Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
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A43113
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An antidote against that poysonous and fundamental error of the Quakers denying the same numerical true and real manhood of Jesus Christ in heaven, a place remote from the earth : in two sermons preached at Hartford / by W.H. Christophilus.
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Haworth, William.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing H1195; ESTC R514
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18,456
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23
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them to go with boldness to the Throne of Grace For we have not an High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all things tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need Luther hath often this Direction to praying ones that are at a loss how to go to God Go to the Man Christ and Pray to the Man Christ And without doubt the Man Christ may be and should be and is worshiped in conjunction with the Deity though our Worship is terminated upon the Deity Use 1. If Christ is now a Man in Heaven O let our Minds and Affections be raised thither from off the World and all things therein Col. 3.1 If you then be risen with Christ in Regeneration as Members of the Head seek those things that are above Seeking denotes intensness and vehemency of Mind where Christ sitteth on the Right-hand of God Set your Affections on things Above not on things on the Earth By things on the Earth he chiefly means Ceremonies Traditions of Men Works of the Law which he is pleading against in the point of Justification You may put in the Light within or any other thing that any other Religion pleads for They are all but things below on the Earth but Christ is not there He is Risen and gone into Heaven and is at the Right-hand of God in Power and Glory interceding Our Hearts and Affections should be there all our happiness being treasured up in him and while we are here we should be as Pilgrims and Strangers longing to be with him and till that time come we should be conforming our selves to him Luke 12.34 For where your Treasure is there will your hearts be also Now Christ is our Treasure in the Heavens infinitely full of Spiritual Riches God is in Christ in Heaven the fullness of the God-head dwells in him Besides this as he is Man the sweetest man that ever was full of Grace and Truth O let us love him adore him trust in him long to be with him for he is worthy Let our mindes be taken off these poor low nothings not so much looking after them and seting our affections on them Christ is the best thing of all other good things are for his sake Paul therefore said He desired to depart and to be with Christ which is best To see him face to face to behold his Glory What on Earth comparable to this let us look and pray for power and virtue from him to raise our minds and affections up unto him Use 2. See what an Error of the Wicked it is to deny this Truth in which is wrapt up so much of the Comfort of the Saints It is in a manner denying the whole Christan Religion How can the Quakers be Christians that have said in my hearing That what was taken of the Virgin and that was the Body had now no more being 2 Pet. 3.17 18. Te therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the Error of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen Postscript THere is a Pamphlet printed by Christopher Taylor a Quaker Entituled A true and faithful Witness to the Light At the end whereof there is a Post script charging me with base Lies and Reflections the weakness and impertinency whereof is a sufficient Confutation of it self to any judicious Reader and I have been counselled by my Friends to slight it by silence as that which hath nothing in it that is worthy of Animadversion But not to gratifie that boasting humour that this Man C. T. and all others of them are highly prone to when any thing of theirs lyeth at our door unanswered though to this day my whole Book is at their door unanswered I thought good to give this brief Reply There are Five Principal things to wave all the bitter Invectives against me that are mentioned 1. That I charged Christopher Taylor that he said That the Doctrine of Election was a Devilish Damnable and Blasphemous Doctrine This be this a notorious Lie Answ I offer at any time two substantial Witnesses to prove that he said it if he dares come to the tryal and that no such thing was affirmed by me viz. That God ordained men to be wicked before they were born God ordaineth to effect nothing but what is good He willeth to permit evil by denying Grace which would prevent it yet this evil is from a mans self and God is not the author of it because he doth not effect it How can God be the Efficient Cause of that which is a privation Can the Sun be the cause of Darkness yet Darkness is the Consequent of the Suns with drawing If Christopher Taylor pleaseth I will enter the Lists with him to make good this Assertion That there is no Evil in the World but the Lord willeth to permit it The second thing is viz. Christopher T. with others contended against Original sin To which he saith That the Devil is the Original of sin in