VIII CHAP. LIV. Three Errors Disparaging Christs Priest-hood 1. The Novatian denying the Reception of some Sort of Sinners 2. A Late Contrary Error affirming That every Sin which some sort of men Committ is pardoned before it be Committed 3. The Romish Doctrine of the Masse giving scandal to the Jew All of them Respectively derogating from the Infinite value or Continual Efficacie of Christs Everlasting Priesthood THe First Error in this kind which did grow into an Heresie was that of Novatus Qui negavit lapsis poenitentiâ—m who would not have Backsliders or Revolters from Christianitie Of Novatus See Euseb L. 6. c. 42. Socrates Lib. 4. ch 23. to be upon any Terms or testifications of repentance re-admitted into the Church or made partakers of Absolution This Heresiâ— as all others took its Original from a plausiâ—le Truth or practise of former times The Truth is that in those times wherein men professing Christianitie were every day called unto the Fierie Tryal This Backsliding or Relapse unto Idolatrie or outward Profession of Idolatrie even after Baptism was so rife that the Church would not admitt any such as had thus revolted unto the Estate or Condition of Penitentiaries nor give them Absolution upon private testifications of sorrow for their Revolt Now if Novatus did only deny that unto such backssiders or Revolters which the Church in her purest times would not Grant them why was he condemned by the Church in Ages following for an Heretick If his Opinion were an Heresie why was not the Practise of the Antient Church Heretical Some Grave and Learned late Writers would have the Novatas Heresie not precisely to consist in that he denyed Absolution or Communion with the Church unto Revolters but in that he maintained That the Church had no right or Power to grant Absolution unto such Backsliders as Cornelius then Bishop of Rome with the Advice and consent of his Clergie did grant unto but that this was a Case reserved to God himself That such Backsliders or Revolters might at the point of death be Absolved Novatian himself had once solemnly profest But after Cornelius his Competitioner for the Bishoprick of Rome being preferred to that Dignitie had authorized this Practise he begun to set abroach his Error whatsoever that were and to accuse Cornelius and his adherents as Authors of Heresie and Novelties in the Church Had this Novatian been constant to his former Tenets and Profession made before Cornelius was chosen Bishop of Rome against him he could not have denyed either of these Two Points of Truth Either that God had mercie in store for Revolters from Christianitie when they did repent or the Churches Power to grant Absolution or other comfort spiritual unto those to whom she might out of charitable discretion presume God was merciful or to whom God had not forbid her to shew mercy or compassion For Christ had commanded her to be merciful as her Heavenly Father is merciful But it were too much Charitie to presume that a man of such a proud and turbulent Spirit as Novatian was in the depth of such discontent as took possession of his spirit upon Cornelius his Preferment to so great a dignitie as the Bishoprick of Rome unto his prejudice would be constant to his former Principles either in whole or in part As either to grant that God had mercy in store for Revolters or that the Church had power to Absolve them upon such significations of repentance as belonged unto her Cognizance Nor can we without breach of Charitie think that either Novatian or any other Heretick in those times would be so gross as to deny the Churches Power to Absolve men from any sinne from which they were perswaded God had or would absolve them And it is a clear Case that the Novatians did ground their Errour or Contradiction to the Church wherein they lived upon that place of the Apostle Heb. 6. 4 5 6. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost And have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they fall away to renue them again unto repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame and grounding their Error or maintaining it by this place it is evident that they held Lapsos or Revolters from Christianitie unto Heathenism to be in the same estate Which modern Divines conceive all such to bâ— in as sin against the Holy Ghost But of the true meaning or extent of the Apostles words in the forecited place or how the absolute unpardonablness of sin against the holy Ghost may be thence concluded I have nothing for the present to say It sufficeth to know that this Error of the Novatians was by the Ancient Church wherein they lived Condemned for an Heresie Yet hence it will not follow that their Heresie in the Judgment of them which condemned it did properly or precisely consist in denying the Churches authoritie to absolve sinnes of what kind soever but rather in avouching this particular sin of Apostasie or revolting from Christianitie to be in it self unpardonable or uncapable of Repentance If it had been in it self unpardonable or so adjudged by the Primitive Church Navatian had been no Heretick in withstanding Cornelius Bishop of Rome and the particular Churches which consented with him or in denying to admit the Revolters from Christianitie unto the estate or Condition of Penitentiaries in the Church or in refusing to give them Absolution or to hold Communion with them after they had voluntarily or otherwise observed such a course of Life as the Church had appointed for Penitentiaries That the Antient Church did neither admit open Revolters to enter into this Course or Rule of life nor Absolve them after they had Uoluntarily though most strictly to the eyes of men observed it doth no way argue that the Church in which Cornelius lived or which lived after him did erre much lesse incurre the Censure of heresie which Novatian objected unto them in admitting open Revolters unto the estate and Condition of Penitentiaries or in absolving them from their sinnes after performance of such religious duties as were by the Church required of men admitted into that estate or Condition 2. The Primitive Church did hold both to be lawfull but not expedien for the present Times The Primitive Church did deny unto Revolters Both these Favours 1. Admission to the state of Penitentiaries 2. Absolution upon their good behaviour after testification of repentance onely de Facto not de Jure The Church in later times did onely alter the Practise or discipline as is to be presumed upon good cause or consideration And to conclude or limit the Authoritie of the present Church onely by Matter of fact or practise of the Church in former times is matter of Heresie at least of Schism And this it may be
Doctrine handled First Vnto what Condemnation they were of Old ordained Secondly How or in what manner they were ordained unto it 2. There is An English Note upon this Place A very strange One yet gathered as it seems from some good Writers vvho did not so clearly express themselves in their Comments upon this Place as might have been desired See the 1. note at the end of this Chapter and yet are farre vvorse understood by many of their Follovvers then they meant The English Note seems to imply that these men were Ordained to trouble the Church or to follow those lewd Opinions or Practises whereby the Church was troubled and the Faith of many brought into manifest hazard Yet to say that any man is ordained by God to this or the like end will be very harsh to any Christian eares and was I am perswaded either a branch of their Heresy which are here said to be ordained to Condemnation or a Branch of the same Root worse then any Heresy God ordains no man to sin which they maintained And yet to say That men are ordained to trouble the Church to be ungodly and to deny Christ is but the Necessary Consequent of their Opinion who hold That all things every Action of Man even sinfull Actions are so ordained and determined by God that they cannot come to pass otherwise then they do in the Individual either for the Matter Substance or for the circumstance of the action Thus to write thus to speak some are emboldened because nothing can fall out without Gods Foresight yea without his Co-operation For in him all things living do live all things endued with motion do move and have their being And