Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	david_n	lord_n	nathan_n	4,238	5	12.7447	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49801	Theo-politica, or, A body of divinity containing the rules of the special government of God, according to which, he orders the immortal and intellectual creatures, angels, and men, to their final and eternal estate : being a method of those saving truths, which are contained in the Canon of the Holy Scripture, and abridged in those words of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which were the ground and foundation of those apostolical creeds and forms of confessions, related by the ancients, and, in particular, by Irenæus, and Tertullian / by George Lawson ...	Lawson, George, d. 1678.	1659 (1659)	Wing L712; ESTC R17886	441,775	362

Punishment The Learned and profound Bradwardine understands it so that the former of unjust makes a man just and holy the latter renders him of miserable happy The one takes away sin to come the other the punishment of sin past The former is Sanctification as we understand it The latter is Justification properly Here it 's remarkable that He makes both the one and the other to be Remission contrary to the Doctrine of Trent yet to speak properly there is no remission of sin as sin but of the guilt and punishment of sin Before this Chapter be concluded § X three Questions are briefly to be examined 1 Whether God at the first Justifycation or in remission of particular sins after the first Justifycation doth totally remit and justifie at once or sometimes nay often in part 2 Whether there be two parts of Justification the first whereof is remission of sin the second the imputation of Christ's Righteousness 3 Whether good Works be a condition of Justification continued and of final Absolution QVEST. I. FOr this we have the Example of David who after his first justifycation contracts the guilt of two heynous sins Adultery and Murder The Prophet Nathan is sent by God to reprove him and charge him with them Upon this through the mercy of God and the Spirit renewing him he confesseth repenteth prayeth Nathan returns from God declareth the Sentence of Absolution and saith Thou shalt not die Yet withall le ts him know that the Child should die the Sword should not depart from his house his Concubines should be defiled in the sight of the Sun and all Israel And all these things came to pass the event was answerable 2 Sam. 10. 11 12 13 14. where many things are remarkable As 1. That a Regenerate Man though not as Regenerate yet Regenerate may sin grievously and so as to deserve Death and if Death be due to sinne Eternal Death yet in such a person removeable and not onely so but removable in that manner as it is in no unregenerate man For whilest there is Habitual Faith and Repentance though for the time dormant and not acting the Covenant of Grace is not totally violated because the Condition of it is Repentance and Faith both which were in David though through negligence grievous sins divine desertion for a time were laid asleep or stupifyed For onely a total Apostasie and a final Desertion takes these away wholly neither of which can be affirmed and proved of David whom God did not regenerate again but renew and stir up This the Author of Censura Censurae doth confess and further saith That he lost not Spiritum Regenerantem sed obsignantem For the vigour of the Spirit both as sanctifying and sealing was abated and little or none for the time 3 God saith Thy sin is forgiven thee Thou shalt not die Yet he must suffer and for these very sins which are said to be forgiven which doth teach us that The Obligation to Punishment was not wholly taken away but in part onely yet in the principal part The Remission therefore at that time was not total but partial yet it was Remission and Justification 3 In the same kind he sinned he was punished He sinned in Adultery and the Sword By Adultery and the Sword he is punished This is a fair Warning to God's Regenerate Saints To watch and pray and beware of grieving that good Spirit wherewith they are sealed till the Day of Redemption 4 He suffers all this in His Children in the Child begotten and conceived in Adultery in Ammon and Tamar in Absolon and his Concubines This proves clearly that Parents and Children the Head of the Family and the Family are considered by God as one Person in Law and that in Punishments QVEST. II. §. XI Whether there be two Parts of Justification Remission and Imputation of Christ's Righteousness FOr Answer whereunto it may be 1 Remembred what I have said formerly against Imputation of Christs active Righteousness separated or abstracted for Reward from the Passive The Reasons against this Opinion seem to me strong yet when I find the force of them dissolved I shall abate of my confidence 2 If we examine the Doctrine of the Apostle Paul and other Scriptures we shall find if I very much mistake not that Remission and Imputation of Righteousness are taken for the same We read that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness Rom. 4. 