had not stepped in between Gods wrath and us no flesh living should be saved In this sense it is the Apostle tells us that we are by nature Ephess 2. 3. Rom. 5. 12. 1. Cor. 15. 22. Jo. 3. 3. 18. the children of wrath and all dead in Adam and our Saviour assures us that except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God because he that believeth not as he sayes in another place is condemned already § 22. Though then the first Covenant continues still in force as to the condemning power of it to all the sons of Adam yet it continues not in force as to Life and Justification by it Nor was it for that end that the Law and first Covenant was revived and given by Moses but onely to manifest Jos 1. 7. our guilt and the purity we fell from and our necessity of a Saviour The Law sayes the Apostle was added Gal. 3. 19. because of transgression And in another place Moreover the Rom. 5. 20. Rom. 7. 13. Gal. 3. 22. Law entred that the offence might abound and that sin might appear exceeding sinfull But now the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ made to Adam and Abraham might be given to them that believe For if there had been a Law given which could have Gal. 3. 21. given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law and if righteousness come or were by the Law then Christ is dead in vain And here the same Apostle assures us that no man is justified by the Law because the Law as he sayes Gal. 3. 11. Rom. 4. 15. Rom. 8. 2. elsewhere worketh wrath and brings along with it in the same Apostles Phrase a law of sin and death § 23. The Law then as taken by our Apostle for a Covenant of works and exact unsinning obedience is no longer in force as to life and Justification by it since now not so much that it is impossible that Righteousness should be obtained by it but because Mankind is already for transgression Actually under the curse of it and he that is already damned cannot possibly be obliged not to be damned upon the self same Penalty and Censure of Damnation And I see not yet why it may not as rationally be said that even the Reprobates in Hell are still obliged by virtue of that Law or Covenant to sinless perfection upon pain of that Damnation which now they groan under and shall continue to do so as well as the lapsed sons of Adam that are already under the same fatall Curse though thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord not under the same irreversible Punishment The difference here between them is onely this that both are under the Curse of the Law but both are not under the same finall irreversible execution They are actually plunged in Hell and these yet in vià should as certainly have fallen into the same bottomless pit if the Mediator had not stepped in and procured a Respite of the Execution and a possibility to these by virtue of his Passion and Intercession through the means of a new Covenant of Faith in his blood to escape the finall vengeance of it § 24. Since then Mankind in Adam is by the tenor of the first covenant damned already there seems no reason it should stand in force to require of the condemned that Perfection of righteousness it at first required of them whilst they were in their Integrity and had Power and Grace sufficient to perform it for can their after-multiplyed sins add any whit to the certainty of their damnation by that Law and Covenant or to the Aggravation of it If it adds any thing to the certainty where then is the force of the Curse threatned If it adds to the aggravation why not also to that of the damned § 25. If it here shall be replyed these are yet but in viâ and a state of tryall and Probation but the other are now extra statum merendi and he that is dead is freed from the Rom. 7. 1 2 3. Law § 26. I shall answer this is true but then I must cry out with our Apostle Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Rom. 7. 25. our Lord. Otherwise O wretched men that we are who Rom. 7. 24. who should deliver us from the body of this death This arises not at all from the Nature and Tenor and Condition of the first Covenant that allowed no more Respite to Man then was granted to the fallen Angels but onely from the Intercession and Mediation of the Son of God the Lamb slain Revel 13. 8. 1 Pet. 1. 20. from nay before the foundation of the world who took not on him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham And Heb. 2. 16. therefore since this Respite of Execution arises not at all from the first Covenant but from the Grace of the Mediatour and this further state of Tryall and Probation that here belongs to the sons of Adam of necessity supposes a new Covenant made and promised and promulgated as the Scripture testifies that it was immediately after Adams fall and Gen. 3. 