be greater cannot be determined but when man fell mankinde wholly was lost and unlesse grace save must everlastingly perish As some with the lost Angels must be objects on whom God will glorifie his justice Matth. 25. 41. So others must be vessels of mercy on whom his free grace shall be seen to make them as the Angels of heaven Therefore love is assigned as the alone impulsory motive God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten sonne John 3. 16. God who is rich in mercy according to the great love wherewith he loved us when we were dead in sinne Eph. 2. 5. Of this all that expect to be saved by grace must be tender that it be not obscured Gods designe being to advance it our care must be that it be not lessened In this exercise of free grace God yet keeps up authority and rule power and dominion still is his Man was made of God subject to a Law and under dominion having the law written in his heart from the Creation and he was not divested of it by Adams fall nor yet delivered from it by Christs Redemption Corvinus indeed in his Reply to Moulin cap. 8. sect 7. saith That men under an obligation to punishment are not under any obligation to obedience God will not be served by that man that hath violated his Covenant giving his reason of this assertion To be admitted to serve is a to token of favour which is not vouchsafed as he sayes to menunder guilt and wrath But this is a manifest errour Mans guilt can never rob God of his Sovereignty nor yet disingage man from his duty Standing right with God he is bound to homage Under guilt he is bound both to homage and punishment and to be admitted to serve is not meerly of favour but of dominion and power It was no great favour that Israel in Egypt found in the service of Pharaoh to serve with acceptance is indeed a favour but necessity and duty ties all that are under Sovereignty As man fallen in right is a subject though in his demeanour a rebel So in his regenerate estate still he ows subjection When God became a Saviour to the Elect of mankind he did not cease to be a Sovereigne The children of a King and Emperour know their father to be their Sovereign as by one is well observed The child of God knows God in Christ to be his Lord We are redeemed not to licentiousnesse not to a state of manumission from the command of God but to serve in righteousnesse and true holinesse all the dayes of our life Luke 1. 74. It can be no part of our Christian freedome to be from under the Sovereignty of heaven This Sovereignty of God is two wayes held forth unto us First in keeping up his commandments the power and vigour of his precepts Secondly in his exercise of discipline in chastisement and correction Here I shall assert three things First God in the days of the Gospel keeps up the power and authority of his Law the Obligation of it is still in force to binde the consciences of beleevers Secondly That this Law which God thus keeps up in force is a perfect and compleat rule to those to whom it is given Thirdly That this Law binds as given by the hand of Moses As to the first when I speak thus of the Obligation of the Law I hope I scarce need to tell in what sense I do take the Law Not in the largest sense for any doctrine instruction or Ordinance of any kinde whatsoever Men have their Laws and Directories but I have to deal with the Law of God Neither do I take it for the whole of the Word of God all his will revealed in his Word as it is taken Isa 2. 3. The Law shall go forth of Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Nor yet as it is taken for all the Scripture of the Old Testament as in that Text of the Apostle In the Law it is written by men of other tongues and by other languages I will speak to this people 1 Cor. 14. 21. Nor yet for the five books of Moses as it is taken in the words of Christ All must be fulfilled that was written in the Law of Moses Luke 24. 44. Neither do I here understand the Ceremonial Law which stood up as a partition between Jew and Gentile Ephes 2. 14. All that did binde the Jews and was not of force from God with the Gentiles is taken off from Christians There was a confession of guilt a beast needed not to have been slain if they had been innocent this held them under hopes that there was sacrifice to take away sinne imposed on the Jewes till the time of reformation Heb. 9. 10. as an Appendix to the first Table fitted to the Jewes state and condition as a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10. 1. Nor yet the judicial Law given to order the Common-wealth or State of that people farther then so much of it as was of nature and then did bind the Gentiles It is the Moral-Law that I meane that Law which was obligatory not only to the Jews but Gentiles for breach of which they suffered Levit. 18. 27 28. Neither do I understand the Moral Law as a covenant upon observation of which life was expected and might be claimed This is utterly inconsistent with the Gospel If there had been a Law that could have given life verily righteousnesse had been by the Law Gal. 3. 21. And this righteousnesse giving life utterly overthrows the Gospel If righteousnesse come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2. 21. In which sense I deny that the Jewes were ever under the Law The Law was not given as such a covenant as shall God willing be shewn So the Moral Law and Ceremonial Law should militate one against another The Moral Law holding them in themselves looking for a righteousnesse of works and the Ceremonial Law leading them out of themselves unto a sacrifice for remission of sinne Abraham was under no such covenant he had the Gospel preached to him Gal. 3. 8. and so had the seed of Abraham But it still hath the nature of a Law binding to obedience it is for ever a rule for the guide of our wayes That it was once of force is without question and above all contradiction and therefore I need not to multiply Old Testamentâ— Scriptures for it There is no repeale of it it was never antiquated and abolished therefore it is of force Though a Law be urged yet if a repeal may be pleaded there is a discharge That it is not repealed I shall shew and further that it is not capable of any repeal If it be repealed then either by Christ at his coming in the flesh or else by his Apostles by commission from him after the Spirit was given But neither Christ in person nor the Apostles by any commission
v. 22 23. lays down the history which afterwards he allegorizes in five verses and then makes application of the history and not of the allegory v. 29. 3. That to be born after the flesh should import birth of Abraham as a beleever and so natural generation of each child of a beleever in that respect â—ut then to be borne after the flesh would be common to Isaac with Ishmael to him that is borne after the spirit of the free woman by promise with him that is borne after the flesh of the the bond-woman for to be borne of Abraham or a beleever agrees also to Isaac to him that is born after the Spirit of the free-woman by promise whereas to be borne after the flesh is taken in a sense from which Isaac and we that is Paul and other Christian beleevers are excluded That is that certain clear truth by way of necessary corollary would follow which that great Doctor Abbot in the place quoted takes for granted speaking of both births and applying his tantummodo twice over to Ishmaels birth he clearly signifies that Ishmael had this honour and that Isaac had it likewise and that which is far more noble together with it 4. It is said that I quite pervert the Apostles intent in taking to be born after the flesh to impart an honour whereas the Apostle mentions birth after the flesh as a debasement takes it in the worser part not as importing a descent from the father but from the mother and that mother a bond woman and therefore the children servants or bondâ—slaves by reason of their being borne after the flesh And doth not the Apostle tell us in the relation of the history of their father as well as their mother does he not speak of one common father in these words Abraham had two sons as well as of two different mothers and I dare not take the boldnesse to exclude either I confesse the Apostle mentions birth after the flesh as a debasement in putting it in opposition to birth of the Spirit yet I affirme that he mentions it also as an honour As circumcision was a debasement in one respect Eph. 2. 