page 48 in his differencing of gratia gratis data and gratia gratum faciens you will find him as excellent a Schoolman or schoolboy rather Page 2. he saith that in Religion the Law is our marke or way from which if we swerve we sin But is not the Gospel our way therein also and that in a speciall manner of our Christian Faith and Religion That defect is the general nature of sin but is not excess which is the other extreme sinfull also That this defect is an inclination or action repugnant to the Law But what thinks he of evill words as false accusation lying cursing and swearing such as he frequently useth are not they sinfull also That there is in sin a double formality repugnancy to the Law and guilt But guilt is the effect and not the form of sin That the former of these two is a comparison with the Law but it is a disparison or dissimilitude therewith that the first fin of man was the disobedience of our first Parents in eating the forbidden fruit But if he understands it of their actuall eating of that fruit he is much mistaken for as the womans actual eating thereof did go before the mans so many gradual evils did precede them both as first diffidence incredulitie to Gods word who had expresly said in the day that thou shalt eat thereof dying thou shalt dye Secondly too much eare and credence given to the devils lying promise who said ye shall not die but be as gods knowing good and evill Thirdly the too much liking and approbation of the forbidden fruit Fourthly the hungring or thirsting after it Fifthly contempt of Gods justice Sixthly ingratitude towards him for all his former goodnesse And lastly their consenting to Satan and resolution to eat of that fruit That in the generall all our corruption and misery is sprung from that first sin of the first Adam Contrary to what the Lord saith Hosea 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thine helpe But here he saith more particularly that eternall death came upon all their posterity by that first sin Contrary to Gods express Law Deut. 24.16 where God will not have the son to suffer a temporall death and much lesse an eternal for the fathers sin and directly contrary to Gods oath Ezek. 18.3 4. As I live saith the Lord God ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the father so the soul of the son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall die So ver 20. The son shall not be are the iniquity of the father neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be upon him Num. 16.22 Shall one man sin and wilt thou be wroth with all the Congregation That the corruption aversnesse of our nature came from that fall aforesaid Pag 3. that all our actuall sins doe spring from thence See to the contrary Eccles 7.29 That the first sin of man is the cause of all other sins and punishments which is true of each mans personal fall and disobedience and not of the other That the Spirit by the Law entitles us to Adams sin He means the first Adams as a derivation from the root to the branches as poyson is carried from the fountain to the cistern and as the children of traitors have their blood tainted with the treason of their fathers and as the children of bondslaves are under their parents conditions But all these similitudes are but shaws to catch woodcocks for neither was the first Adam either the root or fountain of our soules which are Gods immediate workmanship Isai 57.16 for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made nor are our bodies unclean by birth being created to be Temples for the Holy Ghost nor are traytors children usually tainted with their fathers treason though by the civil Law of some Countreys in proditionis terrorem they are ignobled in their blood and dignity nor was Adam himselfe a bond-slave to sin but by the grace of regeneration Gods free-man Rom. 6.18 before he begat any children nor doth the sinful corruption of our parents pass to us more then the graces and virtues of those that are or were righteous for both these are spiritual things which nature cannot convey but he seeks to prove what he saith by some Scriptures long since worn thred-bare by allegation to that effect Joh. 3.5 Rom. 5.12 20 21. 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. Ephes 2.3 Iob 4.4 Psal 51.5 Isai 48.8 Gen. 8.21 To all which we will give answer in the order set down with what brevity we can having answered the same at large in our Examen As for that Ioh. 3.5 Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh it is true of the wisedome of the flesh and of the righteousnesse of the flesh as well as of the open sin but Christ speaks not here of the naturall birth of men but of a spiritual be it true or false As for Rom. 5.12 13 20. the Apostle speaks there thus Therefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death went over all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as all have sinned for so Chrysostome and Erasmus and others read those words for untill the Law sin was in the world but where there is no Law sin is not imputed or reputed for sin Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that is to come But not as the offence so is the free gift for the judgment was of one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification for if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of Righteousnesse shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life for as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Unto which long Text we give this short answer First that it is a parallel and opposition betwixt Adams mischief and Christs remedy and cure but few in these days of supposed rather then true light understand either the one or the other aright for besides the first Adam or man whom the Vindicator with many more for want of a true Judicator here understands there are foure Adams mentioned both in the Scriptures and other writers The first is our natural or earthly man which is the creature of this world of whom our Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15 41. The first man is of the earth earthly The second is
an inward portraiture of righteousnesse a glimpse of the heavenly man yet earthy naturall and mutable which we all beare at the first and so are said to have born the image of the earthly 1 Cor. 15.49 This is opposed verse the 14 of this 5 chapter of the Rom. to Moses another inward state or work of the Law discovering the deadlinesse of sin unto us with lightnings thunderings and terrors Heb. 12.18 19. The third Adam is the old man of sin The fourth is the last Adam the Lord from Heaven who is not as the first was with his weak image of Righteousnesse a living soul but a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 It 's the first then of those soure the Adam of our earthly or naturall man who yet with the help of the second is the image of him that is yet to come to the beleevers to wit the Lord from heaven in whom we first sin and die by our personal fall according to 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adam all die which doe die so in Christ shall all be made alive who are quickned for we proved before that no man did or could dye by the first Adams sin both by the Law and Gods oath thereagainst As for the first 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. we have shewn that it makes for us and not against us As for Ephes 2.3 Paul there confesseth that since his fall he and the fallen Jews as well as others were not children of God by love patience and meeknesse as in their first creation but children by the nature of the wrath for so the words run in the Greek and consequently the children of the prince of the power of the air as well as others according to Rom. 3.22 23. Unto the words of Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean We say that since the mans personal fall and corruption he can neither by his own strength cleanse himselfe nor bring forth any righteousnesse or holinesse that is in it selfe clean or pure Unto Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me or warm me we answer that David speaks here of his own first personal fall and disobedience or his first conception and forming not in his natural mothers belly but in the womb of sin accordingly as it is said of Eve who was at the first created after the similitude of God that when she fell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tim. 2.14 But the woman being deceived was begotten in the transgression Thus the Jews speak to the blind man Joh. 9.3 4. Thou wastaltogether born insin and dost thou teach us And David himselfe complaineth of some noted wicked ones the wicked are strangers from the womb they goe astray as soon as they be born they speak lies Psal 58.3 4 5. If he had spoken of their natural birth he could not truly have said that they had either gone astray or spoken lies as soon as they were born This mother that conceived David in sin was his consent to the first Temptation Jam. 1.15 Lust when it hath conceived c. Unto Esay 48.8 I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously and wast called a transgressor from the womb I say that men could not from the natural womb deal treacherously and therefore it is a spiritual womb of which the Lord speaketh here And Hosea 9.11 As for Ephrains their glory shall flee away like a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception to wit in the sin or in the false righteousness Finally unto Gen. 8.21 For the imaginations of mans heart are evil from his youth I say that is true for before that time men usually lose their innocency and corrupt themselves But what is that to innate corruption And whereas he brings in Augustine saying in uno vniversi It is granted while we were in Adams loines we were all one and so we are still in the natural Adam at the first birth earthly but innocent and in the old Adam of sin all one when we are fallen and depraved that is are corrupt and sinful but are not all such in the same measure and degree But his following positions are these page 4. That we were all in the first Adam legally No but seminally onely That there was a stipulation and Covenant between God and Adam for all mankind That we were all parties with him to any such Covenant That we were liable to the curse that belongeth to the breach of that Covenant All which are the meer figments of mans brain That we had interest in the mercy promised in that pretended Covenant Of all which there is no footstep to be found in the word That being in him naturally we were unavoidably subject to all the bondage and burthen which he or the humane nature then contracted Not so unless it were some temporal calamity with which God might justly plague his posterity for his fall and sins Yet he goes on in page 4. to prove that we are guilty of the first Adam's sin but by false principles or with true principles misapplied as followeth That every thing which is born carrieth with it the nature of that which did bear it as touching the substance and accidents proper to the special kind This is a truth and therefore the soul which is born and breathed from God must needs be pure and the natural earthly man must needs be good in his kind as all other natural living creatures are that which is born of the Spirit in a way of regeneration is Spirit but what is born of the Flesh is still Flesh as this mans Wisdome and Doctrine is of which birth Christ speaks John 3.6 as before That we being all born of corrupt and guilty parents do in our birth by nature draw their corruption and guilt Which is false for guilt and corruption are not natural but spiritual and adventitious things as is aforesaid That by the death of Christ who is the second Adam howbeit not as he was man but as he is a quickning Spirit and the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15.45 47. we receive a double grace of Justification and Regeneration Wherein are two false grounds layed down First that justification and regeneration are two distinct things which St. Paul makes but one and the self same thing Titus 3.4 5 6 7. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heires according to the hope of eternal life And 1 Cor. 6.11 And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God The second false ground is that we
