph 3.16 17 18. to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord f 2 Cor 7.1 Heb 12.13 II. This sanctification is throughout in the whole man g 1 Thes 5.23 yet imperfect in this life there abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part h 1 Joh 1.10 Rom 7.18 23. Phil 3.12 whence ariseth a continual and irreconcileable War the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh i Gal 5.17 1 Pet 2.11 III. In which war although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail k Rom 7.23 yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ the regenerate part doth overcome l Ro 6.14 1 Joh 5.4 Eph 5.4 16. and so the Saints grow in grace m 2 Pet 3.18 perfecting holiness in the fear of God n 2 Cor 7.1 CHAP. XIII Of Sanctification examined HAving already spoken of Justification this whole Chapter of sanctification which is but the Christening of the same thing with a new name as we have shewed before might have been superseded and as the whole discourse is superfluous so many of your erroneous and unsanctified assertions such as those which follow might profitably have been omitted As first where you say in the first Section That all they who are effectually called and regenerated have a new heart and a new spirit created in them whereas many are called and that earnestly and effectually on the Lords part as we have shewed â—lready who admitt of no change of will and affections through their own obstinacy and though all that are truly changed receive at the first a new frame of heart will and disposition yet they do not by and by receive a new heart and a new Spirit in the sense of the holy Prophets for Ezekiel shewes That not onely clean water must be poured down upon us but that we must be cleansed from all our filthiness and abomination before we can have a new heart and a new spirit created in us nor is the stony heart wholly taken from us and an heart of flesh wholly given unto us till then But this is the peculiar estate of such Saints or sanctified ones as have attained the third and last degree of regeneration when Christ according to the spirit is risen up in them as we shewed before See Ezek. 36.25 26. Of these the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.17 Old things are passed away behold all things are become new See Revel 21.3 4 5 of those to whom the new Jerusalem is come Secondly whereas you say That such persons are sanctified through the vertue of Christs death it is another great mistake for though the vertue of his death is great and of inestimable value to take away the guilt of sin and remove the curse from us
preaching of Noah 2 Pet. 2.5 or extraordinarily by Angels Dreams Visions Inspirations and the like revealed his will to the Prophets and Apostles of old you are very much mistaken For as Gods arm is not now shortened so neither is his care good will and love towards the sons of men changed He hath of late as elsewhere so in Wirtembergh spoken to a servant of his by an Angel and forewarned them of the return and reinvasion of the Turks to chastise all those parts of Europe for their wickedness And for raising up of Prophets upon special occasion consider these ensuing Scriptures among many others Numb 12.6 If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream Where the Lord speaketh of that which is his usual course and practise and that which he will continue to do Isai 59.21 As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Amos 3.7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he first revealeth his secrets to his servants the Prophets Joel 2.28 29. And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your Daughters shall Prophefie and your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions c. Matth. 28.34 Wherefore behold I send unto you Prophets and wise men and Scribes and some of them yee shall kill c. Rev. 6 9 10 11. Among other things to come John saw when Christ had opened the fift seal under the Altar the soules of them lying which were slain for the word of God and for the Testimony which they held c. and heard that more of them should be slain Now this their Testimony is not onely called the Testimony of Jesus Christ Rev. 12.17 but also the Spirit of prophesie it self Rev. 9 10. Even when Babylon is not onely come to her height but her downfal also there are Apostles and Prophets found in the Church who are called to rejoyce at her overthrow Rev. 18.20 Rejoyce over her thou Heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her see also vers 24. For in her was found the blood of holy Prophets and of Saints and of all that are slain upon the Earth To all which add that of Wisdom 7.27 For shee that is Wisdom being but one can do all things and remaining in her self she maketh all things new and in all ages entring into holy souls she makes them friends of God and Prophets Out of all which and many Scriptures more it is evident that the Lord wil have Prophets in all ages and especially when he is about to bring extraordinary Judgments upon the World in generall and the Churches in speciall and that the last times shall abound most of all with the prophetical Spirit so that these extraordinary ways of Gods revealing himself neither are ceased nor shall determine in the Militant Church Secondly in the third Section you Words are these The Books commonly called Apocrypha not being of Divine inspiration are no part of the Canon of the Scriptures and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of then other humane Writings Where we cannot but wonder at three things First that you should equal those Books to other humane Writings without any discrimination for you know that some humane Writings are prophane some meerly fabulous some obscene some impious some blasphemous and some Atheistical Secondly that you should give the Books in the generall commonly called Apocryphal no preheminence above other humane Writings since you know that they cannot only plead their Antiquity but Gods special preservation that the Church and Saints have bin their Treasurers and Library keepers that they have been bound up and translated in various Languages with the other Oracles of God which by all are acknowledged Canonicall that they have been allowed and appointed to be read not only in private but publickly Nor are you ignorant what an high esteem both Saint Augustine and other Fathers had of them above all humane Writings though they did not hold them coequal every way with those commonly called Canonicall And lastly we marvail that you should use no distinction at all concerning these Books but pass the same censure upon them all alike Since that the Book of Tobit or Tobias is extant in the Hebrew as wel as Greek and Latin the Book of Ecclesiasticus was translated out of the Hebrew text by Jesus the son of Sirach as himself confesseth This Book with the Book of Wisdom breaths forth such a spirit of Wisdom and Holiness that it may be said Non vox hominem sonat that it transcends all humane capacity To say nothing that the words which the Apostle hath Hebrews chap. 1. vers 3. Who being the brightness of his glory and the express Image of his person c. seem to be taken out of the 7 chap. of Wisdom vers 26. these words Hebr. 11.5 That he had pleased God are taken out of Wisd 4.10 compare 1 Cor. 6.2 with Wisd 3.8 More especially the fourth Book of Esdras is acknowledged by Clemens Alexandrinus Faber and many more learned men to be written by inspirement of the Holy Ghost It is owned as Canonicall by diverse holy Prophets of later times Our Saviour cites these words which are written Mat. 23.37 38 How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate out of the second Book of Esdras chap. 1. vers 30. Many things shewed to St John in the Revelation are found in that Book It is doubtless a most lively prediction of these last times and the great famine and generall desolation spoken of in the last Chapter which is now in his accomplishment will ere long convince all the world that this Book is or should be Canonicall When you shal shortly see three Emperours at once in Europe one set up by the Pope another by the Princes and People and then the great Turk usurping that place and dignity think upon Esdras his vision of the Eagle with three heads Chap. 11.12 Thirdly Whereas you say in the sixth Section That nothing at any time is to be added to the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament whether by new relations of the Spirit or Traditions of men We desire to know what warrant you have thus to determine If you say that Rev. 22 18. it is written that if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues
the Apostles shew both of the one and of the other and first of the Angels 2 Pet. 2.4 God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down into Hell Jude 6. And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darkness to the judgement of the great day And secondly concerning men 2 Thes 2.12 That all might be damned who beleeve not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Now these and some other Scriptures by us alledged do not speak immediately of Gods eternal Decree yet we know that God works all things in time according to the counsel of his own will from eternity Ephes 1.11 In your fourth Section you declare your selves more fully in this point of Predestination saying These Angels and men thus Predestinated and fore ordained are particularly and unchangeably designed and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either encreased or diminished Which words of yours we will grant to be true First of the Angels after some had stood fast in obedience and others had fallen but this was a destination in time not a predestination from eternity Secondly Of Angels and men out of the special fore-knowledge of God whereby he certainly foresaw the perseverance of the good Angels in obedience when the wicked spirits fell as also the persistance of the Saints in faith and obedience towards grace which should be exhibited on the one hand with the Apostacy of the lapsed Angels and the obstinacy of the impenitent men and backsliding temporaries on the other hand and so accordingly determined that the one part should be saved and the other perish But that Gods decree in the general toward Angels and men was onely conditional and did no wayes necessitate either to sin and damnation or to obedience and salvation it is evident out of these ensuing texts and many more As for the Apostate Angels the fault of their Apastacy is wholly and clearly ascribed to themselves 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. as before And as for men it is said Luke 7.30 the Pharisees and Lawyers did frustrate the counsel of God against themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which things would not possibly be done unless God's counsel was conditional add 2 Pet. 3.9 But God is long-suffering to us ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance which is spoken aswel of singula generum as of genera singulorum and you had before God's oath Ezek. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked To confirm his affirmation Ezek 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die And as there is no enforcing necessity from Gods decree to dispose Angels and men to obedience or disobedience life or death so neither was there any necessity of nature that is want of liberty in their wills or inability to obey before their fall whatsoever there is left afterwards in mankinde But if you mean by this particular and unchangeable designing men and Angels an absolute irrespective and peremtorie or inevitable dispose of some Angels and men to life and of others to destruction and that from eternity you do not onely make God a respecter of persons in those that are appointed to life from which the Scripture vindicates the Lord frequently Acts 10.34 Rom 2.11 Deut. 10.17 1 Pet. 1.17 But this contradicts what you speak concerning God Chapter the second where you describe him to be most wise most holy most loving most gratious most merciful and most righteous c. When you ascribe to him such a peremtory and irrevocable Decree of condemning thousands of Angels and men everlastingly and that before they had done or purposed any evil against him or yet had any being Consider this we pray you could any of you which is a father and scarce hath one drop of love mercy and goodness compared with God's ocean appoint one or more of your little babes which yet never offended you to be burned to death How far then must it be from the gratious disposition of him that is love it self and whose bowels of Compassion are infinite inevitably to designe so many millions of Angels his children by creation to endless and insufferable flames of fire before they had any existence in nature or capacity of offending In your Fifth Section you say that those of mankinde that are predestinated unto life are chosen by God before the foundation of the world was laid according to his eternal and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will in Christ unto everlasting glory out of his meer free grace and love All which is true both of Gods general and special election But whereas you add these words in conclusion without any foresight of Faith or good works or perseverance in either of them as conditions or causes moving him thereunto It is a most dangerous error and falsehood For was not that counsel of God which Paul declared to the Churches Acts 20.27 briefly comprehended in that Doctrine whereby as he himself saith he testified bâ—th to the Jewes and also to the Gentiles repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 20.20.21 Doth not the same Apostle tell us Rom. 8.29 That those whom God foreknew he did predestinate to be made conformable to the Image of his Son Doth not Saint Peter tell the believing Jews that they were elect according to the foreknowledge of God through sanctification of the Spirit to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ 1 Peâ— 1.2 Doth not Saint Paul declare the counsel or will of God to be conditional when he saith 1 Tim. 2.3 4. For this is good and acceptable before God who will have all men to be saved and to that end to come to the knowledge of the truth Are not the words of Saint Peter clear also to that effect 2. Pet. 3.9 Who willeth not that any man should perish but that all men should come to repentance Is not the saving grace of God which hath appeared to all men conditional by the Apostles own testimony Tit. 2.11 12. For the Grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men bath appeared teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Is not the Gospel it self which is a declaration of the whole counsel of God to be published conditionally Mat. 18.19 20. Mark 16.15.16 Go yee into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Doth not God best know what his own will and counsel is and was from eternity when he tels us Ezâ—k 18. and 33 and almost every where else in the old Testament that the obstinate sinner shall die but such as convert to him shall live Yea the finall and
