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sin_n	dead_a	death_n	quicken_v	3,267	5	10.4250	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30895	An apology for the true Christian divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached by the people, called, in scorn, Quakers being a full explanation and vindication of their principles and doctrines, by many arguments, deduced from Scripture and right reason, and the testimony of famous authors, both ancient and modern, with a full answer to the strongest objections usually made against them, presented to the King / written and published in Latine, for the information of strangers, by Robert Barclay ; and now put into our own language, for the benefit of his country-men.; Theologiae verè Christianae apologia. English	Barclay, Robert, 1648-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing B721; ESTC R1740	415,337	436

was no other than of unjust to be made just through the Grace of God for Christ. He mentioneth more but this may suffice to our purpose § VIII Having thus sufficiently proved that by justification is to be understood a really being made righteous I do boldly affirm and that not only from a notional knowledg but from a real inward experimental feeling of the thing that the immediate nearest or formal cause if we must in condescendence to some use this word of a man's justification in the sight of God is the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Soul changing altering and renewing the mind by whom even the Author of this inward work thus formed and revealed we are truly justified and accepted in the sight of God For it is as we are thus covered and cloathed with him in whom the Father is alwaies well pleased that we may draw near to God and stand with confidence before his throne being purged by the blood of Jesus inwardly poured into our Souls and cloathed with his Life and Righteousness therein revealed And this is that order and method of Salvation held forth by the Apostle in that Divine saying Rom. 5.10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life For the Apostle first holding forth the reconciliation wrought by the death of Christ wherein God is near to receive and redeem man holds forth his Salvation and Justification to be by the Life of Jesus Now that this Life is an inward Spiritual thing revealed in the Soul whereby it is renewed and brought forth out of death where it naturally has been by the fall and so quickned and made alive unto God The same Apostle shews Eph. 2.5 Even when we were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickened us together in Christ by whose Grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together Now this none will deny to be the inward work of renovation and therefore the Apostle gives that reason of their being saved by Grace which is the inward Vertue and Power of Christ in the Soul but of this place more hereafter Of the Revelation of this inward Life the Apostle also speaketh 2 Cor. 4.10 That the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our Bodies and ver 11. That the Life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal Flesh. Now this inward Life of Jesus is that whereby as is before observed he saith We are saved Secondly That it is by this revelation of Jesus Christ and the new Creation in us that we are justified doth evidently appear from that excellent saying of the Apostle included in the Proposition it self Tit. 3.5 according to his mercy he hath saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost c. Now that whereby we are saved that we are also no doubt justified by which words are in this respect synonimous Here the Apostle clearly ascribes the immediate cause of Justification to this inward work of Regeneration which is Jesus Christ revealed in the Soul as being that which formerly states us in a capacity of being reconciled with God the washing or regeneration being that inward Power and Vertue whereby the Soul is cleansed and cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ so as to be made fit to appear before God Thirdly This Doctrin is manifest from 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your own selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates First it appears here how earnest the Apostle was that they should know Christ in them so that he presses this exhortation upon them and inculcates it three times Secondly he makes the cause of reprobation or not-justification the want of Christ thus revealed and known in the Soul whereby it necessarily follows by the rule of contraries where the parity is alike as in this case it is evident that where Christ is inwardly known there the persons subjected to him are approved and justified For there can be nothing more plain than this that if we must know Christ in us except we be reprobates ortunjustified persons that if we know him in us we are not reprobates and consequently justified ones Like unto this is that other saying of the same Apostle Gal. 4.19 My little Children of whom I travel in Birth again until Christ be formed in you and therefore the Apostle terms this Christ within the hope of Glory Col. 1.27.28 Now that which is the hope of Glory can be no other than that which we immediately and most nearly relie upon for our Justification and that whereby we are really and truly made Just. And as we do not hereby deny but the Original and Fundamental cause of our Justification is the Love of God manifested in the appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh who by his Life Death Sufferings and Obedience made a way for our Reconciliation and became a Sacrifice for the remission of sins that are past and purchased