receive those two gifts of justification and regeneration by the death of Christ for though remission of sins is purchased thereby for the true beleevers yet that is neither regeneration nor justification in the Apostles sense nor is justification purchased thereby for he that made us had power to regenerate without any such purchase That therefore it follows that out of the first Adam to wit our first parent there issued a double evil unto and upon us to wit guilt and corruption we deny as false and inconsequent That in this derivative the sin which he speaks of is an universal corruption is false likewise in which are two great evils as he saith Sed sublato sub ecto tollitur ad unctum Pag. 5. That in it first there is a general defect of all righteousnesse in which we were at first created to wit in our first patents First it is manifestly false as also that any such defect is derived unto us who are still created righteous and holy and after the image of God as these ensuing Texts doe clearely prove besides many more that might be added Gen. 9.6 Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God created he man to wit him that is so killed or else the argument is of no force Jam. 3.9 Therewith to wit with the tongue bless we God and therewith curse we man who is created after the similitude of God Ecclesiast 7.29 Lo this have I found that God made man righteous but they have sought out many inventions Jer. 2.21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a wild vine unto me That this pretended derivative sin to be so conveyed from the first Adam to us is an inherent deordination evil disposition disease propension to all mischief and antipathy and aversation to all good which the Scripture calls the flesh the wisdome of the flesh the body of sin earthly members the works of the Devil the Hell that sets the whole course of nature on fire Jam. 3.5 6. Rom. 8.6 7. Jam. 3.15 Eph. 4.22 Col. 3.5 Rom. 7.23 1 John 3.8 Unto which I say that although all those names are justly given to the body of sin especially when it is fully formed in men with all his members yet first there is no such thing found in children of whom our Saviour saith that the Kingdome of Heaven is of such and that unlesse we be born again after our fall and corruption and become like them in humility righteousnesse love and meeknesse we cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Matth. 18.3 Mar. 10.14 15. Doth not Paul also give us this charge 1 Cor. 14.20 Brethren be ye not children in understanding howbeit in malice or naughtiness be children where he implyeth that children have no malice or naughtinesse in them and if sin be the workmanship of the Devil as he out of 1 John 3.8 confesseth I would demand whether the Devil had an hand in the creation of children which he must if this sin be his workmanship But that which follows there that no man can be more sensible of the through-malignity of this derivative corruption then Paul was when he cryed out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Is first the old mistake and afterwards backed with this errour and peice of nonsense untill his understanding was opened to conceive the spiritualness penetration and compass of the holy Law which measures the very bottome of every action for Paul could not be so sensible of his sins malignity till his understanding was so opened nor till he had been scourged also for it by the work of the Law as all men are whom God brings to be and maketh his sons Psal 94.12 Heb. 12. That the Law condemns as well the original as the Acts of sin is true of prohibition but not of condemnation for each sinful motion is by the Law discovered and prohibited but we are not condemned for the same till we approve or like of the temptation in some measure Those ensuing positions are also false First that Paul Rom. 5.14 understands by Adam and Moses our first parent and him that was the Lawgiver but two distinct estates in men as was said before which may appear out of the foregoing verse compared with this For untill the Law sin was in the world that is before the inward Moses Lawgiver or reprover cometh unto men but where there is no Law sin is not reputed for sin for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be rendred Secondly because he saith that death reigned from Adum which is the natural man in his first defection till Moses or one that draweth out of the water of sin That the men who sinned between the first Adam's age and the time of Moses did not sin after the similitude of Adams transgression against the clear revelation of Gods holy will as Adam did Yet they did for the same God that did forbid the eating of the forbidden fruit doth ever since prohibit and forbid every sin in every mans soul that is against the moral Law Rom. 2.15 Which shews the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences bearing them witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Was not Enoch a Prophet in his time see Jude 1.14 and was not Noah the eight preacher of righteousness as the Apostle calls him 2 Pet. 2.5 were not the men of the old World destroyed for their known wickedness and shut into the infernal prison for their apparent disobedience 1 Pet. 3.19 20. so that the Vindicators misapprehension of this place of mens sinning for want of such light as Adam had is full of darkness As for those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses and who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression we say that as Adam and Moses are two inward states so may these be inward spiritual messengers of God represented by Abel and others as well as the inward Adam and Moses of which he speaks for such a generation of righteous ones which never sinned we find slain by the wicked and incorrigible generation of men Mat. 23.35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of the righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah for though men usually in reading this and other Scriptures look no further then the letter yet I demand of them how in justice could all the righteous blood shed from the beginning come upon that wicked and unbeleeving generation of the Jews if they had not inwardly slain a spiritual Abel and other messengers of God even to a spiritual Zachariah that is the Lord remembrancer the son of Barachiah that is of the Lords benediction as all his inward messengers are yea it is true which Abraham answered to
the rich man being in hell I say it is true of all men that they have Moses and the Prophets inwardly whom they ought to hear Luk. 16.29 30 31. To which adde that which is written Rev. 6.9 10. And when he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cryed with a loud voice saying how long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwel on the earth And white robes were given to every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest for a season untill their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled Concerning which we may observe that they were no outward Prophets and Apostles for such cry not for vengeance but pray for their persecutors as Stephen did and therefore they must needs be inward and spiritual messengers of God who cry for vengeance against the earthly sins and lusts of men by whose means they had been killed Qui capere possit capiat Give me leave here to observe two things more upon Rom. 5.14 First that those persons are said here not to sin in Adams fall but rather if they had sinned that it was after the similitude of Adams transgression where the Apostle had fair occasion to speak of our guilt and fall through that sin if he had known any such thing Secondly that Christ is yet to come even to the beleevers namely Christ as he is the second Adam and the Lord from Heaven so Heb. 10.36 37. Jam. 4.21 22. 1 Pet. 1.13 1 Joh. 3.1 2 3. First he saith but untruly pag. 6. that the sin of Adam and the lust which he contracted did reign over all men from the first Adam to that Moses the Lawgiver so he means Secondly that not onely all men but every part of man is shut up under the guilt of that first Adam's sin what infants Christ and all Thirdly that the Apostle proves this at large Rom. 3.9 19 23. But what are those words to this purpose which he produceth there to wit what then are we better then they no in no wise for we have proved before that both Jewes and Gentiles are all under sin But I say first that the Apostle here doth not go about to prove that the infants of either are so Secondly that this is not corruption descended from our first parents fall but contracted by our own fall and disobedience But he goeth on with the Apostles words ver 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith it to them that are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God vers 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and Rom. 11.32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all But doth the Law speak any such thing to or of infants No we have shewed the contrary out of Genesis 9.6 Eccles 7.29 Jer. 2.21 Mar. 10.14 1 Cor. 14.20 Jam. 3.9 before quoted to which adde Matth. 13.24 25. and the parable of the Talents Matth. 