Seventhly If it were for sins what sins did better deserve such a preterition then mens own personal and actual sins yea then their contempt and contumacy against grace offered Eighthly If this preterition was for the praise of God's glorious justice must not his justice first be apparent and conspicuous in this his passing by them But he accounts it neither honorable for him that the Son should die for the sin of the Father Ezek. 10.1 2 3 20. nor yet just for he hath forbidden the self same thing in the Law Deut. 24.16 Lastly Is there no difference betwixt a vessel of dishonor and a vessel of wrath Many vessels are made by the Potter for dishonorable uses yet none of set purpose for destruction Finally Your Caution in the last Section is very good where you say that The Doctrine of the high mystery of Predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care that men attending the will of God revealed in his word and yeelding obedience thereunto may from the certainty of their effectual vocation be assured of their eternal election Where you should have added and from their perseverance in that obedience till the death of sin be assured of their spiritual final and everlasting election there being a twofold election from eternity as hath been said But this caution of yours you your selves have not very well observed and kept And whereas you add in conclusion So shall this Doctrine afford matter of praise reverence and admiration of God and of humility diligence and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel We report our selves to your own consciences and to all men whether your Doctrine or ours here set forth is likely to produce the good effects here by you remembred But now we come in the third and last place to answer such objections as seem to lie as so many rocks of offence in your and other mens wayes Object It is written of Hophni and Phineas the sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2.25 That they hearkened not unto their father because God would destroy them Answ It is true God now had a purpose so to do for their abominable wickedness which they had committed but it doth not follow that the Lord had so decreed from eternity unless it was out of prevision of their lewdness and in order thereunto Object 2. It is written Prov. 16.4 That the Lord made all things for himself even the wicked for the day of â—â—il Answ The first part of the text speaks of God's ends the latter part of the event as it is now fallen out through their own default as Hosea speaks in a like expression Chap 9.13 Ephraim as I saw Tyrus is planteâ— in a pleasant place But Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer that is eventually not industriously and so are the wicked created for the day of evil Object 3. It is said of Rehoboam 2 Chron. 10.15 So the King hearkened not unto the people for the cause was of God that the Lord might perform his word which hâ— spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat Answ This Text speaks not of Gods eternal Decree but of his wise and just providence leaving a man sufficiently wicked before to follow his own counsels for a temporal punishment of his own and his Fathers sins Object 4. Jeremiah saith Chap 52.3 For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem till he had cast them out from his presence that Zedekiah rebelled against the King of Babylon Answ This Scripture imports no more but that wicked Zedekiah for a just punishment of his own and Judah's rebellion against the Lord wat left at length in the hand of his own Counsels to rebel against his Lord and King upon Earth who was able to punish him and did it accordingly Object 5. Mat. 11.25 At that time Jesus answered and said I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes Answ This is to be understood of the second grace withholden from those who refused the former and did shut their eies against the first light and so is that place also Deut. 29.4 Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and cies to see and eares to hear unto this day For God reveales his secrets to wit his further counsels to them that fear him Psal 25.14 see Matth. 13.12 13 14 15 c. For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that which he hath but useth not as wee see in him that hid his talent Mat. 25. â—â— 19. Object 6. Acts 13.48 It is said that when the Gentiles heard that they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life beleeved Whence it seems to be clear that some persons are not so ordained Answ The original Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is wrested and forced in the translation For it signifies not ordained but prepared or disposed and such onely are they who are good willing to leave their sins and to follow after righteousness according to the requiring of the Gospel Titus 2.11 12. for to such the Angels wish peace and happiness as knowing them onely capable of it Luke 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to God on high and in the earth peace to men or in men of good will For so did St. Jerome St. Augustine and many of the Ancients read that Text in their daies and so it is yet found in the best Greek copies Yet we could give another answer if the Text before alledged were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is fore-ordained to wit that so many as then and there were out of Gods special fore-knowledge predestinated to life did at that time beleeve which notwithstanding hinders not but that many more yea all there present were appointed to life conditionally as is there partly testified of the unbeleeving Jewes by the Apostle vers 46. Object 7. Rom. 9.6 It is said That they are not all Israel which are of Israel It seems then that all are not elected Answ The Apostle intimates that the carnal Israel or all that are come of Jacob surnamed Israel are not the Israel to whom the promises of salvation are absolutely and finally made Though in the general the conditional promises belong to all Israel as the Apostle shews vers 4. and to the Gentiles also vers 24 25. That we may not be misunderstood know that there are among others seven promises made to the overcomers Revel 2 and 3. Chap. and such as persevere in the Christian race unto the end of it or to the death and burial of sin Now these and the like promises belong unto the Elect that are chosen out of the furnace of affliction
upon whom the Lord will not have compassion Answ It is true there are some such persons and such were the incorrigible Edomites before spoken off yet note three things First That the Apostle preoccupates an Objection which some might make out of Gods mercy continued still to Israel but withdrawn from Edom as before What shall we say then Is there unrighteousness with God Secondly That the Apostle answers it not onely with a detestation saying God forbid but also with a Scripture taken out of Exodus 33.9 And I will be gratious to whom I will be gratious and I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy Thirdly That the Lord speakes there of continuing and enlarging his after mercies and favours to those that walk humbly faithfully and answerably to his first mercy or grace as Moses had done then when he begged of the Lord that he would shew him his glory And not of his first grace withholden from none Whereby the contrary it may be gathered that God will withhold his second mercies from some who refused his first grace as the Edomites had done or should abuse the same afterwards by turning his grace into wantonness Jude 4. Object 13 Rom. 9.16 So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Our salvation then is of meer mercy Answ It is granted so to be yet by the way note that man can both wil and run in some sort as this Scripture imports Object 14. Rom. 9.17 18. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Answ First note that here the Lord doth not say for this same purpose have I created thee but raised thee up or brought thee upon the stage Secondly That Pharaoh was known to the Lord to be a proud and obstinate Rebel before he thus called him out Exod 5.2 And Pharoah said who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Thirdly That yet the Lord gives him to know his will and gratiously shews him the danger of his disobedience before he sends his plagues upon him Fourthly That he leaves him not till he made him of unwilling willing to let his people go Fifthly That God did not harden Pharaohs heart by infusing any hardness into it but rather used means to soften and bend his heart to obedience Lastly That the Lord destroyed him not till his heart byased and wilfully revolted from that inclination of letting Israel go to which the Lord had brought and wrought him So that the Lords pleasure in hardning whom he will must out of this example be understood of such as are first or last refractory against his grace and gratious requirings monitions c. Object 15. Rom 9.19 Thou wilt say why doth he yet finde fault Who hath resisted his will It seems then his will in condemning the wicked is irresistable Answ The will of God is manifold First voluntas signi that which he would have done by men and that may be resisted or disobeyed Secondly voluntas beneplaciti that which he is pleased to effect and that either absolutely to be done by himself alone or with others which cannot be withstood or conditionally in case the creature will act his part This conditional will may also be repugned so that wicked men cannot excuse themselves by the irresistibility of the first or last mentioned will There is also the unchangeable will of God's irrevocable decree at length passed upon the obstinate and incorrigible sinner which like his powerful or efficacious will is inexpugnable But it is the obdurate mans refractory and inflexible will that hath now made this will or decree of God so peremptory against him So that God hath just cause to fault and blame the man that perisheth but not è contra Object 16. Rom. 9.20 Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Whence it may seem to follow that God makes the lost ones such as they are Answ Paul intends nothing less then to lay any such aspersion upon God who is onely the Author of their deserved punishment but not of their sins unless of such as are just and severe compensations of their former contumacies Indeed the Apostle here first takes up these murmurers for their audacious and presumptuous obloquies against their Maker in this verse Nay but O man who art thou that replyest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus And then in the three next verses for the total silencing of their obmurmuration he asserts first Gods soveraign power vers 21. and then his justice vers 22. with his mercy also vers 23. If the wicked then finding themselves lost at length should cavil against God and say why did he create me with liberty of will and so with a power of falling It is answered that this faculty might be improved to the salvation of the creature as well as to the glory of Gods grace vers 23. Or why did God give us any being since we must be wretched and unhappy for ever It is answered vers 22. that it coming to pass meerly through their own default and wilfulness it was free for our Soveraign Lord thus to glorifie his power and justice against such rebels yea and his incurable enemies also Object 17. Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour It seems then that God makes some vessels of purpose unto dishonour Answ I. It is certain that God is a wise Potter and not a workman that never had wisdom or hath lost his witts Now such a Potter though he as the event falls out afterwards makes many vessels to be broken yet forms none of set purpose for destruction as we said before Some vessels indeed are made by him for more honourable uses as Salt-sellers drinking-cups c. and some for more dishonorable uses for Chamber-pots the like but none to be destroyed for that were to lose his labour And so hath the Lord appointed both in Church Common-Wealth some to be superiours and some inferiours as hath been shewed but none of the sons of men hath he made of purpose to perdition II. It is evident enough that the Apostle alludeth to Jeremie 18. verse 3.4 5 6. Where observe these things First That the Prophet being sent to the Potters house he found that the vessel in the Potters hand first miscarried and was marred representing man not in the pure but corrupt mass Secondly That the Potter took pains to make it up a new or other vessel Thirdly That the Lord expostulates with Israel
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the former place Heb. 1.2 fignifies ages or generations as sometime that word is found to do this last place which clearly speakes of the work of creation having the same word again will evict that the former place speakes of worlds truly so called as it is well and truly rendred in our translation If you reply again that perhaps the Apostle useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Rabbins sometimes take the word gnolam gnolam caton for the Microcosme and gnolam gadol for the Macrocosme gnolam hazzeh for this world and gnolam habha for the world to come and the same word again for the lower world that is the earth sometimes for the middle world which is all these visible heavens and lastly for the Angels world or the invisible heavens Answer It may be so yet are these neither one entire world nor were all these things created in the space of six dayes as you untruly affirm First That the Angels world called by our Saviour and the Apostle Paul Paradise Luke 23.43 2 Cor. 12 4. and this present world are not one entire but two remote and distinct worlds it is evident out of the words of our blessed Savior Mat. 12.32 But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come Luk. 20.34 5.36 And Jesus answering said unto them the children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more for they are equall to the Angels c. Secondly Nor were the Angels and their heavens created within the space of those six dayes wherein all things of this world were made Gen. 1.1 but long before For 1. It is certain that Moses makes no mention of them in the narration and history of those six dayes workes 2. Esdras in his second Book of which we spake before saith expresly Chap. 3.6 That Gods right hand planted Paradise before ever the earth came forward and that he having created man in time did lead him into it Nor doth he alone speak this that the Angels were existent before the creation of this world but the Lord himself also Job 38.4 Where wast thyou when I laid the soundations of the earth and then followes When the morning Stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy So that those sons of God who are at all hands confessed to be the Holy Angels were present and glorified God when he laid the first foundation of this world Nor is it improbable which some late prophetical men affirm that man was created in the room of the faln Angels which so much the more stirred up the envy of the Devil against him Certain it is that the wicked Angels were not only pre-existent but had faln also from their first estate before man was created 3. As the Scriptures make frequent mention of the Heavens of Heavens which can be no other then Paradise or the Angels which also are Gods heaven in whom he dwelleth So the Psalmist shews that they were of old Psal 68.33 To him which rideth upon the Heavens of Heavens which were of old Nor can we or you justly reject their opinion who say that as the Angels are in nature nearer to God then the creatures of this gross visible world so he first laid forth himself in them and that many ages before he proceeded to the creation of those things which were remoter and further distant from him But whether the Lord used the ministry of these Spirits in the creation of this world as he doth in the government of the same we will not dispute Howsoever it was the unanimous consent of most of the Greek fathers if not of them all and the assertion of divine Nazianzen in special and of Jerom among the Latines that the creation of Angels did precede the making of this world and