then if nothing were revealed CHAP. XVIII The necessity of the grace of Christ is the evidence of originall sinne How the exaltation of our Lord depends upon his humiliation and the grace of Christ upon that All the work of Christianity is ascribed to the grace of Christ Gods predestination manifesteth the same THese things thus premised the evidence which I make for originall sinne from the grace of Christ as for the grace of Christ from originall sinne consists in this proposition That not onely the preaching of the Gospel but also the effect of it in converting us both to the profession and conversation of Christians is granted in consideration of the obedience of Christ for the cure of that wound which the disobedience of Adam made Here I must note that the conversation of Christians as it requireth and presupposeth the profession of Christianity so it comprehendeth all parts and offices of a mans life to be guided and lead according to that will and law of God which his word declareth So that to prove my intent it will be requisite to shew that it is through those helps which the grace of God by Christ that is in consideration of his obedience and sufferings furnisheth that any part of a mans duty is discharged like a Christian Which otherwise would have been imployed to the satisfaction of those inclinations which the corruption of mans nature by the fall of Adam hath brought forth This to do I will begin as afore with the Epistle to the Romanes In the beginning whereof S. Paul having proved that which Pelagius and Socinus both allow that there is no salvation without Christianity and coming to render a reason for the necessity thereof from those things which I pressed afore concerning the disobedience of Adam proceeds to maintain it by the antithesis of Christs obedience thus Rom. V. 15-19 having begun to say that Adam is the figure of him that was to come But the grace is not as the transgression For if by one mans transgression many are dead much more hath the grace of God and gift through the grace of one man Jesus Christ abounded to many Nor is the gift as that which came by one that sinned For judgement came of one to condemnation but the free gift is of many transgressions to righteousnesse For if by one mans transgression death reigned through one much more shall they who receive the abundance of the grace and the gift of righteousnesse reign in life through one Jesus Christ Therefore as by the transgression of one the matter proceeded to condemnation upon all so by the righteousnesse of one to justification of life For as by the disobedience of one many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous Here whosoever acknowledgeth that righteousnesse comes by Christ which the free gift that brings from many transgressions to righteousnesse and the abundance of the grace and gift of righteousnesse unto life manifestly argues can neither refuse the contrary unrighteousnesse which causeth condemnation and death to come from Adams sin nor yet the grace which voids it called by S. Paul the gift which comes through the grace of one man Jesus Christ that is that grace which he hath obtained with God to be granted in consideration of Christ through whom the Apostle saies they that receive the gift of righteousnesse shall raign in life For how shall they raign in life through him and through the gift of righteousnesse but that through him they receive the gift of righteousnesse Therefore S. Paul lamenting afterwards the conflict between sinne and grace Rom. VII 22 -25 I am content with the Law of God according to the inward man But I see another Law in my members warring with the Law of my mind and captivating me to the Law of sinne that is in my members Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ To wit because from God in consideration of J. Christ and his obedience and not onely through the doctrine which he taught he had help to overcome in so great a conflict Wherefore it followeth immediately Rom. VIII 1-4 There is therefore now no more condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death For whereas the inability of the Law was weake through the flesh God sending his Sonne in the likenesse of sinnefull flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Whether you understand the Law of the Spirit of Life or Life to come in by or through Christ Jesus if we be freed from the Law of sin and death by Christ then by the helps God gives in consideration of his obedience For how is sin condemned in the flesh but because it is executed And how executed but because we are inabled to put it to death And how by Christs death but by the helps which God grants in consideration of it Therefore it followeth a little after If man have not the Spirit of Christ he is not his But if Christ be in you the body is dead indeed because of sinne but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies through his spirit that dwelleth in you That Spirit which makes righteousnesse a Law to us by Christ shall raise againe these mortall bodies which shall be destroyed because of sinne So as our rising from death is purchased by the resurrection of Christ so our rising from sin by his death which purchased his rising againe For consider what S. Paul writes againe of our Lord Christ Phil. II. 5-11 For Let that sense be in you that was also in Christ Jesus who being in the forme of God made it no occasion of pride that he was equal with God But emptied himself taking the forme of a servant becoming in the likenesse of man and being found in habit as a man humbled himself becoming obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Therefore God also hath overexalted him and given him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should how of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confesse to the glory of God the Father that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Where seeing iâ— is manifest by the premises that our humbling of our selves is with God the consideration upon which he promises to exalt us being as hath appeared the condition of the Covenant of Grace it cannot be denied that the humiliation of Christ was the consideration for which he was
thing which was deposited in trust with thee through the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in us II. 2. And those things which thou hast heard of mee under many witnesses deposite with trusty persons who may alsobe able to teach others Would you have any thing plainer than this to show that the Summe of Christianity was delivered for a Rule by the Apostles by which their Successors were to examine all Doctrines Therefore 1 Tim. II. 20. O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust avoiding profane novelties of termes and oppositions of knowledge falsly so called which some professing have failed of the Faith By the Rule of Faith which he had deposited in his trust he will have him exclude the pretenses of the Gnosticks which every man might see were inconsistent with it Whereupon S. John calls it the Unction 1 John II. 20-24 27. by which they knew all things To wit that belong to the common Faith of Christians And therefore the inconsistence of it with the pretenses of the Antichristian They continuing in that which they had heard from the beginning when they turned Christians And you saith the Apostle have an unction from the Holy One and know all things I write not to you because you know not the truth but because you know it and that no lye is of the Truth Therefore let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you If that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you then shall you also abide in the Sonne and in the Father It is plaine enough why this truth which they have heard from the beginning of their Christianity is called the Unction because the anointing of the Holy Ghost the gift whereof as I have showed you presupposeth Christianity is granted upon consideration of being baptized into the profession of Christianity Wherefore it followeth in S. John As for you the Vnction which you have received of him abideth in you And yee need not that any man teach you But as the same Vnction teacheth you of all things and is true and no lye and as it hath taught you abide in it The Unction teacheth all things that a Christian is to avoid because it teacheth to avoid all that agreeth not with the truth which the same Unction had taught him afore When according to that which hath been said being moved by the Holy Ghost to become a Christian hee was taught that truth upon profession whereof hee received the gift of the Holy Ghost for an habitual indowment And the same is the Apostles meaning when hee saith again 1 John III. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sinne for his seed abideth in him The seed of which a Christian is born is the Word of the Gospel which begetteth children to God when it prevaileth with sinners to become Christians This Word obliging Christians upon their salvation not to sinne abideth not in him that sinneth neither sinneth hee in whom it abideth So whether you call it Vnction or Seed In regard it is the Rule of our conversation as well as of our belief as hee that abideth in the truth must needs reject Heresies contrary to it so in whom the seed which hee is born of abideth hee cannot sinne And in his second Epistle 6 7 9. with S. Paul hee calls it the commandement which they had received from the same beginning to preserve them from the impostures of that time inticing to transgresse it In fine that this Tradition is the Law whereupon our Christianity standeth you may see by the Apostle 1 Pet. III. 20. when hee saith that Baptisme saveth us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the examination of a good conscience to God That is to say the answer that is made out of a good conscience to the interrogatories that were even then propounded to them that were baptized by which answer they tied themselves to professe the Faith and to live according to it Which S. Paul therefore calls that good profession which Timothy had made before many witnesses 1 Tim. VI. 12 13 14. to wit when hee was baptized and therefore conjures him by the good profession which our Lord made before Pilate of his Kingdome for which hee suffered death to preserve it unspotted Which if it be so then must no Christian imagine that the receiving of this Tradition or Rule of Faith upon which men were admitted to Baptisme and made Christians consisted onely in professing to believe that which is necessary for the salvation of all Christians to be believed but also in undertaking to live as Christianity requireth Therefore S. Paul sometimes in his writings referres himself to the precepts not onely which hee had delivered them but also which they had received of him charging his flock not onely with their duty but also with their engagement 1 Thess IV. 1 2 11. 2 Thess III. 6. But besides the Rule of Faith there is another sort of Traditions concerning the outward order in the Church by which Unity is preserved in the communion of those Offices which God is to be served with by Christians which Christians come to be subject to by receiving their Baptisme from the Church and consequently undertaking to serve God with the Church For it is manifest that this communion cannot be maintained without certain Rules limiting the maner and circumstances of Gods service for time and place and the persons both which are admitted to communion with the Church and which are inabled to minister the Offices of the same Baptisme is the door to all Gods Ordinances that Christians are obliged to serve God with The praising of God the reading and hearing of the Scriptures and the expounding of them the common prayers of Christian Assemblies are all Offices which no Christian doubts that God is to be served with under the Gospel though there be no expresse precept of the New Testament what Offices the publick service of God is to consist of because before the Gospel they were alwaies in use among Gods people The Sacrament of the Eucharist being instituted by Christ to be frequented by the Church at their Assemblies for the service of God must be reckoned among the positive Laws of God to his Church obliging only because commanded Hee that supposeth the Church a Corporation founded by God to maintaine the communion of those that believe in these Offices must consequently maintain a Power of settling good order in the exercise of them as for all other circumstances so especially for the qualities of persons concurring to the celebrating of them Hee that shows by the Scripture that this order was provided for by the Apostles in the Churches of their founding shows that they intended the Church for a Body indowed with Power of limiting the like Rules for the future And this is to be showed by many passages of S. Pauls Epistles 1 Cor. XI 2 3-16 20-34 having commended them for observing his Traditions as hee had delivered