3. Now to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but o● Debt But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifyeth the Ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Vers. 4 5. Even as David describeth also the blessedness of the Man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works saying Blessed is the Man whose Iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin Vers. 6 7 8. And therefore it was imputed to him for Righteousness Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us to whom it shall be imputed if we believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the Dead Vers. 22 23 24. Here many things are very observable 1 Abraham believed that is as the Chaldie Paraphrast turns it In the word of Johovah in that word which being with God in the beginning was God by which the World was made and who was made flesh and to whom the Lord said Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine Enemies thy Foot-stool 2 It was reckoned to him for Righteousness that is his Faith or in that he believed in that Eternal Word Christ Jesus to be incarnate The plain meaning whereof is that he judged him believing in Christ to be righteous by Christ. 3 To him that worketh that is to him that so worketh or obeyeth as not to disobey nor sin at all the Reward of Righteousness is adjudged to him as righteous perfectly as of Debt by the Law of Works not of Grace by the Law of Redemption 4 God justifieth the Ungodly or the Sinner and the Guilty Person not as such but believing on him that justifieth the guilty yet as Penitent and Believing 5 This Imputation of Righteousness is the forgiveness of sin for to have Faith counted or imputed for Righteousness is explained by David to have sin forgiven covered not imputed 6 The estate of the Party justified even in this life is blessed and very happy Blessed is he whose sin is forgiven c. 7 That the Party to whom Righteousness is imputed is he that believeth on him that raised up Christ from the Dead not he that believeth that Christ performed perfect obedience active to the Law in his Person For though he perfectly obeyed the Law as without which he could not have offered himself an un●potted Sacrifice for us yet He did it not that that active personal Righteousness should be imputed to us Though God in His

the Scriptures make evident by Doctrine Threatnings Examples Eating the Forbidden Fruit was not the Personal Sin of any of Adam's Posterity and yet they all are punished for it For by one Man sin entred into the World and by sin Death and Death passed over all men c. Josuah and the Princes of the Congregation of Israel swear unto the Gibeonites not to put them to death Saul 450 years and more afterwards slays them and so violates that Oath For this sin of that King Israel●●●ers ●●●ers three years Famine and this sin is not expiated nor the Judgment turn'd away 〈◊〉 7. of Saul's Son long after were given to the Gibeonites and hanged up unto the Lord. Saul sins Israel suffers Famine and 7 of Saul's Sons are slain and this by the direction of God declaring the Perjury of Saul to be the cause of Israels●●sfering ●●sfering Achan commits Sacriledge not onely He but his Sons and Daughters are stoned to death for it But I shall have occasion hereafter to say something more of this Particular The Socinians in opposing this truth deny plain Scriptures and charge God with injustice by consequence and whilest they deny Christ's Sufferings to be Punishments lest they should make God unjust they charge Him with injustice For if it be unjust to punish Christ being innocent for the sinnes of others for whom He voluntarily suffered according to the Appointment and Command of His Heavenly Father much more unjust it must needs be to afflict him and that so grievously without any cause at all or demerit of others And whereas they say That though some may suffer for the sins of others when they are sinful themselves and not otherwise they do but trifle For if one may justly be punished for the sin of another whereof he is not guilty then an innocent person may justly suffer for another who is guilty This was the case of Israel when David sinned He out of Pride numbers the People God is offended herewith and punisheth for this sin and that with death 70000 of his Subjects The King sins the People suffer and they suffer death for the Kings sin whereof they were not guilty as appears by those words of David's Repentance But these sheep what have they done 2 Sam. 24. 17. That is I not they have sinned They are innocent in this particular By all this we may understand how and how far Christ's Sacrifice is communicable to us How we come to be actuall Partakers of these Benefits shall be shewed hereafter Before I proceed § VIII I will take occasion to examine the Extent of Christ's Death Whether He died for all men and so Redemption be universal as some use to speak or no. 1. That Christ dyed for all in some sense must needs be granted because the Scripture expresly affirms it For by the Righteousness of One the free gift came upon All Men to justification of life Rom. 5. 