her Cage and having opportunity to have exercised her rage upon Others did single out a Courtisane of Spanish progenie whom she did as cruelly teare in pieces as if she had been Robbed by her of her whelps wearing upon that day a garment of somewhat a darker colour then the Scarlet or bright red and so much the more apt as * See Scarmilion De coloribus Philosophers teach us to provoke or enrage this or other Ravenous Creatures which be of more duskie melancholy blood And the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Author of the first Booke of Macehab Chap. 6. ver 34. relates a warlike Practise for encouraging the Elephants to fight more fiercely against their Enemies by representing or as it seemes Squeazing the Blood of Grapes and mulberies in their sight or view 6. Now the sight of semblable Colours can have no greater force or efficacie to stir up the blood of Creatures like unto them then the solemne proposall or representation of sins prohibited hath to provoke or enrage the Reliques of Sin originall or to procure the Fits or Motions of it without the assistance of Grace by Christ to restraine them And I cannot perswade my self that some sins not to be named could ever have been or yet could be so frequently practised in diverse Regions which have submitted themselves unto the discipline of the Romish Church to all her Canons and constitutions save only from the representation or expression of the nature of such sins in those loathsome and abhominable Interrogatories which Romish Priests use in taking Auricular Confession CHAP. X. Containing such Description or Definition of Originall Sin as can be gathered from the Effects or Properties of it before mentioned 1. Sin original such a disease of the Soul as the Dropsie or other like diseases are of the body FRom these Discussions of the Properties or Symptomes we may frame this or the like Description of Original Sin it self That it is such a Disease of the Soul or such a corruption of the Humane nature as the Dropsie or other like corrupt Humours are of the Body The one sort includes a thirst or longing after such things as are forbidden them by the Physitian of their Bodies The other an appetite or hunger after such dyet as is in speciall prohibited by the Physitian of their soules And all diseases we know are dangerous wherein the Longing of the corrupt humour or matter which breeds them is much greater then the Longing or appetite of Nature especially if we give satisfaction to such intemperate desires or appetites 2. Or if the Reader desire more then a Description that is some competent Definition of Sin Original the best which for the present I can exhibite is this That it is a positive Renitencie of the Flesh or corrupt Nature of man against the Spiritual Law of God especially against the Negative praecepts being first occasioned or rather caused by the transgression of our First Parents especially from the intemperate Longing of our Mother Evah after the forbidden Fruit. For as our Apostle instructs us 1. Tim. 2. 14. Adam was not deceived but the Woman Being deceived Was in the transgression that is more deeply in the transgression then the Man because she seduced him to eate the forbidden fruit as the Serpent had done her Or as the flesh or sensitive part of our Nature doth yet often seduce the Reasonable Will to yeeld her tacit or implicit consent unto such Actions as they have expresly resolved upon or undertaken without consulting Reason or the masculine part of our Nature 3. From this First Transgression of our First Parents from the birth of Cain unto this present day or hour the forementioned Observation of the Romane Poet Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata was never out of Date but continued still in full force and strength amongst all the Sons of Adam throughout their severall generations unless perhaps in some few who by speciall priviledge or peculiar Grace have been redeemed from the raigne or dominion of Sin from the womb or from the time wherein they begun to know the difference between good and evill Our blessed Saviour who was no mere Son of Adam but the true and onely Son of God was absolutely Free from the wombe from his Conception as man from all Tincture of Sin Original from all inclinations to attempt or desire any thing that was evill or forbidden by the Law of God 4. Now the Nature Properties and Conditions of Sin Original being such as have been described it is easie to be conceived how potent it is to conquer us and to bring us into Servitude unto it self and unto Sathan Or how it is that very snare or a great part of it whereby such as oppose the truth are taken Captive by the Devill as our Apostle speaks at his will or pleasure 2. Tim. 2. 26. But of this point hereafter CHAP. XI Containing the Resolution of the maine Difficultie proposed to wit How the First Actual Sin of our First Parents did produce more then a Habit of Sin an Hereditarie disease in all their Posteritie 1. The eating of the Forbidden Fruit did pollute or poyson the nature of man THe chief Difficultie at least as some make it is How the First Sin whether of our Father Adam or of our Mother Evah or of both could possibly produce a perpetuall Habit of Sin in themselves or an Hereditarie corruption of the Humane Nature propagated from them throughout all generations This difficultie though cannot be press'd or drawne unto any Contradiction to the unquestionable rules of Reason or true Philosophy The full and cleer Solution of it only surpasseth the reach of Reason meerely natural or of Philosophy not enlightened by sacred History or Mosaicall Relations of the estate wherein man was created Surely if Plinie or some other Naturalist had been so happy as to have diligently perused and beleeved the Oracles of God delivered by Moses Gen. 1. 2. and 3. c. We Christians this day Living might have had more satisfactorie Resolutions for clearing this Point then we can gather from the Schoole-men or many of the Ancient Fathers * Gregorius de Arimino Some Schoole-men do think that our Nature was corrupted by the poysonous breath of the old Serpent in his conference with our Mother Evah I neither know nor remember whether they have any ground of this conjecture from true Antiquitie or whether it be a Masterlesse piece of their own coyning The conjecture or Phancie it self is for this reason Less probable because the Nature of our Father Adam who held no parlie with the old Serpent was no less corrupted then the Nature of his Consort Evah Other good writers are of opinion that the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evill was for its specifical quality of a poysonous Nature both to the Soul and body at Least apt to taint or corrupt both and the first mans nature
have for the most part a more exquisite Literall and Concludent sense then the same words or speeches have in common Language or in ordinary faculties or vulgar Arts And such a Metaphysicall sublime Concludent sense His words that spake as never man spake alwaies have when his speeches are Doctrinall and Assertive as his words are Joh. 8. 34. most Vniversal most Peremptory and Dogmatical Verily Verily I say unto you c. 2. Now as it cannot be denied that this name of Servitude is as wee say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Terme that may be properly attributed in different measure to many subjects of diverse natures or Conditions So the prime and principall subject of it unto which it agrees in most exquisite and ample manner is not the Legall or Civill Servitude whereof we have hitherto treated but the Servitude of Sin Whereof our Saviour here speakes Whence although we stand bound to believe the truth of this Conclusion from his Authority alone yet this no way barres us from Searching other reasons or Arguments whether from Art or Nature for illustration of this truth or for confirmation of our Belief or knowledge of it Or rather His Emphaticall manner of averring it ought to incite us to sound the meaning of it a little deeper and to discover the reason of it to the bottome And thus doing we shall but follow the stepps of two of our Sauiours Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul in this very particular Both of them having occasion to use the same Assertion that our Saviour here doth give us the reason of the truth or property of this Assertion So saith S. Paul to the Romans Cap. 6. 16. Know ye not as if it were matter of gross ignorance or imputation not to know that to whom Ye yield your selves servants to obey his Servants ye are to whom ye obey Whether it be of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousnesse So that there is a proper Servitude in yielding unto Sin And whosoever yields his consent or obedience unto Sin doth thereby make himself the true and proper Servant of Sin 3. And S. Peter 2. Epistle 2. Chap. having sharply taxed such Carnall Gospellers as had forsaken the right way and followed the way of Balaam which Loved the wayes of unrighteousnesse brands them with this note or Character That whilest they promise Liberty unto others they themselves are the Servants of Corruption And this Assertion he ratifies by this reason or Doctrinall Principle Of whom a man is overcome Of the same he is brought into Bondage This reason toucheth the very root of Bondage or Servitude properly so called which had no other Title to its First Being or introduction into the World besides the right or title of victorie or Conquest Now to be subdued or vanquished against their Wills though in a doubtfull or bad Cause is not so meritorious of slavery or bondage as to suffer our selves through our sloath through our Cowardize our supine negligence or treachery to be overcome in a true a just a necessary especially in a religious Cause He to whom men yield themselves Servants by betraying or not defending such Causes though he love the Treason whereby he gaines the victory will use the Traytor or Partie vanquished by him but as a slave or Bondman 4. The First and Radicall Point of difference betwixt a Servant and a Freeman in matters civill was before set down and it was this A man that is Civilly Free hath not only Voluntatem propriam a reasonable will to desire his own good or a Freedome of consultation to contrive the meanes how this good may be attained but withall a Right or power to dispose of himself of his time of his bodily Actions or imployments for executing his intentions or Consultations The Servant hath the like Reasonable Will to desire his own good a Naturall Power or Faculty to deliberate or consult by what meanes the good which he requires may be attained but no Right or power to dispose of himself of his time of his bodily Labours of his actions or imployments for executing his desires or deliberations for in all these he is at his Masters disposall Now the want of this power or liberty to proseute their own contrivances makes Servants for the most part more slow and more dull in their desires and more unapt to contrive the meanes for compassing what they desire 5. From this Difference between Servitude and Freedome or Servants and Freemen in matters Civill and Politick The measure of transgression of the Law of God the only true measure of Servitude it is but a short Cut and easie pasage to discover the right Difference betwixt Servitude and Freedome in matters morall and sacred Sin as the Apostle speaks is the transgression of the Law And every Transgressor of the Law to wit of the morall Law of God that is Every such Transgressor as we call Malefactor or Offender Every one that delights in transgression or hath no power to resist temptations to transgresse is truely and properly the Servant of sin Rectum saith the Philosopher est mensura sui obliqui Aright Line is the measure of that which is crooked as well as of that which is straight Now the right Line or Rule by which as well our desires as our Actions must be framed by which the Obliquities of both must be discovered or censured is the Morall Law of God This is the only Rule by which the height or degrees as well of our Freedome as our Servitude Wherein the best of the Heathens did erre as well in their Definitions of Libertie as of Happines must be measured For want of this Rule to direct them the wisest among the Heathens have either much erred in the Definition of Liberty or Freedome or at least come farr short of the truth in defining it Quid est Libertas nis ipotestas vivendiut velis what is liberty or freedome saith In Paradoxis Tully but a Power or Facultie of living as we would But this Definition or description of Liberty or Freedome is very defective and Lame like a Sentence without the Principall Verbe or a Body without a Soule Mans Will in the state of corruption or since Adams Fall is no competent Rule for Humane Actions It self must be regulated by the Law of God whether positive or Eternall The very life and spirit of perfect Liberty in whomsoever ☜ is Potestas volendi quod lex divina jubet that is a Power or Faculty of willing that which by Gods Law we ought to will And this power or faculty being supposed as the Soul Potestas vivendi aut agendi quod volumus that other power which Tully only mentions of Living or doing as we will or desire is but the Bodie of true Freedome or Liberty So that he only is a true and perfect Freeman that hath both the Body and Soul of perfect Freedome that is tampotestatem volendi quod
command him to do and such an eager pronenesse or appetite to do those things which the Law of Reason or of Nature forbids him to do and those things with greatest Eagernesse which the same Law of Reason or other positive Laws derived from it most peremptorily and upon severest penalties forbid him to do It hath been observed by many Authors that the Unnatural sin of Parricide wilful Murther of Father or Mother or of Superiour Kindred did not become rife or frequent amongst the Romans until they had upon particular sad accidents enacted a publick Law and ordained a special kind of torment for transgressors in this kind Lucius Ostius was the first amongst the Romans that did commit this Unnatural sin And He lived almost six hundred years after the City was founded a little after the second Punick War Some good ‖ See Plutarch in the Life of Romulus Laertius in the Life of Solon and Tully in His second Oration Pro Roscio Amerino who gives the true Character or Expression of that speech of Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untowardly rendred by the Latin Interpreter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in Rom. pag. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diog. Lacrt. l. 1. in Solone Is Solon cùm interrogaretur Cur Nullum supplicium constituisset in Eum qui Parentem necâsset respondit se id neminem facturum putasse Sapienter fecisse dicitur cùm de eo nihil sanxerit quod antea commissum non erat ne non tam Prohibere quà m admonere videretur Tull. Orat. 2. Pro Sext. Roscio Amerino Writers ascribe the long abstinence from this unnatural sin unto the wisdom of Romulus their Founder who enacted no Law against much lesse appointed any peculiar kind of death unto this Crime which He expected should never be committed by His Posterity Certain it is that Solon for the like reason did not so much as mention this Crime in His otherwise most severe Laws But this observation was taken from the Heathen Romans in times ancient and far more remote and doth not as happily will be objected hold in these times or places wherein we live Yet the Ingenuous and Learned French †Thuanus Historian who meddles with the History of his own times only tels us that the like unnatural sin towards Children or Infants did never come to so high and far-spreading a Flow in the great City of that Kingdom until the State or Parliament had erected a peculiar Court to be held for examination or trial of such Cruel Mothers as sought to salve the breach of one Commandment by the violation of another to cover the shame of their own wantonnesse by murthering the tender fruits of their folly as if the Damme which the Law had set for repressing or stopping the Course of this bloudy sin had but provoked the stream or Current to swell higher and greater to overburst all obstacles or inhibitions which the Laws of God the Laws of Nature and of the Kingdom had set against it 2. Again why Pulpit-pride why Clergie-cunning insolency or malice should grow into a Proverb throughout most Christian Kingdoms or Provinces as if these or like transgressions in our profession were of such a scantling as could hardly be matched by the Laitie I cannot give a more probable reason if the imputation be true or the occasion of the Proverbe just then this That Men of our profession who are Gods peculiar Inheritance are bound by the Lawes of God to more strict observance of our Saviours praecepts concerning Humility Meeknesse Brotherly-love and Charity or peaceable disposicion towards all then ordinary Men or men of other Callings or professions are And we know whose saying it is That if we do not continue as we are by the place wherein he hath set us the Salt of the Earth and Light of the World We shall become the most degenerate unprofitable members of the Land and Church wherein we Live And if the whole Tribe were to beare peculiar Armes as some other ingenuous Professions doe No Device could so well befit us as Jeremiah's two Baskets of Figges Then saia the Lord unto me What seest thou Jeremiah and I said Figgs the good Figgs very good and the evill very evill that cannot be eaten they are so evill Jer. 24. 3. The bad Figs were the Emblem of the disobedient refractory as the good Figs were of the obedient and beleeving Jewes in the Prophets time Both parts of the Embleme are as applyable to the Sons of Levi in our dayes Such of this Tribe as suffer sin to raigne in their Mortall bodies are generally the worst of sinners Such as mortifie the workes of the flesh by the spirit by prayer and other good services of God and seeke their Freedome or manumission by the Son of God Working out their Salvation with feare and trembling are the Best of all Gods Saints on Earth 3. The proper effects or Symptomes of Sinâ— Original described by S. Paul But the greatest part of the Induction hitherto made for finding out the properties or Symptomes of Sin original will be excepted against especially by such as are meer strangers to their own Breasts or dispositions of their hearts because the particular observations or Experiments whereof the Induction consists have been made by the Heathen or related by Authors not Canonicall But the Exception will voyd it self if we shall make it cleer to men altogether unexperienced of themselves that the like Experiments or observations have been made and more fully expressed by one whose Authority is Canonical whose Testimony of Experiments made in himself and taken by himself is most Authentick it is St. Paul That sin Originall was in the world before the Law was given is cleer from this Apostle Rom. 5. 13. For untill the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no Law So our English and most other Modern translations render the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None of them altogether so well as it might be rendred Better thus There is not there cannot be any true estimate or full reckoning made of sin where there is no Law to give the * The Syriack reades it Usque enim ad Legem peccatii quum esset in mundo non reputabatur peccatum propterea quòd nâ—n erat Lex That is Sin though it were in the world untill the Law yet was it not reputed or reckoned for sin untill the law was given But if it be true which the Appostle Saith that sin raigned unto death untill the Law I hope it was imputed with a Witnesse Charge And againe Ver. 20. Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound This abounding of the offence whereof he speakes was the issue or effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the End or Finall Cause why the Law was given For so the Law-giver might be suspected to have been the Author of sin
