man would perform his resolutions in case God did permit him so much time yet should no man upon this Consideration deferre his Repentance but rather most studiously imbrace the present time offered not only for that this is to be interpreted an affront of the Divine Majesty by turning the Grace of God into wantonness but for that no man is assured that ever he shall have any such late and pretious minute vouchsafed unto h m or if it be can possibly have any assurance that he will be true to his word with God in his Vows and Resolutions God alone with whom all future things are present being able to foreknow the soundness and steadiness of such shipwrackt ingagers And as these dependencies are seldom so successful at least not so often as many men imagine and in Charity we may very farre hope so would I have them to be esteemed as such which can have no right Aspect upon nor incouragement from the usual regular Proceedings of the Divine Majesty but are rather to be layd on the unpromised excesses and superabundancies of an infinite goodness extending it self to a sinner Repenting him of his sins beyond the full and free limits of the first gracious Concession of Pardon from a Relyance on which as I would not deterre any the most grievous offender whose neglects and former Supinity had cast him on this little Plank in a Sea of Perplexities so do I almost assure my self that such a Christian who dares continue in sin upon the confidence of this superabundance of grace shall never be partaker thereof this being a Pearl of too incomparable a value to be cast before that Swine who hath so contemptuously trampled it under his feet Yet if you mark it your Case is far different from the state of such a man who hath neglected say despised the offers of mercy till the last minute of his life wherein he rather snatches after then imbraces pardon being more sensible of his own danger then the love of God for blessed be God you have not received any Summons to a speedy account of your stewardship by a decrepid old age or a violent disease or other contingency but have made it your blessed choice to double your Pace in the wayes of Holiness having yet as far as we are able to guess the Postmeridian part of your Day before you time enough by the good blessing of God to finish your Task which is set you ere the night come wherein no man can work Jo. 9.4 As for your Despightfully using the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 as you phrase it after St. Paul an expression more suitable to a state of Apostacy than Vnregeneracy as you would have me suppose yours to be as in your former course of life you set if I may believe your self too little an esteem upon the wayes of God the manner of unregentrate men so have you now too bitter a censure upon your own the sins of our unregenerate life being after conversion by all Divines I presume accounted araungable under the style of Infirmities and therefore of what sort soever yet pardonable upon Repentance OBJECTION I grant say you that it may be with some Christians as with St. Paul he was a most violent Persecutor of the Church but then it was in a state of Ignorance and Unbelief and therefore he sayes God had mercy upon him because he did it through Ignorance and in Infidelity From whence 't is easy to in infer that had St. Paul maliciously and knowingly acted those outrages against the Church of Christ he had undoubtedly been excluded from all hopes of Pardon What think you then will become of me Who knew the will of my Master and did it not SOLUTION 8. THat Saint Paul did Ignorantly persecute the Church of Christ is unquestionable and that if Saint Paul had done the same Knowingly and Maliciously he had not had any grounds to expect Pardon may probably enough be true but I do not take it to be out of all Question but the Inference from hence against your self is Illogical and will by no means follow upon those Premises For thus your Argument stands Saint Paul had mercy from God for persecuting the Church of Christ Ignorantly therefore whoever committeth any sin against Conscience and Knowledge shall not have mercy and such sins I am guilty of I shall not stand to shew you the falsity of this way of reasoning but only discover unto you how erroneous your Principles are and that so evidently as I need not torture you into a confession thereof Do you profess to believe that there is an equality in all kinds of Sin that Adultery is not a greater sin than Swearing Murder or Idolatry than Sabboth breach Rebellion than Theft I am assured you are not involved in this gross error But then do you believe that that circumstance of doing it Knowingly can render the same sin unpardonable which if done Ignorantly will upon Repentance undoubtedly be forgiven Who then can be saved What were the sins of David and of Saint Peter were they not sins against Knowledge yet Repentance restor'd both of them to their former station in Gods favour you cannot suppose that those persons with whom our Saviour converst were all of them Sinners only out of Ignorance Mary Magdalen was never held to be Ignorant much less to be Inculpably so that her course of Life was not agreeable to the Law of God yet so dear was she to our Saviour upon her hearty Repentance That after his Resurrection he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom be had cast seven Devils Mar. 16.9 OBJECTION IV. But under the Law the Soul that did ought presumptuously was to be cut off from Israel SOLUTION 9. WE are not under the Law but under Grace and Saint Paul tells us plainly that a main branch of that Priviledge is That by Him i. e. Christ all that believe are justified from all things from which Ye i. e. the Jews could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 from whence 't is clear that Remission of sins is given to all Sinners who repent and believe the Gospel Besides every sin that a man commits against Knowledge is not a sin of Presumption or a sin committed with an high Hand Presumption is not an error of or in the Understanding but in the Will at least is much more fixt in the Will than in the intellectual faculty and therefore to sin against Knowledge and to sin Presumptuously are not convertible and the same thing Presumption being not only the highest degree of Wilfullness and very properly plac'd under the v ce of Audacity but it reflects more upon the person of the Law-maker than on the Law it self and the contempt of persons in Authority is ever more grievously punished than the breach of such Laws and constitutions as are made by them OBJECTION V. 〈◊〉 to relapse into sin after not only Resoluttions but Vows against it