18. And if One died for all then were all dead 2. That onely Believers actually enjoy the Benefit of this Death unto Salvation is as clear also 3. Neither God's love in giving Christ nor Christ's love dying for Man do exclude any as love 4. The benefit of Salvation is communicable to all upon certain tearms expressed in the Covenant which yet limits the actual benefit of Remission and Eternal Li●e by prescribing a qualification in the Parties to be saved by Christ's death 5. The Qualification is such that it excludes no man as a man or a sinful man but as impenitent and not believing at least So that it may truly be said that by Christ's Sacrifice all men are save-able some way though all shall not be saved And if any become not save-able it 's upon some demerit and speciall cause antecedent The immediate Effects called Satisfaction and Merit both signified by the word Propitiation make God propitious and in that respect man in a capacity of Salvation or save-able and do not precisely exclude or include any But Justification Reconciliation Adoption Glorification are so simi●ed by God's Promise that they formally and immediately belong to none but Believers This Question is needless if men would content themselves with the plain and simple truth of the Scriptures and rather use all means to believe then dispùte For if I once sinc●rely believe I may be sure I have a right unto those Benefits If I believe not I can have no com●ort in this blessed and most meritorious Sacrifice There is another question and the same unprofitably handled Whether the Propitiation which includes both satisfaction and merit be to be ascribed to the active or passive obedience of Christ as their distinction and expression proposeth it For solution whereof it s to be observed 1. That both his active personal perfect and perpetual obedience which by reason of his humane nature assumed and subjection unto God was due and also that obedience unto the great and transcendent command of suffering the death of the Crosse both concur as causes of Remission and justification 2. The Scriptures usually ascribe it to the Blood Death and Sacrifice of Christ and never to the personall active obedience of Christ to the Morall law 3. That yet this active obedience is necessary because without it he could not have offered that great sacrifice of himself without spot unto God and if it had not been without spot it could not have been Propitiatory and effectuall for expiation 4. That if Christ as our surety had performed for us perfect and perpetual obedience so that we might have been judged to have perfectly and fully kept the law by him then no sin could have been chargeable upon us and the death of Christ had been needlesse and superfluous 5. Christs propitiation frees the Believer not onely from the obligation unto punishment of sense but of losse and procured for him not onely deliverance from evil deserved but the enjoyment of all good necessary to our full happinesse Therefore there is no ground of Scripture for that opinion That the death of Christ and his sufferings free us from punishment and by his active obedience imputed to us we are made righteous and the heyres of life 6. If Christ was bound to perform perfect and perpetuall obedience for us and he also performed it for us then we are freed not onely from sin but obedience too and this obedience as distinct and seperate from obedience unto death may be pleaded for justification of life and will be suffi●ient to carry the cause For the tenour of the law was this Do this and Live And if man do this by himself or surety so as that the law-giver and supreme Judge accept it the Law can require no more It could not bind to perfect obedience and to punishment too There never was any such law made by God or just men Before I conclude this particular concerning the extent of Christs merit propitiation I thought good to inform the Reader that as the

help and comfort and upon the Fall Per accidens the avoiding of Fornication One effect and that a principal one is That the Wife hath not power of her own body but the Husband and likewise also the Husband hath not power of his own body but the Wife and this is the reason why Adultery is so grievous a sin and a just cause of dissolution because the party committing it doth give that body which is anothers and not their own unto a third party contrary to Gods institution the Covenant and the principal end of marriage Amongst Christians this Marriage doth resemble that spiritual and blessed union of Christ and the Church begun on Earth to be consu●mate in Heaven and should be entred upon and continued so and also observed in that holy manner as that it may be a furtherance not an hinderance to that more Heavenly bond and society We should first give our selves to be married to Christ before we give our selves to be married one unto another For Redemption did not abolish but perfect Marriage It 's not made necessary to eternal life for as we may be married and not saved so we may be unmarried and yet Married to Christ and Saved Yet all Christians should marry in the Lord Though the Marriage of Heathens as Marriage is lawfull and their children born in Marriage are legitimate By these things premised concerning Marriage § II we may easily understand what Adultery is It is the defiling of the Marriage-bed The Apostle saith Let Marriage be honourable in all and let the bed be undefiled Heb. 13. 