or at least of the increase or abundance of it in the world The Apostles meaning is that the Law was given as a praeparative Physick or medicine to let such as were sick of sin as all were before the Law was given understand in what danger they were or to give them notice of the abundance of corruption which was so deeply seated in their Nature that it could not be throughly purged by the Law which only set sin a working that men might seek more eagerly after a Better medicine to wit Faith in Christ That this was our Apostles true meaning in this place is apparent from the Parallel-passages to these Romanes Chap. 7. 7. what shall we say then is the Law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin that is I had not taken true notice of the measure or danger of it but by the Law for I had not known Lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not Covet The Law to which these words referr is the tenth Commandement wherein the Coveting of some few particulars as of our Neighbours Wife or of his goods is only expresly forbidden But sin taking occasion by this Negative Commandment wrought in our Apostle as he himself testifies all manner of Concupiscence for without the Law sin was dead that is He did not feel the Motions or Paroxysmes of sin untill the Law was laid unto him as a Preparative Medicine unto better Physick And againe ver ninth I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came Sâ—n revived and I died And againe ver 11. 12. 13. Sin taking occasion by the Commandement deceived me and by it slew me Wherefore the Law is Holy and the Commandement Holy and just and good Was that then which is good made death unto me God forbid But sin that it might appeare sin working dâ—ath in me by that which is good that sin by the commandement might become exceeding Sinfull It is a Point observable and fully paralel to our Apostles doctrine That the Easterne part of the world did rather loath then long after Circumcision Vntill our Saviours Resurrection and the Apostles peremptory forbidding the practise of it From the former doctrine of our Apostle I have learned satisfaction to a Probleme which had often and long Perplexed my thoughts The Probleme was this Why Men Unto whose care and fidelity a man might safely commit his Fortunes or his life upon their honest word became most carelesse and unfaithfull in matters whereto they are punctually tyed by oath The reason is Because the interposition or obligation by oath is as the coming of a Law which provokes the Corruption of Nature whose longing or lust after things forbidden rather then it should be unsatisfied drawes men otherwise morally honest to become like wayward intemperat Patients which rather chose to nourish the longing humours of the disease or infirmity then to observe the prescription of the Chirurgeon ready to pull off the plaister though with the live-skin or flesh rather then to endure the working of it for a moment 4. But here some have Questioned Whether this Chapter be meant of the Regenerate or Vnregenerate Man A Captious Interrogatorie if Regeneration were but one Act or a resultance of some Few Acts or Conflicts between the Flesh and the Spirit But seeing Regeneration in true Theologie includes Acts almost numberlesse or a Combate somewhat longer then Mortification doth This Chapter if we speak of Christians must be Meant not of the Man truely Regenerated or perfectly Mortified but of a Man Inter Regenerandum during the intermediate Acts or conflicts betwixt the beginning and the Consummation of his * See the 9 Article of the Church of England Regeneration Or if we speake of One that beleeves the Old Testament better then the New as of a Jew or Mahumetane it cannot be meant of a Lawlesse Man but of a man under the hammer of Gods Law given by Moses For there must be a Laying of some Law or Other to the heart before the Conflict here Mentioned can begin or Sin inherent be so Provoked as our Apostle tells us it is 5. Why Sin Originall is more provoked by the Negative then by the Affirmative Precepts He that will diligently peruse our Apostles forementioned Passages Romans 7. in the Language wherein he wrote will easily observe with me That the occasion which Sin tooke By the Law to deceive him as it doth yet to deceive us was from the Negative Precepts or Commandements of the Law not from the Positive or Affirmative Now why the Negative Precepts that one especially Thou shalt not Lust Thou shalt not Covet should a great deale more provoke or more forcibly revive the seeds of Originall Sin inherent in us then the Affirmative Precepts usually doe the Reason is Evident because nothing is nominated or proposed unto us in the Affirmative Precepts but that which in its nature is truely and sincerely Good without the mixture of Evill And being such is more apt to revive or quicken the Notions of the Law of Nature or Reason or those Reliques of Gods Image which remaine in our Nature since our first Parents fall then to Enlive the seeds of sin or to provoke our inclinations unto Evill On the contrary In every Negative Precept there is a Proposall or representation of those things which be in their Nature truely Evill and therefore most apt to incite or provoke our natural Inclinations unto the evill forbidden or to enrage the Reliques of our first Parents sin inherent in Us after the same manner and for the same reason that the representation of red Colours without any other Provocation given is to provoke or stirre the blood of beasts or Cattel which are of a more pure or sanguine Constitution Thus some tame Beasts as Bulls or Kine are aptest to turne man-keen upon such as are cloathed in bright red or Scarlet And a grave Learned ‖ Scortum Hispani generis lepidum ut serebatur formosum mula ut Romae meretrices cum Amatoribus solent animi gratia gestabatur Haec cum venisset ad Thermas Diocletianas Vivarium ferarum ingressa nec contenta cicures vagantes Spectasse precibus contendit aegâ—è impetrat à beluarum Magistro ut ingenti urso cavea separatim incluso sed quem constabat in Neminem antea desaevjisse exitum aperiret Facta potestate ursus erumpit mulam terresacit excussam mulierculam Caeteris qui aderant diffugentibus invadit dictoque citius strangulat contrito capite primùm avulsa ubera deinde natem alteram devorat unguibus dentibus laceratam Esseratam bestiam existimo colore coccineae vestis quam induerat misella speciem sanguinis Praeferentem Sepulveda Epist lib. 2. ep 15. Historian sometimes Chronicler to Charls the Fift in an Epistle of his to his friend relates a sad accident of a Beare which had never been observed to have raged upon Any yet being let loose from
Original Sin and describes or descryes surely the Being of man to be very Evill And Martyr upon the Rom Defining Original Sin and explaining that definition manifestly places it in the Evill essence of Man for he says That The whole man is most Corrupt And then defines it Thus Sin is the depravation of the whole nature of man Transmitted to posterity from the Fall of our First Parents and by Generation c. And then opening the Definition he Says In this Definition are found all Kindes of Causes For the subject Or Matter we have All the parts or powers of man The Forme is the Depravation of them all Lo you see that according to Him Martyr Sin Original Comprehends the parts powers of man so farr forth as they be corrupted and depraved Illyricus in a Book intituled Know thy self 2. But these Definitions or Descriptions though for ought I know or have to except against them they may be most Orthodoxal for their truth or substance yet the right Limitation of them or of the subject defined is not free from further Question as First Whether the Subject of them be Sin Original or Acquired as one or both of them are seated in the Natural or unregenerate man or as they are inherent in part in the Best Men after their Regeneration or Purification of their hearts by Faith If every Part if every Faculty or member of the Humane Nature be from the womb tainted with this Foul Leprosie it will be somewhat hard to conceive how any Part or Faculty should be absolutely freed from all degrees of corruption by Regeneration unlesse we grant that All are in some measure freed from it and acknowledge some Reliques of Sin Original to remain in every part or Faculty of the man truly Regenerate or renewed in the spirit of his mind It may in the First place be conceived that the Mind or Conscience of men so renewed may be throughly cleansed not only from the guilt but from the real stain or pollution of sin and yet the flesh or whole sensitive parts or faculties of the same man still lodge some Reliques of Original Corruption in them though in a Lower degree or Less measure then the same Corruption dwelleth in the Conscience or Spirit of the unregenerate or Natural man Or if we grant the Minde and Conscience of sanctified men to be yet subject to some Tincture or Reliques of Corruption Yet these we must acknowledge to be so weak and feeble that they cannot hinder or diminish the Raign or Soveraignty of the Spirit over the flesh by which the Yoak of servitude unto Sin or slavery unto Satan unto which all men before Regeneration are by Nature subject is utterly broken If we consider Man as he was first moulded by God he was for nature substance and Faculties of his soul like a sound Instrument well string'd and better tuned But by eating of the forbidden fruit and losse of Paradise his very substance was corrupted and deprived of Life Spiritual and all his Powers or Faculties not only corrupted but distuned Our Nature by Regeneration is Restored to Life spiritual yet not to perfect health and strength so long as we carry this burden of Flesh and Mortality about with us By the same Spirit of Regeneration the Powers or Faculties of our souls and our sensitive Affections are better tuned then they were before yet not so sound or well tuned as in the First Creation they were but like to Asymmetral or harsh voices which never hold consort with sounds or voices truly Harmonical or like to those which we call False strings in a stringed Instrument which by no skill either of him that tunes or handles it can be brought to bear a part in exact Harmony Both such voices such strings will still retain some jarring sound or discord in an accurate observant Musitians Ear though much less when the string is stricken open or upon a Lower stop or the voice taken at a lower Key then whe they are stretched higher For with the height of either sound the discord or Dis-Harmony is still increased 3. Whether sin Original or Acquired have an influxe into every Act of the Humane Soul But when Calvin Martyr and Illyricus make Original Sin to be the whole Nature of Man and all his Faculties so far as they are corrupted and taintted I know not whether their meaning were that there is no Action or thought of man though Regenerate into which this Corruption of Nature or Taint of sin hath not some Influx or whether they did actually or expresly minde this or other like Inference when they exhibited unto us the former Definitions of Sin For my self as I make no question but that The Blessed Virgin her self was by nature the Daughter of Adam and therefore not so absolutely free from her Conception as her Son our Saviour was So I am afraid to avouch or think that either Sin Original or acquired it being supposed that she had some Reliques of both in her should have any influence into or commixture with that Good Thought or Actual consent which she yielded to the Angel Gabriel Luke 1. 38. Ecce Ancilla domini c. Behold the hand-maid of the Lord be it unto Me according to thy word 4. But these are Niceties which I would not have touched had it not been that Some whom I name not have gone too far in opposition to the Papist or Pelagian unto whom Others by coming too neer have fallen much wide or short of the Truth My aim and intention as I often professe is not to take upon me either by voice or pen to instruct such as are or take themselves to be pro modulo viatorum perfectly Regenerated much lesse men altogether certain of their own Personal Election or Salvation The utmost of my endeavours is to direct my self and the height of my desires in this work is to advise Others what we are to do for our selves or what is to be done for us after Baptism or Confirmation that we may be throughly Regenerated or which is in effect all one make our Election sure We are I take it in the First place to Calculate the number of our sins and to measure or weigh the Body of Sin inherent in us whether by Nature or invited by our selves not by a corrupt worldly Dialect but according to the scales or Standard of the Sanctuary And to this purpose no man hath given better hints or directions then Illyricus For as he often observes and wel illustrates In the Dialect of our Saviour himself of his Apostles and Evangelists whatsoever is repugnant to the Law of God or abominable in his sight is accounted sin and so are not Accidents or meer Abstracts or Relations only but specially the very sustance or Nature of man so far as that is polluted or corrupted with Sin or wrought and transformed into the image of Satan Now though it be true which was said before
as well of our Actions as of our Wils and desires Of these two branches of Servitude is that of the Apostle Rom. 7. 14 15. For we know that the Law is spiritual but I am Carnal sold under Sin For that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. And vers 19. For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that do I. 2. The Third branch of this servitude unto sin consists in an Impotency or want of ability to will or desire those things which we ought to desire The Root of this branch is Ignorance either of those good things which may be known by natural light of Reason or by the word of God Of this branch of servitude or of Servants of this rank or Condition is that of the Apostle especially true and intended by him Eph. 4. 18. That they have their minds darkened and the eyes of their understanding blinded through the ignorance that is in them 3. The Fourth and last Branch which is likewise the worst consists in a Necessity of Willing and desiring that which we ought not to desire or will Against this branch of Servitude or men thus affected is that Woe of the Prophet in particular denounced Esay 5. 20. We unto them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Of this Third and Fourth Branch is that of the Apostle Eph. 4. 19. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto Lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness 4. The Third Branch or Impotency of willing that which we ought or that which we are in duty bound not only to will but to do is such an Infirmity of the Soul as we see in some mens bodies which have lost not only their digestive Faculty but all appetite of wholesome Food This Fourth and last Branch which consists in a Necessity of willing that which we ought not to will is like to that distemper of body which Physitians call the Pica or the Malacia that is a ravenous Appetite or greedy Longing after such things as are Loathsome and unnatural 5. These Branches of Servitude unto sin either natural or acquired All these Branches of Servitude but especially the First and the Third are Two-fold either Natural or Acquired Or to speak more properly The Roots and First seeds of them are natural and hereditary from our first Parents The Nutriment the Growth or increase of them is for the most part from men themselves not from Adam These are acquired or purchased by ill Education or breeding ☜ by lewd Company or bad Customes Never was there any son of Adam but upon Examination might have found himself oft-times indisposed unapt or altogether unable to do many things which in the General he approved as Good in his retured thoughts he desired to do and for the not doing of which when opportunity served and occasions required his wakened Conscience or After-thoughts would often check him Never was there any son of Adam whose Conscience upon a review or Examination of his Actions would not accuse or condemn him for doing many things which in better Mood he desired not to do and such things as he had promised to himself and his own Conscience if not to others not to do 6. But this Necessity of doing many things which in their sober mood they resolve not to do ☜ or of doing them in such a high measure and degree as oft-times they are done is not Hereditary to any Son of Adam This is a necessity which men bring upon themselves either by frequenting Lewd Company or by bad Custome or at least have it brought upon them not by Adam but by the bad example or ill instructions of their immediate Parents or Overseers As for the Fourth Branch of Servitude which consists in a Necessity of willing or desiring those things which men ought not to desire this of all the rest is least hereditary For it includes a degree of Iniquity with which we cannot charge our Father Adam He indeed sought to mince or mitigate his offence after he had wilfully committed it and thus to do was a grievous fault or offence But we never read nor have we any reason to suspect that he did delight or glory either in this or in any other Sin or use his sins past as an advantage or Rise to mount himself to Sin We do not read that Cain did glory in the murther of his Brother Abel or that Judas did make himself merry with the price of bloud Both of them were servants unto Sin and by sin unto Satan Their Servitude unto sin in general was hereditarie and necessarily derived unto them as it is naturally unto all us from our father Adam But neither was the One a Murtherer or Fratricide nor the other a Traytor by natural d scent or inheritance Judas became a Traytor by making himself as base a Servant or vassal to Covetousnesse yet not so great a servant to the one or other Sin as those which delight and glory in these or the like Sins For though the Scripture hath concluded all under sin as well the Jew as the Gentile Though the best of men as the Scripture teacheth us be by Nature the Servants of sin yet we read of some whom the Scripture hath branded with this mark that they have sold themselves to work wickedness or do mischief And these are slaves to Sin and Bond-men unto Satan by a double Title the One by natural descent or inheritance the Other by their own voluntary Acts as it were of bargain or Sale Cain and these Jews mentioned John 8. which persecuted our Saviour because his works were Good and theirs were evil were not only the Sons of Adam though that were enough to make them Servants of Sin but as our Saviour tels them in the 44. verse of that 8. Chapter They were of their Father the Devil 7. But to descend unto a more particular survey of Every Branch beginning with the First and Second which are for the most part coincident and so mutually wrapt together that we cannot truly handle the one but we must touch the other For The First as hath been said before consists in an impotencie or impossibility of doing that which we oft-times desire to doe and approve as good And this impotency or impossibility doth ordinarily proceed from or draw after it a necessitie of doing that which we destire not to do and which in our better thoughts we altogether condemn as naughty and unfitting to be done 8. Some measure of these Branches was clearly discovered by the wiser and more sober sort of the Heathen How far the Testimonies of the Heathen are Authentick for the truth of this Doctrine delivered And the men which were most subject to either were adjudged by them
Chair or when He entred into the Sanctum Sanctorum but to the Sanedrim or Common Council of the Priests and Elders whereof the high Priest was a more Principal then Necessary Member 9. The improvement of this Jewish Heresie and Slavery to Satan throughout the Patriarchate of Rome had its Original from an Ambitious Error in that Church through succession of times not very Ancient by laying challenges to all Gods promises made to his Vniversal or Catholick Church as to her own Peculiar Prerogative And as if this had not been enough the successors of these desperate Challengers have contracted the Catholick Church which in their Language is all one with the Church of Rome unto the Pope and his Cardinals or as they term it the Sacred Consistory Some later Canonists and Parasites to the Pope Jesuites especially have laboured to drive the Vniversal Church like a Camel through a needles eye into the Popes Breast alone whensoever he shall deliver his Sentence ex Cathedra as if as well all Gods Promises as Blessings promised to his Catholick Church were The One to be disposed of The Other to be dispensed by him as by Christs sole Vicar General or Vice-Roy here on Earth But these Positions some Interimists or Labourers for Reconciliation betwixt the Church of Rome of England wil hapily reply are but the Opinions of private men not maintained or taught by the Catholick Church Yet none of them whether Cardinals Jesuites or Casuists whether Priests or Laicks of inferiour ranke will or dare deny that the Infallible Guidance of the Holy Ghost for Leading Christs Church into the truth is immediately annexed to the Roman Church Representative that is to all such Councils or Assemblies of Christian men as are called by the Pope as Christs Vice-Roy and approved of by him and his Assistants The Necessary Consequence of this Position is That No one Council which hath been called by the Pope and approved by him did ever heretofore Erre or can Erre hereafter 10. The former mis-interpretation of Gods Promises made unto the Vniversal Church He meanes W. Laud The R R. Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Book that is as Romanists say unto the Church of Rome is excellently refuted by the Author of that Matchless Piece heretofore annexed to Doctor Whites Learned Answer to the Jesuite Fisher since Published by The Author of it in his own Name with many Learned and Pious additions Of all which I have no more for the present to say then this Respondent Vltima primis Both the First and Second Edition are worthy their Author And this is more then I know otherwise how to expresse The first Edition I had the happinesse to peruse when I had finished this Treatise of Servitude to sin for my private use and for the benefit of such as were committed to my Pastoral Charge and had entered upon another Treatise Concerning Christian Obedience for preventing the spreading infection of a Pestilent Book dispersed through the Northern parts of this Kingdom set forth by a Jesuite under this Sawcy Title The Prelate and the Prince And for preparing the Antidote I found good Directions and Ingredients from the forementioned Author 11. But suppose the rest of the Church be disposed to Believe this Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility Wherein doth the matchless Slavery of the Romish Church unto Satan in respect of Jews or Heathens punctually consist In This especially That if any Council Wherein the Bishop of Rome or Patriarch of the West as his Stile sometimes was had any principal Interest or Prerogative either in calling or confirming it have Erred the present Pope and his Adherents whether Priests or Laicks are Bound by solemn Oath and under a dreadful Curse to make up the Measure of their Fore-Fathers Errors Negligences Ignorances or other enormous sins and iniquities whether committed against the Rule of Faith or against the Law of God For all which they are also Bound by their own Doctrine and Liturgie to beg Pardon as well for their Fore-Fathers Transgressions as for their own in respect of what is past and to pray for the prevention of the like in times to come Now this is the Greatest Yoke of Slavery that Satan durst or could attempt to Lay upon the neck of Christs Church Militant here on Earth albeit he could by subtilty prevail to place his Primogenitus that is such an Antichrist as many in the Romish Church conjecture shall hereafter come that is a Man begotten by the Devil of a Woman or Daughter of the Tribe of Dan as Christs Vicar-General in S. Peters Chair If any such Antichrist shall hereafter arise the Measure of Personal Iniquity may be greater then any Popes or the Papacy hitherto hath been but the Kind must be the same A worse or more desperate kind of iniquity or Antichristianism then this late mentioned cannot be imagined The End of Chap. 21. IT was the Authors Fashion mostly to preach upon such Texts as might ground the matter that he intended after to Treat upon in his writings and so to weave his Sermons into the Body of his Discourses or Tracts as occasion required The Studious Reader knowing This and observing 1. A passage at the Beginning of the Second Section page 3018. the seventh Chapter of This Book which promises To annex to these Discussions A Sermon About That Sort of Jews which made that Sawcy Reply to Christ verse 33. John 8. whether they were Such as verse 30. were said to Believe on Him or No. And then 2. Taking notice of the Title of the 14. Chapter it begins the third Section page 3039. which is That even those Jews which did in part Believe in Christ were true Servants unto Sin He will see the Reasons that procured the Insert on of these two Sermons or Tracts ensuing here at This Place As being conceived most neerly allied to the matter preceding and more accomodate to the Readers Use who as is probably presumed if He had but only been reminded of This in the Margin before he had proceeded to read the fourth Section would first have sought out and read these two Discourses in Case they had been deferred and placed in the Rear of this Book CHAP. XXII A Postil or short Discourse upon our Saviours words JOHN 8. 36. If the Son therefore shall make you Free ye shall be Free Indeed The Connexion of This verse with The precedent 1. THis verse is inferred by way of Conclusion from the verse Precedent The Servant abideth not in the house for ever But the Son abideth for ever The Difficulties emergent be Two The Former Concerning the true Sense and meaning or at least the Limitation of the Antecedent to wit The Servant abideth not in the house for ever c. The Other Concerns the Inference or Connexion betwixt This Antecedent and the Conclusion If the Son therefore c. Some of best note amongst the Ancient or middle rank of Interpreters The Opinion of