that upon these grounds before alledged among many other After you have spoken of this world in general you come to the composure of the creature for whose sake this world was especially made even mankinde where according to holy Scriptures we finde another world not only because man is stiled a Microcosme by â—o contemptible Authors but by reason of an inteâ—â—â— and spiritual world and that far greater and more excellent then this outward Fabrick placed 〈…〉 of which Solomon not a stranger to any of these worlds speaks Eccles 3.11 He hath made every thing beautifull in his season he hath also set the world in their bea rt so that no man can finde out the worke of God from the beginning to the end Which world was Gods Kingdome in the man or the beautifull Image of God upon the inward and outward man as may appear by the promises of God which he hath gratiously given us in Christ for the repairing and re-edifying the same when it was decayed and defaced Esay 51.16 And I have put my words in thy mouth and have covered thee in the shadow of my hands that I may plant the Heavens and lay the foundation of the earth and say unto Zion Thou art my people Esai 65.17 18. For behold I create new Heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde But be yee glad and rejoyce for ever in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy 2. Pet. 3.13 Nevertheless we according to his promises look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness But the outward heaven and earth of which many understand this place never was nor ever shall be the subject of righteousness for they are irrational yea liveless creatures Nor is this spiritual and glorious workmanship of God though to the world and her wise ones invisible called a world in the Old Testament alone but in the New also Rom. 4.13 For the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham and his seed through the Law but through the righteousness of faith Now if any hearing of more worlds be sorry with Alexander that he hath taken so much travaile for one growing ambitious to have the other also let him first by faith obedience prayer and all other good means seek to get the inward and spirituall world planted and created in him and upon him by the grace and power of Christ and he may be in the better possibility of the third and highest world and prove an heir of Paradise with the blessed Angels For as the Lord himself proceeded gradually first to that creation which was spiritual and invisible and then to that which was visible and corporeal so let the sons of men now faln and corrupted turn from the outward creature get the inward world of righteousness and holiness and so
that tends this way more then the Prophets their Predecessors or the Prince of the Prophets their Master did in which point all are silent if not cleerly opposite unto you The Lord commanded by Moses that Cities of fefuge should be set apart in all the coasts and habitations of Israel for such persons to flee to as had slain any man at unawares that the avenger of blood should not slay the innocent with a temporal death Deu. 19. c. And will the Lord pursue the innocent seed of Adam and hold them guilty for their Fathers sin perpetrated ere they were born yea will he himself be the avenger of the blood against these innocents Amaziah is commended for his justice and his obedience in that behalf to the Law of the Lord in not slaying the sons of those that murderd his father Joash but only the fathers that did the Villany 2 Ki. 14.5 6. And wil ye Brethren father upon God the fountain of all justice and the Father of mercies a cruelty forbiden in his own Law Deuteronomy 24.16 who was so far from destroying the infants of Nineveh though but an handful compared to the vast harvest of Adams posterity that he spared the whole Cities mainly upon that accompt next after the peoples repentance as he declares unto Jonas who was not a little displeased to see by this means his prediction contradicted or come to nothing Ionah 4.10 11. But having here vindicated the justice and mercy of the Lord from this your putative most putid imputation of the first Adams sin to all his succeeding off-spring as also derived innocency and righteousness in some measure from God the true Author of it instead of propagated corruptioÌ„ to the ensuing generations let us now come to answer such objections as seem to stand in our way or the passage of others who are willing to be brought to the knowledge and imbracement of the truth First here it is objected that the Lord saith Gen 8 21. The imaginations of mans heart are evil from his youth Answer Even as Esau or Edom though he had a birth right yet sold it in his youth to satisfie some strong desires kindled in him So men though created innocent do in the time of temptation and tryal too often and too soon yeeld unto the temptation and sell or forfeit that their innocency and birth right and so their imaginations become evil from their youth but are not so from their birth unless you here understand a spiritual conception and birth in sin by our personal fall Object 2. Job saith chap. 11.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Answer Job here confesseth that himself was unclean and that ever since his personal fall and therefore he of himself could not bring forth an obedience or righteousness that was clean and pure no nor the adaequate fruits of righteousness which might pass for such before the Lords judgement of a long time though he was holpen by grace for grace is not had all at once Object 3. Job 15.14 15 16. Eliphaz speakes thus What is man that he should be clean and be that is born of a woman that he should he righteous Behold he puteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water Answer this is an hy perbolical speech of his tending to the further accusation of Job whom he had more then sufficiently yea very unjustly charged before For first God doth put trust and confidence in his Saints and Angels whom he dayly employeth Secondly The heavens and all other creatures as they come out of the Creators hands are pure and good in his sight And thirdly though some men are so accustomed to sin that they have contracted an hypodropical chirst thereunto yet neither Job of whom he means all this in hypothesie nor any other of the Saints upon earth do drink iniquity like water But suppose all men did so yet it doth not from hence follow that we are all so deeply tainted and corrupted by sin drawn from Adam our first parent For as he corrupted himself by his personal Lapse disobedience so may any other man and so doubtless do all lapsed men do likewise See Psal 14.2 3. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if ther were any that did understand and seek after God They are all gone aside they are all together become filthy there is none that doth good no not one Of this fall and corruption Pilagius unmindfull in pleading mans ability in and of himself still to keep and fulfill the law which Saint Austin grants ought to be done by grace not by corrupt nature The like answer we give to those words of Bildad Job 25.4 5 6. How then can man be justified or how can he be clean that is born of a woman behold even to the Mâ—on and it shineth not and the Stars are not pure in his fight How much less man that is a worme and the son of man who is a worme for as it must be granted that man since his fall cannot by himself be either made just or clean so it is false that the Moon and Stars are not pure in Gods sight Thus Jobs friend would make good their unjust charge against him with false principles and glarifie God with lies for which he is afterwards justly displeased with them as he is with all other that plead for him in a wicked way Job 42.7 The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends for ye have not spoken of me the things that as right my servant Job hath Object 4. David saith Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me which words seem expresly to speak of his conception and birth in the corruption by you set forth Answer we would first gladly know of you whether it be not Davids scope in this confession to aggravate his sin But if he here pleadeth the inevitable corruption of nature which you hold forth his words will be found a meere extinuation of his offences if not a throwing of all or most of the blame upon God who had brought him forth so corrupt so averse to all good and so propense to all evil and that without hope of an absolute cure while he was in this world Secondly for the clearing of the truth let us first consider whether David had no other parents but Jesse and his wife and then if he had which is the mother that he here speak of As to the first besides our natural parents we have spiritual Fathers and mothers whether for our begetting in the evil and iniquity or for our regeneration in grace and goodness Concerning our procreation in sin our Saviour speaks thus unto the Jewes Iohn 8.44 Ye are of your father the devil and his
lusts will ye do Now this father makes use of a twofold mother to beget men in wickedness besides their own lust which when it is intised and drawn away by temptation conceiveth and bringeth forth sin Jam. 1 14 15. The first is the lying word and promises with which he deceiveth men as he did Eve saying Gen. 3.4 5. Ye shall not dye for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be openâ—d and ye shall be as Goâ—s knowing good and evil The second is the false Synagogue which through Satans help begets men in a false faith religion and worship Thus the Lord speaks to Ammi or his own people which were in the false Synagogue of Israel or the 10. tribes Ho. 2.1 2. Say unto your brethren Ammi and to your sister Ruhama plead with you mother plead for she is not my wise neither am I her husband let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her fight and her adulteries from between her breasts c. On the other hand in the work of the new birth as God is our father so the word of truth is our inward mother Jerusalem or the Church which is begotten from above is our outward spiritual mother Ja. 1.18 Of his own wil begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kinde of first fruits of his creaturs Gal. 4.26 But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all Come we now to enquire which of these mothers David here speaks of Not of his natural mother doubtless for as his father Isai which signifies a gift was a pious man in Israel so no doubt is to be made but his mother was a godly matron and being both of them well grown in grace ere they begot this their youngest son they were more likely to convey grace and holiness if that be communicable then sin unto him since at this age they must needs be well grown in goodness and very mortified persons But that it was the lye or lying promises of Satan with the folly therein contained by which he was shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin as our first parents were and all their faln posterity have been since procreated no man of wisdom will doubt And this is here the more evident to be Davids meaning because in the next verse following he by way of opposition having now hope after his late fall to be holpen up again speaks of a new Spiritual Father and Mother saying verse 6. Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me know wisdom which wisdom is a mother and hath her children Mat. 11.19 But wisdom is justified of her children as the lie and folly or Belial hath her brood likewise unto whom the Lord speaks thus Isai 57.3 But draw near hither ye sons of the Sorceress the seed of the Adulterer and of the whore So we read often of lying children or the sons of the lie and of the sons of Belial yea David himself attributes his sinnes to his folly 2 Sam. 24.10 saying I have done very foolishly Of these two Solomon speaks thus Prov. 14.8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way but the folly of fools is deceit and Prov. 15.21 Folly is joy unto him that is destitute of wisdom and the Apostle saith the like Gal. 3.1 5. Objection It is said Psal 58.3 That the wicked are estranged from the womb they go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies Answer First we may here take notice that the Prophet speaks not this of all men but of the wicked onely Secondly it must needs bee the womb and birth of iniquitie and not the natural birth of which he here speaks For otherwise how can men go astray or speak lies so soon at they are born The 6. Objection Ezek. 16.3 The Lord speaks thus unto Jerusalem Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite Answer The Lord doth not here upbraid the Jews with the corruption derived from our first parents but with wicked poslutions learned from the Canaanites although the name Amorite serves fitly to represent the Divel with his lying promises for it signifies a vain-talker or man of words as the name Hittite sets forth the soul that is prostrate to him The 7. Objection Paul confesseth thus much concerning himself and the Jewes Ephes 2.3 Among whom we all likewise had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh serving the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Answer it is one thing to be sinners from our first Nativitie and another in time to become the children of wrath by our personal fall and actual disobedience which also coming to pass in our natural man and by his desault we may truly be said by nature to be the children of wrath especially when sin by custom becomes a second nature unto us Yet doth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated by nature import no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is really and truly such by disobedience as the same word signifies Galat. 4.8 Howbeit when ye knew not God ye did sert vice unto them which by nature are no Gods The 8. Objection But the grand objection which our opposites bring is that of Rom. 5.12 c. where it is said That by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed over all men for that all have sinned Unto which we first answer in the general That this Chapter seems to be one of those places unto which Saint Peter aludes 2 Epist 3. Chap. vers 16. saying In which to wit the Epistles of Saint Paul are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction For here are seven things rightly understood by few but perveretd by many First the Justification of faith whereby we have peace with God verse 1. Secondly the time of our small strength in the natural man when we first fell through the power of temptation Christ dyed in us and for us v. 6. Thirdly the love of God then in letting his Son die for us and not destroying us v. 7 8. Fourthly the bloud of Christ through which we are justifie by faith v. 9. Fiftly the death of Christ or rather his like death through which we are reconciled to God v. 10. Of all which we shall speak in their due places Sixthly that one man Adam in us through whose disobedience all are made sinners And lastly That one man Christ in us through whose obedience many shall be made righteous which two Adams are not onely paralleled and opposed here with their fruits and effects but in many other Scriptures likewise