in that nothing can be done without him in that he is Omnipotent and supporteth the world by the Word of his Power they do not collect amisse that they cannot lay a load too heavy upon him But they should consider God is no lesse holy and just then powerful that seeing he is Holy and Just no lesse Holy and Just then he is Powerfull they may lay that upon him which is a great deal too foul for him to bear The foulest Aspersion that can be cast upon his Holiness is to make him the Author of sinful Actions To say or think he did Ordain men to trouble the Church or to be as these men were ungodly Persons denyers of Christ 3. To avouch in plain Terms That God is the Author of sin is as most confesse a dangerous Heresy a sign of a darkned mind in spiritual knowledge And yet the blindnesse or ignorance would be more gross if any man should grant the Antecedent and deny the Consequent That is if one should grant that God did ordain any man to persecute the Church to turn his Grace into wantonness and yet withall deny that God in thus doing should be the cause and Author of Sin See the 6. Chapter He that is the Author or Cause of any Action which is Essentially evill or universally inseparable from evill is the Author and Cause of all the evill which is inseparable from the Action even in that he is the Cause of the Action For that which they call the Obliquity of the Action or Malum Formale Formally Evill can have no other cause at all then that which is the Cause of the Action from which this Formal evill is unseparable So that if Gods Ordinance be the Necessary Cause of such an Action to wit of Troubling the Church the same Ordinance must be the cause of the Obliquity or evill which is annexed unto it Satan and wicked men should be but Causes Instrumental at most that is such a cause as the sword is of the murther which a man commits with it So that the Case is clear that if to trouble the Church with lewd Opinions be a sinfull Action then God who is no Author of Sin did never ordain men unto that action For whatsoever God doth ordain or decree God is Author of that which be ordaineth he is the Author of it These Inferences will admit no Plea or Traverse amongst such as are instructed in the Fundamentall Rules of Art or Nature For all do grant that which they call Obliquity or Formal Evil to be a Relation that is such an entity or Being unto which no Action can be immediatly terminated it hath its Being only by Concomitance or resultance from some other Effect which hath a direct and Immediate Cause Of this Nature are Equality or Inequality of bodies Similitude or Dissimilitude Now it is impossible that man or Angel or any Cause whatsoever should produce an Equality between two bodies formally unequal by any other means then by altering the Quantity of one or both or to make one body dislike unto another but by altering their Qualities Altogether as Impossible it is to produce an Obliquity or Crookedness in mens wayes by any other means then by producing those Actions which are in their Nature Perverse and crooked He which is the Cause of such Actions in the Individual is the Cause of that crookedness or Obliquity which is inseparably annext unto them 4. That God is not the Cause not the Author of such Actions or that such Actions are not necessary in respect of his Decree Christianity it self or the Rule of Catholick Faith binds us to believe as firmly as that there is a God who is the Author or Fountain of Goodnesse Hence saith St. James Cap. 1. ver 13. Let no man say when he is tempted he is tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evill neither tempteth he any man unto evil but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed And unto this inconvenience of being tempted by his own lust man was not subject untill he was beguiled by Satan nor could this great tempter work evill in man immediatly or directly but only by tempting or inticing him to that Action to which evill was unseparably annexed that is to tast of the fruit which God had forbidden The Tempter knew that if he could intice our first Parents unto this Action there was no possibility of shedding the Obliquity or Formal evil from it which was essentially annext unto it Now if God had ordained man to this Individuall Action or to the condemnation which was due to this Action without possibility of avoiding it His Ordination had been a more true Cause of the first mans sin and of his death and ours then Satan was For Satan had no power either naturall or permitted him by God to make any ordinance or decree for man no power either given or permitted to lay a necessity of sinning upon our first Parents All that he was able or permitted to do was only by way of temptation or inticement Adam as all grant had a Freedom of Will in respect of Satan or any inticement that he could propose unto him But Freedom of Will he
Church call Original should be no more then a meer Privation of Original Justice Of the Inconveniencies which will follow upon the affirmative Opinion that is of that Image of God wherein the First Man was Created But the Ingenuous Reader wil perhaps demand what further Inconvenience wil follow upon the yielding or granting of the former Postulatum or Supposition unto them This in the Second place That Adams Successors whether immediate or intermediate unto the worlds End should have a greater measure of that which they call Liberum Arbitrium or Free-will then the word of God doth acknowledge or any Ingenuous Man that will subjugate his Reason to be Regulated by the written word or Ancient Rules or Canons of Faith can allow or approve This deduction following is clear by Rules of Reason viz. If the Righteousnesse of the First Man did consist in a Grace Supernatural or in any quality additional to his constitution as he was the Work of God This Grace or Quality might have been or rather was lost without any Real wound unto our Nature Or without any other Wound then such as the Free-will or right use of Reason or other Natural parts which after the losse this of supposed Supernatural Grace or Quality were left might instantly have cured or yet may cure Or in other terms more Scholastical perhaps Thus If the Integrity or Righteousnesse of the First Man were lost only demeritoriè by way of Demerit without any physical or working cause of its expulsion or without any wound made in our nature by such positive cause The same Righteousnesse which the First Man had might have been regained by the right use of Reason which was left unto him or of those natural faculties which he had pro primâ vice abused From these premisses the necessary consequence will be this That the satisfaction of our Lord Christ for sin original at least had been superfluous And according to this Tenet the Opinion of the Socinians would be more tolerable and more justifiable then the Doctrine of the Romish Church so far as it concerns the Valew or Efficacy of Christs Sufferings or Satisfaction by his Merits or Justification by works rather then by faith especially works of the Moral Law or observance of those two great Commandments To love God above all and our Neighbours as our Selves or of that other whatsoever you would that men should do unto you even so do unto them 3. Lastly if all or any of these Opinions were granted to the Church of Rome we of Reformed Churches should be concluded to yield That Adams posterity or as many of them as are or shall be justified were to be Formally justified by inherent Righteousnesse that is they have or might challenge absolution from the first sentence denounced against Adam by way of legal plea or satisfaction The deduction or remonstration of this demonstrative inference is clear to any Artist to any reasonable man unlesse his Reason be overgrown by faction or by mingling of passions with his understanding The Remonstration of this demonstrative inference is thus It is in confesso and more then so an undoubted Maxim subscribed unto by the Church of Rome That the grace which is infused by and from our Lord Jesus Christ is a supernatural quality or a qualification more soveraign then the first grace which God the Father bestowed upon the First Man Now if that Grace were a super addition to his Nature or Constitution as he was the work of God the losse of this Grace or