their Works expresly contrary to that of Saint Paul Gal. 2.6 where the Apostle sayes that God respects no Mans person the Gentiles being as eligible in Gods eye as the lineal seed of Abraham of which the Jews could not easily be perswaded neither Iames nor Peter who seemed to be Pillars being preferred and respected before Saint Paul a late abortive Convert by Him who seeth not as Man seeth And therefore if God hath not elected some and reprobated others without prevision and Intuition of their Qualifications as foreseeing what good or what bad or what nouse men would make of Grace given and consequently thereby assure or divest themselves of the Advantages and Priviledges of Gods common Love to Mankinde your fear of not being accepted because God hath from all Eternity some Quarrel or No Love to your Person is not only frivolous but dangerous and in it self destructive of all your Labours and Endeavours for eternal Life keeping them under the dismal and false Apprehension of Tyranny in the Divine Majesty which the Heathens themselves rejected under the Notion of Superstition To be short I shall only confront the Answer of God to Cain Gen. 4.7 whom I believe the Assertors of that Doctrine have ever held to be a Reprobate against the strongest Argument that may be used for inducing and confirming the belief of this prosopoleptical way of electing and reprobating men without any intuition of their good or evil deeds If thou do well shall thou not be accepted from whence are inferred these two things First that Cain himself might have offered an acceptable Sacrifice to God as well as Abel and Secondly if he had done so he had been accepted by God as well as was his brother So that it was not any Quarrel and Hatred that God had to the Person of Cain irrespectively considered but either to the evil that he had formerly done for we cannot presume Cain to have lived without sin till the time of the offering that Sacrifice nor doth the Text assert that to be the first Sacrifice that either he or Abel offered or that which he had now committed in offering a Sacrifice not worthy Gods acceptance at his hands What reason therefore you should have to fear the success of your Labours in the Lord upon Misprision of Personal Acceptance with God you see by what hath been said as also of your groundless fears of not being able to enter in at the straight Gate our Saviour having if you mark it threatned not them who strive because he hath commanded that active industrious way of attempting but them who only seek Luk. 13.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a way of getting Heaven very different from the former importing very little more though no more to the purpose than Balaams Wish that he might dye the death of the righteous Numb 23.10 OBJECTION VIII But though it will follow from hence that Personal Assurance of Remission and Pardon of Sin be not alwayes a necessary effect of Gods pardoning of us or our being in a way to be pardoned yet surely it is somewhat unlikely say you that the clean contrary viz. a perswasion that I shall not be pardoned should flow from so happy a condition as you would make me believe I am In. SOLUTION 13. IF you should throughly examine your self that you do thus perswade your self will undoubtedly appear to be false For to what purpose do you then pray fast and give alms lead a strict and severe life c. if you were indeed perswaded that you shall not be saved would any one but a mad man keep on his pace in rough and almost impassable wayes if he were certainly assured that he should never come to his journeys end his feet must needs be thought to confute his tongue if he should do thus Besides how preposterous a thing were it if you should take such sharp and severe courses as you do to enlarge your score supposing all these Actions of yours should be charged by God upon your account as so many guilded sins as you lately termed them But this I think you will have little reason to be afraid of seeing our Saviour hath told you that the Alms-deeds and Prayers of the Pharisees themselves were so rewarded as they desired they should be viz. with the Praises and Commendation of men Math. 6.16 and are not by him either stil'd sins or threatned with any punishment more then with the no-ground of expecting a Reward from God But as concerning the pardon of our sin it will be very useful to observe these four things 1. That the point of Faith concerning Remission of Sin is That by Christ Remission of Sins is given to Mankinde through Faith in his Blood 2. That this Remission is not absolutely though freely given but doth depend upon certain Conditions or Qualifications whereby men are made fit and capable of receiving it 3. That the Rules as well for the means of conveying this Donation to us as for our aptitude and capacity to receive the benefit thereof are to be sought out and taken from the Scriptures 4. That because many things of Importance concerning this doctrine are to be deduced from the Scriptures by the Mediation of humane understanding it is a