freely and hath given his Son to me and for me And this known primarily only in the free promise of his Grace laid hold upon by Faith Notwithstanding it is also exercised and hath an influx into this act of Love to my neighbour For We Love him because he Loved us first That is because we know he loved us first For unknown Love hath no efficacy to produce a reflection of Love in him upon whom it is terminated And as we love Him so we love others for his sake who hath so loved us So then so far as our Love is truly Christian so far is the Love of God to us manifested by Faith in it And so in all the acts of true Christian Love there an is evidence of peace as in it Faith is acted and the Grace of God to us therein taken notice of and manifested Now although some of those places in John may well be interpreted of the evidence of Works in reference to others As the latter of these here cited by Mr. G. if not the former yet I believe there are others that speak of that evidence to our selves which I last explained In all or most of which places I believe it is not altogether unobservable that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herein not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hereby which as I conceive is more proper to the sense expressed Now to the former place 1 John 2.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herein or hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements To let pass that which some have observed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is and may sometimes be translated Agnovimus we have acknowledged him so that the words should then be translated thus Herein we know that we have acknowledged him if we keep his Commandements To let pass this I say or to leave it to the consideration of the judicious Reader I Answer that John in chap. 3. v. 23. hath explained himself what he means by his Commandements This saith he is his Commandement That we should believe in the Name of his Son JESVS CHRIST and love one another as he gave us Commandement These are his Commandements not in a legal way but as written in the hearts of the Faithful by the finger of his Spirit and as we are called forth to the exercise of them in the strength of the same Spirit by the glorious manifestation of his grace in Jesus Christ unto us expressed by those and infinite such Exhortations contained in the Word By the exercise of these two Faith and Love there is then we acknowledge an evidence of our good estate and thereby peace First In Faith primarily by its own proper act going out of a mans self and laying hold on JESUS CHRIST for our sufficient Attonement and Peace-maker And Secondly In Love as I said not by consideration of the inherent goodness of it but in its ground and as the influence of Faith is in it and upon it for so only it is evidenced unto us and conceived by us to be a truly Christian Act. Mr. G. addeth We do not saith he look for peace of Conscience from the subduing of our lusts as the primary cause but as a sure signe and concomitant of the same To this I Answer as before that subduing of Lusts of it self without the light of Faith shining and giving evidence that they are expiated before God in the death of Christ is no evidence at all and therefore no sure sign or concomitant no more than that subduing of Lusts which we read of in Heathens in Jews in Turks and Papists in their Monasteries at this day theirs is without true Faith and so is this But if you grant the assurance and evidence of faith in your subduing of lusts then I grant there is an evidence of peace in it as that Faith shines forth in it which giveth the light of the knowledge of the appeased countenance of God towards us in the face of Jesus Christ and no otherwise Sect. 11. In this Section Mr. G. as he hath done divers times before instead of disâ—roving what he had before him makes an inference of his own or some others slandrous coin and that he layes to our charge but he must either own it himself or else he must name the Author of it It is that we slight Godly Sorrow which the Apostle so much commends 2 Cor. 7.9,10,11 I profess that I am a stranger to any person or Author I mean of those that profess the Gospel that slight Godly Sorrow It is an ungodly and unbelieving Sorrow which we speak against That Sorrow which is stirred up upon the apprehension of Gods faithfull and constant love towards us and our weak and unanswerable walking towards him this Sorrow so far as it doth not intrench upon true faith nor any way darken or question the ground of it we have always approved and we say where true faith is it will always be as occasion is offered But when this is degenerated into a Sorrow of unbelief or into a Popish and dead contrition as Luther calls it then we cannot allow of it of which degeneration this is a sure sign when by it the appeased face of God our Father is covered and kept out of sight by it All this sorrow and sadness saith Luther is of the Devil and it is a sacrifice very acceptable unto him Whereas the Dr. had asked whether we could chuse but fall foul upon our own Spirits when we see the filthiness and infirmity of our wrestling with sins I Answer saith Mr. Goree we cannot chuse indeed but fall foul upon our selves and say with the Apostle O wretched men that we are who shall deliver us from this body of death Rom. 7.24 And also with the publican Lord be merciful unto us Sinners Luke 18.13 But now saith he let us ask them whether upon the