But also evident reason hath been drawn from the difference between the Law and the Gospel why the consequence holds not The second because the supposition of a Society of the Church imports in it means of determining maters controverted in Christianity which the dissolution of Ecclesiastical Power into the Secular voideth The third because those means of determining maters of Christianity will inferre a limitation of that obligation which the determinations of the Church produce in them that are subject to them meerly upon this ground that they cannot produce any effect beyond the means upon which they proceed And these two differences as I have begun to open according as the subject of this discourse hath ministred occasion to do it having hitherto removed this opinion that makes the Church nothing in the nature of a Society nor the act thereof to have any force but that which the Soveraign Power allowes and coming now to determine the means of discerning between true and false in things questionable concerning Christianity together with the effect of the Determinations of the Church I shall have occasion to determine more distinctly in that which follows Which being done it will be time to limit the due bounds by the which the Secular and Ecclesiastical Power are to concurre in the establishment of things to be determined to Christian States and Kingdomes in the mater of Christianity Which will be the due place to meet with that objection which is so hotly pursued in the first Book de Synedriis cap. X. that the Excommunications of the Church have been always thought lible in Christian Common-wealths to be limited by the Secular Power And therefore that there is no Excommunication by divine right Which objection if it have any force must hold in all parts and rights of Ecclesiastical Power as well as in one CHAP. XX. The rest of the Oxford Doctors pretense The Power of binding and loosing supposeth not onely the Preaching of the Gospel but the outward act of Faith Christians are not at liberty to cast themselves into what formes of Churches the Law of Nature alloweth They are Judges in chief for themselves in mater of Religion supposing the Catholick Church not otherwise Secular Power cannot punish for Religion but supposing the act of the Church nor do any act to inforce Religion unlesse the Church determine the mater of it NOw because the Doctor of Oxford might think himself neglected or disparaged if having considered the first book de Synedriis which in the point of Excommunication hee hath made his own and the Leviathan I should take no notice of that which hee hath added I will not turn my Reader to him till I have noted the particulars in which hee seems to go alone Putting him first in minde to advise how to make his choice whom of the three hee will follow against all Christendom who upon several grounds have set upon the Church and the Article of our Creed that professes the same to destroy it Hee seems most to ground himself upon a supposition that the Power of the Keyes extends no further than the converting of a man to become a true Christian by preaching the Gospel or rather the convicting of him that hee ought so to be Resting therefore in the inward Court of the conscience and not reaching to any visible effect in the Church because nothing can be wanting to the salvation of such a one For him that is loose from sin by this means the Church cannot bind him that is bound by sin it cannot loose They that are by this means loos'd from sin have in themselves every one the Soveraign Power of judging between true false in Christianity as to the inward Court as to the outward their Soveraign They are therefore at their freedom to joyn in Ecclesiastical Communion with whom they like best and being so joyned do constitute a Church And Câ—rches so joyned may as they shall finde their proficience in Christianity require combine themselves with other Churches and assemble themselves in Synods to take order in maters of common concernment provided they be tyed no further by the resolutions of them than every man stands convict by the light which his loosing hath given him that they are either just or requisite By the same right they create themselves Pastors not with any Power to censure either people or Pastors further than reproving And such Churches as these hee imagines the first Synagogues of the Israelites under the Prophets to have been especially in the ten Tribes after Jeroboam Seeing they could not resort to Jerusalem yet resorted to such meetings for that service of God which was not confined to the Temple But the judgment of maters concerning Religion in the outward Court that is as to the world belonging onely to the Soveraign and the Powers derived from him hee vesteth even in the Heathen Emperors to the same effect as in Christian allowing a reason why they do well or ill in the exercise of it as they do that which the Scriptures allow or not but maintaining that they do not exceed their power whatsoever they do So that Excommunications Decrees of Councils Ordinations and whatsoever else may be done in behalf of the Church being done by virtue of this Power whether just or not are valid to â—y the outward man either to stand to them or to undergo the penalty assigned to the transgressing of them which being done in the name and the title of the Church are meer usurpations and nullities The ground then of this deceit which Aristotle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the first mistake lies in this That a man is loosed from his sin meerly by the act of the inward man acknowledging himself convicted of the truth of Christianity or producing besides what inward act of faith this opinion can require Contrary to that which is settled by the premises that the outward act of professing Christianity is absolutely requisite to obtain forgivenesse of sins and other promises which the Gospel tendreth by the Holy Ghost the gift whereof the Sacrament inferreth For Baptisme presupposing the profession of the true Faith consigned into the hands of the Church requiring it as the condition upon which it tendreth remission of sins and the promise of the Holy Ghost inferreth also the communion of the Church unto which it admitteth Therefore is no body a Christian by believing the Scriptures nor hath by consequence any title to the Kingdom of God but by being baptized Nor is it worth the while among reasonable people to except those who may be prevented by unavoidable necessity of mortality of recovering that Baptisme which they had utterly resolved to submit themselves to any condition to obtain The Rule of the Law being a production of common reason that an exception confirmes a Rule in cases not excepted Now if it appear by the same consent of Christians that evidenceth our common Christianity that hee who obtains Baptisme
by making that profession which the Church requireth owneth the person of the Church for Corporations are persons in Law for the evidence which hee trusteth in the mater of his Salvation I shall not need to have recourse to the Article of our Creed to prove that hee owneth the unity of it and obligeth himself upon his Salvation to abide in the same Nor indeed have I any need here to repeat the processe by which I have demonstrated the corporation of the Church Here I inferre as clearly gained by it that the effect of binding or loosing men from sin is limited by God to a condition of acknowedging or not acknowledging the Church for two reasons and in two cases For hee that is admitted to Baptisme upon professing the Faith of the Church and undertaking to live as a Christian if hee transgresse this profession forfeits the communion of the Church which hee attained by making it And hee that acknowledgeth the unity of the Church which all that are baptized must needs acknowledge forfeits his share in it by doing that which dissolveth it though hee transgresse not the profession of his Christianity doing it Now it appeareth by S. Paul and our Lord that Christians under Infidels are forbidden to carry any of their sutes out of the Church and commanded to end them among themselves And shall hee not forfeit the benefit of his Christianity and become bound by the sin hee committeth in so doing that doth this I may therefore grant Erastus and this Doctor that Let him be to thee as a Heathen or Publicane signifies be it lawful for thee to implead him before Unbelievers But it must be as I said afore upon supposition that hee is first excommunicate and become no Christian to thee and therefore to be used as a Heathen or a Publicane As also I grant him that to be delivered to Satan signifies not to be excommunicate but supposes it For if S. Paul calling the miraculous graces of the Apostles time the manifestation of the Spirit do teach us that the world was thereby convicted That God of a truth was in his Church as hee saith again 1 Cor. XIV 24 25 then was it to the same purpose and effect that those who were shut out of the Church should become liable to the incursions of evil Spirits To wit To make the difference between the Land of Goshen and the rest of Egypt visible It was therefore necessary that the power of binding or loosing in the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord should be accompanied with the gift of the Holy Ghost which our Lord breathed upon them For by them the world was to be assured upon what termes they might be loosed from sinne and continue in the Unity of the Church which if they forsook they became bound again But there is not the same reason why the same should be thought requisite to the same power in their successors For those terms being once declared and settled hee that professeth and teacheth them as the Apostles have taught is a competent Minister to loose or to bind another not onely though hee have not that gift of the Holy Ghost that may make him appear to be appointed by God to that purpose but also though hee be bound himself because hee undergoes not that which hee professeth Now if the premises be true it is a mistake as grosse as pernicious to imagine that particular Christians by the light common to all Christians are Judges in all things concerning Christianity or the Scriptures For if the attaining of Christianity and Salvation by it require no more but to know the Rule of of Faith and the common precepts of Christian conversation together with the Offices wherewith God is to be served by his Church If the gift of the Holy Ghost be promised to those that are baptized upon undertaking this then is the understanding of the rest of the Scriptures no further required at their hands neither have they any warrant for that which they shall do upon any such presumption as this The Church that hath received of God the trust of maintaining unity in this service of God so as may best stand with the maintenance of that profession which it presupposeth hath by consequence an obligation upon them to stand to the resolution thereof saving that common Christianity which the constitution thereof presupposeth It is therefore utterly a most poisonous doctrine to be infused into the ears of Christian people that they are by their Christianity free to cast themselves into Churches as they may meet with those whom they best like to communicate with It is therefore a thing to stand astonished at that they who have hitherto declamed against any thing in Christianity the reason whereof is not to be derived from the Scripture not seeing in the Scripture any such thing as a Church that was not founded by the Apostles or by commission from the Apostles not in all Christianity any thing ever counted a Church that was not planted by mean authority derived thence to some Church should now think themselves at liberty to build Churches upon no other foundation than an arbitrary agreement of seven persons Suppose I say nothing as yet in what right and interest several Members or rather several ranks and qualities concurre to the resolution of the Church Suppose I grant the power may be so abused that several parts of the Church may stand obliged to provide for themselves without the whole which is al that the common profession of Reformation importeth Shall we not be throughly reformed till we renounce one Catholick Church as visibly a corporation as the Baptisme which we received upon acknowledging of it is visible If every Church be planted by the authority of the Apostles to that effect extant and alive in some Church then is not the communion thereof with all other Churches by the means of that which planted it communicating with all arbitrary but a necessary consequence of that obligation to the Unity of the whole which it gets by being a Church Nor is there any reason why the acts of the whole whether done by representatives in Synods or resolved at distance of time and place by intelligence and correspondence of the absent should any way depend upon the satisfaction of particular Christians how just or how requisite For neither doth their conformity to them in any reasonable construction import any ingagement of their conscience to the justice or necessity of them Unlesse it could be said that a man could not live in society without binding himself to answer for the acts of that society wherein hee liveth Which hee that saith will not find an independent congregation to continue in for four and twenty hours or to enter into onely for one For what obligation can all Christians have to answer for that which our Christianity upon profession whereof we are become Christians containeth not Indeed when the abuse is so visible that the unity of