quality could not have made any wound in the humane Nature which the least drop of that Grace which daily distilleth from the second Adam might not more then fully cure Yea such grace would sublimate our Nature so cured unto an higher pitch or fuller measure of Righteousnesse then that which was bestowed upon our Father Adam In respect of these and many other Reasons which might be alledged all such Congregations or Assemblies of Christian Men as have departed or have been extruded out of the Romish Church stand deeply engaged to deny that the Righteousnesse of the First Man was a Grace or quality supernatural CHAP. III. Whether Original Righteousness were a quality Natural or a mean betwixt Natural and supernatural 1. TO affirm that the Righteousnesse wherein the First Man was created was a gift rather Natural then supernatural would be no solaecisme no assertion any way more incongruous then many Resolutions of the Roman Doctors in like Cases are no grosser blemish or deeper impression then might easily be salved or wiped off with that distinction usual amongst them in other the like or rather the same Cases The true state of the Question proposed That the righteousness wherein Adam was created was natural quoad terminum productum non quoad modum productionis A natural Endowment in respect of the essential qualitie produced albeit the manner of producing it were somewhat more then supernatural But this is a dispute which for the present shall be waved because the Original difference betwixt us and them may be more punctually stated and the Questions dependent on it may be more clearly resolved from these Postulata or presumed Maxims First That God did make the First Man after his own image Secondly That the First man being so made was righteous and just Neither of these are denied by any The state of the Original Controversie unto such as are disposed to have it plainly propounded in constant or unfleeting Terms is thus Seeing man was made after the image of God and being so made was just and righteous Whether there were two works of God or two distinct effects of his work of creating the First Man in righteousness and in his own image And whether the one of them was terminated to his own image imprinted in man and the other to his original justice If these two expressions made by Moses of Gods image and mans righteousness expresse or include no more then one and the same work of God or effect of his work in man The losse of Original justice or defacing of Gods image enstamped upon him was more then a meer privation and necessarily presupposeth a positive Cause in our First Parents and a positive Effect wrought by that cause whereunto the privation of Original justice was Concomitant or rather Consequent Whatsoever Controversie may be moved concerning the Cause or manner how this Effect was wrought the effect it self was a deadly wound in our Nature a multitude of wounds all by Nature or any endeavour of Nature or performances of such Free will as was left to mankind after these wounds were once made altogether incurable without the help or assistance of better Grace or endowments then were bestowed upon the First Man The cure of these wounds wholly depends upon that grace whose Being and bestowing the second Adam did merit from the Father of Lights or from the Divine nature or Deity 2. To win the Assent of
every Rational Christian man unto the former part of this determination That Original justice did consist in that image of God wherein the First man was created and did not imply any other work of God whether preccdent or consequent besides the speciall work of his creation no other Argument is either necessary or so available as the taking of the words of Moses where he describes the manner how the First man was created into serious consideration For Original Justice had more Essential dependence upon the image of God in Man then Rotunditie hath with a Sphere or Globositie with a Globe Now in the making of a Sphere or body perfectly round there be not two works nor two distinct effects of the Artificers skill one in making a Round-Body another in making Rotunditie And it is a grosser Soloecism in Divinity to say or think that the Image of God in man was One work of God and Original Justice Another then it would be to maintain that the Rotundity of a Sphere and the Sphere are two works of the same hand severally intended by the Artificer which makes the Sphere 3. To evince the later part of the former Assertion Original sin more then a meer privation That Original sin is more then a meer Privation more then a meer want of Original Justice a multiplicity of wounds or diseases in our nature any man living which hath so much memory or reason as to reflect upon his own disposition or untowardlinesse in his childhood or skill to contemplate the Estate or condition of poor Infants will easily subscribe unto that great Roman Naturalists judgement or observations Plinie in his Preface to the seventh book of his natural History to be insisted upon hereafter when we come to treat of the Symptomes or properties of sin Original The next Enquirie according to the Method proposed is How sin did enter into the world CHAP. IV. Of the manner how Sin found Entrance into the works of God and did seize upon all mankind The Man Christ Jesus only excepted 1. No Creature from the first moment of its Creation was altogether impeccable THe highest Offer of any which I have read for the resolution of this Problem is that inquisition made by some School-men An dari possit creatura impeccabilis so they render the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The problem in distinct and plain English is thus Whether it be possible according to the Rules of Reason that any created substance should be from its creation totally secured or absolutely freed from all possibility of falling into sin Some of the Ancient and most Orthodoxal Fathers of the Church as their opinions are alledged by some School-men stand for the Negative Part of this Problem to wit That it is not possible for any meer Creature to be from the moment or first time of his creation altogether impeccable or secured from all possibility of falling into sin But whether the reasons or expressions of these Ancient Fathers will reach home or amount unto the Tenents of such School-men as avouch not only their reasons but Authority is not so clear but that the discussion whether of their Authorities Meanings or Expressions might breed more quarrels then the School-men have already begun However The disputes already moved about this Point must in the first place be restrained to meere Creatures rationall that is to Angels and Men. The Rational Creature or son of man who is likewise the Son of God must be exempted from this enquiry And this Additional must in the second place be admitted Whether it were possible that any man or Angel could be perpetually freed from all possibility of falling into sin and have been withall from the first moment of his creation intrinsecally just and righteous 2. That Men and Angels might by the power of God or special contrivance of his Providence have been secured from all possibility of falling into sin is a Position amongst rationall men unquestionable But it is not so whether men or Angels being so secured from all possibility of sinning could have been intrinsecally or formally righteous or by the eternall rules of Justice and Equity it self truly capable of everlasting punishments or torments or of joy and happinesse everlasting The Negative part of this Probleme is in my judgment far more probable then the Affirmative For if the First-man or Angels which fell had been either by the power of their Almighty Creator or by the undefeatable contrivance of his wisdome absolutely freed from all possibilitie of sin from the first creation unto this day they could neither have deserved any great blame or praise by continuing after this manner righteous or conformable to the divine nature for integrity of life The case of the First-man if he had lived to this instant without sin by such contrivance or necessitating guidance of Gods providence had been the same as if the child whiles his master leads his hand should write a Faire Copie being otherwise unable to cast a letter aright when his