4. That the words are a dehortation appeareth from the context The sin dehorted from is Adultery which is a dishonouring of Marriage and a defiling of the Marriage bed This Adultery is opposed to chastity and fidelity in married persons The sense is Let all that are married preserve the honour of Marriage and preserve the Marriage-bed pure This Adultery is committed three wayes 1. When the Adulterer is single and the Adulteresse Married 2. When the Woman is single and the Man or Adulterer Ma●ried 3. When both the parties are Married When one party onely is Married and the other single one bed onely is defiled but when both the parties are Married two Marriage-beds are defiled by one act This Commandment followeth the former in order For the best and nearest thing is Mans life the next is his Wife who by Gods institution and solemn contract is one Person and one flesh with him And for an Husband or Wife to commit this sin is a wrong unto their bodies which is of more account then their goods can be And Adultery is a wrong more heynous than Theft and next to that of Murther Some have observed that the sixth and seventh Commandement are fitly joyned together because Adultery and Murther often go together And we must avoid Adultery the cause that we may avoid Murther which is often committed to conceal Adultery as in the example of David who having committed Adultery with Vriah's Wife caused him to be slain lest his Adultery should be discovered Others consent to murder that they may enjoy one another more freely Thus Adulterous Wives conspire with their Paramours to poyson or secretly murder their Husbands Adultery in either Party is a grievous sin but especially in the Wife because it may bring in a Bastard and a spurious brood to inherit her Husbands estate This sin appears to be heinous many wayes § III and therefore ought with the greater care to be avoided and abhorred It 's contrary to Gods institution to the sacred and solemn contract of the Married parties it 's a dishonour of the body For every one should know how to possesse his Vessell in Sanctification and honour 1. Th●ss 4. 4. This Vessel is the body the Sanctification and honour is chastity Which implies that Adultery as also fornication is the dishonour and slain of the body In this respect it may be said that he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own body It 's a disgrace to the Children a blot upon the Family the cause of wofull discord the dissolution of the sacred bond the ruine of Families and the ●ource of many miseries This is farther evident from the Penalty determined by God against this sin which was death The Man that committeth Adultery with another Mans wife even he that committeth Adultery with his Neighbours Wife both the Adulterer and Adulteresse shall surely be put to death Levit. 20. 10. Judah adjudgeth his daughter in L●w Thamar to the fire for Adult●ry Many Heathen States made it Capital The King of Babylon condemned Ahab and Zedechiah to be burnt for this sin Jer. 29. 22 23. The Tribe of Benjamin was almost destroyed for the same Judg. 19 20. Chapters David commits Adultery in secret and his own Concubines are defiled by his own Son in the sight of the Sun and all Israel And for this sin God was so incensed with the Men of Judah that he saith Shall not I visit for these things Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5. 8 9. Diseases and beggery with perpepual in●amy and sometimes death follow by Gods just Judgments upon the Parties guilty of this Crime Again this society of Marriage being ordained for propagation is the Seminary of Church and state and if it be stained by Adultery both are stained And to multiply a Bastard brood for the beginning of a Civil or Ecclesiasticall association is to be abhorred by all Wise and honest much more by Religious Persons It 's a curse and dishonour to any people to be derived from any such spurious spawn Therefore all well-ordered states have made strict Laws concerning Marriages and most civilized Nations have their Rites and Customs for the more solemn Celebration of the same Christians appointed the Publication of the Banns and the solemnization of the Marriage it self was to be performed in the open Congregation with holy instructions exhortations and Prayers All this was done to prevent Fornication uncleannesse and Clandestine Marriages Again this Crime amongst Christians is more hainous because our bodies are the members of Christ the Temples of the Holy Ghost and are bought with the price of Christ's blood 1 Cor. 6. 15 16 17 18 19 ●0 This is a sin that shuts out of Heavens Kingdome Chap. 16. verse 9. 10. For this sin as for others the wrath of God comes upon the Children of disobedience Ephes. 5. 6. And Whoremongers and Adulterers God will Judge Heb. 13. 4. And he will punish them not onely with temporall but if they repent not with eternall punishments Though Adultery § IV as most pernicious to humane Society be onely forbidden expresly yet implicitly many other sins come under this Prohibition And for the better understanding of this commandement as of some others we must take notice of some Rules given by Catechists Casuists and Expositors viz. That where one sin is forbidden all of that