15. as soon as the Curse of the first Covenant was by God the Judge pronounced and in part executed against him it evidently at least to me seems to follow that both are equall in Respect of the Curse of the first Covenant incurred though both are not equall in respect of the full and finall and irreversible execution which makes the one Capable of the blessings of a new Covenant of which the other are not § 27. If it here shall be replyed how comes it then to pass that since as the sins of Infidells are multiplyed so also shall their torments and levius Cato quam Catilina as S. Austin § 28. To this I have nothing else at present to reply but that since our Saviour assures me that he that believes not is condemned already and therefore since all not Infants excepted are dead in Adam because they sinned in him I must conclude with S. Austin that the Infidell by the tenor of the first Covenant would as certainly be damned if even in his infancy he dyed out of the Pale of the Church as in his riper years and though his punishment should be the lighter yet I know no reason in respect of the first Covenant that as he lives longer his hell shall be the hotter Nor can I for the present apprehend how this should come to pass but only upon the Promise and Promulgation of the second Covenant Not that God sent his son into the world to condemn Joh. 3. 17 18 19 20. the world but that the world through him might be saved For he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the onely begotten Son of God And this
sed quod potest adjutus divino Spiritu Quo autem major nunc datur aut offertur spiritus copia eo praeceptum quoque istud vberius praestandum est H. Grot. in annot ad Matth c. 22. vers 37. p. 375. § 48. †Daille l. 1. de Jejuniis cap. 7. apud D. Hammond in his Account of the Triplex Diatribe p. 144 Scalig. Elench Trehaeres c. 22. in the treatise of Will worship sect 28. Vide Bp. Downeham of the Covenant of Grace c. 10. throughout Monsieur Daillé and Joseph Scaliger both Protestants sufficient and in Treatises particularly opposed against Bellarmine and Serrarius the Jesuite have been quoted by the Doctor to this very purpose and others might be added to the Number But these are sufficient to acquit the Doctor from the suspicion of Popery in this his Doctrine and let our Refuter know that all Protestants are not even of the learned Chamier's opinion in this point And now that the Doctor and those of his Judgement are in the right I undertake to defend and shall make it good in * Vide infra sect 32. §. 20 21 22 23 24 c. 32. sect 26 27 29 31. due place § 49. Indeed the assertion of Chamier is so notoriously false that it carries its own confutation in its forehead even to the most ordinary observer and I wonder by what misfortune and inadvertence it dropped from his Pen. What Omnes gradns comprehendimus amoris qui obtineri possunt vel in hac vita vel in altera si quid sit minus id peccato deputamus Let our Refuter himself in his most Protestant Ruff construe it and tell us how he can make it good Can he ever be able to prove that it is my sin that I see not God face to face while I am in the body and walk by Faith not by sight If it be my sin that I be not a Comprehensor in Heaven while I am in the state of a Viator upon earth that I be not present with the Lord while I am absent from him that I enjoy not Heaven happinesse and the sight of God whilst I am in the flesh in which state no man can see him and live then God with all humble Reverence be it spoken must be the Author of it For God has planted us all in that Condition where we can only see him by Faith and Revelation as through a glass darkly and not face to face Even Adam in innocence had only this advantage to see God by 1 Cor. 13. 12. Faith and clearer Revelation but not at all by Sight And now if our Love of necessity must bear proportion to our Knowledge Impossible it is I should love God at that height whilst I am in the flesh as I can do and shall by Gods Grace I firmly hope when I see him face to face and shall know as I am known Even the souls of Adam and all just men now made perfect do far more intensely more fervently love God whom they now see and enjoy in Heaven then ever Adam did or could if he had continued still in Innocence They love him now Naturally Uninterruptedly Constantly and Immutably but Adam in Paradise Habitually and not alwaies Actually for of necessity the Acts of his Love must be interrupted at least whilst he slept and Freely and therefore Mutably as his fall does too sadly evidence Nay the very Angels that fell not but kept their first station do now more fervently love God since their Confirmation in Grace because they now Immutably love him and have had since the fall of Lucifer an Experiment of his Favour to them which the others had not § 50. With what colour of truth then can it be maintained that it must be deputed and reckoned my sin if I love not God to as high a degree in this life as is possible to be attained in the next For does not that height and perfection of Love depend purely upon the sight and enjoyment of God and the participation of Heaven happiness And is not this height and intensenesse of Love an effect at least of the happiness of the Spirits of just men made perfect And does not this wholly and absolutely depend upon Gods bounty For though the wages of sin be death yet the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6. 