masters hand should betaken off from his Now if the Child or young Clerk should not in good time learn to cast his letters or draw his lines aright he could not pretend any title to commendation or reward how well so ever his work were performed the whole praise would of right belong unto the manuduction or guidance of his Master But if the young Clerk growing stronger should disturb or wrest the hand of his guide awry or not suffer him to rule his hand as before he had done by thus doing he would deserve both blame and correction 3. Our father Adam in his first Estate had a great deale more power to regulate his own thoughts and actions by the ordinary Guidance of Gods Providence then a child hath either to cast his Letters or draw his Lines aright by the sight of a Copie or ordinary direction of his master Yet this same First Man had a power withall to neglect the guidance or slight the directions of his Creator a power much greater to do both these wayes amiss then a child hath to refuse or resist the Manuduction of his writing-Master By the First womans ignorance or contempt through her husbands negligence or inadvertence to that First and Great Commandement which was given to both of them Of the tree in the middle of the garden ye shall not eat c. that which we call Originall sin or the maine roote of all sins found entrance into the visible world that is into the nature of man The extract of what we have said or have to say Concerning this point is very well set down by St. Austine and some others of the Ancients That the First Man was truly endowed with a Free-will or power not to have sinned at all That if he had used this power aright or implored the assistance of his Creator in competent time for so using it he should have been endowed with a perpetuall immunity
Chair or when He entred into the Sanctum Sanctorum but to the Sanedrim or Common Council of the Priests and Elders whereof the high Priest was a more Principal then Necessary Member 9. The improvement of this Jewish Heresie and Slavery to Satan throughout the Patriarchate of Rome had its Original from an Ambitious Error in that Church through succession of times not very Ancient by laying challenges to all Gods promises made to his Vniversal or Catholick Church as to her own Peculiar Prerogative And as if this had not been enough the successors of these desperate Challengers have contracted the Catholick Church which in their Language is all one with the Church of Rome unto the Pope and his Cardinals or as they term it the Sacred Consistory Some later Canonists and Parasites to the Pope Jesuites especially have laboured to drive the Vniversal Church like a Camel through a needles eye into the Popes Breast alone whensoever he shall deliver his Sentence ex Cathedra as if as well all Gods Promises as Blessings promised to his Catholick Church were The One to be disposed of The Other to be dispensed by him as by Christs sole Vicar General or Vice-Roy here on Earth But these Positions some Interimists or Labourers for Reconciliation betwixt the Church of Rome of England wil hapily reply are but the Opinions of private men not maintained or taught by the Catholick Church Yet none of them whether Cardinals Jesuites or Casuists whether Priests or Laicks of inferiour ranke will or dare deny that the Infallible Guidance of the Holy Ghost for Leading Christs Church into the truth is immediately annexed to the Roman Church Representative that is to all such Councils or Assemblies of Christian men as are called by the Pope as Christs Vice-Roy and approved of by him and his Assistants The Necessary Consequence of this Position is That No one Council which hath been called by the Pope and approved by him did ever heretofore Erre or can Erre hereafter 10. The former mis-interpretation of Gods Promises made unto the Vniversal Church He meanes W. Laud The R R. Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Book that is as Romanists say unto the Church of Rome is excellently refuted by the Author of that Matchless Piece heretofore annexed to Doctor Whites Learned Answer to the Jesuite Fisher since Published by The Author of it in his own Name with many Learned and Pious additions Of all which I have no more for the present to say then this Respondent Vltima primis Both the First and Second Edition are worthy their Author And this is more then I know otherwise how to expresse The first Edition I had the happinesse to peruse when I had finished this Treatise of Servitude to sin for my private use and for the benefit of such as were committed to my Pastoral Charge and had entered upon another Treatise Concerning Christian Obedience for preventing the spreading infection of a Pestilent Book dispersed through the Northern parts of this Kingdom set forth by a Jesuite under this Sawcy Title The Prelate and the Prince And for preparing the Antidote I found good Directions and Ingredients from the forementioned Author 11. But suppose the rest of the Church be disposed to Believe this Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility Wherein doth the matchless Slavery of the Romish Church unto Satan in respect of Jews or Heathens punctually consist In This especially That if any Council Wherein the Bishop of Rome or Patriarch of the West as his Stile sometimes was had any principal Interest or Prerogative either in calling or confirming it have Erred the present Pope and his Adherents whether Priests or Laicks are Bound by solemn Oath and under a dreadful Curse to make up the Measure of their Fore-Fathers Errors Negligences Ignorances or other enormous sins and iniquities whether committed against the Rule of Faith or against the Law of God For all which they are also Bound by their own Doctrine and Liturgie to beg Pardon as well for their Fore-Fathers Transgressions as for their own in respect of what is past and to pray for the prevention of the like in times to come Now this is the Greatest Yoke of Slavery that Satan durst or could attempt to Lay upon the neck of Christs Church Militant here on Earth albeit he could by subtilty prevail to place his Primogenitus that is such an Antichrist as many in the Romish Church conjecture shall hereafter come that is a Man begotten by the Devil of a Woman or Daughter of the Tribe of Dan as Christs Vicar-General in S. Peters Chair If any such Antichrist shall hereafter arise the Measure of Personal Iniquity may be greater then any Popes or the Papacy hitherto hath been but the Kind must be the same A worse or more desperate kind of iniquity or Antichristianism then this late mentioned cannot be imagined The End of Chap. 21. IT was the Authors Fashion mostly to preach upon such Texts as might ground the matter that he intended after to Treat upon in his writings and so to weave his Sermons into the Body of his Discourses or Tracts as occasion required The Studious Reader knowing This and observing 1. A passage at the Beginning of the Second Section page 3018. the seventh Chapter of This Book which promises To annex to these Discussions A Sermon About That Sort of Jews which made that Sawcy Reply to Christ verse 33. John 8. whether they were Such as verse 30. were said to Believe on Him or No. And then 2. Taking notice of the Title of the 14. Chapter it begins the third Section page 3039. which is That even those Jews which did in part Believe in Christ were true Servants unto Sin He will see the Reasons that procured the Insert on of these two Sermons or Tracts ensuing here at This Place As being conceived most neerly allied to the matter preceding and more accomodate to the Readers Use who as is probably presumed if He had but only been reminded of This in the Margin before he had proceeded to read the fourth Section would first have sought out and read these two Discourses in Case they had been deferred and placed in the Rear of this Book CHAP. XXII A Postil or short Discourse upon our Saviours words JOHN 8. 36. If the Son therefore shall make you Free ye shall be Free Indeed The Connexion of This verse with The precedent 1. THis verse is inferred by way of Conclusion from the verse Precedent The Servant abideth not in the house for ever But the Son abideth for ever The Difficulties emergent be Two The Former Concerning the true Sense and meaning or at least the Limitation of the Antecedent to wit The Servant abideth not in the house for ever c. The Other Concerns the Inference or Connexion betwixt This Antecedent and the Conclusion If the Son therefore c. Some of best note amongst the Ancient or middle rank of Interpreters The Opinion of