heirs not therefore in the estate of absolute election because they are in the estate of the sons of God or heirs with Christ by Baptism For many whom God hath graciously accepted for his sons many who during the time of their Infancy have enjoyed the estate or Priviledge of the sons of God may in riper years turn Prodigal sons and disinherit themselves and none can be disinherited but he that hath been in the estate or Condition of an Heire or untill with Esau he have sold his birth-right Both parts of this Assertion That all that are Baptized in their Infancy become the Sons of God and during their Infancy do live to God 2. That Sin even in such may revive and wound some grievously others mortally are included in our Apostles dispute Rom. 7. 9. I was once alive saith the Apostle without the Law but when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed Doth he speak this of himself only or of all men without exception or restraint that were without the Law Not Absolutely of all Men that were without the Law for so the Gentiles which were not under the Law which knew not God nor his Lawes should have been so alive as the Apostle there saith he sometimes was because they were more without the Law then he at any time was Nor doth he speake this of himself alone but of all such as he was That is of all such and only such as were the Seed of Abraham and had been circumcised the 8 th day and by Circumcision became under the Law though for the present without the Law So that as Baptism now so circumcision then did free the Children of Abraham from the curse of the Law did Translate them from the estate or Condition of the Sons of wrath to the Condition or Priviledge of the Sons of God But did the Apostle or his brethren which were made alive by Circumcision in their Infancy continue in the same estate of Life untill their mortal Lives end No The Apostle expresly adds But when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed So that sin before the Commandement came was dead and revived when the Law came And the Apostle before the same point of time was alive but then dyed When then did the commandement come which by its coming did bring life to sin and death to this our Apostle and such as he was It is an Observation of very good Vse which S. Basil hath to this purpose in his Comment upon the first Psalm See S. Basil's words at the End of this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When our Reason comes once to ripeness or perfection That is fulfilled which is written Adveniente mandato revixit Peccatum when the Commandement comes Sin revives For when such as have submitted themselves to the Law of God come to the use of Reason or to take their Estate into Consideration they begin to examine their Consciences by the Law of God and sin which was before Inherent though quiet being called in Question grows desperate and rebellious against the Law by which it is examined against the Judge which condemns it against the Party which calls it in Question The Extract as well of our Apostles speech as of S. Basils Observation upon it confirms the Truth Chap. 29. n. 5. which was before delivered in the Treatise of Mortification That the same measure of Regeneration which sufficeth during the time of Infancy or Childhood sufficeth not to save the same Parties when they come to Use of Reason or Consideration for then the Commandement comes upon us a Commandement to Mortifie the deeds of the Flesh by the Spirit to enter the Lists or Combate with sin reviving in us which will certainly kill us unless we mortifie it as it reviveth in us or quell it as it rebells against us So that the estate or Condition of such as have been baptized after once they come to the use of Reason is an estate different from their estate in their Infancy or Childhood an estate likewise different ordinarily from the Absolute estate of Election But of this estate and of our Christian demeanour in it I shall now only say thus much in Generall This Mortification of the Flesh which our Apostle injoynes Rom. 8. 13. is that Reasonaâ—le Service which the same Apostle requires Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your Reasonable Service But why a Reasonable Service In opposition to the Service of the Law which did consist in the Sacrifice of Buls and Goats and other Reasonless Creatures which yet were offered by the holy men of God in Testification of their Faith or Expectation of the promised Messias This Reasonable Service or Mortification of the Flesh must be performed by us in Testification of our Beliefe that he hath accomplished the Sacrifices of the Law by the Sacrifice of himself Again this sacrifice or offering of Our selves that is of Mortifying our Brutish or unreasonable affections by the Spirit Aurum Thus Myrrham Regique Hominique Deoque says Juvencus an old Poet and Father that lived An. xii 330. is a great deal more acceptable to God then the offerings which the three Kings or Wise men offered unto our Saviour Jesus Christ They offered Gold Myrrhe and Frankincense in testimony or acknowledgement that the child then born was the King of the Jews But in as much as we know that we are not redeemed with silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish we cannot either Symbolize with the Sacrifice of our High Priest or attain to that live Sympathie with him by the offering of silver gold or any other kind of offering besides the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit If as He offred himself by the eternall Spirit to God the Father for us So we again offer up our selves to him by Mortifying our earthly man by the Spirit then his Bloud as the Apostle speaks Heb. 9. 14. shall throughly purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God and finally cleanse us from all our sins Unto this Reasonable service or offering up of our selves We were consecrated by Baptism This was a Sermon preacht upon the Epiphanie as I take it and bound by solemn vow then made and if we continue constant in performing this Vow after we come to riper years we shall continue in the state or Condition of the Sons of God which we had by Baptism and by continuance or Progress in this estate we shall arrive at the Immutable state of grace or absolute election For the end of the Son of Gods appearance or manifestation was that he might thus lead us on from strength to strength untill we appear before our God in Sion The Doctrine of Mortification and the consequences thereof were it thus Taught and Laid to the
of the Son of God is not by their doctrine of infinite value nor of force and vertue everlasting but infinite only secundum quid i. e. infinite in the Nature of a bloudie sacrifice not so simply infinite as to exclude all other sacrifice or offering for sin For if it had been of value infinite or All-sufficient to take away sin whilest it was offered up in a bloudy manner there had been no more offering either required or left for sin whether a bloudie or a bloudlesse offering whether after a bloudy or a bloudless manner for if Once offered it were in the nature of an offering infinite it necessarily took away all other offerings or manner of offering for sin A Note Relating to the precedent Chapter EUsebius Socrates and Theodoret amongst the Greeks Primasius and Austin amongst the Latines do not distinguish betwixt these two Ominous names Novatus and Novatianus But St. Cyprian in his 49. Epistle shews plainly that they were of two distinct persons though agreeing too well in Schism and Heresie Novatus was an African new Monster a Preshyter in the Church of Carthage where S. Cyprian was Bishop vir sui nominis for he was Rerum novarum semper Cupidus disobedient to his Bishop spightful against the Order unnatural to his Father who dyed for hunger and lay too long unburied unfaithful to the Orphan the Widdow the Church-stock unkind to his wife whom he made to miscarry with a kick Damnat sacrificantium manus ipse nocentior pedibus says S. Cyprian Thus qualified fearing Excommunication He fled to Rome and joyned with Novatianus a Roman Presbyter who was about that time brewing his Schism against Cornelius Bishop of Rome These Two were the Ring-leaders of the Sect of the Cathari See S. Cyprian Epist 49. and Epist 51. 52. with Rigaltius his Notes CHAP. LV. From the Text Heb. 10. ver 1 2 16 17. And from this Maxim That Christ's One Sacrifice of himself was of Value absolutely Infinite it follows not That such as worship God in Spirt or such as are received into The Covenant of Grace have their sinnes remitted before they do committ them That Doctrine makes Christ's Resurrection useless in respect of us and Baptism needlesse Legal worshippers Conscious and their sins remembred in such a sort as Evangelical worshippers are not The vast Oddes betwixt Christ's One Sacrifice and the Many Legal We must distinguish betwixt the Infinite value and Infinite vertue of Christs sacrifice The precious Effects of H. Baptism and the Eucharist flowing from the Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice and Priesthood How Legal Sacrifices c did prefigure Christ's 1. BUt unto men which have not their Senses exercised in the Prophetical and Evangelical Writings or in the Harmonie betwixt them the words of the Apostle in that tenth Chapter to the Hebrewes An Objection made ver 1 2 16 17. do minister some scruple His words ver 1 2 are these The Law can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the commers thereunto perfect For then would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshippers that is such as were observers of the Legal worship only should have had no more conscience of sin From this Opposition between the condition of Gods people under the Law and the Condition of his people under the New Covenant that is of such as worship him not by Legal Sacrifices but in the Spirit it may seem to be concluded that such as are within the Covenant of Grace or worship him in spirit have their Sinnes remitted before they can commit them or as soon as they begin to worship God not by Legal sacrifices but in the spirit For if the sins of men thus qualified were not remitted before they were received into the Covenant of Grace or at least at the time when they were thereunto admitted they should at least have as much if not more Conscience of sin as the Legal worshippers had 2. This Scruple or Question which the words of the Apostle ver 1 2. do minister may be fortified or Augmented from the same Apostles Inference ver 17. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more This is the Privilege of such as are within the New Covenant Fortified Now if according to the Tenor of this privilege God will no more remember their sinnes and iniquities who are comprized within the new Covenant the cause or Controversie may seem concluded that God will neither punish their sinnes nor question them for them For all punishment of sin all inquisition after sin doth include or presuppose a Remembrance or Cognizance of the sins for which men are punished or questioned Both these Scruples may receive strength or Countenance from that general Maxim unto which we willingly subscribe That the bloudy sacrifice whereby this new Covenant was made and ratified Reinforced was of value absolutely infinite for taking and putting away sinnes And how could it possibly be of value infinite for taking away sins unlesse the sins of all all their sins for whom it was offered were by it taken away or remitted So taken away that they should be no more remembred in Gods sight that They should have no more Conscience or horrour of sin 3. Answered The clear and unquestionable Points of Truth included in the Apostles words are but Two The Former That the Legal Worshippers were conscious of sin in such a sort as the Evangelical worshippers or men comprehended under the new Covenant are not conscious The Second that God did remember the sins of such as were under the former Covenant after such a manner as he doth not remember their sinnes who are under the new Covenant of Grace But for the Distinct meaning of the Apostle that is how farre the Legal worshippers had a consciousness of sin how farr the Evangelical worshippers have none In what sort measure or manner God did remember the sinnes of his people under the Old Covenant and not remember the sinnes of his people under the new Covenant of Grace we can have no better scantling no more indifferent standard than the words of the same Apostle in the same tenth Chapter ver 3. But in those sacrifices to wit which were offered by the Law there is a remembrance or commemoration of sin made every year But wherein did this Annual Remembrance or Commemoration of sin consist The Law as the Apostle elsewhere speakes was but a School-master unto Christ and the Lessons which this School-master did by the Annual or other bloudie sacrifices especially teach were these That the men by whom or for whom these bloudie sacrifices were offered had deserved and as often as they offered them did deserve to be tormented and mangled as these sacrifices were That the â—utchery of Them was but Favorabilis commutatio poenae a favourable exchange or diverting the punishment from themselves upon these bruit Beasts That whiles the fire under Gods Altar did continue Gods
of sin or that which is more then a Habit an unmoveable custome of sin or an Hereditary disease of sinfulness throughout all the successions of the sons of Adam to the worlds end The second Querie yet in the first place to be discuss'd is this Wherein the nature of that hereditary disease which we call Sin Original doth properly consist The third How this hereditary disease doth bring all mankind into a true and proper servitude to sin and by sin unto Satan c. In the discussion of this and many other difficulties depending upon it I shall endeavour to observe that Rule which Chemnitius in many of his works hath commended to the observation of every Student in Divinity and his Rule is this To state all Questions upon those places of Scripture out of which they are naturally emergent or out of those passages upon whose mistakings or non-observance of them many Theological controversies were first occasioned and are to this day abetted or maintained with eagerness of dissension To begin first with that most heavenly discourse of our Saviour John 8. 30 c. SECT II. Of the Properties or Symptomes of Sin Original and of the nature of Sin in general CHAP. VII Containing the State of the Controversie or Debate betwixt our Saviour and the Jews John 8. 30 c. JOHN Chap. 8. Verse 30. As he spake those words many believed on him Verse 31. Then said Jesus unto those Jews which believed on him if ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed Verse 32. And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Verse 33. They answered him We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou Ye shall be made free Verse 34. Jesus answered them Verily verily I say unto you Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin Verse 35. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth ever Verse 36. If the Son therefore shall make you Free ye shall be Free indeed 1. A Paraphrase on John 8. vers 34 c. WHether that Reply or sawcy interruption vers 33. We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man How sayest thou ye shall be made Free was made by those Jews whom our Evangelist avouches did believe on him vers 30. or by some other By-standers hath been discuss'd in a Sermon lately delivered which by Gods assistance shall be annexed to the Discussions following which better befit the Press or the Schools then the Pulpit So that I must take my Rise from our Saviours Rejoynder to that former sawcy reply vers 34. Verily verily I say unto you Whosoever committeth sin c. The fore-cited sentence of Cyprian doth here again opportunely interpose it self Vt Deum cognoscas teipsum prius cognosce That thou mayest know God aright first learn to know thy self The advice is as true and fitting to our present purpose Vt Christum cognoscas teipsum prius cognosce There is no better way or Method to know Christ as He is in speciall our Lord God and Redeemer then by knowing or understanding our selves to be servants and wherein that servitude consists from which we are redeemed That we are by nature servants unto sin you will require no further proof nor can there any other be found better then our Saviours own Authority Verily verily I say unto you Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin The Assertion is Emphatical and as peremptory as plain But concerning the Extent or Limitation of it there may be some Question made or Scruple cast in by the ordinary Hearer or Reader For seeing as Solomon long ago hath taught us Ex cathedra There is no man that sinneth not and our Apostle to like purpose If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us Then if it be universally true which our Saviour here saith whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin the very Redeemed of the Lord the best of his Saints here on earth may seem concluded to be servants to sin seeing he that sinneth doth commit sin The Argument is somewhat captious and would be stronger if To commit sin were a verb of the present Tense and were to be no further extended But the word in the Original is not a verb but a participle of the present Tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And participles of that Form as every young Student in the Greek tongue Ecclesiastick especially well knows are according to Hebraisms most frequent in the Greek Testament fully Equivalent to Latin Verbals Vinum appetere that is to call for a cup of wine any ordinary man may without impeachment to his sobriety or censure of temulency But to be Homo appetens vini is in the Latin Tongue a full Character or expression of a Wine-bibber or a Drunkard So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as much as if he had said in Latin Operarius iniquitatis which is the best expression of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not every one that committeth a sin or more sins then one but every one that is a Committer of sin or a Worker of Iniquity is the Servant of sin And such all of us are by Nature and so continue until we be redeemed by the Free Grace of Christ from the Dominion of sin and Tyrannie of Satan But before we can come to know the manner how we are made Free by the Son of God we must as hath been intimated before first know wherein our servitude to sin doth consist And this we cannot well know without some prenotion or description at least of the properties or conditions of sin especially original To omit the distinction of sins of Omission and Commission there be of sin generally or indefinitely taken I dare not say divers kinds but divers stems roots or branches The First root of sin was the sin of the First man which was both an Actual and Habitual sin in him The second is Sin Original which is more then an Habit an hereditary disease of our Nature altogether incurable save only by the Free Grace of the Son of God Over and above both these roots or stems there be other branches as some Sins Habitual which are acquired or produced by such precedent Actual sins as we freely and frequently commit without any necessity imposed upon us by the inhabitation of Sin Original in our Nature CHAP. VIII Of the Sin of the First man And of Sin Original which was derived from him Of Sins Actual and the difference betwixt them That of Sin Original the Heathens had a natural notion 1. COncerning the Actuall Sin of the First man and the Habit which it produced in himself I have not much more to say then hath been said before to wit that neither could have any necessary Cause but a Cause contingent only or a free Agent Nor is there I take it