11 and an honour in another Rom. 3. 1. Phil. 3. 5. It was an honour to have Circumcision in the flesh they were thereby a people of God in Covenant but it was a debasement being put in opposition to circumcission in heart and to the worshipping of God in Spirit and in Truth it was an honour to be born of Abraham after the flesh and frequently mentioned in Scripture as an honour but an abasement when it is opposed to the birth of God by the Spirit Much more might be animadverted but this is enough as I think to the cause and I purposely avoid all that concernes the person I know not what more may be said but I finde nothing as yet said but that which instead of evincing the contrary being thoroughly examined is a more full confirmation that in New Testament-times such a distinction of births is in New Testament-times continned clearly hinted and taken for granted here and in other Scriptures fully exprest CHAP. LIII Matth. 19. 14. Mark 10. 14. Luk. 18. 16. Vindicated THat Text in the Gospel uttered by our Saviour Christ and recorded by three Evangelists comes now to be considered Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdome of God In the whole Narrative in Gospel-records we may see First The pious care of Parents or others in their stead to present Infants to Christ Secondly The harsh entertainment that they found from the Disciples of Christ Thirdly The good will of the Lord Christ towards them manifested 1. In his displeasure against those that forbade their coming 2. In his free admission of them 3. In gratifying their requests that brought them 4. In receiving them in his Armes In the words that we have in hand we see 1. Their admission or at least charge given for it Suffer little children to come unto me 2. The reason for of such is the Kingdome of God Here is wont to be enquired 1. What moved these thus to present their children This by the Evangelists is expressed that Christ would put his hands upon them and pray Which as they requested so he condescended to answer He put his hands upon them and blessed them They looked upon Christ as it seemes as a great Prophet highly in favour with God and such were wont to bless in the name of God and their blessing was highly prized Hands were used to be imposed as in sacrifices Exod. 29. 10. so on persons in blessing Gen. 48 14. The reason that moved his Disciples to forbid their coming can scarce be doubted They saw men resorting to Christ either moved by his Doctrine or his Miracles either to be instructed or cured neither of these could be in their thoughts that presented these little ones They were uncapable of his teaching being infants and that they needed not his cure being not diseased and therefore they rebuked those that came to tender them Now to come to a clear understanding of the words we shall lay first some positions concerning these Infants admission and afterwards come to the consideration of the reason First That these were Infants or as Infants in an incapacity to learne ought from Christ and so actually to imbrace Christ or enter Covenant themselves with him Which does appear 1. In that they are called little ones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. They were brought and came not on their own accord 3. In that Christ took them up in his armes 4. Had they been capable by age of instruction with what colour could any have denied them Why might not they come as well as those multitudes that flocked to him 5. Why were not the children themselves spoke to to forbear to come rather than those that brought them not to bring them If they were capable of instruction they were capable of rebuke 6. Why is there no word of instruction spoken to them The young man that came to Christ was instructed by Christ in the same Chapter So should these have been instructed as well as blest had they been in a capacity for instruction Secondly As they were in an incapacity by reason of age to be taught so they were not as was said diseased to have need of cure This the Disciples well knew that this was usual with Christ to cure those that laboured under infirmities of all ages and therefore would never have had it in their thoughts to have rebuked those that brought these and the Evangelist would never have concealed this reason and mentioned another Such a thing as this I said was vented in a Manuscript but I knew not that ever any print had maintained it Now I am told that there is a book in Folio entituled Baby Baptisme meere Babisme that doth assert it If any man will trouble himself with the book
too true report unto the world That England in foure yeares space is become an â—eap and sink of all Errours and Sects No Province from the beginning of the world ever brought forth in so little a space so many monstrous Heresies as this Honor. Reggus Comment de statu Ecclesiae in Anglia pag. 1. Hath Christ any thing that he may enjoy unquestioned among us As he may not have an Embassadour so he must not enjoy a Day or an Ordinance not so much as his Deity among us 3. If neither Reason nor experience will serve to convince us let the Apostle be heard Ephes 4. 11 14. He gave gifts unto men some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and some teachers that we be not as children â—ost to and fro with every winde of Doctrine One end of the Ministery is establishment of Saints against Errours And it is not the least of the cunning sleights of men to throw down a Ministery that errour may be introduced and Heresies planted we must not look to be secure from Seducers longer than a Ministery ballasts us It is objected that in New Testament-times there is a Promise that God will poure out his Spirit on all flesh sonnes and daughters shall prophecy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those dayes will I poure out my Spirit Ioel 2. 28 29 So that now this office is not with limit to some but promiscuously in all First Answ Old Testament-prophecies must be understood according to New Testament-Interpretations Not alwayes as in the letter they may seem to hold things out but as the Spirit of God there unfolds them and as the event to those that live in after-ages in the Church cleares them The rigid adhering to the letter of mystical prophecies hath brought many into dangerous snares This holds the Jews in blindnesse Looking after a Messiah with a temporal rule and power they will receive no other This caused many in Christs time to expect Elijah in person and not to regard John who came in the power and Spirit of Elijah This holds those of the Church of Rome that they see not that Antichrist who opposeth Christ in a mystery but expect one that opposeth Christ openly And let others take heed that it do not deceive them while they look after a personal reigne of Christ upon earth which some mysterious Scriptures seeme to imply when open cleare Texts do manifestly contradict Secondly when in New Testament-times this prophecy was first fulfilled observe what way was taken for the fulfilling of it The Spirit comes in the forme of tongues fiery and cloven and sate upon each of the Apostles and this Peter sayes was that which was foretold by Joel the Prophet Acts 2. 16. There is a singular analogy between Scripture-signes and the thing signified whether ordinary in Sacraments or extraordinary in Visions This shews in what manner and way the Spirit is communicated in all Languages and Nations and that the Spirit is received by the hearing of Faith If Peter may interpret Joel a Ministery is established and not overthrown Thirdly those high expressions there serve only to set out the abundance of knowledge which men by the Ministerial work should reach in Gospel-times what Prophets then saw and those that saw visions and dreamed dreames knew that men of all ranks should see What the Prophets diligently enquired after 1 Pet. 1. 12. they should understand Fourthly I could wish that these men would compare another prophecie of New Testament-times Zach. 13. 