mark both of Piety Wisdom and Humility to take the Catholique Church for our Guide and relyance therein False Interpretations of Scripture prove either full of Perplexity or Danger or both to our selves and others but most especially in such Doctrines so nearly importing our Salvation as this of Remission of Sin doth Therefore it is not to be regarded by what Medums or from what Principles your conclusions are drawn if they be only your own if you mean to sayl securely amidst the Tempests raised in the World by such diversity of Judgements and Imaginations embarque your self in the Vniversal Consentient and Ancient Interpretations and Doctrines of the Church and do not adventure so pretious a Fraught as is your soul redeemed with the bloud of Christ in the tottering Boat of your own or other mens private Interpretations of Scripture The Church teacheth you this doctrine viz. 1. That you are pardonable upon your Faith and Repentance 2. That God hath promised who cannot lye Heb. 6.18 that he will pardon you if you believe and and repent 3. That the Manifestation of Gods pardoning your sins is at present but imperfectly and inchoately wrought in your Heart by the Holy Ghost and the use of Sacraments but the full Evidence thereof is to be expected from Christ the Judge and to be patiently and chearfully waited for by Faith in the promises 4. That the Testimony of your own Spirit arising from your sincere conversation in the doctrines of the Gospel is the most certain Evidence that you or any man can ordinarily expect in this life and all this from pregnant Testimony of Scripture For you who hold a lawful and uninterrupted Succession of Ministers in the Church of Christh you
himself to be Justified unconditionate Election to Salvation with some others whose falsity is plainly demonstrated by many excellent Treatises of learned judicious and pious Divines Neither is it a consideration impertinent to the matter in hand that there is a difference worthy our observation betwixt Sin in the Memory and in the Conscience of a sinner the not perception whereof may cause great trouble and disquiet in mens mindes For as the Conscience and the Memory are not really one and the same thing so neither is sin to be accounted of the same concernment to the sinner when it is only represented by the Memory and when charged upon him by his Conscience Usually proportionable to the measure of our Faith and Repentance is our Peace of Conscience by these are the Marks and Characters of our guilt purged away by degrees but the transient Act of sin committed is ever recollected by the Memory apportionately to the natural vigour of the faculty in every man And from hence it is that in the fourfold distinction of Conscience there is one sort which is said to be good but not quiet which for my own part I conceive to be an effect produced betwixt the memorative and imaginative faculties rather then a true and distinct state of Conscience in a Christian it being to my understanding equally possible for the Imagination to act and personate Conscience in some men as well in the punitive and vindicative as in the affirmative and interpretative power of Law Where the Imagination as conscience may make Law to govern mens actions as in some it confessedly doth it is not disproportionable to steason to believe that Imagination may likewise perplex and punish those men for the breach of such Laws as likewise Conscience doth 5. But let the Causes and Occasions of these Distempers be what they will be it the Conscience or imaginative Faculty or Memory or all or any other thing that procures or promotes this trouble usually these are the effects thereof in sad reiterated Objections OBJECTION I. My Sins are not as other mens they are not the Spots of Gods Children they have these Circumstances that render them most formidable They are 1. more then other mens 2. greater 3. more loved 4. longer lived in 5. less grieved for then the Sins of other men SOLUTION 6. PUt all these Circumstances together but the last which shall be answered by it self your sins can be but great many loved relapsed and perhaps after sharp Corrections for them Vows against them sence of strength and ability through grace to oppose resist and overcome them and all the most powerful temptations to them and this acknowledged and owned by your self in your impassionate and deliberate thoughts Now what hinders the Remission of such Sins are these the first Scarlet sins that have ever been brought before the Throne of Grace to receive another tincture by the hands of Mercy and pardon is there any incapacity in the Sinner any defect in the means any qualification in the sins themselves any barre or obstacle to the Judge that these sins that such a sinner should not be remitted What makes you uncapable of Pardon any Decree concerning your person in Gods secret Will in his revealed Will there is nothing but grace and mercy offered to you because to all that truly repent and turn unto him Ezek. 18.21 22. but if you suspect the Will of Gods purpose what he hath determined concerning your Person in that Will you must know that as there are not two Wills in the Divine Majesty nor two contradictory Acts of one and the same Will So may you assure your self that what may directly be concluded from his Revealed Will concerning the salvation of mankinde you have your joynt-interest therein with the rest of the Redeemed World and that no Decree hath from all eternity been past against you whereby a barre is set against all your good and square endeavours and your person rejected into a fatal necessity of being damned Impossible indeed it is that such dormant Attainders should lye against the Persons of some men for the Prevarication and Rebellion of our first Parents and yet that General Act of the Grace and Favour of Almighty God be so solemnly proclaimed