23. And shall it be my sin that Gods gifts are not at my Command or within my power to purchase them Or must we say with Bellarmine that it is our sin and will be our punishment if we do not even ex condigno merit Heaven For so of necessity it must be said before it can be maintained that it must be our sin and transgression of this first and great Commandement if we love not God to that height and degree that the blessed Saints and Angels do love him in Heaven with that precise utmost height which is possible to be attained not only in this life but also in the next Add to this that the Saints and Angels now confirmed in grace do love God Naturally and Necessarily to that height that they love him and they can as well cease to see God and know God as not so to love him This is not now their election and choice but their happinesse and Crown their reward nay their Nature not their Labour and Endeavour How then can the want of that Fervour be my sin which is not within the compass of my Will and power to arrive at * Vide Davenant de Justit habit Act. c. â—1 p. 470. arg 1. He should as well have said it is our fault that now we be not immortal and glorified whilest we are in the flesh And let me tell our Refuter that he also should have said we are obliged to see God face to face whilest we are in this body as well as to have told us that the first and greatest Commandement enjoyneth us a love of God with as high a degree as is possible Jeanes hic p. 31. unto the humane Nature For I hope he will not say but that is possible to the humane Nature which Enoch and Elias not to speak of our Blessed Saviour at the right hand of God and the Spirits of just men made perfect have now attained to § 51. Indeed this assertion of Chamier is so extremly crude and absurd in that sense which the words at first view do seem to import that I had rather strain them to the meaning and purpose of Grotius and Doctor Hammond then any such monstrous Paradox should be affixed to so Judicious and learned a man Howsoever if Mr. Cawdrey and our Refuter will needs otherwise understand him as they seem in this assertion of theirs to have done which I conceive was to them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stone of stumbling and Rock of offence I shall leave them to defend and make it good For
in this sense can and shall onely be fulfilled there Commanded indeed they say it is in the Law but onely to be endeavoured after in this life and attained to in the next And more then this we shall prove by and by they say not and as much as this I and those of the Doctors opinion shall most willingly acknowledge And let our Refuter see what advantage he can make of it and if he requires more then this let him prove it and take all and make me also his Proselyte § 32. Thirdly the love may be the highest ex parte dilectionis seu Formae aut Actus Amoris praecisè considerati a love in the highest degree not as in this or that subject planted but in the utmost degree that the form or Quality it self is naturally and essentially capable of § 33. For the better understanding of which it is to be considered that the Philosopher the better to explain the nature of Intension and Remission of Naturall Forms and Qualities whose essence consists in a latitude divides this latitude of Essence into eight degrees of Intension or Remission below which they are nothing and beyond which they become something else substantiall forms and not Accidents Now though this be true of all Naturall forms because naturally they have their intrinsick bounds of being and growth it being as true of Naturall Forms as of Naturall Bodies because Nature or rather God works all things of this kind in number weight and measure yet it is not so in respect of Grace and those infused Qualities that are the immediate issues and fruits of the Spirit These being purely dependent upon Gods good will and pleasure have no determinate bounds and limits as all Naturall Formes have but may be greater or lesser more or less perfect gradually higher or lower as God himself thinks fit There is no one degree of Grace can possibly be so high that it can be no higher or cease to be Grace nor can we love God so fervently but that by the assistance of the Spirit we may be enabled to love him more fervently § 34. Though then Philosophy acknowledges but eight degrees of latitude in the graduall intension and Remission of naturall forms yet Theology allows no such precise number for spirituall Forms and Graces They may by Gods Power be intended in infinitum and the more they are augmented the perfecter still they are And consequently no man can assign any one degree of Love that he can in respect of the Form perfectly call the highest degree of Love no more then he can shew me any one Number so great that cannot be made greater by an Addition of numbers or Multiplication of it self upon its self And therefore as we have observed Aquinas and the Schoolmen determine that charitas potest augeri in infinitum 2. 