kind and such as bea● Analogie or have Agreement with it are there by a Synechdoche forbidden Where the effect and the end there the causes and meanes are Prohibited And where the Principall there the Accessory are condemned Where the act or outward fact there the thoughts affections inclinations desires purposes gestures Words are determined to be unlawfull According to these rules besides Adultery many other sins which have some affinity and agreement therewith are here forbidden as fornication incest whoredome rapes deflowring of Virgins Sodomy and Bestiality which two lusts are not to be named but with detestation And all lasciviousnesse uncleannesse and abuse of the body in this kind The reason hereof is because God never gave any ●iberty to use their bodies in this kind out of Marriage For so soon as he had created man and given him a power and blessing of propagation and multiplication He brings the Woman to the Man gives her in marriage unto him before they had any warrant to have carnall knowledge one of another In this respect simple fornication as they term it between single Persons and the keeping of Concubins are unlawfull According to the second Rule of cause and effect because intemperance and excesse in eating § V drinking and pampering of the body and idlenesse are causes as of other sins so of these of uncleannesse therefore in that respect but no otherwise they are prohibited Fulnesse of bread and abundance of Idlenesse were two of the great iniquities of Sodom one of the filthiest and leudest places in the World Ezek. 16. 49. Yet intemperance luxury and excess in bodily pleasures may be reduced to this Commandement understood in a latitude as prohibiting all excessive and inordinate enjoyment of worldly and bodily pleasures And the Jews being as sed horses in the morning neighed after their neighbours wives Jer. 5. 8. Lewd company is also another cause Dinah Jacob's Daughter wanders and gads abroad to see the Daughters of the Land falls into lewd company and is deflowred For which sin the City of Shechem is destroyed To gaze unadvisedly upon beauties may kindle the flames of lust Immodest and wanton Apparrell Carriage Gestures Words filthy Communication Lewd Pictures filthy books too much familiarity of Men with Women or Women with Men who have not the gift of continency and converse with them without any calling especially with the temptations of the Devil who will take all advantages are dangerous Not to reckon up particulars which are many this we must know for certain that whatsoever is a cause or occasion of this sin of uncleannesse and gives advantage or opportunity to Sathan is forbidden as such in this place Yet the beginning of this sin as of all other is in the heart for as out of it evil thoughts and murders so adultery and fornication issue Mat. 15. 19. For whosoever looketh on a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart Mat. 5. 28. Till temptations come into the heart we are safe But when the heart begins to entertain unclean suggestions conceive and continue unclean thoughts desire unclean pleasures the devil hath insinuated himself and is entered already But if we yeild consent resolve to fulfill our lusts and deliberate how to accomplish our filthy design then he is fortified and will hardly be forced out we become his captives and slaves the sin is conceived and formed in us And this deliberate consent and resolution is the principal part of this sin and most properly contracts the guilt For where there is Reluctancy within and strong temptation without or a suddain surprizall the sin is not so heynous The inward disposition and willing inclination of the heart doth most offend God the outward act and the use of meanes to accomplish our desires do the greatest hurt to man Yet as there are degrees of these sins within so there be also without and that not onely in respect of the severall kinds of filthinesse for some are more abominable then other in their own nature some by complication because in one act Adultery and Incest may concurre but also in respect of the act and habit For the sins of adultery and murder were not habituall in David his constant temper was far different though some make a Constant practise of this sin Besides all these wayes of contracting guilt in this particular some are guilty though not as Principalls yet as Accessory For many are no better then Bawdes and Panders by being subservient and officious unto other in this sin Thus Jonadab contrives a meanes and gives advice to Amon how be might fulfill his lust upon his Sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13. 