by that great Ambassador of our Reconciliation 1 Tim. 2.4 OBJECTION II. But I have made my self uncapable by losing the opportunities and heretofore despightfully using both the inward and outward means of my Calling and therefore justly is that fallen upon me foretold and threatned in Prov. 1.24 Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded c. v. 26. I will laugh at your Calamity c. SOLUTION 7. IF by the Opportunity or Season of repenting unto Salvation you mean one point of time wherein God doth sufficiently once for all or as the last tendrie thereof not only offer us the means of Grace but also sufficiently prepare and dispose the Will to receive it I doubt not but that answer of our Saviour to his Disciples Act. 1.7 will be very applyable to you It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power As Grace it self is the free and undeserved guift of God so are the circumstances of giving it for time manner and measure His and disposed of according to the Will of his purpose wherewith you are not made acquainted nor privie to any determination concerning your self unless you have had some known Revelation thereof I believe that the Day of grace as far as we are able to collect is not shut up nor the Sun of Righteousness that at our Saviours Baptism rose upon our Souls with healing in his Wings set and gone down over us till our life be ended Some were called at the eleventh hour when there was but one hour more to work in yet by the bountiful promise of the Lord of the Vineyard were rewarded with the penny i. e. everlasting life as well as they who bore the burden and heat of the day Matth. 20.9 Sincerity of Resolution is pretious in Gods eye and where sufficient time to approve the same by good works is not allowed I doubt not of the savable state of that soul Yet I do profess not to believe that such an one shall have an equal share of glory with Saints of the first magnitude neither can there in reason be so comsortable a posture of minde lookt for in such an one this being most commonly the Result of that experience we have of our own repentance by bringing forth fruits worthy of it which ought when time and means permit to carry in them a due proportion to the continuance and vileness of our former unregenerate life Now though Almighty God doth sometime accept the will for the deed viz. a firm and irrefragable Temptation-proof Resolution of Conversion for all future actual performances thereof as being able to Foresee that that
as they who sin after Baptism do is intollerable and a sign of one that hath forfeited the Grace that is given him and is judicially hardned by God SOLUTION 10. TO sin and to relapse into sin after a Vow against it is that thing indeed which every baptised Christian doth and in those who are Adult or at years of discretion not invincibly ignorant of their Obligation is infallibly not only a very great Aggravation of sin but a sin it self and such an Offendour is in very truth not only a great Dishonor to the Gospell of Christ but a great scandol to the Communion of Saints dis-inherited and that actually of his interest in the Kingdom of Christ whilest he continues in that state of Impenitency but when the course is broken the case is quite the contrary and the Prodigal returning capable of as benign and as hospital a Reception in his Fathers house as was that other Son able to boast of his good demeanour from his Childhood This is the case of Repentant Sinners and for such it is that when they nay though but a single one return There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God Luke 15.12 But for the Vow in the Baptisme I am not for the present of opinion that it is any aggravation of sin till the baptised Person comes to years of Discretion and hath either actually taken upon him the performance of his Baptismal vow or else hath attain'd so much knowledge of his Profession as that he hath or may have information that he was initiated thereinto and admitted under such a solemn Stipulation But when I speak of Actual taking upon him the performance of this Vow I do not mean that solemn direct oral and publick transferring the Obligation on himself in Episcopal Confirmation but also the doing any Christian duty of Communion whereby he doth though but implicitely own his Faith and consequently his Obligation thereto made on his behalf by Suretyes in his Baptisme And again you must conceive that every willfull sin against Knowledge and Conscience even in those who are adult and have Actually put themselves under the performance of the Vow is no abdication of our Vow in Baptisme neither do I apprehend that Person which so offends to be guilty of Perjury upon every Act of such sin of Wilfullness no more than I believe that every single disobedience of her Husband may be interpreted to be a perjury in the Wife because she hath promised and solemnly vowed to obey him in the Mariage Contract I confess that an habitual course of wilfull sin in such as do own their profession nay that any sin presumptuously committed against the Divine Majesty doth imply a breach of this vow as well as final Apostacy yea that the abnegation of any evident Fundamental of Religion as the Resurrection of the Dead the Doctrine of the ever blessed and holy Trinity after first and second Admonition Tit. 3.10 c. is a breach of the Vow in Baptisme but that every Act of willfull sin is such is to my Apprehension no more a truth than for a Christian of the Protestant perswasion to deny Christs local descention into Hell which hath no undenyable ground in Scripture and for that error for to that Perswasion the Church is not infallible to be held guilty of perjury in breaking the second clause or branch of this Vow in Baptisme requiring him to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith as well as doth the first and third