could have had none in respect of Gods Decree or Ordination if it were true that God had ordained him to eat the Forbidden fruit For the Rule is most certain That God is the Cause and Author of whatsoever he Ordains men to do and hence we read that God hath Ordained us to good works to newness of Life to the performance of all those duties which are commanded But we never read in Scripture and let it never be read in any other Book but with indignation let it never be spoken or thought upon by any Christian but with detestation that God should ordain men to walk in the ways of Cain or to tread in the pathes of ungodliness The Conclusion then is firm and sound That these men here mentioned in St. Jude The conclusion of the first point were not ordained to trouble the Church but ordained and that of old unto that Condemnation which is due to such as trouble the Church or to ungodliness And that is a fearfull condemnation as St. Jude expresseth it ver 13. For to them saith he is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever And if this were reserved unto them or for them they were first ordained unto it the Sentence was already past upon them albeit the Execution be deferred untill the Judgment of the great day But unto this condemnation they were ordained because they had followed the ways of Cain and run greedily after the error of Balaam as St. Iude tels us ver 11. But farre be it from us to think that they were ordained to follow the ways of Cain who was the first troubler of the Church that they might be condemned And thus much of the First point what Condemnation is here meant or unto what they were ordained That was not to trouble the Church but to everlasting torments for troubling the Church by wicked Lives and Lewd Opinions 5. The second Point The Second Generall was What Ordination is here meant or in what manner these men are said to be ordained to this Condemnation Many take it as granted that Ordination to everlasting death is the very same that Reprobation is Yet if this were a time or this a place fitting for discussion of this point it might be easily made to appear that although Reprobation include surely an Ordination to death yet every ordination to death doth not include Reprobation For Ordination to life and Predestination and Ordination to death and Reprobation differ as much as Genus and Species as a Reasonable Creature doth differ from a Sensitive Creature But to let this pass This place of St. Iude is in the opinion of many good Writers Equivalent to that of St. Peter 1. Ep. 2. Cap. 8. ver They stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were Appointed But for that place I suppose he means Mr. Byfield who is far from the Rigidness of some in that point it is ingenuously and discreetly expounded by a late English Writer in his Comments upon that Epistle And it were to be wished that his Exposition were sincerely imbraced by such as had the man in esteem while he lived and are much beholding to his writings especially upon this Epistle since he dyed I shall only now give you notice that the Originall word in this place of S. Jude rendred by ordained is not the same with that in St. Peter That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is well rendred Appointed Nor is it the same with that of St. Paul Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto eternal Life believed S. Judes word here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as some render it Praescripti prescribed Of whom it was forewritten to this condemnation But as Beza descripti that is as men designed taxed or proscribed to this condemnation It includes then an Ordinance or somewhat more to witt an Ordinance upon Record but in what Record In Gods everlasting Book of death or may we say that he hath such a Book It is evident that there be more Books then One out of which men shall be Judged at the last day according to their works The 2. General subdivided as St. Iohn tells us Rev. 20. 12. The Points then Remaining to be discussed are Two First In what Sense these men are said to be fore-ordained to everlasting death or in what Sense men are said to be Reprobated from everlasting or from Eternity The Second Whether our Apostle in this place did expresly and punctually mean Gods eternal Decree of reprobation or some other ordination to death 6. In handling the first Point I shall only explicate that which I haue elsewhere delivered See the 37. Chap. to wit That albeit whosoever is reprobated is reprobated from eternity yet no man at the time of his Baptism is a Reprobate Numb 16. and Pharaohs hardning few or none are born in that estate or condition but such as finally perish do fall into it The Case may be made clear by divers Instances wherein men even by humane Lawes may be sentenced to death or other punishment before they be born and yet at the time of their birth or within some few days before their death or punishment be no more lyable to the Sentence of the Law then other men are For unto death or other grievous punishment there is required for the most part as well the Sentence of the Judge as the Sentence of the Rule or Law And yet in some peculiar Cases no more is required then the Sentence of the Law or Rule Sententia Judicis Sententia Juris which was made and given many hundreds of years before the Party was born which is sentenced by it Every one that committeth murther is lyable to death by the Law But besides the Sentence of the Law or the Rule which is Generall to all there is required the Sentence of the Judge to apply the Law to this Particular and before he give sentence there is further required a Formal Processe not only for proof of the Fact it self but of the Quality of it And untill this Processe be observed the Judge himself may not give Sentence although he himself saw the the Fact committed Nor may the Party be executed or put to death by any untill the Judge have given Sentence He is condemnable before the Jurie passe upon him but not condemned when the Jury finds him guilty untill the Judge passe sentence upon him But if a private man shall take up Arms against his Soveraign Lord or the state wherein he lives he is rebellious Ipso Iure he is a Rebell by Law there needs no other Tryall or Formal Processe besides the Evidence of the Fact The Martial or General is only to put the Law in Execution and the Party thus rebelling is sentenced to death by the Law which was in force many hundreds of years before the party offending was born who not withstanding is not lyable to
truth fall upon him whosoever he be that after so many miracles wrought in Christs name and so great manifestation of the truth revealed in his Gospel doth not love the Lord which hath redeemed him So then all in the Church of Corinth that did not at this time love Christ were excommunicated or ordained of old to that condemnation by the sentence which Enoch had given in Generall and S. Paul only declares them Incidisse in Canonem to have fallen under that Fearfull Sentence of Condemnation Thus farre of the Two Doctrinal Points proposed as first What condemnation it is where unto these men were ordained Secondly In what manner they were ordained of old 12 Now for Application let us inquire what Speciall sins they were by which they fell under this Sentence first denounced by Enoch against the ungodly men of his time The Application or denounced by God himself against Cain or by his servant Moses against Corah One Principal Sin was to Despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities that is of men in high place or Authority whether in Church or Commonwealth ver 8. And this sin he aggravates from the contrary behaviour of Michael the Archangel even towords the Divel himself who had no dignity or dominion but usurped ver 9. But these men speak evil of those things which they know not and what they know naturally as bruit beasts in those things they corrupt themselves Now as we know the form or figure of the seal which we see not by the impression or stamp