heaven page 110. I do fully agree with you in this that the employment which God had to do for Adam after the fall was as spiritual as before But then consider the ability does not lie in man but onely in the Lord Christ and in the Word of promise The true Church doth hold and ever hath held that the imployment which God hath now for every true believer is a spiritual imployment Yet they hold it also as a truth of the foundation that Adam lost all ability to spiritual good But here you think you have an unanswerable argument for say you in that service which Adam bad to do if he was compleatly furnished by God why should I judge that he would employ him in a more hard service and not afford him sutable accommodation Had God no other way to give Adam and his posterity sutable accommodation to obey his commands but there must be a necessity in it for him to retain the same abilities after which he had before the fall when you thus endeavour to proportion abilities to commands in a natural way you overthrow the scope of the Gospel and the main sense of the Scriptures which shew that all ability is to be had from Christ God hath tempered salvation and hath so put it into the hands of Christ that all that want abilities should go to him in the sense of their own misery And to this end he hath suffered the first man to fall and to lose all natural abilities that supply and help may be had from Christ onely in the Covenant of grace This is the main scope of the Scriptures And judge you now whether you do not go against the main foundation of the doctrine of Christ when you teach such things as these The Examiners of the late Synods confession of faith in the Chapter of free-will Sect. 2. are in a manner as foule as you For the Synod having laid down this truth concerning Adam in the state of innocency that then he had a power and freedome to will that which was good and pleasing to God but yet mutably the Censors are not contented with this but they seem to plead for the same liberty still in man after the fall These are their words That man in the state of innocency had freedome and power to will and do that which was good seems to us in some sort to hold true still of all men as they are now borne till they have personally and actually sinned If this be so what need is there of a Christ to sanctifie and to regenerate and to take away the sinne of the nature But now we will go along with you You say I judge the work that God set Adam about before the fall he had an ability to do after the fall if God had but given him a command to return into the garden again page 110. By this account then he had an ability to keep the Covenant of works after his fall The Covenant of works was that wherein life was promised to Adam and in him to his posterity upon condition of perfect and personal obedience Will you say then that he had ability to keep this Covenant if God had given him liberty to return into the garden Let us hear what ground you have for this God say you knew well enough that Adam had not lost his understanding nor his memory for he could tell the use of the tree and where it stood that should have cured him of his deadly wound otherwise the Lord would not have made so strong provision to prevent him page 111. True indeed we read that the Lord placed at the East of the garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming Sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life This Provision in the general sheweth that Adam knew the particular place where the tree of life stood and in general what was the use of the tree yet for all this he might be bereaved of his spititual knowledge Natural men may altogether be destitute of the knowledge of the Spirit yet judge of external objects represented to the senses A Temporary believer who hath lost his feeling may tell the time when the place where and the instrument by whom he was first wrought upon Therefore if we take it as granted that Adam knew the way to the tree of life and the general use of the tree this doth not prove him to retaine the same spirituall and internall knowledge which he had before his fall Let us heare the Inventory of Adams losses as you make the account You tell us that Adam forfeited his body and his limbes and that God would bereave him of all after that nine hundred thirty years were expired And you further adde that God cast him out of that pleasant place of accommodation that neither he nor his posterity had power to do the will of God in the garden any longer page 111 112. This is the total which you bring in of his losses and this is a very short reckoning As for Adams being cast out of the Garden it was a part of his misery to be deprived of that earthly mansion but it is the least part of his losse The principal damage which he met withall was internal in his soul which was more than the losse of a thousand gardens But we go to your next question CHAP. XIII Whether Adam did dye in the same day that he did eat the forbidden fruit TO the clearing of this point you begin with the divers acceptions of the word day And then you come to eavil against the Lords day in these words ☜ This day some affirme that it was the first day of the week but there is little to be shewn for that It is a very private Interpretation because there is no publick manifestation by the Word but that men are willing to strengthen the opinion and practise of a first dayes Sabbath with a reference to the changing of Gods Commands and setting up of their own thoughts page 114 115. By this it is clear what your judgment is concerning the Christian Sabbath but we will briefly clear the point First it is of the Law of nature that a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God Also the Lord in his Word by a positive and perpetual Command binding all men in all times hath appointed one day in seven to be kept wholly unto him Exod. 20 8 10 11. Now this from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week and from the resurrection and so downward it is changed into the first day Upon these grounds therefore if the question be put to us wherefore do you keep one in seven we plead the morality of the Command And if it shall be surther alledged why keep ye the particular first day in memory of the resurrection of the Lord Our ground is the perpetual use of the Church
founded upon expresse Apostolical practise and implicite Apostolical precept which we are sufficiently able to prove and evince by the collation of foure Scriptures if we were put upon that argument But this would be too larg a digression from the matter in hand Next you come to shew the sense of the commination And here you tell us that Adam did not dye the same day if the day be taken for the space of twelve or twenty four houres This is in plain termes to contradict the scope and sense of the text For there it is expressely said in the very same moment and instant of time in which our first parents did eat the forbidden fruit their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked Gen. 3.7 If you take this for the eyes of their mind it is most clear that their eyes were opened not onely to see their inward nakednesse in the losse of the image of God but also to feel the guilt of sinne as the just fruit of their disobedience If the opening of the eyes be taken for the eyes of the body then their eyes were opened to see that which they did not nor could see before Their nakednesse before was a nakednesse of honour innocency and righteousnesse but their nakednesse after was a nakednesse of dishonour of misery of sinne of provocation to sin And for the particular time it is expressed in the Comination in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death And accordingly in the same instant of time when they had eaten the forbidden fruit the eys of them both were opened they knew that they were naked Therefore death misery did seize upon them the same day according to the Commination But because you are so peremptory in it that Adam did not dye the same day if the day be taken for an ordinary day of twelve houres long For the clearing of this I would intreat you to answer me this question why did God appear to Adam in the evening in the cool of the day If you shall say it was to call the man and his wife to account for their disobedience I grant this to be true but it doth not satisfie the question for the particular time He might have called him to account at any other time and what necessity was there that it should be left upon record that he came to judgment the very same day The Lord had said in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death and the same day that the forbidden fruit was eaten at evening in the cool or wind of the day as the Hebrew hath it the Lord came to inquire after the fact to give sentence and to execute judgment In Scripture where promises or threats are declared to be fulfilled in such a particular time there the Holy Ghost is punctuall in the observation of the time The children of Israel should be in bondage soure hundred years according to the promise Gen 15.13 14. And when that time was fulfilled the very same day they came out of the land of Egypt with their Armies Exod. 12. 41 42. So our Lord and Saviour did signifie to his Disciples that he should be crucified and slain and the third day rise again Mat. 16.24 And how careful are all the Evangelists to repeat the time of the resurrection that it was on the first day of the week the third day after his passion And so in the present case when it is said in the day that thou eatest thereof shalt thou dye the death to the fulfilling of this the eyes of our first parents were opened the very first day And the Lord came to execute judgment upon them for their disobedience the evening of the same day After all this let us now hear what exposition you do give of the text Though Adam say you did not dye the same day as he did eat of the forbidden fruit yet he forfeited his life to the Lord of the great Charter of the world he was then in a capacity to dye he did then fall under the expectation of death As in the English such a man is a dead man because he is condemned by the sentence of the Law That which you say is true and it is in effect that which I teach but according to your sense it is not the whole truth For when the Lord saith in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death he doth not speak this onely of a capacity of dying but of an actual seizing of death for he was struck with spiritual death the very same day he sinned And for a temporal death likewise though there was not a present dissolution of the soul from the body yet presently he fell under the curse to conflict with Armies of diseases which should never leave him till they had brought him to his grave In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread untill thou return unto the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Chap. 3. ver 19. But now you further adde If Adam had dyed the same day he could not have tilled the ground he could not have lived so long as to see a son of his own To all this I agree if you take death in the most strict sense for the actual dissolution of the soul from the body but what ground have we so to limit the words of the text I have said before that God did smite him the same day with spiritual death and for a temporal death he came under the dominion and reign of it In that famous place when the Apostle saith by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and death hath passed over all men to condemnation Rom. 5.12 He doth here speak of the immediate reign of death Death reigned from Adam to Moses over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression ver 14. And in the close of all as sinne hath reigned to death so might grace reign thorough righteousnesseunto eternal life v. 21. Therfore the same day that Adam sinned though he lived to till the ground and to beget children after his own image yet he and all his fell immediately under the reign of death so that all who are now born into the world infants as well as others are under the reigne of death by the disobedience of the first man Having given the true sense of the Scripture we will take a view of your interpretation And here you say ☞ that Adam did dye the same day though he lived nine hundred thirty nine yeares after And to make good this strange glosse of yours you tell us that God did not prescribe any quantity of houres but hath declared that a thousand yeares are as one day in his account page 118. I must indeed acknowledge that a day is taken sometimes for a year sometimes for a greater revolution of time as may be seen