25. and that of the lost groat or peece of silver and that of the prodigal Son who had a portion to spend which he afterwards wasted as the said woman also had a peice of silver before she lost it Luk. 15. All which prove that by creation still we have a talent a measure and a portion of innocency and righteousness born with us After the universality of persons he goeth about to prove that sin defileth all the parts of man which is true when men open a free passage and entrance unto the Devil which all men do not But the Scriptures which he cites as Gen. 6.5 and 8.21 Rom. 3.13 14 15 16 17. do not fully prove it as he saith they do but none of those defects and defilements which he enumerates there and in the seventh page were drawn down from the first Adam to us That the whole frame of a mans heart is evil continually and pag. 7. he saith that our sin cleaves as close to our nature as blackness to the skin of an Ethiopian which cannot possibly be washed off Then Gods promises made Ezek. 36.26 and elsewhere that he will pour clean water upon us and cleanse us from all our filthiness and abominations are to no purpose and Christs design Ephes 5.25 26 27. is frustrated That it is an evil ever present with us Indeed the Apostle saith Rom. 7.21 of himself and others that were then or had been babes in Christ that when I would do good evil is present with me that is too usually but not alwayes for at length he knew nothing by himself 1 Cor. 4.4 and the Devil is at length cast out quite by those that wanre aright Rev. 12.10 yea he is ofttime made to flee away in the mean time Jam. 4.7 resist the Devil and he will flee from you But he goeth on and saith pag. 8. That it will be ever present with us to derive a deadness a damp a dulness and an indisposedness upon all our services How then is Gods oath made good who sware unto Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear cheerfully in holiness and righteousness all the dâ— yes of our lives Luk. 7.73 74 75. or that fulfilled Prov. 4.12 When thou goest thy steps shall not be straitned and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble See the contrary Psal 119.14 16.24 47. That this sin casts such iniquity upon our holiest things or duties that we stand in need of a priest to bear and expiate the same for us because it is said Exod. 28.38 that Aaron should bear the iniquity of the holy things which Israel should offer to the Lord. Which Scripture is perverted by him and others who understand it not for the gifts of their hallowed things which Israel offered unto the Lord were to be perfect and complete in themselves Lev. 22.21 22 23. if these were any way defective the priest was not to receive them nor offer them But that Aaron might offer those in an holy manner also after Gods prescript he was to wear upon his Mitre a Golden plate with this Inscription for a remembrancer Holiness to the Lord or else if he failed not they but he was to bear the iniquity of their holy or hallowed things How doth this Text then serve his turn to that end for which he cites it That this Sin derives venome upon every action that cometh from us Why doth the Apostle Paul then charge Timothy thus 1 Tim. 6.13 14. I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickneth all things and before Christ Jesus that thou keep this commandement without spot unrebukable till the coming of our
Divines as it s reported told the said Synod that they were not sent to debate that rigid and horrid question of absolute reprobation but that well-pleasing question of absolute love and election of God to some who be from all eternity elected though from the demonstration of this any of ordinary capacity might easily conclude what they must needs think concerning reprobates and their reprobation We say again if Synods are called and convened as aforesaid we cannot expect Gods blessing upon their endeavours how specious soever their meeting seemeth to be For all such as God will blesse to such a work must be unbiassed and holy men of God besides their acquired learning for only such will say if allured or threatned by higher powers as the Apostles did to the rulers Act. 4.19 whether we should obey God or you judge ye 12. Querie Whether it be a sinne to pray for grace and help from Christ to live here without sinne and in perfect obedience to all and every one of Gods commandements which consist in our operative love to God and man Matth. 22.37 to 41. The reason because the doctrine of perfection is deemed an innovation and heresie and to pray therefore for such a thing must be evill 13. Qu. Whether if we ought to pray as aforesaid it be a sinne in any of the Saints to believe and expect that God will give grace and help by Christ unto such praying Saints to live without sinne and transgression to his laws in this life as aforesaid 14. Qu. Whether it can be demonstrated clearly out of Scriptures for it s often affirmed to be so that what Adam received of God for himself he received as a common root and by vertue of a covenant of God with Adam relating thereunto for all mankind and what he lost in himself by his personal sinne he lost likewise for all his posterity and they must for ever lose the same without they repent of Adam's sinne and saved by an absolute decree of election Our reasons of this Querie are these First because it will then follow that if Adam had stood in his integrity as he might have done untill he had had a child of thirty years of age which might have lived a most holy life as Enoch did on earth yet upon Adam's fall or transgression afterward his said child or children must have lost all and been inwardly defiled with Adam's sinne and under the condemnation for it though untill that very time they had lived most innocently in personal obedience to all Gods lawes for many say without book because God did as they say so covenant with Adam that what he lost by transgression he and his posterity should lose ipso facto the same and his posterity be as truly defiled with his sinne as himself Secondly because if it be so as aforesaid then in case Adam had stood and persevered in obedience to his lives end as he might have done for it is said James 1.13 14. God tempts no man to sin but that every man is drawn aside of his own concupiscence then though his posterity yea hitherto had broken Gods righteous laws yet the just God must not have been angry with them nor punished them as sinners because Adam himself did not sinne in whom the Lord as they say made such a covenant as aforesaid and therefore what he received and did not forfeit by his own transgression they must likewise receive and must not lose by vertue of the said covenant with Adam notwithstanding their personal frequent rebellious and disobedience Orighteous God cause us to see and consider what dangerous sequels may be inferred directly opposite to thy justice and mercy from such a fictitious covenant as is pretended by many Divines that God made with Adam for himself and all his posterity 15. Querie What dishonour and wrong is offered to Gods justice and mercy or to any attribute of God by unbelieving and disowning the old tradition of original sinne from the first personal Adam Let the more zealous then considerate defenders of it produce the clear Scriptures to prove that our denial of it doth wrong Gods justice and mercy that so he may be justified in his saying and pure when he judgeth according to the said tradition 16. Querie What cause have parents to quarrel or grieve that they hear their children be born innocent and fit members for the kingdome of heaven Matth. 19.14 15. Matth. 18.3 let them produce Scripture plainly to prove that its more for Gods honour to ordain them to come into the world as firebrands of hell the reason is because St. James telleth us ' mercy rejoyceth over judgment and the Psalmist saith Psal 14.59 that ' Gods tender mercies are over all his workes which in the foresaid case of being under wrath for Adam's sinne cannot be rightly attested and declared and Is 57.16 ' the Lord maketh the souls and also the Lord restored Adam into his favour from his guilt c. before he had any children therefore if Adam's posterity were under the condemnation for his sinne the mercies of God are much obscured towards the posterity of Adam 17. Querie What honour and excellency is taken from Christs merits and saving grace by declaring that our justification or making righteous is from Christ within us Col. 1.27 not without us and from his saving grace communicated to us in our obedience to his laws The reason of this Qu. is because there is so much pleading that our justification is by Christs imputative righteousness residing in himself and not communicated to us but putatively onely and so our pollution may remain still if we be justified in Christ by the said external imputation of his righteousness onely for there is no inward cleansing by that means communicated unto us And peradventure the observing of the common transgressions committed by most men yea professors of religion like those Tit. 1.16 very frequently first brought in the imbelief because men ' resist not striving unto blood against sinne Heb. 12.4 that all our sinnes cannot be purged away in this life we say the observing and believing as aforesaid brought in without doubt the perswasion of a justification by Christs righteousness imputed onely to us and not by inherent righteousness within us that we might have quiet consciences notwithstanding our iniquities 〈◊〉 us in our faces by dreaming we are justified by 〈◊〉 imputative righteousness without us and not wrought in us through our obedience by the help of his grace and holy Spirit 18. Qu. Whether these who cry out against others for heresies and blasphemous opinions ought not to be sure before that they are so lest it be retorted on them as Paul did against his contenders Act. 24.14 by the way that ' you call heresie so worship we the Lord our God and especially to be careful they are sree themselves from all heresie for Turpe est doctori cùm culpa redarguit ipsum 19. Qu. Whether the Lord
A REVINDICATION Set forth by William Parker In the behalfe of Dr. Drayton deceased and himself Of the Possibility of a Total mortification of Sin in this life And Of the Saints perfect obedience to the Law of God To be the Orthodox Protestant Doctrine and no Innovations as they are falsly charged to be of Dr. DRAYTON and W. PARKER In an ILLOGICALL VINDICATION Wherein the necessity of sins remaining in the best Saints as long as they live and the impossibility of perfect obedience to the Law of God is ignorantly and perversly avouched to to be the Orthodox Protestant Doctrine by one who subscribeth his name JOHN TENDRING The Anagram whereof is ' GINNE TO HINDER What! ' Ginne to hinder doctrines so divine Which teach in heavenly purity the Trine Would have the man to live without the sin The blessed state he was created in Under pretence of innovations late Taught by truths Lovers whom your soul doth hate Witness your tongue in flamed with hels fire Calling us Jesuits acting for Romes hire What! must Jehovah nil he will he dwel With sin while Saints retain their earthly cell What! did not Abraham drive the sowles away Gen. 15.11 Which came upon the Sacrifice to prey Was he compell'd to let them there abide No thence he forc'd them ere the evening-tide And must best Saints keep sin that soul disease Without their will till death bring their release Fie John Tendering this Vindication You settle sin Gods abomination I' th soul foretold of desolation Matth. 