Condition required unto the salvation of the weaker sex as our Apostle hath it 1 Tim. 2. 15. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in Child-bearing if she continue in faith and charity and holinesse with sobriety And so is abstinence from some peculiar sins or from Occasions of temptations to such sins as their Progenitors have been most prone unto more peremptorily required in their Children then in Other Men whose Ancestors or Progenitors have not been tainted with the like sins nor obnoxious to like temptations 4. Whether all branches of sin Original do necessarily spring from our first Parents Sin But here if any man be otherwise minded or disposed to contradict what I have said or shall briefly say Concerning this point I professe I shall not be willing to debate the Probleme any further with him Only I must for mine own part protest that there never yet arose any doubt or question between me and my most retired thoughts Whether there may not be and are sundry particular Branches of sin or natural inclinations unto Evil propagated from intermediate Parents unto their Children or Families for many Generations which do not by any Natural Necessity grow out of that Original Stem or Root of Corruption whereof all of us are partakers by the Fall of our First Parents Yet I would intreat the Reader to take this Consideration along with him That such Hereditary ill dispositions or inclinations to some peculiar vices as we mean may abate remit or revive and be improved through several successions or collateral Lines of the same Stem unto which they are for some generations Hereditary or finally expire after the same manner that similitude of bodily Lineaments feature or visages do vary alter or expire in many Ancient families Some Children being more true pictures of their Great Grand-fathers or Grand-fathers or great Uncles then of their immediate Parents Others again more like their immediate parents then to any of their Ancestors whether by father or mother Concerning the Cause or manner How similitudes of feature of bodily Lineaments or visages do or may abate or remit in the first or second Descent and revive in third or fourth Vid. inter alios Franciscum Valleriolam in comm in Hippocr this the Reader must learn from Philosophers or Physitians as Aristotle or Galen which of purpose have searched into this secret of Nature For illustration of the maner how hereditary indispotions of the heart or affections may abate revive or expire in the several Descents of families the determination of that moral Probleme An nobilitas generis desinat in uno vitioso will be pertinent Now that Nobility of Bloud or those inclinations unto Heroical vertues for which some Ancient Families have been famous do not necessarily cease or expire through the vitiousnesse of one Succession was a point determined in the Schools when I first knew them And Experience may teach a Long-Liv'd Observant man that Two vitious or lewde Successors do not oftentimes so abate or utterly dead those seeds of vertue which were propagated to them from their Ancestors but that they may revive or be improved in the Fourth Generation or Descent The abating reviving or expiring of them depends most upon their Education And so doth the abatement or improvement of Original Sin or inclinations unto Evil. Even that Corruption of Nature which we necessarily draw from the losse of Paradise is not equal in all the sons of Adam though it be most true That every one of us is as truly tained with it as any Other Again though it be universally true That all men are by Nature Sinners all destitute of the Grace of God Yet is it no part of this Vniversal truth to deny That some Race or Brood of Men are from their birth or Conception much more by Education more gracelesse then Others are And yet for such as have the least measure of sin whether Original Habitual or Actual Or for men as we terme them of Sweet Dispositions or Good nature it is as impossible to be freed from Natural Servitude unto sin without the Special Grace of God in Christ as it is for the greatest Sinners or most Gracelesse Brood of men The best of us even after the participation of Grace in some degree have a greater measure of one or other kind of sin then we take notice of or then we can Learn from most Professors of Divinity which have purposely undertaken to Decypher the nature and haynousnesse of it CHAP. XII Containing the true and solid Definition of sin whether Original or Acquired by vitious Acts or dispositions 1. THe best attempt that I have read or heard to this purpose was made long ago by One who hath been so buffeted on both sides which he sought to teach or instruct as would make an ordinary Souldier in our Christian warfare afraid either to be his Second or to come unto his Rescue Illyricus his Definition of Sin Original how far blamable how farr Commendable Flaccius Illyricus I mean a man most happy in Political undertakings and atchivements which were rather below then beyond his profession Yet in his Treatise Concerning the Nature of Original Sin or the nature of sin in general Two wayes unfortunate First in that he was not so profound a Philosopher or exquisite Artist as it were fitting Every Divine which will undertake to handle this part of Divinity or others which have connexion with it should be Secondly in that he was a better Philosopher and more exquisite Artist by much then such Divines whether in reformed Churches or others which have taken upon them to rectifie or confute his Errors These for the most part run a wider Byaz on the left hand towards the Nominals then he doth on the right hand from the Real Philosophers or Divines This man went the right way to his work and begun it like a good Artist by defining or displaying the Nature or Essence of Original Righteousness before he entred into that dispute Concerning the Nature of Original Sin or unrighteousnesse He rightly and upon demonstrative grounds denies Original Righteousness to be any quality supernatural any Accident or property adventitious to the Humane nature if we consider that in the Estate wherein it was first created Nor did he commit any error much lesse incur any censure of Heresie by avouching Original Righteousness to have been the Essential form of man if he had expressd his meaning with this addition or limited his expressions thus As the First man was the work of God or considered as he was created in His Image For as I am forced often to repeat there were not in mans Creation Two works of God really distinct either in order of nature or in respect of time nor so distinct as that The One might be imagined to be the Nature of the first man or of Gods image in Him The other a Coronation of his Nature or image of God with a Grace or righteousnesse supernatural
a Servant but to one Lord besides his Bellie Whereas his Master had subjected himself to many unruly Appetites and enormous desires all contrary to the Dictates of his own Reason or Conscience in his more private and retired thoughts So much of the Law of Reason and of Nature was implanted in this his Master that he could highly commend the manners and practises of the Ancient Romans And yet if any good spirit did invite or move him to follow their example he was as ready to kick at the motion or the practise in Particular as he had been to commend the pattern set him by the Ancient Romans considered only in the General Being not invited by his betters abroad a moderate homely dish of broath of herbs c was most applauded by him and his family free from molestation But if Mecaenas or any other great Potentate had upon short warning invited him to supper he instantly declared himself to be a Slave both to his Belly and to his Superiors and a Tyrant withal to his Servants chiding one for not bringing him Oyl beating another for not bringing him water or other preparatives with more speed then could in reason be expected From these and the like Inductions Davus concludes his Master to be more then a Slave or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an instrument indued with Life and motion a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wooden Picture of a Man which had no mastery over his own motions or resolutions having subjected his Will and Reason to dance attendance upon Every Great mans will or pleasure like a puppit upon a string which it hath no power to wag or move but is moved upon it at the pleasure of the master or practiser of this kind of childish sport The rest of this Slaves Arguments all concludent to prove his Master or such men as he was to be more sottish slaves then himself the Reader may find briefly set down in the eighth book of these Commentaries Sect. 2. Chap. 7. page in Quarto 63. CHAP. XX. Of the Fruitlesnesse of the former Notions in the best Heathens 1. BUt what did it boot this Satyrist to know all this or to mark the most of the Romans his Country-men to be indeed true Servants Horace and Tully both true Servants though they knew not tò whom He himself laid nothing of all this to Heart The best use we can in discretion presume to be made of this Observation was to make himself and Others merry setting down his observations by way of Play or Enterlude He lived and for ought we know dyed an Epicure not in Practise only but in Opinion One that accounted it the greatest part of misery or Servitude to be wedded to one kind of Bodily Pleasure or carnal delight And the greatest Happiness he aimed at was to be Free to taste and try all kind of Pleasures so far as they were not hurtful unto his body 2. As for Tully though he handled his matters a great deal more gravely and soberly and were much better in Opinion Yet in the issue of his discourse He seems rather to change his Master then any way to set himself Free He was not indeed such a Servant to his own Imagination or Fancy not such a Servant to Covetousnesse to Lust perhaps not to Ambition or Superiority of dominion as He observed the most other Romans to be Yet he was a greater Servant to His Owne Will then others were to their inferior desires His very Will it self was in Servitude as having no Rule to rectifie it unlesse it were the Romane Lawes which though in many particulars they were Good yet Such as were too much addicted unto the intire Frame of them Or Such as gloried in the wisdome or Excellencie of them were brought unwittingly to exercise Enmitie against God and his Annoynted Christ. Such as the Romanes accounted their Godliest Patriots or Common-wealths-men were alwayes the Greatest Enemies unto the Jewes or Professors of Moses Law before our Saviours time as unto the Christians after our Saviours death God in his just Judgements did send them such cruell Kings as Tiberius and Nero because they were so cruelly bent against the Professors of his Gospel What could it advantage these or any other Heathens to know themselves to be in Servitude not knowing unto whom they were in Servitude or whose Servants they were de Facto nor by whom they were to be made Free Some good Notions they had of vice or of Sin But of Satan or his wicked Angels they had not so much as heard or at least what they had heard of them they accounted but Toyes or Fables And that which was the Root of their misery and strongest bond of their Slavery was that they worshipped Friends or Devils as if in their opinion they had been Gods because able to do them bodily harm or bodily good Now in offering Sacrifices as our Apostle saith unto Devils they did solemnly and publikely professe them to be their Lords and Masters So that they were not only professed Servants unto Sin but professed Servants unto Satan In worshipping them and doing them Service they did that which was worthy of stripes and were to be beaten yet with fewer stripes then the wicked Jew or such as confesse Christ to be their Lord and yet will not learn to deny ungodlinesse For these Heathens did not know that they had such a Lord or Master whom they were bound to serve And not knowing him to be their Master how was it possible that they should know his will But we acknowledge him to be Our Lord We know his will We know the End of his coming into the World was to destroy the works of Satan Now if we shall labour to build up that which He came to destroy we shall prove our selves not only to be servants to sin and by Sin Servants unto Satan but professed Enemies and Traytors unto Christ 3. Many that call Christ Lord true Servants to Satan Our Saviours Sentence is Universal Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin As you shall think or meditate upon the same let me request you to take this addition or Supplement into consideration with it Whosoever is the Servant of Sin is the Servant the Slave or Bondman of Satan ☜ Let no man therefore flatter himself with this or the like Conceit That because he professeth Christ to be his Lord he cannot therefore be so true a Slave and Bondman unto Satan as the Idolatrous Heathen were which offered sacrifice unto him They did indeed unwittingly implicitely and really acknowledge him to be their Lord and themselves his Servants by paying Rent or Tribute unto him But such as deny all such Rent or Service may make him their Lord Vid. Salvianum 1-6 and themselves his slaves or Bondmen by Prescription or continual possession 4. The Heathens which offered sacrifice unto Bacchus as to a supposed god of riot or Good Fellowship or a Patron
present themselves Even he that hath no power to resist the least temptation that offers it self nor Freedom of Will to refuse the greatest Evil and chuse the least when both are actually proffered may in the Cessation of Actual Temptations Reflect upon his former Acts and take a survey of his life past especially if he be thereto occasioned or perswaded by a discreet Admonitor one that will not affright him with the Marks of Reprobation The first Branch of Freedom or rather the very root of Free-Will in every Reasonable Creature is seated in this Power of Reflexion upon its own Acts. This is the First Point or Property wherein Reason doth exceed Sense Now he that hath but this Branch of Freedom to Calculate his former Acts hath with it a Power to Charge his Soul with the heavy burthen of his sins The Conscience will alwayes be ready in quiet thoughts to accuse the Flesh and urge the Soul to bear Testimony against it And the soul or Conscience once brought to loath or dislike some special sins is thereby made more Free apt to bewail all other sins whatsoever whether Actual or Original Unlesse David had been throughly stung with the Conscience of murther or Adultery that sweet Confession had never found such perfect vent as it did Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psal 51. 5. Every Creature on whom the Creator hath bestowed any sense or feeling of pain or pleasure hath Power to imploy some motive Faculty for avoiding things grievous or hurtful or for attaining things pleasant and useful for bettering their present Estate And if man have any sense or feeling of his heavy burthen he cannot but in some sort or other desire to be released from it Upon this Principle is that Exhortation of our Saviour Grounded Come unto me all ye that Labour and are heavy Laden and I will ease you Mat. 11. 28. 16. So then albeit there be a true Freedom of Will in all the sons of Adam which are not utterly or finally forsaken of God yet is not this Freedom the same in all neither in respect of its Objects or Acts nor in respect of its Degrees or Strength Some have a Competent Measure of Liberty to avoid Occasions or external Motives to known sins but either no portion of like Liberty or a very Little One to resist such temptations to foul sins as come upon them unexpectedly Others have a Competent Measure of like Freedom to resist Temptations or Opportunities to grosse sins but little or none at all to bewaile their natural misery or to beat down their inbred Pride by Contemplation of Sin Original or by Reflecting upon sins of Omission or Positive Acts of ordinary Transgression Others again which had deprived themselves of all Freedom for avoiding Occasions or resisting Temptations to certain sins have a Larger measure of Freedom then others have to be humbled under Gods Mighty Hand which is in Order the First and by disposition of the Divine Providence the most Available means for attaining Mortification which must be the Subject of the next Discourse wherein I must follow my Method proposed to wit To discusse the true meaning of those Scriptures wherein the Difficulties or Questions Concerning this Duty are properly seated To begin with that of our Apostle Rom 8. 12. SECT V. Of the Great Duty of Mortification And of the Vse of Free-Will for performing it CHAP. XXVIII Of the General Contents which concern the Duty of Mortification And which be the Special Works of the Flesh we are to Mortifie ROM Chap. 8. Vers 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you Vers 12. Therefore Brethren we are Debters not to the Flesh to live after the Flesh Vers 13. For if ye Live after the Flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the spirit do Mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 1. A brief Paraphrase upon Rom. 8. 12 c. THis Portion of Scripture is more fit to ground the Connexion of what goeth before or cometh after it from the beginning of this 8 th Chapter unto the end then to receive any Bounds or Limitation which it is capable of from any Reference to other Passages either for the plain and full Grammatical or for the Moral and Theological Sense The Grammatical Construction of the 12 th verse though for so much as some of our Modern Translations suggest unto us it afford but One Proposition and that a Negative We are debters not to the flesh yet according to the Original Character or full Construction it contains Two Emphatical Propositions the One Affirmative the Other Negative The Affirmative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Debters we are and Debters for a greater Sum then all Mankinds either Real or Personal Estates in this world are able to discharge The Negative Debters we are in no wise either in whole or part unto the Flesh unto which we owe nothing besides Revenge or Mortification of It that is by delivering it up Captive to the Spirit unto whom we owe more then our temporal Estate here on Earth our very Souls The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full Declaration of both Propositions follows vers 13. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die this is the unsupportable debt which the flesh hath brought and seeks to bring upon us But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall Live for ever This is a greater Boon then we can deserve as much as we can desire more then we can make any part of requital for it 2. For stating Cases of Conscience not for dealing betwixt man and man but but betwixt the Judge of Quick and Dead and our own Souls I know no portion of Scripture whether in the Old or New Testament of better or more frequent Use then This 13 th verse Let such as are so minded maintain Tenents already set on Foot or multiply Questions to the worlds End about the Certainty of their Personal Estate in Grace or Final Salvation or bestow their Marks and Tokens whether of Absolute Election or Reprobation as they please yet unto honest hearted Christians or such as desire so to be there can be no Sign or token of Salvation either Firmer in its self or more Certain to them then the right Computation of their constant Progresse in the Mortifying of the Flesh by the Spirit The First Question or Examination of our Progresse in this Duty is to know What be the deeds of the Flesh or Body which we are to Mortifie And How far we are to mortifie them The Second How the flesh is Mortified by us How by the Spirit The Third which happily will intermingle it self here and there with the first and second Quaeries is The Limitation of these Two Propositions
If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But if ye through the spirit do Mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 3. Touching the First Point What be the deeds of the Flesh or Body which we are to Mortifie They are set down by our Apostle Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Now the works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like This word Flesh sometimes signifies our Bodily substance sometimes our Corrupted Nature It shall suffice by the way to note in a word that the Flesh or Body is sometimes taken for the Fleshly Nature or Bodily Substance it self Sometimes for the Corruption of the Flesh or of Nature corrupted And in this Later Sense it is to be taken in This Place 4. That we may the better understand this Duty of Mortification by Sounding the Bottom of it we are in the first place to take it into serious Consideration That the words by which our Apostle here expresseth the Works or Deeds of the Flesh are not to be measured according to that Carnal Conceit or Grosse Sense which the Flesh it self alwayes partial for it self is ready to suggest but according to the Scale of the Sanctuary When He saith Adultery Fornication c. are the works of the Flesh we must not understand Only those Acts of Adultery or Fornication which come under the Cognizance or Censure of Courts Civil or Ecclesiastick not the Fruits or Blossomes But The very First Seeds of these Sins all Inclinations of the Flesh or Secret desires of the heart of this Kind This Art or Method of measuring these words or the sins comprehended under them our Saviour hath taught us Mat. 5. 27 28. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not Commit Adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a Woman to Lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart When he reckons Lasciviiousness amongst the works of the Flesh we must not restrain this word to Actual Lasciviousness or Lascivousnesse in attempt We are to extend it to every Degree of this sin in Word or Thought to every Motion of the Tongue of our Heart or Senses by which either the Ears or Senses of others or our own Souls or Consciences may be polluted When he saith Idolatry is a work of the Flesh we must not take Idolatry only for the Visible or External Act of Adoration profered either to Creatures or their Images It comprehends All inordinate Affection of the heart to any Creature For to love Money more then God then our Neighbours or more then Equity or just dealing is a Branch of the Idolatry here mentioned by our Apostle For so he interprets himself Eph. 5. 5. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor Covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God Again when he reckons Murther amongst the Works of the Flesh We must not measure This Monster only by such Pictures of it as are drawn in Bloud For even Hatred Wrath Strife and Sedition are true Lineaments or live Limbs of this Gyant Ye have heard saith our Saviour it was said by them of Old Time thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the Judgment But I say unto you That whosever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment And whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councel But whosoever shall say Thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell fire Mat. 5. 21 22. Lastly we are not to take the works of the Flesh albeit we take them in the grossest sense for those Acts Habits or Accustomances only which are seated in the Flesh or Bodily part of man but for those Acts or Inclinations which are accomplished in the Operations or Exercises of the Reasonable Soul For if we mark the Apostles Words not Witchcraft and Idolatry only which are usually accomplished in some External or Bodily Act but even Heresie it self is expresly mentioned amongst the works of the Flesh and yet is Heresie the proper Off-spring of the supreme Faculty of the Humane Soul that is of the Intellective Faculty or Understanding The most dangerous Hereticks have been alwayes men of great understanding and for wit acute and subtile Nor are we to restrain this word Heresie to profest Opinions or Errors expressedly maintained or subscribed unto We are to extend the Apostles meaning unto the First Seeds or Roots of this sin as to Emulation to Affectation of applause to Secret pride of heart or hearty desire of Vain Glory or Excelling others These are the General Seeds of the most Grosse Sins here mentioned And therefore our Apostle in the Conclusion of this 5 th Chapter to the Galatians strikes at the very Root Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another If we harbour these or the like desires though secretly in our breasts they will as Opportunity serves betray us to the Grossest Sins here mentioned as to Murther to Heresie or the like Now not of these grossest sins only as Murther Adultery Heresie or Idolatry but of their First Seeds or Roots our Apostle fore-warnes these Galatians as he had done in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 21. And who then shall Inherit this Kingdom For who is he that is not subject to some one or other of these Mis-demeanours or perverse Inclinations who is he that doth not either consent to unlawful Lust or entertain desires of Applause or of Excelling others or doth not often either Envy or Emulate his Equals or Betters True it is that no man can say His Heart is Clean in respect of these Acts or inclinations unto them Shall no man therefore seeing no man is altogether Free from these Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven God forbid It is one thing to Do such things according to the ordinary Use and construction of this Phrase in our vulgar Language another thing to be a Doer of Them or to make these Misdoings the chiefest of our Doings which is the meaning of the Holy Ghost in this and like Sayings So when it is said He that doth sin is the Servant of sin the meaning is He that is a Doer of that which is sinful is the servant of sin But so is not every one that sinneth for there is no man which sinneth not It is well observed by Maldonate the Jesuite that this word to Do in the Hebrew Dialect includes not the present Act or Operation only but the Habit or Custome of Doing There is no man which sometimes Doth not some of the works here mentioned by our Apostle And yet there is No Man which hath Mortified the