2. where the Lord promises to cause the Prophets and the unclean spirits to passe out of the land Prophets there are men of unclean spirits those false spirits that are gone out into the world These shall be brought to a serious conviction and shall be ashamed every one of his Vision of the spirit of the which they use to speak the revelation of which they were wont to boast and shall no longer weare a rough garment to deceive shâ—l relinquish that calling function or practice giving in this reason I am no Prophet man taught me to keep cattel from my youth Because they were bred for husbandry man another way therefore they are not for this function In the case of extraordinary inspiration this indeed holds not Amos pleads Amos 7. 14. I was no Prophet nor a Prophets son but I was an herdman and a gatherer of Sycamore fruit He was thus trained up and therefore lived in this calling in which he was trained till God gave him an extraordinary call and this he pleads The Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said unto me Go prophesie to my people Israel verse 15. Robinson the learnedst Penne I suppose of that party undertaking to defend the liberty of all promiscuously to preach the Gospel and that it is no proper work of a Select Ministery instances in Christ and his Apostles who preacht saith he in the Jewish Church without contradiction And whereas we except against this that they were extraordinarily called and qualified he answers that the exception though true yet is not of force for their argument is not that they preached which their extraordinary call would warrant but that they preached and were not excepted against by the Jewes who did not beleeve any extraordinary immediate call of theirs yet never excepted against them but received them upon the account of private men and therefore it appears that it was their ordinary course that any gifted man might preach without control Ans It is wonder Answ so quick-sighted a man could not see that Christ himself was excepted against by the Jewish Elders and that upon this very point how often we know not but we see it upon record in three several Evangelists that the excepted against him The chief Priests and the Elders of 〈…〉 to him as he was teaching and said by what authority 〈◊〉 thou these things and who gave thee this authority Luke 20. 21. Matth. 21. 23. Mark 11. 7. Their argument runs thus They that preach the Gospel must have their authority for it Thou undertakest this work produce thy authority let us see thy warrant Christ answers not that it was each mans lâ—berty and duty who had gifts as he must have done else he was wanting in his defence of the truth in case their proposition had been false but puts a question in which he clearly holds out his extraordinary call The baptisme of John whence was it from heaven or of men As John Baptized so I preach He baptized not neither do I preach without authority whence we may collect that he that may presume to set up a new Sacrament without farther authority may with the same liberty undertake to be a Gospel-Preacher 2. That Prophecy is objected Object Jerem. 31. 31 32 33. 34. This shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house
So for Ministers of the Gospel we hear of their labour in Word and Doctrine their charge to preach in season and out of season For the forbidding of marriage there is no such thing who hath not known men in that state in the Universities and Resident in Colledges It is true that those Students that have their maintenance from the Founders donation upon marriage lose their place but do not incurre expulsion And the thing is very equal seeing those places are not intended for a setled abode as some abuse them but for Preparation for publick employment whether in Church or State and who blames those ties of Apprentices from marriage for the terme of their service to know their trades If wives and families should be taken in they would soon finde the inconvenience that the sonnes of the Prophets complained of their dwellings would be too strait for them Object Object Have not the Vniversities sacrilegionsly stole this blessed name of Christs Scholars from his People Is not the very Scripture-language it self becâ—me absurd to wit to call Gods People especially women as Dorcas Scholars Answ Bloody tenent ibid. And was it not an equal sacriledge for some peculiar men to take the title of the Sons of the Prophets who as it is plain were not their children but their Scholars and therefore the Prophets under whose tuition they were were called by them as by the name of Father 2 King 2. 12. so also by the name of Master 2 King 6. 5. being those Masters of the Assemblies that the Wise man speaks of Eccles 12. Others heard the doctrine and as sons received the instructions of the Prophets as well as they yet the title is given peculiarly to some who in a peculiar way were separate for that work not common to all men much lesse to women Besides the word Scholler is plainly in relation to Schooles men may learn Christ and be his disciples is confest though they be not Scholars in this way I know no Schooles of the Prophets in the New Testament Object but the particular Congregation of Christ Jesus And I question whether it be any thing but sinne that hath dried up this current of the Spirit in those rare gifts of tongues to Gods sonnes and daughters serving so admirably both for the understanding of the Original Scriptures and also for the propagating of the Name of Christ Who knows but that it may please the Lord again to cloath his People with a Spirit of zeal and courage for the Name of Christ yea and poure forth those fiery streames again of tongues and prophecy in the restauration of Zion Bloody tenent page 174. I am glad to here it confessed that sinne is displeasing to God and that any judgement on the Church is confest to be let in at this gate I am glad farther to hear that tongues serve so admirably to propagate the Name of Christ whence I infer that while this judgement for sin continues there is a necessity of other courses to attaine this that is acknowledged to be of this excellency Since the judgement was laid on the earth for sin men have got their bread with labour and so must as long as the judgement remaines The like paines must be for learning as for a living When God shall please to poure out again these fiery streames we then shall confesse the unusefulnesse of Schools to this purpose in the mean space their use is evident And seeing it is acknowledged that men must digge with daily study and labour to come at the Original fountaines let none be like Pharaoh to urge a tale of brick and deny straw If they must thus digge let them not be necessitated to go to the Papists to sharpen their spades as sometimes Israel to the Philistines with their goads and mattocks which yet necessarily will be if their Schools be kept up and ours cried down Mr. Ainsworth is brought in for an instance who as is said had scarce his peer among a thousand Academians for the Scripture-Originals and yet he scarce set foot within a Colledge walls His abilities in the tongues is evident which was his Master-piece but his education I know not but one Swallow makes not a Spring I have known a man excellent in the most exquisite manual trade who yet never served a Master to learn it yet this never took men off the way of Apprentiships If Mr. Ainsworth scarce set foot in a Colledge walls yet he reaped the fruit of their labours that were studied and thiâ— way excelled Is this the honour that you professe to give to Schools for Tongues and Arts to perswade men not to set their foot within them Another goes yet here farther Object not only to put down Schooles and demolish Academies for learning but to deny any necessity or use of learning at all yea any necessity of a Ministery for interpretation of Scripture as the Compassionate Samaritane page 29 30 31. One interest among others by him named of Ministers is to perswade the people that the Scriptures though we have them in our tongue are not yet to be understood by us without their help and interpretation so that in effect we are in the same condition with