24.15 Which we remove but you cry out and say We teach to hell The clean contrary way London Printed by W.G. and are to be sold with the Examen to the late Synods Confession of Faith by Nathaniel Brook at the sign of the Angel in Cornhill and John Orme in Pellican-Court in Little Britain M.DC.LVIII The Vindicator before he entreth upon the prosecution of his sinful business in plain terms doth present a Preface to his beloved friends in Scripture-phrase like to a Pharisaical Saint with a specious salutation in the front of it A true Paraphrase of both which as they must intend in reference to his Position we shall offer the impartial and intelligent Reader in manner and form following TO all Lovers of Gods truth which I call Gods truth namely to live in sin and disobedience as long as we precious Saints live in houses of clay grace I wish to you yea so much grace as to be content to live in sin and disobedience to Gods law without hearkening to our enemies contrary doctrines and also peace I wish you even as much peace as you can expect by living all your life long in sinne for there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Isa 57.21 through Jesus Christ Who is no minister nor allower of sin but a faithful redeemer of his eminent Saints from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 The Vindicators first paragraph of his Preface beginneth thus Beloved friends for so I may call you who stick as close to my sinful cause as my skin doth to my sinful flesh These are the times foretold wherein there shall be a falling away from our sinful positions and defection from the faith of our sinful doctrine hereafter to be named as a forerunner of the great and terrible day to the man of sinne 2 Thes 2.8 and of the losse of our credit with all sober and wise people for our maintaining that sin will remain in the best of Saints as long as they live in houses of the clay that Adam our first parent was made out of There are many false prophets that is to us and our sinful cause whose study and labour is to undeceive poor souls though I say to deceive them if it were possible the very elect and choice ones who yet fight and contend for sin to remain in the best Saints as long as they live that so they may not be esteemed for better Saints then our selves are who live as it is well known to our neighbours we do I call them men confident in an arm of flesh Goliah-like to terrifie our weak ones who know not the depths of Satan Rev. 2.24 from hearkning to them because to say so it maketh a great noise in the eares of our friends by reason that Jeremiah saith cap. 17.5 Cursed be he that maketh flesh his arm though the truth is we our selves are the men confident in an arm of flesh because that sin is called flesh Gal. 5.19 20 21. and therefore to be confident for sins remaining in the best of Saints untill death is to be confident in the arm of flesh Goliah-like which signifieth as one saith fleeting away as indeed we are like to be for they defie the whole Israel of God that is all the prevailers of the God of this world who blindeth the mindes of unbelievers 2 Cor. 4.4 to make them the more hardy in a sinful cause as who more bold then blind bayard And Goliah-like we are like to be when little David the lovely servant of God with some pebble-stones 1 Sam. 17.4 out of the stony law Deut. 4.13 doth hit the champion in the fore noddle and throw him down to the earth from whence he came Rev. 3.11 But as long as I can stand to it I shall not as I tell you in my next paragraph be daunted by the foresaid Prophets who oppose our falshood however I am esteemed among them so that you my friends hug me and love me for ingaging in this sinful quarrel to maintain that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live I tell them in the said paragraph that applause I mean from them shall not swell us for we are not like to have much from them and their dispraise shall not deject us so that you my beloved friends continue to applaud us but if you do not we shall be dead in the nest I tell them their greatnesse shall not affright us because they are but yet few for we are as yet the greatest in number of what rank soever and my hopes are we shall continue so if I can but cunningly abuse them with swelling word of vanity as you see I do my utmost in this my Preface to keep them unto us which I doubt I shall not long do but untill they lay bare the nakednesse of my Vindication Yet as I tell you in my next paragraph I am resolved when the glory of the God of this world lyeth at the stake as it did when the Goddesse Diana Act. 19.26 27. was preached against and her crafts-men were like to lose all their gain because her magn ficence was neer pulling down And therefore beloved friends being such a people as we are we must not when such Prophets do so openly endeavour to undeceive our choice ones that they may live no longer in a perswasion that they must sinne while they live here we must not I say stand by with a guilty silence as if we were
the true Church of Christ rending it with divisions and contentions for the sins cause to maintain that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live And thus rending the true Church by maintaining such division Joh. Tendring doth verifie another Anagram of his name Hot in rending Some men are fervent that no sin remain Some are more hot its being to maintain Those with tongue John Tendring's hot in rending These for his Saints hotter in defending You see his name suites with his Anagram Hence sins abetter he may say I am Hence sinners Champion you may call his name To plead for sin hence John doth take no shame Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes Prov. 26.15 A Confutation of the two subsequent Positions 1. That sinne will remain in the best Saints as long as they live in houses of clay 2. That it is impossible for the best Saints to obey the Law of God perfectly in this life HAving paraphrased the Vindicators preface and demonstrated the same paraphrase to be apt and genuine in a Relative sense to the Vindicators positions we come next to speake of the said positions laid down in the Pamphlet it selfe which is so full of digressions and perverted Texts of Scripture of Tautologies contradictions nonsense and other absurdities besides the error and impiety of his propositions that we doubted not but in a short time quin mole sua rueret but that it would ruinate it selfe Yet lest the Princock by our silence should grow proud of his borrowed feathers and others either be misled or confirmed in their error by what he hath written we thought good to put forth this short answer wherein we follow him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to discover his errors howbeit the Reader must not expect the formall word Answer in our replies to this vindication for this we usually doe either by the adversitive word but or the interposition of a pasenthesis a connter-question or limitation in the close or some such like opposition and qualification to correct what he saith which when we have done in an anasceuastical and confutatory way we will cataâ—scustically establish what we have undertaken to maintain But first let us take a view of the positions themselves the first of which is this as he hath stared it That sin will have a being in the best of men so long as their souls have a being in the houses of clay Whence these absurdities will follow First that sin comes originally from Jehovah in that it is said to have a being for nothing is said to have a being of essence or existence but what first comes from the Being of beings Jehovah himselfe Secondly he here makes sin to be a supreme if not an almighty commander in that he saith sin will have such a being Thirdly herein he makes little difference between grown men and babes in Christ for sin saith he will have a being in the best of them till death Fourthly he doth not here exempt Christ himselfe as he was man Fifthly he makes our bodies or houses of clay to be the proper domicil and seat of sin and then neither Adam in his innocency nor Christ as man were free from sin for both dwelt originally in houses of clay The second position is this That no man can by grace in this life perform such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same or to be thereby justified otherwise then by Christ of Orace given From whence you may observe these things likewise First that this man whose name Iohn imports the grace of God is called so per Antiphrasin for he is an enemy to and with Herod an imprisoner of the grace of God Secondly he questions not what men do de facto but what men can do in this life with the utmost helpe of grace Thirdly he makes the Law simply unlawfull because it is impossible as he saith to observe it both to nature and grace Fourthly he doth not here reserve a place of possibility for Christ himselfe as man to fulfill it Fifthly it appears here that the Vindex is a great lover of forbidden fruit for whereas Doctor Drayton told him at the first that he would not in this controversie have any thing to do with the worke of justification this man will needs bring in that by hook or by crook Sixthly that he is yet caught in the same snare which he laid for another for he tacitly saith that we cannot be justified by such a perfect obedience to the Law of God otherwise then by Christ of grace given and so say we yea if he grants us this he yields the other question also for he that can be justified by such a fulfilling of the Law through the grace of Christ hath no sin unsubdued left in him And if he runs into so many absurdities as he lancheth forth what will he doe when he comes into the maine His first and grand impertinency is this that he spends the first ten pages in a Common-place about sin wherein he is so intangled that he can scarcely find the way out again of which take this short account Pag. 1. He tells us that to the intent his ensuing discourse may be proper profitable for the informing of the weak establishing them in the faith of the truth which next after the glory of God which is not much glorified by our continuance in sin which is that he pleads for and the advancement of the truth which he directly here represseth is the onely thing here by him intended he shal observe this method there following But ere we come to that what difference is there betwixt the establishment of men in the faith of the truth the advancement of the truth which he makes two distinct things But what is his intended method First saith he I shall define what sin is in the generall which he may the better doe because of his long acquaintance with it which by his calculation of his age was twenty foure yeares before his Mother bare him and perhaps some years before her birth also Secondly he will shew what the first sin was Thirdly what were the causes of it Fourthly the effects of it Thus he loves still to ramble about from his right station And lastly what original sin is But what difference is there between the first sin and original sin which here he makes two things He tells us here also that the Hebrew word translated sin signifies properly misdoing or missing of the marke as if the Hebrews had not many words to denote sin though he can name none of them This learned Linguist tels us page 26. that the Apostle doth usually distinguish betwixt peccatum and crimen as if the Apostles writ unto the Churches in Latine Pag. 66. he shews also what a Logician he is making the efficient and formall causes of justification to be passive as well as active And