unto us this Seed and Grace from which this birth arises and in which Jesus Christ is inwardly received formed and brought forth in us in his own pure and Holy Image of Righteousness by which our Souls live unto God ond are cloathed with him and have put him on even as the Scripture speaks Eph. 4.23 24. Gal. 3.27 We stand justified and saved in and by him and by his Spirit and Grace Rom. 3.24 1 Cor. 6.11 Tit. 3.7 So again reciprocally we are hereby made partakers of the fulness of his merits and his cleansing blood is near to wash away every sin and infirmity and to heal all our back-slidings as often as we turn towards him by unfeigned Repentance and become renewed by his Spirit Those then that find him thus raised and ruling in them have a true ground of hope to believe that they are Justified by his Blood But let not any deceive themselves so as to foster themselves in a vain hope and confidence that by the Death and Sufferings of Christ they are Justified so long as sin lies at their door Gen. 4. v. 7. Iniquity prevails and they remain yet unrenewed and unregenerate lest it be said unto them I know you not Let that saying of Christ be remembred not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter but he that doth the will of my Father Matth. 7.21 To which let these excellent sayings of the beloved Disciple be added Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as he is Righteous He that committeth sin is of the Devil because if our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 3.7 20. Many Famous Protestants bear witness to this inward Justification by Christ inwardly revealed and formed in man as 1. M. Borrhaeus In the Imputation saith he wherein Christ

called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified This is commonly called the golden chain as being acknowledged to comprehend the method and order of Salvation And therefore if justified were not understood here in its proper signification of being made just sanctification would be excluded out of this chain And truly it is very worthy of observation that the Apostle in this succinct and compendious account makes the word justified to comprehend all betwixt calling and glorifying thereby clearly insinuating that the being really righteous is that only medium by which from our calling we pass to glorification All for the most part do acknowledg the word to be so taken in this place and not only so but most of those who oppose are forced to acknowledg that as this is the most proper so the most common signification of it thus divers famous Protestants do acknowledg We are not saith D. Chamierus such impertinent esteemers of words as to be ignorant nor yet such importunat Sophists as to deny that the words of Justification and Sanctification do infer one another ye we know that the Saints are chiefly for this reason so called because that in Christ they have received remission of sins and we read in the Revelation Let him that is just be just still which cannot be understood except of the fruit of inherent righteousness Nor do we deny but perhaps in other places they may be promiscuously taken especially by the Fathers I take saith Beza the name of Justification largely so as it comprehends whatsoever we acquire from Christ as well by imputation as by the efficacy of the Spirit in sanctifying us So likewise is the word of Justification taken Rom. 8.30 Melancthon saith that to be justified by Faith signifies in Scripture not only to be pronounced just but also of unrighteous to be made righteous Also some chief Protestants though not so clearly yet in part hinted at our Doctrin whereby we ascribe unto the Death of Christ remission of Sins and the work of Justification unto the Grace of the Spirit acquired by his Death Martinus Boraeus explaining that place of the Apostle Rom. 4.25 Who was given for our sins and rose again for our justification saith There are two things beheld in Christ which are necessary to our justification the one is his death the other is his arising from the dead By his death the sins of this world behoved to be expiated By his rising from the dead it pleased the same goodness of God to give the Holy Spirit whereby both the Gospel is believed and the Righteousness lost by the fault of the first Adam is restored And afterwards he saith The Apostle expresseth both parts in these words Who was given for our sins c. In his Death is beheld the satisfaction for sin in his Resurrection the gift of the Holy Spirit by which our Justification is perfected And again the same man saith elsewhere Both these kinds of Righteousness are therefore contained in Justification neither can the one be separate from the other So that in the definition of Justification the merit of the blood of Christ is included both with the remission of sins and with the gift of the Holy Spirit of Justification and Regeneration Martinus Bucerus saith Seeing by one sin of Adam the world was lost the Grace of Christ hath not only abolished that one sin and death which came by it but hath together taken away those infinite sins and also led into full justification as many as are of Christ so that God now not only remits unto them Adam 's sin and their own but also gives them therewith the Spirit of a solid and perfect Righteousness which renders us conform unto the Image of the First begotten And upon these words by Jesus Christ he saith We alwaies judg that the whole benefit of Christ tends to this that we might be strong through the gift of Righteousness being rightly and orderly ordained with all vertue that is restored to the Image of God And lastly William Forbes our Countrey man Bishop of Edinburgh saith Whensoever the Scripture makes mention