by the Scriptures and by the primitive Records of the Church many revelations made to Gods people at their publick Assemblies by the means of such as had the Grace And thereupon do inferre that such a revelation was made to that Assembly upon the place directing the decree which there follows and is signified according to that brevity which the Scriptures use in alleadging that whereof no mention is premised in the relation that went afore by these words it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Now the words of our Lord Mat. XXVIII 20. Behold I am with you to the worlds end are manifestly said to the body of the Church and therefore do not promise it any priviledge of the Apostles And truly seeing it is a promise immediately insuing upon a Precept Go preach and make Disciples all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you I find it a matter of no ill consequence but very reasonable to say that the Precept is the condition of the Promise seeing no act so expressed can reasonably be understood otherwise But in regard it is otherwise manifest that the continuance of the Church is absolutely promised and foretold till the world end by name in those other words of our Lord The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Mat. XXI 18. I shall easily admit that God absolutely promises to be with his to the worlds end so as to preserve himselfe a people in the manifold distractions and confusions that fall out by the fault of those that professe themselves Christians as well as by the malice of Infidels But I shall deny that this inferres the gift of Infallibility in any person or quality in behalfe of the Body of Christians For supposing the visible profession of Christianity to continue till the worlds end so that under this visible profession there is sufficient means to conduct a true Christian in the way to salvation And that by this means a number of men invisibly united to our Lord Christ by his Spirit do attain unto salvation indeed These promises of our Lord will be evidently true though we neither acknowledge on one side any gift of Infallibility in the Church nor deny on the other side the visible unity of the Church instituted by Gods Law It will be evidently true that our Lord Christ is with his Disciples that is Christians till the worlds end who could not continue invisibly united to him without the invisible presence of his Spirit It will be evidently true that the Gates of Hell prevail not against his Church in the visible society whereof a number of invisible Christians prevail over the powers of darknesse For though granting the Church to be subject to error salvation is not to be attained without much difficulty And though division in the Church may create more difficulty in attaining salvation then errour might have done yet so long as salvation may be and is attained by visible communion with the Church so long is Christ with his nor do the Gates of Hell prevail against his Church though error which excludeth infallibility though division which destroyeth unity hinder many and many of attaining it But if the consequence that is made from those words of our Lord be lame that which may be pretended from the power of the Keyes or of remitting â—â—d retaining sins both one by the premises granted S. Peter the Apostles of the Church will easily appear to be none at all For no man can maintain the power of remitting and retaining sins to be granted to the Church but he must yield it to be communicated to more then those in whom the gift of Infallibility can be pretended to reside Neither can the greatest of the Apostles remit oâ— retain any mans sinne without inducing him to imbrace profession of Christianity or if having imbraced it he fall from it in deed and in effect without reducing him to the course and study of performing the same and upon due profession thereof readmitting him into the Church on the other side excluding those that cannot be reduced to this estate Nor can the least of all that are able to bring any man into the Church fail of doing the same upon the same terms And did ever any man ascribe the gift of Infallibility to all them that should have power and right from the Church and in the Church to do this What meaneth then the exception of clave non errante which is every where and by every body cautioned for that with any reason challenges the power of the Keyes for the Church To me it seems rather an argument to the contrary that seeing this power is challenged for the Church under this general exception without limiting the exception to any sort of maters or subjects And that the act of it is the effect of the decrees of the greatest authority visible in the Church as whether Arias should communicate with the Church or not was the issue of as great a debate as the authority of the Church can determine that therefore the sentence of his excommunication proceeded not from the gift of Infallibility in any authority concurring to the decree of Nicaea whence it proceeded granting generally the power of excommunication to be liable to the exception of clave non errante Indeed it cannot be denyed that something requisite to the exercise of this power was in the Apostles infallible or unquestionable as presupposed to the being of the Church For what satisfaction could men have of their Christianity if any doubt could remain whether the faith which they preached were sent from God or not whither the Laws of Ecclesiastical communion which they advanced were according to their Commission or not But the causes upon which the Church is obliged to proceed to imploy this Power being such as depend many times upon the rule of faith and the Laws given the Church by the Apostles by very many links between both The dependance whereof it is hard for all those that are sometimes to concur to these sentences to discern I conceive it now madnesse to maintain the gift of Infallibility from the power of the Keyes in the exercise whereof so many occasions of failing may come to pass As for the exhortations of the Apostles whereby they oblige the Churches of the Thessalonians and Ebrues diligently to obey and follow their Governors 1 Thes V. 14. 15. Heb. XIII 7. 17. these I acknowledge to be pertinent to the question in debate as concerning such Governours as had in their hands the ordinary power of the Church saving that when he saith Remember your Rulers which have spoken to you the word of God And considering the issue of their conversation imitate their faith It is possible he may speak of those that first brought them the Gospel and those were the Apostles and Disciples of Christ either of the first rank of the XII or
is necessarily presupposed to baptizing namely that Catechising which I spoke of afore but that they should make men Disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost limiting thereby the quality of Disciples to which the Holy Ghost is promised to those who should have received the Sacrament of Baptism and so been made Disciples Seeing then it appears so plentifully that the Gift of the Holy Ghost promised by our Lord a little before his departure to supply his bodily presence is limited by him to the Sacrament of Baptisme Of necessity that new birth by Water and the Holy Ghost which our Lords words to Nicodemus require of all that shall enter into the Kingdom of heaheaven dependeth upon the Sacrament of Baptism whatsoever Nicodemus might understand by the terme of water at the time when our Lord spake them and this promise was not published Of which I shall have occasion to say more in another place Neither will is be to the purpose to object that it is the actuall assistance and not the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost that regenerateth supposing for the present but not granting that which all that pretend to Christianity do not acknowledge and therefore that the promise of the Holy Ghost to succeed upon Baptism no way obligeth us to understand that water which with the Holy Ghost regenerateth of the water of Baptism For the actuall assistance of the Holy Ghost regenerating a man to become a Christian may well be understood to go before the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost upon Baptism And in my opinion is to be understood when our Lord goes on and saies That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Marvell not that I said unto thee ye must be born again The wind bloweth where it lifteth and ye hear the noise of it but cannot tell whence it commeth nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Holy Ghost And therefore what shall hinder water and the Holy Ghost to signifie one and the same thing in this place the cleansing vertue and operation of the Holy Ghost being often signified under the figure of Water in the Scriptures So that Water and the Spirit may well stand here for no more than the Spirit that cleanseth I say all this will not serve the turn For the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost being promised Christs Disciples upon his departure to inable them to make good what they undertake by being hâ—s Disciples it is manifest that the actuall assistance of the holy Ghost regenerating to Christianity only prepares the way for it Seeing then that the gift of the Holy Ghost depends upon the Water of Baptisme it is manifest that the cleansing vertue of Gods Spirit in the new birth of sinners comes not to effect without the same I will further draw into consequence those texts of Scripture which I alledged in the first book to show that there was a certain Rule of Christianity delivered by the Apostles and acknowledged by them that undertook to be Christians for there are some of them that signifie plain enough that this acknowledgment was made at their baptism as the condition which it praesupposed When S. Paul thanketh God for the Romans that they had obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine which had been delivered them Rom. VI. 17. What is this obeying from the heart but that answer or stipulation of a good conscience towards God in Baptism which S. Peter saith saveth us as you have seen And S. Paul to Timothy 1 Tim. VI. 12. 13. Fight the good fight of Faith lay hold of eternall life to which also thou wast called and madest a good profession before many witnesses I charge thee before God that quickeneth all things and Christ Jesus that witnessed the good Profession under Pontius Pilate that thou keep the command unspotted and blamelesse unto the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ What profession was it that our Lord died to witnesse but that he was ordained by God the King of them whom he was sent with the Gospel to save in regard whereof he is called by the Apostle Hebr. III. 2. the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession Because he bore the Crosse afore us to witnesse that righteous cause which we are to maintain by bearing the same And what is that profession which Timothy made afore many witnesses but that of bearing Christs cross when he was baptized And what is the commandement which he is charged to keep unspotted and blamelesse but that Christianity which he became charged with at his Baptism Wherefore when S. John alledgeth an Unction from the Holy one even our Lord Christ which teacheth Christians all things so that they need not be taught to avoid the Heresies of that time because they knew the truth hut withall chargeth them to abide in that which they had learned from the beginning and in that Unction which teacheth them all things He sheweth us manifestly that the Unction of the Holy Ghost is granted by our Lord Christ to teach us all things which we have learned To wit that we be not seduced from that which we have learned from the beginning of our Christianity Now as it hath appeared that this Christianity was then learned and acknowledged in order to Baptism so likewise that the gift of the Holy Ghost dependeth upon the same Otherwise what shall we say to S. Peter ascribing remission of sins to Baptism Acts 11. 38 What shall we say to Ananias exhorting S. Paul Acts XXII 16. Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord What shall we say to S. Paul affirming that as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. III. 27. and that those that are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death Rom. VI. 4. Which is to say that God on his part granteth them power to perform that which they on their part professe to undertake And again Eph. V. 25 26. Christ gave himselfe for his Church that he might sanctifie it by cleansing it with the laver of water through the Word And again Titus III. 5 6. Not by works of righteousnesse which we had done but according to his mercy he saved us by the laver of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he powred upon us plentifully through our Saviour Jesus Christ And the Apostle to the Hebrews X. 21 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts cleansed from evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the profession of faith without declining from it what starting hole is here left for him that had a mind to prefer his own prejudices before the Word of God to avoid the evidence of these testimonies for the concurrence of Baptism to the qualifying of a Christian for the promises of the
what they ought to do but to the consequence thereof which naturally and reasonably they are apt to produce but do not necessarily produce Againe on the other side Trust and confidence in God through Christ obtaines the promises of the Gospel who denyes it But is this trust alwaies well grounded and true Is it not possible for a man to imagine his title to the promises of the Gospel to be good when it is not I would we had no cause to believe how oft it comes to passe I grant that at the first hearing and believing the Gospel all the world have ground enough for that confidence that may save them from despairing to attaine the promises of it But hath he that hath ground not to despaire of being justified by faith ground to conside as justified by faith Or is that all one as to have ground enough for that confidence that they have right to the said promises I suppose there is a great gulfe between both For when the preaching of the Gospel convinceth a man that he is lost unlesse he accept it upon whatsoever condition it tendereth it is enough to keep any man that is in his wits from dispairing to know that there is a condition tendered by God the accepting whereof will intitle us to his promises Because being sincerely tendred in Gods name there can be no barre but on our part to the accepting of it But to have a well grounded confidence of our own right and just title to the promises it behoveth that the Spirit of a man which is in him know that there is in him a sincere resolution of accepting the conditions Which how much the better it is grounded and setled so much more shall his confidence be secure And to this confidence to bring a man from this former confidence is as great a work as to induce a man that believes the world to come to preferre it before this For I demand Is he that sins against God for love of this world enemy to God as the Apostle saith James IV. 4. or not Are not all men enemies to God when the Gospel calls them to become his friends If not why may they not be saved without it If so can they have confidence in their enemy by being discovered to be his enemies Indeed the Gospel tendring conditions of peace they have confidence that they may become friends with God by imbracing the same But the confidence of friends till they have imbraced them they cannot have It is therefore a dangerous a imposture to invite an unregenerate man so soon as he is descovered so to be to the confidence of a Christian in God through Christ As not to invite him to that confidence who may be a Christian is to drive him to despaire For not presupposing his conversion from sinne to God it is necessarily carnal