dispenced are the preaching of the word and the administration of baptism and the Lords Supper we grant it to be true if those be administred by such persons to whom Christ is truely come in his light spirit and power Otherwise for men to preach a self-conceived Christ whom they have learned by reading or tradition from their blinde guides or to administer the Sacraments without any due understanding of the Baptism flesh and blood of Christs these are not Gods ordinances but mens usurpations Thirdly we grant you that where the Covenant of grace is set forth by men so taught and acted by the Spirit of Christ as we have described there it is held forth in more evidence spiritual efficacy and fulness then it was in Moses his literal services But this will not be equally verified of those that preach a misconceived Christ without true light or life Lastly whereas you conclude That there are not then two Covenants of grace one under the old Testament and another under the new we will from this your confession inferr that the first Covenant of grace made was unto and for all mankinde because the Gospel by Christs express command is to be preached to every humane creature and hath universal but conditional salvation annexed unto it Mat. 28.19 Mark 16.15 16. What then will become of your doctrine of Gods preterition of particular redemption of some men onely of the effectual calling of this and that elected one onely and many other points wherein with Herod you imprison John that is you confine the grace and mercy of God CHAP. VIII Of Christ the Mediator IT pleased God in his eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus his onely begotten Son to be the Mediator between God and man a Isa 42.1 1 Pe 1.19 20. Joh 3.16 1 Tim 2 5. the Prophet b Act 3.22 Priest c Heb 5.5 6 and King d Psal 2.6 Luk 1.33 the head and Saviour of his Church e Eph 5.23 the heir of all things f Heb 1.2 and judge of the world g Act 17.31 unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed h Joh 17.6 Psa 22.30 Isa 53 10. and to be by him in time redeemed called justified sanctified and glorified i 1 Tim. 2.6 Isa 55.4 5. 1 Cor. 1.30 II. The Son of God the second person in the Trinity being very and eternal God of the substance and equal with the Father did when the fulness of time was come take upon him mans nature k 1 Joh 1.14 1 Joh 5.20 Phil 2.6 Gal. 4.4 with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof yet without sin l Heb. 2.14 16 17. Heb 4.15 being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary of her substance m Luk 1.27 31 35. â—al 4.4 so that two whole perfect and distinct natures the Godhead and the Manhood were inseparably joyned together in one person without conversion composition or confusion n Luk. 1.35 Col 2.9 Rom 9.5 1 Pet 3.18 1 Tim. 3.16 which person is very God and very man yet one Christ the onely Mediator between God and man o RoÌ„ 1.3 4. 1 Tim 2.5 III. The Lord Jesus in his humane nature thus united to the Divine was sanctified and annoynted with the Holy Spirit above measure p Psal 45.7 Joh 3.34 having in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge q Col 2.3 in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell r Col. 1.19 to the end that being holy harmless undefiled and full of grace and truth Å¿ Heb 7.16 Joh 1.14 he might be throughly furnished to execute the office of a Mediator and surety t Act 10.18 Heb. 22.24 Heb 7.22 which office he took not to himself u Heb 5.4 5. but was thereunto called by his Father who put all power and judgement into his hand and gave him commandment to execute the same * Joh 5.22 27. Mat 28 18. Act 2.36 IV. This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake x Psal 40.7 8 with Heb 10.5 10 11. Joh 10.18 Phil 2.8 which that he might discharge he was made under the Law y Gal. 4.4 and did perfectly fulfill it z Mat 3.17 Mat 5.15 endured most greivous torments immediately in his soule a Mat 25.37 38. Luk 22.24 Mat 27.46 and most painful sufferings in his body b Mat 26.27 chap. was crucâ—fied and dyed c Phil 2.8 was buryed and remained under the power of death yet saw no corruption d Act 2.3 21 27. Act 13.37 Rom 6.9 On the third day he arose from the dead e 1 Cor. 15.23 4. with the same body in which he suffered f Joh 20.25 27. with which also he ascended into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of his Father g Mark 16.19 making intercession h Rom. 8.34 Heb 9.24 Heb. 7.25 and shall return to judge men and Angels at the end of the world i Rom 1â— 9 10. Heb. 7.25 Rom. 1â— 9 10. Act 1.11 Act. 10.42 Mat. 13.40 41 42. Jud. 6. 2 Pet. 2.4 V. The Lord Jesus by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father k Ro. 5.19 Heb 9.14 16. Heb. 10.14 Ephes 5.2 Rom. 3.25 26. and purchased not onely reconcilation but an everlasting inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven for all those whom the Father hath given unto him l Dan 9.24 26. Col 1.19 20. Ephes 1.11 14. Joh 17.2 Heb 9.12 15. VI. Although the work of redemption was not actually wrought by Christ till after his Incarnation yet the virtue efficacy and benefits thereof were communicated unto the elect in all ages successively from the beginning of the world in and by those promises types and sacrifices wherein he was revealed and signified to be the seed of the woman which should bruise the serpents head and the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world being yesterday and to day the same for ever m Gal. 4.4.5 Gen. 3.15 Rev. 13.8 Heb. 13.8 VII Christ in the work of mediation acteth according to two natures by each nature doing that which is proper to it self yet by reason of the unity of the person that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture attributed to the person denominated by the other nature o Acts 20.28 Joh. 3.13 1 Joh. 3.16 VIII To all those for whom Christ hath purchased Redemption he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same p Joh. 6.37.39 Joh. 10.15 16. making intercession for them q 1 Joh. 2.1 Rom. 8.34 and revealing unto them in and by the word the mysteries of salvation r Joh. 15. â—3 15. Eph. 1.7 8 9. Joh. 17.6 effectually perswading them
cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his fight Where you may take these things into consideration First Whom he reconcileth All the members of the Church who are regenerate Secondly From what from the enmity in their minds whereby they are set upon wicked works Thirdly Where through the spiritual blood of the Covenant or the spirit of grace which is called the blood of his cross because it is then sent unto us and poured down upon us when we are upon the cross with him and suffer with him not yeelding unto temptations Fourthly That Christ is said to be still doing of that work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly In what way as a precedent for us he hath done it to wit in the body of his flesh through death as these ensuing Scriptures shew 2 Tim. 2.11 12. 'T is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer wiâ—h him we shall also raign with him see Rom. 6.8 But that it is unpossible to have reconcilement and communion with God unless it be in such a way the Apostle witnesses likewise 1 John 1.5 6 7. This then is the message we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darknesâ— we lye and haue not the truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Thus far of Christ's spiritual and true reconciling us unto God which is then perfected and consummate when besides the slaying of the enmity aforesaid he hath made us in all things of one spirit with the Father For which unity and reconcilement he prayeth John 17.21 That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Now for the purchasing of an everlasting inheritance for us eternal life is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 8.23 And as the Father hath it in his hand to bestow so it is in the Sons gift likewise and consequently as it seems to us he needs not to purchase it But if you will call the fulfilling of that way and process whereby the faln man must attain it the way race of obedience aforesaid a purchasing of it it is by the inward and spiritual obedience of Christ especially that we attain Heb. 10.36 For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the promise Howbeit his outward passive obedience was requisite thereunto without which as we could not be delivered from the curse so neither could we come to inherit life By this you see we stand in need of an inward and spiritual mediation from Christ aswel as that outward of which alone you here speak Nor can we partake of the benefit of the outward till qualified and prepared first thereunto by the work of the inward In your Sixth Section you proclaim your great ignorance or small regard of our great and most necessary redemption from the power of sin and Satan saying That the work of redemption was not actually wrought till after Christs incarnation For were not the fathers before and after the flood with the Prophets and other holy Saints in the Old Testament in their respective times spiritually saved and redeemed by Christ And much more doth that great secret of the Father's sparing and forbearing us along time for his Sons sake who in patience and meekness hath been led as a lamb to the slaughter and the end of whose long sufferance in us is salvation as St. Peter speaks Epist 2 3. Chap. 15. seem to be hidden from you Yet here you grant some truths at unawares as that Christ is the promised enmity against sin who must break the Serpents head and consequenly that his power and Kingdom must be within us where Satan is to be trodden down Rom. 16.20 You grant also that he is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world But whereas you add for a proof thereof out of Hebr. 13.9 That Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever That speakes of his immutable Deity and not of his humanity though now made unchangeable Yet this we say brethren ere we leave this Section that you hold forth a very lame and imperfect redeemer which which hath indeed redeemed us by his death from the curse of the Law when our iniquities are put away from us but who must redeem us from all our corruptionsâ— who must save and deliver us out of the hand of all our enemies who must inable us to keep and fulfil the Law of God who must renew the Image of God in us Is not the true Christ made of God unto us wisdom righteousness and sanctification as well as redemption 1 Cor 1.30 In your Seventh Section As we grant it to be true that Christ in the entire office of a Mediator acteth according to both natures joyntly or severally as occasion requires doing by each that which is proper to its self so perhaps it may be granted that sometimes in the Scriptures by reason of the unity of the person that which is proper to one nature is attributed to the person denominated by the other Howbeit the places to which you refer us do not prove so much for that of Acts the 20.28 It s true First of Christ in the Godhead that he hath purchased his Church with his own blood having redeemed it from the power of Satan by his Spirit Secondly To that of John 3.13 it may be said that as Christ is spiritually born in us he is the Son of man which comes from Heaven and is or dwells in the heavenly being Finally To 1 John 3.16 It may be truly answered that Christ the Son of God hath laid down his life for us while he died in us to keep off the deserved wrath of God from us and to preserve us from the death threatned in the Law as also to set us an example how we may in following him overcome sin and recover life again we seeking his grace and help thereunto In your eighth and last Section being like checquer-work you have black as well as white errour as well as truth where your first affirmation That Christ doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate his redemption to all those for whom he hath purchased it will prove false in what sense soever it be taken For first If we here understand Christ's outward redemption as you undoubtedly do that being made for
place in which the Lord speakes of a child shortly to be born unto the Prophet and to be called Immanuel as some most learned expositors affirm Isa 7.14 15 16. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin or a young woman for the word signifies both shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel Butter and hony shall he eate that he may know to refuse the evil and chuse the good for before the child shall know to refuse the evil and chuse the good the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her Kings Here you may please to observe these things with us First That though this place be commonly understood of our Saviour yet it is a great mistake for his proper name was Jesus and not Immanuel Secondly This child was to be born shortly after this prophecy and is given to the Jewes as a sign and token of a sudden deliverance from Rezin and Remaliah before the child should be of age and knowledge to refuse the evil and chuse the good And thirdly The prophet in the next Chap. triumphing against the enemies of the Church alludes to this very name as if the child were then in being Isa 8.10 saying Take counsel together and it shall come to nough speak the word and it shall not stand for God is with us Where it is in the original Immanuel The second thing to be observed is that this child even from iâ—s insancy according to the common state of mankind should have the knowledge and ability to refuse the evil and chuse the good a faculty spoken of in two verses together as before But to come to your third Section where our main contest begins Besides a mistake in the very first entrance Man that is fallen into sin being by you taken for all mankinde no smal mistake as we have proved before You are first defective in that you distinguish not of the different states of sin And secondly to maintain that which is true in it self viz. that the faln man cannot without preventing grace by his own strength convert himself or haply prepare himself thereunto you lay such grounds as are either false or at leastwise improper of which anon But first you speak of a state of sin into which man is faln as though there were but one such whereas there is a manifold state in sin one against God the Father another against the Son and a third against the holy Ghost Mat. 12.32 There is a state of sin before regeneration and another under grace Rom. 7.9 14. there is a state of sin before mans first conversion and another after their final falling away 2 Pet. 2.21 22. as there is a threefold degree of righteousness and grace wherein some are Babes some youngmen and some old men so there is a threefold state or age in sin So the Lord saith to Abraham Gen. 15.16 That the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full and complaines Jer. 9.3 That the sinners proceeded from evil to worse finally there is a sin unto death and a sin which is not unto death 1 John 5.16 Now the false grounds aforesaid which you lay for the establishing of a truth are these That the faln man hath lost all ability of wil to any spiritual good accompanying salvation That a natural man is altogether averse from from any such good The ground that you here improperly apply is That the man is dead in sin For the first of these t is a rash and ungrounded asseveration for you will not deny That to become a Christian to have our wicked thoughts forgiven us to hear the word preached to eat and drink at Christs table to keep the commandements of the second Table as they are commonly called and finally to dye the death of the righteous are all of them spiritual good things and such as accompany salvation But we finde all these things wished for and desired by those which you count unregerate for King Agrippa hearing Saint Pauls defence had more then a velleity some good measure of inclination to become a Christian Act. 26.28 Simon Meâ—us entreated the Apostles to pray for him that his wicked thoughts might be pardoned and that none of the evils they had spoken of might