5. Thus far the negative part whereby we understand what sins are here forbidden and also how hard a thing it is to be pure and innocent from all uncleannesse for few are found who are not in some measure polluted For the causes and occasions are many and the temptations great and our frailty much and we have continuall need of Gods gracious assistance which without our own constant Vigilancy we cannot expect As for Polygamy and the severall cases of conscience and the distance of degrees in consanguinity and affinity to be observed to avoid incest I leave them to Casuists The affirmative part here implied § VI and often expressed in other places of Scripture is the Precept of Chastity for he that forbids impurity commands Chastity which is not a vertue as it ariseth from the constitution of the body or from some naturall or artificiall causes but as it s rooted in the heart and is Regulated by the Word of God For as the sin of uncleannesse is not in the outward Act of carnal knowledge which ordered according to Gods institution and Law is not only lawfull but a meanes ordained by God to propagate mankind and to continue a Church unto the end of the World So likewise Chastity is not the forbearance of the outward act but a right and constant temper of the heart hating the sin of uncleanness and preserving both Body and Mind pure in free obedience unto God And as the proper and principal subject both of all other also of this ver●ue is the will So all this will avoids all causes and occasions of the sin here forbidden The inward thoughts desires resolutions deliberations are pure the words gestures apparrell and outward acts are modest and sober so that by a chast soul the Vessel and body is kept in Sanctification and honour And this is the duty here commanded But because there are many meanes to preserve Chastity these therefore ought to be used The fear of God which is the beginning of Wisdome and a Principle-generall of all vertues doth first dispose the soul to this particular duty and reigning in the soul commands all temptations to be resisted evil company and filthy persons to be avoided good and chast Society to be observed prayer frequent prayer against this sin to be

wofull estate it highly concerns all and every one of us whilst it is said to day if we will hearken to his voice not to harden our hearts lest God swear in his wrath that we shall never enter into his Rest. We that live in the last dayes and enjoy the Ministery of the Gospell have not onely many a fair Warning but many a fearfull Example represented before our very eyes These are the Punishments of the unregenerate § VIII which they suffer before the Resurrection There are also Punishments which God's own Children after their Regeneration and beginning of the estate of Justification suffer in this life For as they have their Negligencies Ignorances Failings and sometimes their grievous Sins So they have their Punishments accordingly For the most just God who is most holy and of purest Eyes will in no wise allow of Sin in his own dearest Children For though his greatest design is to save the sinner yet he will punish and destroy the sin As the greater their diligence care and zeal shall be the greater their peace joy and comfort shall prove So if they offend be negligent carelesse cold the lesse Communion they shall have with their God and the greater their doubts feares troubles griefs shall be And these spirituall Desertions of their God and the withdrawings of the Spirit are sad and heavy Judgments How great must their discomfort needs be when God doth hide his face Christ standeth at a distance and the Spirit doth not appear This is evident from the many dolefull complaints and lamentations of God's Servants and dearest Children They suffer many temporall Afflictions in their Persons Goods Families Children near Relations besides For they are many times chastened of the Lord that they should not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11. 35. The Sword departs not from David's house and his Children wrong and murther one another for his crimes of Adultery and Murther Yet these though grievous were not his most grievous and greatest Punishments The sting of sin and guilt thereof doth deeply pierce and torment his Soul the sanctifying and sealing Spirit was abated and in a great measure withdrawn as his divine Vertues so his blessed Comforts were almost reduced to a spark raked up in the ashes and if God had not in due time out of depth of Mercy revived it What had become of him What his case was we may easily understand by Psal. 51. at large especially by that earnest Petition Create in me a clean Heart and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit that is Comfort me with the Spirit of Adoption Psal. 51. 