which it leaves in the wax or paper So some men there be in our time who express that Character which St. Iude hath put upon these ungodly men as fully in their dayly talk and conversation as if St. Iude had fitted it for them or exprest them by name Such there are that bring railing accusations against their Betters against all of what rank or place soever in the Church which dissent from them in Opinions concerning Election or Reprobation or the Tenour of Gods Decree being points which they understand not and yet speak evill of them that seek to rectify their Errour But in things which are plain and easy to be understood which the very heathen knevv by light of nature as in points of Obedience to their lawful Prince or to such as are in Authority under him in these shall I say as our Apostle sayes like bruit beasts they corrupt themselves Sure I am they are more bruitishly ignorant then the ancient heathen Romanes or then the Modern Turks or most Modern Infidels are Another speciall branch of these mens ungodliness was the Turning the Grace of God into wantonness and what do they else that trouble themselves and their neighbours with intricate disputes how the Grace of God doth co-operate with man in his Conversion or Regeneration yet in the mean time violate the bond of peace and charity by their uncivill rude behaviour and scurrilous manner of speech and writing But it is no marvell if they sow discord amongst Christian men who bend the strength of their wits and pens to nurse or Course a Faction betwixt Gods Grace to his Elect and his Goodness towards All especially to whom he vouchsafeth the Use of his Sacraments Now to deny Gods infinite Goodness or to cut the wings of his mercy so short as some men do is to deny the Lord God and that in a worse manner for matter of Opinion then these men here in St. Jude can be convinced to have done How some deny Christ But do they likewise deny the Lord Christ Surely they deny him to be the Lord Redeemer of Mankind by denying that he payed the Ransome for ALL especially for ALL that are Baptized in his Name For if Christ did not pay the Ransome for ALL that are baptized in his Name Then is he not their Lord by right of Redemption as well as by right of Creation that is then he is no otherwise Lord of them then he is of Divels for even of them he is Lord by right of Creation and if Christ be no otherwise Lord of such as are baptized in his name then he is of Divels then we are false witnesses of Christ when we teach such as are baptized such as shall be admitted unto Baptism to believe in Christ as their Redeemer Again were it true that Christ did dye for the Elect only then no man could be more sure that Christ did pay the Ransome for his sins and that he hath purchased the remission of his sins then he is that he is in the number of the Elect. Now no man is bound to believe no man may safely believe at his First Admission into the Church that he is in the number of the Elect See the 3. note at the end of this Chapt. that is in the number of such as shall not Finally Perish If then we should teach men or children that Christ dyed only for the Elect we shall leave no possible Mean between Infidelity and Presumption for if we teach them that Christ died only for the Elect they must remain in the estate of Infidels and Unbelievers untill they believe that they are of the number of the Elect. And if we teach them to begin their Belief in Christ at this Point That they are of the number of the Elect then both they and we fall into the very dregs of their Heresy whom St. Jude here saith were fore-ordained to condemnation This was the very Root of their ungodliness And for this reason St. Iude in the very next verse unto the Text puts the Church to whom he wrote this Epistle in remembrance of that which had been before delivered unto them to wit that albeit God had delivered All the People out of Egypt yet after wards he destroyed such as believed not that is such as continued not in their First Belief This then was the Summe of the Faith Once delivered unto the Saints that they were all delivered by Christs death from the slavery of Satan and that this deliverance was as truly sealed unto them by the bloud of Christ as the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt was by the bloud of the Paschal Lamb. Yet for all this they must not presume that they could not or should not finally perish seeing God destroyed many in the wilderness which he had delivered out of Egypt Our Apostle then if we will follow his directions puts us into the Middle or safe Way between the contrary extreams of Reprobation and Election and the Mean or Middle Way is That A Great Part of men which have been Baptized are neither in the one State nor in the other But as hath been before declared in the last fore-going Chapters NOTES 1. RElating to this 38. Chapter Folio 3164. To those words of Paragraph 2. There is an English Note upon this place A very strange one This Note is to be found in the Impression of a Quarto Bible of
glo 2. vers propter humilitatem c aliâs illa glossa ponitur ea d. c. instistutio ARCH purificentur Quod omnibus sacerdotibus faciendum esse mandamus Nam si cinis vitulae y ¶ Cinis vitulae Historia legitur in Levitico See Ch. 50. Num. 1. quòd decimâ die Septembris tollebat sacerdos de proprio vitulam rufam trimam immaculatam quae nondum portaverat Jugum immolabat eam pro peccato suae domus hircum quem sumebat ab universâ mulâ—â—tudine immolabat propeccato populi Pelles carnes fimum vitulae Hircum comburebat extrâ cinerem servabat inde per totum annum fiebat aspersio aquae quâ purificabantur immundi de quibusdam quae in lege immunditiae dicebantur ut putà si aliquis tetigisset cadaver hominis mortui vel Sepulchrum erat immundus usque ad diem septimam hâc aquâ mundabatur sanguine asper sus populum sanctificabat a ¶ Sanctificabat Tunc sanguis vitulae fuit remissio peccatorum ut 12. q. 2. c. Gloria atque mundabat b ¶ Mundabat A venialibus Su. distinct 50. c. in Capite jn dist 4. c. nequaquam Nam sacrificiis venialia delentur Su. d. 2. c. cum omne de poen dist 3. c. de quotianis Nam si qua tunc habebant mortalia erant de poen dist 6. ca. 1. Circa medium PER HELIS AEVM Historia legitur in lib. Reg. qd cum Helisaeus esset in eremo venerunt ad eum viri civitatis dixerunt Ecce habitatio hujus civitatis optima est sicuâ— tu ipse benè nosti sed aquae pessimae sunt steriles At ille ait Afferte mihi vas novum mittite in illud salem ait Dicit Dominus sanavi istas aquas non erit ultrà in eis mors neque sterilitas Sanatae ergo sunt aquae ille usque ad diem hunc juxta verbum Helisaei quod locutus est Dominus multo magis aqua sale aspersa divinisque precibus sacrata populum sanctificat atque mundat Et si sale asperso per Helisaeum c ¶ Per Helisaeum Inde est quod cum aqua exorcizatur dicit sacerdos Deus qui per Helisaeum Prophetam salem in aquam mitti jussisti c. Prophetam sterilitas aquae sanata est quanto magis divinis precibus sacratusâ— sal sterilitatem rerum auferâ— humanarum coinquinatos d ¶ Et Coinquinatos venialibus tantùm sanctificat mundat atque purgat caetera bona multiplicat insidias diaboli avertit à Phantasmatum versutiis homines defendit 7. But wherein did the Roman Church so grosly mistake the meaning of the Holy Ghost in that instance of the Red Heifer Heb. 9. ver 13. Or to what mischievous inconvenience doth her practise unto this day upon this mistake amount To no less inconvenience to no lower degree of Antichristian Impietie then this that the Legal Priests with their Ceremonies or Sacrifices should be truer Types of every Masse-Priest whether of higher or lower Rank and of their services then of Christ Jesus our high Priest or of his everlasting Sacrifice and perpetual Function Both which were and are performed by him in his own Person not by any Deputies or Vicars But to me it is no wonder if that Church do make Aaron Eleazar and their Successors rather Types of Masse-Priests then of Christ seeing as hath been observed before they make Melchizedeck himself according to whose Order the Son of God only was to be consecrated high-Priest a more lively Type of meanest Masse-Priests then any true adumbration or shadow of Christ Jesus and the Service of the Masse-Priests at the Altar to be the accomplishment of Melchizedecks