extinguished before they cannot revive themselves Or if children by Baptism were restored unto that State of Innocency which our Parents once had this Innocency could not be lost without some Actual Transgression like unto that transgression by which our First Parents lost their Innocency or Justice Original Actually to transgresse after the similitude of Adam Infants whilest Infants cannot For such Transgression consists in a sinister choice of the Will or in the ill use of Reason And all ill Use of the Will or understanding presupposeth an Use of Reason which cannot be in Infants Again there is no Necessity that all Children should actually transgresse when they first come to the use of Reason if before that time they had been Freed from all Original Corruption or Reliques of the Old Man by Baptism For to lay a Necessity of sinning actually upon any that had been Freed from all Original sin or restored to the state of Innocency which Adam had were to make God the Author of such Actual Sin Adam himself did not actually sin upon any Necessity but Voluntarily and Freely If the First Sin had not been an Actual sin or if that Actual sin had been committed upon Necessity not Adam but God had been the Author of it Certain then it is that This Duty of Mortification is necessary in respect of ALL without any respect of Persons ☜ Every one at their first Arrival unto the Use of Reason or at their Passage out of Infancy into Youth are under This Yoke which is no Evangelical Counsel but a Peremptory Precept And if This Duty necessarily concern ALL at that time ALL must of necessity have Original sin or some Reliques of the Old man in them yea such strong Reliques as will impell them to some Actual Sin or other or to some transgression of some of Gods Commandments when they come unto the Use of Reason Otherwise This Duty or precept could not Vniversally concern ALL without Exception For by the Contrary Doctrine some at least when they first come to the Use of Reason should have no Deeds of the Flesh which they were bound to Mortifie Most of the Romans unto whom our Apostle here writes had been Baptized after they had come to years of discretion And Baptism without all question had been as Effectual in them as it hath been in any other since yet our Apostle supposeth some Deeds of the Flesh to be in ALL of them Even in such as had lateliest been washed in the Laver of Regeneration which were to be Mortified in them So that Baptism is rather a Sacramental Consecration of us to undertake this Flight with the works of our Flesh or corruption of our nature then an utter Extinction or absolute drowning of these Enemies 5. Another necessary Corollary or Consequence of this Doctrine there is not usually observed by Modern Controversors and it is This That the same measure of Regeneration which sufficeth Children or Infants dying before they come to the use of Reason will not suffice such as attain to the use of Reason or years of discretion For if it did or could they might be saved as Infants are without performance of this Duty of Mortification One of these Two must necessarily be granted as Either that Children or Infants are not so thorowly sanctified or regenerated as is necessary to Salvation before the hour of their death which no man to my remembrance hath taught Or else he that affirms them to be truly regenerated or sanctified in their Infancy must yield to us in This That such Children or Infants as have been formerly regenerated in a measure sufficient to their Salvation out-grow this measure of Regeneration or Sanctification after they come to the use of Reason or years of discretion as they do their apparel or clothes which were fit for them whilest they were Infants And no question but the Old Man after we come to the use of Reason grows stronger and stronger in all of us untill we abate his strength and Mortifie his members by the Spirit Wherefore Leaving Children or infants unto the Spirit of God alone who doth Regenerate them by Baptism and preserve them in the State of Grace without our Ministery of Preaching This Precept is a Precept of Working Faith The Duty here injoyned is a Duty Necessary unto All that are of years fit to be instructed or of Capacity to understand the Scripture or Rule of Faith expounded to them Let us then take his words into a Second Consideration If ye live after the flesh Of the Nature of the Fight with our own Bodies in General ye shall die He saith not If ye have lived after the flesh ye shall die for this had been rather a certain Prognostick of death then any medicinal Advice or Prescript unto his Patients One man there was and no more who was First Good and afterwards Bad this was the First Adam Another there is and no more who was Never Bad alwayes Good this is the Second Adam Christ Jesus blessed for ever Of all the rest that is most true which a Father hath Nemo unquam bonus qui non antè fuit malus No son of Adam ever proved Good who was not sometimes Bad. The Apostles Saying is in this Case true First is that which is natural then that which is spiritual We Even the Elect themselves were the sons of Adam before they were the Sons of God in Christ All or most have lived after the Flesh before they come to live after the Spirit Thus much our Apostles Second Proposition will infer If ye though the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall Live Inasmuch as Mortification of the Flesh is necessary to All it is presupposed that All have a Flesh which may be Mortified or a Life of the flesh seeing nothing can be Mortified but that which hath Life in it 6. Again Our Apostle saith not If the Deeds of the Flesh be Mortified in you by the Spirit ye shall Live For so we might happily have dreamed of a Mortification already wrought in us or to be wrought in us without our Consent or Endeavours as well whilest we are asleep as whilest we are awaking Or we might conceive it to have been so wrought by the Spirit in our Cradles as we might presume to passe the time of our youth in play and pastime Or we might hope to have it so fully accomplished by the same Spirit alone in our youth or maturity as we might spend our Old Age in sleep without setting a Careful Watch over our Works or thoughts His words if we observe them are thus If ye through the Spirit do Mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh ye shall Live So then we see The Flesh must be Mortified and Mortified it must be By Vs Every man must Mortifie his own Flesh although he cannot Mortifie it but through the Spirit It is The Spirit alone which giveth Victory yet this doth not Priviledge us from
of the Flesh which must be mortified The Affection whence this Loathsome stream doth spring is a desire of mirth or pleasure For no man directly desires to be Drunk All men naturally desire to be Merrie as having an internal spring of delight or mirth in themselves which naturally desires an issue or vent otherwise the Soul and Spirit becomes sodden in Melancholy Hence it is that many mens Affections detesting this Melancholy humour be drenched in this Filthy sink or puddle of Drunkenness which is but a Sinister or preposterous Issue of inbred Mirth The true Mortification of this monster is not to be sought by quelling or weakening the Affection whence it springs but rather by giving it another Issue or vent Thus much is implyed in our Apostles advice Eph. 5. 18. Be not Drunk with wine wherein is Excess but be filled with the spirit speaking to your selves in Psalmes and Hymns and spiritual songs singing and making Melody in your heart to the Lord. Our Apostle here supposeth that the spirit of God which alone worketh the mortification of this sin and other Lusts of the flesh although he detests all drunken ryotous mirth is not a dull spirit of melancholy It delighteth much in its own musick alwaies desirous to hear pleasant songs of its own setting And there is no meanes so Effectual for drowning drunken mirth as a full consort of the musick of this spirit Beatus populus quiscit Jubilationem hanc Blessed are the People That can rejoyce in Thee O Lord. 8. The perfect Cure of the Soul is wrought Per Simile Thus it is plain how this Cure must be wrought by Contraries and yet per simile by the Like too The Lusts of the Flesh must be Mortified by the Spirit and yet these are Contraries But if we descend unto Particulars Ambition or desire of honour must be mortified by desire of Honour Covetousness which is a desire of Riches must be mortified by the desire of Riches Drunkenness which is a Desire of Mirth must be mortified by a desire of Mirth Immoderate carnal Love must be mortified by excessive Love of Christ and of things Spiritual Between the Desires themselves there is as true Similitude as is between the several currents of water which issue from the same spring or fountain but as perfect a Contrarietie between the Objects and issues of the desires as there is between the several waters of the same fountain whilest the One runnes in a pure rock or conduit pipe and the other into a sink or puddle 9. To Conclude then The spirit of God doth first purifie the Fountain of our Desires that is the spirit or Conscience of man The spirit of man being thus quickened and purified doth by direction and assistance of the same Spirit of God divert the current of his Desires and give a new vent or issue to his Affections And the Desires or Affections by this diversion of their Current receive a further Degree of Purification from the Ocean or Sea into which they empty themselves that is from Heaven and the heavenly Lights on which they are sett Between the Current of our Desires or Affections thus purified by the spirit of God and the Coelestial Objects whereon they are sett there is such Reciprocation or mutual recourse as it were between a stream of pure water and a Sea of Nectar the stream or spring still falling into the sea and the sea still sweetning the stream by reflowing upon it The spirit of Christ which knowes no bounds or Limits which is more boundless then the Ocean delights in our Desires or Affections whilest they are sett upon heavenly things And the more his spirit is delighted in our Desires and Affections thus emptying and pouring out themselves the more he purifies and sweetens them by the influence of his Gratious Spirit Yet are not any mans Affections so throughly sweetned by the Spirit of Grace in this Life as not to retain some permanent Tincture or mixture of the Flesh Howbeit every man is Throughly mortified in whom the spirit of Christ hath gotten the Soveraigntie over the Flesh and won the better part of the natural Affections to its service But whether this Soveraigntie being Once gotten may not Finally or for a time at least be lost Heave it to the determination of the Schooles My application for the present shall be from the words of the Son of Syrach Ecclus. 38. 25 26. Though the book be Apocryphal yet his observation in this place is Canonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisdome of a Learned man cometh by opportunity of Leasure or as some read by right imployment of his vacant time And he that hath little businesse shall become wise How can he get wisdome that holdeth the Plough and that glorieth in the Goad that driveth Oxen and is occupied in their Labours and whose * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 talk is of Bullocks Or of the breed of bullocks His verdict concerning Handy-Crafts-Men is for the most part true of Men full of that which we call Book-Learning or imployed in matters of Government of Sate Would to God it were not too true of many that have little Business In respect of this private Learning Every one of us Especially in these times have Bookes enough of our own so we would sequester some competent times or vacant seasons for serious perusing them Every mans course of life and dayly Actions are the best Bookes for this Learning And no man can so well read them as his own Spirit and Conscience Herein then consists the Wisdom of him that is in part and desires to be A â—etter Christian First in careful Observing the Touches of Gods punishing or chastising Hand Secondly in Reflecting upon the motions of his Spirit Thirdly in duly Examining Every day What advantage the Flesh hath gotten against the Spirit or the Spirit against the Flesh All this being done the best imployment of all these Talents which God commits unto our trust must be in acknowledgeing our whole strength to be from God and in Consecrating our best endeavours by continual Prayer for the assistance of his Spirit In this Last Point we are Active yet Active only to the End that we may be Towardly Passive that we grieve not the Good Spirit of God by which our Sanctification must be wrought He will not forsake Vs unless we forsake Him first But as water which hath been heated by the fire congeales the soonest after it be taken off and removed from it So they ☜ which have felt the Motions of Gods Spirit and have been in some measure Mortified by it freez the soonest in the dregs and Lusts of the flesh and have their hearts extraordinarily hardened if once they forsake him or so grieve him that he cease to renew or continue his former Motions But he that will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him and will pray before the most High and will open his
Propositions are as we say Hypothetical or Conditional and if either should be denyed or questioned the only Course which the Schools which are the high Courts of Reason for Judging of Arguments afford would be to plead these Categorical or absolute Propositions Whosoever lives after the flesh shall die Whosoever mortifies the Deeds of the body through the Spirit shall live And our Apostle himself ver 6. had premised Two absolute Categoricall Propositions to inferre or prove these two Conditional Propositions in the Text. For so he saith To be Carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Now albeit he hath added no Quantitie to these Two Categorical Propositions yet in that he saith To be carnally minded is death and To be spiritually minded is life This Infers That Death is the Necessary Consequent of Carnal Living and Life likewise the Infallible Consequent of being spiritually minded All must mortifie though not totally And it is an Infallible Rule of Reason That Any Proposition betwixt whose Parts the Connexion is Necessary is Equivalent to an Universal although it be delivered in Terms Indefinite or without addition of any Quantity So that when our Apostle saith To be carnally minded is death To be spiritually minded is life his Speech is altogether as ful and more Emphatical then if he had said Whosoever lives after the flesh shall die Whosoever through the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the body shall live Howbeit These Two Propositions in the Text thus Reduced to Categoricals and Rendred Vniversal by a Note or Sign of such Quantitie are Vniversal only in Respect of the Persons whom this duty of Mortification concerns Vniversal they are not but Indefinite in Respect of the Duty enjoyned or Matter proposed 2. To find out some more distinct limit or Limitation of them in respect of the Matter proposed The Limitation set out in Three Negatives we are to begin as in the like Cases the Method requires from Negatives The First Negative is this Though all men after they come to years of discretion be necessarily tyed to Mortify the Flesh yet no man is tyed under pain of damnation to an absolute or Total Mortification of it This is Impossible in this life Though sin as the Apostle speaks be the Sting of death and Carnal Intentions be the Arrows or darts of Sathan yet is not every Carnal thought or every degree of minding the flesh so deadly in the issue unto the Soul as the Parthian Arrows were to mens Bodies for they carried death upon their points and gave it possession of every body whose skin they brake Fatumque in sanguine summo est They let Death in at the least breach whereat Bloud could come out But every moment of life led after the flesh doth not thus Necessarily bring forth the death here meant The second Negative is this It is not every Degree or Part of Mortification that will suffice to bring forth the Life here meant For he doth not say if ye have Mortified the deeds of the body but if ye do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live These Two Negatives are as the Two Tropicks betwixt which the Limitation of the former Proposition in respect of the Matter proposed or Duty enjoyned is wholly Situate It is a Positive Mean between them somewhat Lesse then any Absolute or Total Mortification Somewhat More then every Degree or Practise of Mortification yet all this is but Indefinite This Positive Mean betwixt the former Negatives must of necessitie be either some kind of Mortification for Quality more Precious then the Mortification which most men ordinarily affect or practise or some Greater Measure of the same Mortification whereof most men are partakers at some times 3. As Great mens quick Goods are presumed to be of a better kind or breed then the like goods of their poor neighbours for Noble-mens Geese as the Proverb is are Swans So there be some who will have all Qualifications whether of Life or Practise all Acts of Duty or Performances to be of a better kind or rank in the Elect then they are in Others And in these mens Dialect or Divinity the Answer to the proposed Querie were easy and would be This. They which Mortifie the deeds of the body in such sort as the Elect do they certainly shall Live for the Elect do truly mortifie them albeit not in so full a Measure And as Belief so Mortification in Them especially how Little soever it be Points of Election c. are not to determine but to be determined by more general points so it be True will suffice unto salvation But in the Divinity which I have learned the points of Election and Reprobation are to be determined of if at all they may be determined of by the Resolution of other more General and more facile Queries They are preposterously brought to the Determination of any other Difficulties Alwayes the Resolutions of the Generals must be Introductions to the Resolution or clearing of more Special Difficulties Special Difficulties can be no Introduction to the Resotion of General Queries Now this duty of Mortification and the Transgression of it to wit Living after the flesh are far more General then the estate of Election or Reprobation Seeing as I am often forced to repeat it is but a litle Point of mankind a small Portion of men which are partakers of the Word or Sacraments which are for the Present contained under either part of This Division All are not Elect or Reprobate But all live after the flesh or after the Spîrit either in the State of Election or Reprobation But under this Division of Living after the flesh or after the spirit all are comprehended Again in as much as we our selves are all imployed in this Work of Mortification we may have more certain Experiments of our Progress in this Duty then we can have of our estate of Election which is meerly the work of God we have no finger no imployment in it The truth is Only they who have mortified the deeds of the Body in such a measure as our Apostle here requires are in the State of Election Only they who have made up such a measure of sin or Living after the Flesh as induceth the Sentence of death here mentioned are in the absolute State of Reprobation So that the Positive Mean between the two former Negatives must be taken from the measure not from the Specifical Quality or nature of mortification The very Phrase or Character of our Apostle If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Necessarily includes a Perseverance in either kind A Perseverance there must be in this Duty of Mortification before we can have full and perfect Interest in this Promise Without Perseverance or Continuance in this life of the Flesh none are inevitably sentenced unto the death here denounced
had perished in the wildernesse But the Apostle further demands with whom was he grieved forty years Was it not with them which had sinned whose carcases fell in the wildernesse And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his Rest but to them that believed not so we see what they could not enter in because of unbeliefe He saith not they did not enter in because of unbelief but they could not enter in because of Unbelief This argues that the Possibility of entring in was utterly cut off and we know it was so cut off because the Lord had sworn they should not enter in But what was the true or adequate Cause why they could not enter in or why their former Possibility of entring in was utterly cut off The Apostle mentioned only Two Vnbelief and Sinne. But are his words only to be understood of ordinary Sinne or Simple unbelief or was there any Sin or Vnbelief for Specifical Quality so deadly as could utterly exclude them from all Possibility of entring in or do these Termes though Indefinite in themselves necessarily Include a certain Measure or high Degree of Vnbelief or Sinne. This Point may best be resolved by the Historicall Relations of Moses whereunto our Apostles discourse throughout the whole 3. Chapter to the Hebrews hath speciall Reference and on which his Exhortation or main Argument is wholly grounded This Story is set down at large Numbers the 14. 21. Of Promises or threats without or under Oath See his 7. Book Ch. 13. 9. Book Ch. 18. As truly as I live saith God to Moses all the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord. This is the Express form of the Oath The Contents of the same Oath or the Articles unto which God Swears are set down at large in the words following in which likewise the Measure and Quantity as well of their Positive Sin as of their Vnbelief is Emphatically expressed All those men which have seen my Glory and my Miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wildernesse and have temptea me these ten times and have not hearkened unto my voyce surely they shall not see the Land which I sware unto their Fathers neither shall any of them that provoked me see it They had seen or known by certain Relation Ten several Mighty Wonders which God had wrought in Egypt upon Pharaoh upon his Land and People Now the contempt and neglect of so many Wonders besides the Miracles which he had wrought for them in the wildernesse argue a great Measure of Disobedience or Vnbelief a great Measure of Omission or neglect of this Duty of Mortification which is Necessary to All a great Measure of Life stubbornly led after the Flesh Howbeit Their Sins were most grievous which had seen the Good Land which God had promised by Oath unto their Fathers as is clear from Numb 14. 36 37. The men which Moses sent to search the Land who returned and made all the Congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the Land Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the Land dyed by the plague before the Lord and so they dyed before their brethren which had given credit unto their report and out of their Vnbelief did murmur against their God Howbeit even these with all the rest above twenty years old Except Caleb and Joshua were utterly cut off from all Possibility of entring in before the time or hour of their death yea they dyed before their Ordinary Times for this their Provocation as is Emphatically exprest ver 34. Ye shall bear your Iniquities forty years And you shall know my breach of promise that is the Revocation of the Blessing promised 7. That Caleb and Joshua had their Estate or Interest in the same promise irrevocably confirmed unto them long before their time of their entring into the promised Land may be gathered from the Exception interserted in the Oath for the Lord had sworn that none of the rest should enter in besides Caleb and Joshua Num. 14. 30. This Exception in Ordinary Construction seems to include that the Lord did Positively swear That These Two should enter into his Rest Howbeit this Exception alone is but a Presumption or a proof not Concludent without Favourable Construction and as Lawyers say Favorabiliora sunt amplianda Favourable promises are to be taken in the ampler Sense But thus we may not interpret Gods Promises without warrant from Him That Gods meaning in the former Clause or Exception concerning Caleb and Joshua was to be taken in this Favourable and ample Sense we have a further Positive and Concludent Proof from the Petition which Caleb exhibited unto Joshua and Joshua granted Josh 14. 6 9 10 11 12 13. Thou knowest saith Caleb unto Joshua the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Cadesh Barnea Moses sware in that day saying surely the Land whereon thy feet have troden shall be thine inheritance and thy Childrens for ever because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God And now behold the Lord hath kept me alive as he said these fortie and five years even since the Lord spake this Word unto Moses whilest the Children of Israel wandred in the Wildernesse and now lo I am this day fourfcore and five years old As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day when Moses sent me as my strength was then even so is my strength now for warre both to go out and come in And Ioshua blessed him and gave unto Caleb the son of Iephunneh Hebron for an inheritance Such is the Force and Efficacy of Gods Promise confirmed by Oath that it not only kept Caleb alive but in the same strength and Activity of body till 85. years in which he was at 40. years It was as Remarkable in preserving his life and strength as it was in bringing mortality upon others Yet was not his Promise so confirmed by Oath unto all that were excepted from the Plague denounct by Oath as it was unto Caleb and Ioshua For all that were under twenty years old were excepted from the plague denounced by Oath yet were they not all assured by Oath that they should enter into the Land of Promise The Exception of Them in the Oath only reserves that Possibility or that Interest which their Fathers had in the Promise as Entire to them as it was at the first Their Estate was but Conditional and held as it were the Mean between the Estate of Caleb and Ioshua which was Confirmed by Oath and the Estate of their Forefathers which were Excluded by Oath For so Moses saith unto the Tribe of Reuben and God whose disobedience and backsliding he feared Numb 32. 14 15. Behold ye are risen up in your Fathers stead an increase of sinful men to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord towards Israel For if ye turn away from after him he