Lord Jesus Christ So was also Peters charge to all the Saints 2 Pet. 3.14 Wherefore beloved seing ye looke for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless That in our best works done by the contribution and concurrence of our own faculties such a perverseness doth adhere and such stubborness of ours is superinduced that God may justly charge us for defiling his grace But this is most absurdly spoken for his grace cannot be defiled and as for the evil which we mixe with them if it may turn away his eyes from his own gifts in us why doth the Lord say then Psal 32.2 that there are some in whose spirit is no guile and Psal 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way and Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in the heart if no such people can be found That our lust is the father of sin and the Adulterer for temptation is the father and our desire delight and consent is the mother That we may see this sin in our children before they have hair or tooth shewing it self to wit vanity pride frowardness self-love and revenge and the like for which he voucheth the words of Augustine saying I have seen a sucking infant that was not able to articulate a word look with a countenance pale with envy upon his fellow-suckling that shared with him in the same milk But what will he say to those children that are born with hair and teeth as some have been in our age or what vanity or pride hath he seen in children where the child of a Prince will consort with the brat of a beggar of his own age or what frowardness which sickness or pain hath not caused or what self-love and anger but what is planted by God in every living animal Wherefore Augustine's reason is truly childish and contrary to the Apostles words but in maliciousness or naughtiness be ye children 1 Cor. 14.20 There and pag. 9. he brings in Augustine crying out Ubi Domine quando Domine wherever was the place O Lord when ever was the time O Lord that I have been an innocent creature To this I answer when he was first created Eccles 7.29 Lo this have I found that God made man righteous before he went to be baptized Quid festinat innocens aetas ad peccatorum remissionem saith Tertullian lib. de bapt and before the Devil even by the Law and word of God abused him and led him into errour and had made him wise in his own eyes and holy or righteous with his own chosen wayes as Paul speaks of himself in the like case Rom. 7.9 For I was alive without the Law once but when the commandement came sin lived and I dyed How came that to pass vers 11. for sin taking occasion by the commandement deceived me that is made me self-wise self-holy self-righteous and by it slew me Doth not Augustine himself as well as others call those infants whom Herod slew about Bethlehem Innocents lib. 3. de lib. arbit Further he saith pag. 19. That this sin breaks forth unexpectedly witness Hazael 2 Kin. 8.13 But what is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing But was this original sin that thus breaks out surely then he might have discovered in himself some inclinations thereunto long before and then he needed not so much to have wondred at it now May not proud and wicked and obstinate men be given up to heinous and inhumane sins brought upon them by Satans temptations into whose hands they are delivered for their former rebellions and incorrigibleness See Rom. 1.28 29 30. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge so God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murder debate He saith also Witness Peter Matth. 26.33 35. Why what did Peter but discover a great deal of good will to Christ when he had as yet attained very little power to withstand so great a temptation as did lie in the fear of death or some other great damage yet both he and all his Fellow-Apostles were then alwayes ignorant and weak But he goes on and saith Who would have expected or feared Adultery from such a man as David after so much communion with God or impatience from Jeremiah after such revelations from God or Idolatrie from Solomon after so much wisdome from God or fretfulness or frowardness of spirit from Jonah after such deliverance from God or fearfulness in Abraham after so much protection from God or cursing from Job after so much patience and experience from God yea by the Vindicators doctrine we might have expected all these and all other sins from any of these because he saith that every man by original sin derived from Adam and which is not wholly to be subdued in this life hath the seeds of all sins in him But what if they had been as innocent as Adam before his fall might they not have been tempted as he was and overcome likewise for want of close depending upon God yet behold how this Champion of corruption to maintain his false doctrine doth falsly and reproachfully charge some of the most eminent Saints with sin where the Lord himself doth not for Job and Jeremy might and did curse their nativity in sin and not their first birth as some of the best Expositors speak and that without sin yea with a great deal of piety towards God Nor are the Prophets charged with impatience by the Lord himself but commended as a pattern of patience to us Jam. 5.10 and Abrahams concealing of his wife if he failed therein which may justly be questioned it is not so bad as to leave his wife and child twelve or thirteen years together nor did he use lying or speaking of falshood to help himself as this false son of Abraham doth Howbeit he concludes with a good prayer wishing that we may all learn to know our selves to which we say Amen But whereas each of the eleven Apostles said Master is it I this clearly proves not that they suspected themselves as he would have it but that they were not conscious to themselves of any such wicked intention or inclination Therefore his paraphrase here is rather humanum commentum then a comment upon that Text nor do all these instances prove any thing but that men are liable at leastwise for a time to all manner of temptations and that some in their infancy of grace may through humane infirmity be overcome by that temptation which when they grow strong in Christ they can easily by his grace and help overcome afterwards as Peter did his fear of death for Christs cause when he suffered martyrdome for him but this proves not that we must be alwayes babes and like reeds shaken with every wind of temptation yet should our former weakness and falings teach us
and sins In pursuit of this said digression he brings two arguments out of Augustine to prove that Zachary of whom he speaks chap. 1.6 did not perfectly walk in all the commandements of God The first is this because he was a Priest and was bound as well to offer for his own sins as for the sins of his people Heb. 3.5 Yet this he might do for his former sins though he were now perfect for the present so that this argument holds nor But the second which he hath page 26. of the new account is more childish then the former That because he is said to walk in the commandements he had not yet attained to the mark for they that are at their journies end sit still But it is not so in the kingdome of God for though they rest from their labours that is from their conflict against sin and Satan yet they walk in the perfection of Gods commandements for ever and if he fancied any other eternal life to himself then the fulness of love and righteousness required by the Law he was mistaken in the mark at which all true Saints aim Psal 133.3 For there he commanded the blessing and life for evermore Ephes 1.4 As he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love See Psal 24.4 5. Gal. 15.5 2 Tim. 4.8 before cited To which he adds a third argument of his own Because he was smitten with dumbness for not believing the Angels promise But as there is no moral precept for that so it infringeth not what Luke hath said of him chap. 1.6 where he tells us as before that the Apostle doth constantly distinguish between peccatum and crimen betwixt sin and crime that is saith he some grievous offence which giveth slander and is worthy of crimination Is not all sin then worthy of crimination But he voucheth Augustine saying That the life of holy men may be said to be without crime yet he thought otherwise who said nemo sine crimtne vivit but not without sin Which is true of a mans whole race or course that it is and hath been sinfull but not of the Saints last and best attainments or possibilities through grace as we shall afterwards shew out of Augustines own confession who is here again brought in saying Men live well if they live without crime But they live better when by grace they live without sin But that is egregiously false which follows that he who thinks he can to wit by the help of Christ live without sin he doth not thereby make himself free from sin Yes if he do not he may do it in time but debars himself of the pardon of his sins But Saint John speaks otherwise 1 John 1.7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Is not the forsaking of sin for the present the high way to pardon for our sins past See Prov. 28.13 Ezek. 18.21 22. But after that former digression he returneth again to his distinctions about perfection and righteousness wherein there is little of right and less of perfection to be found for first he saith out of his own cerebel that there is a two-fold perfection or righteousness the first imputed which is by way of relation and doth perfectly justifie us before God for which you must take his word for he brings no proofe to make it good the second is infused by way of inhesion subjectively in us and this saith he is but inchoate and imperfect and cannot justifie us before God But we have proved before out of Titus 3.4 5 6 7. 1 Cor. 6.11 that justification and sanctification are all one thing and therefore if the righteousness of sanctification be onely inchoated and not perfected in this life then we cannot be fully justified before God for there is no other righteousness to be attained for our justification then that hence it is Rom. 8.30 nothing interveneth between our calling and glorification but justification by which sanctification as being all one thing is to be understood Moreover those whom he foreknew those he called and whom he called those he justified and those he justified them he also glorified Then secondly he brings a distinction of extrinsecal and intrinsecal righteousness out of Zanchie of which the extrinsecal saith he is the adventitious he might have said the fictitious is the perfection of condonation where our imperfections are truly pardoned for the death and passion of Jesus Christ according to that of Augustine All the commandements are reputed as done when that is remitted which is left undone But where had the Bishop of Hippo this Hippomanes for the holy Ghost saith transmutatis terminis the clean contrary that when the cammandements are kept and fulfilled for the present then all that was amiss before becomes pardoned Ezek. 18.21 22 23. If the wicked will return from all his sins which he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live and not die all his transgressions which he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in the righteousness of that he hath done he shall live Doth not Christ require an actual keeping and performance of the commandements of every one that will enter into life Matth. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but the keeping of the commandements of God Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his commandements that they may have right to the tree of life as before And this righteousness saith he rather consisteth in the pardon of sins then in the perfection of vertue But where is the pardon of sins called righteousness for though the Apostle Rom. 4.6 7 8. speaks of a blessedness that lieth not in the imputing of sin and the imputing of righteousness without works yet that not imputing of sin is the purging away sin by Gods Spirit as is evident out of Psal 32.2 3. which place should be thus rendred O the blessedness of the man whose transgressions are taken away and whose sins are covered to wit by mortification O the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity by letting it remain unpurged away and in whose Spirit there is no guile For the last words of the Text do evince that David speaks here of sanctification as knowing no other justification and the imputing of righteousness without works that is our own works is the free bestowing of the righteousnesse of sanctification and the perfection of vertue which the vertuous Vindicator here sets aside The intrinsecal perfection or righteousness which he speaks of out of Zanchy is saith he the perfection of