Priesthood 8. Had then the Anniversarie sacrifices of Buls and Goats upon the Day of Attonement no Reference or relation to the Sacrament of Christs Bodie and Bloud Nor the water of sprinkling mingled with the ashes of the Red Heifer no semblance with the Sacramental water of Baptism Yes doubtlesse both these Ceremonies had special Reference unto and exact semblance with these two Blessed Sacraments And yet were both of them shadows or Types only of Christs Bloudy sacrifice upon the Crosse and of the perpetual Exercise of his Everlasting Priesthood since he ascended into his heavenly Tabernacle Christ Jesus only and his everlasting Priest-Hood is the very Body or solid substance of all Legal Rites or services And of this Body the Anniversarie sacrifices whether of Attonement or others were true Types or shadows And of the same Body or Substance the Sacraments of his body and bloud and of Baptism are somewhat more then Types True Representations of what is past assured Pledges of all the Blessings promised to the Fathers and Patriarchs in the Old Testament and actually Exhibited in a better manner then they were to them unto all Believers since his entrance into the most Holy Place CHAP. XLIX That The Forraigne mainteiners of the more then Fatal Irrespective Rigid Decree make Christ Iesus rather a meere Sacrifice Then a True Everlasting Priest acting for us and daily working out our Reconciliation to God So do such as teach That The Sinnes of some were Remitted before they were Committed Of the Super-Excellency of Christs Priesthood and one Sacrifice in comparison of The Aaronical Pr. and the many Services thereof 1. BUt here I must expect this or the like Reply from some Interimists or such peaceable men as desire a reconciliation betwixt Ours and the Romish Church If to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass that is So to offer up Christs body and Blood or whole Christ upon the Altar be a branch of Antichristianism or an implicit denyal of Christs Everlasting Priesthood will you undertake to acquit the reformed Churches as you term them from the like sin or Sacrilegious opinions or from robbing Christ of his Greatest Honours as He is Man which are to be King Priest and Judge For any intire Reformed Churches or Christian Soveraigntie whose Publick Confessions or authorized Catechismes it hath been my hap to Read I know not one that is this way faulty Nor do the bitterest adversaries of the Gallican Swizterland or German Churches lay Antichristianism to the charge of their autorized Canons or Constitutions Albeit they indict a great number of private writers Pastors or Teachers in Germanie France Switzerland many in England and more in Scotland for being devoted Members of the Eastern Antichrist the height of whose Haeresie or Infidelitie they place in the Maintenance of That more then Fatal irrespective Decree in respect of Which all things Christs death it self not excepted be said so to fall out as that they could not fall out otherwise or be prevented 2. For such private writers as have gone too far in the Poynts mentioned in what Christian Church soever they be I leave them to answer for themselves and for
still cleanse us from all our sinnes from which in this life we are cleansed or can hope to be cleansed If we then receive remission of sinnes or purification from our sinnes in the Sacrament of the Eucharist as we alwaies doe when we receive it worthily we receive it not immediately by the sole serious remembrance of his death but by the present Efficacie or operation of his body which was given for us and of his Bloud which was shed for us 10. The reason why the bloud of Bulls and of Goats had no longer force or efficacie to cleanse men though but from sinnes against the Law of Ceremonies then whilest they were offered was because their bloud was corruptible bloud and did perish with the using But we are not redeemed saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 1. 18. with corruptible things as silver and Gold but with the pretious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish or without spot One part of the pretiousness of his bloud is that it is farr more incorruptible then silver gold or other pretious metall and the less corruptible any metall is the more pretious it is and the more pretious it is the more uncorruptible Though Christ then was truly mortal when he dyed for us yet the bloud that he shed forth for us at his death did not become like water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered again it did not vanish or consume as the bloud of Legal Sacrifices did as his Body so his Bloud was not to see or feel corruption not a drop of Bloud which was shed for us whether in the Garden or upon the Crosse but was the bloud of the Son of God but was shed by him as willing at this price to become the everlasting High Priest of our soules and not a drop of Bloud which was so shed did cease or shall ever cease to be the bloud of the Son of God His soule and body we know were disunited by death yet were neither of them disunited from his Godhead or Divine Person His Body whilest laid in the grave was still the Body of the Son of God as still retaining Personal Vnion with his Godhead So was his soule so was his Bloud the soule and Bloud of the Son of God as being indissolubly united to his Divine Person Though his bloud whilest it was shed or powred out did lose its Physical or Local Union with his body though one portion of it were divided from another yet no drop of it was divided from his infinite Person And that which the Romish Church would transferre unto each several crum of bread or drop of Wine in the Eucharist is Originally and properly true of the several drops or divisibilities of Christs Bloud which was shed for us whole Christ was in every one of them indivisibly in every one of them God was the Godhead was and is personally united to all of them 11. Whether all and every portion of his bloud which was then shed were by the power of the Godhead recollected and re-united to his Body as his Body was to his Soule at the resurrection See Chap 46. Numb 2. we cannot tell God knowes But this we know and believe that the self same bloud which was then shed whether it were gathered together again or remained dispersed whether it were re-united to his Glorifyed Body or divided from it is still united to the Fountain of Life to the Godhead in the Person of the Son And being united to this Fountain of Life who dwelleth in it as light within the body of the Sun it is of Efficacie everlasting it hath an immortal power or force to dissolve the Works of Satan in us as well those which he worketh in us after Baptism as before The Vertue of it to cleanse and purge us from our sinnes of what kind soever is at this day as soveraign as if it had been sprinkled upon our soules whilest it issued out of his body It is impossible it should lose its Vertue in or upon our soules unless vve first lose our Interest in it vvhich vve cannot lose but by abandoning the vvaies of light and polluting our soules vvith the Works of darkness For so long as we walk in the light the bloud of Jesus Christ the Son of God doth cleanse us from all our sins 12. 1 John 1. 