of the Justification before God as speaketh Paul and from him besides others Augustin it appears that the word justify necessarily signifies not only to pronounce just in a Law sense but also really and inherently to make just because that God doth other waies justifie a wicked man than earthly Judges For he when he justifies a wicked or unjust man doth indeed pronounce him as these also do but by pronouncing him just because his judgment is according to Truth he also makes him really of unjust to become just And again the same man upon the same occasion answering the more rigid Protestants who say that God first justifies and then makes just he adds But let them have a care least by too great and empty subtilty unknown both to the Scripture and the Fathers they lessen and diminish the weight and dignity of so great and divine a benefit so much celebrated in the Scripture to wit justification of the wicked For if to the formal reason of justification of the ungodly doth not at all belong his justification so to speak i. e. his being made righteous then in the Justification of a sinner although he be Justifyed yet the stain of sin is not taken away but remains the same in his Soul as before Justification And so dotwithstanding the benefit of Justification he remains as before unjust and a sinner and nothing is taken away but the guilt and obligation to pain and the offence and enmity of God through non imputation But both the Scriptures and Fathers do affirm that in the Justification of a sinner their sins are not only remitted forgiven covered not imputed but also taken away blotted out cleansed washed purged and very far removed from us as appears from many places of the Holy Scriptures The same Forbes shews us at length in the following chapter that this was the confessed judgment of the Fathers out of the writings of those who hold the contrary opinion some whereof out of him I shall note as first Calvin saith that the judgment of Austin or at least his manner of speaking is not throughout to be received who although he took from man all praise of righteousness and ascribed all to the Grace of God yet he refers Grace to Sanctification by which we are regenerate through the Spirit unto newness of life Chemnitius saith that they do not deny but that the Fathers take the word justifie for renewing by which works of righteousness are wrought in us by the Spirit And pag. 130. I am not ignorant that the Fathers indeed often use the word justifie in this signification to wit of making just Zanchius saith that the Fathers and chiefly Austin interpret the word justifie according to this signification to wit of making just so that according to them to he justified

Luke 1.6 that they were perfect But under the Gospel besides that of the Rom. above mentioned see what the Apostle saith of many Saints in general Eph. 2.4 5 6. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus c. I judg while they were sitting in these heavenly places they could not be daily sinning in Thought Word and Deed neither were all their works which they did there as filthy rags or as a menstruous Garment See what is further said to the Hebrews 12.22 23. Spirits of just men made perfect And to conclude let that of the Revelation 14. 1 2 3 4 5. be considered Where though their being found without fault be spoken in the present time yet is it not without respect to their innocency while upon earth and their being redeemed from among men and no guile found in their mouth is expresly mentioned in the time past But I shall proceed now in the third place to answer the objections which indeed are the arguments of our opposers § IX I shall begin with their chief and great argument which is the words of the Apostle Obj. 1. Joh. 1.8 If we say that we have no sin we decieve our selves and the Truth is not in us This they think invincible Answ. But is it not strange to see men so blinded with partiality How many Scriptures tenfold more plain do they reject and yet stick so tenaciously to this that can receive so many answers As first If we say we have no sin c. will not import the Apostle himself to be included Sometimes the Scripture useth this manner of expression when the person speaking cannot be included which manner of speech the Grammarians call Metaschematismos Thus Ja. 3.9 10. speaking of the Tongue saith therewith bless we God and therewith curse we men adding these things ought not so to be who from this will conclude that the Apostle was one of those cursers But secondly this objection hitteth not the matter he saith not we sin daily in Thought Word and Deed far less that the very good works which God works in us by his Spirit are sin yea the next verse clearly shews that upon confession and repentance we are not only forgiven but also cleansed He is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Here is both a forgiveness and removing of the guilt and a cleansing or removing of the filth for to make forgiveness and cleansing to belong both to the removing of the guilt as there is no reason for it from the text so it were a most violent forcing of the words and would imply a needless tautology The Apostle having shewn how that not the guilt only but even the filth also of sin is removed subsumes his words in the time past in the 10 verse If we say we have not sinned we make him a liar Thirdly as Augustine well observed in his exposition upon the Epistle to the Galatians It is one thing not to sin another thing not to have sin The Apostles words are not If we say we sin not o● commit not sin daily but if we say we have no sin And betwixt these two there is a manifest difference for in respect all have sinned as we freely acknowledg all may