sight of their defects they fall thus foul upon themselves or no I am afraid saith he they follow the Pharisee rather than the Publican boasting rather than praying for pardon of Sin Surely if we should do as Mr. Geree doth here in effect say we are humbler than you we should indeed play the Pharisees and boasters But yet we may very well say that Mr. G. had no ground for this sentence upon us We acknowledged the evil of all our actions and that as he ought to have judged in christian charity in true humiliation and self-denial to be so great that they deserve the displeasure of God even unto eternal death acknowledging nothing in our selves as of our selves but matter of shame and everlasting confusion which you were so far from consenting unto that you call it a disgracing of righteousness and holiness Sect. 9. whereas in the same Sect. you affirmed of your duties that you seek Salvation by them Whether this be nearer the Publican or the Pharisee let the godly reader judge Yet if we add to the acknowledgement of what we are in
sincere and upright walking towards all men The Apostle comprehendeth both when he saith that he endeavoured always to have a good Conscience towards God and towards men Towards God in the Righteousness of his Son towards men in the Righteousness of a Christian Conversation which is matter of rejoycing amongst men But Mr. G. goes on And hence saith he is St. John's Phrase By this we know that we know him if we keep his Commandements 1 Joh. 2.3 v. 29. Ye know that every one that doth Righteousness is born of God 1. Concerning our estate towards God and consequently our peace with God We believe the fundamental Evidence to be the Testimony of the spirit of God The things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 You have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things 1 Joh. 2.20 And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us The Evidence whereof we conceive not to a Doctrinal Evidence or Revelation besides the Word but the manifestation of that unto us which is contained in the Word It is as I may say Revelatio revelans distinct from the Word but not properly Revelatio revelata as some I think have misconceived of which revealed Evidence we are not now a speaking but onely of that revealing Evidence whereby our hearts are effectually inclined to close with the Word in which kind we believe the spirit of God not onely to be the principal but irresistible and only effectual in his own Power And what light soever the other Evidences besides this have they have it together with their being from this spirit as by the forecited Scriptures is apparent 2. The next Evidence We believe to be Faith laying hold upon the free Promise of God's Grace towards us in Christ This the Apostle desires to be the Evidence or Conviction of things not seen i. e. that whereby we are convinced of our interest in the invisible Treasures of the Gospel which otherwise eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into the heart of man to conceive And as the spirit of Christ is by Analogy the soul of a Christian namely That whereby all the Members are knit together into one Body for he that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit so Faith is as it were the eye of this soul whereby it is able to discern things not seen And as the eye onely is that which sees bodily and earthly things so faith onely is that which is held forth in the Word as the means to see spiritual things This is held forth not onely in Heb. 11.1 but also in all those Examples which are there mentioned by way of Induction to prove the same And it is also a great part of the meaning of those places in Romans and elsewhere in which we are said to be justified by faith onely or by Faith without Works So the Reverend Prolocutor of the present Assembly affirmeth when he saith That the Righteousness of Christ is said to be imputed to us by Faith because it is not discerned to be imputed to us of God put by Faith contra Armin. lib. 1. part 2. sect 25. 3. Works of sanctification may be conceived to evidence 1. To others 2. To our selves First to others So are ordinarily to be conceived of when they are spoken of in the nature of Evidences Shew me thy Faith by thy Works Jam. 2.18 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another Joh. 13.35 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5.16 In this way they are onely Evidences unto the judgment of Charity which judgment is sufficient for one man to have towards another reserving the judgment of certainty to an higher or more concerned Tribunal Secondly to our selves So they may be considered two ways 1. Barely as they are Works squared out according to such a rule and to be judged of accordingly So the Law of God being the Rule and thereby the Evidence of the goodness of Works no Work in the Moral Nature of a Work can be judged good which is not every way consonant thereunto for it curseth and thereby utterly disalloweth the Action and thereby the Actor wherein there is the least dissonancy or aberration therefrom No Action therefore of Man having any other goodness but its consonancy to this Rule and no other Evidence thereof but the approbation of this Rule can be judged to be truly good so as to give evidence to the Conscience that things are well with it For the curse which hangs over the imperfection of the doing is of far more efficacy to scare the heart out of all its peace than any pretended goodness can be