those we have so long pitied that are forbid to have the Scriptures in their own tongue for it is alone not to have them in our own tongue and to be made beleeve that we cannot understand them though we have them in our own Is the cabinet open to us and do we yet want a key has so much labour been spent so many translations extant and are we yet to seek Let us argue a little with them either the Scriptures are not rightly translated or else they are if they are not why have we not been told so all this while why have we been cheated into errours if they are rightly translated why should not English men understand them The idiomes and proprieties of the Hebrew and Greek languages which some say cannot word for word be exprest in English might all this while have been translated into as many English words as will carry the sense thereof For the dilemma concerning the Scriptures rightly translated or not rightly I may apply that of Job chap. 6. verse 15. How forcible are right words but what doth your arguing reprove and answer in a word that they are rightly translated according to the reach of a humane work and more rightly than the translation followed so much by the Evangelists and Apostles I suppose all will yeeld that ours is more exact after the Original than was that of the Seventy And yet there was no cheat in those translations if there had those witnesses of Christ had not been silent and yet not such a perfection that will bear no amendment There is still use of examination of them of asserting and defending them But be it granted that the translation is every way exact and full does it follow that there needs no help or
so large in returning praise for the Colossians Giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. As alone the blood of Christ sets free from hell so alone the Spirit of Christ makes fit for heaven This is done by a double work 1. Of regeneration or first implantation of grace which is called the birth of the Spirit John 3. 5 6. 2. By acting improving carrying on this work of grace which is properly sanctification so that when the Spirit is gone thus farre here is a certainty of the object It is sure nothing more sure than this that a regenerate sanctified man shall be saved But here is more required for a certainty of the subject Here is certitudo de re but more is required to attaine certitudinem de se If Peter do beleeve and repent he shall be saved is out of controversie But that Peter doth beleeve and repent is not alwayes so soone discovered And this is the Spirits work as the former It is not my businesse now to hold out what is the Spirits whole office in concluding our Assurance but to shew that the conditions of the covenant are the bottom ground not of salvation but of our evidence of interest in salvation We must know that we do beleeve and repent before we have assurance and we must first beleeve and repent before we know that we beleeve and repent If before faith and repentance there can be no salvation then before we know we beleeve and repent we cannot be assured of salvation But without faith and repentance there is no salvation Mark 16. 16. He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved but he that beleeveth not shall be damned Luke 13. 3. 5. I tell you may but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Therefore before we beleeve and repent we cannot be assured of salvation And how assurance can be gained without a practical syllogisme and how a syllogisme can be framed with any other medium than the conditions of the covenant is above my understanding Man is so far from abilities to conclude salvation without faith and repentance that be must conclude himself to be in faith and that he doth repent before he can conclude any interest in it The covenant of God is the ground of our salvation if that be waved all is lost and we must make good our part in the Covenant Grace must assist to answer what the covenant requires or no salvation How is it a covenant if nothing be required and why is it required if it must not be performed To gather up assurance from the conditions of the covenant is a businesse of greater consequence even the highest pitch of Christianity It is a great work to beleeve and repent a greater work to know that we savingly beleeve and repent The work it selfe is difficult no businesse of a lazy soul but to know that the work is aright done is a greater difficulty but that it must be gathered from the conditions is easie to resolve I know some finding the seal of the Spirit and the witnesse of the Spirit mentioned in Scripture in order to assurance will have the whole of the work of Assurance to be carryed on alone by the Spirit and that all is done in us without us They expect a secret whisper from God that we are Gods and no more This witnesse they say must be heeded and our faith and repentance in the work not at all regarded But I would know of those if the Spirit be a seale whether the soul doth not bear the impresse and what this impresse is but the graces of the Spirit The Seale sealing and the impresse made fully answer one the other Sometimes it may dimmely answer where the wax or clay or whatsoever is sealed takes not a full impression but if it answer not it is no Seale The graces that the Spirit works are its impresse and these are the conditions of the covenant and so instead of an objection we have a proofe For the witnesse of the Spirit I desire to know whether it be a single witnesse giving testimony to us without us or a witnesse concurring with our spirits The Text is cleare Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God Our spirits bearing witnesse are our consciences Rom. 2. 5. Their consciences also bearing them witnesse and therefore Master Baxter rightly affirmes That the testimony of the Spirit and the testimony of our consciences are two concurrent testimonies or causes to produce one and the same effect But every conscience cannot witnesse thus with the Spirit or joyne in a concurrent testimony It is the witnesse of a good conscience 1 Pet. 3. 21. Baptism saves saith the Apostle by the resurrection of Christ Explaining himself not the putting away the filth of the flesh not the bare outward act of administration which is worthily set out by the most undervaluing termes when it is put in opposition to the inward work but the answer of a good conscience towards God Baptisme is a seal of the covenant and it engages to what the covenant requires which as we have been still catechized is to beleeve in God and to forsake our sins and when conscience answers that this is done Baptisme is a seale that Christ saves The seale of the Spirit is an impresse of those graces and the witnesse of the Spirit is a clearingup of these graces and giving in testimony to the truth of them opening our eyes to read the characters which it selfe hath made 1 Corinth 2. 12. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God So that in vaine do men talk of the Spirit that have not on their own hearts the impresse of it or of the witnesse of the Spirit when a renewed conscience cannot concurre in testimony that these engagements are answered in faith and repentance let that Text of the Apostle be considered 1 John 3. 24. He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us I know there are some that admit of all this and freely yeeld that this is a safe way to conclude Assurance from Sanctification Confessing that the Spirit never witnesseth with an unsanctified heart yet they contend for a farther and immediate teste of the Spirit without any consideration had of inherent graces wrought or any reflection made by the the soule upon it selfe in review of any gracious qualifications Yet here they confesse danger and limit this doctrine of theirs with diverse cautions as I have met with some from an eminent hand in a manuscript 1. This is extraordinary as they say very seldome seene or known it is no common way of