so much light into the heart of the Gentiles to know that they must not steal that they must not defraud or oppresse the Lord also doth give them power to act according to their light in these and such like outward moralities This is clear from the first and second Chapter of the Epistle to the Romanes and it is evident also by that Scripture that God was indeed much dishonoured by their not emproving their abilities which he had bestowed upon them to the bringing forth of such actions of obedience as he had required of them He was angry with them because they did not walk after the light because they held the truth in unrighteousnesse because by oppression and other sinnes they did not answer the Law written in their heart Though in these externals the Gentiles had abilities some way proportionable to the Commands yet in the case of true repentance and turning to God the same Apostle doth drive the Gentiles from all confidence and dependance upon natural ability The whole tenour of his speech is to shew that the proper use of the light which God giveth is primarily and immediately to help a man to judge himself and in judging to see his owne emptinesse that so in the sense of his own misery he may make out for mercy The whole scope then of the Apostle is to shew that Jewes and Gentiles are all under sin that they have no ability of their own and the end is to drive them to a Christ to make up all Next you go to the Parable of the Talents Matth. 25. You reason Our Saviour comes and bears witnesse to the world that he desires no more encrease then the benefit of what he had first given means sufficient to bring forth no more then was answerable to the seed he had first sowen if one Talent then the encrease of one verse 18. The slothful man hides the Lords treasury but verse 30 the Lord presents to us what course he will take with such servants who use such kind of sayings as too many do in these dayes that God would be gathering where he scattereth not but that must needs be a lye for what pleasure could the Lord himself take in any such increase where himself is not the planter page 45. I have often found this Scripture cited by the Arminians yet among them all I never met with any that made so corrupt a use of it as you do Not many years since the learned Chamier treating of the point of free-will did endeavour to shew the difference betwixt the Philosophers and the Jesuites They saith he meaning the Jesuites do admit some kind of grace which never entered into the thought of Aristotle they acknowledge the corruption of nature by sinne which the Philosophe's did never so much as dreame of Tom. 3. lib. 3. cap. 2. sect 9. If this Author were now alive I would gladly know what difference he would set betwixt the Philosophers and the Brethren of the Separation who hold that infants are free from all natural corruption what difference he would set betwixt Aristotles Ethical Philosophie and your Moral Divinitie when you teach that Adams abilities were as good after the fall as they were before But now let us come to clear the Parable of the Talents First suppose by sufficient means you understand onely the supply of the Spirit of Christ how can you justifie this to be a true interpretation that Christ requires no more encrease then the benefit of what he had first given sufficient means to bring forth Will you say that it is absolutely necessary to have the ability in present possession before the command can be given If this be your opinion you must needs block up the right and the true way of bringing a soul to Christ We preach the Law in the spiritual nature of it to a natural man to what end is all this but that by the sight of his own emptinesse by the convictions of the guilt of sinne he may look after a Christ first to justifie and to pardon secondly to sanctifie and to cleanse the pollution of his nature We do not preach the Law to him supposing that he hath ability but the immediate end of our preaching is by and thorough the inward working of the Spirit to empty him of all ability that so he may look to the promise where true ability is onely to be had For the words of the Parable that he gave to every man according to his ability ver 15. We are not strictly to adhere to the letter as though the Lord doth give his grace according to every mans natural ability but it is spoken after the manner of men he giveth his grace in a different measure to some more and to some lesse yet all the ability is from Christ himself And therefore when he that received one Talent accused the Lord for an hard man for reaping there where he did not sowe the answer was thou shouldest have given my money to the exchanger that is though thou hadst no ability of thine own yet if thou hadst gone to the exchanger to the Promiser he was able to make profit of the money he was able to help thee with forreign supply where thine own natural and domestical ability was wanting Secondly whereas you affirm that there are many in these dayes that use such hard kinde of sayings that God would be gathering where he scattereth not and that one day he will call such servants to account I do acknowledge as heretofore so now there are more then too many who do neglect their talent and cast the blame upon God himself But your aime is not so much at these as against others who oppose free-will and your way of setting up the natural ability of man Though some passages in their writings are hard yet if you would compare one thing with another you should find that they do speak of abilities that do answer duties of a word of promise that answereth the word of command of the fulnesse of Christ set in opposition to the sinfulnesse and misery by Adam Doctor Twisse disputing against the Arminians lib. 3. errat 9. pag. 211. doth of all others seeme to tread something hard yet he doth shew many pithie reasons wherefore the Lord may give a command where there is a want of abiliy First saith he men are too apt to trust in their own work to bring them to salvation therefore that they may know the common contagion of Original sinne and thereupon the impotency and weaknesse that hath ensued to all good the Lord taketh this course to shew them their misery Secondly he addeth these words If by the grace of God we know our selves to be no way fit or able to do those things which the Lord commandeth yet by his just counsel he doth command us and by his commands he doth shew what we are indebted to him as Lord Creator and that which we are not able to performe our selves
this let us consider that text I am perswaded that he who hath begun a good work in you will performe it to the day of Christ Phil. 1.6 Here the Apostle speaks of a work that is spiritually and theologically good Secondly concerning the person that doth begin the work Thirdly the persons who they are in whom this good work is begun Fourthly the accomplishment and performance thereof I am perswaded that he who hath begun a good work in you will performe it unto the day of Christ Here some may say if the Apostle had that persuasion that the work of grace would go on in the Philippians hearts whether they did eat or drink sleep or play why did he not bid them be secure and refer all to God He had no such meaning for when he saith I am perswaded that he who hath begun a good work in you will performe the same he doth speak in relation to his own prayer in the words immediately going before Alwayes in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now In relation to this prayer and their particular striving and looking after further degrees of grace he was confident that the Lord who had begun the work would bring the same to perfection Let us consider the words in the following chapter ver 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Here the Apostle doth attribute the whole work of mans salvation the will and the deed to the powerful working of the Spirit of God And that which is more he doth ascribe it to his good pleasure to work when he will how he will and upon what termes he will If any shall say seeing God doth all what is here left for man to do doth not this utterly drown and extinguish endeavour No for upon this ground he exhorteth them to work out their salvation with feare and trembling seeing they have no natural ability and free-will of their own but must meerly depend upon the grace of God for the supply of his Spirit to carry on the work therefore they must walk humbly with him and take the season of grace as it is offered Because the husbandman cannot make the Sunne to shine and the raine to fall at his own pleasure therefore he doth wait upon God for the seasons Even so because in the work of mans salvation the will and the deed doth meerly depend upon Gods good pleasure to work it when he will and how he will we are to apply our selves to him only When he administers the grace we should be careful to make use of the season seeing the matter is wholly in his hands we should walk humbly with him And thus Mr. Everard you see that though the action is mans yet the ability to will and to do is only from God and nothing from man And so the natural ability which you endeavour to set up is nothing at all Now let us see what you gather from the parable of the talents I observe say you that Christ sets no man on work whom he hath not enabled to perform it for he giveth out his work answerable to abilities Matth. 25.25 Comparing himself to a Merchant he straight way went from home as if he had said I have so ordered my family that I have seen my servants furnished such a course have I taken to give every one employment not exceeding their abilities And what could I have done more for them do but name it Is it not sufficient that I have made men and women fit for my work I gave them light to direct them and they wanted for no materials for time they had enough They had my commands and persuasions and also threats in case they did neglect page 48. These collections of yours from the parable of the Talents I might let passe seeing I have some way hinted at these things before But because the Pelagians Arminians and you of the Separation do so triumph in the words of this Scripture I will take the more pains to clear the meaning of the text And I will do it the rather because of one particular passage which if it were clearly understood would break the great design of all those who endeavour to set up the will of man They would quickly perceive that they have no such colourable ground from the words of this Scripture First I do willingly agree that the command doth stand in proportion to abilities but how not in proportion to natural abilities not in proportion to abilities of grace in present possession but in proportion onely to the supply of the Spirit as it shall please the Lord to administer to them that shall work out their owne salvation and by the prayer of faith wait upon the Lord for the performance of the promise Now whereas the slothful servant did complaine against the Master for requiring more then he gave him ability to do the Lord tells him plainly though he had no ability of his own to husband the talent yet he might have put the money to the exchanger The force of which words is thus much that though in these supernatural works which men have to do in and toward the working out of their salvation they have no ability of their own they may go to the exchangers to the word of promise to the prayer of faith and to the continual supply of the Spirit of Christ As the ability did lie in Adam before the fall so now all ability is to be had from Christ onely To him therefore all that are weary and heavie laden must go for help And the Apostle when he had exhorted the beleeving Ephesians to the performance of many duties for matter of ability he shutteth up all with this conclusion Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can aske or thinke according to the power that worketh in us Ephes 3 20. Here it is plaine that Christ giveth forth work answerable to abilities but these abilities are not inherent in men or in the natural power of mans own will but they are wholly to be had from the supply of the Spirit of Christ They who pray seek and aske they onely shall receive We come now to your second reason Reason 2. Secondly say you If God giveth us these good actions which we performe by confequence this will make void all the commands of God page 49. Answer In this I am of your judgment for if any shall say that the Lord doth all by the inward working of the Spirit and doth not leave so much to man as to be a free agent by the power of grace received to what purpose are counsels commands and direct one given to him who is to perform the work This may properly be applied to the Enthusiasts but it doth not any way extend