be said in a sense to have sin Again sin may be taken for the seed of sin which may be in those that are redeemed from actual sinning but as to the temptations and provocations proceeding from it being resisted by the servants of God and not yielded to they are the Devils sin that tempteth not the man's that is preserved Fourthly this being considered as also how positive and how plain once again the same Apostle is in the very same Epistle as in divers places above cited is it equal or rational to strain this one place presently after so qualified and subsumed in the times past to contradict not only other positive expressions of his but the whole tendency of his Epistle and of the rest of the holy commands and precepts of the Scripture Secondly Their second Objection is from two places of Scripture much of one signification The one is 1 Kings 8.46 Obj. For there is no man that sinneth not The other is Eccles. 7.20 for there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not I answer first These affirm nothing of a daily and continual sinning Answ. so as never to be redeemed from it but only that all have sinned or that there is none that doth not sin though not always so as never to cease to sin and in this lies the question Yea in that place of the Kings he speaks within two verses of the returning of such with all their Souls and Hearts which implies a possibility of leaving off sin Secondly there is a respect to be had to the seasons and dispensations for if it should be granted that in Solomon's time there was none that sinned not it will not follow that there are none such now or that it is a thing is not now attainable by the Grace of God under the Gospel for a non esse ad non posse non valet sequela And lastly this whole objection hangs upon a false interpretation for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be read in the potential mood Thus There is no man who may not sin as well as in the Indicative so both the old Latin Junius and Tremellius and Vatablus have it and the same word is so used Psal. 119.11 I have hid thy Word in my Heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say that I may not sin against thee in the potential mood and not in the indicative as it is in the English which being more answerable to the universal scope of the Scriptures the testimony of the Truth and the sense almost of all Interpreters doubtless ought to be so understood and the other interpretation rejected as spurious Thirdly they object some expressions of the Apostle Paul Obj. Rom. 7.19 for the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do And ver 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I answer This place infers nothing unless it were apparent that the Apostle here were speaking of his own condition Answ. and not rather in the person of others or what he himself had sometimes born which is frequent in Scripture as in the case of cursing in James before mentioned But there is nothing in the text that doth clearly signify the Apostle to be speaking of himself or of a condition he was then under or was always to be under yea on the contrary in the former Chapter as afore is

which the Lord hath made absolutely necessary for Penitent Sinners but only attrition a figment of their own that is if he be sorry he hath sinned not out of any love to God or his Law which he hath transgressed but for fear of Punishment yet doth the virtue of the Sacrament as they affirm procure to him remission of Sins so that being absolved by the Priest he stands accepted and justified in the sight of God This mans Justification then proceedeth not from his being truly penitent and in any measure inwardly changed and renewed by the working of God's Grace in his heart but meerly from the authority of the Priest and virtue of the Sacrament who hath pronounced him absolved so that his Justification is from somewhat without him and not within him Secondly this will yet more appear in the matter of Indulgences where remission of all Sins not only past but for years to come is annexed to the visiting such and such Churches and Reliques saying such and such Prayers so that the person that so doth is presently cleared from the guilt of his sin and justified and accepted in the sight of God As for example he that in the great Jubilee will go to Rome and present himself before the Gate of Peter and Paul and there receive the Popes blessing or he that will go a Pilgrimage to James's Sepulchre in Spain or to Mary of Loretta is upon the performance of those things promised forgiveness of Sins Now if we ask them the reason how such things are not morally good in themselves come to have vertue they have no other answer but because of the Church and Popes Authority who being the great Treasurer of the magazine of Christ's merits lets them out upon such and such conditions Thus also the invention of saying Mass is made a chief instrument of Justification for in it they pretend to offer Christ daily to the Father a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the living and dead So that a man for Money can procure Christ thus to be offered for him when he pleases by which offering he is said to obtain remission of sins and to stand justified in the sight of God From all which and much more of this nature which might be mentioned it doth appear that the Papists place their Justification not so much in any work of Holiness really brought forth in them and real forsaking of iniquity as in the meer performance of some ceremonies and a blind belief which their Teachers have begotten in them that the Church and the Pope having the absolute Dispensation of the Merits of Christ have power to make these merits effectual