do them that ye may live and go in and possesse the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you Deut. 5. 33. You shall walk in all the wayes which the Lord your God hath commanded you that ye may live and that it may be well with you and that ye may prolong your dayes in the land which ye shall possesse Deut. 30. 16. In that I command this day to love the Lord thy God to walk in his wayes and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgements that thou mayest live and multiply and the Lord thy God shall blesse thee in the land whither thou goest to possesse it Deut. 6. 24 25. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as it is this day And it shall be our righteousnesse if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us We may so interpret those Scriptures and the Jewes as it appears for a great part did so interpret them that they hold out a covenant of Works when Grace was not at all acknowledged to assist in doing nor Christ known at all to satisfie for failing and to expiate for transgression These seeing nothing but a reward upon labour and punishment in case of transgression They may yet be so interpreted as taking Grace in the Work for change of the heart and putting it into a posture for obedience according to that even in Moses Deut. 306. I will circumcise thy heart and the heart if thy â—eed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live and so these duties are only Gospel qualifications of truth and sincerity of obedience In this sense which they may well bear and I take to be their native sense here is no more than what we finde in the Gospel from Christ and the Apostles They that have done good shall rise unto the resurrâ—ction of life John 5. 28. To them that by patient continuing in well-doing seek for glory and immortality eternal life Rom 2. 5. Where as in many other places we may see that according to the New covenant a man may make the attaining of life the end of his work and the Reader may see phrases of his nature to be New covenant New Testament and Gospel-language unlesse they will charge Christ and the Apostles to have Old testament-Testament-spirits To save a mans self may be so understood as to bear a sense purely legal anti-Evangelical and opposite to Grace or Faith in Christ and so it is used by the Apostle or a phrase very near it For by Grace ye are saved through Faith not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. Not obscurely shewing that if we are saved of our selves it is not of Grace not of Faith and not the gift of God Yet the phrase may be understood in a Gospel-sense as requiring and implying no more than our endeavour in a state of grace through the assistance of the Spirit to walk in Salvation-way To strive to enter in at the strait gate and to seek the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse of it and so we finde it used and that more than once in Scriptures 1 Tim. 4. 16. Take heed unto thy self and unto the doctrine in so doing thou wilt save thy self and them that hear thee Ministers taking heed to doctrine save hearers and yet are no saviours in opposition but in subordination to the Lord Jesus Ministers and others taking heed to themselves save themselves and yet are no self-saviours in opposition to free grace the merit of or faith in Christ Jesus Peter in his first Sermon after receiving of the holy Ghost preâ—cht the Gospel yet he urg'd this which some will have to be no other than a covenant of Works Save your selves from this untoward generation Act. 2. 40. And the Apostle preacht no other thing than Christ and him crucified when he called on the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. To be found in our own righteousnesse in that sense that Paul uses it Phil. 3. 8. doth exclude the righteousnesse of faith that was no bottom on which he durst stand yet in the sense that Ezekiel uses it the soul is delivered by it Though Noah Daniel and Job stood before me they would but deliver their own soules by their righteousness Ezek. 14. 14. so Ezek. 18. 22. In his righteousness that he hath done he shall live Noah was an heir of the righteousness of faith Heb. 11. 7. as the Holy Ghost himself witnesseth yet the same Holy Ghost tells us that his own righteousness delivers his soul So Solomon saith Righteousnesse delivers from death he doth not only say it would deliver were it exact and compleat but such as it is it doth deliver Prov. 20.2 David as Paul observes describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works Rom. 4. 6. Yet the same David puts blessednesse upon works Psal 112. 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his commandments Psalme 119. 12. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord Blessed are they that keep his testimonies that seek him with the whole heart Ps 128. 1. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walketh in his wayes And so also the Apostle James Who so looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word that man shall be blessed in his deed James 1. 25. The Apostle Peter tells us We are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1 5. Our salvation is not in our own keeping It is not our own care that frees us from destruction yet John saith He that is begotten of God sinneth not and keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not 1 John 5. 18. Here are the same words affirmed and denied and both from one and the same mouth of truth a different sense therefore is to be enquired after A righteousnesse which is the condition of the covenant of Works out of our own inherent strength and abilities in an exact perfection is denied a righteousnesse not of us but through grace wrought in us in sincerity which the covenant of Grace calls for is asserted and required Ninthly Though the whole Law that Moses delivered from God on Mount Sinai to the people and is among the sacred Oracles of God for posterity do containe a covenant of Grace yet the Law is taken sometime in that strict sense as containing a covenant of Works and holding forth life upon condition of perfect obedience So the Apostle Rom. 10. 5 6. puts an opposition between the righteousnesse of the Law and the righteousness of Faith So also Gal. 3. 18. If
letter of the Text then I shall hearken to him in the meane time all indifferent men may well challenge their reason that heed him A second Text holding out the covenant in its ancient latitude we have from our Saviour Christ Matth. 20. 16. and 22. 14. Many are called but few chosen The close of two several Parables The one of the labourers hired into the Vineyard where some claimed a more large pay upon merit The other of the Parable of the Wedding-feast where one intruded without a Wedding garment whence our Saviour inferres Many are called are of the number of guests at the wedding feast are of the labourers in the Vineyard but few are chosen from whence I thus argue If there be a call from God in the times of the New Testament in a farre greater latitude than the grace of Election that of many called few only are elected then the covenant in New Testament-times is not to be restrained to the elect and regenerate but containes all that professedly accept the termes of the covenant and visibly appear a people of God This is evident seeing the call is into covenant all at the Feast were called ones all the hired labourers were covenant-servants To conceive men to be called of God and not to be in covenant with God is a full contradiction The call hath its terminus à quo and its terminus ad quem a state which upon call they leave and a new state on which they enter They are upon this call in a nearer relation to God than the rest of the world otherwise they were the same as ever and not called at all they are not in so neare a relation as men borne of the Spirit so they were elected They have a call by the Word and ministerial outward Ordinances to which they yeeld a professed subjection They have not attained the inward working of the Spirit to a real Sanctification Now for the Assumption that there is a call in New Testament-times in this latitude in a far greater latitude than the grace of Election our Saviour evidently shews in the Text quoted There are those at the feast that are not accepted There are those that are taken into the Vineyard that at the evening of the day do displease there are those therefore that are called into covenant with God and yet are rejected of God a full and a clear Text for covenant-holinesse This is farther evident in those Parables of our Saviour Christ of the field with Wheat and Tares Matth. 