Mankind and that be understands not how Infants can be guilty of sin in the Womb. Nay he saith That it is a cruel unnatural Doctrine to condemn Innocents as be calls them yea an ungodby uncharitable Doctrine c. Answ That the Devil is the Original of sin in Mankind i.e. the first tempter to sin is a Doctrine we learned from Moses not from the Quakers But what is this ad rem Ergo There is no Original sin except it be the Devil A strange Argument By Original sin we mean the Birth-sin that which man brings with him into the world is from his first beginning and Original and contracted from him that was the Original of Mankind the first Man Adam and is the Original of all actuall sin That all Infants have this sin upon them I will prove from the Scriptures against C. T. and the rest of the Quakers only let it be observed that my Charge is true by his own Confession there in Print I give but three Scriptures Rom. 5.12 In whom i.e. the first Man all have sinned Then Infants they are in him naturally Nevertheless Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not finned of-the similitude of Adams Transgression Verse 14. These are Infants here spoke of that had not actually finned as Adam yet Death reigned over them though they had not actually transgressed Moses Law as in the Verse before is implied How cometh it to pass that Death is inflicted upon Infants if they have no sin Nay violent Death Is there any unrighteousness with God in Rom. 5. And Death by sin Were there any Infants drowned in the Deluge or any burned in the fire in Sodom and Gomorrah
The third Scripture is Ephes 2.3 And were by nature Children of wrath even as others If Paul and all the Corinthians were Children of wrath by Nature i.e. by Birth as in another place he saith We who are Jews by Nature Gal. 2.15 i.e. by Birth Parent Original then were they sinners by Nature Birth Original from their Parents otherwise they could not be righteously the Objects of wrath but by this Scripture it appears they were by Nature such Ergo. Let Christopher Tailor answer this If he saith that Christ took away this sin from all Infants then none are Children of wrath by Nature and this Scripture is made a lye then are all Children of Grace as they come into the world till by actual transgression they render themselves obnoxious to wrath Whereas he saith we condemn the Innocent is a begging of the Question in hand And let the Reader judge if in this he writes not too much like an Innocent But this is the fruit of following the Light within and forsaking the Scriptures Nature will never discover its own guile and defilement and the Light within that every man hath is no more than Nature 3. I charge him for preaching the Covenant of Works in opposition to the Gospel by frequent repeating in his Discourses to the People that saying viz. Do this and live He saith to this That be directed to Christ Jesus when he said so and to his Light within that through Faith in him the true Light People might be saved Answ Observe that first he doth distinguish Christ Jesus and the Light and then immediately makes them one and the same Christ Jesus and his Light within It follows that through Faith in him the true Light that lighteh every man c. Now then this Light within every Man is Jesus Christ according to this man's Divinity and Jesus Christ is nothing else but this Light if any thing besides let them declare what But the Scripture saith this Light within every Man is nothing but the Law of Moses written in the heart of Man Rom. 2.15 Which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts So then it remaineth good what I said That C. T. did preach the Law in opposition to the Gospel in using that expression so much Do this and Live It will not serve to say as he doth that he did not press People to the observance of the Law of Moses in the Letter only for Life implying that observance to Moses Law in the Letter and Spirit both is sufficient for Justification unto Life in the fight of God which is the Quakers false Doctrine and another Gospel and renders Christ's personal Righteousness his Obedience and Suffering altogether in vain It is not our observance of Moses Law in the Spirit that is the matter of our Justification in God's fight but that observance that the person of Jesus Christ sixteen hundred years since yeilded to the will of the Father in doing and suffering in the behalf of the Elect in their room and stead being imputed to them May not I say Are not the Quakers willingly ignorant of this going about to set up their own Righteousness That Abraham the Father of the faithful observed Moses Law in the Spirit as well as the Letter yet this did not justifie him unto Life in the sight of God Rom. 4.2 If Abraham was justified by works he had whereof to glory but not before God his works done in the Spirit were not sufficient Rom. 4.6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the Man unto whom God imputed Righteousness without Works what Works Done by the Spirit surely for such were Davids Works he places this blessedness of Man with all his observance of the Law of Moses in the Spirit in Forgiveness of Sin Implying this that there is need of non-imputation of sin in the observance of Moses Law in the Spirit in our best works Did not Isaiah observe Moses Law in the Spirit And yet in that place of Isaiah 64.3 which Christopher T. produceth in a jeer calls it fiilthy Raggs as to Justification Did not Paul observe Moses Law in the Letter and Spirit when a Christian An Apostle Rim. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Was not this to keep it in the Spirit He kept it in the Letter before his Conversion Phil. 3. Touching the Law Blameless and this he counted Loss for Christ Vers 7. when he was converted to Christ Nay not only so but he counted all things loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and then surely his observance of the Law of Moses in the Spirit in the point of Justification for this is but his own Righteousness not the Righteousness of him that is God the personal Righteousness of Christ God and Man which is to be received by Faith I call Christopher to answer to these things and not to use that expression any more in that manner to the People thinking it enough to say that he preached the obedience of Faith whereas the obedience of Faith taken in a found sence is quite contrary to that Doctrine that is held forth in that Phrase it is twice quoted by the Apostle in the 5 th of the Rom. and 10 th v. and Gal. 3.12 and in both as opposed to the obedience of Faith yea in the latter it is written plainly the Law is not of Faith they are contrary in the business of Justification To that which he chargeth me with viz. that I should say Though a man was regenerate yet this was not sufficient I own it do but add that which we were certainly speaking of viz. in Justification He askes me what else must be added I answer The personal Righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed yea and this alone and singly nothing but this hath any merit in it for my pardon and acceptance in Gods sight The other of Regeneration is but the making me meet for the Inheritance and Kingdom which is given for the sake of Christ's Righteousness and this making meet is also for the Righteousness-sake of Christ To this very thing and why I call inherent Righteousness the Righteousness of the Law at which the Quakers storm I have given sufficient Reasons in the Books I have written which the Reader may enquire for remaining still in the same mind That the holy Law of God requires all the Righteousness that the best of the Saints have within them or without them therefore no more but the Righteousness of the Law by which we are not justified in God's sight 4. He writes That I told him Will. Pen affirmed to a friend of mine That George Fox was as good a Prophet as Isaiah the Prophet and that Christopher Taylor being asked likewise affirmed the same Here my charge remaineth for he doth not deny it but pleads for it only saith That Will. Pen to the best of his knowledge said no such thing Answ If Will. Pen pleaseth I will produce my Friend who shall testifie it to his face and let C. T. and the Quakers in the mean time please themselves making such wife and just Comparisons concluding that George Fox and Isaiah are equal G. as good a Prophet as Isaiah To the Last he writes that I askt him Whether the Man Jesus Christ were in him and that he answered affirmatively which he doth not deny only puts his own Interpretation upon it That by the Man Christ he understands not the Body of Christ but the Spiritual appearance of Christ Answ I have in these Lines of C. T. observed much deceit as here and else-where in that he doth not truly repeat my Words but rather adds something of his own or curtails and cuts off some of mine or changeth some for others The Question was Whether the whole Christ was within him and he answered it affirmatively My assumption was Then the Man Christ to which he replied The Man Christ was then what is this Answer of his but meer evasion neither is the Godhead alone simply considered the whole Christ nor the Manhood alone but both together The whole Christ is God and Man Now if the whole Christ be in Christopher Taylor not only Christ in his Spiritual Appearance but as to his Manhood that Soul and Body that is in Union with the Godhead But why may not this be asserted by him without any absurdity while the Quakers deny that Christ hath any true real Manhood There is a Jesuitical insinuation in the end of all as if he had more against me than he had writ or was willing at present to write You may read the Kidney of this man by this O how tender have the Quakers been of mine Mr. Faldo's and Mr. Hicks's Credit How much engaged we are to them that by their Tongues and Pens they do not take our good Names from us but they are known to be a self-denying People in this thing witness C. T 's dreadful cursing me when in Prison and his railing upon me openly in the Street at Hartford calling me Dagon an Enemy to God c. I know the modesty of this man that he would think no pains too much to scrape in the Kennels and Dunghills of mine and my Brethrens daily Infirmities that he might have but a little Dirt to throw upon us but the Lord pardon him for he knoweth not what he doth nor what he writes and bring him to the sound knowledge of the Man Christ Jesus and his personal imputed Righteousness for Justification which I know he and all the Quakers are Enemies unto 2 Timothy 3. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth Men of corrupt Minds of no Judgement concerning the Faith FINIS