for the remission of sins and Justification of such as will perform those Ceremonies This is the true and real method of Justification taken by the generality of the Church of Rome and highly commended by their publick Preachers especially the Monks in their Sermons to the People of which I my Self have been an Ear and and Eye-witness However some of their modern Writers have laboured to qualifie it in their controversies This Doctrine Luther and the Protestants then had good reason to deny and oppose though many of them ran into another extream so as to deny good works to be necessary to Justification and to preach up not only remission of Sins but Justification by Faith alone without all works however good So that men do not obtain their Justification according as they are inwardly sanctified and renewed but are justified meerly by believing that Christ died for them and so some may perfectly be Justified though they be lying in gross Wickedness as appears by the example of David whom they say was fully and perfectly Justified while he was lying in the gross sins of Murder and Adultery As then the Protestants have sufficient ground to quarrel and confute the Papists concerning those many abuses in the matter of Justification shewing how the Doctrine of Christ is thereby vitiated and overturned and the Word of God made void by many and useless Traditions the Law of God neglected while foolish and needless ceremonies are prized and followed through a false opinion of being justified by the performance of them and the merits and sufferings of Christ which is the Only Sacrifice appointed of God for remission of sins derogated from by the setting up of a daily Sacrifice never appointed by God and chiefly devised out of Covetousness to get mony by so the Protestants on the other hand by not rightly establishing and holding forth the Doctrine of Justification according as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures have opened a door for the Papists to accuse them as if they were neglecters of good works Enemiies to Mortification and Holyness such as esteem themselves Justified while lying in great sins by which kind of accusations for which too great ground hath been given out of the writings of some rigid Protestants the Reformation hath been greatly defamed and hindered and the Souls of many insnared Whereas who will narrowly look into the matter may observe these debates to be more in specie than in genere seeing both do upon the matter land in one and like two men in a circle who though they go sundry waies yet meet at last in the same centre For the Papists they say they obtain remission of sins and are Justified by the Merits of Christ as the same are applied unto them in the use of the Sacraments of the Church and are dispenced in the performance of such and such Ceremonies Pilgrimages Prayers and Performances tho there be not an inward renewing of the mind nor knowing of Christ inwardly formed yet they are remitted and righteous ex opere operato because of the Power and Authority accompanying the Sacraments and the dispensators of them The Protestants say that they obtain remission of Sins and stand Justified in the sight of God by vertue of the merits and sufferings of Christ not by infusing Righteousness into them but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous they resting on him and his Righteousness by Faith which Faith the act of believing is not imputed unto them for Righteousness So the Justification of neither here is placed in any inward renewing of the mind or by vertue of any Spiritual Birth or Formation of Christ in them but only by a bare application of the death and sufferings of Christ outwardly performed for them whereof the one lays hold on a Faith resting upon them and hoping to be Justified by them alone the other by the saying of some outward Prayers and Ceremonies which they judg makes the death of Christ effectual unto them I except here being unwilling to wrong any what things have been said as to the necessity of inward Holyness either by some modern Papists or some modern Protestants who in so far as they have laboured after a midst betwixt these two extreams have come near to the Truth as

at large shewn he declares they were dead to sin demanding how such should yet live any longer therein Secondly it appears that the Apostle only personated one not yet come to a Spiritual condition in that he saith verse 14. but I am carnal sold under sin Now is it to be imagined that the Apostle Paul as to his own proper condition when he wrote that Epistle was a carnal man who in the 1 chapter testifies of himself that he was separated to be an Apostle capable to impart to the Romans Spiritual gifts and chapter 8. ver 2. that the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus had made him free from the law of sin and death so then he was not carnal And seeing there are Spiritual men in this life as our adversaries will not deny and is intimated through this whole 8 chapter to the Romans it will not be denyed but the Apostle was one of them So then as his calling himself carnal in the 7 chap. can not be understood of his own proper state neither can the rest of what he speaks there of that kind be so understood yea after ver 24. where he makes that exclamation he adds in the next verse I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord signifying that by him he witnessed deliverance and so goeth on shewing how he had obtained it in the next Chapter viz. 8. v. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ And verse 37. But in all these things we are more than conquerors And in the last verse nothing shall be able to separate us c. But whereever there is a continuing in sin there there is a separation in some degree seeing every sin is contrary to God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a transgression of the Law 1 Joh. 3.4 and whoever committeth the least sin is overcome of it and so in that respect is not a conqueror but conquered This condition then which the Apostle plainly testified he with some others had obtained could not consist with continual remaining and abiding in sin Obj. Fourthly they object the faults and sins of several eminent Saints as Noah David c. Answ. I answer that doth not at all prove the case for the question is not whether good men may not fall into sin which is not denyed but whether it be not possible for them not to sin It will not follow because these men sinn'd that therefore they were never free of sin but always sinned For at this rate of arguing it might be urged according to this rule contrariorum par ratio i. e. the reason of contraries is alike that if because a good man hath sinned once or twice he can never be free from sin but must always be daily and continually a sinner all his life long then by the rule of Contraries if a wicked man have done good once or twice he can never be free from righteousness but must always be a righteous man all his life time which as it is most absurd in it self so it is contrary to the plain testimony of the Scripture Ezech. 33.12 to the 18. Lastly they object that if perfection or freedom from sin be attainable this will render mortification of sin useless and make the blood of Christ of no service to us neither need we any more pray for forgiveness of sins I answer I had almost omitted this objection Answ. because of the manifest absurdity of it for can mortification of sin be useless where the end of it is obtained seeing there is no attaining of this perfection but by mortification doth the hope and belief of overcoming render the fight unnecessary Let rational men judge which hath most sense in it to say as our adversaries do It is necessary that we fight and wrestle but we must never think of overcoming We must resolve still to be overcome Or to say Let us fight because we may overcome Whether do such as believe they may be cleansed by it or those that believe they can never be cleansed by it render the Blood of Christ most effectual If two men were both grievously diseased and applyed themselves to a Physician for remedy which of those do most commend the Physician and his cure he that believeth he may be cured by him and as he feels himself cured confesseth that he is so and so can say This is a skilful Physician this is good Medicine behold I am made whole by it or he that never is cured nor ever believes that he can so long as he lives As for praying for forgiveness we deny it not for that all have sinned and therefore all need to pray that their sins past may be blotted out and that they may be daily preserved from sinning And if hoping or believing to be made free from sin hinders praying for forgiveness of sin it would follow by the same inference that men ought not to forsake murther adultery or any of these gross evils seeing the more men are sinful the more plentiful occasion there would be of asking forgiveness of sin and the more work for mortification But the Apostle hath sufficiently refuted such sin-pleasing cavils in these words Rom. 6.1 2. Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid But lastly it may be easily answered by a retorsion to those that press this from the words of the Lords prayer forgiven us our debts that this militates no less against perfect justification than against perfect sanctification For if all the Saints the least as well as the greatest be perfectly justified in that very hour wherein they are converted as our adversaries will have it then they have remission of sins long before they dye May it not then be said to them What need have ye to pray for remission of sin who are already justified whose sins are long ago forgiven both past and to come § X. But this may suffice concerning this possibility Jerom speaks clearly enough lib. 3. adver Pelagium This we also say that a man may not sin if he will for a time and place according to his bodily weakness so long as his mind is intent so long as the cords of the cythar relax not by any vice and again in the same book which is that that I said that it is put in our power to wit being helped by the grace of God either to sin or not to sin For this was the error of Pelagius which we indeed reject and abhor and which the Fathers deservedly withstood that man by his natural strength without the help of Gods grace could attain to that state so as not to sin And Augustin himself a great opposer of the Pelagian heresie did not deny this possibility as attainable by the help of God's grace as in his book de Spiritu litera cap. 2. and his book de natura gratia against Pelagius cap. 42.50 60 63 de gestis concilii Palaestini cap. 7. 2. and de