mans part seeing God hath already decreed and promised to do the work himself ☞ Answ Though God doth resolve certainly to bring a thing to passe in his decrees and purposes though he doth promise also that it shall be certainly done yet this doth not hinder the endeavour of man seeing it is his manner to bring things about by mans endeavor as the chief mean or instrument As for example when Saint Paul and his company were in danger of shipwrack the Lord did tell him by night in a vision that there should not be the losse of any mans life but of the ship onely Acts 27.22 Here was a certaine promise and thereupon the Apostle did certainly conclude that they should all come safe to land You will say then did not the certainty of the promise especially seeing God would performe it by power hinder their endeavour No For when they came into a place where two seas did meet and the ship did stick fast in the sand every man did shift for his own life some by swimming and some upon broken pieces of the ship God had promised that there should not be the losse of any mans life ☜ and this he did effect by making every one of them careful to preserve his own life So in the case of those men which God doth intend to bring to eternal salvation he will first or last sooner or later and that by his own power make them careful of their own salvation As in the words of the text he first promised to give a new heart that is the spirit of love into the heart and when this is done then they shall keep his commandments So then it is cleare that the infallibility of the decree of election and the certainty of the promise of God do not make void the free obedience of that people which he doth intend to bring to salvation But thirdly they object Though he doth give a new heart it is not absolutely necessary that he should give it cum effectu with the effect He may give it with great efficacie yet neverthelesse the grace may be resisted by the malignity of the will of man Answ It is confessed that God may give grace and men may resist and by resisting may lose the grace that is offered But the question is whether the new heart or the new spirit may finally be resisted ye or no If any man beleeve that it may let him answer the words of that promise Jer. 31.31 32. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel not according to the Covenant which I made with their fathers when I tooke them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which Covenant they brake But this is the Covenant that I will make after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people In the present case then the writing of the Law in the heart must be meant only of an effectual inscription if this be not so where will be the difference betwixt the old the new Covenant betwixt the Covenant that God made with the people when he brought them out of the Land of Egypt and the Covenant that he will make in the latter days For the covenant that he made with them at their coming out of Egypt they brake but the new Covenant shall not be broken when the Lord shal write his Law in their hearts then all shall know him from the greatest to the least Therefore if we go to the manner of the thing the work of conversion may be wrought with efficacie and infallibility on Gods part and yet there be no detriment or dammage to mans obedience Master Everard I have stayed the longer upon this point to to shew you the inequality of your similitude as though God did deale with his elect in forcing a purse of gold upon them and then call that their obedience We say the contrary God may infallibly work upon the hearts of his people and by his necessary and infallible workings bring them on to a free and a chearful obedience Their free endeavour must needs stand with a subordination under his decrees and workings Now let us go to the harder case of the Non-elect and here the decree of God and the certainty thereof doth not any way free men from being the children of disobedience Let us take a view of that Scripture What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9.22 From hence it is cleare that there are none destroyed but such as are prepared and fitted for destruction and for the preparation the Lord in the ordinary way doth endure men first with much long-suffering For the clearing of this let us consider that passage of the Apostle 1 Pet. 3.19 20. By which spirit also he went and preached to those spirits that are in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah Therefore let the decree of non-election be what it will be in the purpose of God yet we are sure in the ordinary way it is not put in execution ☞ but the Lord doth endure men first with much long-suffering We may proceed with this gradation None are destroyed but those that are made fit for destruction None are made fit for destruction but such as he hath endured with much patience and there is none that he hath endured with much patience but he hath striven with them from time to time with convictions of his Spirit and they have shewed many acts of disobedience against such inward motions and workings Therefore the decree of non-election as it is to be put in execution may well stand and consist with the disobedience of man so that he himself shall be the cause of his own condemnation If this be so I know no just cause you have to complaine for say you I wonder how they can call it our duty while they affirme that God never intended that we should do that work and so never furnished us to that purpose page 55. If you apply these things to us and our doctrine as it is probable you do then I must tell you that you heap up calumnies we do not maintaine any such position that the Lord doth not surnish the non-elect with abilities there is none of them all but he hath more ability then he useth And for the temporary beleever we hold that he hath very great qualifications and is able to go very sarre Here onely lies the point of the difference that the Lord doth not give him such abilities as will infallibly carry him on unto salvation This is his peculiar dealing with the elect as may be proved from divers Scriptures ☜ But here perhaps will
same spiritual drink for they drank of that rock which followed them and that rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 5. Further after the fourty years pilgrimage were ended the Lord doth promise that their Convoy should not leave them but that he should go before them and drive out the Canaanites because it was not in their own power to bring the land into subjection This is the Lords promise and therefore in sense and substance the Angel must do the whole work Secondly let us consider what is the duty of the people and that is contained in these words Beware of him obey his voice provoke him not c. Because they did wholly depend upon him for all therefore they should be careful to observe him and to follow him in his leadings The force of the reason is the same in the words of the text work out your salvation with fear and trembling because God works in you the will and the deed because his Spirit is all in all the cause of mans salvation to carry on the work because his Spirit doth convince reprove teach comfort seal and guide the Saints therefore they should walk tenderly and carefully toward him The Apostle saith grieve not the Spirit of grace by which ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes 4.30 In case they do with him as disobedient children do with their parents when they give them good counsel the Spirit will neither comfort nor seal them any more but will leave them to a state of darknesse and discomfort And this is the true meaning of the text We may hereby understand how God doth carry on the whole work of salvation and this doth no way impair or diminish the endeavour of man In the close of all you tell us Let us say with the Apostle in our hearts that we desire to strive with dayly labourings according to the mighty workings whereby he worketh in us Col. 1.29 And do not say any more it is God that worketh our actions but be thankful to him that giveth us sufficient means Page 63. You have heard before that the Lord doth work in us the will and the deed and therefore the spirituality of the action is wholly from God though we are free workers by the help of his grace But let us take your words in the fairest construction If you will stand firmly to this principle that God gives sufficient means by a power working in us you need not fly to the purity of nature to natural free-will and to such like beggerly rudiments to salve the endevour of man In this place you seem to speak for grace when elsewhere through your whole treatise you drive the bargain altogether for the natural abilities of the will But seeing you have offered this text to our consideration we will endeavour to draw from it the concord betwixt the grace of God and the endeavour of man The words are these Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily The Apostle speaketh of the work of the Ministery whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus whereunto I labour according to the mighty workings that he worketh in us Here it is plain that the Apostle did work in teaching and instructing every one and it was not so much his work as the work of the Spirit in him and by him When he was at Athens his Spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry Why are not the like excitations of spirit in men in there dayes who travell to Constantinople to Ligorn to Rome seeing hose people are wholly given either to Mahumetan superstition or Popish Idolatry The reason is manifest the same spirit doth not work so mightily in the hearts of men as it did sometime in the heart of Paul because he was filled with the Spirit he did shew abundant sympathy and bowells of affection towards all the lost sonnes of men But to come to instances in these last times when the Gospel was plucked down and the Mass was set up in Queen Maries dayes the Martyr being in a journey declared his intention that he would preach in his charg the next Lords day and when he that journeyed with him told him then he would certainly be cast into prison his answer was I am in prison till I am in prison He was bound in his spirit to preach the Gospel to the soules which he had taken charg of he could have no peace otherwise then in the discharge of his duty He did labour freely yet so as his labour was by the inward moving of the Spirit But of all other places that passage of our Saviour is most used by the Enthusiasts Ye shall be brought before Kings and Princes for my sake but when they shall deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given to you in that houre what you shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you Mat. 10.18 19 20. Though this promise is made to the Martyrs and Confessors in times of persecution yet it is not made to them in that manner as to extinguish and drown all endeavour of their own as though God would do all and they should be discharged of their duty The promise is only made to such as should engage themselves for Christ and should humbly in the use of the means depend upon him for the supply of his Spirit And thus we see that the Spirit does all and yet in the most spiritual actions man himself is a free-worker It shall be given you in that houre what you shall speak This expression what you shall speak sheweth plainly that the Saints are free Agents Let us now consider that place Ephes 2.8 9. For by grace ye are saved through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God ☜ Here you yield that salvation as purchased by Christ is the gift of God but you will not have faith it self to be the gift of God you grant one part of the text to deny another If you consider the words you shall finde that not onely salvation but also faith it self is Gods free gift If this be not so how could the Ephesians come to beleeve The Apostle saith that they were dead in trespasses and sinnes they walked according to the course of the world they fulfilled the lusts of the flesh and of the mind Therefore they could not come to beleeve by any natural ability but meerly by the quickning work of the Spirit Further this expression is added ver 10. We are his work manship created of God unto good works By nature they were dead in trespasses and sinnes and if that now they could perform any spiritual act they were made able to do this by the new creation or workmanship of God Further if faith be not the
But still you take offence at the contrariety of the two wills You say There is an impossibility for Adam to serve two Masters especially when one commands him to stand by a revealed will and the other hath determined the fall by his secret will at the same time unlesse he could serve the one in the forenoon ☞ the other in the afternoon And yet further to amplifie the difficulty you say The secret will is the controuler for let the revealed will command any thing we are to center in the determination of the secret And then you pathetically call upon man to bewail the time that ever be had a being in this world because he is sure to come to ruine which will soever he obeys If Adam did obey the secret will of God then the penalties inflicted by the revealed will would fall upon him And then you conclude in these words Might we not say farewell all hopes of another life and so hang down our heads crying out alasse we are undone our Leaders are not agreed for what the one sayes do the other determines that he shall not do And much more you have to the same effect page 80. But all may be answered in a few words We plainly affirme in matters of obedience men have nothing to do with the secret will of God according to that determination Secret things belong to God but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever that we may do the words of this Law Deut. 29.29 This also is the doctrine of the Church of England That men should not meddle with predestination and election but those only who have the fruits of election who are called justified and sanctified For the ordinary sort of men they only are to look at the general threats that they may be humbled and to the general promises that you may beleeve Artic 17. And so in the particular case of Adam we say that he had nothing to do with the secret will of God concerning the permission of the fall his duty only was to look to the command That was the Cynosure or only rule which he was to be guided by And it is the duty of us all to do that which the Lord commandeth and to rest upon him to make our Leaders to agree It doth not appertain to you nor me nor any man living to make a reconciliation betwixt these two wills in their seeming differences let us keep the ordinary path But if you will say that the secret will is that which doth prevail though this doth prove true in the event yet neverthelesse the revealed will of God is the onely rule or cannon which we must walk by as for example the Lord in his revealed will required Abraham to offer up his son Isaac in sacrifice when in his secret will he had decreed that Isaac should not be sacrificed If we go to the event the secret will was the more preponderating and prevailing will of the twain Though it was yet the obedience of Abraham had its