to pacifie it For as Calvin saith A man must not deceive himself gathering that therefore his work is not altogether evil because it is imperfect and that therefore that good which is in it is nevertheless accepted of God Instit lib. 3. c. 2. sect 4. Whosoever therefore judgeth of himself by that inherent goodness of his work either he hath no peace or deceives himself as Calvin here saith and that which he hath is false and groundless For the law or the testimony thereof unto our works barely considered it is impossible it should speak peace unless it can first speak or evidence Righteousness For peace is the fruit of Righteousness not simply and abstracted considered but as it is evidenced Now the Apostle saith That the Righteousness of God wherein we are accepted is manifested without the Law Rom. 3.21 And therefore as the Papists and others destroy all peace with God and assurance of his favour Doctrinally and in downright terms so they which have all their peace this way destroy all peace and assurance of Gods favour by consequence and in effect 2. As they are the effects of Faith and in which it is evidenced so we confess that not only in the pure and prime act of Faith there is an evidence but also in all the acts of Christian Love even to our selves But how Not by discovering an inherent legal goodness in them for that we rejected in the last but only as true Christian faith is active and evidenced in them For otherwise my Prayers though they be never so zealous my Love if it be never so vehement if Faith be not evidenced in them can appear to be no more than the prayers and love of an Unbeliever But if Faith to wit the assurance of Gods favour be manifested in them then there is not only in them an evidence of Goodness unto them but also of Peace unto them by this Faith which is manifested in them As for Example I Love my Neighbour Why What is it that sets me about this work which kindles this Love in me It is because I know God in Christ hath loved me
barely required of them I confess it was Christ that gave Repentance and Remission of Sins in all ages of the Church of God yet this was not so clearly manifested unto the people of the Old Testament as it is to those of the New The Old Testament is more frequent in Requiring of Righteousness save only in those places where it speaks Prophetically of the New than in manifesting the free gift of Righteousness In the Old Testament it was but my Salvation is near to come and my Righteousness to be Revealed Isa 56.1 But in the New Testament the Righteousness of God is already Revealed in the Gospel Rom. 1.17 The difference so far as it concerns the present particular is most remarkable in the Apostles citing and inverting that place of Isay 59.20 The Redeemer shall come to Sion and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob which the Apostle citing doth wonderfully invert after this manner The deliverer shall come out of Sion and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. In that of the Prophet turning from iniquity seems to be pre-required to the comming of the Messias But by the Apostle it is plainly revealed to be the effect of his comming He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Moreover from the fore-cited place and that in Luke 24.47 wherein Christ chargeth his Apostles to Preach Repentance and Remission of sins among all nations Mr. G. infers mark first Repentance and then Remission of Sins This saith he is Christs Order What that Repentance should go before Remission of Sins Surely such a Repentance can be no better than the Repentance of Cain and Judas in it self for I speak not of the Event For what can the Act of an enemy unto God be accounted to be but fruits of enmity The Protestants use to say with Christ that first the tree must be made good by justification Wherein is contained forgiveness of Sins before the fruit can be good before we can do any thing acceptable unto God But repentance you will say is mentioned first To this I Answer with Calvin that whilest men stick in the order of letters and syllables they do not mark the coherence of the Sense Inst lib. 3. Cap. 3. Sect. 2. For as he saith there it is impossible that a man should seriously repent unless he know himself to be Gods But none is truly perswaded that he is Gods but he who first hath apprehended his grace see Calvin ibid. further there where he solidly proves that faith or the assurance of the forgiveness of sins doth precede and bring forth all true repentance which is the general judgment of all Orthdoox Protestants For my own part I conceive that it is so frequently set before faith and remission of sins not because it self doth either in order of time or nature precede them but because it relates properly unto that estate of unregeneracy which both in order of time and nature goes before conversion and regeneration whereunto faith doth properly refer But still this must be firmly holden That we love him because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4.19 That because many sins are forgiven us therefore we love much Luk. 7.47 That with the Lord is propitiation and therefore shall he be feared Psal 130.4 And now I desire the Christian Reader to set himself as Calvin saith not in umbraculo at ease full of the works of his own hand and of the applause of men but seriously sensible of the dreadfull terrors of the Lord that not he that commendeth himself is approved but he whom the Lord commendeth And then