2. q. 24. art 4. And yet our Refuter that calls himself a Schoolman tells us of a first and middle degrees of Love and an eight which he calls the highest § 35. And yet if we should allow degrees of Love as we must and for argumentation sake we should pitch upon a precise number suppose of eight as the Doctor does in his Account to Master Cawdrey yet then every degree must be allowed as the Doctor excellently observes to be like the Astronomers degrees in their Circles for instance of Longitude and Latitude that are divided into Seconds and Thirds and Fourths c. and every one of these Fractions into sixty parts and fractions more and so on in infinitum if their Observations and Art so require it § 36. And therefore our Refuter might as well tell the world of the Production of the Quadrature of a Circle or a Naturall Temperature ad Pondus or the existence of a Platonicall Idea as of the highest degree of holy Love that is precisely the eighth no more nor no less to which all men are obliged But he because he is a Schoolman may talk or write any thing and the world must admire him for speaking in School-terms which because they make a strange noise and sound in English must needs be deep stuff though neither the Writer nor the Reader understand them But Oracles and Riddles are therefore Oracles and Riddles because they are dark and obscure and they therefore gain the more veneration and respect the less they are understood Now this is that height of Perfection to a degree that the Doctor denyes for the reasons formerly assigned and our Refuter undertakes to make good by this Argument § 37. And now that the Doctor is in the right besides the Reasons formerly alledged I thus further make good by our Refuters own Argument § 38. Thus then I retort it If neither the lowest degree of love nor the highest degree of Love be required by this precept then certainly some one or all of the middle degrees are commanded or else none at all but some degrees of love at least is required and not the lowest nor the highest ergo Not the lowest for the reason assigned by our Refuter which for Arguments sake and onely ad hominem we will admit of nor the highest which our Refuter contends for because then every degree of love which is not thus the highest would be a sin because a transgression of that commandment of Love that our Refuter sayes requires the highest But then this is most notoriously false and directly contrary to many places of Scripture that command growth in grace that tell us that every degree of Grace is the fruit and effect of his holy Spirit which is the onely fountain of holiness and cannot therefore be Author of any thing that is not pure and holy Regeneration new birth and inchoate sanctification are the works of the Spirit as well as growth and the Perfection of Grace and Love and every good gift and every perfect gift as that signifies James 1. 13 14 15 16 17 18. any fruit of the Spirit and holiness comes down from above from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of change with whom is neither variation declination nor Parallax but one infinite point and Act of holiness one Perfect sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings that like the sun it self the fountain of naturall light according to the Hypothesis of Galileus Copernicus Philolaus stands still in one immoveable Center of the world and gives light and heat and Influence and motion to all things in the world A sun of Righteousness not like Joshuahs sun that stands still for a day or two A sun of Righteousness not like that in the diall of Ahaz that goes back but a sun alwayes fixed in one constant and immoveable Zenith and height of Perfection and alwayes and in every respect the same because infinite And therefore I must unavoidably conclude that since Gods Spirit is like the wind and blowes how and where Joh. 3. 8. it listeth and though we see and
but also transcend the most sincere expressions of Love It may be so in all men and I shall alleage two reasons why in Christ c. § 14. To your first question I return that it is readily granted For every prudent Father does often deal so with the child he most loves and God himself sometimes in mercy hides his face and withdraws the light of his countenance from his dear children and servants when yet with an everlasting Love he affects and with everlasting kindness will have Jer. 31 3. Isa 54. 8. mercy upon them But will you thence conclude against the express letter of the Gospell that Christs earnestness in prayer was not greater in his Agony then at other times Sir you must consider that you are not now to remonstrate what may possibly come to pass or what in other men at other times and in other cases happens but what de facto then was at the time of our Saviours bloody Agony And who sees not at first glance that your Proofs fall a hundred short of your Conclusion For we are not now upon the disquisition and enquiry of what was Physicê and naturally possible but what was Morally such and what de facto according to S. Lukes plain Narration and the ordinary course and Practise of men did then come to pass And therefore since the Rule of the Law is that illud possumus quod Jure possumus if it has already appeared and clearly been demonstrated that the Christian