presumption not the confidence of a Christian And if the Spirit of God should seal to any heart the promises of the Gospel not presupposing this ground it were not possible for any man to discern the illusions of the evil Spirit from the dictates of Gods The conscience of our submission to those terms being the onely test by which the difference is discernable For all they that trust in thee shall not be ashamed but such as transgresse without a cause shall be put to confusion Psal XXV 2. To transgresse without a cause and to put trust in God are terms incompetible So that wheresoever we are bid trust in God being implicitely forbid trust in the world or our selves which all that love the world or themselves not in order to God necessarily do there is supposed the ground of this trust inconsistent with the conscience of sinne And though this ungrounded confidence importeth carnal presumption yet may it occasion dispaire For when the guilt of sinne in the conscience stronger then all prejudicate opinion and imposture of false doctrine discovers that there is no ground for the confidence of a Christian and prejudice on the other side admits no recourse to that condition which is the ground of it no marvaile if it seem impossible to attain peace of conscience which appearance is the very horror of despair Seeing then that trust in God as reconcileable and for the attaining of remission of sinnes is the immediate fruit of the Gospel believed but trust in God as reconciled which is confidence of remission of sinnes obtained is necessarily the consequence of that faith which justifieth the justification of a Christian being a sinner before a Christian necessarily implying remission of sins what remaineth but that the professing of faith to God for the undergoing of Christianity be the condition upon which the promises of the Gospel become due that is to say that faith which alone justifieth For it is true the Gospel tendereth severall promises remission of sinnes in the first place because the first thing a man convict and sentenced to death seeks is his discharge But no man can have this discharge but upon the same terms he must become the sonne of God whether as regenerate by grace or as adopted to glory that is to the right and title of it and upon the same terms be sanctified by the holy Ghost which as I shewed before is promised as a gift that is habitually to be possessed onely to Christians and to all Christians And therefore it is impossible to imagine a man discharged of his sinnes that is not for the very same reason and therefore at the same instant of nature as well as of time regenerate adopted and sanctified It is indeed to be granted that justification signifies something different from all these promises in as much as it is manifest that in the language of the Scriptures it importeth not making of a man righteous but declaring him and accounting him righteous treating him and dealing with him as righteous All this is true And yet I shall not grant that it is so properly understood to be the act of God as sitting upon his throne of judgement whether according to mercy or justice as the act of God contracting with mâ—n for everlasting life upon condition of submitting to the Covenant of Grace and the terms of it Indeed the preaching of the Gospel premises the generall judgement to come as tendering the way to come clear of it to wit by Christ whom it declareth judge of quick and dead For S. Paul thus proposeth it to the Athenians Acts XVII 30 31. God who eversaw the times of ignorance now chargeth all men every where to repent Because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world righteously by the man whom he hath appointed making faith hereof to all by raising him from the dead And of the overture thereof which he made to Felix S. Luke saith Acts XXIV 25. As he discoursed of righteousnesse and temperance and judgement to come And S. Paul speaking of the Gospel Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is
with the merits of their lives They study to presse down immoderate words with the wait of good works And by and by Quia hoc quod tegitur inferius ponitur aliud aliquid superducitur ut quod est subterpositum tegatur tegere peccata ducimur quae quasi subterponentes abdicamus Quibus nimirum quasi tegmen superdicimus dum bonorum operum nos indumento vestimus Peccata itaque tegimus si bona facta malis actibus superponamus Because that which is covered is laid beneath and something drawn over it to cover that which lies beneath we are said to cover those sinnes which we give over as laying them beneath Over which we draw a kind of covering when we invest our selves with the covering of good workes Therefore we cover sinnes if we lay good deeds over evil workes CHAP. X. What Pelagius questioneth concerning the Grace of Christ what Socinus further of the state of Christ before his birth The opposition between the first and second Adam in S. Paul evidenceth originall sinne Coucupiscence in the unregenerate and the inability of the Law to subdue it evict the same The second birth by the holy Ghost evidenceth that the first birth propagateth sinne NOW though all agree that we are justified not by the Law nor by Workes but by the Gospel and by Grace because it is the meer Grace of God that moved him to send our Lord Christ by him to convince the World that the Gospell is true and ought to be imbraced yet that the Grace of Christ that is those helpes of grace which God gives in consideration of his merits and sufferings are requisite to inable those to whome this conviction is tendred to imbrace it and to persevere in it neither Pelagius of old nor Socinus at present will yeild Nor that Abraham should have any thing to bragge of if he should pretend to be justified by those workes which the free will of him whose understanding is convict that the Gospel is true is without other help able to produce Or that in consideration of any such help the Gospel is to be counted Grace which if the helps it requireth should be purchased by obeying it were not to be counted of free Grace The words of Pelagius are well enough known remaining upon record in S. Austine De Gratia Christi 1. 7. Adjuvat enim nos per doctrinam revelationem suam dum cordis nostri oculos aperit dum nobis ne praesentibus occupemur futura demonstrat dum Diâ—boli pandit insidias dum nos multiformi ineffabili dono gratiae coelest is illuminat For he helps us by revealing his doctrine while he opens the eyes of our heart while he shewes us things to come least we be busied about things present while he layes open the ambushes of the Devil while he inlightens us with the manifold gift of heavenly grace And againe Cap. X. Operatur in nobis Deus velle quod bonum est velle quod sanctum est dum nos terrenis cupiditatibus diligentes mutorum amantium more tantum praesentia diligentes futurae gloriae magnitudine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praemiorum pollicitatione succendit dum revelatione sapientiae in desiderium Dei stupentem suscitat voluntatem dum nobis suadet omne quod bonum est God works in us the willing of that which is good and holy while he inflames us being addicted to earthly lusts and loving onely things present like mute creatures with the promise of great reward of glory to come while by revealing of wisdome he raises the dull will to the desire of God while he perswadeth us to all that is good Where besides the Grace of God in making us reasonable creatures he acknowledgeth also the grace of the Law meaning thereby the doctrine and motives of Christianity whereby saith he the mind is inlightned to understand the difference between things transitory and everlasting and the will is inclined and perswaded to preferre true good before that which is counterfeite Which being said by a Christian though I see no expresse mention that he makes of the Gospel of Christ necessarily infers that notwithstanding he supposed the same with Socinus To wit that the conviction which the motives of faith tender to all men that are made acquainted with it as it is necessarily the production of Gods meer Grace so is it enough to inable a reasonable man being so convict how much the world to come is to be preferred before this to imbrace and to persevere in that course by which a man stands convict that he may attaine it And though Socinus hath more expresly maintained that upon the imbracing of Christianity the holy Ghost is given to inable Christians to preferre that which their profession importeth Yet as I find the truth thereof so manifestly layd down in the Scriptures of the New Testament that I cannot see how he should pretend to be a Christian that should deny it So can I not remember that Pelagius ever went about to deny it On the contrary there is appearance enough that Pelagius acknowledgeth the grace of the holy Ghost whether in bringing a man to be or to persevere unto the end a Christian His own words are yet extant upon 1 Cor. 11. 10. To us who by believing have deserved to receive the Spirit of God which shewes us his will Nobis qui fide meruimus Sp. Dei accipere qui voluntatem suam nobis ostendit Hath God revealed it And by and by Sensum Domini qui est in viris Spiritualibus sine Spiritu Dei nemo cognovit No man knowes the meaning of God which is in spirituall men without Gods Spirit And upon Rom. IV. 17. Quare multa peccata donavit abundantia donationis Sp. Sancti Quia multa sunt dona Ipsa enim justitia donatur in baptismo non ex merito datur Why hath the abundant gift of the holy Ghost pardoned us many sinnes Because Gods gifts are many For righteousness it self is given in Baptisme not rewarded as of merit For why might not Pelagius as well as Socinus make it the purchase of mans free will upon the tender of Christianity which is Gods Grace For the appearance is sufficient and evident that Socinus was so disgusted with the opinion That justifying faith consists in believing that a man is predestinate to everlasting life in consideration of the obedience of Christ imputed to his account because given for him and the elect in opposition to the rest of mankind that supposing the tender of the Gospel the accepting of it he placeth in the meer act of free will upon which the gift of the holy Ghost necessary to the performance of that which Christianity professeth depends as due debt by Gods promise Who having prevented mankinde with that promise hath suspended that which follows upon this compliance It is further to be considered that Socinus also acknowledgeth the Grace of the holy Ghost preventing the undertaking
answer this question then which we are thus secured that it cannot be answered to the prejudice of the Church and the faith thereof It will be worth the while to compare the discourse of our Lord to the company that followed him to Capernaum in the sixth of John with this to Nicodemus For no man can be so unreasonable as to imagine that the Sacrament of the Eucharist was instituted by our Lord at the time of that discourse or by virtue of it of the institution whereof we have so due account in the Gospells before the suffering of our Lord. And yet it would be a strange thing to imagine that all that long discourse of our Lord should have no relation to that Sacrament Especially seeing it is so agreeable to all reason that our Lord should deliver unto his disciples the effect of his Gospel in such terms as suted best with the ceremony of that Sacrament wherewith he intended to establish the same For supposing the eating of the flesh of Christ crucified and the drinking of his blood to be the consideration of his passion tending to a resolution of taking up his Crosse we have in it the summe of Christianity consisting in the bearing of Christs Crosse that is in conforming our selves to his sufferings Report we this to the discourse of our Lord with Nicodemus and it will seem strange to me that any man should marvaile that when the Sacrament of Baptisme was not yet instituted our Lord should propose his Gospel to him upon this ground that no man born of the flesh could attain to the kingdome of God without being born againe of water and the holy Ghost Seeing that whether he understood or not what our Lord meant by water it is enough that the Spirit which reneweth the old birth of the flesh dependeth upon that which it signifies whatsoever it is Whether Nicodemus for the understanding of our Lord betake himselfe to the consideration of the several Baptismes of the law or to the Baptism of John the Baptist or to the Baptisme by which proselytes were made Jews which divers learned men have both declared and alleadged to the clearing of this difficulty to very good purpose certaine it is by the premises that the condition of salvation is the profession of Christianity by baptisme that the gift of the holy Ghost is not promised upon any other terms Therefore the Sacrament of Baptisme being instituted there is no assurance of salvation without it where the precept thereof takes place therefore the first birth of the flesh is liable to originall sinne CHAP. X. The Old Testament chargeth all men as well as the wicked to be sinfull from the wombe David complaineth of himselfe as born in sinne no lesse then the Wise man of the children of the Gentiles How Leviticall Lawes argue the same And temporall death under the Old Testament The book of Wisdome and the Greek Bible BUt it is requisite that we look into the Old Testament to see what arguments of the same will discover themselves there provided that we be advised not to expect the reasons upon which the necessity of the Gospel is grounded clearly expressed there where the Gospel it felf is but intimated Those that will not admit the Faith of the Church without such proofes as themselves require may with the Jewes disbelieve the Gospel if our Lord will not prove it by such miracles as they would have and when and where they would have them done But admitting the truth of Christianity upon such reasons as God hath made effectuall to subdue the world to it it will be consequently necessary that there should be arguments of originall sinne in the Old Testament but darker then those which have been and shall