let him say whether he will lean unto such a peace as his works will be able to make or that only which the great Peace-maker hath made by the Blood of his Cross Col. 1.20 THE DEFENCE OF THE Second Sermon Sect. 1 2. THE Substance of the First Section Mr. G. would gladly seem to grant namely That God doth no longer stand offended with a Believer though after he be a Believer he doth sin often Yet in the end he will not let it pass for current without some Qualification which he explains more fully in the second Section in his Answer to that of Esa 27.4 Anger is not in me Here saith he the word Chama he or his Printer should have said Chemah in the Original is rendered Excandescentia Burning or fiery Wrath which the last Translation calls Fury very fitly which teacheth what kind of Anger is not in God to wit consuming wrath or anger of an Enemy to destroy yet may God be said to have a Fatherly Anger which may stand with Love For the Scripture speaks of God after the manner of men Hence Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Rebukes and Chastisements are effects of Anger as well as of Love I shall first of all Explain what we hold in this particular and then proceed to Answer what Mr. G. hath here Objected Anger may be attributed unto God Two Wayes Either I. In the Affection of it Or II. In the Effects of it First in the Affection of it altho' in propriety of speech there be no affection congruent to our humane conceiving and answerable to the affections and passions of men For as God is not like man in Repenting Numb 23.19 So in no other passion so in no other thing conceiveable by an human understanding Thus He dwells in the Light that no Man can approach unto 1 Tim. 6.16 Yet hereunto may be referr'd the dreadful punitive Justice of God whereby he pays unto sin and to the sinner his just Wages For because it is expressed in the Scripture by that which is an affection in man and because the effects of it are in some way proportionable to those of Anger in Man therefore may we with the Learned call it Anger in the Affection Yet not conceiving of it in the notion of an humane passion but of punishing Justice So Rom. 13.4 The higher powers are said to be the Ministers of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Revenger in Wath or to Execute Wrath. What! To execute his own or other mens passion upon the Offender No such matter but a Revenger by punishing Justice or to execute Justice upon him that doth Evil. This word Anger or Wrath I confess may be drawn up higher to that dreadfull Sentence passed within God himself from all eternity upon the vessels of Wrath but this signification is less pertinent to our present matter Secondly There is Anger in the Effects of it which as it is originally and radically upon all the sons of Adam both Elect and Reprobate seeing all are originally under the Law and by breaking of it their mouths are for ever stopped to wit from pleading innocency by that Covenant and all the world is become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.19 subject to the Judgment of God and Children of Wrath even as others Eph. 2.12 So it is by derivation from the Elect as their sin is
which was due to our sins Yea say they but the undergoing of this is not to make satisfaction But Christ did not his Work by Words Neither is it enough to acknowledge his satisfaction in Words onely Was his satisfaction a full Appeasement Did it fully answer the whole demand of God's Justice for all the sins of those that are his to the uttermost farthing If not then the acknowledgment of satisfaction is but verbal it is the full payment that makes satisfaction nothing less If a man owe an 100 l. and pay but 99 he hath not made satisfaction He cannot say as Christ did consummatum est it is finished But say they it it but a fatherly anger and displeasure I Answer That is in some respect the greatest and heaviest Anger that can be An ingenuous Child had rather have all the World angry with him than his Father I am sure the True believing Child of God had But if a Father have received a full satisfaction for the fault of his Son will he yet be displeased and retain his Anger Surely none can justifie that in an Enemy much less in a Father How then can it be in such a gracious Father as we have who is an infinite everlasting Ocean of Love Compassion and Well-pleasedness unto his Children Yea but say they further This expression of Anger and Correction for sin is from his Fatherly Love I Answer That who so is compelled to undergo Anger though it be but a mans for that fault for which a full satisfaction hath been exhibited even to the uttermost will not easily be perswaded that that Anger is out of or agreeable to love but rather out of extreamity of rigor It is true indeed that all the afflictions of Gods Children or Chastisements and Corrections for so they are called in regard of the distastefulness to the flesh and in regard of some effects per accidens which they have bearing some Analogy to the effects of Parents chastising their Children I say all the Afflictions of Gods Children are from his Fatherly tenderest Love The Lord never manifests himself more sensibly unto their hearts than in the heaviest of their Afflictions He takes away earthly comforts out of their sight that he may satisfie them with Heavenly Insomuch that hereupon the Martyrs have in the midst of the flames been as it were in Beds of Roses and triumphed as more than Conquerors through him that loved