Grace of Sincerity does ordinarily and in most cases require it and usually where the Charity is true and perfect and not counterfeit or innocently concealed for the advantage of the beloved there is and ought to be a proportionable correspondence between the Outward and the Inward Acts of Love and as the one falls or rises so also in Proportion do the other then it will not be enough to inferr which yet is all you conclude that the degrees of the inward Acts of Love may not onely equall but also transcend the most sincere expressions you must prove that they still must and ought to do so which I think will be impossible But yet let me tell you that if you should perform this more then Herculean Task you will still be very far short of concluding any thing against the Doctor For again I must remember you that we are not now speaking of the Elicite Acts of the Formall virtue of Charity and the Love of God properly taken but onely of the Imperate Acts of that Charity the Ardency of Prayer which is onely Tropically such and this will yet make your task more impossible § 15. And therefore whereas you add for a Confirmation that he is no hypocrite in expressing his Love that loves Inwardly more then he expresseth Outwardly I answer that this is manifestly impertinent to the matter in debate Christs Ardency in Prayer And though in some cases I shall make no scruple to grant it yet mind you I must that the Christian Grace of sincerity requires that in the Ordinary Course of humane affairs as our Love should not be Personate so it should be fruitfull and operative otherwise it would in this be lame and imperfect as well as in the other it would be counterfeit And this further manifests that from such not onely vain and impertinent but also false allegations as understood according to the ordinary course of morality and practise among men you will never be able to demonstrate that our Saviour in his Agony did not more earnestly according to the inward Act and Fervour deprecate his last bitter cup then any other worldly cross and affliction to which he was exposed in the dayes of his flesh § 16. But yet he will essay to make good his undertaking JEANES It may be so in all men and I shall alleage two reasons why in Christ the inward Acts of his Love were alwayes equally intense though the outward expressions thereof were gradually different § 17. And if you can make this good in the sense that the Doctor understands all along the Phrase The Love of God nay if you can clearly prove it in your own I am so great a friend to any Reason you shall bring that though you have failed in all your other undertakings yet I shall give you the whole cause for that single Reasons sake § 18. Let us weigh then your reasons to this Purpose and try them at the touchstone JEANES The first reason agreeth unto Christ in common with other men Christ as man was alwayes obliged unto the most intense ardent and fervent inward acts of Love of God But he was not c. § 19. Say you so Sir Nay then I do not doubt but notwithstanding my fair proffer you yet will fall short and so lose the golden Ball at last § 20. For Christ as Mediator and one that had undertook to pay our debt was not onely Priviledged in the humane nature by virtue of the hypostaticall union to be holy harmless undefiled but by virtue of the Covenant and contract betwixt him and the Father as well as by that First made with all mankind in Adam was obliged to be spotless and innocent otherwise he could never have been that Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world But then Man though in his integrity by virtue of the first Covenant he were bound to sinless perfection yet now since the Fall and the Fatall curse incurred and in Part inflicted on him he may as justly by that or any other New Covenant be obliged to be Immortall as the Condition of his Salvation as to be absolutely sinless and pure from all even Originall Pollution since his Corruption as well as his Mortality is an equall fruit of the first Sin and it is a part of the Curse and Punishment of Adam even inflicted on him by God that all his posterity should be left to be born after the similitude of his fallen nature For by one man sin entred into the world and death Rom. 5. 12. by sin and so death by that one passed upon all men to condemnation for that all have sinned or as S. Austin constantly reads it in quo omnes peccaverunt in whom all have sinned § 21. As then God may justly though not by Positive infliction yet by spirituall desertion and Penall decree punish one sin with an other so the Scripture assures us that this originall guilt and pollution and the vitious effects of it seize on us as a part of our punishment and Praeludium of eternall damnation and all the sons of Adam for their transgression in him are by virtue of the first covenant as certainly dead in Law and in some measure also executed as the damned are now in Hell though not so absolutely so irreversibly as they I would not be mistaken I say by virtue of that Covenant so certainly dead in Law though not so irreversibly And if the Mediatour of the new Covenant