exact from him a forsaking of the Devil the World the Flesh and the keeping of Gods holy Will and commandements all the days of my life But let the most that you fear be granted you be held guilty of as many perjuries as you committed other sins and this not only in your own esteem but in the opinions of learned Divines yet still this may render that condition to be more lamented but it cannot make it irrecoverable for is there any thing in Scripture more frequent than Gods Messages by his Prophets to the People of the Jews calling them to repentance that after Covenant-breach and promising them pardon if they would repent and convert unto him The Prophet Jeremy may supersede your searching any other Scriptures to this purpose who indeed is abundant in those promises of Mercy and therefore a Book very fit to comfort every penitent Soul and likewise as fit by reason of the Threatnings therein to convert the Impenitent As for that you speak concerning judicial induration or Gods hardening mens hearts in Judg ement Mat. 25.28 Luke 8.18 I confess that there is a taking away the Talent from the sloathfull Servant a withdrawing of Grace from him that doth not use it to that end for which it was given him by God but that such a judgement is not ordinarily revealed save by the treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath the final impenitence of him who is thus judicially hardened by God will be difficult to prove there being no very sure example of this Induration in Scripture save that of Pharoah in whom those consequents were most visible and of those obstinate and incredulous Jews to whom our Saviour preach'd or in whose presence or Country he wrought so many Miracles mentioned in Mat. 13.14 15. but that you are in danger of such judicial Induration as this is a very remote fear and to my judgment wholly inconsistent with your present Christian Deportment OBJECTION But you say my Sins are confessedly very great being accompanyed with such circumstances as they are even withall the Allowances your Charity or Judgement can afford them they cannot then but require a proportionable Grief for them which as yet I find not in my self Moses Rod that drew water from Rocks of the Wilderness being not able to break and wound my stony Heart into Rivers of Tears such as are fit to cleanse and wrince away these stains of Sin SOLUTION VI. 11. THis complaint is but a retrive of one of those Aggravations of your sins mentioned by you at the first and by me deferred to be satisfied at that time I say therefore that it cannot be denyed but that Grief for sin committed ought to bear some proportion with the heinousness of our Crimes for which we desire to grieve and lament but you may be very unfit to judge of this proportion especially seeing your Grief and Revenge with an intermixture of other Irascible passions hath made you already too obnoxious to the devices of Satan 2 Cor. 2.11 and Peter three times denyed that he knew his Master Mark 14.66 and that with Cursings and Swearings Imprecations perhaps upon himself if he knew any such man Luk. 22.55 Here was a Complication of very gross sins as Swearing Cursing Denyal of his Master whom lately he professed to be the Son of God and all this a flat Perjury yet you never read of Tears shed for these Sins more then once Mat. 26.75
cannot but believe that in the hands of the Church lyes much of your Peace as well as of your safety considering the Power they have over you Heb. 13.17 and the Power they have for you John 20.21.22.23 and both these derived down to this present Age and shall so continue wheresoever the Church shall be though there be no necessity that they should be continued wheresoever Christians are by verof our Saviours promise even to the end of the World And these powers to be pleaded for by them and submitted unto by you as being of Divine right framed and appointed by the Holy Ghost the principal Administrator of Church-Government for the Advantage and Edification of the Bodie of Christ I doubt there be some and those no inconsiderable ones that believe this doctrine not sufficiently asserted by the Church of England there being in the Frame and Contexture of her Church-Government too much of the Lay and too little of the Clergy-man And though my Judgement tells me that there is not any Civil Magistrate on earth be he Emperour King or Prince that hath so Evident and Immediate a Commission for his Power and the Exercise thereof as hath the Church yet who sees not that both the Administration and the Administrators of this Government are despised save in such a subordinate way of dispensing this power that must needs render it precarious in the eyes of ignorant men and the Church Officers themselves no other things but such borrowed Hands as by pulling now this way now that way help to keep the carriage of the Civil State from overturning in rough and dangerous Descents OBJECTION IX But you say that could you have believed the point of Sacerdotal Absolution and the Obligation that seems to inferre to private Confession you had long since enjoyed your Peace at least you had not felt so great a trouble as now you do SOLUTION 14. OUr Judgements no whit differ in this for I clearly believe that on earth as there is no surer way to prevent mens falling into sin especially many close Enormities then the discreet and conscionable practise of the Duty of Confession so is there not a more proper and undoubted way for allaying the Troubles of minde flowing from the guilt of Sin then a grave and considerate Execution of the Power of Absolving Sinners I say the power of absolving Sinners for if this Clause in his Commission stand not good by Divine Right I know nothing a Priest can do more then other men and am well assured that in some part of their Office they can do many of them much less Not to signifie any thing of the grief I have for your not believing so evident Texts of Scripture as this Doctrine is built upon I shall endeavour to cut up your Infidelity in this point by the Roots by a very brief Examination of these few particulars 1. What the power of Absolving is 2 Whether it be conveyed down to the present Pastors of the Church in the ordinary way of commissioning them to that Function by the Imposition of the hands of Bishops and Presbyters 3. Of what concernment this Power is in the Execution thereof upon Penitent Sinners 1. The power of Absolving Sinners is comprehended in one branch of the power of the Keyes viz. remitting sin expressly mentioned in Christs Commission given to the Apostles and their Successors Matth. 