10 11 12. This Punishment Peter felt tormenting his Soul when he reflected upon his Sin in denying his Saviour And surely to find the Power of Sanctification and spirituall Consolation to abate in our Hearts and the Vigour of it for present extinct is an unvaluable losse and an intolerable Punishment to God's Saints Therefore we are advised not to grieve or offend the Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. and exhorted to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. For the more diligent wa●chfull zealous constant we are in the Practise of holy Duties the more our sanctifying power shall be increased the ●●ronger our Hope the greater our Assurance and the more abundantly our Consolations will ●low Otherwise God being light will not communicate himselfe to men that live in darknesse nor to his own Children but as walking in the Light It 's strange that Saints and Martyrs in the midst of flaming fire and whilst under most cruell and most exquisite Torments should rejoyce with unspeakeable joy and in these Desertions should be so fearfully dejected Yet the cause is God will not abate the least Jot of his Justice when he shews the greatest Mercies After the Punishments inflicted by this most just Lord § IX and King upon single Persons declared briefly something must be said of the Punishments rendred to Persons associated as such These are considered either in a civill Capacity making up the body of a civill State or in an Ecclesiasticall and spirituall Capacity constituting a Church The Punishments of civill States and Kingdoms we may read and understand in sacred and humane Stories And so great are the Motions Shakings made in these great Bodies throughout the World in all times that we may easily understand that there is an universall and supreme Lord and that there is one most high whose Throne is in Heaven that ordereth the Kingdoms of men and disposeth all things in it according to certain Rules of Justice and Wisdome It 's a great Mercy of God to affoord us civill Government and to preserve the same And though the benefit thereof be generall and extends to all Mankind yet in the ordering and establishing Common-weales God hath a speciall care of the Church and the Society of Pilgrims and Strangers here on earth who seek eternall peace in Heaven as Subjects and Citizens of an eternall State This he continues protects and ordereth aright by his almighty hand and profoundest wisdom in the midst of all the Tumults Confusions Ruines D●solations of the Kingdoms of the World These have their Beginning Increase Corruptions Alterations Ruines and fatal Periods not according to any certain Numbers or revolution of times nor the motion and influence of heavenly bodies and Aethereal lights nor from the power or weaknesse the imprudence or policy of man but from God according to the eternall rules of Justice and Wisdom determined and observed by him Yet he doth all things in number weight and measure most exactly and in the execution of his Judgments ●●th the ministery of Angels Men and other Creatures When States that professe not the Gospel shall govern negligently imprudently unjus●ly and shall be corrupted and Corrupters and especially Persecutors of the Church and when States professing knowledge of the true God and the faith of Jesus Christ shall not onely violate the Lawes of Nature but neglect to protect the Church persecute the power of Godlinesse under what pretence ●oever become superstitious idolatrous prophane administer Injustice Cruelty be imprudent negligent unmercifull vitious and degenerate then the Punishments both of the one and other shall be Famine Pestilences Seditions civill Wars forreign Invasions Captivity Poverty Desolations many other Miseries and many times change of Government or the Translation of the Power Civill from one People to another and sometimes Anarchy and a totall dissolution of all order God useth the Governours to punish the People the People to punish their Princes and sometimes the Sword of a forreign Prince to punish or destroy both And when no Justice can be had from men on Earth he executes Vengeance in some extraordinary manner from Heaven Thus

is great we must often pray humbly depend upon our God and work out our salvation with fear and trembling because it 's God that worketh in us the Will and the Deed of his good pleasure Because of our many foils and falls one worke of our Sanctification is to renew our Repentance and our Faith in Christ and that daily that as we contract new guilt and are weakned so we may be cleansed and strengthned Therefore David after his grievous fall petitions to God to create in him a clean Heart and renew a right Spirit within him Psal. 51. 10. And Peter goes out and weeps bitterly and no doubt prayes fervently Divine Desertions are fearfull and we must take heed of offending the sanctifying Spirit of God By these frequent returnes unto God and our Saviour Jesus Christ our Sanctifycation is renewed and recovered What should be the reason whereupon the Eternal Wisdom of God should determine to put his Regenerate Ones upon this Bloody War sometimes continued long and not wholly destroy sin at once and so in an instant give us perfect and perpetual Security is hard to know Yet this is certain that he thought it best to teach us Humility so as that we might learn that Lesson perfectly and that we should fully know our total and perpetual dependance is upon his grace For Pride and Security was the ruine of Man at first and the ●inal Fall of the Apostate Angels Besides He knew how to turn all the Events of this War unto our good and greatest glory and He would let the Devil plainly see that he by frail man over whom he had so domineer'd and whom he had so insolently trampled under his feet could not onely Resist him but eternally subdue him This is the intermediate Event of this War § XII The final Event is a final and compleat Victory For we are enabled not onely to withstand in the evil day of Temptation but having done all and finished the War to stand victorious in the Field and see all our Enemies subdued Ephes. 