happen unto him to hinder his salvation Act. 8.24 Our Saviour tels us Luk. 13.26 That many will plead before him at the latter day that they had heard him teaching in their streets and had eaten and drunke at his table The young man who enquired of our Saviour what good thing he should do to inherit eternal life had from his youth kept the precepts of the second table aforesaid Mat. 19.20 Yea our Saviour looked upon him and loved him on that behalf Mar. 10.21 Finaily Balaam desired to dye the death of the righteous and that his latter end might be like his Num. 23.10 For the second ground that the natural man is altogether averse from any thing that is good it is alike erroneous with the former whether we take a natural man for the earthly man as he is still created of God in innocency or for the faln man in his unregenerate estate as you mean For in the first notion the natural man can both will and act according to his first integrity till he disables and corrupts himself by falling as Esau or Edom a type of this man did seek to please and observe his father And you may remember that the Apostle would have us in malice and naughtiness to be like children 1 Cor. 14.20 But many natural men taken in your own sense are not utterly averse from all good things even Herod himself heard John the Baptist gladly and not only willed but did many things according to his Doctrine and precepts Mark 6.20 And Moses having set before all Israel life and blessing with death and cursing Deut 30.19 he there expresly commands them to chuse life That both they and their seed might liâ—â— Isa chap. 1.19 20 elicites and excites this freewilling faculty saying If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devonred by the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Yea the very name of freewill offerings so oft mentioned in the Scriptures argues some competent remainder of that faculty unless ye would subjectum tollere but consider we pray you these two things which we have partly touched before First That all faln men are not alike extensively corrupted that is they are not all alike enclined to all fins but some to voluptuousness and prodigality more then to covetousness or the like And though David a King prayeth thus against covetousness Encline my heart to thy Testimo nies and not to covetousness Psal 119.36 Yet Luther saith That he was never tempted to that sin Whence it will necessarily follow that such a man is not equally averse to all good but to
altogether passive therein untill quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit k Cor 2.14 Rom 8.7 Eph 2.5 he is thereby inabled to answer this holy call and to embrace the Grace of God offered and convyed in it l Joh 5.25 Elect Infants dying in Infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit m Luk. 18.15 16 and Act 2.38 39 Joh 3.35 John 5.11 and Rom 8.9 compared who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth n Joh 3.8 So also are all other Elect persons who are uncapable of being outwardly called by the Ministry of the Word o 1 Joh 5.12 Act 4.12 III. Others not elected although they may be talled by the Ministry of the Word p Mat 22.14 and may have some common operations of the Spirit q Mat 17.22 Mat. 13.20 21. heb 6.4 5. yet they never truly come unto Christ and therefore cannot be saved r Joh 6.64 65 66. Joh. 8.24 much less can men not professing the Christian Religion be saved in another way whatsoever be theynever so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature and the Law of that Religion they do profess Å¿ Act 4.12 Joh 14.6 Eph 2.18 Joh. 4.22 John 17.13 and to assert and maintain that they may is very pernicious and to be detested t 2 John 9.10 11. 1 Cor 16.22 Gal 1.6 7 8. CHAP. X. Of effectull calling examined AS you had no calling to deliver many things here uttered by you so they are not very effectual or true In which kind the first Section is not the least culpable for therein you deliver these paradoxes among others First That God is pleased in his appointed and accepted time to call all those effectually whom he hith predestinated unto life the which is not true For as thousands dying in their Infancy never fell which thing we have before sufficiently proved so such neither need nor have any such calling as you here describe For though our Saviour speake thus of all faln men Mat. 18.3 Verily I say unto you Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven yet children have no need to be conformed to such converts for of them and with such as they are is the Kingdom of heaven replenished Mark 10.14 Secondly You say with no less untruth That God calleth only those effectually whom he hath predestinated unto life which in your sense are the smaller part of men But as you make the universal father and common Saviour of all mankinde a partial God in his decree of election or predestination so you make him an accepter of persons in his calling of sinners to repentance both contrary to manifold and cleare Scriptures Here then we must assert those two things against you for the vindicating of Gods honor and the stopping of all mouths First That the Lord cals unto him all the sons of men who are faln from him and that with sufficient though not alwayes with a successful calling Secondly That he calls some of these which retain not with more industry and earnestness then many that come unto him continue with him and are saved in the end for the first of those we will here say nothing of that which our Saviour speaks Matth. 22.14 That many be called but few are chosen which though it overthrow the last Section yet it comes not up to a full proof of what we are now to maintain an universal and particular call of all men that are faln from God and who are capable of instruction But these following texts will carry it before them 1 Tim. 2.3 4. where the Apostle would have all men in general and in particular who have not sinned that sin unto death prayed for upon this ground For this is good and acceptable before God who would have all men saved and come to the knowledge of the truth If he would have it so what hinders but that he both may and doth bring all men to the knowlekge of so much truth as whereby they may be saved To this agree the words of the same Apostle Rom. 2.8 where he shews the true and onely cause why all that are lost do perish But to those that are contentious and disobey the truth and obey unrighteousness shall be indignation and wrath which is the same in effect with what he had before delivered Chap 1 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who withhold or suppress the truth in unrighteousness If you reply that the Apostle in the former place of 1 Tim. 2.4 speaks de generibus singulorum That God would have some of all kinds and sorts of men saved and come to the knowledge of the truth We must here again urge the place of St. Peter Epist 2 Chap. 3.9 which undoubtedly speaks universally in the negative and the affirmative and so de singulis generum Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Doth not Elibu speak thus of Gods gratious dealing with all mankinde that are gone astray Job 33.14 15 16 17 18. For God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth or regardeth it not In a dream in the visions of the night when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumbring upon the bed Then he openeth the eares of men and sealeth their instruction That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man He keepeth back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword And having named many other means which God useth for the self-same end ver 29.30 thus he sums up all and concludes the point Loe all these things God oftentimes worketh with man to bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightened with the light of the living And Job 34.23 For he will not lay upon man more then is right that he should enter into judgement with God which thing according to the doctrine all the sons of Adam might do for having his sin imputed to them before they were actual sinners and in him being deprived not onely of all wisdom holiness and power but every way blinded and depraved and that without a sufficient help of grace to ridd and deliver them as to the greatest part of them And verse 26 27. he shews the cause why he strikes wicked men even for this refractory opposition apainst his teachings and calls He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others because they turned back from him and would not consider any of his wayes whereas it was our duty to say to the Lord as often as he teacheth and chastiseth as it there followes verse 31.32 It is meet to be said unto God I have born Chastisement I will not offend any more That which I know not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more And chap. 35.10 11. complaining of mans
them onely that are justified in facto vel potius perfecto Thirdly whereas you grant That persons justified may by their sins fall under Gods fatherly displeasure and not have the light of his countenance restored unto them until they humble themselves confess their sins beg pardon and renew their faith and repentance This is true yet not of those perfect or consummate ones who fall not so either into sin or Gods displeasure but of the younger sort onely in the time of their progress and growing up who may not only so faile and suffer as you have affirmed but possibly may through a wilful revolt both fall away totally and remain under indignation finally As to your sixth and last Section because we have described the way and means of justification more groundedly then ye have done we can truely speak it in your words but not in your sense That the justification of beleevers in the Old Testament was in all these respects one and the same with the justification of beleevers under the New Testament But before we leave this subject give us leave to inform you of two things The first is That the means of our justification or spiritual redemption in Christ Jesus is principally his blood the blood of the everlasting Covenant his promised spirit Romans 3.24 25. Ephesians 1.7 Colossians 1.14 Hebrews 9.14 15. 22. compared with Jeremy 31.32 33 Ezekiel 36.25 26 c. Hebrews 10.29 chap. 13.20.21 Rev. 7.14 1 Joh. 1.7 9. The second is that remission of sins wherein you place justification for the main is to be had after sin is put away by sanctification and amendment and not before as you fondly dream both here and elsewhere For which purpose take these ensuing Scriptures Proverbs 28.13 He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Jeremy 33.8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me Mark 1.4 John preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins Luke 24.47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations Acts 5.32 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins Acts 26.17 18. Vnto whom I now send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me 1 Cor. 1.30 Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Hebrews 10.14 For by one offering hath he perfected for ever those which are sanctified To all which we could adde that the blessedness which David speakes of Psal 32.2 lies first in the putting away of sins by sanctification as the last words there import and the rest will bear it and then in having them or the guilt of them pardoned in Jesus Christ which words may be thus rendered O the blessedness of the man whose transgression is taken away and whose sins are covered or buryed with the like death of Christ O the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity by letting him dye in his sins as one filthy and unpurged and in whose spirit there is no guile CHAP. XII Of Adoption ALL those that are Justified God vouchsafeth in and for his only Son Jesus Christ to make partakers of the grace of Adoption a Eph. 1.5 Gal 4.4 5 Ro 8.17 by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and priviledges of the children of God b Joh 1.12 have his name put upon them c Jer. 14.9 2 Cor 6.18 Rev. 3 12. receive the spirit of Adoption d Ro. 8.15 have access to the Throne of Grace with boldness e Eph. 3.12 Rom. 5.2 are inabled to cry Abba Father f Gal. 4.6 are pitied g Psal 103.13 protected h Prov. 14.16 provided for i Mat 6.30.32 1 Pet. 5.7 and chastened by him as a Father k Heb 12.6 yet never cast off l Lam 3.31 but sealed to the day of redemption m Eph 4 20. and inherit the promises n Heb 6.12 as heirs of everlasting salvation o 1 Pet 1.3 4. Heb 1 14. CHAP. XII Of Adoption examined ERROR and misconceptions in you here as elsewhere Hydra like multiplies heads needlessly for this argument of Adoption is the same with effectual calling in some measure and the self-same with that election of God which is in time of which we spake before And as that is twofold the first conditional the second final and absolute so is this and though all the children of God are capable of these your priviledges or most of them in time if they continue in their filial faith and obedience yet are not they so at the first yea some have by their faithful walking proceeded so far by Gods grace that they have left some of the lesser and foregoing prerogatives behind them Therefore you have first committed great disorder and confusion in attributing all these alike unto all not shewing which priviledges belong to all Saints and which but to some who may absolutely expect all or most of them and who may expect the same conditionally onely Secondly You take the high way here as you have done elsewhere to fill many who are not yet past danger with security and presumption For the first of these There are three degrees of Gods name Image or like being The first Which is the fathers name is written upon those that beleeve on him love and obey him The second Which is Christs powerful and saving name becomes written upon such as are brought to know him to trust in his saving office and to seek his help against their enemies and who persist so seeking The third Which is the name of the holy Ghost and the new Jerusalem with the new name of Christ is engraven onely upon those that have overcome all their enemies through the power of Christ Revel 3.12 These last are they that are never cast off and who inherit the promises as heirs of salvation But the other two If they abide not in the Father and in Christ after they know him may fall short of the promises and be rejected Those of the third form are past Gods fatherly chastisements because they now sin not 1 John 3. but the other two are not so As for the other You tell us that all which are adopted to be the children of God are sealed to the day of redemption but none are so sealed finally and absolutely save the third sort of whom we spake before the rest are but sealed conditionally yet left in good hope Yea all those priviledges which you