16.19 and Joh. 20.23 which in the point in hand as it much differs from re-admitting into the Church that part of the power of the Keyes which seems and doth but seem to be the same with this so is it in a Priest or Presbyter to my Judgment no judicial but rather an Annuntiative act the Priest being none of that order to whom the promise of our Saviour is made Matth. 19.28 of sitting on twelve thrones and judging the twelve Tribes of Israel My reason for my opinion is because a Priest cannot be thought to Absolve otherwise then he can Retein else there will be more in one then in the other of the correlatives Now a Priest doth not retein sin judicially for that is the office of the Bishop and is onely done by the sentence of Excommunication but declaratively only shewing the Impenitents whether collectively or personally that by reason of such or such Impediments their sins are not forgiven but not binding their sins upon them judicially so that the Offender shall not only be obliged to repent but also as under the sentence of Excommunication to sue for the removal of the Censure Like as in the Law one who is sued to an Outlawry for Debt must as well procure the Writ of Outlawry against him to be reverst as take care to pay the Debt Neither do I by this make the pronouncing of a sinner absolved by a Priest to be of no more efficacy then if a Layman had done it for a power to pronounce or proclaim a Pardon in the name of a Prince by vertue of a Commission issued out to one for that purpose or by one to whose office it belongs so to do is quite another thing then the same Pardon reported by one who hath no power and authority to proclaim the Princes pardon But if I am thought by this to infringe the power and priviledge of the Sacerdotal Function and any way to lessen the Authority of that Order I must speak my minde freely I do not conceive that the same words in the Ordination of a Priest do in the Intention of the Church signify to the same latitude as they did in the Institution of Christ and therefore I believe a Presbyter or Priest doth no more but yet as much in this point as the Church hath invested him with in her Ordination of him to that Function which is the exercise of an Authority limited as I have already said However this is enough for the Penitent for if the Priest hath Judgment which in Reverence to the Church which hath had Inspection of his abilities we ought to believe to discern when the Penitent is pardonable you cannot deny but he hath authority committed unto him in Gods Name and from his Word to let the Penitent know not only that he is pardonable but that God will undoubtedly pardon him and all such as he is in case of their Perseverance in their Repentance 2. As for the second thing proposed viz. whether this power be so conveyed down c. it is strange me thinks it should be any matter of scruple to you For if you had not some prejudice to every thing that relates to pardon of Sin I would ask you and do verily suppose should go away without an answer whether you believe a Presbyter hath power to consecrate the Elements in the blessed Sacrament by vertue of this Ordination and whether a Lay-man can do as much therein if he should take the Common prayer Book and read over the Bread and Wine the Form of the Consecration I know you believe the
whereof is the divers Methods that God hath made use of in delivering the System or Rules of either dispensation unto both People A 3d sence may be this the Apostle may intend by the Testimonie of the Spirit in Gods Children that Inclination and duct of Obedience which Gods Children do though not all of them in the same measure feel in their hearts sweetning their natures and bringing them gently to a complyableness with the Precepts of the Gospel and a putting their necks most willingly into the yoke of Christ his Commandments being no whit grievous to them 1 Jo. 5.3 like as yokes are very troublesome to Beasts not accustomed thereto as the Prophet speaks of the Jews Jer. 31.18 I was chastised as a Bullock unaccustomed to the yoke but to such whose necks have been used to draw in them yokes are no way dreadful or troublesome In the first of these senses the word Spirit must be taken personally for the third Person in the ever Blessed and Glorious Trinity in the 2d it must be taken tropically the word not signifying in the natural and proper sense thereof but yet not without example Rom. 8.2 2 Cor. 3.6 Gal. 4.29 in the 3d sense it must signify metonymically the effect of the Spirit being called by the name of him that works that blessed effect in the Souls of Gods Children In the first and second of these senses the Testimony of the Spirit is communicated to all true Christians but in the third I know lyes the ground of your exception but because I shall have occasion to speak somewhat afterward directly to this point be pleased for the present to remember that I have told you that this inclination to obedience the duct of the Gospel is not alike efficacious upon all the children of God this Spirit being not given in the same measure to all the Sons of God As to the third branch of