special testimony in this that he had regard to the revealed will of God Gen. 22.2 12. So in the case of Hezekiah the Prophet was sent with a message to him set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live Isa 38.2 and yet we finde that the Lord in his secret will had decreed that he should not dy at that time fifteen years more were added to the dayes of his life In the present case then though the secret will did carry the sway yet the commendation of the obedience of Hezekiah did ly in giving assent to the threatning of God denounced by the mouth of the Prophet Though the denunciation was meerely conditional spoken onely in relation to second causes thou shalt dye of the present disease unlesse thou humble thy self and by fervent prayer seek the face of God Though this declaration of the will of God did imply a condition yet because it was the will declared and outwardly revealed to Hezekiah he was to have respect to this onely He was not whatsoever you suggest to the contrary at a dilemma or strait which of these two wills ought to be obeyed he never lamented the day of his birth because his Leaders were not agreed He never faulted the contrariety of the two wills that the revealed will should say thou shalt dy and the secret will imply thou shalt live What God had revealed concerning his present death he did beleeve the sentence outwardly made known to him as for Gods secret Decree he had nothing to do with that which did meerely lie hid in God We read indeed after his humiliation when the Lord had made known so much of his secret purpose that he would adde fifteen yeares more to the dayes of his life then he was bound to believe and to live in faith of that particular promise which was made I might go further with the example of the Ninevites the Lords revealed will or his sentence outwardly denounced was Yet fourty dayes and Nineve shall be destroyed Jonah 3.4 Now in his secret will or absolute Decree the Lord had not purposed that Nineveh should be destroyed but that that people should escape by true repentance at that time Though the secret will did prevaile or to use your language was the will that did controll yet for the time being the Ninevites had nothing to do with the will of Decree no further then this Who can tell whether the Lord will return from his fierce anger verse 9. The will which they were immediately to believe was the sentence denounced by the mouth of the Prophet they were bound to believe that their sinnes were so great that they did deserve destruction and that the Lord would certainly destroy them within the space of fourty dayes unlesse they did repent in that limited time Their beleeving the revealed will of God and their trembling at his Word was one principal mean to bring about his secret will and what he had decreed in his secret will concerning their preservation And though the denunciation by the Ministery of Jonah came not to passe it was no false message because it was reversible upon a tacite condition which the Lord was pleased for a season to conceal from the Ninevites to drive them more effectually out of their carnal security I might adde more examples to prove the vanity of your exceptions but I will go neerer the matter and that in a harder case then any propounded by you We read touching the wast of the Church in the latter times The outward Court cast it out and measure it not for it shall be given to the Gentiles and the holy City shall they tread under foot fourty and two moneths Rev. 11.2 Here it is plain that the Lord speaketh concerning the desolation of the Church that shall be in all Anti-Christian times Now seeing the Lord hath revealed these things to his people to the end that
they so continue they are in the way to damnation yet we cannot absolutely pronounce concerning the persons themselves it belongeth onely to God to judge of their final and eternal condition And for that place which you alledg that God sweareth that he desireth not the death of him that dyeth I pray you now tel us the particular man in our method and way of teaching hat is not a capable hearer of this doctrine Whatsoever God doth intend in his secret Decrees concerning the eternal state of men what is that to us We must make the tenders proposals and offers of grace according to the termes set down in the Gospel Indeed as men do submit to the promise and do take Christ for their Head so God doth bring about that which he hath determined in his secret will And therefore when you speak concerning this sort of people That they should not beleeve his revealed will at all if they hold his secret will to be the Superiour what good reason can you shew for that for though the secret will of God touching the salvation of his elect be the Superiour yet all the tenders of grace all faith in the promises are but the ordinary way to bring us to salvation Here is no contrariety of will against will but an excellent subordination Because the Lord had many people in the City of Corinth that did belong to him in the determination of his secret will therefore the Apostle had a command to preach the Gospel in that City and he did continue there the space of a year and six moneths Acts 18. ver 10 11. But if it be further objected how can you pray for the salvation of all seeing that the Lord doth determine to passe by a great number of men I answer though it be so we are to do the duty Paul did know that a greater part of the Jewes should be hardened and that a remnant onely should be saved yet for all this he did preach the Gospel and use all means that he might save some of them Rom. 11.7 8 9 10. Augustine one of the greatest assertors of the prerogative of free-grace in his book de correptione gratiâ hath these words We not knowing who belong to the number of the predestinate and who not ought so to be moved with the affection of charity that we should will all men to be saved And so far as it doth appertain to us who are not able to distinguish the predestinate from them who are not predestinate for this very thing because we ought to will all men to be saved we must medicinally use sharp reproof to all men to save them from perishing Dr. Twisse also hath these words moreover of those who are now alive though the greater part of them should be reprobated seeing this is not known to us there is nothing doth hinder but we may make supplications for all Vindic. grat lib. 2. Crimin 4. Sect. 9 Page 91. Many more testimonies I might bring of that kind of people as you call them who maintain the secret will of God to be the more prevailing yet in order to our understanding they shew that we are to look onely unto that which is revealed They do with one heart and with one mouth declare that you must begin at the lower end of the ladder before you can come to the top As for the secret and the revealed will of God though this seem to us to be contradictory there is no contradiction The river that in appearance seemeth to go another way if you follow it by divers mazes turnings it will bring you to the Sea at last But if you further urge how can the sending of Christ into the world to dy for the lost sonnes of men stand with the Decree of election where some onely are chosen to salvation Answ This point is solidly handled by Dr. Davenant in his answer to that book that bears the title Gods love to mankind and in another Treatise of the death of Christ The scope and tenor of the whole discourse is to shew that the non-elect may be partakers of many fruits of the death of Christ though they are not partakers of that grace which will certainly and infallibly bring them to salvation ☞ and so he doth concord the general attonement with the peculiar Decree of election But because this point is exceedingly controverted in these times and is as it were the very rock of offence I will particularly shew how farre I can go along with you First I do agree that by his death the Son hath removed the bar out of the way that hinders the salvation of man For God having once made a Law in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death according to the rigour of the Covenant of works and the strictnesse of divine justice there was no possibility for any mans salvation But the Lord Christ having once satisfied the justice of God and removed the barre there is now a possibility for all the lost sonnes of men to be saved they are brought into a savable condition notwithstanding all the strict demands of satisfaction according to the first Covenant And this I take to be the natural sense of that place which you and others stand so much upon Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. The scope of which words is briefly this that seeing the Lord Jesus Christ did give himself as a ransome for all men there is a possibility of salvation forall upon termes of repentance and faith Secondly I do agree with you that by the death of Christ the Lord doth shew patience and long-suffering to the rebellious to invite them to repentance Rom. 2.4 And though since the fall of man the thoughts of his heart were evil from his child-hood yet respect being had to the Mediators blood typed in the sacrifice of Noah the promise to the whole world was that the Lord would no more curse the ground for mans sake but seed time and harvest winter and summer day and night should continue to the worlds end Thirdly I do also agree with you in this that the Lord Jesus by the shedding of his blood hath not onely procured a possibility for the lost sonnes of men but also at seasons he doth give them some portions of spirit enabling them to judge themselves And for temporary believers they go so far in the participation of the fruits of the death of the Son as to tast the good Word of God and the powers of the life to come Heb. 6.5 These are the general fruits of the death of Christ and in this sense we may say that he tasted death for every man In what sense then doth Christ dye for the elect
deserved it And so you lose your cause Thirdly the Apostle saith Lust when it hath conceived it bringeth forth sinne and sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Jam. 1.13 14. To avoid the force of this Scripture you tell us That sinne doth not bring forth death as lust doth bring forth sinne sinne is lusts natural seed but death hath no conceptions by any seed of sinne page 94. But Sir I would entreat you to leave all windings and shifts deale plainly with the words of the text The Apostle saith sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death I do here put it upon you to give a down-right answer seeing the words of the Apostle are so plain If sinne doth any way bring forth death then we must needs conclude that sinne is the cause of death and this is the true meaning of the Apostle But seeing you bind so much upon the Lords institution who hath threatned death to the sinner let us come to the original text In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death And here setting the Lords prohibition aside I do willingly yield that there was no evil in the tree of knowledge of good and evil if we go to evil in the intrinsecal nature thereof but the Lord having forbidden it it was evil to go against his Command In this sense I say though death was threatned by God yet Adams own personal sinne was the meritorious cause of death to himself and to all his posterity And this is the ground of the Apostles speech By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne and death hath past over all men unto condemnation You labour in many pages together to prove that Adams sinne was no cause of his condemnation and when all comes to all This is your chief ground that the Lord in his institution did ordain to punish sin and sinners with death and therefore sinne is not the meritorious cause of death Good Sir may not both stand together as social causes what do you think of the two Malefactors that were hanged upon the Cross the one on the right hand and the other on the left hand of our Saviour Were they not both put to death by the sentence of the Law yet for all this they were the cause of their own condemnation The converted thief will tell you as much Doest thou not fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation And we indeed justly suffer for we receive the due reward of our deeds Luke 23.40 41. In like manner I say though death was inflicted upon Adam as the just judgment of God yet Adams sinne was the cause of his own condemnation Now whereas you call death a righteous branch It is true if you look to the sentence of the just Judge who hath appointed death as the punishment of sinne yet if you look unto the nature of death he is an enemy The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death 1 Cor. 15.26 Further in the book of the Revelation we read that after the Beast the false Prophet and the Dragon were cast into the lake of fire then death it self was cast into the lake of fire Rev. 20.14 What is the meaning of this but that the Lord Christ is Head and King of the Church and will tread down all his enemies in the several and respective times appointed for their destruction and then last of all death it self shall come to be destroyed If death then be an enemy the last enemy and shall be destroyed as an enemy how can you affirme that it is a righteous Branch Further you argue That death cannot be the fruit of sinne seeing God hath pleased to punish sinne with death sinne and punishment for sinne agree no more than light and darknesse page 91. If this be your opinion I pray you tell me what do you think of that case where