had suffered the Divel to deface Gods work in him and to instamp his own image upon him No son of Adam could have been born the Child of wrath unlesse this work and Image of Satan had been propagated unto him by inheritance from his Father Adam Now if to be the Son of Wrath in the lowest degree presuppose some work of Satan the estate or Condition of Reprobation alwaies includeth or presupposeth a greater measure of Satans works and unto this work not unto mens Persons or Individuall Natures is the Irrevocable Sentence of Reprobation awarded 13. To be the Son of God includeth or presupposeth more then the meer Nature essence or Individual Substance of man What more doth it Include It alwayes includes some work of God wrought in the Nature either as an Emanant Effect or Resultance of his Creation or some work of God produced in man after his Birth Conception or Creation Adam by Creation was the Son of God because he was created just and good And albeit there were not two Creations One of Adams Nature Another of his Righteousnesse Yet was his Righteousness a thing Distinct from his Nature Otherwise Adam by his Fall had not ceased to be the Son of God For after his Fall he remained the same man he was for Nature and Substance but not the same man he was for Quality It was then his First Qualification to wit his Righteousness by which he was made the Son of God and it was the losse of this Qualification which made him the Son of wrath His Nature or substance was no part of the Object of the Divine Decree not Capable either of Reward or Punishment but according to the Two former Qualifications In every Son of Adam which in time becomes the Son of God there must be a Creation or new production of Righteousness by the birth of the Spirit besides his birth or Conception natural by which he becomes a man In every Elect Person there must be a Greater work of God a greater measure of Regeneration or of new birth then that by which he is first made the Son of God And this Measare of Righteousness or of Regeneration is the Immediate and Formal Object of the Eternal Decree or of that Eternal Rule of Divine Mercy or bounty by which the Immutable Estate of Election or of Grace is awarded Election and Reprsbation look upon Qualifications The Point then is clear as the Sun That neither the Decree of Election or Reprobation are terminated to the Nature or Individual Substance of men without respect or relation to their works or Qualifications The works of Satan are Essentially and formally included in the Object of Reprobation the Works of 〈◊〉 to be wrought in man not for man only are Essentially and Formally included in the Object of absolute election 14. That which the Authors or Favourers of the Contrary Opinion I am perswaded would have said or should in reason say for Their absolute election or Reprobation is only This That albeit the works of God be essentially included in the Object of the eternal election as the works of Satan are in the Object of eternall Reprobation yet God did so absolutely Decree to work these works which are required to the Object of election that it was Necessary from eternity they should be wrought in all the Vessels of election And that he did from eternity so Absolutely Decree to suffer Satan to work those works which are included in the Object of Reprobation or those works which makes men Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction that this Qualification or Temper could not possibly be avoided This indeed is One of the Two main Questions which only ought seriously to be discussed between the Arminians and their Opposites all the rest are but Word-Bates or Verbal Quarrels arising from ambiguous or Unscholastick expressions of their Opinions or Conceipts The First Question is already discussed and is Whether men in this life ordinarily do or may attain unto an Immutable estate of Grace that is whether their election untill the hour of death be Absolute or but Conditional The Second which now remains to be discussed is Whether this Absolute estate of election or Reprobation during the time of this life being granted the attaining unto the one estate or falling into the other be from eternity Necessary so Necessary that no man which hath fallen or shall fall into the Absolute estate of Reprobation hath had or hath any Possibility to avoid his Fall Or again whether every man that now is in the Absolute Estate of Election were so destinated to the same Estate from Eternity that no Occurrences Possible could prevent it If the Arminians would yeild to the Church of England in the Former I think no true Member of the Church of England would much dissent from them in the Latter which may be expressed in Termes perhaps more Perspicuous Thus Whether God in his Foresight of all mens Natures did set apart or designe some Individuall essences or Natures with purpose to frame and fit them to be Vessels of Honour without Possibility left for them to frame themselves to be Vessels of dishonour And whether he did by the same Foresight or Inspection set apart or design Other indiviaual Natures or Substances to be Vessels of wrath or dishonour without any Purpose or Will to frame or Fashion them to be Vessels of election To discusse both Questions first in Thest then in Hypothesi that is First whether Election it self were Absolutely Necessary from eternity Secondly Whether the Election of this or that man were Absolutely Necessary from the hour of his birth or conception or rather begins to be Necessary from his progress in Grace or from his Plenary and full Conversion unto God which sometimes and in some men is not accomplished before the hour of death 15. No mans Election or designment to the Immutable state of Grace can be more Necessary from eternity then his Reconciliation is No mans Reconciliation unto God the Father can be more Necessary from eternity A Sorites then his Interest is in the Pardon purchased by the Son of God No mans Interest in this Pardon can be from eternity more Necessary then was the death of the Son of God The death of the Son of God was no more Necessary from eternity then the Fall of Adam was The Fall of Adam neither was nor could be from eternity more necessary then the First sin or Transgression was The Consequences of these Truths are most necessary most immediate If Adam had not Transgressed Gods Commandement he had not fallen into the State of Gods Wrath and curse If Adam had not fallen into Gods Wrath or curse the Son of God had not become accursed had not dyed If the Son of God had not dyed for us our Pardon had not been purchased If our Pardon had not been purchased there had been no Reconciliation of mankind unto God the Father If there had been no
by his Blood were the Deliverance of mankind from the powers of darkness and the inheritance of the kingdom of Light 4. The Parallel between the Institution of the Passover and of the Lords Supper or of the two Inheritances bequeathed the one by Moses the other by Christ is so plain that it needs no Comment It only requires a diligent Reader or Hearer or what is wanting on the ordinary Hearers part may be supplied by every ordinary Catechist before the receiving of the Sacramental Pledges One point yet remaines more pertinent to the unfolding of our Apostles meaning Heb. 9. ver 15. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by meanes of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament they which are called might receive the promise of Eternal Inheritance For where a Testament is there must also of necessitie be the death of the Testator For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testator liveth And it is this As the Israelites did not enter upon the inheritance or take possession of the Land of Canaan till after Moses the Testator or Mediator of the old Testament was dead so neither was the Kingdom of Heaven our everlasting inheritance set open to all or any Beleivers until Christ Jesus the Testator or Mediator of the new Testament was crucified dead buried and raysed again to immortal Glorie Since which time as is the King so is the Kingdom or inheritance bequeathed so is the Testament it self being sealed by his bloody death All and every of them Truely Everlasting CHAP. XLVIII The Parallel between the most Solemn Services of the Law and The One Sacrifice of Christ And The high praeeminence and efficacie of This in comparison of Those The Romanists Doctrin that in the Masse Christs Body is Identically Carnally present and that there is a proper Sacrifice Propitiatorie offered derogates from the Absolute Perfection of Christs offering himself Once for all 1. THe principal Termes of proportion in this Parallel which serve as so many several Kens or Markes for the right survaying of it are The services of the Law or the Offices of Legal Priests and the Perpetual Function of our High Priest The services of the Law wherein our Apostle instanceth are the Principal and most Solemn Sacrifices which were injoyned to the Priests after the order of Aaron The One Sort whereof were Anniversaries as of Bullockes and Goates and to be offered every year upon the day of Attonement and so to be offered from the First Erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness so long as the Law of Ceremonies was de Jure to continue untill our Saviours death upon the Cross since which time all Bloody Sacrifice have lost their Legal Vse The Other service was That Sacrifice of the Red Heifer and the Consecration of water by the sprinkling or mingling her Ashes which perhaps was not Anniversarie nor often put in practice from the time of Moses his Death untill the Ascension of our Saviour into heaven Now our Apostle takes it as granted that if these choice Sacrifices of Attonment and of the Red Cow were altogether unsufficient to purifie the Hearts and Consciences or the Soules and Spirits of sinful men the Ordinary or meaner sacrifices of the Law were much more unsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifices of our high Priest was Alsufficient to all such purposes as the Sacrifice of our high Priest was Alsufficient and most Efficacious for The Eminency of Christs bloudie Sacrifice upon the Cross in respect of all Legal sacrifices of what rank soever consisteth First in the Efficacy which it had and hath for Remission of all sins committed against the Moral Law of God that is of all such sins as immediately pollute the reasonable Soul and Conscience The least degree of such Purification no Legal Sacrifices could immediatly effect reach or touch To what Use then did they directly serve or what was the proper Effect unto which they were immediately terminated That was the Purification of mens Bodyes from meere Legal uncleannesse that is from all such negligences Ignorances or Casual Occurrences as not being expiated by the Priest did exclude the parties so offending from the Tabernacle of the Congregation Or as our Apostle speakes to Purifie them from such uncleannesses of the flesh as did but foreshadow or picture the uncleanness of the soul or the dead works of sinne All which being not expiated by a more excellent Priest then any was after the order of Aaron will exclude all from entring into the heavenly Tabernacle 2. Such Legal uncleannesse as did exclude the Parties polluted with it from the Tabernacle of the Congregation was many waies contracted as by touching of the dead by eating of Meats forbidden by the Law or by not eating meates allowed of by the Law according to the Rule or Prescript for such Ceremonial Services or by the like Omissions or Practises which were not in their own nature or to all men sinful but sinful in the Seed of Jacob only to whom they were Evill only because forbidden not forbidden because they were evill in their own nature Even in regard of such shadows or Typical Offices for Purifying men Legally unclean the best and most solemn Sacrifices of the Law though offered once at least every year and otherwise as often as dayly Occasions or Occurrences did require were no way so efficacious or Effectual as the One Sacrifice of the Son of God offered by himself but Once for all is for the perpetual Purifying of our Soules from the Dead works of sin and for our Consecration to the everlasting service of the everliving God which is that Freedom indeed wherewith his only Son hath promised to set all such Free as Believe in his Name and Abide in his word John 8. 3. The Eminencie of Christs Priesthood and Sacrifice above the Priesthood and Services of the Law is deeply wronged by the Doctrine and Practise of Secular and Regular Roman-Catholick Priests as they do term themselves and so is our Apostles Doctrine in the ninth and tenth Chapters to the Hebrews more peremptorily contradicted by them then it was by the Incredulous or unbelieving Jews in his life time The Western Anti-Christ so the Lutherans distinguish them hath in this particular so farr out-bid the Antichrist of the East that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Law-opposer or man of sin were to be followed close with Howant-Cry or his Footsteps to be traced for these nine hundred years by the Christian Kingdoms or States the Chase and Cry would sooner fall into Rome or Trent then into Constantinople though That no question be now the seat of Gog and Magog or of the Eastern Antichrist That Contradiction of Sinners which our Saviour Christ did indure here on Earth Heb. 12. 3. improved by the Roman Church in later dayes against all such as
those whose doctrin they Follow My purpose is onely to request my Brethren of the Church of England however for the present they stand affected in these poynts to take it into more deep and Logical Consideration then hitherto it hath been taken by English Preachers or Writers Whether According to Forrain Rigid Tenets of Predestination or of Gods absolute irrespective Decree for Election and Reprobation which came to us English at the third hand as from Zwinglius c. which They had at the first from some antient Romish Schoolemen it be possible for us or them to maintain by any rational way That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ either now is or hath been a true Priest or Sacrificer rather then a meer Sacrifice predestinated from eternitie for takeing away the sinnes of the Elect onely Or whether such as They Term Elect from Eternitie needed any Priest at all besides God the Father who did destinate his Onely Son to be a Sacrifice or a mean necessary though subordinate for effecting the principal or utmost end of his Decree to wit his own Glory by the salvation of the Elect My poor Capacitie for these 34. yeares wherein I have lived a Minister or Priest of the Church of England could never nor yet can find any tolerable answer or Evasion to free such as maintaine the often-mentioned Rigid Decree from these Two Imputations The One That they cannot truely or by any rational way acknowledge Christ to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedec The Other That they cannot acknowledge him to be properly instyled such a Judge as in our Creed we profess him to be They will at length be enforced to borrow a more fit expression of his Office from our Sister-Nation and instyle him to be the Doomester or Doomesman of the Quick and of the Dead that is an Inferior Officer which hath no hand or Vote in the course of Justice for Life and Death but onely a power or delegated authoritie to read or pronounce the sentence which the Judge or Cheif Officer of State had written before though not so long before or in such indeleble Characters as the Doom which our Saviour Christ shall pronounce upon Every man at the Great day of his appearance was written in the Life-books of life and death everlasting My exhortation unto every man amongst us which beleive in his name shall be that of the Learned and pious Hemingius That we seek not our assurance of Faith or hope in Parcarum Tabulis which were irreversibly written before any part of the world was made if we may beleive some heathen poets or Stoicks but in Gods promises made to Abraham and to be performed by Jesus Christ as he is now our High-Priest and King and as the Supream Judge of Quick and Dead 3. Having thus farr endeavoured to sever the dross or wipe off the Aspersions or such meaner stuffe as have been cast upon or mingled themselves with that Golden Foundation layd by our Apostle Hebr. 9. My next Addressment must be to Dilate or Diduct the Precious Metal contained in it or in the Third Parallel proposed The Parallel was between the anniversarie Sacrifices of Attonement the Sacrifices of the Red Cow and the One Sacrifice offered Once for all by our Everlasting High-Priest His Sacrifice is truely instyled Everlasting not for this reason alone that it was of Infinite Value or a full price for purchasing the Everlasting Redemption of man-kind but in this respect also that it hath an Everlasting Efficacie for the dayly remission of actual sinnes for purifying the Hearts and Consciences of all such as in Faith dayly pray unto the Father in the name and mediation of his only Son who is likewise rightly instyled an Everlasting Priest not in regard onely that he is now altogether immortal but more especially in that he Perpetually executeth the Office of the High Priesthood by making Continual Intercession for us by accomplishing our Reconciliation unto the Godhead All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the Ministerie of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath commited unto Vs the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. This Reconciliation Quâ Deus nos sibi reconciliavit was wrought by Christ whilest he went about on earth doing good and by his sufferings upon the Cross c. The Other part of our Reconciliation or reconciliation taken in the Passive Sense Quâ nos Deo reconciliamur is dayly wrought in true Beleivers by this our High-Priest and so wrought by the continuated participation of his Spirit by the interposed renovations or nourishments of that Grace which immediatly descendes to us from the sweet influence of this Sun of righteousness now sitting more Glorious by much in his heavenly Tabernacle then the visible Sun in its Sphere And of This Part of Reconciliation or of Reconciliation in the Passive Sense must that of our Apostle be understood Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 20 21. 4. He that desires to guesse aright at the Eminencie of Christs Priest-hood and Sacrifice in respect of the Aaronical or Legal Services or to take such an indefinite Estimate of both as may advance his Meditations upon The knowledge of Christ crucified and ascended into the heaven of heavens may follow the Scale set by Astronomers betwixt the space of Local distances on earth and the space of the highest Coelestial Orbes or Spheres which answer in proportion to them alwaies allowing a greater Excesse of Proportion between the Excellencie of Christs Priesthood beyond Aarons or Melchisedecks then Astronomers allot betwixt the space of so many Degrees in the heavens and so many miles on earth 5. The Legal Priests or sacrificers were at the same time and by succession Many their Sacrifices or Services were both for their kinds or matter and for the solemn manner of their offerings More The several kinds of their sacrifices and Solemnities I leave unto the Readers search this being an Argument whereof many have written copiously enough in most modern Churches It will be enough for me to observe or call thus much to the Readers Remembrance that all the Offices or Services of Legal Priests were fully accomplished in the Consecration of the Son of God to be our Everlasting High Priest That all their Offerings and Sacrifices whether bloudy or unbloudy whether of Vegetables as of herbs or green Eares of Corn of meal of Loaves whether anniversary or upon special occasions were more then accomplished in his Own Once offering of himself The All-sufficiencie of this his Oblation of himself will best appear from