your Objection rather but one part of it viz. the want of the Testimony of your own Spirit that might witness together with the other that you are the Childe of God to give full satisfaction therein we must inquire into 1. the meaning of the word Spirit in this place 2. What the Testimony thereof is And of 3. what Authority in a business of this Importance the Testimony of a mans own Spirit is For the first the word Spirit in this place must signify I conceive one of these two things either first some noble and sublime Essence presiding in a Christian either as a Distinct subsistence from that which is one of the essential constitutive principles of every man or else as the Celestial and more Seraphical part of the Soul informing ordering and governing the rational faculties in all Spiritual and Divine things And in this sense it must be conceived to have some Resemblance with the office of the Imaginative faculty which being seated betwixt the outward senses and the Vnderstanding conveyes the Species of all sensible objects to the Intellectual facultie being it self of a middle nature betwixt rational and sensible To one of these senses I judge those Divines referre their opinions who assert man to consist of 1. Spirit 2. Soul and 3. Bodie unless by Soul in this tripartite division they understand an Essence capable of no other offices in Man but the performance of sensitive and vegitative operations Or 2ly the word Spirit in this place may signify and me thinks not at all incongruously some excellent gift of the Holy Ghost infused from above in our Baptism into the Souls of Christians whereby they are not only made capable of receiving divine Revelations and things above Reason but likewise inclined and encourain the performance of all those things which God requires at their hands to render them capable of obtaining the further inestimable degrees of his Love and Favour to Mankinde And therefore 2ly the Testimony of any mans Spirit is that Evidence which it gives concerning the whole Series of his conversation in reference to those principles of Faith and Obedience which God hath given him in his revealed Will as the Grounds and Rules of his Practice The 3d Authentickness of which Testimony doth manifest it self to every man partly by the known truth of the things attested which are not concealed from him but represented as the things of himself and partly from that power which God hath over it not only in rectifying any Errors thereof but likewise in shewing himself merciful toward us in such things wherein such a Testimony is not for but against us This Testimony you say you want because you finde not any Witness in your self that you are a Childe of God I conceive it is not impossible for your Spirit to give this Testimony though you have deafned your ear to it and take it for some deception of flesh and blood or a delusion of Satan using all the Devices he can to insnare you in carnal security but whether it be thus or no I shall advise you to endeavour to elicite and call up this Testimony by that which is the Test of it Do you continue in any wilful course of deliberate sin what know you by your self are you still guilty of any of those sins which in the judgment of the Apostle render a man uncapable of any inheritance with the Children of God if you are then look not for this Testimony till you have repented and amended your life nor then neither for it presently until such time as you have good experience of your Resolutions how they have held out in the time of tryal and Temptation and that the greatest and sharpest that in all likelyhood may happen unto you But if you are not thus guilty as for my part I believe you a re not of any mortal sin reigning in your bodie go to the Rule with this argument in your mouth The Holy Spirit of God saith Whosoever is born of God doth not sin willfully and deliberately Joh. 3.9 But upon a strict survey of my self I finde that I do not commit any such sin Therefore I am borne of God Upon the Truth of the middle Proposition depends the validity of this Testimony of your Spirit for the major is infallible and the Conclusion is undoubtedly true upon supposition that there be no such sin either of omission or commission in your conversation which may exclude you from your Sonship But yet for as much as the Apostle doth tell us that though he knew nothing by himself yet was he not thereby justified we ought in reason to lay no more weight on this disquisition and search of our selves then it will bear for our Knowledge being imperfect this search and inquiry into our own wayes cannot be absolutely perfect and consequently we subject to errors therein yet is it most certain that if we do it in sincerity of heart without partiality to our selves not only not allowing in our practise any the smallest sin but by deeds of Mortification
Natural being 1 Cor. 15.22 Ephes 2.1 Rom. 11.32 Gal. 3.22 As from Adam all lived so in Adam all dyed all dead in Sins and trespasses God hath concluded all under sin that he might have mercy upon all Only the Difference is in the circumstances some greater some lesser sinners then others some longer others lesse while dead in sins and Trespasses but the danger without repentance is the same to the sinner the Cure the same to the Physician To him the same thing to raise Jairus daughter to life yet scarcely cold Mar. 5.22 as to bring Lazarus's stinking carcase out of his grave John 11.43 Both supernatural works and a supernatural Worker required to both yet both effected without any Intension of the power by which it was done because insinitely able to work 4. But as some of those blinde men whom our Saviour restored to sight saw at the very first as perfectly as ever after but others when their eyes were first opened saw men as Trees walking Mark 8.24 so are not the same apprehensions of their