them which they could not have done in the sence though but of a Fathers Anger and in the just desert of their sins if they had suffered from the hand of God as evil-doers And therefore that Rebukes and Chastisements are always effects of Anger as well as Love and namely that they are such towards Gods Reconciled Ones needed Mr. G's Proof not his bare Affirmation The Godly Martyrs and First Restorers of Religion in this and other Nations have born witness to this Truth Patrick Hamilton that Noble Witness of Gods Truth in Scotland makes the Voice of the Law indeed to be The Father of Heaven is angry with thee Whereunto he makes the Voice of the Gospel to give a satisfying Answer Christ hath pacified him toward me In his places Translated by Frith So Luther in Gal. 5.15 Let us learn saith he even in great and horrible Terrors when our Conscience feeleth nothing but sin and judgeth that God is angry with us and that Christ hath turned his face from us not to follow the sense and feeling of our own hearts but to stick to the Word of God which saith That God is not angry So Calvin Instit lib. 3. cap. 19. Sect. 6. Although the Faithful do not feel sin to be extinguished nor Righteousness altogether to live in them yet there is no reason why they should fear or be cast down as if still they had God offended with them for the remainders of sin And elsewhere Judicio castigationis non ita saevit Deus ut irascatur Instit lib. 3. cap. 4. Sect. 31. God is never so much as angry in chastising his People and in Sect. 32. He answereth the Objections to the contrary So Peter Martyr in Rom. 5.9 We ought to determine with our selves that seeing the Anger of God is ended and taken away that nothing is sent upon us by Him but with a Fatherly and friendly mind otherwise Afflictions and Adversities might in their own nature make us afraid and perswade us that God is angry with us which can no way possibly be seeing reconciliation is made by the death of Christ Sect. 3. To prove the full deliverance of the Faithful from Wrath the Dr. cites that of Isa 53.11 He shall see of the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied Here although Mr. G. I conceive grants the matter yet This Proof he saith is meerly mistaken For saith he it is all spoken of Christ himself who shall see of the travail of his own soul and be satisfied that is saith he the fruit of the travail of his soul Hereunto I Answer That in all safe ways of expounding Scripture Two Things ought principally to be taken notice of 1. The Analogy of Faith 2. The Circumstances of the Text. Let us lay these Two to the present Text. 1. The Analogy of Scripture holds forth every where that Christ came not to make satisfaction to himself as Mediator but to his Father who as the Learned speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stands for the whole Trinity Take his own Testimony I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me Joh. 5.30 When he offered himself a Sacrifice of propitiation or satisfaction as Mr. Tindal translates it to whom was his Sacrifice presented that it might propitiate and satisfy The Apostle tells us He offered himself without spot to God Heb. 9.14 not to himself For although he be indeed God yet in this office he is considered as Mediator and as the person offering and Mediating and God is considered as to whom the Mediation is made and the sacrifice offered There is one God there is the person Mediated and one Mediator between God and man the Man Christ Jesus There is the person Mediating together with the person in whose behalf the Mediation is made Christ therefore came not to satisfy himself and therefore it is not probable nor consonant to the Analogy of faith that here it should be meant of the satisfaction of himself 2. Consider will not the circumstances of the Text it self yield as much In the words immediately before he saith That the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand How shall the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand Mark here first that he is here speaking of the pleasure of the Lord not of the pleasure of Christ But how prospereth the pleasure of the Lord in his hands How but as the next words express by being satisfied with the Travail of the Soul of his Son That which Mr. G. objecteth That
them in dishonouring the Lord before their own hearts or the eyes of others and so making the way of the Lord to be evil spoken of then which nothing goes more to the quick even to the heart of the truly faithfull in most serious compunction In this accidental consideration I say affliction may have some relation unto sin 1. Taking out of the way Earthly and Visible things and thereby 2. Making way for faith to look upon the invisible things of the Gospel By the activity and power whereof we are at least in some measure freed from that thorn in the flesh which before did more infest us So the Lord makes all things work for the best to them that are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 4. We say that in regard that Kingdomes Congregations and Churches are mixt assemblies at least before God consisting of persons that are in several states and conditions Spiritually though things may generally be spoken in reference to such collective bodies yet ought they to be particularly applyed and understood properly only to relate unto such a party and such persons in that collective body in regard of whom such things are attributed unto such a general body so Rom. 