Means much available for strengthening of Faith or for repairing those decayes or ruines which the subtiltie of Satan works in our soules yet the Reiteration of the Sacrament of Baptism is neither Necessary nor allowable much lesse Commendable for such purposes And the Raritie or rather Singularitie of It was to my apprehension Emblematically prefigured by the Sacrifice of the Red Heifer or the Water of sprinkling which was Legally sanctified or consecrated by her Ashes The Law concerning this kind of Purification is not to be found I take it in Leviticus at least not in that sixteenth Chapter wherein the Law of the Sacrifice of attonement is punctually set down However the forementioned Glossarie upon the Romish Canon for consecrating Holy Water either through negligence See Chapt. 48 Num. 6. or ignorance or both avouch that place for it If the sacrifice of the Red Heifer had belonged unto the Feast of attonement it must have been reiterated once every year whereas the Hebrew Antiquaries affirm that this solemnitie was not used above tea times during all the time of the Law of the Tabernacle or Temple And whether it were so often used may be questioned because there is no Law or Precept for the Continuation of it but only for the use of the water of sprinkling being once consecrated by it so often as the occasion specified in the Law did require 2. But unlesse the frequent use of the water so mingled with the ashes did wast or exhaust the ashes of that one sacrifice which Eleazar not Aaron was commanded to offer These might have been preserved without putrifaction for a longer time then the Law of Ceremonies was to endure For Ashes as good Naturalists tell us being well kept are immortal or an Emblem of Immortalitie But it may be that as soon or as often as the Ashes of any such sacrifice were by frequent use of the water of sprinkling exhausted or wasted the Legal Priests were bound by the Law mentioned to offer another for consecrating the water of sprinkling whose use was to continue as long as the reason mentioned in the Law did indure 3. The chief use or End of the water of sprinkling mingled with the Ashes of this sacrifice was to purifie such as had made themselves Legally unclean or had casually fallen into such uncleanness One branch of this uncleanness was the touching or being touched by any Dead Corps And unto this use of the water of sprinkling mentioned Numb 19. 11. that of our Apostle Heb. 9. 14. hath special Reference more then Allusion How much more shall the bloud of Christ purge our Consciences from DEAD works That this Legal Sacrifice for sinne was an Exquisite Type of Christs Bloudy Death and sufferings or an exact picture of his bloud wherewith the heavenly Sanctuary or Holy places were purified although the bloud of this Legal sacrifice were not brought into the Earthly Sanctuary no good Writers which I have read either deny or question That the Water of sprinkling consecrated by the aspersion of the Ashes of this Legal Sacrifice did truely resemble the water of Baptism by which we are washed from sin and consecrated unto God as clean persons that is made members of his Church here on earth is so evident in it self that it needs no Paraphrase or Laborious Comment upon the fore-cited Law Yet to this purpose the learned Reader may find much pertinent matter in Chytraeus his Comments upon the Book of Numbers and in many others It will be more needful or better suiting with my intentions in this place to prevent the captious exceptions which some Anti-Papists have heretofore taken and now resume against the expressions of our Publick Liturgie in that Part of it which concerns the Administration of Baptism Almighty and everlasting God which of thy great mercie diddest save Noah and his Familie in the Ark from perishing by water and also diddest safely lead the children of Israel through the red sea figuring thereby thy holy Baptism and by the Baptism of thy wel-beloved Son Iesus Christ diddest sanctifie the floud Iordan and all other waters to the mystical washing away of sin We beseech thee for thine infinite mercies that thou wilt mercifully look upon these Children Sanctifie them and wash them with the holy Ghost that they being delivered from thy wrath may be received into the Ark of Christs Church and being stedfast in faith joyful through hope and rooted in charity may so passe the waves of this troublesome world that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life there to reign with thee world Without end through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen Seeing now dearly beloved Brethren that these Children be regenerate and grafted into the body of Christs Congregation let us give thanks unto God for these Benefits and with one accord make our prayers unto Almightie God that they may lead the rest of their life according to this beginning We yeild thee heartie thanks most merciful Father that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy holy Spirit to receive him for thine own Child by adoption and to incorporate him into thy holy Congregation and humbly we beseech thee to grant that he being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness and being buried with Christ in his death may crucifie the old man and utterly abolish the whole body of sin that as he is made partaker of the death of thy Son so he may be partaker of his resurrection so that finally with the residue of thy holy congregation he may be Inheritor of thine everlasting Kingdom through Christ our Lord. Amen 4. It is no part of our Churches Doctrin or meaning that the washing or sprinkling infants bodyes with Consecrated water should take away sinnes by it's own immediate Vertue To affirm thus much implies as I conceive a Contradiction to that Apostolical doctrin The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is gone into heaven c. 1. Pet. 3. 21. The meaning of our Church intends no further then thus That if this Sacrament of Baptism be duely administred the blood or bloody Sacrifice of Christ or which is all one the Influence of his spirit doth alwaies accompany or is Concurrent to this solemn Act. But whether this Influence of his spirit or Vertual presence of his body and blood be either immediatly or only terminated to the soul and spirit of the party Baptized or have some vertual influence upon the water of Baptism as a mean to convey the Grace of Regeneration unto the soule of the partie Baptized whilest the water is poured upon him is Too Nice and curious a Question in this Age for sober Christians to debate or contend about It may suffice to beleive that this Sacramental pledge hath a Vertual Presence of Christs Blood or some Real
of God ver 1 2. And again more fully ver 8 9 10 11. God commendeth his love towards us in that whilest we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life And not only so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the attonement The Ground then of our Hope or of such Certaintie as we can attain unto in this life is our Reconciliation to God of which our Apostle speakes more fully and divinely 2 Cor. 5. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Old things are past away behold all things are become new and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministerie of Reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation ver 17 18 19. But if this Reconciliation were sufficient for our Certaintie of Salvation what need were there of a second Reconciliation or a second part at least of the same Reconciliation which our Apostle presseth upon us ver 20. 21. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him The first part of Reconciliation is Active or at the most part but a Grammatical Passive As a man is said to be Called when he is summoned to appear though he make no Personal Appearance so are we said to be Reconciled to God when pardon for our sins is proclaimed though before we could take notice of it The Second Reconciliation is a Real passive and includes a Turning unto the Lord by Acceptance of our Pardon and by serious pursuing the Allowance of it The former part of Recenciliation is wrought by meer Imputation of Christs death and merits The second is wrought partly by Imputation but especially by Real Participation of Grace from Christ and gifts of the spirit These are They that must defend and guard our soules against the Re-entry or Re-possession of Satan and wicked spirits whether by fair or forcible means 3. Answerable to the Two Sorts or Degrees of Reconciliation there are Two Sorts or two Branches of Iustification The One by meere Imputation of Christs Death and Passion which was once wrought for all at his Consecration to His Everlasting Priest-hood The Other by Participation of his Grace or Operation of his Priesthood since his Resurrection and Ascension During the time of Legal Sacrifices whether for sinnes against the Ceremonial or Moral Law the People were bound upon new occasions to bring new Sacrifices unto the Priest and he bound to offer them up unto the Lord for their Reconciliation or Attonement For us Christians to think or conceive of more Sacrifices for sinne then One that was Once offered for all were to deny Christ or the Efficacie of His Everlasting Priesthood But as for the Sacrifices of prayers prayses or thanksgiving for what is past or supplications for the assistance of Christs Spirit for the time to come These we are bound to offer up to God by Christ more frequently then the Jews could offer up their bloudy Sacrifices or then the Priests could attend this service which they were to attend only at certain houres or Solemn Times because they were but mortal men and could not perform their Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Christ since his Resurrection and Ascension is not only an Everlasting High Priest but doth exercise this his Function without Intermission Every Priest standeth dayly ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins But this Priest after he had offered one Sacrifice for sin sate down on the right hand of God For ever So the Syriack reades Points it much better then the Ordinary English doth or the Greek as may appear from a Parallel place Hebr. 7. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He remaineth a Priest for ever 4. Briefly though every sin perhaps every Gross sin which we commit after our Justification by the Resurrection of Christ and reall Participation of his Grace doth not work a Total Interruption in our Estate or Interest in him yet every such sin doth work a decay or diminution of Grace or some extinguishment of the Spirit of Life both which must be repayred by the Efficacy or Exercise of his Everlasting Priest-hood None is so just whether by Imputation of his merits or by Encrease of Grace but may and must be dayly more justifyed So that the Son of God doth set us free First by his sufferings upon the Cross Secondly by the Laver of Baptism and by Participation of his Life and Spirit and Lastly he will set us Free indeed at the Resurrection of the Just when we shall be translated into that heavenly house or mansion wherein he abideth for ever 5. Thus much of the Knowledge of Christ and of him Crucified and of the exercise of his Everlasting Priest-hood Points wherein I could wish to take more pains though to the wasting of my bodily Spirits upon Condition I could perswade a great part of the Clergie of this Kingdom not to make Christ Crucified and raised from the Dead a meer By-stander in most of their Disputes concerning Election c. as if he had shed his precious bloud to no other purpose save only the purchase of their own Salvation or the Eternal Excommunication or Damnation of others Now whether I have justly charged them with denyal of Christs Everlasting Priest-hood or of his Absolute Dominion or Final Judicature I here solemnly appeal unto Him in that great Day when he shall come as I verily believe He shall to judge the Quick and the Dead To reward every man according to all his workes whether his Writings Sayings or Actions C. Reader THE main Work of the sixth Section was to prepare and clear the way for The Exercise of Christs Everlasting Priesthood by amoving that Great Mountain of the Rigid Decree which in the Authors judgment did obstruct the general approach to the Throne of mercy and the issues of Grace flowing thence It making Christ a meer Spectator at most an Instrument to Execute a Decree passed before all Worlds and no Actor Advocate or Intercessor This following eighth Section treats of Certain Errors which though some of them do not wholly Evacuate or null yet do all of them disparage and Entrench upon the vertue and Efficacie of Christs Priest-hood Some of them were toucht before here they are more fully handled SECT
VIII CHAP. LIV. Three Errors Disparaging Christs Priest-hood 1. The Novatian denying the Reception of some Sort of Sinners 2. A Late Contrary Error affirming That every Sin which some sort of men Committ is pardoned before it be Committed 3. The Romish Doctrine of the Masse giving scandal to the Jew All of them Respectively derogating from the Infinite value or Continual Efficacie of Christs Everlasting Priesthood THe First Error in this kind which did grow into an Heresie was that of Novatus Qui negavit lapsis poenitentiâ—m who would not have Backsliders or Revolters from Christianitie Of Novatus See Euseb L. 6. c. 42. Socrates Lib. 4. ch 23. to be upon any Terms or testifications of repentance re-admitted into the Church or made partakers of Absolution This Heresiâ— as all others took its Original from a plausiâ—le Truth or practise of former times The Truth is that in those times wherein men professing Christianitie were every day called unto the Fierie Tryal This Backsliding or Relapse unto Idolatrie or outward Profession of Idolatrie even after Baptism was so rife that the Church would not admitt any such as had thus revolted unto the Estate or Condition of Penitentiaries nor give them Absolution upon private testifications of sorrow for their Revolt Now if Novatus did only deny that unto such backssiders or Revolters which the Church in her purest times would not Grant them why was he condemned by the Church in Ages following for an Heretick If his Opinion were an Heresie why was not the Practise of the Antient Church Heretical Some Grave and Learned late Writers would have the Novatas Heresie not precisely to consist in that he denyed Absolution or Communion with the Church unto Revolters but in that he maintained That the Church had no right or Power to grant Absolution unto such Backsliders as Cornelius then Bishop of Rome with the Advice and consent of his Clergie did grant unto but that this was a Case reserved to God himself That such Backsliders or Revolters might at the point of death be Absolved Novatian himself had once solemnly profest But after Cornelius his Competitioner for the Bishoprick of Rome being preferred to that Dignitie had authorized this Practise he begun to set abroach his Error whatsoever that were and to accuse Cornelius and his adherents as Authors of Heresie and Novelties in the Church Had this Novatian been constant to his former Tenets and Profession made before Cornelius was chosen Bishop of Rome against him he could not have denyed either of these Two Points of Truth Either that God had mercie in store for Revolters from Christianitie when they did repent or the Churches Power to grant Absolution or other comfort spiritual unto those to whom she might out of charitable discretion presume God was merciful or to whom God had not forbid her to shew mercy or compassion For Christ had commanded her to be merciful as her Heavenly Father is merciful But it were too much Charitie to presume that a man of such a proud and turbulent Spirit as Novatian was in the depth of such discontent as took possession of his spirit upon Cornelius his Preferment to so great a dignitie as the Bishoprick of Rome unto his prejudice would be constant to his former Principles either in whole or in part As either to grant that God had mercy in store for Revolters or that the Church had power to Absolve them upon such significations of repentance as belonged unto her Cognizance Nor can we without breach of Charitie think that either Novatian or any other Heretick in those times would be so gross as to deny the Churches Power to Absolve men from any sinne from which they were perswaded God had or would absolve them And it is a clear Case that the Novatians did ground their Errour or Contradiction to the Church wherein they lived upon that place of the Apostle Heb. 6. 4 5 6. It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost And have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they fall away to renue them again unto repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame and grounding their Error or maintaining it by this place it is evident that they held Lapsos or Revolters from Christianitie unto Heathenism to be in the same estate Which modern Divines conceive all such to bâ— in as sin against the Holy Ghost But of the true meaning or extent of the Apostles words in the forecited place or how the absolute unpardonablness of sin against the holy Ghost may be thence concluded I have nothing for the present to say It sufficeth to know that this Error of the Novatians was by the Ancient Church wherein they lived Condemned for an Heresie Yet hence it will not follow that their Heresie in the Judgment of them which condemned it did properly or precisely consist in denying the Churches authoritie to absolve sinnes of what kind soever but rather in avouching this particular sin of Apostasie or revolting from Christianitie to be in it self unpardonable or uncapable of Repentance If it had been in it self unpardonable or so adjudged by the Primitive Church Navatian had been no Heretick in withstanding Cornelius Bishop of Rome and the particular Churches which consented with him or in denying to admit the Revolters from Christianitie unto the estate or Condition of Penitentiaries in the Church or in refusing to give them Absolution or to hold Communion with them after they had voluntarily or otherwise observed such a course of Life as the Church had appointed for Penitentiaries That the Antient Church did neither admit open Revolters to enter into this Course or Rule of life nor Absolve them after they had Uoluntarily though most strictly to the eyes of men observed it doth no way argue that the Church in which Cornelius lived or which lived after him did erre much lesse incurre the Censure of heresie which Novatian objected unto them in admitting open Revolters unto the estate and Condition of Penitentiaries or in absolving them from their sinnes after performance of such religious duties as were by the Church required of men admitted into that estate or Condition 2. The Primitive Church did hold both to be lawfull but not expedien for the present Times The Primitive Church did deny unto Revolters Both these Favours 1. Admission to the state of Penitentiaries 2. Absolution upon their good behaviour after testification of repentance onely de Facto not de Jure The Church in later times did onely alter the Practise or discipline as is to be presumed upon good cause or consideration And to conclude or limit the Authoritie of the present Church onely by Matter of fact or practise of the Church in former times is matter of Heresie at least of Schism And this it may be
was a Branch but not the Root of Novatian's Heresie His Radical Errour or Heresie was in justifying the practise of the former Church and in Condemning the resolution of the Church wherein he and Cornelius lived by the fore-cited place of our Apostle Heb. 6. Or by his misinterpretation of it that God would not be mercifull unto such as in time of persecution had denyed Christ and either by word or practise approved the rites of the heathens This Sin of Revolt indeed was a foul and grievous sin yet not a-like foul and grievous in all that were guiltie of it But Even the foulest sin that can be imagined is but a work of the Divel and there is no work which the Divel can work in man so foul which the Son of God who was manifested to this purpose that he might dissolve the workes of the Divel is not able to dissolve Onely the full measure of sin or of obstinate continuance in foul and grievous sinnes is excluded from repentance or other benefits of Christs Passion Nor is the sin against the Holy Ghost for its kind or qualitie unpardonable but because it is alwayes a Symptom of the full measure of sin or of obstinate and unrelenting continuance in some sinfull course of life 3. But even this Fundamental Truth That no sin for it's nature or qualitie is unpardonable through the bad disposition of men hath yeilded Nutriment to an errour so lately sprung up that it is not as yet condemned for an heresie though in it self as damnable as Novatian's Error was The Error is this That Every sin which some sort of men commit is pardoned before it be committed for so the Authors or mainteiners of this Errour argue If Every sin especially every grosser sin which the Elect or men regenerate do commit were not forgiven through the Merits of Christs Passion the Elect themselves or men regenerate might Totally or Finally fall from Grace seeing every sin in its nature deserveth Everlasting death But that the Elect or men regenerate may either Totally or Finally fall from Grace or be for the present in state of condemnation is the utmost Absurditie or inconvenience which in Divinitie they seek to bring their Opposites unto Not to trouble the Church with discussion of the Antecedent Whether the Elect or regenerate may fall from Grace either totally or finally the Argument or Consequence is worth the traversing to wit Whether it being granted that neither the Elect nor men regenerate can fall from Grace we must by necessary Consequence grant that the sins which men Elect or regenerate do after their regeneration commit be actually or in particular forgiven before the actuall commission of them or Whether it were not much better to grant That men Regenerate might fall from Grace then that their sinnes be in particular forgiven before they be actually committed by them If the Connexion of these two were so infallible that there were a necessitie of granting both by granting one Unto this Querie our Answer is That if the impossibilitie of falling from Grace after regeneration cannot be mainteined without Supposal or Grant That their sinnes are forgiven before they be committed or that God hath as it were ante-dated a Pardon for them in particular from the houre of Christs passion the medicine would be much worse than the disease for which it is sought This very Conceipt or perswasion that our sinnes should be forgiven before they be committed will do the soul which harbours it greater harm than a Totall falling from Grace could do it For a Totall falling from Grace doth neither argue nor occasion just despair of pardon upon repentance whereas the misperswasion or prejudicate opinion that our sinnes are pardoned before they be committed will necessarily puffe up our soules with presumption whose swelling impostumations are no lesse deadly than the wounds of despair Though most Popes with their followers blasphemously teach that with what Facts soever God himself at any time hath dispensed every Pope for the time being may dispense with the same and that he may pardon every sin so far and in such manner as God the Father and God the Son have pardoned the like yet some latter Popes upon suite made to them have made a Demurre whether God at any time since the creation did grant a Pardon or dispensation for any Fact before it was committed which without pardon or dispensation was unwarrantable or in its nature damnable And upon this scruple or Demurr have denyed to Ante-date any dispensation for those Facts or practises which their predecessors had condemned for heynous sinnes unto those persons whose welfare and security from temporal danger they much tendred and unto whom they shewed themselves willing to grant a Pardon for those very practises Post factum which they would not pardon or dispence withall before they were committed So that to deliver it as a point of Orthodoxal Doctrin that God doth freely and absolutely pardon any particular sinnes even of his Elect and dearest children before they be committed by them is an Errour which transcends the Licentiousness of Poperie a Licentiousness which for degrees and malignitie exceedes the contrary rigorous Novatian errour which denyes possibilitie of Pardon unto some grosser sinnes as unto Relapse unto Idolatry 4. Yet is this licentious Errour but a particular branch and not the worst branch of that Fundamental or radical Errour before mentioned which makes or strives to make the Individual Nature substance or Entitie that is in one word See his Answer to Mr. B. the Bare persons of men the Immediate Object of the Omnipotent irresistible and immutable Decree concerning Election and Reprobation The manner how this Licentious Errour of Ante-dating Pardons for sinnes springs from this Poysonous Root is conspicuous and palpable First the Decree of God as all grant is altogether immutable and irresistible and Secondly the Individual Nature or Essence of every man that is his particular person is though not irresistible yet indivisible and immutable It changeth not with the conditions or dispositions of men For though a man of a young Saint become an old Divel though of a civil sober and peaceable man he become a ryotous unruly seditious man yet he still remaines the same person he was he cannot plead in Courts of humane justice that it was another partie not he which committed the misdemeanors for which he is questioned Though his qualities or conditions alter yet his Substance or Person alters not whence if Gods immutable decree of Reprobation or Election were immediately terminated unto mens Individual Natures or Substances that is if he had absolutely decreed to reward some particular men with everlasting Bliss and others with everlasting miserie without respect unto their works this Consequence would be immutable infallible irresistible Let the one sort live as they list in Adulterie Theft and Murder they should be saved Let the others do what they can sell all that they have and give