God doth punish one sinne with another He gave up the Gentiles to vile affections that they might receive in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet Rom. 1.23 24. If one sinne may be the punishment of another why do you put such a difference betwixt sinne and punishment as betwixt light and darknesse you have another evasion to help you our you say The very voice or death is enough to scare a sinner from his sinnes therefore death is not the natural fruit of sinne page 95. Give me leave to observe the same way of reasoning The Devil if he should visibly appear the very sight of him would be enough to scare a sinner from his sins Therefore a wicked sinner when he doth commit sinne doth not fulfill the lusts of his father the Devil which is to go point blank against the Scripture John 8.44 After this you come to answer a weak and incongruous objection of your own making you feign an adversary to reason in this wile If there had been no sinne there had been no punishment therefore pun shmext must be produced by sinne page 949. In this you deceive your self we do not argue so loosely to make every antecedent a necessary cause of that which cometh after for then by the like reason you might argue as you do If there had been no Law there had been no transgression therefore transgression is produced by the Law We say that sin doth not go before death as a meet antecedent or occasion only but as the meritorious cause of death the Apostle saith sinne bringeth forth death as the cause doth the effect and the wages of sinne is death when the work is done the wages is to be paid Last of all you come to the particular examples of Corah of Herod of Ananias and Sapphira and from thence you reason If death be the natural fruit of sinne why are not all Rebels punished as Corah all proud men as well as Herod all guilty of the sinne of equivocation as well as Ananias This is the substance of your argument page 99 100. To all which I make this answer unlesse they repent they shall meet with the same righteous judgment of God The Lord is free in the execution of judgment as upon those eighteen on whom the Tower in Siloah fel yet that it may appear to you that death is the natural fruit of sinne and that sinne is the meritorious cause of death our Saviour shuts up the matter with these words unlesse you repent you shall all likewise perish Luke 13.1 2 3 4 5. But you go on and strike still upon the same string If I should allow as much demerit in Adams disobedience to bring death as Christ had merit in his obedience both active and passive to bring life into the world yet it would not amount to such a pitch to be the onely cause For though the obedience of Christ was the cause of the coming of life into the world yet the appointment of God was as principal a cause as the obedience of Christ And so though sinne
in the Prophetical Scriptures But the scope of the text is plainly to be taken for a literal ordinary day as we have formerly proved And strange it is that the Lord in the denunciation of judgment should go to the typical and parabolicall expressions used in Daniel and the Revelation and Peters Epistle After this you come to enquire whether Christ by his suffering did not prevent the falling of death upon Adam And you resolve it in the negative For say you either Adam must suffer or the Word of God seeing God had once declared the sentence thou shalt surely dye In case then he should give his Son to prevent the death of Adam there had been a clear contradiction page 119. In the commination there are some things which I do acknowledge to be infallible as the Laws of the Medes and Persians which alter not and therefore to make good the sentence all that are now born into the world after the course of natural generation are borne in the state of spiritual death subject to the miseries of nature and shall inevitably be brought to temporal death at last All these things do hold by vertue of the first sentence yet you must take heed that you go no further because the second man hath all fulnesse of grace to repair the losses brought in by the first By his intervening patience and long-suffering is extended to all the sonnes of men And therefore whatsoever you suggest to the contrary there is indeed and in truth no contradiction between the sentence in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death and the delay thereof in a qualified sense In some particulars long-suffering may be extended and yet in others there may be a speedy execution of the sentence But you go on seeing God would not have Adam to come near the tree of life therefore he would not have him to be free from death that way page 119. Neither do we maintain that it was the purpose of God to free Adam in that manner that he should not taste of a temporal death He came under the dominion of that death the same day he sinned and the most holy Saints that are must all dye before they can be raised again to set forth the truth and certainty of the Lords commination Yet for all this at present the stroke was stayed by the Mediators blood and long-suffering was extended to men that salvation might be had by the Covenant of grace As for the tree of life it is most true that God did forbid Adam accesse to that tree not absolutely because he would not have him to recover life but because he had provided another way for the restoring of man by Christ the promised seed He would not come to the most extream and final execution of the sentence because his purpose was to have a posterity upon the earth and a seminary for the Church Further you argue there was a necessity for Adam to dye otherwise Christ could not make him alive page 119. Here you mistake the state of the question we agree that Christ did not dye simply to free man that he should not fall into the dust but only to raise him from the dust again It was necessary to fulfill the truth of the commination that Adam should return to dust but it was not necessary that he should return to dust the very same day It was necessary that he should fall under the reign of death and under a necessity of dying the same day he sinned and this to continue to the resurrection of the just Then this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruptible shall put on incorruption 1 Cor. 15.53 The Apostle also saith when he shall change these vile bodies that they may be made like his glorious body Phil. 3.21 All the bodies of the Saints shall be made like the body of Christ as now it is in glory But how did the bodies of the Saints begin to be vile bodies By vile bodies he doth mean these corruptible tabernacles of the soul lyable to diseases and to all the miseries of nature But when did this vilenesse and misery begin seeing they were not made vile by creation They began to be vile bodies the same day that Adam did sin they have been so ever since and they must continue such unto the resurrection and then the bodies of the Saints shall be made conformable to the bodie of Christ in glory Philip. 3 Vlt. CHAP. XIV Whether Adam did dye a spiritual death yea or no IN the discovery of this point you observe this method First you shew what spiritual life is Secondly you resolve upon the question For your description of spiritual life though you miserably confound the Scriptures we will take it in the best sense for such a life as hath the Spirit for the cause Gal. 4.19 John 6.63 Col. 33. But you erre in your application when you use such an expression as this that Adam had not such a cup of water in all his foure Rivers You say also that he could not savour the voice of the resurrection from the dead for the goodnesse of a Saviour must be resented by those that are lost but Adam knew no such need page 122. Your argument is fallacious because Adam had not spiritual life in the same way as the Saints now have therefore he had no spiritual life at all He might have ability to love Christ as Lord Creator Further you say that the voice of forgivenesse of sinne was a stranger to him Well let this be admitted it doth not prove the point neither Sicknesse it self was a stranger to Adam before his fall will you inferre then that there were no herbs for medicine and that the Lord did not create the herb of the field with a medicinal vertue So in the like case what if remission of sinne and the way of pardon of sinne by Christs blood was a thing hidden from Adam as being not compatible with his condition will you inforce from hence a want of capacity in him to understand the mystery of salvation by Christ or will you affirme from hence that he was a meere carnal man before his fall Take heed that by these and such like positions you do not reflect upon God himself The Apostle saith the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8. ver 6 7. If you go to the Original of this enmity or non-subjection and say it did proceed from the fall of Adam you do agree with us But if you go higher and stand upon it that Adam was a meere natural man by the condition of his creation then you will lay the blame upon God that set him in such a state of enmity and whither will you go in the issue if you maintain such positions as these But to make good your assertion you argue The first man is of the earth earthy the
second man is the Lord from heaven So though Adam was the first man a living man yet it was not a living soul that proveth that Adam had a quickned Spirit page 12◠But in this you do miserably soobisticate For though the Apostle doth draw a parallel between both the Adams If you do well ponder the Scripture you shall finde that the parallel doth not stand so much between Adam before his fall as between the first Adam the second after the fall 2ly upon good consideration you shall finde that the Apostle in this Scripture doth not speak so much concerning the Spirit of God in the soules of the Saints as concerning the spirituality of their bodies that shall be at the resurrection It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body There is a natural body and there is aspiritual body 1 Cor. 15.43 44. If then you will needs conclude Adam to be a carnal man before his fall because his body was not made a spiritual body by the same reason you must conclude all the Saints that have ever been since the creation of the world to be carnal men and absolutely destitute of the work of the Spirit For the bodies of the Saints are yet carnal and must abide in their incarnality till the resurrection of the dead But whereas you build so strongly upon that expression the first man Adam was made a living soul the last man Adam was made a quickning Spirit verse 45. This doth not prove the first man to have been meerely carnal or absolutely void of the Spirit before his fall For it is not the scope of the Apostle in this Scripture to speak of the excellency of man made after the image of God but onely of the corruptible state of the body as it standeth in immediate relation to that immortal condition which it shall have at the resurrection of the dead And whereas it is said the second man was a quickning Spirit this is meant principally of the divinity of Christ by and thorough which he will raise the dead So then if you will build upon this ground and argue from hence that the first man was a meere carnal man because he was not a quickning Spirit by the same principle you must conclude that all the Saints living are carnal men For of what one of them may it be affirmed that he is a quickning Spirit who by his power and divinity is able to raise the dead But if you will make a right analogy let us compare the things that ought to be compared First let us consider what the first man was before his fall and what the Saints are as renewed by grace Secondly let us compare what the first man might have been if he had eaten of the tree of life and what the Saints shall be at the resurrection of the dead For the first of these if you speak of the Saints as renewed by grace though their bodies be natural they are spiritual in respect of the inward man The same may be said of Adam before his fall though his body was made of the dust yet by grace and special favour he did carry the image of God For the second if you shall affirme that all the bodies of the Saints shall be made immortal and spiritual at the resurrection consider what the body of Adam might have been if he had continued in his obedience and eaten of the tree of life If you would make a right collation between state and stat ethe parallel should runne in these termes But because you stand so strongly upon this expression that the first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven seeing you will have all this to be applied to Adam before his fall I pray you resolve me this question seeing the Apostle saith as we have born the image of the earthy so shall we bear the image of the heavenly Who are they that bear the image of Adam before his fall I think if you were put to it you could not produce any one instance in all Europe Asia Africa or America that ever stood up after this similitude The scope of the text is onely concerning man after the fall and how the resurrection of the dead doth take away that death which is brought in by the fall In the close of the Chapter you propound this question whether was not Adam to have dyed an eternal death for eating of the forbidden fruit For the clearing of the question let us distinctly set down how the three kinds of death did seize upon Adam and how they come upon all his branches First for spiritual death it is evident that he died this death as soon as he did eat of the forbidden fruit For the temporal death he fell under the reign of it the same day he sinned And for eternal death though according to the truth of the commination Adam and his posterity should have dyed the Lord Christ stepping in did set a stop to the sentence And therefore for the cause of the condemnation of man it is now principally and immediately for the neglect of the grace of God that should lead him to repentance But you adde further I can safely say that if Adam was to have dyed an eternal death and that by the appointment of God then Christ neither would nor could have stept in nay he could not have lifted up his little finger to have helped Adam or his posterity page 125. I answer If God had decreed in his secret purpose that Adam and all his posterity should have dyed the death in such a case Christ neither would nor could have stept in to cross the Decree of God but Sir who is the man that doth maintain that position For my part I take the Decree of God to be one thing and the outward denunciation of judgment to be another For the Decree that cannot be changed but the sentence may recieve alteration according to divers outward circumstances and conditions that may occurre Besides if you should build never so strongly upon the letter of the text we can easily reconcile the truth of the commination in saying that Adam might dy the death the same day he sinned ☞ though the Lord was not pleased presently to inflict death in all its kinds From all which we do conclude if the Lord Christ came to free men from the reign of death Heb. 2.14 15. We may easily gather that Adam brought himself and all his posterity under the dominion of that syrant and so he and all his should have dyed that kind of death if the Lord Christ had not stepped in But you go about to deface this speech in the end of the Chapter for if in case that Christ had not stepped in there had been no recovery this were to exclude all other means and to limit