sin must be left behind and so his first position is overthrown likewise And here is another of his contradictions yea a twin or a double one But to this his advice he joyns his new Letany to which we fay Amen And from blind Jesuiticall guides with their false pretended new lights in a dark Lanthorn their feignedlies pretended revelations but delusions Good Lord deliver us But who pretends to new lights or insists upon extraordinary revelations or who hath a darker lanthorn then himselfe or what Jesuit useth the trade of lying so often as he doth in which conflict it s now known he himself would carry away the whetstone So that if Diogenes came at noon-day again with his lanthorn either to find truth in his assertions or common honesty in the author of them he would operam oleum perdere Note also that here again he cals us Jesuits But he is pleased to salute us at the table saying much good may their perfection on earth doe them sure we are that if we can attain it it will doe us no harm But by way of return we say well may he fare with his much affected imperfections and corruption similis lactuca labris but Christ also Rev. 22.11 saith he that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still but he that is justified let him be justified still and he that is sanctified let him be sanctified still for what a man most affects in these things that shall be his portion in the end Howbeit with his lips or pen he begs to have his imperfections discovered and to be humbled in the sense of them so long as he liveth as if the Lord delighted more in our dejectment for them then ejectment of them that he may cry always with the poor Publican but doth he beg healing and cleansing mercies that he might offend no more or only pardon for his offence toties quoties committed and so to end his days Surely he should then have been but a poor Publican in the end though he had a rich office But he will also at leastwise in words make an emulator of Saint Paul who forgat what was behind and pressed forward towards the mark and put forth we wish he means not quite out of doors all the strength that the Lord shall please to send him and improving all opportunities to the best advantage for the mortifying of all sinfull corruptions in him and for the growing in grace untill he attaines unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ But lest all this should be had too soon in the world but here by the ministery of the word the work is to be carried on even to perfection Ephes 4.11 12 13. he contradictingly saith which shall be after grace consummate hereafter in heaven and so desperately concludes As for him that can find perfection here on earth let him never look for it in heaven As if it could not be had in both places or estates in several degrees contrary to Pauls hope 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the good fight I have kept the faith I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness Doth not the holy Ghost say Rev. 14.13 that those that die here to sin in the Lord that they may rest from their own works and labours as the fourth commandement requires that their works shall follow them But in the last place he tels us that he will lay down some of our arguments and some Scriptures which we wrest to maintain them Wherein he shews himself a better diviner then a divine for he had none of them as yet from us unless those which he findeth in the argument of Doctor Draytons sermons of which he mentioneth very few First he saith that we deny original sin Which thing in his sense is true But we say every mans first fall is his original sin Secondly we say as he tels you that original sin is taken away from the Saints on earth we say that it either is or ought to be there being sufficient grace and help offered and afforded in Christ to us for that end and therefore that such mortified Saints cannot derive it to their posterity What is this to the question in hand yet we confess more that neither the first Adam nor any parent descended from him can convey any such stain of sinfull corruption by generation to their children because a most holy God creates both soul and body innocent and without sin But as this argument of his is none of ours so his solution or answer is a meer figment of mans brain for he saith there are three things in sin the offence the guilt and the pollution or stain being an inclination to fall into the like sins Of which saith he the two first are taken away but the last which is the worst is left behind during this life Where ye may take notice of these absurdities or contradictions First that Gods hates the offence as he saith in his dearest Saints and as he saith it is abolished and blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ If it be abolished as he saith it is how can it remain in them still and if it remain still how can it be but hatefull to God For the second the guilt or obligation to punishment he saith that is pardoned but as we have often shewed no sin is pardoned till it s left and forsaken Prov. 28.13 As for the third the pollution which he cals the pure essence of sin a very pure essence indeed if one look well upon it that saith he doth not reign in a regenerate man yet the life and being of sin is not taken away page 36. But he cites a Text there wherewith he cuts his own throat if rightly rendred Psal 103.3 Who is propitious to all thine iniquities and healeth all thine infirmities or diseases The latter words explaining the former and certainly where diseases are healed they are wholly removed or taken away they leave no life nor being behind them and then follows vers 4. who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with loving kindness and mercy for where any life or being of sin is left there is so much destruction or condemnation left also as we shewed out of Rom. 8.2 True it is that the Lord doth heal our souls gradually as this puny Emperick speaks but he leaves not we say the full perfecting of the cure to the life of glory or yet to the hour of death But page 36. he feigneth a second objection of ours and then forgeth an answer for it as he did before Regenerate parents cannot convey the guilt of original sin to their children because to themselves it is pardoned Which objection is a strong barre against him though not made by us And upon this score the guilt of the first Adam's sin after his personal repentance could not be charged upon his
posterity But he saith by way of answer that they are freed from the guilt of sin and have righteousness imputed unto them by grace and not by nature but by nature they have in them original corruption and therefore they can leave the latter though not the former But we have shewed before that corruption and guilt as well as grace are all spiritual and preternatural things and pass not to the posterity by procreation In the same page he saith that grace and justification are not tyed to carnal propagation no more are original sin and condemnation but to the most sure election of God as Rom. 9. in Esau and Jacob. But as he understands not what the election of grace is on which justification depends so hath he no discerning of that Esau and Jacob to which Paul relates Rom. 9. yet are they both clearly set forth in the Scriptures the former 2 Pet. 1.10 Mal. 1.1 2 3. He hath also a third argument to prove that infants have sin because they are liable to death and stipendium peccati mors Rom. 6.33 But it were well for sinners if there were not another and that an everlasting death that is the just recompence of sin as we shewed before as for corporal death it being but a temporal punishment at the most it might be by the first Adam's sin brought upon all his posterity yet without any infection of sin derived unto them Fourthly he saith there and page 37. That infants want not the faculty of will by which they are inclined to sin though they do not sin in act Which evill inclination we have denied and disproved before with the affirmation fathered upon Irenaeus and Chrysostome by him that Adam's sin was not one personal sin In uno universi but this one is our personal Adam And therefore it is a false charge to say that the first Adams sin was his handwriting that made al his posterity debters unto God unless in some temporal evils inflicted on them for his sake as we shewed before He tels you likewise but with his wonted lying and impudency that we say concupiscence without consent unto it is no sin But we say the first motion to adultery or any other sin arising from mens or Satans immediate temptation is no sin till some titillation or liking of the same follows And though Aquinas and Coster seem to speak so of original concupiscence it self we deny it nor do we approve that saying of that Councel of Trent who as he saith have as many curses as Canons that the Catholick Church never counted concupiscence truly so called sin in the regenerate for we do count it no better till it be mortified And they in effect grant so much saying it comes from sin and tends to sin And Paul cals it expresly sin Rom. 7. where the Vindicator confesseth that he was sometimes captivated by it against his will And did it not then reign as a tyrant over him And is tyranny devoid of dominion and power where it bears sway and takes men captive True it is also that the Vindicator saith in the general that the law condemneth sin to wit in a prohibiting way as we said before as well in the branch as the root But that prohibition there shall not be in thine heart an evil thought against the Lord thy God doth onely restrain us from allowance of such for we cannot hinder Satan from suggesting such unto us nor was Christ upon earth wholly free from such injectments And that which the Vindicator page 30 saith of the motions of concupiscence is true but both he and Augustine himself are foully mistaken if they think that all sinfull motions come from concupiscence yet it is true in some sense which Augustine there saith It were better to have none then to overcome them True it were better for the mans ease and safety to have no temptations but it is better for