not like to be decided in hast for it was not onely agitated betwixt Protestants and Papists but with intestine debate by the dessenting Doctors of each Church and that with seeming evidence of Scriptures on both sides So that great need there was of a Moderator to be sent from Heaven for the composing of this and manifold other most intricate controversies besides by reason of the returning darkness which after the Apostacy from the faith had overspread the Churches each side also haling the Scriptures velut obtorto collo to plead their cause Howbeit if our eyes had not been holden we might easily have observed that the Scriptures do distinguish both the Saints and their priviledges and that as some of those prerogatives are common to all and such is a possibility of not falling away from God totally and finally if they continue stedfast in their faith and obedience or after some slips rise up by repentance Psal 15.5 2 Pet. 1.10 So some others are peculiar to the Saints of the third form who have followed Christ both unto his death and resurrection and such is the prerogative of final perseverance or of impossibility to be deceived or seduced Mot. 24.24 And though God is constant in his love and assistance of grace yet even his called ones may by their inconstancy and wilful revolt from him alienate his heart from them irrecoverably as David well knew and warned his Solomon accordingly 1 Chro. 28.9 So true is that which the Prophet Azariah spake to Asa and his people 2 Chro. 15 2. Hear ye me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin the Lord is with you while you be with him if you seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you There is indeed a Covenant made with David and his seed of constant continual and everlasting mercy 2 Sam. 7.14 15. Psa 89.28 37. Therefore is this called The sure mercies of David Isa 55.3 but who are these children of David not his seed after the flesh who have been long forsaken Psa 89.35 36 37. but that spiritual seed of Abraham and David also who are constant in their good will toward God and righteousness as we said before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 2.14 And peace upon earth to good willing men But now to take a survey of your particular Sections In the very entrance of the first you shew that blindness is broken in upon the Churches First In that you set Gods accepting of us in his beloved before effectual calling as precedent whether in time or eternity to which last you incline whereas we are made accepted in his beloved Son after we are called and brought to obey him yea in some manner sanctified by him and not before And secondly In that you affirm of all the called ones and Saints in general that they shall certainly persevere to the end contrary to many express Scriptures some whereof were before produced First that of the unclean spirit which with set on worse then himself returned to his old house again Mat. 12.43 44 45. And that Rom. 11 22. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them that fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off That 1 Tim. 1.19 Holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack That of 1 Tim. 5.12 Having damnation because they have forsaken their first faith and verse 15. For some are already turned aside after Satan See 2 Tim. 1.15 Heb 6.2 3 4 5 6. Nor can these places following be fully answered to the worlds end Ezek. 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live c. Heb. 10.26 27 18. for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment shall he then be thought worthy that hath troden under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the Spirit of Grace See verse 39. 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. Jude verse 12. Revel 3.2 3. In your second Section almost every assertion is erroneous and false as followes First you say but most untruly That the Saints perseverance depends not at all upon their free will For did not Christ himself after some of his former Disciples were departed from him ask the twelve Apostles Will ye also go away Joh. 6.27 Intimating that he holds no man against his but they by the abuse of their free will might uncompelledly leave him yet at their own peril as Judas one of them afterwards did what was the true reason that Peter in his fall was pittyed and by our Saviour not only prayed for but holpen up again but because he was constant in his good will as our Saviour testifies of him and some others with him Mat. 26.45 The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Secondly That the perseverance of the Saints depends upon the immutability of the decree of Gods election whereas we have proved before that Gods general election of man is conditional and as for his special election it depends upon foreseen perseverance and not perseverance upon it and so doth Gods last and finall election as we shewed before also Thirdly That this perseverance depends upon the unchangeable love of God which as we have shewed may by our unworthiness unthankfulness and Apostacy be changed into wrath yea hatred Deut. 32.19 And when the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his Sons and of his daughters Fourthly you say It depends upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Christ but he makes intercession for none to obtain the Grace of perseverance but such as continue stedfast in their good will which they had to the Father and him as we see he prayed not for the Apostate Judas Jo. 17.8 9 10. Although he with a general intercession prayed for the unregenerate even for his enemies Luk. 23.34 and taught us by his Apostles to pray for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3 4. Fifthly you say truly It depends upon the abiding of the Spirit in us But doth not that abode of the Spirit depend upon our constancy in faith and good will and upon our giving ear to it when after our fals and slips it reproves admonisheth and teacheth us anew Hence we are charged not to grieve the Holy Spirit Eph. 4.30 Least he should depart Heb. 10.38 Now the Just shall live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Sixthly you say
contradict your selves in other places yet you have here and there your illegalities and mistakes also in this Chapter In your first Section you truly say That God gave to Adam and all his Posterity such a Law and covenant of works as you describe with power and ability to keep it And is he not the same God still in wisdom mercy and justice requiring nothing at any mans hand but what he will enable him to doe by his preventing or assisting grace if hee seek it In your second Section you say and that truly That the Law given to Adam being the same in effect with the Moral Law delivered upon mount Sinai continued to be a perfect rule of Righteousnesse Nor must the Israel of God think to obtrude upon the Lord any other acceptable righteousnesse for ever then is therein required and described Deut. 6.24 25. And the Lord commanded us to doe all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good alwayes that he might preserve us alive as it is this day And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to doe all these Commandments before The Lord our God as he hath commanded us Psalm 119.144 the righteousnesse of his testimonies is everlasting For the performing of which righteousnesse because it was become impossible to the fallen Man Christ is freely bestowed upon us Rom. 8.3 4. And so it is the end and drift of the law to send us unto Christ to seek our power wisdom and righteousnes from him Rom. 10.4 Gal. 3.22 23 24. But whereas you say in the end of that Section That the four first Commandments contain our duty toward God and the six last our duty to Man Perhaps it will prove a distribution more common then sound For as the whole Law is spirituall Rom. 7.14 so it seems first to require duty toward God in all the ten Commandments and then to call for Service toward men in the second place For the first four Commandments which St Augustine and some of the Ancients reduce to three only your selves doe not deny it Let us then take a view of the rest Doth not the fifth Commandment enjoyn us first of all to honour our heavenly Father and the Wisdom or Hierusalem from above our spirituall Mother 1 Sam. 2.20 For them that honour me I will honour Mal. 1.6 If I then be a Father where is mine honour Matth. 11.19 But Wisdome is justified of her children so Luke 7.35 Gal. 4.26 But Jerusalem which is from above is free which is the Mother of us all Prov. 7.4 Say unto Wisdom thou art my Sister and call understanding thy Kinswoman Doth not the sixth Commandement forbid spiritual murther in the first place to wit the killing of Christ the quenching of the Spirit and the destroying of the inward messengers and motions Jam. 5.6 Ye have condemned and killed the just one and he resisteth you not Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit 1 Thess 5.19 Quench not the Spirit Thus the Apostles complaines of the Apostates that they crucifie afresh the Son of God and put him to an open shame Heb. 6.6 Doth not the seventh Commandement first prohibite spiritual whoredom against God Hos 4.15 Though thou Israel play the harlot yet let not Judah offend Jam. 4.4 Yee adulterers and adulteresses c. Doth not the eighth precept first restrain us from theft and robbery against God Malac. 3.8 Will a man rob God but ye have robbed me Rom. 2.22 Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit sacriledge See Act. 12.22 in Herods example Doth not the ninth also first inhibit a false testimony against the Lord Jeremy 5.12 They have belyed the Lord and said it is not he 1 Cor. 15.15 Yea and we are found false witnesses of God c. Yea though the tenth commandement may seem to lay restraint upon us only in the behalf of our neighbor yet who hath so neer vicinity to us as God in whom we live move and have our being so that not only an open these against him in taking that which belongs to him as Achon did but even to assume or once desire that which belongs unto the Lord is impious as we see in Herod who took and consequently affected the glory that was due to God Acts 12.22 23. Nor doth the Lord want a house Isa 56.7 Mat. 21.12 13 14. Nor is he destitute of a wife Ezek. 16.8 And I sware unto thee and entered into a Covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou becamest mine See Re. 2. or of men servants and maid servants Psa 116.16 Truly O Lord I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid Nor is he without his Oxen and Asses 2 Cor. 9.10 Mat. 21.1 2 3 4 5. which if they be alienated from him in our desires it is a sin of concupiscence-against the last Commandement So that it is most true in this regard which Saint James speaks chap. 2.10 For whosoever shall keep the whole low and yet offendeth in one point is guilty of all for any one sin against God breaks all the Commandements It is Idolatry witcheraft murther adultery c. 1 Samuel 5.15.23 And as the six last first oppose sin against God so the four first in the second place restrain sins against man Thus we may not impose a false God upon our neighbor nor set up a false worship before him nor swear falsly to his hurt nor by prophaning the Lords Sabbath or everlasting rest before our neighbor insnare his soul And what we speak of the negativepart is true of the affirmative or possitive throughout all the Commandements so that the great duty of love to God and our neighbor seems to run through the veins of every Commandement And as these two are inseperable in the new creature so the whole Law by the Apostles own Testimony is fulfilled in this one Commandement Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self Rom. 13.8 Gal. 5.14 which cannot hold true except the Lord be our first neighbor who is to be loved in the first place and surely if we should not offer that wrong to God which we would not admit were we in his stead we should not sin as we do In your third Section you set not forth the whole extent of the Ceremonial Law which was to represent Christs inward death and sufferings as well as his outward He being the Lamb slain in us from the foundation of the world Rev. 13.8 and to be a document unto us shewing how we must follow him unto eternal life Howbeit you seem to go too far in saying It is wholly abrogated now under the new Testament for though the costly and burthensome yoke thereof is taken from the Gentiles yet some part of it by the words of the Prophets may remaine in use among the Jews after their calling and restauration Isa 66.23 And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before
13. Matth 28.19 20. Isa 59.21 IV. This Catholick Church hath been sometimes more sometimes less visible h Rom. 3.4 Revel 12 6 14. And particular Churches which are members thereof are more or less pure according as the Doctrine of the Gospel is taught and imbraced Ordinances administred and publick Worship performed more or less purely in them i Rev 2.3 Chapters 1 Cor 5 6 7. V. The purest Churches under Heaven are subject both to mixture and errour k 1 Cor 13.12 Rev 2.3 Chapters Matth. 13.24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. and some have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ but Synagogues of Satan l Rev 18.2 Rom 11.18 19.20 21 22. Nevertheless there shall be alwayes a Church on earth to worship God according to his will m Matth 16.18 Psa 72.17 Psal 102.28 VI. There is no other Head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ n Col 1.18 Ephes 1.22 nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof but is that Antichrist the man of Sin and son of Perdition that exalteth himself against Christ and all that is called God o Matthew 23.8 9 10. 2 Thes 2 3 4 8 9. Rev 13 6. CHAP. XXV Of the Church examined YOur Doctrine of the Church here exceeds not the state of the Churches whereof you speak Section the fifth saying That the purest of them under heaven are subject to mixture and error Yet in your first Section you begin well with a tolerable description of the universal Church in heaven and earth where notwithstanding you are mistaken in making this congregation wholly invisible which is but so in part and to some men And secondly in making it to consist of the whole number of the elect whereas we have proved before that all men are ordained to life though but conditionally But if you understand by elect those only who are called out of the furnace and chosen from thence then is your congregation defective for infants who dyed in infancy and are no smal part of this blessed number will hereby be excluded we say nothing to your calling of the Church the Spouse of Christ because she is one of his brides yea among all other people the Spouse of Christ yet there is another thing which is his first and principal Spouse to wit the Jerusalem or Kingdom of God which descendeth from heaven of which we spake before See Rev. 21.2 And I John saw the holy City New Jerusalem comming doâ—â— from God out of Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband In your Second Section you faile much more First in going about to speak of the Catholike Church upon earth and fastning upon her a fals name and property or adjunct in that you call her the visible Church wherein besides that you close with Papists in that appellation you both shew your gross mistakes for is the husband invisible and the wife visible Is the head invisible and the body visible See John 15.21 Now all these things will they do unto you for my names sake because they have not known him that sent me where was that possibility of the Church even in the new Testament for the space of 1260. dayes or yeers all which time the woman that brought forth the man child Christ which parturient or the Church did hide her self in the wilderness Rev. 12.5 6 c. if you say first That they are visible in the body we answer what markes have they in the outward man to distinguish them from others especially from formalists and hypocrites If you reply again That they are visible and discernable to those that have spiritual eyes We answer that even the invisible God is so in some measure to those men but this is to make them intelligible and spiritually discernable but not visible The work that makes them a Church is invisible 1 Cor. 2.15 But be that is spiritual judgeth or discerneth all things yet is he judged or discerned of none Secondly In this Section