Scripture In the beginning you agree that we bear the punishment of another mans sinne But say you that children have any spawn of sinne cleaving to them as seed to hatch and gender in and by any thing received from Adam as we sprang from his loynes this I deny page 136. This also is the judgement of the Examiners in many pages together Now if this be so that infants have no such spawn of original sinne in them why do the Scriptures speak so largely of the pollution of nature why is it said of man in general that the thoughts of the imaginations of his heart are onely evil from his childhood Why doth the Lord Christ so earnestly presse a necessity of regeneration Why doth he urge it upon such a ground as this that which is born of the flesh is flesh There is nothing more clear than that the nature of man is wholly defiled from the very birth And for the Psalmist in his particular though it be true that he did bear the burden of Adams sinne yet it is not the whole nor the full truth The full truth is this that he was conceived in sinne that in the conception his nature was defiled and the natural defilement was the cause of the two great sinnes of murther and adultery And hereupon in relation to his natural pollution he doth pray unto the Lord to give him a new heart he went to the true root and cause of all the evil I must needs acknowledge that the Authors of the Examen when they speak of fallen man they render true causes of his not willing of good First the ignorance of that which is good the second a depraved judgment the third a want of due remembrance the fourth the power of temptation the fifth the habit and custome of sinne page 132. These are indeed true causes but they are too short and too narrow in their determination they do not come to the root of the evil to the inherent perversenesse of the will it self and the pollution of the natural birth When the bottome of a wound is not searched such Mountebanks must needs make a palliate cure Next you say If you will take from Davids particular example the general condition of all infants why do not you take the text concerning John his being sanctified from his mothers womb and argue that all the children of the world are sanctified in that sense as John was sanctified And if this were so there would not be so many lazy Priests and others in the world as there be page 135. For the parallel between David and John there is no equality betwixt them in the present collation For whereas it is said of John that he was sanctified from his mothers womb this was by a peculiar priviledge granted to him And whereas David saith I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me he doth not speak this as a King or a Saint or an Israelite but in the most general relation as one of the lost sonnes of men fallen in Adam and born in the corrupted masse and this is the reason why from the particular example of David we draw a general conclusion of the pollution and the defilement of nature in all But the Authours of the Examen do stifly maintain that the nature conveyed from Adam to all his posterity in the way of ordinary generation is not defiled with sinne For say they some are sanctified from the womb as Jeremiah and John the Baptist were and the Virgin Mary might possibly be page 65. Though this may be admitted that some of the Saints may be sanctified sooner then others and the work of sanctification may begin in them from their childhood yet what is all this to the purpose It must necessarily be supposed that corruption will have a being in certain moments of time before the grace of God can have its being Jeremiah was sanctified from his mothers womb yet he did curse the day of his birth he did resolve to speak no more to the people in the name of the Lord he did shew many fruits of the flesh as well as he did manifest many fruits of the Spirit And therefore to the particular case as he did consist of flesh and spirit in him the flesh the Old man had its being before the Spirit and the new man This I beleeve none can rationally deny though they will acknowledge also that he was sanctified from his mothers womb But Mr. Everard to return to you again For the trouble you have with the lazy Priests I fear Sir the more godly the more conscientious the more laborious any Minister is the worse he is in your opinion and in the opinion of such as you are if he oppose the innovations and errors of the times But I pray God give you repentance else you will have an heavy account to make one day for all your hard speeches against the godly Ministry For the text Mat. 18.3 Except ye be converted and become as little children ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven Here say you If infants be so filthy why doth our Saviour set such a pattern before us And the Authours of the Examen also page 70 speak much to the same effect doth not our Saviour say they declare the state of children both to be innocent and blessed when first he makes it terminus ad quem the mark unto which in our conversion and regeneration we must return And then tells us that the Kingdome of heaven belongs to such and is replenished with such I answer in parables and similitudes we are to look onely to the scope Our Saviour speaketh of the unjust Steward of putting the talent to the exchanger of his own coming like a thief in the night What then is it his intent to approve of the evil of these wayes No he doth onely point to something wherein the force of the similitude doth stand And so in the present case when he speaketh of humbling our selves and becoming like little children it is not his purpose to ascribe such perfection to them as though all infants were free from original sinne or that their innocency were the terminus ad quem the terme to which our conversion and regeneration must return These are very strange deductions The words of our Saviour are therefore to be taken only in a restrained sense that in affectation of worldly glory we should be like little children There is no such distance between the children of Princes and the children of beggars but all are one The mind of the Lord is onely this that we should come to act the same things by the power of grace as little children do thorough the weaknesse and infirmity of age We should not look upon Lords and Ladies upon learning or parts or upon any other external excellency in comparison of the grace of God Commonly men that have these things are very proud of them and do look upon them
too much and to these the exhortation is given in special that they should be humbled and become as little children There lyeth then a palpable and grosse fallacy in your whole discourse when you take the words absolutely that all infants are free from sinne when our Saviour speaketh in a particular sense only of the act and execution of this or that particular evil Now you proceed and tell us it was never heard that children had any sinne by way of act and by way of omission you cannot make it good that they ever received a command or were capable of any command from God page 138. Answ What we have learned we are willing to acknowledge and though we never heard that infants had any sinne in them by any act of their own yet we have learned from Scriptures yea from the very first principles of the faith that they have it by contagion and the disobedience of the first man The words of our Saviour are plain Joh. 3.8 That which is born of the flesh is flesh And that of the Apostle Rom. 5.12 By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne And many such places there are to prove infants to be guilty of sinne by the disobedience of the first man and to be involved in the pollution of nature by hereditary contagion But because you and the Examiners are so strict upon the point I pray you resolve me in this one case When the promise was made the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head was not this the promise of Christ to Adam after his fall If infants therefore are absolutely acquitted from the guilt of Adams sinne as being another mans act if they be free from the pollution of nature to what end was the promise of Christ How did he come in the nature of a Physician to cure when there was no disease Where there is no malady there needs no remedy And whereas you go about to free infants from the sinne of omission because they are not capable of a command I pray you shew the reason why the Lord was so strict in his command to the Jewish infant that he should be circumcised upon the eighth day and that the uncircumcised man-child should be cut off from his people Gen. 17.11.12 c. For my part I know no reason of the strictnesse of this Law but that the Lord would signifie to beleevers under this dispensation that there infants were born in original sinne and that it was not safe to omit the remedy for that disease And though in strictnesse of termes we will yeeld so farre to Corvinus and to Julian the Pelagian that there is no particular command that forbids an infant to be born in original sinne yet for all this they must needs allow that the Law was given to reveal to convince and to discover the sinne of the nature and by the discovery thereof to drive a man to Christ to look to him onely for sanctifying and regenerating glrace S. Paul saith the Law is spiritual and I am carnal sold under sinne And in the same text I had not known sinne except the Law had said thou shalt not covet Rom. 7. You go on for this sinne called original if infants had committed it God would have called them to repentance for it when they had come to years at least wise but I can safely say that there is no man living that to this day ever made it appear to be the mind of God for any man to repent of that sinne Truly Sir your confidence is very great and you have more boldnesse than truth on your side For we may beleeve that you never heard of the promises nor the commands mentioned in Scripture when you dare affirme such things as these When the Lord promiseth in the new Covenant I will take out of their bowels a heart of stone and will give them a heart of flesh Ezek. 36. By the heart of stone he means a hard heart and a sinful nature that every infant did bring into the world he doth promise to take away the corruption of nature and that he will sanctifie his people by his Spirit So for the commands of God we read every where that men are exhorted to put off the Old Adam-like disposition That ye put off concerning the former conversation the Old man which is corrupt according to the deceivable lusts Ephes 4.22 By the Old man he doth mean the carnal disposition which we have from Adam by natural generation This corrupted disposition of the flesh he would have the beleeving Ephesians and in them all others to subdue and mortifie And further if you look to the right use of Baptisme now as of circumcision of old you shall finde that the institution of these things doth primarily intend the doing away of the sinne of the nature as I have already shewed in my Treatise of Infant Baptisme Therefore I cannot but admire at your boldnesse when you stand so much upon it that you can safely say that God never called men to repentance for original sinne I am so farre from your judgment that I think the greatest part of repentance lyes in the mortification of the sinne of the nature But you have an evasion this sinne called original sinne if infants had committed it God would have called them to repentance Here you put that upon us which we do not speak and I know no solid Writer in the world that doth use such an expression of committing original sinne It is proper onely to men of ripe years to commit sinne For original sin we say that is onely by propagation thorough the disobedience of the first man and when men come to be sanctified by the Spirit of God they are qualified with inward principles to purge out the sin of the nature Neither doth your argument drawn from the example of Christ any whit promote your cause You say If this principle should finde a being in the world that every infant was born in sinne because lineally derived from Adam then where will you get water to wash your hands of that grand absurdity to wit that Jesus Christ was not free from original sinne for then he must have a share because he came from the loynes of a woman the Daughter of Adam page 139. To this I answer if you will make Christ and all Infants to run parallel in the purity of their natural birth then why did Christ die for them why did he sanctifie their nature There is no need of salvation by the merit of Chri st where there is no guilt of sinne There needs no sanctification of the Spirit where there is no pollution of nature Why do not you exclude all Infants from these as you do from the water of baptisme For your Argument drawn from the example of Christ If you build so much upon that I would entreat you to consider two things First why he did assume our nature Secondly assuming our