be propounded out of the New Certainly it deserveth much consideration that Moses saith Gen. VI. 5. And the Lord saw that great was the evil of man upon earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart onely evil all the day long And againe Gen. VIIâ— 8. Upon smelling Noahs sacrifice God saith to himself I will no more curse the earth for man because the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth For first God declares himselfe as a severe judge to take vengeance upon the sinnes of mankind by the deluge because the world was overflowed with sinne And afterwards either for the same reason because sinne cannot be washed out no not with the waters of a deluge so long as mankind is in being upon the earth or notwithstanding it he declares that he will curse the earth no more for mans sake Here it will be impossible to render a reason of that deluge of sinne which first brought a deluge of waters but could not overcome Gods goodnesse for mankind without a principle common to all mankind Such variety there is in their fansies such contrariety in the inclinations which they produce that it is impossible that they should agree in mischief were they meerly of Gods making And therefore Solomon having premised a hard word for women That seeking account one by one he had found a man of a thousand but a woman of all these he had not found inferreth Eccl. VII 29. Onely this behold I have found that God made man right but they have found out many devises Where I suppose he summoneth all men to inferre that between the uprightnesse in which God made man and the many crooked devises which they have found out to themselves there must something have fallen out to create a common principle to which those many inventions may be imputed But the act of Adam which passed away so soon as it was done had it left nothing behind it could have born the blame of it self alone and of nothing else When God commandeth the Israelites to put a fringe upon the corners of their garments he giveth this reason for it Numb XV. 39. And ye shall see it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them And not look after your hearts and your eyes after which ye commit whoredome Surely when he sets the lusts of their eyes and the imagination of their hearts in opposition to the commandment of God he justifies the words of our Lord Mat. X. 36. taken from the Prophet Mich. VII 6. to be fulfilled in every mans heart A mans enemies are those of his own house And Solomons taunt to the young man Eccles XI 9 Walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the light of thine eyes But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement Gods complaint by the Prophet Ezek. VI. 9. I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from me and with their eyes which go a whoring after their Idols Leadeth us for the reason and ground of both to that of the Apostle 1 John II. 16. For whatsoever is in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of
14. The naturall man admitteth not the things of Gods Spirit for they are folly to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned To wit by that Spirit which Christ purchased the gift of by his Crosse And why should the Soul of man take that for folly which Gods Spirit revealeth were there not a principle bred in our nature to determine all mens inclinations to this generall resistence Againe the same S. Paul teaching them not to think of themselves what the word of God allows not 1 Cor. IV. 7. For who distinguisheth thee Or what hast thou that thou hast not received But if thou hast received it why boastest thou as if thou hadst not received it Here if it be said that the speech is of the office of Apostles and the like and the graces requisite to the discharge of them which are graces tending to the common benefit of the Church not to the salvation of those particular persons to whom they are given The answer is evident that S. Paul speakes not of those graces but of the right use of them as it appears by the beginning of the Chapter So let a man account us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God Now in stewards it is required that a man be found faithfull And this fidelity it is in which the Apostle appeales to God and wisheth them not to judge before God nor to think of themselves above what is written because as they have it not but from God and therefore not to boast of So they have it not to the purpose but when God discerneth and alloweth it to be in them And if it be said that it is manifest indeed by innumerable passages of the Apostles of which divers have been produced afore that the holy Ghost is granted to those that truly believe to dwell with them and to inable them to performe what they have undertaken in professing themselves Christians And before that the holy Ghost is granted indeed to those who preach the Gospel Apostles Evangelists Prophets and the like to inable them to convince the World that the Gospel which they preach comes from God and that it is to be imbraced But that it is not the holy Ghost but their own free choice that determines them to adhere to that which the holy Ghost convinceth them that they ought to adhere to I say for the present it is enough for me to shew by the Scriptures that the conviction which the Gospel tenders is from the holy Ghost the Gift whereof the obedience of our Lord Christ hath purchased There will follow enough to shew that the effect of this conviction to wit conversion is from the same grace In the mean time marke why our Lord challengeth the Pharisees and Scribes of the sinne against the holy Ghost Mark III. 28 29. All sinnes shall be forgiven the sonnes of men and blasphemies wherewith they shall blaspheme But whoso shall blaspheme against the holy Ghost hath no forgivenesse for ever but is guilty of everlasting judgement Because they said He hath an unclean Spirit Where not to dispute at present why the blasphemies against the holy Ghost cannot be remitted when all other sinnes are I challenge this to be evident in the words of the Gospell that their blasphemy against the holy Ghost consisted in this that though convicted that they were Gods works which our Saviour did yet they said that he did them by the devil I acknowledge it is the same crime when they who have tasted the heavenly gift and are become partakers of the holy Ghost and have relished the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come do fall away Heb. VI. 4 15. But with this difference that these are convict by their profession the other onely by their conscience God onely knowing that hardnesse of heart wherewith they resisted that conviction which the holy Ghost in our Lord Christ tendred These by professing themselves Christians who are promised the holy Ghost to dwell in them if their profession be sincere acknowledging that they transgresse the dictate of it Hereupon S. Stephen speaking by the holy Ghost and doing signes and miracles to convince the Jews that so he did Acts VI. 8 10. justly charges them Acts VII 51. Yâ— stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the holy Ghost even ye as your Fathers And therefore our Saviour having said in one place Apâ—c III. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock If a man hear my voice and open the doore I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me In another John XIV 23. If a man love me he will keep my Word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make abode with him as it cannot be denied that the holy Ghost and in him the Father and the Sonne dwell in him that loves Christ no more can it be denied that Christ knockes at the door of the hearts of them that give him entrance to make them so to love him that he takes up his lodging in their hearts Adde we now to the premises the words of our Lord in the parable of the Vine John XV. 5. Without me ye can do nothing The words of the Apostle 2 Cor. III. 4 5 6. We have this confidence towards God not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God who hath also made us sufficient ministeâ—s of the New Testament not the Leter but the Spirit Remembring what I said afore that this extends not onely to the grace of an Apostle but to the right use of it Of which right use the same Apostle 1 Cor. XV. 10. By the Grace of God I am what I am and his grace towards me was not in vaine but I laboured more then they all yet not I but the grace of God that was with me And againe of the whole businesse Phil. II. 11. 12. Wherefore my beloved work out your salvation with fear and trembling For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do To wit by the holy Ghost which Christ sends and his influence from the beginning to the end of the work of Christianity And Ephes II. 8 9. 10. For by grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is Gods gift not of works that no man may boast For we are his making created by Jesus Christ for good works which God hath prepared afore for us to walk in By the grace of the holy Ghost which we receive upon becoming Christians not by the works of the Law though it be also the same grace that makes us Christians by this grace are we saved Therefore S. Paul againe Phil. I. 6. Having this very confidence that he who hath begun a good work in you will compleat it unto the day of Christ Jesus And our Lord. John VI. 37 44
therefore supposing man created to supernaturall happinesse the supposition of pure nature with that concupiscence which the principles thereof not prevented by any provision of Gods to the contrary would produce is no way allowable For who shall take upon him to charge God with laying an obligation of attaining supernaturall happinesse upon him whom by inbred concupiscence he should make utterly unable to attain it This being said for the fuller understanding of the said opinion I may now further take upon me not onely that by the resolution premised that endlesse dispute about the indowments which Adam was first created with is easily determinable but also there is a firme ground laid upon which the difference between naturall and supernaturall may be setled among divines For alwayes a state of meer nature being understood to be possible whether we believe that man was actually setled in it or not it is no hard matter to say that whatsoever was requisite to inable man to live in obedience to God for the attaining of immortality in it all this and nothing else is to be understood to be naturall As requisite to the indowment of man supposed to be set in that state That supernaturall which is requisite to the advancement of him to supernaturall happinesse by inabling him to tender unto God that spirituall obedience of righteousnesse and true holinesse to which he stands obliged by so high a calling Whereupon as supposing that man was created to this happinesse it cannot be doubted that he stood indowed with capacities proportionable to that obedience which it requires So in as much as those capacities were not absolutely due to his nature which might have been created in another estate they are absolutely to be counted supernaturall and of grace But in as much as they depend upon a former grace of God which is that gracious purpose of advancing man to a capacity of supernaturall happinesse they may be counted due to his nature not as necessary consequences of the constitution thereof but of that estate which the free and gracious purpose of God designed for it In the mean time the contradiction between reason and sense being so consequent to the constitution of mans nature that it was notwithstanding in Gods appointment to prevent the coming of it to effect and the obedience of God requiring that it should be prevented man being otherwise unable perfectly to performe it whether in the state of meer nature of grace requisite it is that the rebellion of the sensuall appetite against the reason be accounted the consequence of his fall not the condition in which he was created And upon these terms it is easy to assigne the difference between originall uprightnesse and supernaturall grace in Adam supposing that he was created to supernaturall happinesse and therefore in supernaturall grace For seeing man might have been created in an estate of meer nature in which though destitute of grace yet he had not been destitute of righteousnesse Though we suppose that he was indeed created in the state of grace yet may we easily distinguish between that uprightnesse which his nature necessarily required and that spiritual holinesse whereby it stood advanced to that capacity of true happinesse which Gods free Grace designed for it And howsoever these termes may have been used among divines yet the occasion of misunderstanding them being thus cleared nothing hinders the free gift by which it was advanced to be signified by the name of grace the necessary uprightnesse of nature by the terme of originall righteousnesse These things premised it will be no difficult thing to resolve that it is all one whether we say that originall sinne is concupiscence or that it is the want of originall righteousnesse with concupiscence For as in all actuall or habituall sinnes which as more subject to sensible experience are much better known to us there is a want of straightnesse or uprightnesse wherein their being sinne consisteth because the Law of God traces us a straight way to walk which they transgresse But there is also some action or habit wherein this crookednesse is understood to subsist though indeed consisting in the meer want of uprightnesse it subsisteth not at all but is meer nothing So it is necessary to conceive something positive to which the want of originall righteousnesse may be attributed neither can the nature of sinne be understood in the state which we are born to otherwise And seeing the nature of originall sin is necessarily habituall because we have excluded the imputation of Adams first sinne it remaines that the appetite or inclination of nature to that which appeareth to be good be the subject to which this perverseâ—esse is attributed as subsisting in it Now the appetite or inclination which we have to that which appeares to be good is not called concupiscence at