you describe a formal not a true Church when you make it to consist of men professing Religion which thing formalists and hypocrites may do Thirdly whereas by way of limitation you add professing the true Religion you still leave us in suspence For as the true Church fled into the wilderness Rev. 12. so you leave us in a wood to finde her out for do not every kind and sort of Religious people account their Religion to be the true Religion not only the Papists Lutherans and Calvinists do so in the West but the Greek Churches the Jews yea the Turkes hold their professed Religion to be right We say nothing here of the manifold and different Sects among Christians each of which maintain their Religion to be the only true Religion where then shall we pitch to finde your true Church But the true Church especially that of adult men as the very name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports is a Congregation or collection of those who are truly called or in some measure sanctified 1 Cor. 1.2 To the Church which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Jesus Christ called to be Saints c. from which we do not exclude the Infants of them or others dying before they sin actually since our Saviour saith expresly that Of such is the Kingdom of God Mat. 10.14 out of which numbers and societies there is ordinarily no possibility of salvation In your third Section you build upon a false and rotten foundation which you had laid in the former Section For it is not to that visible and formal Church which you describe but to the congregation of true Saints that God hath given the ministery and his oraâ—les and ordinances in the right use of them And to those he hath given those offices and gifts which you will not now admit as some to be Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists c. Eph. 4.9 10 11. yea and the spirit of Prophecy as we have proved before as the placeâ— which you refer us unto of Esay 59.21 with Mattheâ— 28.19 20. Ephesians 4.9 10 11 12. do evict But it is true which you say in the beginning of your fourth Section That the Catholike Church hath sometimes been more visible and sometimes less if you understand it of discernableness otherwise it hath been alwayes invifible to carnal men And particular Churches as you afterwards there assert are more or less pure according as the doctrine of the Church is taught and imbraced and Gods ordinances administred but what you add in the close concerning the pure performing of publick worship is a dream since Christ hath appointed none in the new Testament But herein we will joyn with you if you will alter your words and say So far as the true worship of God consisting in holiness and righteousness of truth is observed for that makes a true Church or society of worshipers Luk. 1.74 75. John 9.31 Act. 10.34 35. Eph. 4.22
and Psal 34.9 O fear the Lord all ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him Secondly there are Saints in God the Son who are called to know him and believe on him for salvation from their spiritual enemies deliverance from the curse Jude 1. To them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called which is the common Classis of the Saints in the new Testament Rom. 1.6 7. 1 Cor. 1.2 And thirdly there are Saints in the holy Ghost as the Apostles were made in the day of Pentecost when they were filled with the holy spirit of promise Act. 2.1 2 3 c. Secondly All those have neither the same degree of fellowship with God nor with each other but have their respective communion either with the father alone as the first or with the Father and the Son as the second or with the Holy Ghost also and so with the whole Trinity as the third John 14.25 Jesus answered and said unto him If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love and we will come unto him and make our abode with him See 1 John 1.3 4 5. And as the Saints have different degrees of communion with God according to their several ages and growth so they all have not alike fellowship with each other in communicating spiritual guifts for the Saints in Christ Jesus can condiscend to those in God the Father and those in God the Holy Ghost can stoop to both the other to do them service but the first cannot communicate much in spiritual things to the second nor either the first or second to the third though all may in outward things be serviceable to each other upon earth These things premised for order and distinction sake We finde then in your first Section these three errors First That you make none to be Saints but those that are actually united unto Jesus Christ their head hereby excluding out of that number and communion all those who as yet are onely bgotten by God the Father as were Cornelius Act. 10.1 2 3. and many other Secondly You untruly affirm that all those which are united to Christ by his spirit and saith have actual communion in his sufferings death resurrection and glory for none of them have fellowship in his resurrection and glory till they be dead with him and that the holy Ghost be poured down from Heaven upon them as he was upon the Apostles Act. 2. See Ro. 6 5. For if we have been planted in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection 2 Tim. 2.11.12 neither have all that beleeved in Christ for the present proceeded so far as to suffer with him and much more to pertake with him in his death he is a good proficient in Christianitie that knows what Christ hâ—th suffered in him and for him and is come to suffer with him not onely outward afflictions but inward sorrows in resisting temptations without yeelding to them in their solicitations wherein lies the main part of our fellowship of Christs sufferings And as for our becomming wholly dead with Christ you your selves hold it a thing not fully attainable in this life wherin you greatly wrong the grace and power of Christ in his saving work and office and are not onely injurious to others who give ear unto you but fall short of that happy conquest and salvation ensuing which is held forth unto you in the Gospel almost everywhere as hath been shewed before See Luke 1.74.75 Rom. 6.5 and 14. Ephes 5.25 26 c. Titus 2.11 12 13. Rev. 16.7 11 17.26 and Revel 7.14.15 c. And thirdly you here make no distinction betwixt interest and actual communion where you say That the Saints have communion in each others graces which is true of the first not of the last where the place which you cited out of Epbes 2.5.6 speaks of the Apostles high attainments rather then of the present state of the Ephesians and other common beleevers In your second Section you seem tacitely first to imply that there are two sorts of Saints the one by profession onely such as the members of your Church Catholick were in your former Chapter and some that are really such but we are sure that the Lord admits of no Saints for his Church or people but such as are truely sanctified and continuing such he rejects them not Secondly You truly say that Saints are bound to maintain an holy communion in the worship of God but this must be understood with diverse limitations to fence it from error For first it must not be Saints living remotely from each other Secondly It holds not concerning an outward worship unless the Church set up one that is pious and profitable or lawful at the least for Christ himself hath instituted no such worship as we said before Thirdly Yet must all the Saints wheresoever they live joyn in one true spiritual worship of the living God in his living righteousness Lastly We grant notwithstanding that such as conveniontly can come together ought as frequently as their occasions and safety will bear to meet together for the edification and comfort of each other and especially if the Christian Magistrates and spiritual Governours command such meetings But the residue of this Section about the relief of the Saints is sound and good In your third and negative Section you truly and upon good grounds disavow two things First That the Saints are coequal with Christ for no creature in his highest perfection can be equal to Christ the one being finite the other infinite in his divine essence And Secondly that the Communion of Saints upon Earth doth not abolish no nor infringe the title or propriety which each man hath in his goods and possessions which is clearly imported in those Scriptures of Exod. 20.15 Ephes 4.28 and Acts 5.4 which you point us unto as also in many other places of the Old and New Testament But whether that estate which the Saints attain at length when with the Apostle they are raised up together with Christ and made sit together with him in the Heavenly places or things Ephes 2.5 6. be a bare quality or accident or whether it be a spiritual life power and substance we will not dispute sure we are the Apostle calls it the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and our Saviour or Wisdom calls it substance in one notion or other Prov. 18.21 And I will cause them to inherit substance whatsoever that estate is the Platonists called him that had attained it not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a deified man and not onely some of the modern but even of the ancient writers of the Church use the word codeifying in a good sense of such as are made pertakers of the Divine nature according to the capacity of creatures CHAP. XXVII Of the Sacraments SAcraments are holy Signes and Seales of the
Covenant of grace a Ro 4.11 Ge 17.7.10 immediately instituted of God b Mat â—8 19 1 Cor 11. to represent Christ and his benefits to confirme our interest in him c 1 Cor 10 16. 1 Co 11.23 25 26. Gal 3 17. as also to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the world d Ro 15.8 Exo 12.48 Gen 34 14 and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ according to his word e Ro 6.3.4 1 Cor 10.16.21 II. There is in every Sacrament a spiritual relation or sacramental vnion between the sign and the thing signified whence it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other f Gen 27.10 Matth. 26.27 28. Titns 3.5 III. The grace which is exhibited in or by Sacraments rightly used is not conferred by any power in them neither doth the efficacy of a Sacrament depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it g Rom 2.28 29. 1 Pet. 3.21 but upon the work of the Spirit h Mat. 3.11 1 Cor 12.13 and the word of institution which contains together with a precept an authorizing the use thereof a promise of benefit to worthy receives i Mat 26.27 28. Mat 28.19 20. IV. There be onely two Sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord neither of which may be dispensed of any but by a minister of the word lawfully ordained k Mat. 28.19 1 Cor. 11.20 23. 1 Cor 4.1 Heb 5.4 V. The Sacraments of the Old Testament in regard of the Spiritual things thereby signified and exhibited were for substance the same with those of the new l 1 Cor 10.1 2 3 4. CHAP. XXVII Of the Sacraments in General examined IN this your general Doctrine of the Sacraments you have in a general manner kept the road of truth though here and there you deviate following your misleading guides but first we allow you the retention and use of the word Sacrament though not found in the Scriptures because the thing thereby signifyed is frequent there and the term hath not onely been long retained in the Church but was at the first borrowed from a military oath obligeing the Souldier to obedience and faithfulness towards their general to express our like oligations to God and his Christ Then as to your several Sections we take no acceptions at all to your second but must crave leave to certifie you somewhat in most of the other As first in the first Section where you setting forth the ends of the Sacraments do put that in the last place which was the first and principal end of their institution that is solemnly to engage men to the service of God in Christ for it is evident that Circumcision was ordained for that end mainly Gen. 17.10 This is the Covenant which you shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee that every man child among you shall be circumcised Deut. 10.16 Circumcise therefore the fore-skin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked Jer. 4.4 Circumcise your selves to the Lord and take away the fore skin of your bearts ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem the like we finde written concerning the Passover Exod. 12.17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread for in this self-same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt therefore shall ye observe this day in your generatious for ever 1 Cor. 5.8 Therefore let us keep the feast not with the old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth And as the Sacraments of the Old so those of the New Testament are instituted to instruct us in duty also Hence Baptism is called the Baptism of Repentance Mark 1.4 And Christ in the institution of the Lords supper saith do ye this in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11.24 and verse 26. As oft as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup shew ye the Lords death till his coming viz. That spiritual coming which he promised John 14.19.23 Howbeit we do not deny but that spiritual benefits are to be expected in the performance of these duties so the repentance taught by Baptism hath remission of sins annexed to it Mark 1.4 and the spiritual body and blood of Christ of which we shall have occasion to speak in the 29. chapter are in the Sacraments of the Lords Supper assured to those that are mindful of his death and suffer with him in resisting temptations by which they are enabled to hold out and overcome when they are tempted but these benefits are signified and sealed unto us but conditionally and in the second place onely Your third use of that distinction between the people of God and the world we also allow but you have omitted one main end which the Lord had in instituting the Sacraments which was thus even by degrees to build up his Tabernacles of righteousness that was fallen down to wit the first part of it in Circumcision the second in the Passover as also in the Lords Supper and the third in his breathing upon his Disciples and saying unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost John 20 22. For which last end both the feast of weeks in the Old Testament and Baptism in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost were instituted in the new especially that third part of Baptism Secondly Whereas you say in your third Section That the efficacy of a Sacrament doth not depend at all upon the piety and good intention of him that doth administer it you therein speak very unadvisedly For wheras the efficacy of a Sacrament is either obligement unto duty or the assurance of grace and help are not both obstructed by him that administers it if he be ignorant and not able to declare the Mystery of the Sacrament or if he administers the same in a profane and absurd manner or to other ends then it is ordained for or being a wicked person hath his prayers for efficacy rejected And on the contrary do not the spiritual abilities of the Minister his piety and fervent payers conduce much both to the edifying of the people in that service and the drawing down a blessing upon himself and them therein Thirdly Though we must grant you in the fourth Section that there are but two proper and compleat Sacraments in the New Testament yet there are many as it were semi Sacraments to be found there which are holy signes instituted by God in the time of the Gospel or before of which some represent our duties some the grace of God and some both such is the washing and wiping of the Disciples feet John 13.4 15. Secondly The anointing with oyl such as were sick and to be healed by the Disciples and Elders of the Church Mark 6.13 And they cast