spiritual estate to all Penitents though equally restored to Grace and favour with God and Federally justified from the guilt of past Sins The Causes hereof are various arising partly from the Complexion and natural or acquasite temper of the Persons themselves partly from some errors in such who applyed to them the outward means and ministration of their Repentance partly from some outward accidents of life and partly from the Suggestions and Delusions of Satan with such like Some persons are naturally more apt to impressions of Sadness Fear and Distrust then are others Penetrating and quick resentments of danger once certainly incurr'd render some weak spirits distrustful of their safety a long time after be it never so sure and visible like men startled out of Melancholick and frightful dreams who although awake cannot presently be perswaded that they are free from peril The very apprehension of the danger his churlishness and folly had cast him into made Nabals heart dic within him 1 Sam. 25.37 It cannot be denyed by the strongest Christian that the guilt of sin once truly apprehended with all the consequents of horrour it draws after it is able to sink a very clear and serene soul into an Alysse of black and sad thoughts from which nothing is able to buoy and raise it up but the light of Gods countenance shining upon and influencing that spirit by forcible assistances of Grace But yet most evident it is that the mourning of some Christians is like that of Rachel they will not be comforted yea so predominant in them sometimes is that torpid and pensive humour that it converts comforts themselves into matter of discomfort the goodness patience and long-suffering of Almighty God together with his unfeigned offers of mercy and pardon to all that truly turn unto him those high and excellent Cordials for soul-sick Christians being by the prejudices of a misguided Imagination corrupted into most bitter jealousies either against God or themselves Sometimes their spiritual troubles spring from the passions or unskilfulness of the Ministry under which such persons live who either wanting the sagacity dexterity or which is most to be feared the Charity of the Apostle 1 Cor. 19.20 22. to become all things to all men especially in that most Christian and wholsome branch of it the being weak with them who are weak in the Flock of Christ thunder out the threatnings of the Gospel promiscuously in the ears of all making their hearts sad whom God hath not made sad Ezek. 13.22 and so vexing them whom God hath wounded Psal 69.27 instead of calling encouraging and comforting sinners under Repentance that small and still voice terrifying them with the Menaces of the Law that loud and furious winde and casting upon men strong suspitions of their having elapsed the time of mercy seeming to antedate the great and terrible day of thâ— Lord by taking the sentence of condemnation out of his mouth Not considering that the Ministers of the Gospel have their Commissions dated from Sion and not from Sinai and that the method and language of S Paul in the Pulpit is not only more suitable to that Message of Peace but most imitable by us because it proved so successful in the business of Reconciling men to God I know that a Son of Thunder may have much said on his behalf from these evil and deaf times in which we live to lift up the voice like a trumpet and to shew the people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins Isai 8.1 is a dutie strongly and indispensably lying on a Minister of the Gospel at all times much more in such an age as this we live in wherein so many thousands of Christians hold the truth of God in unrighteousness Rom. 1 18. and turn his Grace into wantonness Jud. 4. justifying not only Samaria but Sodom and her Sisters by outballancing her and them in all manner of carnal and spiritual pollutions but that we speak is mostly against the undue care of some Preachers of the Gospel not sufficiently heeding and discriminating such who mourn in Zion Eze. 9.4 upon whose foreheads Ezekiels mark hath past and against whom the severities of those Comminations ought not to be used Sometimes this Trouble of minde if it doth not wholly spring yet receiveth much strength and nourishment from some Accidents of life Every unusual circumstance in providential dispensations in the apprehentions of such men carries with it the Shape and Terror of Divine Revenge and all loving corrections of a most wise and merciful Father are reckoned upon as the sad Presages of everlasting Torments Nothing but the angry frowns of a terrible Judge flameing Torches Fire and Brimstone are the Sceanes and Phantasms of such clowded brains yea so sullen and distrustful is the Repentance of such men that they suspect every blessing and good thing that God bestows upon them in this world as so many golden Balls cast out before them to betray them in their Race They eat drink sleep converse with such anxiety of Spirit that they thereby become intollerable to themselves and others Again Satan most times hath a deep hand in these troubles who being unchangeably malitious toward mankinde incessantly disturbs the Peace of such Christians whom he cannot ruine Yet so secret and close are his Devices that many prudent Christians are not able as indeed it is very difficult to discern betwixt his injections and the motions of their own Appetites By which error Satan exceedingly troubles their quiet and sets them into perpetual quarrels against themselves whereby he thinks it not impossible at last to ingulph them in Despair To this may be added that some False Principles have in them a very immediate tendency to beget trouble in mens mindes who are of instable judgments but yet of a good and ingenuous disposition those especially concerning the Irresistibility of saving Grace the necessity of ones believing