such a polluted birth they may have the remainders of that image which was by creation and a possibility of the recovery of the same image by Christ That this truth may more clearly appear we will distinguish betwixt the image of God which is external and the image which is internal For the image that is external and stands in Lordship and dominion over the creature man hath not this image by natural generation but by covenant promise and the Mediators blood And therefore we read that the Lord after the flood did revive the great Charter once given to man before the fall Be fruitful and replenish the earth and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every fowle of the aire upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the Sea into your hand are they delivered Gen. 9.2 The same priviledge is here granted to Noah and his sons which was given to Adam before his fall But how did Noah his sonnes and in them all mankind come to partake of it Not by generation but by the promise and Covenant In the former Chapter we read that Noah offered up a Sacrifice and the Lord smelt a savour of rest in and thorough the Mediators blood Hereupon he made a solemn promise that he would no more curse the ground for mans sake though the thoughts of the imaginations of his heart were evil from his childhood By vertue of the promise doth man come to be re-invested with that part of the Image of God which stands in Lordship over the creature and he hath not this priviledge in respect of his natural birth Secondly if we look to that part of the Image of God which is internal in the soule in this sense though man be born in original sinne and though he hath lost the spiritual knowledge righteousnesse and holinesse wherein he was most like his Creator and doth now carry the image of Satan yet neverthelesse he hath still some remainders and reliques of the former Image he hath an immortal soul an understanding will and other natural powers and in and thorough Christ he hath a capacity to receive that spiritual part of the Image of God which was lost According to the tenor of this doctrine we may expound the precept that doth inhibit the shedding of mans blood whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the Image of God made he man The same answer may be given to that text which they alledge in the twelfth and last place therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God Jam. 3 9. Here we say the same in substance that though men are born in original sinne yet they have some reliques and remainders of the former Image that was lost and a possibility by Christ to come to the fulness of that glory The second Scripture to be considered is that place Deut. 32.4 5. Where say they we have two argnments more to prove Israel and consequently all men to be still created innocent The first is from the perfection of all Gods works ver 4. He is the rock his work is perfect for all his wayes are judgment a God of truth and without iniquity just and right is he How then can he who is holy righteous and pure create any thing that is unrighteous unclean or impure The second is taken from Gods complaint there against mens personal fall and corrupting themselves whom God had not brought forth with any such spots ver 5. They have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of his children they are a perverse and crooked generation page 67. But neither of these two arguments will prove the purity and the innocency of mans natural birth For though all infants through the fall of Adam are born in original sinne this is no impeachment to God he both is and ever was righteous in all his works Though all mankind hath fallen through the disobedience of the first man yet he was pure righteous and holy in the work of creation And though the greater part of the Israelites did rebell in the Wildernesse this did not diminish the goodnesse of God to that people in bringing them out of Egypt Secondly whereas it is said that they did corrupt themselves by their own personal disobedience this must needs be so because they were a rebellious generation Moses speaketh remarkably to this purpose in the latter end of the former Chapter I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt your selves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you ver 29. When he saith I know that ye will utterly corrupt your selves shall we argue from hence that they were free from all corruption for the present and that the corrupting of themselves should meerely be their own personal act for the future This cannot be the force of the argument For Moses did conclude that they would shew the fruits of their corruption after his death because he did perceive such a rebellious and corrupted nature in them for the present Behold while I am yet alive with you this day ye have been rebellious against the Lord How much more after my death And for that expression their spot is not the spot of his children it is true indeed Gods children have many staines and spots as Noah David Peter But because they have a living fountain of grace within they do daily purge out the sinne and corruption of nature 2 Cor. 7.1 Now it is not so with others or with those Apostates to whom Moses spake because they had no living principle within they would totally fall from that good which they seemed to have This is the sence of the text and how doth this prove the purity of the natural birth A third place they bring to assert the innocency of man is the eighth Psalm where ver 4.5 6. the Psalmist speaks thus of all mankind what is man that thou art mindful of him and the sonne of man that thou visitest him for thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour Say they the Psalmist shewes that man is still set in honour by his first state of production though he doth not long retain the same but falls therefrom But if a man had been created so corrupt as you speak he had not onely been lower than the Angels but below all ereatures here page 67. For the general sence of this Scripture we do agree that man hath still dominion Lordship preheminence over the creature in this dignity honour he doth carry the lively effigies resemblance and Image of God as he is his vicegerent upon the earth There is none who doubts of the truth of this in general but the main question is about the ground of the vicegerency whether it be from the state of man in his natural production as these Censors do affirme This we deny for according to
man onely this is sufficient that the first man is the root of all his branches and all that come of him were made sinners by him and the second man is the root of all his branches and all that are ingraffed into him are made righteous by him Secondly some of them that stand for the universal redemption do not plead an absolute or universal justification of all men by the obedience of the first man but onely plead for a general impretation or possibility of salvation which then onely comes to be applied when men believe and receive the promise by a lively faith Thus we have passed through all the arguments of the Examiners and we have seen their cavils against the several Scriptures alledged by us As for those similitudes of punishing the posterity of Traitors for the treason of their parents and the killing of the young vipers with the old by reason of their poysonous nature c. forasmuch as these are onely illustrations of the truth so all the pains which they take here is onely to cavil at illustrations Other passages they have of lesser moment which we have answered before onely they have one argument in the Chapter of free will from that place Isaiah 7.14 Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and chuse the good the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her Kings Here they would have us observe two points First that though this place be commonly understood of our Saviour yet it is meant of the common state of man Secondly this child from his infancy according to the common state of mankinde should have the knowledge and ability to refuse the evil and choose the good From hence they do inferre that a natural man can both will and act according to his first integrity untill he disables and corrupts himselfe Further they stand upon it that a man hath a power to choose the good and to that purpose they cite the words of Moses Deuteronomie 30.19 I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life page 126 127 128. If they did well understand the meaning of these Scriptures they would not pervert them to so strange a sense For the Text in Isaiah we do acknowledge that the children in an ordinary way have a power to choose the good and to refuse the evil when they come to yeares of discretion But what kinde of good is here meant not that good which is spiritual or divine for this they cannot chuse without an inward work of the Spirit but that good onely which is moral and civil and this at yeares of discretion men are able to make choyce of And for the words of Moses I have set before you blessing and cursing therefore choose life c. To the clearing of this Let us distinguish First what he speaks of and Secondly the persons to whom he speaks First if by choosing the good be meant the true God in opposition to all the Heathen gods of the Gentiles here Moses speaks to the Israelites as to a people that had cleare evidences and convictions that there was no other God in all the world but theirs onely And therefore he doth exhort them to chuse the true God for their God Secondly if by choosing the good be meant the loving of the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soule as it is implyed verse 10. then this word of command is given onely in relation to the word of promise verse 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live In immediate relation to this promise Moses saith I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to keep his commandments that thou mayest live verse 16. So then we do conclude that the ability to choose the good is not from any natural power but from the grace of God and the word of promise Thus I have gone thorough all the reasons which are alledged either by Mr. Everard or the Examiners the late Patrones of the purity of natural birth If they have any thing more to say for this my desire is that they would shew their strength or else confesse their wicked errors and submit to the clear evidence of truth Now let us consider the several and respective arguments of Dr. Jeremy Taylor and what hath been lately said by him concerning the same subject The third Book containeth the Answer to several Arguments of Dr. Jeremy Taylor in his Vnum Necessarium and two smaller Treatises of his Forasmuch as this Learned man doth tread in the footsteps of our Antagonists and doth plead the same things against the Doctrine of original sinne as they have pleaded against us for certain years last past And seeing also that many are like to be taken with the purity and elegancy of his Style that probably are not able to judge of the foulenesse and impurity of his Doctrine We have thought it worth our labour to provide an antidote to secure the soules of men and if it may be possible in a peaceable and brotherly manner to reduce him from the evil of his opinions And so we come to the several Sections of the sixth Chapter in the treatise aforesaid SECT 1. Of Concupiscence and original sinne and whither or no and how far we are bound to repent of it ORIGINal sinne is so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or figuratively meaning the sinne of Adam which was committed in the original of mankind by our first parent Answ We deny not but the sinne of Adam may be called the original or the first sinne because it was the first that was committed But then we must take heed that with our Authour we do not deny also the pollution and the corruption of the natural birth In so doing we must needs destroy regeneration or the new birth we must needs also evacuate the Baptisme of the Spirit so farre as it doth seal regeneration humiliation for the birth sinne will be a meere non ens and the mortification of the sinne of the nature will be a nullity In a word one of the chief ends of the Christian faith which is to put on the Christ-like disposition will be frustrated and greatly impaired For what need I to put on the new disposition as it is from Christ the root of all grace and spiritual life if there be no pravity and sinfulnesse of nature from Adam the root of corruption In Scripture the one is set forth as the immediate opposite to the other But he further sheweth This sinne brought upon Adam all that God threatned but no more a certainty of dying together with the proper effects and affections of mortality Answ Besides the affections of mortality and the certainty of dying this sinne also brought upon Adam the depravation of original righteousnesse