together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 But can such members such a gathering as we have demonstrated that Church and Members to be among whom they alledge their pretended authority to have been preserved and through which they derive their call can such I say be the body of Christ or members thereof or is Christ the head of such a corrupt dead dark abominable stinking carcase If so then might we not as well affirm against the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.14 That righteousness hath fellowship with unrighteousness that Light hath communion with Darkness that Christ hath concord with Belial that a Believer hath part with an Infidel and that the Temple of God hath agreement with Idols Moreover no man is called the Temple of God nor of the Holy Ghost but as his vessel is purified and so he fitted and prepared for God to dwell in and many thus fitted by Christ become his body in and among whom he dwells and walks according as it is written I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people It is therefore that we may become the Temple of Christ and people of God that the Apostle in the following verse exhorts saying out of the Prophet Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty But to what purpose all this exhortation and why should we separate from the unclean if a meer outward profession and name be enough to make the true Church and if the unclean and polluted were both the Church and lawful successors of the Apostles inheriting their authority and transmitting it to others Yea how can the Church be the Kingdom of the Son of God as contrary distinguished from the Kingdom and Power of darkness and what need yea what possibility of being translated out of the one into the other if those that make up the Kingdom and Power of darkness be real members of the true Church of Christ and not simple members only but the very Pastors and Teachers of it But how do they increase in the increase of God and receive Spiritual nourishment from Christ the Head that are enemies of him in their hearts by wicked works and openly go into perdition Verily as no metaphysical and nice distinctions that though they were practically as to their own private states enemies to God and Christ and so servants of Satan yet they were by vertue of their office members and ministers of the Church and so able to transmit the succession I say as such invented and frivolous distinctions will not please the Lord God neither will he be deluded by such nor make up the glorious body of his Church with such meer out-side hypocritical shews nor be beholden to such painted sepulchres for to be members of his body which is sound pure and undefiled and therefore he needs not such false and corrupt members to make up the defects of it so neither will such distinctions satisfie truly tender and Christian Consciences especially considering the Apostle is so far from desiring us to regard that as that we are expresly commanded to turn away from such as have a form of godliness but deny the power of it For we may well object against these as the poor man did against the proud Prelate that went about to cover his vain and unchristian-like sumptuousness by distinguishing that it was not as Bishop but as Prince he had all that splendor To which the poor rustick wisely is said to have answered When the Prince goeth to Hell what shall become of the Prelate And indeed this were to suppose the body of Christ to be defective and that to fill up these defective places he puts counterfeit and dead stuff instead of real living members like such as lose their eyes arms or legs make counterfeit ones of timber or glass instead of them But we cannot think so of Christ neither can we believe for the reasons above adduced that either we are to account or that Christ doth account any man or men a whit the more members of his body because though they be really wicked they hypocritically and deceitfully cloath themselves with his Name pretended to it for this is contrary to his own doctrine where he saith expresly Joh. 15.1 2 3 4 5 6 c. that he is the Vine and his Disciples are the Branches that except they abide in him they cannot bear fruit and if they be unfruitful they shall be cast forth as a branch and wither Now I suppose these cut and withered branches are no more true branches nor members of the Vine they can draw no more sap nor nourishment from it after that they are cut off and so have no more vertue sap nor life What have they then to boast or glory of any authority seeing they want that life vertue and nourishment from which all authority comes So such members of Christ as are become dead to him through unrighteousness and so derive no more vertue nor life from him are cut off by their sins and wither and have no more any true or real authority and their boasting of any is but an aggravation of their iniquity by hypocrisie and deceit But further would not this make Christ's body a meer shadow and phantam Yea would it not make him the head of a lifeless rotten stinking carcase having only some little outward false shew while inwardly full of rottenness and dirt and what a monster would these men make of Christ's body by assigning it real pure living quick Head full of vertue and life and yet tied to such a dead lifeless body as we have already described these members to be which they alledge to have been the Church of Christ. Again the members of the Church of Christ are specified by this definition to wit as being the sanctified in Christ Jesus 1. Cor. 1.2 But this notion of succession supposeth not only some unsanctified members to be of the Church of Christ but even the whole to consist of unsanctified members yea that such as were professed Necromancers and open servants of Satan were the true successors of the Apostles and in whom the Apostolick authority resided these being the vessels through whom this Succession is transmitted though many of them as all Protestants and also some Papists confess attained these offices in the so called Church not only by such means as Simon Magus sought it but by much worse even by witchcraft murther traditions money and treachery which Platina himself confesseth of divers Bishops of Rome § XI But such as object not this succession of the Church which yet most Protestants begin now to do distinguish in this matter affirming that in a great apostacy such as was that of the Church of Rome God may raise up some