7. This present Efficacie of Christs body and Bloud upon our soules or reall Communication of both I find as a truth unquestionable amongst the Antient Fathers and as a Catholick Confession The Modern Lutheran and the modern Romanist have fallen into their several Errors concerning Christs presence in the Sacrament from a common ignorance neither of them conceive nor are they vvilling to conceive hovv Christs body and bloud should have any Real Operation upon our soules unlesse they were so Locally present as they might Agere per contactum that is either so purge our soules by Oral Manducation as Physical Medicines do our bodies vvhich is the pretended use of Transubstantiation or so quicken our souls as svveet odours do the Animal spirits which were the most probable use of the Lutheran Consubstantiation Both the Lutheran and Papists avouch the Authoritie of the Ancient Church for their opinions but most injuriously For more then we have said or more than Calvin doth stiffely maintain against Zuinglius and other Sacramentaries cannot be inferred from any speeches of the truely Orthodoxal or Ancient Fathers They all agree that we are immediately cleansed and purifyed from our sinnes by the bloud of Christ That his humane Nature by the inhabitation of the Deitie is made to us the inexhaustible Fountain of life But about the particular manner how life is derived to us from his humane Nature as whether it sends its sweet influence upon our soules only from the heavenly Sanctuary wherein it dwells as in its Sphere or vvhether his bloud vvhich vvas shed for us may have more immediate Local presence vvith us they no way disagree because they in this kind abhorred curiositie of dispute As for Vbiquitie and Transubstantiation they are the two Monsters of modern times brought forth by ignorance and maintained only by Faction And thus much of the infinite value and everlasting Vertue of Christs Sacrifiâ—e in comparison of Legal Sacrifices The next Querie is How the everlasting Efficacie of his Sacrifice or of his Priesthood was prefigured by Legal Sacrifices or purifications for sin 13. The Legal sacrifices as all agree did generally foreshaddow Christs Onely and All-sufficient Sacrifice But in as much as they were corruptible and their vertue transient and by reason of their corruption and transient vertue were often to be reiterated they could not be so much as true shaddowes either of his offering of Himself once for all or of the everlasting vertue of his Onely Sacrifice once offered Their imperfection corruption or transient vertue did serve as foyles to set forth the glorie and splendor of his everlasting
more then Fatal 3266 Gods Decrees do not prejudice his Eternal liberty 3089 Decrees of God not terminated to the abstract Entities of men 3151 3182 c. 3234 3248 3283 Decree of Election and Reprobation not to be taken as an Act long since past 3241 One and the same man not alwaies one and the same Object of Gods Decree 3236 3243 Gods Decree did not necessitate Adam in any degree to sin 3012 To affirm it layes an higher imputation on the Holy Lord God then we can truly lay on Satan ibid. The Doctrine of the Rigid Decree 3175 3182 to 3189 The Doctrine of the Rigid Decree makes Christ a Sacrifice not a Priest 3266 That Doctrine came at first from Romish Schoolmen into England at second or third hand ibid. Rigid Decree The Doctrine liable to two Imputations 1. It takes away Christs Priesthood 2. Christs Judicative power 3267 God from eternity Decreed to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible Will God from Eternitie did not decree to harden Pharaoh by his Irresistible will Two seeming Contradictories reconcileable 3237 Of several kinds of Definitions which fittest for Divines 3034 Flacâ— Illyricus's S. Austin's Aquinas's Melancthon's Calvin's Martyrâ—s Definâ—ation of sin Original 3032 c. Demochares Parrhesiastes his Barbaritie 3136 Deny Christ how some men do 3172 Needless Disputes make men negligent in Duties 3129 Divinitie Turkish 3181 c. Divisions in Arts and of Common use differ 3243 A discourse about that Division he will have mercy on whom and whom he will he hardens 3242 Under the Division of living after flesh or Spirit all comprehended 3147 Division of mankind into Elect and Reprobate See Elect. Do as you would be done to the meaning of it lost amongst us 3079 To Do one thing to be a Doer another 3099 3018 To do in the Hebrew Phrase signifies the Habit Maldonates Observation ib. The word doth the true value of it 3104 Dominiâ—ans and Schoolmen have harsh expressions about the Author of sin 3012 Dominium non fundatur in fide 3003 Dominion not so intire as at first 3003 To despise Dominion a great sin 3171 Drunkennesse 3126 E. EDucation good or bad may hinder or improve the Growth of sinne Original 3032 Education or discipline the effect of it in Bruits 3085 c. 3133 in youth c. 3135 Eâ—ficacie everlasting See Sacrifice Ego non sum Ego S. Ambrose 3240 The End or Scope of the discussions in the 35 first Chapters of this book 3129 End Hebr. 3. 14. what it imports 3149 3153 End Matth. 24. 13 what it signifies 3153 End and effect differ 302â— Election and Reprobation much about them in the sixth Section Questions of Election and Reprobation cannot be right stated without good skill in point of Free will 3082 Election and Reprobation The terms taken in a Passive or Concrete Sense Easy in the Active or Abstract very hard to be understood 3128 c. Points of Election and Reprobation not to determin but to be determined by points more General 3147 All men be not either Elect or Râ—probate who be so 3147 3154 Division of all mankind into Elect or Reprobate not right 3153 The sad effect of that Division 3275 Of Election Reprobation the Object 3155 A Question about Election and Reprobation ib. 3156 Best to examine our perswasions of Election or Reprobation by our progress in or neglect of Mortification 3162 The Elect obliged to the dutie of Mortification 3102 Even the Elect need daily cleansing 3287â— What we must do to make our Election sure 3038 Inconveniences following the Tenent That Christ dyed only for the Elect 3172 No man bound at his first admission into the Church to believe that he is Elect 3172 3174 Elect to Grace and Elect to Glory 3174 A man Elect may have been a child of wrath 3183 The opinion of Absolute Election undid the Jew 3186 Dangerous Reasonings about Election 3245 State of Election and Reprobation usually mutable before it come to be Immutable 3245 No mans Election or Reprobation absolutely necessary from Eternity 3156 State of Election and Reprobation under promise and under Oath 3238 Gods Peculiar Favour to the Elect and acceptation of their good works 3284 c. Men Elect and men within the Covenant differ 3284 c. An electio sit ex praevisis operibus 3218 Elect See Decree See Sins Remitted An estate Immutable may be attained in this life 3148 Mens estates become both ways Immutable not by Qualities but by measures of sins or duties 3149 c. Three estates of every particular man that is saved and four estates of man in General 3154 Enoâ—h his Book 3171 Epicurus his Moderation c. 3139 Errors disparaging Christs Priesthood The Novatian The Masse Sins remitted before committed 3280 See Sins remitted Esau runneth Isaac willeth God sheweth mercy 3214 c. Excommunication The great Jewish taken out of Enochs Book and words 3171 F. FAll See Adam Faith an Assent 3073 Justification by faith 3210 3218 An ill faith to believe that Tò credere will save 3274 A full assurance of faith immaturely pretended unto and taught 3274 Special faith effects of the Doctrine 3274 3277 It hindred the Reformation ibidem Fides est Fiducia in what sense true 3276 Fall away Believers in part may fall away 3073 to 3078 Every sin diminishes though not totally destroyes Grace 3279 Fallacies in Syllogisms about Pharaoh his case 3232 c. Satans Fallacie to terminate our desires in the meanes 3063 3064 A fatalitie Orthodoxal 3080 3284 A Brutish Fate of Stoicks Manichees c 3081 3266 To extirpate this Fate Just Martyr Origen Athanasius Nyssen Jerom endeavoured ibid. Pretended Favourites of the Spirit breeders of controversies 3011 Dr. Field commended the reading of Flaccius Illyricus to his Author 3039 Flaccius Illyricus his Definition of Original sin 3032 c. Flesh in St. Paul signifies or comprehends the rational soul also 3118 Flesh signifies both our Substance and the corruption thereof 3097 Flesh what debt we owe unto it ibid. what be the deeds of the flesh which we must mortifie 3097 c. 3100 All have a flâ—sh to mortifie 3102 All the deeds of the Flesh must be mortifyed though we cannot utterly kill them 3099 Living after the flesh about it Read 3146 c. Every moment of life ledd after the flesh an approach to the Ratification of Gods Threat Ye shall dye 3152 Flesh See Mortification A Freeman simply not of a Corporation 3042 Of free-will 3080. A short narrative of the disputes about it ib. and 3081 c. The cause of the ill successe in such disputes 3082 The utilitie of the disquisition about Free-will ibid. Several acceptions of the word Free and Freedom Spontaneum opposed to Coaction 3083 the subjects of such Freedom ibid. c. several kindes or degrees of Freedom 3087 definition of a free created Agent ibid. Of Free-will two branches Contradictionis Contrarietatis 3088 The root of Freedom Reflexive power 3086 No rational Agent but is