13. 24 25. of the draw-net with fishes good and bad Matth. 13. 47. of the floore with chaffe and Wheat Matth. 3. 12. of the great house where there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earth and stone some to honour and some to dishonour 2 Tim. 2. 20. In which parables by the floore the field expressely compared to the Kingdome of Heaven and the great house the Church is understood which stands in covenant-relation to God and containes those that are in covenant with God A man in the Kingdome of Heaven is a man in covenant with God unlesse he stood in a covenant-relation he could have no standing there and the comparison were very strangely drawn if this Kingdome thus set out had all that were good none bad in it But of this more when I shall speake to some Corolaries that follow from this Assertion Another Scripture in which the covenant in the ancient latitude is held out is Rom. 11. thoroughout a great part of the chapter There is as all know a large discourse of the Apostasie of the Jews and the call of the Gentiles of the rejection and breaking off of the one and the taking in and ingraffing of the other which I shall presently have a further occasion to open when I shall speak to another pretended difference between the covenant as it stood then and as it stands now In the meane time this is clear into the same Church-state and covenant-latitude from which the Jews fell Gentiles were taken in and do still continue This cannot be denied we being graffed in their stead come in upon like termes as they left They fell from a visible Church state and that latitude of covenant which did receive regenerate and unregenerate justified and unjustified That covenant-latitude then still remaines in the Churches of the Gentiles in Gospel-times Nothing here that I can see can with any colour be objected unlesse any will say that the invisible Church is there spoken to and not the visible that the Jews fell from the invisible body and that the Gentiles in their call are generally taken in into the same fellowship Which as I think few will affirme so I shall have presently occasion to examine If any shall further say that they have this title in Foro Ecclesiae and not in Foro Dei as to men they have so far right that Ministers may not refuse them or in their administrations deny them admittance but in the sight of God who knows their unregenerate unjustified condition they have no title at all I shall refer them to the whole tenor of that chapter where they shall see this engraffing of theirs ascribed to the power of God that it is done by the election of God and mentioned as his gift and choice mercy to that people All of which speak the mind of God in it and his approbation of it This is farther clear in that Text of the Apostle Heb. 10 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Sonne of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight unto the Spirit of Grace Where we see those that are sanctified with the blood of the covenant do tread under foot the Son of God and count his blood an unholy thing have an esteeme of it as that which is common and never devoted at all to God These must needs be granted to be wicked ye cannot be denied to be in covenant being sanctified with the blood of the Covenant There is indeed a threefold interpretation of this Text One of the Arminians and those of that party enemies to perseverance in Grace and they understand by sanctification in this place an internal change and renovation of the soul from whence by Apostasie such persons fall They that will embrace this tenent may indeed say that in the state of sanctification they were in covenant but falling from sanctification they fall from covenant But this is not affirmed by those with whom I have to deale and therefore I shall not lanch out into this controversie Two other interpretations are given by those that are adversaries to this way and make it their work to vindicate this text from these mens glosses The first refers sanctification not to those delinquents that tread under foot
before Antichrist was raised to his height and strength in his delusions and Antichrist still holds them of all sorts and sizes Either of both of these mayâ—e Negative or Positive Negative are such where the doctrine of faith is not laid Positive where it is mis-laid where edifying doctrines are not preached and where they are mis-preacht both tend to the Churches danger a house never compleat or built up entire but defective in several parts little differs from that which is ruinous The Apostle who is worthily stiled a wise Master-builder 1 Cor. 3. 10. makes known the whole counsel of God Acts 20. 27. and builds not up defective Churches 5. All errors being against Christ who is the foundation to bear up and carrie on the whole work accordingly as they dash upon Christ and obscure his glory whether more or lesse the estimate of the danger is to be taken These are either such that render Christ in an uncapacity to be our Mediatour and Saviour or such that are inconsistent in whole or in part with his Mediatourship of the former kinde are those that are against his person 1. Those that impugne the Godhead of Christ such that though they give him the glory to be above Angels yet will make him no more than a creature a God in title and place as are Magistrates not in nature or power An opinion that involves the Apostolick Church and all Churches in succession in idolatry giving the honour of God the worship due to God unto him who by nature is no God A doctrine that will make Christ an impotent and not an omnipotent head too weak for his work to govern the world and bring under his enemies 2. Those that deny his manhood as having not taken our flesh and so no suitable head but a phantastick or seeming body Those that are against his Mediatourship are either such that obscure or some way eclipse it as every errour doth that is any way considerable or such that raze if not utterly overthrow it in some of the necessary parts of it his Kingdome Priesthood or Prophetical Office These are overthrown either directly in termes of full opposition or else by consequence and this such that is either immediate and evident the truth being confest these cannot be denied or else the consequence more remote and not so easily discerned These things being premised we must bring it home to our purpose 1. Where fundamental truths are not only questioned doubted and disputed but abjured and denyed errours directly or by immedate clear consequence introduced so that the truth cannot be known but the errour must be seen and this declared by publick confession and generally held Christians are to be gone here are not sufficient edifying truths nor yet antidotes to preserve from danger when they would have healed Babylon and she would not be healed then it is time to forsake If any man come unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed 2 John 10. saith John much lesse then may we hold such communion with them It is said of Mice that when the house through ruines is falling they will be gone shall nature teach them to provide for their safety and shall nothing teach Christians to see to their own salvation When Jerusalem was to be destroyed according to Christs prediction and not one stone to be left upon another a voice is said to be heard crying Get out to Pella Foundation-breaches seen and suffered are as this voice to be gone such a Jerusalems walls are falling There is a flight too soon when care might keep up the buildings when with the poore man we may save and deliver the City Eccles 9. 