6. 13. For this end the compleat Armour of God was given us And this is the Promise that God the God of Peace who will put an end unto this War will bruise Sathan under our feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. And the God of all grace who hath called us to his Eternal Glory by Christ Jesus after we have suffered a while will make us perfect stablish strengthen settle us 1 Pet. 5. 10. We shall overcome the Great Dragon and Old Serpent by the Blood of the Lamb and his Testimony not loving our lives to Death Revel 12. 2. The Reward upon this Victory is an Eternal Crown which will be certain For when Paul had fought this good Fight had finished his Course and kept the Faith from thenceforth there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge would give him at that day and not to him onely but unto them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 8. This Victory is obtained by final Perseverance which is often in part interrupted by our many failings and falls yet continued by a continual Supply of inward strength and outward Assistance upon which it doth chiefly depend God requires on our part a constant Exercise of that Power He hath given us and humble dependance upon his strength a continual Watchfulness a dayly renewing of our Repentance and Faith For without Duty there is no expectation of solid comfort This Perseverance is never totally interrupted by Apostasie in the Saints of God once regenerate and sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise who have received the first-fruits of glory as an earnest of the full possession of the great Inheritance That these ever did or may according to the Eternal Rules of this Government fall totally and so finally never any yet could clearly prove That others though baptized enlightened changed in their hearts reformed in their lives so as to forsake in some measure their former sins endued not onely with ordinary but extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and out of an imperfect hope of Salvation have tasted of the joys and comforts of the Gospel may fall will not be denied Yet all these things are not sufficient sufficiently to qualifie the subject of this Question concerning Perseverance For the Question Whether those who by a sincere Faith are living Members of Christ have received the Regenerating Spirit as a Seal and Earnest of Eternal Glory can according to the Laws of God-Redeemer fall away totally from the estate of Justification The Question may be § VII De esse aut Posse or both That any such did ever so fall no man yet did ever prove That they may fall according to the tenour of the Gospel hath not been yet nor I think can be made evident The Scripture doth sometimes take Righteousness Calling Regeneration Sanctification the purging away of sin in a large sense and attribute all these to such as have been baptized made profession of their Faith and have not by Scandal or Apostasie stained their Profession and as the Scripture so the ancient Writers also term these Saints Righteous and Regenerate But a thousand such places will not evince this Fall that 's here denied For they changed the subject of the Question and so the Question it self Many do instance in David who no doubt was regenerated and ●ealed with the Spirit of Promise and he fell grievously and contracted the guilt of Adultery and Murther But what though Was this a total Fall It was not For 1 Though the sins were heynous and did highly offend God and deserved Death yet this Death was removeable For they were not the sins of Apostasie or final Unbelief nor properly nor immediately Impenitency and Unbelief which are the sins directly and formally against the Covenant and Fundamental Law of Redemption Therefore they could not make him of a subject to be no subject neither did God wholly reject him and take his Spirit wholly from him A man may commit heynous offences against the Law and yet be a Subject but if he be guilty of Rebellion or High-Treason he loseth all right of a Subject Thus David was not guilty 2 This Death was more easily removable then that Penalty of that Party which never did believe never was regenerate 3 Though the Sins were actually yet they were not habitually contrary to the Law or to Repentance and Faith For to be an Adulterer and Murderer was not his constant temper 4 God made such promises to David and those personal as were not consistent either with total or final rejection This was one promise and that Personall My mercy will I keep for him for evermore and may Covenant shall stand fast with him And for his seed if they transgresse he would chastise them Neverthelesse his loving kindnesse He would not take utterly from them Psal. 89. 28 29 30. c. And this did include an obligation on Gods part to