disobedience of the first man Augustine speaks to good purpose Sic ego tibi rectissime dico malum cum quo nascitur homo c. Thus I do most rightly say to thee that the evil with which a man is borne is not of the fruits bodies sexes conjunctions of which goods the Lord is the Author but of the first sin which is to be ascribed to the devil Here he doth distinguish between the work of creation and so God is the Author of all that good that was made in the beginning and the sinfulnesse of nature that he will have to spring only from the devils temptation and the disobedience of the first man Sixthly how can it be saith he that the Father that contributes nothing to the production of the soul should contribute to her pollution and he that did not transmit life how should he transmit his sin Answ Though the Father doth not contribute to the soul in her production yet he doth contribute to the soul in her union with the body So by this account the action of God is terminated in the simple being of the soul The action of the Parent is her being in the body that is in her union with the body But if it be here alledged that a man is principally a man in respect of his soul and therefore if the Parent doth not contribute to the soul he doth not contribute to the being of a man the answer is plaine A man is not a man neither by the soul apart nor by the body apart but by the whole humane nature which doth consist in the union of both we see in ordinary experience as children derive their inheritances priviledges nobility and such like from their Parents so also their Parents miseries infelicities poverty and ignobility do naturally descend In the present case I demand how do they descend will any man be so curious to hold a dispute whether they do descend from the body or the soul of the Parent Or whether is the soul the first seat or receptacle of nobility or ignobility or doth the right to the fathers inheritance descend from the fathers body or the soul In the affaires of this life it is not usual with men to spin out themselves with such philosophical niceties The skilful in the laws conceive it is enough in the general to say that such a Son did come out of the loynes of such a Father Why then should the learned man with whom we have to do be more curious in the conveyance of original sin why should it not be enough for us to say that that which is borne of flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 Suppose for the manner of the thing we are not able to satisfie the doubt shall we deny the thing because we are not able to explaine every punctilio why by the same reason doth not he himselfe deny the motion of the Sun the ebbing and the flowing of the sea the organizing of the infant in the mothers womb in these and a thousand more the thing is cleare when the manner doth lye in the dark Seventhly saith he If in him we sinned then it were just that in him we should be punished for as the sin is so ought the punishment to be Answ If he will stand to this rule he both doth and will make good that which is asserted by us The disobedience of the first man must be imputed to all his posterity because he is the head the root and the representative of the whole nature But if he thinks this to be a meer non-ens then let him say that the obedience of the second man as the head-root and the representative of the whole nature is a non-ens and a nullity also and so he will raise the Gospel to the foundation thereof Now we come to the third question to enquire whether Adam did debauch our nature by the sentence and the just judgement of God and here he layeth down this for a sure ground He and all his posterity were left in the meer natural estate that is in a state of imperfection in a state that was not sufficiently instructed and furnished with ability in order to a supernatural end whether God had secretly designed mankind Answ In this expression of his we know no such state of meer imperfection which is not also a state of corruption Againe in this expression he seemeth to me to pluck down that natural ability of the will which he endeavours to set up For if a man since the fall is not instructed and furnished with abilities in order to a supernatural end he must come to Christ only for the supply of all Why then doth he raise all this dust against the rigour and severity of our doctrine when he himselfe doth here plainly teach that the will can do nothing without the help of the Spirit He goeth on It cannot be supposed saith he that God did inflict any necessity of sinning upon Adam or his posterity because from that time even unto this day he by new laws had required innocency of life or repentance and holinesse Answ The consequence is not good for now since the fall the Lord doth not give laws in proportion to natural ability but in relation to his own word of promise and his free mercy in the Covenant of grace So far then it is a testimony of divine favour that God will employ us and require more service of us that where we have no strength of our own we may in the sence of our own natural weaknesse go to him for help And whereas he bringeth us speaking in this wise that it is just with God to exact the law of man even where he is unable to keep it because God once made him able but he disabled himselfe True indeed this is an answer given by us but it is not the whole nor the principal part of that answer which may be given For secondly where God doth require subjection to his law man being not able to performe it his demand is not irrational For though man is not subject nor in himselfe can be subject to the law Rom. 8.7 This non-subjection doth not so much arise from the want of judgement will or any other natural faculty as from a perverse sinful habit that doth reside in the faculty That a drunkard cannot stand walk nor performe acts of reason as an other man is not simply for want of ability as from an evil distemper that doth suspend the operations of the faculties so it is in the present case men need no new faculties but they need new habits to set the faculty aright But our third answer is though a man naturally cannot be subject to the law respecting the evil habit that disorders the faculty yet if he go to Christ in the sence of his own misery all ability is to be had from him God is so infinitely gracious that he is ready to help all that come to him A bruised reed he will
doubt but in this list or catalogue he hath respect as well to things that belong to the irascible as to the concupiscible faculty yet all is contained under the notion and name of concupiscence For in the verses immediately going before he exhorteth walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh According to the original it is ye shall not accomplish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the concupiscence of the flesh In the present case then when the Galathians did live in malice envy hateful and hating one another they did fulfill the concupiscence of the flesh And so by this account the lusts both of the concupiscible and the irascible faculty are comprehended more generally under one name and title of concupiscence And all his contrary reasoning is just nothing at all Now let us come to his last Scripture The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishnesse to him 1 Cor. 2.14 Here he bestows much paines to weaken the force of the text An animal man saith he that is a Philosopher or a rational man such as were the Greeke and Roman Philosophers upon the stock and account of the learning of all the Schooles could not discern the excellency of the Gospel-mysteries as of God incarnate Christ dying the resurrection of the body and the like Rep. It s true that the Philosophers aforementioned were such natural or animal men but it is not the whole truth For they that come to Church and publickly professe may be animal men also and in their animality may be far from receiving the things of the Spirit A schoole-boy that is able some way to make a Gramatical construction of the Greek of Euclide and Ptolomy is not presently capable of the mysteries of Geometry and Astronomy That requireth the skill of an Artist as well as of a Gramarian And if the laws of the land were translated into English I think we should not be all Lawyers out of hand So in the present case though all may outwardly own and some may preach the Doctrine and mysteries of salvation this doth not presently entitle them to that kinde of learning that comes only by the teaching of the Spirit Many may speak much of the love of Christ that never had the feeling of it in their hearts Moses tells the people in his time ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day Deut. 29.24 They did see and they did not see they did outwardly see the works but they did not inwardly believe the truth wisedome goodnesse and power of God For had they seen these things as they ought they could not but have loved the Lord their God and have lived in obedience to his laws So then not only the Greek Philosophers but many Christians also may be called natural or animal men He further sheweth what animality is Animality which is a reliance upon natural principles without revelation is a state privatively opposed to the Spirit and a man in that state cannot be saved because he wants a vital part he wants the Spirit Rep. What he saith here and in the words immediately following is the same in substance that we speak and is extreamly contrary to the designe that he derives at For if in the state of animality a man cannot be saved because he wants the Spirit the chief vital of salvation Why doth he to make religion intelligible deny original sin plead for the freedome of the will and establish the purity of the natural birth We say because a man is borne in original sin and dead in trespasses and sinnes therefore he cannot be saved without the infusion of a new life He saith that a man in his animality cannot go to heaven without the Spirit the chiefe vital of salvation Let a wise man now judge where we and he do differ But to blind the businesse he hath a subtle distinction between carnality and animality Carnality saith he or the state of being in the flesh is not only privatively opposed but contrarily also to the spiritual staee of grace Rep. This expression of his might passe well enough were it not for that which followeth First speaking of the state of animality and then of carnality afterwards he hath these words The first is only an imperfection and a want of supernatural aides the other is indeed a direct state of sin and hated by God but superinduced by choice and not discending naturally Rep. In this expression of his there are two things that need a better enquiry First how doth he prove that the state of animality is only a state of meer imperfection and no more St. James tells us the wisdome from beneath is earthly sensual devilish or according to the original earthly animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devilish I think none will say that the animality of this wisdome is a bare imperfection and no more It s positively opposed to the wisdome that is above and can there be a greater enemy to the wisedome above then that which is beneath The Apostle St. Jude also saith that Mockers should come walking after their ungodly lusts These are they that separate themselves sensual not having the Spirit ver 18 19. the word is they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animal not having the Spirit Now in this case will any man be so void of understanding to affirme that these in their animality were meerly defective and that they were not in a direct state of enmity against God I think none will easily assert it Sure I am many ensamples may be brought to prove the distinction between animality and carnality to be a meer non-ens or nullity Secondly we agree that the state of carnality is a state of sin and hated of God but whereas he saith that it is only superinduced by choice as also that it doth not naturally descend Herein we crave liberty to depart from him The Scriptures all along specially the writings of St. Paul speak of the flesh in opposition to the Spirit Now will he or any man else assert that this is a state meerly superinduced and that men come to be flesh purely by the choice of their own will If this be so how do all come to agree in one and the same choice All do not agree to be Souldiers to be Scholars to be Merchants to be Mariners yet all are flesh before they come to be sanctified by the Spirit Seeing he will not have this state naturally to descend let him assigne some general cause how all do agree to be carnal Necessarily some general cause must lye at the bottome but he further saith Adam did leave us all in an animal state but this is not a state of anmity of direct opposition to God but a state insufficient and imperfect Rep. This state of meer imperfection which he speaks so