15. They that preached Christ in those Churches of Galatia and preached down Circumcision and other points of Judaisme pleased the Apostle better then they that without such endeavour should desert it so those that had preached the resurrection in Corinth had better pleased then those that had left the place for their sakes that denyed it A Church may not onely degenerate but apostatize may not onely languish but lose her vital spirits may not onely displease her Bridegroom but suffer a divorce perhaps keep the title of a wife and indeed be a strumpet and want all evidence of relation to the Bridegroome 2. In the case of pollutions of a more inferior alloy a Christian may be necessitated to leave 1. When the food of life knowledge in the word or means to compasse it cannot be had In such a case it must be sought They must resolve with the Lepers 2 King 7. 3. not to sit still and die When the Priests and Levites left their suburbs and pessessions under Jeroboams government being cast out of their employment and the lowest of the people men of self-consecration set up in their stead after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers 2. Châ—â—n 11. 16. Being without a teaching Priest they were as the Prophet tells Asa 2 Chron. 15. 3. without the Law and without God and there was no staying there 2. When a man by compulsion is necessitated to give approbation to such pollutions in any such way that speaks his compliance whether it be by the civil power through unsufferable fines â—ulcts imprisonments unavoidable or peril of life Or by the Ecclesiastical power in excommunications when men are driven out or necessitated for soul-subsistence to go out there is full liberty and warranty to leave But when Ordinances in a saving way may be enjoyed with liberty and safety no Laws being enacted for their so heavy persecution or through indulgence or connivence not put into execution there the Churches good calls for good mens stay not their secession or separation There was not a little leaven in the Churches doctrine in Christs time errour was advanced into Moses chaire yet Christ himself with many other that waited for redemption in Jerusalem held communion as Church-members All was not right in every Church of the Saints to whom Christ wrote Revel 2. 3. and to whom Paul sent Epistles yet as they retained still the honour of Churches and the happinesse of Christs presence so we hear nothing of separation enjâ—â—ned or practised The condition of Beleevers in the Synagogue of Rome was otherwise The key of knowledge is there taken away the people not allowed to read it in private or to heare it in publick but kept reserved in an unknown language neither could they without capital danger keep themselves from compliances in their sinne so that reformed Churches did not in any unwarrantable way of Schisme leave but rather were left They forsook not the Church but the botches and corruptions in it though we were never forbidden to partake of their truths yet we are forbidden to partake of their sins lest we partake
name of Christ drawn from the benefit which they shall reap Ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost 3. A farther encouragement to the acceptation of Baptism drawn from their Covenant-priviledge which is here set out in its full latitude and extent as Calvin rightly upon the words observeth 1. â—o the Jewes For the promise is unto you 2. To their children and to your children 3. To the Gentiles upon call and to you that are afarre off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Where an effectual call cannot be meant which the Apostle calls a call according to purpose proper only to the elect It is a call unto such a Church-state as the whole Nation of the Jews did then enjoy as the first-borne in the family A call that puts them into a like Church-state and condition with the Jews From whence this argument may be drawn Those to whom the Covenant of promise appertaines have a right to Baptisme But the covenant of promise appertaines to men in a Church-state and condition and to their children The major cannot be denied by any that will not make themselves the Apostles opposites The minor proposition is now to be considered That the covenant of promise to men in a Church-state and condition is in that latitude as to comprize their children For which the words of the Apostle are full and clear To you is the promise made and to your children on which Calvin rightly comments Peter observes saith he a due order when he assigns the first place of honour to the Jewes That it takes in children it depends on the words of the promise Gen. 17. 7. I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Where God joynes children with their parents in the priviledge of adoption in the inheritance of priviledges belonging to all Church-members But this clear text wants not wits that study to cloud it Objections answered Some except against the word children and will have them to be the same as the sons and daughters mentioned v. 17. of that chapter from Joel chap. 2. 28. and consequently the promise to be meant of the Spirit of prophecie and to appertaine to none but those of age and capacity for prophecie To this I answer 1. The extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost in this visible way cannot be the promise here by Saint Peter mentioned seeing it is enlarged to all that are afarre off even to as many as the Lord shall call But all these have not the holy Ghost in that way extraordinary nor any promise of it Baptisme with the holy Ghost and with fire is a baptisme proper to those primitive Saints wherewith they were told that they should be baptized not many dayes after 2 Howsoever the promise be interpreted so as to belong to all that are beleevers and call on the name of the Lord as there followes yet that promise is on condition of their baptisme The meanes are to be used in reference to the end Baptisme is the meanes receiving of the holy Ghost there specified is the end And the Apostle confirming them in the promise of the end doth likewise encourage them to the use of the meanes in Baptisme to expect the gift of the Spirit and so according to this interpretation that place is an encouragement to baptisme The promise is the fittest encouragement to the Signe and Seale of the promise Baptisme is the Signe and Seale to which they are here encouraged and in that latitude as they had formerly known the command of Circumcision 3. Neither are the children here mentioned the same with sonnes and daughters spoken of by the Prophet nor limitted to such sonnes and daughters as are of growth and capable of the gift of prophesie 1. The Apostle urgeth the promise in the way as in the Scripture it is delivered which is to men and their posterity to them and theirs So God promises to be a God in covenant to his and their seed and this the Apostle holds out to draw them on to the Seale of the covenant to accept Baptisme on the same terms that Abraham did circumcision 2. It is without reason to beleeve that the Apostle should instance in one peece of the distribution of the Prophet there and to leave out the rest to put in alone sons and daughters when we have in the Text young men old men servants and handmaids 3. Children here are mentioned under a promise to the parents to you and your children is the promise made but not so in Joel nor in the quotation of the Apostle That Scripture hath only an enumeration of the several sorts and conditions of people in any Nation on all which the spirit is promised without any reference made to the parents of those sonnes and daughters more then to the masters of those servants and handmaids not the sonnes and daughters of their flesh but the sonnes and daughters of the Nation A Language usual in our ordinary expressions speaking of men of any sort or condition as your Lawyers your Merchants c. so here your sonnes your daughters your old men your young men c Others say That the promise made is the sending of Jesus Christ and blessing by him as is expounded Acts 3. 25 26. Act 13. 32. Ro. 15. 39. I answer it is true that Jesus Christ is the most eminent mercy promised and may be called the promise virtualiter being the ground of all promises and therefore some interpreters have mentioned the gift of Christ on this occasion But it is plaine that Gods Covenant and this gift are to be distinguished Christ is promised in priority to the Jew before the Gentile The Jew then is taken into Covenant before this gift of Christ can be of them expected It is therefore the Covenant it self entered with parent and child root and branch that is here meant as Calvin in the words before observes from which the giving of Christ in the flesh follows And therefore Diodati fully pitches upon the true sense of it Seeing as you are Abrahams children you are within the Covenant you ought to acknowledge Christ to be the head and fountaine of the Covenant The Covenant I will be thy God and the God of thy seed is here meant which from Abraham had been the Jewes priviledge Rom. 9. It is farther said that the limitation as many as the Lord our God shall call shewes that the promise belongs to them not simply as Jewes but as called of God which is more expressely affirmed Acts 3. 26. To you first God having raised up his Sonne Jesus sent him to blesse you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities I wonder how it came into any mans head to call this amplification a limitation it plainly enough speaks their boldnesse in dealing with the Scriptures Had the Apostle said To you is the promise made and to your seed in case God shall give you a call he had spoke to their purpose but