his exercise and more for his glory if the Lord will have it so to have such and overcome them then not to be exercised at all therewith As for Bernard's saying take it single without the Vindicators double dealing in the end or conclusion and it makes against his position and scope which saying is this That kind of sin which so often troubles us I mean concupiscence and evill desires may and should be suppressed by the grace of God so that it reign not in us and that we give not our members weapons of unrighteousness unto sin and that way there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ For this is the summe of what we say and therein he directly contradicts himself and this the Vindicator observing adds this clause yet it is not cast out but in death Having in the two last pages made an impertinent digression to prove against the Papists that concupiscence is sin and page 39 and the two following he comes in his erratick and wandring way to visit the Pelagians who as he tels us page 39. were condemned in many Councels summoned and gathered together for the confutation he should have rather said for the censuring of Pelagius and Caelestius their heresies about the year 420 and some years after as in the Milevitan Councel the Councel of Carthage and the Councel of Palestine in the East some of whose objections with which we have nothing to do he to fill up his empty book like an empty shop with rols of painted wares produceth and answereth them with other mens solutions so solutive is he at this present As first that concupiscence because it is a natural propension to things forbidden by the Law is no sin To which he answers that our natural concupiscence and desires are now inordinate and sinfull which they were not before the fall the like he answereth to our affections and appetites to desire good and eschew evil things which as long as they are not carried to forbidden objects or immoderately are not exorbitant or sinful And so say we sed quid hoc ad Rhombum But page 40 he brings a second objection of theirs and a third and fourth the second is this That which is not in our power to cause it to be or not to be is no sin but concupiscence is not in our power to shake off therefore it is no sin Unto which he answereth something that is true and something that is false As first that sin is to be esteemed by the will and Law of God thereagainst Which is true But this is not so where he saith that God requiring of us impossible things doth not injure us because he commanded them when they were possible But this is not onely injurious to us without grace offered but inconsistent with Gods justice and goodness also The third objection is this Sin makes men obnoxious to the wrath of God but concupiscence in the regenerate doth not for there is no condemnation say they to them that are in Christ Iesus though they have concupiscence
left in them Wherein take notice that the Vindicator that cals us Pelagians is herein a Pelagian himselfe as all his fellows are Secondly that whereas he should deny the Minor that concupiscence doth not make the regenerate obnoxious to Gods wrath he admits it and takes it for granted that neither that nor any other sin doth condemn the regenerate or make them obnoxious to Gods wrath and yet he confesseth them to be sins but saith that by accident it cometh to pass that they are not reputed for such but are pardoned by grace Which is true when they are repented of and left and so cease to be sins but not otherwise The fourth objection which he brings is this In baptisme original sin is taken away therefore concupiscence is no sin in those that are baptized Uunto which he answers by distinction yet without the least instinct of truth that by baptisme the guilt of sin is taken away Which we deny against some of the Fathers and the Schoolmen as having no warrant from the Scriptures But he confesseth that the worst part of sin and that which is most offensive to God remaineth even corruption and an inclination to sin But here we first say that the guilt is not taken away before or without the corruption Secondly that children when they are baptized have neither guilt nor corruption to be taken away for the present yet may lawfully be baptized in innocency as Christ himself was for a future document and sign And thirdly that in the baptisme of men grown and newly converted neither the acts and corruptions nor the guilt are taken away by outward baptisme only there is their duty in following of Christ in his death and resurrection under the hope of his grace and help for the present and of a full remission and eternal life in the end declared unto them therein by which also they observe and fulfill an outward ordinance oblige themselves to the said duty stand under that grace hoped for and are distinguished by an holy ordinance and Christian profession from other men Pag 41. he first concludes that original concupiscence is sin Which we never denyed and then he is so impudent as to say of us that were not these men past shame they would never goe about to revive such heresies as we hoped had been long since buried among us But who revived them he or we But mark his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there But so long as there is a Divell in hell or a Pope at Rome we must never expect to be freed from such disturbers of our peace But what disturbance have we made or what peace have we broken Thus he that hath played the boutefeu himselfe and hath without cause incensed all the neighbouring Ministers and people against us where he could get access and audience chargeth us with his own wicked practise of disturbance who live quietly and cause no commotion amongst men but only seek to awaken them out of security and sloth to watch and war aright against their sins and Ghostly enemies and that out of love to God and their souls and in order to their everlasting peace as well as their present welfare in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of perfection which is love to God and men the conquering of sin and the fulfilling of the Law But we must bear his false charge and challenge in this kind with the more meekness because the holy Prophets and Apostles have undergone the like accusation at the hands of injurious slanderous and outragious men and that upon the self-same account Acts 16.21 and 18.13 and 24.5 and as long as there is a Devil in hell and his hellish kingdom hath room in mens hearts and sets their tongues on fire as Saint James speaks chap. 3.6 we must expect no better usage at their hands till the old accuser of our brethren be cast ou◠of them Rev. 12.10 See Mat. 10.25 If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub much more will they do it to them of his houshold But in the end of pag. the 41 to the end of pag. the 48. he comes with his solutive medicines to answer some Scriptures which he saith we allege and wrest to maintain our errours But this he speaks by way of divination for divers of them we have not yet produced nor have we need to wrest those that we alledge for they speak that clearly which we would prove The first saith he is that Rom. 6.6 where Paul saith of the Christians who are baptized into the faith of Christ knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin may be destroyed from thence saith he they conclude that the corruption of old Adam is quite abolished that they are perfectly quitted from sin and perfectly renewed in grace But this is one of his forged lies for we neither cite that Scripture nor inferr any such thing from it but since he by preoccupation hath quoted it for us we shall without wresting it conclude that those which truly confess the Christian faith and baptisme both may and ought to be crucified with Christ and through his grace and help to destroy the whole body of sin and so we have promised by our sureties to doe when we were baptized unlesse we will be renegadoes with him Unto this Scripture he answers pag. 42 as he had done before without fear or wit truth or modesty that the guilt of sin which the Schools term the formal of sin but indeed is the fruit and effect of sin is taken away in baptisme The falshood of which we have shewed before the baptisme which he meaneth neither takes away the guilt nor corruption of sin for Simon Magus was baptized among the other Samaritans and yet was still in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity Acts 8.20 Secondly as to the corruption he saith that the dominion of it is taken away but not the being of sin from Gods Saints because Paul saith Gal. 5.17 the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the same Apostle speaks of himselfe I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and carrying me captive unto the Law of sin which is in my members But we shewed before that the infant-state of the Galatians being new-born babes in Christ is not the full strength and stature of young men in Christ and much lesse the dayednesse of old men or elders and experienced souldiers or Saints in Christ Secondly that Paul speaks not there of his own present condition And thirdly that this Text flies in his and their faces who affirm that all dominion of sin is taken away from such babes for this sin is a prince and a Tyrant it is not our slave but makes us its slave But he adds this that the Apostle saith not let not sin be in your mortal bodies but let it not reign Which is true in regard of Satans sinful motions as we said before
otherwise saith the Vindicator or his friend for him if he Abraham were justified by the works done without the help of grace he might as vvell glory before God as men which is not true in every behalfe for he received his internal helps from God and not from himself Psalm 100. It is he that made us and not we our selves But the Apostle tels us saith he that although by those works done by the help of grace he might glory before men where doth he tell us so yet not before God and therefore he vvas not justified by those vvorks in the sight of God But as the premisses vvere false so is the conclusion vvhich he dravvs from thence for by every grace of God he vvas justified in some kind of actual righteousnesse and purged from the contrary sin vvhich is the only justification vvhich Paul pleads for in Jesus Christ necessary to life Nor is his next reason lesse absurd vvhere he saith for if vve could be justified by any vvorks hovvsoever done by grace or vvithout grace then the vvages that is eternal life is not counted of favour but of debt Is it not so when vvithout the rich grace of God the duties required unto eternal life cannot be performed But saith he vvhen vve cannot be justified by our ovvn vvorks nor are we so justified but by believing in him that justifieth the ungodly so that he makes them godly that were before ungodly who is in Jesus Christ what are any ungodly that are in Christ see 1 Cor. 6.11 that we are then justified by his righteousnesse and saved by his merits like the hungry dreamer Isai 29.8 who dreameth that he eateth but when he awaketh his soul is empty Then faith saith the Apostle and not any kind of works is imputed to him for righteousnesse Rom. 4.5 But here the new false Apostle John of Burstou corrupteth and