large unlesse we understand further that it tendeth to injoy that which of it self is good out of order and without measure For this inclination of the appetite as no man will deny to be against Gods Law that supposes it to be a straight rule no more will â—e deny that upon these suppositions it is properly called concupiscence So that this one terme of concupiscence expresseth as much as the want of originall uprightnesse with concupiscence and giveth not that occasion of mistake which the using of more words doth In asmuch as he that hears of the want of originall righteousnsse with concupiscence hath occasion to understand the want of uprightnesse and concupiscence to be two things whereas indeed as hath been said there can be no more in the matter but onely a positive inclination to things that appeare good deprived and destitue of that order and measure which the Law of God requireth And herewith agrees that description of Originall sinne in the confession of Ausburg which hath been the subject of so much debate among the Divines of the Empire That this want of originall righteousnesse is an horrible blindnesse and disobedience Which is to be destitute of that light and knowledge of God which should have been in mans nature remaining intire to be destitute of that uprightnesse which consists in perpetuall obedience in true pure and soveraigne love of God and the like gifts of intire nature For let no man think them so simple as to imagine that Originall sinne consists in actuall ignorance and actuall hatred and disobedience to God which are themselves no ways original but acknowledge a source from whence they proceed But desiring to make their meaning more palpable to gross understandings they were not afraid to incurre an exception which the captious might make as if they understood no difference between those consequences and productions whereby it becomes visible and the sourse of them which the question properly concerns For as concerning ignorance and being destitute of that light and knowledge of God which the state of uprightnesse must have injoyed I find no necessity to think that Adam upon his fall
suspended and interrupted as in him that cannot have confidence in God as reconciled to God in regard of these sinnes the seed of it notwithstanding remaining by virtue of that act of Faith whereby being reconciled as these are that are for ever reconciled to him he remains certaine of helpes of grace that shall be effectuall to work in him true repentance and of reconcilement upon supposition of it Whereupon it must be said the contrary that those whom God receiveth into grace without any purpose of granting them the grace of perseverance cannot be said to be justified without some terme of abatement signifying the justification granted them to be as to the sense of the Church or to an opinion unduely conceived by themselves but not as to God So that their faith also must be understood to be a confidence unduely grounded the failing whereof is not the disanulling of that which once was good but the discovering of that which once seemed good and was not This opinion so limited as I have said I should not think destructive to Christianity for the reason delivered afore concerning that opinion of justiing faith upon which it followes But as I then concluded that though not destructive to the Faith yet that opinion from whence it followeth is not true according to the true sense of the Scriptures wherein the skill of a Divine consisteth So must I here conclude that this opinion of perseverance which proceedeth upon that supposition of justifying faith which though not destructive to the Faith yet is not true is also not true though not destructive to the Faith The other which proceeds upon that supposition of justifying faith and predestination which is destructive to the faith remaining both untrue and destructive to the faith I grant that though the gift of the holy Ghost which is as I have said the habituall assistance of it being granted in consideration of a mans undertaking Christianity becomes void upon not performing that which a man undertakes yet God of his free goodnesse not as obliged by any promise of the Gospel may continue the assistance thereof but upon the same terms as he first grants the help of it to bring men out of the state of sinne into the state of grace I grant that the resolution of believing the faith of Christ and of living according to the same in the profession of Christianity having been once made upon reasons convincing a man that he is bound so to do cannot be changed at his pleasure in an instant though it fall out that he be overtaken with some sinne that laies wast the conscience But the promises of the Gospel being made in consideration of undertaking the profession of Christianity and therefore incompetible to those that live not according to it I say that they all become void to him that falls into such a sinne For the Covenant of Grace passing upon supposition of originall concupiscence remaining in the regenerate and insnaring them all with the occasions of sinne It cannot be imagined that all sinne makes it void But on the other side some sinnes being of so grosse a nature that a man cannot be surprized by them but that the being so conquered must imply a resolution to preferre this world before the world to come must needs forfeit those promises which depend upon the Covenant of Grace a rebellion against which they containe and declare So that unlesse the free grace of God by the operation of his Spirit bring a man back to repentance the whole resolution of being a Christian shall in time be blotted out though the profession because it imports the benefit of this world in Christian states remain counterfeit This is then the reason of my resolution necessarily following upon the premises that the sincere profession of Christianity is the condition of the Covenant of Grace seeing it is not imaginable that any man should hold any priviledge at Gods hands by professing that which he performeth not The profession as it serveth to aggravate the sinne which it committed under it as done in despite of all the grace of God and the conviction which it tendereth to reduce us to Christianity and the profession made in submission to the same condemning a man by his own sentence So containing the condition upon which all the promises become due upon the violation whereof on the contrary they must of necessity become void And this is the reason that leaves no place for any composition of this difference by saying that a man remains absolutely justified when the particular sinne which is not yet repented of is not pardoned For seeing the wages of it is death so farre as the Covenant of Grace dispenses not and seeing the Covenant of Grace cannot protect him that transgresseth the termes of it of necessity he falls into the same estate which he was under setting the Covenant of Grace aside as if to him our Lord Christ had neither been borne nor crucified nor risen againe Those that suffer the truth of this condition to be obscured by defective interpretations of that faith which alone justifieth and the scripturs concerning the same it is no mervaile if they can imagine a reconciliation betweene the state of sinne and the state of grace in the same man at the same time which makes the positive will of God declared by the Gospell to dispense with the necessary and naturall hate he beares to all sinners for their sinne But when it is once discoverd that by the termes of the Gospell God who declares himselfe ready to be reconciled to all sinners is declared unreconcileable to any so long as he continueth in sinne then must it necessarily appeare that the positive will of God declared by the Gospell concurring with the naturall detestation of sinne which is essentiall to the purity of his nature whosoever is under the guilt of sinne remains liable to his wrath And proceeding upon this ground as I doe I shall not thinke my selfe obliged to take notice of those thinges which have lately beene disputed in great volumes upon this point to and againe For presuming that the parties have not the ground upon which I proceed in debate As of necessity he who seemes to come short of proving his intent without it may with it be able to make the conviction effectuall which he tenders So he that seemes to have made the worse cause seeme the better without considering it must provide new evidence to make the condition of the Covenant of Grace seeme otherwise then I have showed it to be before he can thinke to have done his worke Notwithstanding because there are many texts of Scripture which evidently fortify the summe of Christianity setled upon the termes of the Covenant of Grace by demonstrating the failleure of the promise upon failleure of the condition to which the Gospell makes it due I take it to be part of my businesse to point at the cheife of them without being much troubled to
bring all that might be alleged Because I may make this generall inference from the premises that all precepts all exhortations all promises all threats made to induce man to perseverance in that estate to which the promises of the Gospell are any way signified to be due are necessary arguments to show that those to whome they are made may faile of the perseverance to which they induce And this by virtue of the generall reason premised that they are all evidences of that free will of men which the grace of God destroyeth not but cureth And therefore as when they are used to induce men to imbrace Christianity they containe an evidence that he may doe otherwise So also when they are used to induce man to persevere in that profession which he hath once undertaken they must necessarily by the same reason containe an evidence that it is possible for any man not to persevere who is induced by them to persevere in the course of a Christian For if it be said that without the grace of God they cannot with it they cannot but be effectual Either it is supposed the grace of God here named shal become effectuall to induce them to persevere to the end supposing that God foresees that they shall soâ—persevere or something else including the fore-sight of the perseverance it selfe or not If so it is no mervaile that the said exhortations cannot but prove effectuall because God foresees they shall be effectuall and that which shall not be can never be foreseene But if not supposing this any man undertake to say that the exhortation of the Gospell with the helpe of Gods inward grace must necessarily prove effectuall he will necessarily fall into all the inconvenience which I have charged them with who maintaine that the will of man is immediately determined by the will and operation of God to doe whatsoever it doeth Which is no lesse then the destruction aswell of all civility as of Christianity But let us see what the Apostle writes Heb. VI. 4-7 For it is not possible to renew unto repentance those that being once inlightned and having tasted the heavenly gift and been partakers of the Holy Ghost and relished the good word of God and the powrs of the world to come fall a way and crucify to themselves and traduce the Sonne of God For the earth that drinkes the raine that oft comes upon it and beares herbes fit for them by whome it is tilled receives a blessing from God But that which beares thornes and thistles is reprobate and neare a curse the end whereof is to be burned Could more have been said to expresse the state of grace For if any man can undertake to have the Spirit of God without premising Christianity I say confidently there is no cause why any man should be a Christian Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here as Ebr. X. 32. signifieth neither more nor lesse then Christened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the ancient Church signifies Baptisme because of the darknesse of Hethenisme or Judaisme which it dispelleth What is then the heavenly Gift which Christian tast be it remission of sinnes or be it the Gift of the Holy Ghost that followes expressing the same thing in severall parallel termes my businesse is done if the Gift of the Holy Ghost be not granted but upon that condition which makes all other promises of the Gospell due Wherefore I am content that relishing the good word of God shall signify no more then that conditon to wit That sense of Christianity which resolveth a man to undertake it But to relish the powers of the world to come no man can be understood but he that upon supposition of the said condition becomes sensible of that peace and joy of the Holy Ghost which under Christianity onely Christianity can give And therefore though I dispute not here how he means that it is impossible to renew those that fall from Christianity to repentance yet I challenge that impossibility of renewing to contain both a former right in and a possession of that estate to which they are renewed by repentance and also the present losse of it by falling from the condition which gâ—ves it So that the comparison which followes of fruitful and barren land upon tillage as it expresses a promise of following helpes of grace to them that use those which went a fore aright contained in the promise of giving the Holy Ghost to inable them who sincerely professe Christianity to performe that which they undertake So it convinceth the fruitlesse to be liable to the curse of fire which it is said to be neare because it is called reprobate The same is the effect of the like exhortation Ebrews X. 26 -29. For if we sinne voluntarily after receiving the acknowledgement of the truth there remaines no more any sacrifice for sinne but a certaine terrible expectation of vengeance and glowing of firâ— that is to consume opposers If one set at naught the Law of Moses without mercy he dies upon two or three witnesses Of how much worse punishment think you shall he be thought worthy that treads the Sonne of God under foot and esteems the blood of the Covenant by which he is sanctified unâ—leane and doth despite to the Spirit of Grace I say this is to the same effect if it be once granted that this sinne may be committed by a true Christian which no man can deny For can a Christian be thought to doe that despite to the Spirit of Grace which the Scribes and Pharises are said in the Gospell Matt XII 28. 32. Marke III. 29. Luke XII 10. to doe in sinning that sinne against the Holy Ghost which our Lord there pronounces irremissible Is it not manifest that their sinne consisted in attributing the miracles by which our Lord sought to convert them to the uncleane spirit being in Judgment convinced that by the Holy Ghost alone they were done And is it not as manifest that a Christian having received the Spirit of Grace promised to those that are baptized out of a sincere resolution of Christianity abuses the spirit which is so given him and which he hath and which had allready wrought that worke of conviction which the scribes and Pharises sufferd not to take effect in their harts Especially when the Apostle expressely premiseth the washing of them called here sanctifying by the blood of the Covenant which is the cleansing of that vessell by remission of sinnes into which the new wine of the Holy Ghost is to be put Wherefore I will not say that the faith of these men is true faith if you meane that onely to be true faith which lasts to the end which is many times in common language that which truth signifieth But if you meane that to be true faith which effecteth remission of sinnes and qualifieth for the world to come he must set the scripture upon the rack that will make it confesse any other sense Now consider what the Apostle