11.15,18 where the Jews are said to be cast away and broken off Calvin observeth and it is clear enough in the Text that it ought to be understood of such as had not a real but only a seeming union unto the true Olive according to that of our Saviour from him shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have Luke 8.18 And Paraeus but Gal. 5.4 Ye are fallen from Grace Answereth That the Apostle after the manner of the Scripture attributes that to all which belonged but to a part to the whole body of the Church which belonged but to a few members So that although punishments or chastisements for sin may be applyed to the Churches of God in general as to that of Corinth or Sardis c. it may not thence be inferred that those sufferings for sin had a particular relation to the truly Faithful in those Churches but rather the manner of the Scripture phrase as Paraeus saith is to be considered which is to attribute to the whole that which may not be attributed to every Member And therefore the suffering of collective Bodies and Churches is impertinent unto the present Question But the true state of the Question is Whether true Believers in particular under the time and state of the New Testament may be said any way either typically or really to bear the merit or just desert of their sin either in whole or in part This we utterly deny because the Affirmative is 1. Against the Promise of God Luk. 1.72,74 2. Against the Oath of God Esay 54.9 3. Against the New and Everlasting Covenant of God Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 8.12 4. Against the full satisfaction of Christ Heb. 10.14 5. Against that perfect Reconciliation we have with God our Father 2 Cor. 5.19 6. Against our compleat Justification Rom. 5.8 7. Against that necessary Distinction of the Two Testaments in their Administrations Gal. 4.1,2,3,4,5 Now let us weigh Mr. G's Arguments to the contrary First He grants us They are not properly Punishments Howbeit we have it preached here by some of no small Note That God punisheth his own Children soonest sorest and longest through a wilful shall I say Neglect of the searching into the difference of the Testaments which Calvin well observed when he makes it the Priviledge of the New Testament that in it there is no more remembrance of sin upon Heb. 10.18 whereas in the Old Testament there was often a fresh remembrance of sin not in their sacrifices onely but also in their sufferings as appears largely in the Examples of Moses David Jehosaphat and others But if still saith Calvin Instit lib. 3. cap. 4. Sect. 30. we are punished for our sins what I pray you had Christ performed for us Where also he following the foot-steps of the Holy Ghost makes Punishments and Chastisements and Corrections if they be for sin all one neither is there any ground in Scripture to distinguish them This same viz. that we are not punished for sin saith Calvin Esay declareth when he saith That the Chastisements or Correction of our Peace was upon him What is the Correction of our Peace but the Punishment due to our sins which was to have been suffered by us before we could be reconciled to God unless he had taken our Turns Behold thou seest plainly that Christ suffered the punishment of sins that he might free his from them But Mr. G. to prove that the Chastisements of Gods Children are for sin urgeth Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten But because he finds not for sin here he fetcheth it out of Psal 39.11 When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away I Answer These places do not well suit together 1. The one speaks of Gods beloved Ones as many as I love the other mentions onely man when thou with rebukes dost chasten man Which Expression doth not necessarily include the Faithful Secondly The one belongs to the Old Administration the other to the New Thirdly The one speaks of Rebukes of Love the other of consuming Rebukes which Mr. G. in Sect. 2. of this Sermon grants not to be fatherly these Texts therefore ought not to be so jumbled together as if they had both one Matter in hand His second Scripture is that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.30,32 Where he saith For this cause many are weak and sickly among you c. Even among them that are judged of the Lord that they might not be condemned with the World This place I confess is the onely one in appearance in the whole Scripture Yet is not the evidence of it such that it can be able to shake the Faith of that which hath been before established upon such firm and fundamental Grounds of the full satisfaction and propitiation by the blood of Christ expressed in such legible and clear Characters in the free and new Covenant of Grace Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more For the right understanding therefore of this Text I refer the Reader to that which I have said before in the fourth Conclusion concerning mixt assemblies wherein although things be spoken in general of all both good and bad as they stand in relation to such an Assemble yet as they are considered absolutely in their own particular Persons without the consideration of such a Relation so such an Attribution hath no reference unto them If an English-man should be put to death in a National Quarrel it is therein the suffering of the whole Nation as injury and disgrace of the whole Nation yea and every particular person in the Nation as they are considered in that link and Union National with all and every particular