falsifieth the Text for these words and not any kind of works are not found there See Rev. 22.18 what his reward is like to be for if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him all the plagues that are written in this book But Pag. 64. he saith I shall here close this point with these conclusions First that no man that is a sinner can be justified by his own obedience to the moral Law Secondly that no man that hath offended the Law can be justified by his own satisfaction for his transgression But who denies either of those or to what purpose is all this unlesse as we said before to entertain his Reader with kickshaws But wanderers love extravagancies As to the first of these he saith that by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 that is the Law accounteth all such to be sinners and accounteth them as transgressors and therefore they can never be pronounced guiltlesse by that Law which proves them guilty but every man is a transgressor of the Law to wit before grace and for some time after Rom. 3.9 Gal. 2.1 Joh. 1.8 11. and our consciences testifie it to our faces Therefore can no man be justified by his own obedience to the Law But what is this to the obedience of Christ in the Saints by which alone as we have often said they may be justified freely and ought so to be Secondly he saith that a sinner which hath once offended can never by any action or passion of his own make satisfaction to the justice of God for his transgression Yet can God freely remit thousands and millions of such transgressions to the converting sinner and the Law saith he being broken there is no way to be justified by the Law but by making a plenary satisfaction for the transgression which no sinners satisfaction can do because a finite act can never be a sufficient value to satisfie the offence that is done against an infinite goodnesse as also because all that we can do yea much more is required of us now that assisting grace is tendered as our duty to the Law or Law-giver and therefore it cannot be rendred as any payment for the breach of the Law Therefore saith he to conclude this point or truth we are not under the Law for the justification of our persons as Adam was nor for satisfaction of divine justice as those that perish but we are under it as a document of obedience what perfect or imperfect and a rule of living But not as we ought to do by his doctrine T is not saith he published from Sinai but from Sion but to whom is it so as a Law of liberty what to take our sleep and swing in sin and as a new Law not as a Law of condemnation and bondage Yes it is so published still to impenitent and unbelieving men 1 Tim. 1.9 knowing this that the Law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawlesse and disobedient And yet he saith Pag. 65. that the obedience is not removed yes by his doctrine a great part of it is but the disobedience thereof is both pardoned and cured But how perfectly pardoned but inchoatively cured by his doctrine for saith he the observance thereof is necessary as a fruit of faith but mark how enormously he speaks in the next words but not saith he as a condition of life and righteousnesse yet necessary necessitate pracepti as a thing commanded the transgression whereof is the incurring of sin not necessitate medii as a strict undispensible means of salvation the transgression whereof yes if it be habitual or final is a peremptory obligation to death But we have proved before out of Mat. 5.18 19. and Rev. 14.22 that this is required by Christ as the way to life by the necessity of a medium or means as well as of a precept especially of those that have both space and means to attain unto it in Christ And thus saith he of the former of the two last branches of the second position wherein I have clearly shewed as one would shew a small and remote object in a dark night that as no man can be justified by obedience to the Law nor the works of the best Christians cannot justifie them what not in Christ And now he comes to the last branch that we are only justified by the righteousnesse of Christ which being rightly understood we also maintain We beleeve and maintain saith he as the Scripture teacheth us what is that That we are acquitted and absolved from our sins and so justified in the sight of God by and for he should have said through the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ And so do we but not in his way and sense And though we have said heretofore that justification and remission of sins are two different things yet we would be thus understood that the pardon of sins in his sense which is to take away the guilt or obligation unto punishment and leave the corruption behind and justification that is to make us just holy and good or liberative
justification whereby sin is purged out upon which the pardon and removing of the guilt follows through the mercy of God and the merits of Christs death we say that these are diverse and dissentaneous things But otherwise as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the new Testament frequently to be understood of the dimission and purging out of sin by the Spirit so both in the old and new Testament by prayer remission and forgivenesse of sins both these are connectively and collectively to be understood because where the Lord is pleased to purge out sin and heal men of it he always pardons it or takes away the guilt and never takes away the guilt but where the corruption and fault are first put away Hence it is that not to impute sin as we said before is first to purge it by sanctification and then to pardon i◠as Psal 32.1 2 3. and Rom. 4.6 7. and where sin is so purged and not imputed there the righteousness of grace for the renewing of the same is freely imputed or given to the believing and obedient soul But this premised we return now to consider what he saith who first brings that place Rom. 5.18 As by one offence or of one the sin guilt or judgment came upon all men to condemnation to wit all that offended or sinned in that one personal Adam of theirs as he said before so by one righteousness or the justification of one the free gift came upon all unto the justification of life that is of glory for there is a two-fold justification the one of grace or the foregoing righteousness and the other of glory or the evelasting righteousness But wherein doth this Text speak for him or against us and our doctrine The second Scripture which he brings is 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us to wit a sacrifice for sin and a patern and motive unto us teaching us how we should in him root it out that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him first in grace and then in glory as we said before Where the Apostles words make farre more for us and our sense and doctrine then they do for him for there is not the least mention made in all the Context or any where else in all the Scriptures that Christs personal obedience unto the law without us and for us should become or be made our righteousness The third Text of Scripture produced by him is that Acts 13.38 39. Be it therefore known unto you men and brethren that through this man or Messiah is published unto you dimission or remission of sins and in him he that believeth that he is or may be justified that is purged from all things from which ye could not be justified or purged by the law of Moses Which Text makes so clearly for us that by way of warning we will adde Pauls next words Look to it or take heed lest that come upon you which is spoken in the Prophets Behold ye despisers and wonder and vanish or come to nothing for behold I work a work in the days of perfect sanctification a work to which ye will in no wise give credit though one tell or shew it unto you Acts 13.40 41. The words are cited out of Hab. 1.5 6. and imply also an heavy judgment to come by the Chaldeans or the enemies figured thereby which are the Devils His fourth Scripture by him quoted is 1 Cor. 6.11 And such were some of you but ye are washed but now ye are sanctified but now ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And as other Scriptures made not at all for him but much more for us so this is clearly also against him shewing that washing from the act and habit of former sins sanctification by Gods Spirit and justification in in the name of Christ are one and the self-same thing as we further proved out of Titus 3.4 5 6 7. Rev. 22.11 and other clear places But here he saith that some may object and say this righteousness is Christs and how can a man be justified by the justice of another Unto the which he answers with some truth and some falshood that as sin is ours by propagation which we have often shewed to be false so righteousness is ours if we attain unto it truly by Christ by imputation But his righteousness which he here intends is onely such by putation and imagination And as Adam saith he derived sin to our condemnation which is one of his old Chimaera's so Christ brought life by his obedience to our justification Thus if many be made sinners by the disobedience of one man which if rightly understood is undoubtedly true then how much more shall many be made righteous by the obedience of man Jesus Christ Rom. 5.19 especially since the nature of Christ as he saith page 66. is far more divine then the nature of Adam and therefore is more powerfull in ability to work this effect to justifie us then Adams sin was to condemn us But as Adams sin without us and our conformity thereunto condemns us not so neither doth Christs obedience which is ab extra justifie us we speak of his active obedience and by his passive we have another benefit the pardon of sins upon our leaving of them and 1 John 5.11 12. saith he this is the record that God hath given us to wit eternall life to whom was it given to John and those in whom Christ was risen in the power of the eternal life and this life is in his Son so that he which hath the Son in that manner hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life as yet that is saith the Vindicator he hath the righteousness whereby he bringeth us to eternal life But this is his gloss upon the Text and a meer dream and delusion and this saith he doth the Apostle most excellently shew unto us when he saith that God made Christ to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.20 which we even now cited But he speaks no such thing as he aims at or dreams of for saith he as our sins were made the sins of Christ not by altering or transplanting them inhesively into his own person but by assumption of them imputatively to make satisfaction for them as fully and truly as if they had been his own inherent sins even so the righteousness of Christ but not his externall obedience is as truly made ours by imputation his inherent righteousness whereby he and we obey God is so as if we had perfectly fulfilled the law by our own personal and actual operation Prove this by Scripture Vindicator and you shall be made a Doctor in Divinity which you never was nor will be And therefore saith he justification is a gracious and judiciall act whereby he judgeth he should have said a judicious and moral a physical or metaphysical act of God whereby he judgeth first maketh