then at any time as hitherto at all times he hath done deferre the execution of Justice upon us which our adversarie dayly sollicites against us he defers it at the Plea or Intercession of this our Advocate not for our own sakes And it is worth the noteing that as the reason why the Psalmist will not have us ioyn issue with our adversary in point of Justice is because No flesh is righteous in Gods sight so our Apostle to shew that our Advocate though partaker with us of flesh blood is Exempted from this Vniversal Negative enstyles Him by the name of Jesus Christ the righteous If He were not righteous even in Gods sight He could be no fitt Advocate to stand betwixt us and Gods Justice to avert his Judgements from and draw down his mercy and blessing upon us But in respect of what sinnes is Jesus Christ the Righteous said to be our Advocate an Advocate even for the Elect and regenerate Is he their Advocate onely in respect of sinnes committed before their regeneration or before their Confirmation in Grace or an Advocate also for the remission of those sinnes which they have committed after their regeneration by Baptism or after the increase of Justifying or sanctifying Grace whether procured by receiving of Christs Body and Blood or by other meanes If our Advocate he were onely in respect of sinnes committed before Baptism or of sinnes inherent by nature the Apostle had not said If any man sin we have an Advocate but if any man hath sinned he hath an Advocate or Intercession is alreadie made for him by his Advocate The title which he bestowes upon his Disciples Little Children argues them to have been in his esteem men regenerate and more free as he hoped from ordinary sinnes than other men at the least he wrote unto them to the end that they should not sin after they had been cleansed from their sinnes but yet he addes if any man shall hereafter fall into any sin We He saith not YOU as takeing himself included in the number of those which stood in need of Advocation have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous This implyes that Christ doth not cease to execute the Office of an Advocate for the regenerate so long as they live here on earth For it is not the Office of any Advocate to plead for the remission of those sinnes which are alreadie remitted or from which he knowes his Clients to be cleare exempted before they have committed them If then the son of God make intercession for the sinnes of the Elect or regenerate whilest they live here on earth their sinnes are not remitted untill He have made intercession for them nor doth He intercede for actual sinnes till after they be committed 10. However if the Son of God be our Advocate onely unto God the Father It is the Advocate 's Office to plead for pardon The Iudge which hath Power whether in respect of sinnes past or now present He as Advocate doth onely plead our Pardon It is God the Father then which must grant the Pardon and if every sin be a work of Satan the pardoning of sin is the Dissolution or destruction of the work of Satan How then is it said that the Son of God doth destroy or dessolve the workes of Satan in us As the Almighty Father is said to have made the world for he spake the word and it was made yet he made it by the Eternal Word his Onely Son so albeit the Father likewise do give the Fiat or Warrant that our sinnes may be remitted or that the workes of Satan may be dissolved in us yet they must be dissolved by the Son as immediatly by the Son as the world was Created by the Son 1 Iob. 2. 1 2. For this reason the Apostle in the forecited place doth not content himself with the onely Title of Advocate but adds withall that he is the Propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours onely but for the sinnes of the whole world He saith not though that be most true He hath made the Propitiation for our sin lest haply any man should hence collect that all his sinnes were forgiven before they were committed because the Propitiation was made for them before they were committed For albeit the Propitiatorie Sacrifice was of value infinite and all-sufficient for the full ransom of the World yet is it not sufficient for us which believe that Christ dyed for us to look onely upon the Propitiation which he then Made for us for that is past but upon himself as he still continues the propitiation for our sinnes so saith the Apostle He is the propitiation for our sinnes not onely an Advocate to plead for us unto his Father that our sinnes may be remitted but this request being granted he is withall the High Priest which must remit them and not our high priest onely but the Propitiation by which Every work of Satan in us must immediately be dissolved Again though all unto whom St. John wrote this Epistle were not regenerate yet it is certaine that all such as walk in the light are regenerate yet saith St. John Chap. 1. 7. 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 what hath it done Cleansed us from all our sinnes Though that be in a good sense most true yet our Apostle doth not So speak Lest haply such as had attained unto this Communion of Saints or participation with the Children of Light being thus farre cleansed by Christs bloud might take occasion to think that all their sinnes aswel those that are to come as those which were past were already pardoned by him or that they were as truly cleansed from the guilt of sinnes future as of sins already committed past But the Apostle making himself one of the number to whom he speaks says If WE walk in the light the bloud of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin that is it never ceaseth to cleanse the Elect or regenerate from the sins which they never cease in some measure or other to committ or harbour in them And if there were not a perpetual Remission of our sinnes or if this cleansing us from our sinnes by the bloud of Christ were not as perpetual and continual as our Commission of sinne is our Case even the Case of men regenerate would be Lamentable So farre is it from truth that the sinnes of any man be forgiven before they be committed or that any man is by the bloud of Christ actually cleansed from those sinnes which as yet have not actually polluted his soul and conscience that as bad Diet casts men into a Relapse of those diseases from which they had been lately cured so the sinnes which we commit this hour will call our former sinnes to remembrance in Gods sight until these later as well as the former be actually forgiven or
untill we be actually cleansed from these later by the bloud of Christ. I should now proceed unto the manner how the Son of God doth dissolve those works which Satan worketh in us after Baptism or regeneration or how we are actually cleansed from sinne by his bloud 11. The Error of the sacrifice of the Mass But here again I find the Truth besett with Two Errors or Extremes the One Positive or an Heresie maintained by the Romish Church which in effect denies the infinite value or everlasting Efficacie of Christs bloudy Sacrifice upon the Crosse The Other Extreme is an Incogitancy of some men which magnisie the everlasting Efficacie or infinite value of Christs Bloudie Sacrifice not too much for so they cannot but amiss they make it everlasting after such a manner or rather make such use or application of its everlasting Efficacie or infinite value to themselves and to their hearers as makes his Everlasting Priesthood to be uselesse or needlesse To begin with the First Error or Extreme Is it possible that That Church which challengeth the Title of Catholick as her own peculiar should deny the most Fundamental Article of Catholick Faith as is the everlasting Efficacie or infinite value of Christs Bloudie Sacrifice In expresse terms or directly she doth not deny it Her Advocates dare not professe the denyal of it For so most of their Faction whom they lead blindfold would forsake them as Hereticks and Aliens from the Antient and Orthodoxal Church Yet the more stifly the greatest Scholars in that Church deny the imputation or Charge which we lay upon them the better proof we shall gain from them that they are the men which as the Apostle saith are given over to believe Lyes that they are the men on whose soules the spirit of delusion hath seazed If we shall decypher the impression or Character of that spirit so clearly that every one which is not sworn to their Faction whether Jew Mahumetan or Heathen or other more indifferent though but indued with Common Reason may run and read it Let us see then how they expose the greatest Mysteries of our Salvation unto the just scorn and derision of the lew Mahumetan or Heathen without possibilitie of Apologie for their manifest contradicting the Principles not of Christianitie only but of Common Reason Thus you may imagine any Iewish School-Boy or young Artist Catechized in the Rudiments of his own Religion would oppose the greatest Rabbines in the Romish Church We of the Jewish Nation once had our ordinary Priests which offered sacrifices daily in the temple we had our high Priest which went into the most holy place once a year with the bloud of the Anniversary and solemn sacrifices ye Christian Catholicks so ye term your selves teach your hearers as your Apostle hath taught you that the best sacrifices which our Fathers used were but Shadowes fore-signifying the taking away of sin they did not they could not take away sins or cleanse the consciences of such as offered them And why could not our sacrifices take away sin your Apostle gives this Reason because they were often offered Heb. 10. ver 1. 2. c. Ye Christian Catholicks have your high Priest who as ye say offered himself up in bloudy sacrifice unto God for your sinnes was this his sacrifice perfect or was it not Did it take away sinnes more perfectly then the sacrifices which our Fathers used or did it not ye say It did we say It did not it could not if your Apostles Principles or Expositions of Scriptures be true and your practise not false or unlawful Your Priests as you confess stand daily ministring and offering the same sacrifice which your high Priest did offer and therefore by your Apostles argument against us and by your practise this sacrifice can never take away sinne it is more the same sacrifice than the sacrifices of the Law were And yet it is offered oftner and in more places than any Legal sacrifices were 12. Some devoted to the Romish religion will perhaps say in their hearts the Doctors of our Church know well enough how to untye these knots which the Iewes cast albeit so learnedly and so subtilly that no unlearned man can perceive how they untye them If men will thus believe or rely upon their Teachers skill without any true experiment of it we cannot help it Yet if you will believe me upon the faith of a Christian I never yet could see any Romish Writer which leaves not the former knot worse then he found it after he had used all the paines and skill he had to untwist it The wisest and most learned of them usually let it slide away without medling Many of you perhaps have read what the Rhemists in their Notes upon the tenth to the Hebrewes have attempted To make you believe that all is loose The Apostle say they speakes of the sacrifices of the Law not of the sacrifice of the Mass It is true indeed he speakes of the sacrifices of the Law for he proves them to be unperfect unsufficient but he proves them to be unsufficient by such a Reason as will conclude more strongly not only against the sacrifice of the Mass if so the sacrifice of the Masse were as lawfull as the Legal sacrifices sometimes were or the Reiteration of it not more abominable in the sight of God then the restauration of Legal bloudie sacrifices at this day would be But against Christs bloudy sacrifice upon the †He meanes if it needed to be often offered Cross also The only Reason by which the Apostle proves the best kind of Legal sacrifices even whilest they were lawfully used and according to Gods appointment to have been altogether unsufficient for taking away sinne is because they were to be often offered Now every particular must be proved by an universal and A true universal Rule or Principle includes the same reason in every particular The Apostle could not prove the Legal Services to have been imperfect for this Reason that they were often offered unless this Vniversal were true and taken by him as granted That no sacrifices or sacrifice of what kind soever which is often offered can be perfect or sufficient to take away sinnes This universal Reason the Apostle takes as granted by Light of Nature and Common Reason and so frames his Argument from the Authoritie of Scriptures and the consonancie of Common Reason or light of nature ver 15. The Holy Ghost ALSO is witnesse c. It is as idle and as frivolous a shift wherewith the same Rhemists seek to put off their ignorant Readers when they tell them that Christs body was but once offered up in a bloudy manner but may and ought to be often offered up in a bloudless manner The very root and ground of this distinction if you examine it by our Apostles Argument includes a confession or acknowledgement of the CRIME or HERESIE which we object unto them to wit that The bloudy Sacrifice
Sacrifice and most perfect offering Of all the Legal Sacrifices which present themselves unto my former observation or present memory there is one kind only which can beare the true shaddow or serve as a Modell of the Everlasting Efficacie of his onely Sacrifice once offered for all And that was the sacrifice of the Red Heifer Numb 19. and the Legal Use which GODS People under the Law were to make of Her Ashes The correspondencie between the effects of the Ashes of this sacrifice and of the blood of Christ is gathered by our Apostle Heb. 9. ver 13 14. If the Ashes of an Heyfer sprinkling the unclean sanctifâ—eth to the purification of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself to God purge your consciences from dead workes to serve the living God But wherein did this sacrifice picture out the Everlasting Efficacie of the Blood of the Son of God in more peculiar manner than other Legal sacrifices did 14. First in that all such as were legally unclean by touching a Corps or Grave by comming into a Tent wherein a Corps lay unburied or suffering the vessels in such a Tent to be uncovered were to be purified by the Water of Sprinkling which was qualified or consecrated to this purpose by the Ashes of the Red Cow or Heyfer and as often to be purified by this water as they should incurre this Legal uncleanness And yet the sacrifice of this beast was not to be offered so often as this people did incurre these Kinds of legal uncleanness Thus much is Evident from the practice of the Jewish Church during the time of the Law For this water of purification was often every year oft-times Every month to be sprinkled upon some one or other of this people oft-times upon one and the same man within one and the same year even as often as he should by chance or negligence incurre any of the former branches of uncleannesse Yet was not this sacrifice whose ashes were still to be mingled with the water of purification to be offered once Every year in every Age or in many Ages The Sacrifice of the Red Heyfer as the Jewes confesse was but nine times offered during the time of the Law Once by Eleazar Aarons Son in the wilderness And this sacrifice was not reiterated untill the destruction of Salomons Temple that is not during the space of a thousand yeares and more It was the Second Time offered by Ezra after this peoples Return from Captivitie and but seven times after unto the destruction of the second Temple And this Foolish Nation since that time hath not presumed to offer it but expects the offering of it the tenth time by their King Messias Thus is the faithless Synagogue by Gods providence the Keeper not of the Sacred Oracles onely written by Moses and the prophets but even of those Traditions which testifie the summe and truth of these Oracles to wit that this legal sacrifice amongst the rest was to be accomplished in their Messias He was indeed to set the Period to this legal Rite and to all the rest not by offering them after a Legal Rite or manner but by offering up himself instead of them all once for all in bloodie sacrifice in whose infinite Value and Everlasting Efficacie all other sacrifices or offerings for sin were so terminated or swallowed up as Land-rivers or currents of waters are in the sea But what circumstance have we from the written Text that this sacrifice was not to be so often offered as this people had occasion to use the water of sprinkling or the Ashes of this sacrifice to cleanse them from their former Legal pollutions Numb 19. It is said ver 9. that the Ashes should be laid up without the Camp in a cleane place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reserved or kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of separation The Ashes were to be reserved not for this Generation onely present but for the use of Posteritie As Manna which was commanded in the same Character to be reserved in the Ark was the Type of Christ as he is the food of life or the bread which came down from heaven So were these Ashes as an Emblem of the Everlasting Efficacie or operative vertue of his sacrifice There is no Bodily substance under heaven which can be so true an Emblem or model of incorruption as Ashes are Being the Remainder of bodies perfectly dissolved or corrupted they are not capable of a second corruption And when it is said that the Ashes should be reserved for a water of separation the meaning is that one sacrifice might afford ashes enough to season or qualifie as many several vessels of water as this people for many generations should have occasion to use for Legal purification So it is said in the same ninth verse that the Reservation of these Ashes was a Purification for sin A purification not in Act onely or for one or two turnes but a Continual Purification or as a Treasurie or storehouse for making as many purifications or waters of sprinkling as this people had occasion to use And so Christ is said Heb. 1. 3. to have made a purification for our sinnes when he had by himself purged our sinnes saith our English he sate down on the right hand of the Majestie on high But the Translation under Correction comes somewhat short of the Original and the shorter it comes of it the more advantage it yeilds unto their opinion which think their sinnes were remitted and purged before they were actually committed The Apostles words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haveing made a Purification for sin he hath ascended into heaven The word Purification is not to be restrained to One Act or operation but includes or implies the Perpetual qualitie of himself or substance of his sacrifice being by this one Act consecrated to be a perpetual Fountain of purification As he did not onely make one propitiation for our sinnes So neither did he once actually purge us from our sinnes by offering up himself but still remaines the purification of our sinnes that is he doth still purifie and cleanse us from our sinnes as often as we seek by Faith and true repentance to be cleansed and purified by him 15. So then the Blood of the Legal Sacrifice or Heyfer did consecrate the Ashes to be as a Storehouse or treasury of legal purification and the Ashes thus consecrated by this sacrifice did hallow or consecrate the Water which was put into them to make actual purification as often as occasion required So did our High Priest by the One Sacrifice of Himself consecrate his Blood to be an inexhaustible Fountain of purification Evangelical And his Blood and Body thus consecrated once for all do consecrate or sanctifie the Water of Baptism to cleanse or wash Infants from sin Original and such as are of yeares when they are baptized from sinnes Actual