apprehend that the Scripture representing the friendship of God with his children according to his Gospel by the patern of that love which the best men show to those whom they intertaine friendship with doth intend to expresse him disobliged upon every offense But unlesse we thinke it commendable for God to love men more then righteousnesse for the love of Christ to whom the same righteousnesse is no lesse deare then to God will never thinke it agreeable to the honor of the Gospell to propose the reward of that righteousnesse which it requireth but upon supposition of performing of it Certainly Celsus had done the Christians no wrong in slandering them that they received all the wicked persons whom the world spued out into an assurance of everlasting happinesse nor could Zosimus be blamed for imputing the change of Constantine the Great to a desire of easing his conscience of the guilt of those sinnes which Paganisme could show him no means to expiate had the Christians of that time acknowledged that they tendred assurance of pardon to any man but upon supposition of conversion from his sinne These thinges supposed it will be easy to resolue that the assurance of salvation which the Gospell inables a good Christian to attaine is not the act of justifying Faith but the consequence of it Indeed if a man were justifyed by believing that he is justifyed so farre as a man hath the act of justifying Faith so farre he must necessarily rest assured not onely of his right to salvation at present but of his everlasting salvation in the world to come But neither is that opinion which maketh justifying Faith to consist in the trust and confidence which a Christian reposeth in God through Christ for the obtaining of his promises liable to the horrible and grosse consequence of the same To exclude all Christians from salvation that are not as sure that they shall be saved at they are of theire Creede is a consequence as desperate as it is grosse to make that assurance the act of justifying Faith The true act of justifying Faith which is constancy in Christianity the more lively and resolute it is the more assurance it createth of those consequences which the Gospell warranteth For no man is ignorant of his owne resolutions Nor can be lesse assured that it is Gods Spirit that creates this assurance then he is assured that his owne resolusions are not counterfeit And therefore his trust in God not as reconcileable but as reconciled must needes be answerable And the same trust may warrant the same assurance though not of it selfe but upon the conscience of that Christianity whereupon it is grounded And by those things which were disputed not onely during the Council of Trent but also since the deâ—ree thereof it is manifest that the Church of Rome doth not teach it to be the duty of a good Christian to be allwayes in doubt of Gods grace But alloweth that opinion to be maintained which maketh assurance of salvation attainable upon these termes and therefore incourageth good Christians to contend for it As for the assurance of future salvation which dependeth upon the assurance of preseverance till death or a mans departure in the state of Grace you see S. Paul involveth all Christians in it with himselfe by saying I am perswaded that neither life nor death shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord And therefore I conceive is was a very great impertinence to dreame of any privilege of immediate revelation for the means by which he hadde it Whosoever is a Christian so farre as he is a Christian hath it Adouble minded man that is unconstant in all his wayes as S. James speakes that is who is not resolved to live and dy a good Christian cannot have it Whosoever hath that resolution in as much as he hath that resolution that is so firme as his resolution is so firme is his assurance For knowing his owne resolutions he knowes them not easily changeable in a water importing the end of a mans whole course And therefore knowing God unchangeable while he so continues is able to say full as much as Saint Paul saith I am perswaded that neither life nor death shall be able to separate â—e from the love of God in Christ Jesus As for the sense of the primitive and Catholick Church putting you in mind of that which I said before to show that it placeth justifying Faith in professing Christianity the effect whereof in justifying must needes fail so soon as a man faileth of performing that Christianity in the profession whereof his justification standeth I shall not need to allege the opinions of particulare Fathers to make evidence of it having Lawes of the Church to make evidence that those who were ruled by them must needs thinke the promises of the Gospell to depend upon the Covenant of our Baptisme and therefore that they become forfeit by transgressing the same The promise of persevering in the profession of the Faith untill death and of living like a Christian was allways expressely exacted of all that were baptized as now in the Church of England And upon this promise and not otherwise remission of sinne right to Gods kingdome and the Gift of his Spirit was to be expected As if it were not made with a serious intent at the present baptisme did nothing but damne him that received it So if it were transgressed by grosse sins not to be imputed to the surprizes of concupiscence For the condition failing that which dependeth upon the same must needs faile For the means by which they expected to recover the state of Grace thus forfeited we have the Penitentiall Canons which as they had the force of Law all over the Church all the better times of the Church So I show from the beginning that they had theire beginning from the Apostles themselves to assure us that all beleived that without which there could be no ground for that which all did practice Can any man imagine that the Church should appoint severall times and severall measures of Penance for severall sinnes to be debarred the Communion of the Eucharist and to demonstrate unto the Church by theire outward conversation the sincerity of theire conversion to theire first profession of Christianity had not all acknowledged that the promises of the Gospell forfeited by transgressing the profession of baptisme were not to be recovered otherwise And that the deeper the offense was the more difficulty was presumed in replanting the resolution of Christianity in that heart which was presumed to have deserted it according to the measure of the sinne whereby it had violated the same This is enough to prescribe unto reasonable men against such little consequences as now and then are made upon some passages of the Fathers which upon by occasions seeme to speake otherwise S. Augustine is the maine hope of the cause so farre as it hath any joy in
by John the Baptist and his Disciples But that since then the continuance of Baptism by water in the Church is nothing else but an argument that it hath been destitute of Baptism by fire which is the Holy Ghost which this Reformation or forsooth this Dogmatist pretends to Which opinion obliges to mention again that of Sâ—cinus who allows no further of Baptism then of an indifferent Ceremony which the Church may use still at pleasure to solemnize the profession of Christianity when a man is converted from Infidelity to it as it was prescribed by our Lord to signifie the washing away of sinne from those who having been Jews and Gentiles were converted to be Christians But that the obligation thereof is utterly ceased in respect of those who being born of Christians and bred up in the Church have by the exercise of that Christianity which their yeares intitles them to made continual profession of it These two opinions like Samsons Foxes though â—ied together by the tails to set the Church on fire yet may proceed upon severall grounds For we know that Socinus denying Originall sinne hath reason enough to reject the baptism of men as well as of Infants as not acknowledging any thing but the will of man requisite to make him a good Christian and consequently suspending the premises of the Gospel onely upon that act thereof which resolveth a man to become a good Christian Which how well it agrees with Sovinus his acknowledgement of the gift of the Holy Ghost promised to them that have made this resolution to â—â—able them to perform it is clear to them who shall have perused the premises to give sentence As for the other opinion last mentioned I must professe that I do not take upon me that it is his work who is said to be the Author of it though I name him upon common fame as an instance to evidence that there is no Church of God in England by the present Laws when there is no means to bring to light the Authors of such pestilent Doctrines and when those who pretend to be an University do acknowledge such a man Master of a Colledge partly of Divines as if they were an University they ought not to acknowledge as a Christian to wit belonging to the communion of the Church For though I mean not to charge him with this Book yet so long as he owns all that he is charged with by Rutherford the Scots Presbyterian I do charge him with the Heresie of the Antinomians which here I mention because it seems reasonable to conceive this opinion to be a branch of it wherein how well he is reâ—uted by his adversary how clear his adversary is of the same blame is to be judged by that which I have determined concerning the condition of the Covenâ—nt of Grace For the Heresie of the Antinomians consisting in voiding the condition of the Covenant of Grace it is free for them to make the justification of Christians to go before justifing faith being nothing else but the revelation of Gods mercy which he hath form everlasting for the Elect whom he determining to save sent Christ to redeâ—m them alone It seems therefore very consequent in reason to this position if that operation of the Spirit which they pretend admit any dispute of reason about their positions to say that the gift of the Holy Ghost being due to the Elect by virtue of Christs merits and sufferings provided for them alone and imputed to them alone from everlasting to the remission of sinnes There can be no reason why Baptism should be requisite Those that are not elect not standing in any capacity either of admitting the Gospel or attaining the promises of it those that are being from everlasting estated in the right of them Now if that Presbyterian make justifying faith to consist in the knowledgs of mans Predestination to life in consideration of Christ sent for him revealed to him by Gods Spirit but limited to take effect upon the said revelation of it as I have said that some of them do then I referre my selfe to that which I have said already to show this opinion to be no lesse destructive to Christianity then the former but not so agreeable to it self nor to reason to make remission of sins and salvation appointed them meerly in consideration of Christ to depend upon the revelation of Christ to them altogether impertinent to any act required of them to procure it But if he make justifying faith to consist in a confidence in God such as men may have that are assured of remission of sins and of life everlasting not supposing on their part any condition of turning from the world to God as requisite by the Gospel I referre my selfe still to that which I have said to show how this is destructive to Christianity But why those that have these opinions should neverthelesse maintain the necessity of Baptisme whereof they have no reason to give according to the Scriptures I confesse I am to learn For if we believe Christianity to come from God and therefore all the Laws of it how shall we believe that for one of these Laws he hath provided that all that will be saved be baptized having given assurance of remission of sins and salvation without consideration of it or dependance upon it He that comes to be Baptized either have saving faith or not if he have it he hath it never the more for being baptized being such an assurance as no man may doubt in without failing of all Gods promises If he have it noâ— can baptism bring it unlesse we say with the Church that the promise of the Holy Ghost depends upon it which he that saith if he will give a reason of what he saith must have recourse to the condition of the undertaking and professing of Christianity in consideration whereof God hath promised the gift of the Holy Ghost to inable Christians to perform that which they undertake This is then to say that though I take notice of these Heresies in this place where I purpose to speak of the power of the Church in baptizing yet I hold not my selfe obliged to say any more for the rooting of them out or preventing them then I have said in demonstrating the nature of the Covenant of Grace For I have showed on the one side that the condition required on our parts to undertake if we would be intitled to the promises which it tendreth consisteth in an act of our free choice whereby the course of our lives is dedicated to the service of God as the end for which wee were made and that this course is determined by the Law of Christianity and consequently the act whereby we undertake to professe Christianity called faith by S. Paul that which intitles us to remission of sins and everlasting life And I have showed on the other side that the nature of man being corrupted by the fall of our first Parents could not be