second Section to wit to Elders and Governours called of God but not of man alone but that remitting and retaining of sins is both ministerial under the Lord Jesus and principally placed in the Church representative or the Superiours and Elders acted by Gods spirit and both fitted and called to that high office Mathew 16.19 Mathew 18.17 18. John 20.20 21.22 In your third Section you lay down good grounds why there should bee Ecclesâ—astical or spiritual censures in use and therein you seem to lay no small or weak foundation of reducing the true Saints now dispersed into congregations under spiritual able and faithful Overseers and those under some superintendent chosen of God of which some may be found if well sought out Your fourth and last Section by Officers right Overseers and Governours such as we have described being understood we willingly imbrace with this caution That you will with St. Jude verse 23. rather pull men out of the fire then persecute them with a faggot for difference of Judgement CHAP. XXXI Of Synods and Councels FOR the better Government and edification of the Church there ought to be such assemblies as are commonly called Synods or Councels a Acts 15.2 4 6. II. As Magistrates may lawfully call a Synod of Ministers and other fit persons to consult and advise with about matters of Religion b Isa 49.23 1 Tim 2.1 1. 2 Cro 19.8 9 10. 2 Chro 29.30 chapt Mat 2.4.5 Pro 11.14 so if Magistrates be open enemies to the Church the ministers of Christ of themselves by vertue of their Office or they with other fit persons upon delegation from their Churches may meet together in such assemblies c Acts 15.2 4 22 23 25. III. It belongeth to Synods and Counâ—els ministerially to determine controversies of Faith and cases of conscience to set down rules and directions for the better ordering of the publick worship of God and government of his Church to receive complaints in cases of male administration and authoritativly to determine the same which decrees and determinations if consonant to the word of God are to be received with reverence and submission not onely for their agreement with the word but also for the power whereby they are made as being an Ordinance of God appointed thereunto in his word d Acts 15.15 19 24 27 28 29 30 31. Acts 6 4. Matth 18 17 18 19 20 IV. All Synods or Councels since the Apostles dayes whether general or particular may erre and many have erred Therefore they are not to be made the rule of Faith or practise but to be used as an help in both e Ep 2.20 Acts 17.1 1 Cor 2.5 2 Cor 1.24 V. Synods or Councels are to handle or conclude nothing but that which is Ecclesiastical and are not to intermedle with Civil affaires which concern the Common-wealth unless by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary or by way of advise for satisfaction of Conscience if they be thereunto required by the Civil Magistrate f Luke 12.13 14. Joh 18.36 CHAP. XXXI Of Synods and Councels Examined IN complyance with your first Section we grant that there may be great cause of spiâ—itual consultations and that either about temporal things as Moses went twice to the Lord about the daughters of Zelophebad Numbers 27.1 2 3 c. and Numbers 36.1 2 3 c. or in things of Religion as Moses required what should be done first to him that blasphemed the name of the Lord Leviticus 24.12 and secondly to him that gathered sticks on the Sabboth day Numb 15.32 33 c. But it is the Lord that is to be consulted with in those great difficulties and that either immediately as Moses did in the places aforesaid and Daniel with the other three Children Dan. 2. or else by some person who hath the judgement of Vrim and is acted by the spirit of God Numb 27.21 Ezra 2.63 1 Maccab. 4.4 especially if any such person be to be found of which there have been some in all or most ages if the Authour of the book of wisdom speaks true chap. 7.27 And in all ages wisdom entering into holy souls maketh them friends of God and Prophets which is consonant to what the Father promiseth Isa 29.21 and to our Saviours engagement Mat. 28.20 Behold I am with you to the end of the world but in case no such person may be found there may be Synods and Councels called for consultation sake and if the matter be still too difficult it must be reserved for Gods future resolution Ezra 2.63 As to your second Section we grant that Magistrates may call a Synod of Ministers or other fit persons especially of those that are spiritual and wise and it were good that persons of all different mindes in Religion might be freely heard and their arguments well weighed and full answer given in writing to all that are in the wrong that our controversies might grow to an end and so truth with love and peace take place but in this case if any inspired Prophet may be had at home or consulted abroad it is safer to receive resolution from the mouth of the Lord by him which we might easily do in this age either by word or writing then to rely upon the judgement of an hundred ordinary Divines often producing the letter of the word but wresting or mistaking the sense We grant likewise that such ordinary ministers and persons may be sent from their own to other Churches yet can they act onely within their own Sphere as rational learned or devout persons not as inspired men But that ordinary ministers may by their office when the Magistrate is an enemy call each other or assemble into a publick Synod we doubt yet doubtless they may meet privately and advise yea pray together To your third Section we grant that Synods may handle controversies of fact and cases of conscience direction for an outward worship and the better governing of a visible Church as also hear complaints in cases of male administration and determine them or some of them authoritate sibi commissa especially according to the measure of Faith and Regeneration whereunto they have attained which decrees and determinations if consonant to the word are to be received for the words sake more then for their authority they not being a divine but an humane ordinance only for the meeting of the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem to which the Churches at Antioch and thereabouts appealed was an assembly of men acted by the Holy Ghost as themselves set forth Acts 13.28 and differs far both in warrant and authority from our Synods and Assemblies neither doth the first make the last to be Gods ordinance And in your fourth Section you confess no less where you acknowledge that all Synods and Councels since that might erre and that many have erred and so have you in many things but as your Confession here is ingenious so we hope you will not take
then for you to have pressed the necessity of the first resurrection for all fallen and corrupted men Revel 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power CHAP. XXXIII Of the last Judgment GOD hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ a Acts 17.30 to whom all power and judgement is given of the Father b Joh 5.22 27. In which day not only the Apostate Angels shall be judged c 1 Cor 6.3 Jude 6. 2 Pet 1.4 but likewise all persons that have lived upon earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ to give an account of their thoughts words and deeds and to receive according to what they have done in the body whether good or evil d 2 Cor 5.10 Ec 12.14 Rom 2.16 Ro 14.10 12. Mat 12.36 37. II. The end of Gods appointing this day is for the manifestation of the glory of his mercy in the eternal salvation of the elect of his justice in the damnation of the Reprobate who are wicked and disobedient For then the righteous go into everlasting life and receive the fulness of joy and refreshing which shall come from the presence of the Lord but the wicked that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ shall be cast into eternal torments and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power e Mat. 25.31 to the end Rom 2.5 6. Rom 9.22 23. Mat 25 2â— Acts 5.19 2 Thes 1.7 8 6 10. III. As Christ would have us to be certainly perswaded That there shall be a day of judgement both to deter all from sin and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity f 2 Pet 3.11.14 2 Cor 5.10 11. 2 Thes 1.5 6 7. Luke 21.27 28. Rom 8.23 24 25. so will he have that day unknown to men that they may shake off all carnal security and be always watchful because they know not at what hour the Lord will come and may be ever prepared to say Come Lord Jesus come quickly g Matth 24 36 42 43 44. Mark 13.35 36 37. Luke 1â— 35 36. Rev 22 20. Amen CHAP. XXXIII Of the last Judgement Examined THis argument de rebus novissimis is a good subiect for you and us to close with but as you want some light in the beginning so we cannot commend your discerning or Judgement in your end You by your Scriptures to which you referr us confounding so many kinds and times of Judgment very different in themselves First you might have observed that Christs office of Judicature is twofold the one in the Saints and the other outward over all persons of Angels and men The former of these his inward and spiritual office Christ executes two wayes at two distant times yea in two several degrees The first is when he judgeth betwixt them and their spiritual enemies and not only delivers his servants from them but guideth and ruleth them according to his Lawes and Will Thus as types of Christ Othnicl Gedion Jephtha and the Judges of old were said to judge Israel and sutably hereunto David speaks thus of Christ Psal 72.4 He shall judge the poor of his people he shall save the children of the needy and break in peices the oppressors and Christ himself saith John 12.31 Now is the judgement of this world now is the Prince of this world cast out Christs second way of judging in his Saints is when he riseth up in them in fulness of light and power after they are dead with him in which day and coming of his he manifests unto them truth and errour light and darkness life and death yea every Councel of their own hearts even as the light of the Sun laies all open to the eye 1 Cor. 4.5 Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God for this very cause the Apostle would have all men forbear judging till that time but not until the general day of judgment now the outward judging of Christ is either in this life or the other in this life he judgeth and punisheth persons nations yea and sometimes the whole earth as he did in the daies of Noah After this life he first judgeth every man at his death Heb. 8.27 It is appointed unto all men once to die and after that cometh the judgement and then as you have here set it forth all men and Angels at or in the last day Thus then is a manifold day or time of Christs coming to judgement spoken of Matth. 24. and 25. Chapters and elsewhere First His particular coming to every man at his death Matth. 24. Secondly His coming to judge and punish the nation of the Jews Matth. 24.23 which came to pass about 38 yeers after his death Thirdly His coming to punish the fals proud and Apostate Jerusalem of the Gentiles a work now in hand Matth. 24.3 20 36 37. Fourthly Christs inward and spiritual coming promised to his Apostles and Disciples John 14.19 20. and spoken of 1 Corinth 1.7 Heb. 10.36 37. Jam. 5.7 which spiritual coming of his was after a time to cease in the Church by reason of mens Apostacy and the departure away from the true faith Luke 17.12 The daies will come when ye shall desire to see one of the daies of the Son of man and shall not see them Fifthly There is Christs second coming and his spiritual entrance into his Church in the same kinde called also the day of the Lord of which 2 Thes 2.2 in which the man of sin the son of perdition that mystery of iniquity should be revealed yea and destroyed by the brightness of his coming which coming of his brings the Gospel with it that was to be preached unto all Nations Matth. 24.30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory and he shal send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet the Gospel aforesaid and they shall gather together his Elect from the four winds which time is by Zachariah described to be a gracious time chap. 12.10 11.12 and wished and longed for by St John Revel 1.7 22. This seems to be that blessed time wherein Christ shall come in the spirit but not in the body as many Chiliasts dream to errect a Kingdom throughout the earth in the hand of his Saints Dan. 7.13 14 27 28. which kingdom shall continue a thousand years Rev. 3.4 5 6. yea some are so bold as to say that this comming of Christ is the great day of judgment spoken of Acts 17.30 and elsewhere wherein Christ cometh spiritually with all his Saints to give a true and upright sentence concerning all spiritual things good and evil for which purpose they alledge that text 1 Thes 3.13 But St. John describes another judgement which shall follow after the thousand years are ended Rev. 20.7 8.15 which seem to be that very judgement which you aim at in this chapter And so sixthly and lastly There is Christs day or time of his last coming to keep a great and general Assizes Thus much in reference to your first Section especially In your second Section we admit your reasons produced to shew why there should be such a judgement with the proceedings then and the several events by you set forth and the rather because you there in the manifestation of the glory of Gods justice against there probates seem to lay their own condemnation upon their own disobedience and demerit and no way ascribe it to Gods absolute preterition or soveraignty to the want of means or sufficient grace for their effectual calling as you have done heretofore Lastly For a peaceable and friendly conclusion we grant you that which you assume in your third and last Section namly that Christ would have us certainly perswaded of a general judgement to deter all men from sin and for the greater consolation of the godly yet would he have us as well assured of our personal and particular going to judgement for the same ends so he would not have us ignorant of his spiritual coming but hope thereupon prepare our selvs thereunto 1 Thes 5.23 and though to take away security make us watchful he would have the day and hour both of our particular and his general judgment unknown unto us yet by such foregoing tokens and Characters as he hath set forth in his word we should learn to know his approaching judgements and commings and order our selves accordingly Matth. 24.32 33. Now learn a Parable of the Fig tree when its branches are yet tender and pntteth forth leaves you know that summer is nigh so likewise you when ye shall see all these things know that it is neer even at the door Against your 15. Article by you revised and here published we have not much to say but what hath been spoken upon those heads and should have had the less if you had left them all standing in statu quo prius And therefore we will here exhibite no articles against them as being more Orthodox then your selves though you hold them not for oracles We have here endeavoured to follow the Councel of St. Jude verse 3. Earnestly to contend for the faith which was once given to the Saints If any will be contentious against the truth we have no such custome nor the Church of God 1 Cor 11.16 But beloved building up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy To the onely Wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power Now and ever Amen Jude 20 21 24 25. FINIS