do not therefore condemn this custome for a prophanation of the Sacrament when it was in use Infants cannot examine themselves neither can they presume in eating that bread and drinking of that cup. But neither can they be taught to do all things which Christ commandeth so soon as they are made his Disciples by being baptized If the Church duely presume that with remission of sinnes they attain the gift of Gods spirit by being baptized did it unduly presume that remission of sinnes remaining uninterrupted the gift of the Holy Ghost may be strengthned by receiving the Eucharist Let us rather watch over our own customes then condemn the customes of the Church The grace of the Holy Ghost may be fortified by the Sacrament of the Eucharist against those occasions of re-entry which the evil Spirit espieth in those that begin to perceive the difference between good and bad though unable to reflect upon themselves and to judge whither in the state of Grace or not If the Eucharist be prophâ—ned where they take it too young what pretense of Christianity or of a Church remains where neither young nor old take it CHAP. IX What controversie the Reformation hath with the Church of Rome about Penance Inward repentance that is sincere obtaineth pardon alone Remission of sinnes by the Gospel onely The condition of it by the Ministrey of the Church What the power of binding and loosing contains more then Preaching or taking away offenses Sinne may be pardoned without the use of it Wherein the necessity of using it lyeth I Have showed from the beginning that the Power of the Keyes which is the foundation of the Church is seen much more towards them that are already of the Church then them that are not of it For in those there is but one thing for the Church to judge whether their perswasion and resolution be such as qualifies them to be baptized Disciples of Christ that is Christians But in these so many particulars as the profession of a Christian is imployed about so many are there for this power to judge whether the profession of a Christian be discharged in them or not And this ground must needs be much strengthned by that which hath been resolved concerning the Covenant of Grace and the terms of it For if the profession of Christianity be that which qualifies a Christian for remission of sinnes and life everlasting then he that fails of this profession by any such sinne as cannot stand with it as he attained the communion of the Church upon presumption that he stood qualified for the promises of the Gospel so he failes of it upon evidence that he is not so qualified Therefore though the Powâ—r of the Keyes is seen in free admitting to the Communion of the Church yet is it more visible in excluding from the same as well as in readmitting to it And this is the next act or the next object which the the power of the Church is imployed about that comes here to be considered The difficulty whereof seems to stand in that which the Church of Romes by the Law of confessing once a year all sinnes that come to remembrance seems to teach That no sinne or at least none of those which a man is bound to confesse which in what sense they may and are to be allowed mortal sinnes I have showed in due place can be remitted him that falls into them after Baptism unlesse the Keyes of the Church passe upon them The opposite whereof in the other extream seems to be the opinion of those that pâ—etend for a point of Reformation and of that freedom to which the Gospel calls Christians That though it be necessary to give satisfaction to the the Church which shal have been scandalized by the evil example of a notorious offence yet that no office of the Church and of the Keys which it is â—rusted with by our Lord concurs to the loosing of that sinne which the Church hath first tied a man with by excluding him from the communion of the Church But that it is wholly to be imputed to the preaching of the Gospel ministred by the Church when it is received by faith Though for the present I inquire not what they would have this faith to be having distinguished the consequences of the several conceâ—ts which may be had about it afore For this difficulty being here proposed in the beginning I do not foresee any thing of moment in question concerning this power of the Church the effect â—nd intent of it that will not come to be determined by virâ—ue of the reâ—olution therâ—of and in consequence to it Which resolution shall briâ—fly be this That inwâ—rd repentance with confession to God alone that is â—â—ncere and effectual to the reforming of that which a man repents of for the future is a diâ—position qualifying a man for pardon of sâ—â—ne by virtue of the Covenant of Grace without any act of the Church passing upon it But that God hath charged his Church and therefore given it power and right to call all those that notoriously transgresse that Christianity which once they have professed to those demonstrations of inward repentance and amendment of mind by visible actions that may satisfie the Church that Gods wrath in regard of that sinne is appeased through Christ and upon these demonstrations to readmit them to communion with the Church And further that God having provided this means of procuring and assuring the pardon of sinne by the Church hath also obliged all Christians to make use of the same by bringing their secret sinnes to the knowledge of the Church so farre and in as much as they ought to stand convict that the ministry of the Church is requisite to procure in them that disposition which by the Gospel intiles them to forgivenessâ— This resolution hath several parts which I have thought fit to be thus wound up in one not onely for brevities sake which I seek so farre as it will let me be understood but for the dependance they have one upon another in point of reason and truth And first to clear the foundation in the first place I suppose what our Saviour preached himselfe in publishing his Gospel according as it stands declared and setled by the premises to wit that mankind being lost in sinne and neither the law of Nature nor that of Moses being able to reduce it to righteousnesse and so to happinesse God by our Lord Christ requires all them that find themselves surprized in this estate to believe him to be sent for remission of sinnes and life everlasting to all that turning from that conversation in which they are overtaken do make the glory of God the end and his will the rule of their actions for the future by undertaking to live like Christians in hope of being inabled by Gods spirit to perform the same for Christ his merits and of being accepted for his suffering This being the summe of Christ his Gospel according to
it pitched upon are these That sorrow for sinne in consideration of the deformity of it and the fear of Hell with hope of pardon but without any intent to sinne again though of it self it bring not pardon yet disposeth to the attaining thereof by the Keys of the Church Which may be true though onely sorrow for the offence and for Gods sake qualifie for pardon by the Keys of the Church if we suppose that sorrow for a mans own sake which of necessity must first arise in him who discovereth himself surprized in sinne to be the way and the mean which Gods spirit actually assisteth him with that hath forfeited the gift of it to work him to that sorrow for Gods sake which qualifieth for pardon by the Keys of the Church Now what I am to say will easily appear before I say it to him that considers what I have said concerning the disposition that qualifieth for remission of sinne without consideration of the Church and the Keys of it The Ministery whereof suppose instituted to procure that disposition as supposing the Covenant of Grace which requires it That he who finds himself in the state of damnation by sinne must if God send him justifying faith in the next instance believe that he is predestinate to life without that resolution for his future Christianity which necessarily includeth sorrow for the offence of sin and for Gods sake without ground to presume of his perseverance till death in it I have showed to be an imagination utterly destructive to Christianity That he who confesses out of slavish fear being absolved should get that love of God above all which his pardon supposeth though an imagination not more destructive to Christianity then that may be destructive to the salvation of more Christians That slavish fear of the punishment due for sinne though in a person guilty of sin and not cured of the love of sinne is the work of the Holy Ghost helping him that hath forfeited the gift of it the way of recovering the state of Grace lost demonstrateth For if the Holy Ghost work not upon him that is in â—â—n how shall he recover out of it But is it strange that he who finding himself in the state of damnation by sin knows the onely means to be saved is to live as a Christian for the future should resolve so to do in obedience to God and for his service which he cannot do without that sorrow which the present losse of his favour implies Surely supposing the assistance of Gods spirit it cannot be otherwise If this be the case of a Christian as a Christian what can the Keys of the Church founded by God upon supposition of Christianity to bring men to it and to salvation by it do but be instrumental and ministerial to the work of grace in this case Confession therefore cannot require contrition that it sorrow for Gods sake nor absolution effect it But confession must be the means to procure it absolution the effect that must suppose it When that course of humiliation and mortification which the Keyes of the Church require shall have had the operation in settling that resolution for Christianity which they may presume upon for the future the sentence of obsolution recovereth the effect of Baptism and reneweth the gift of the Holy Ghost which perfect love that casteth out fear according to the Apostle attendeth This the primitive and Catholick practice of the Church as well as the covenant of Grace and the condition thereof demonstrateth It was not then the custome to receive confession of sin and immediately to give absolution binding the Penitent over to make satisfaction for a debt of temporall punishment remaining when the sin is done away The first thing was to be admitted to Penance to undertake the state and habit and fashion of a mourneâ— during the time and so to gain the prayers of the Church for his pardon to be joyned with a mans own indeavours Is not the means of changing attrition into contrition visible according to this course Can it be visible by a word of the Penitent though professing at the present to love God and hate sin above all things That the sentence of absolution should create that disposition which it findeth not agreeth no beter with the originall practice of the Church then with the originall condition upon which we are baptized And whatsoever Ornament the soul may be imagined to get by it that grace which quickens in him that becomes contrite can never be imputable to the Keys of the Church in Penance which were imployed without effecting it Nor can it be said to quicken by virtue of any such imaginary ornament which by virtue of the Covenant of Baptism quickens of course without imagining of it The bringing in of a definitive sentence of absolution instead of the Prayers of the Church which a man was admitted to by undertaking Penance the communion of the Eucharist being his actuall and finall reconcilement argues as much change in the inward Christianity as in the outward form of the Church But If the Prayers of the Church joyned with the Penance of the Penitent be a competent means to regain the state of Grace a Prayer immediately upon confession immediately before absolution is not How much less since the Council of Trent which makes the definitive sentence the substance the Prayers that are used but the accessories of the means of regaining the state of Grace by Penance I proceed not hereupon to say that the Ministery of Penance becomes void and uneffectuall to the purging of sin where it is exercised upon these terms For as he who relies upon the sentence of absolution for the producing of that disposition which is necessarily requisite to the remission of sinne must needs â—ail of that which he promiseth himselfe from that power of the Church which God never granted upon such terms So the imposing of Penance may be understood to pretend the ransoming of temporal punishment no otherwise then loosing the bond of sin whereby it may be turned into a spirituall blessing For though the granting of absolution and the communion of the Eucharist before Penance is in reason and according to the originall practice of the Church a contradiction to that sense yet nothing hinders the reason and the faith of Christians to bear up and not be caried away with those corruptions to which the imperfection of Laws naturally induceth the perverse inclinations which we are born with In the mean time it is worth the while to consider what consequences the conceit of infallibility in the Church not distinguishing whither the present or the Catholick creates as well in the opinons of Doctors as in the practice of people There is so much difference between the way of ministring of Penance in the primitive Churdh and the practice of Auricular Confession in the present Church of Rome as must needs signifie the hope of pardon to suppose the performance of Penance