the flesh their former dignity and consequently their future recovery unto the state from whence they were fallen in which the Gentile-Nations by discipling do succed let us go no farther for determination of the question then the preceding verse As concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sakes but as touching the Election they are beloved for the Fathers sake Here is to be enquired 1. Who were enemies concerning the Gospel 2. Who the Fathers are for whose sake they are beloved 3. What this election is and then we shall soone see who are beloved for the Fathers sake For the first It is not the spiritual seed that were as concerning the Gospel enemies that is the highest of contradictions but as Diodate sayes the Jewes who at present time were alienate from God by reason of rebellion against the Gospel which only can unite souls to him Enemies against the Gospel are enemies against God which cannot be understood of spiritual Israel The fathers for whose sake they are beloved are the ancient fathers from whom after the flesh they did proceed especially Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prepter patres for the fathers Then Election must needs be as Paraeus upon the words Diodate and Ravanellus in verbum Electio observe understood of an external grace of the Covenant whereby God chose this Nation to himself according to that of Moses Deut. 7. 6. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth unlesse we are elect in Abraham to salvation and not in Christ And Abraham Isaac and Jacob are our Mediatours reconciliation and when the Apostle saith We are accepted in the beloved Ephes 1. 6. it is to be understood of acceptation in Abraham and we are to conclude our prayers not in and through Christ but Abraham Isaac and Jacob we are not for their sakes beloved to salvation Paraeus indeed makes the grace of eternal Election to be secondarily here understood which God saith he deposited in that Nation for adopting them into Covenant he makes it evident saith he that he hath many of that Nation and ever shall have that are Elect unto salvation But this is not the Election here mentioned but only an adjunct of it and now of it self it will follow that these beloved for Abraham Isaac and Jacob are the children of their flesh Because saith Paraeus God loved the Fathers the love extends it self to the children for if among men friendship with parents be divolved to Children why should it not be so with God likewise I desire that it may be considered for whom Moses interceded when he prayed Remember Abraham Isaac and Israel thy servants to whom thou swarest by thy own selfe and saidest unto them I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it for ever Exod. 32. 13. Was it not the whole body of Israel And for whom is it that God promises to remember his Covenant with Jacob and also his Covenant with Isaac and also his Covenant with Abraham Levit. 26. 42. Was it not the whole Nation under suffering as there is exprest I will remember the land Either then Paul and Moses erre together with the list of Authours here mentioned or else the love election calling in this place is into a Church state and condition Argument 8. Eighthly If the ingraffing both of Jews and Gentiles be the fruit of Gods mercy the breaking off by shutting up in unbelief then the ingraffing is into the invisible Church by election and giving faith But the former is true verse 30 31 32. Ergo the latter Answ The priviledge of a Church-state which the Jewes once had and againe shall have is a mercy as may be seene Hosea 1. 6 9. Our Author addes What shall I say more It is so plain from the whole scope and tenour of the Apostles words that the ingraffing there spoken of is into the invisible Church by election and giving faith that from the first of the chapter to verse 13. there is scarce a verse but speaks of rejecting foreknowing election grace hardening giving a Spirit of slumber darkening the eyes stumbling falling or some equipollent terme to these and the Apostle doth plainly signifie his intention in all that discourse to be the shewing the mystery of Gods counsel in electing reprobating blinding conuerting one while the Jews another while the Gentiles so that I cannot but admire that Mr. Marshal should interpret the ingraffing of bare admission into visible Church-membership Answ 1. I would willingly learne what ingraffing by Election is I take Election to be an immanent act in God which is terminated in himself and not on the creature such expressions do not suit with so high pretendings to scholastical learning as every where may be seen in this Authour 2. I would have this Argument made up by taking in the assumption which can be no other then this But the Jewes in their fall from Church-fellowship cannot be said to be rejected hardened given to a spirit of slumber or that their eyes are darkened or that they have stumbled neither Election or Grace should have any hand in their Church-fellowship This must be the reasoning if there be any shew of reason in this heap of words and then all may well admire while he is in his admiration of others I say no more but that he is very weak both in Divinity and Logick that cannot presently upon the first sight discover the weaknesse and return a satisfying answer to this flourish of words Argument 9. Parallel places as is said must be understood of implanting into the invisible Church as Ephes 3. 6. 1 Cor. 12. 13. Gal. 3. 14 26 28 29. Answ Master Hudson page 132. hath not onely affirmed but proved that the Text 1 Cor. 12. 13. is meant of the Church as visible to whom I referre the Reader He places his greatest confidence in the first as he professes and thus enlarges upon it Now sure the Gentiles were made fellow-heires of the same body and co-partakers of the promise of God in the Gospel not by an outward Ordinance but by giving of faith according to Election Ergo the ingraffing Rom. 11. 17. parallel to it is not by an outward Ordinance but by giving Faith according to Election To this I onely say O that this were truth Then as the Apostle saith of Israel at their restauration all Israel shall be saved Rom. 11. 26. so we may say all England in statu quo shall be saved in the sense that he would understand salvation Whether we be by descent Britaines Saxons or Normans we are gentiles and consequently by his Divinity partakers of the Gospel by Fatih according to Election But it is too clear that
most perillous times 2 Tim. 3. 3. How much more then will God and man have in detestation those that have entred covenant in an immediate way with God for faith and obedience and to stand out in opposition to sinne and Satan yet making defection from God by sinne and unbeliefe stand up in rebellion against him Is the dreadful Majesty of the great God of no more regard than to pretend to him engage with him and then stand up in hostility against him Is there any thing so lovely or honourable in sin to allure men to run upon the wrath of God that they may welter in it or any thing so unpleasing in the wayes of God that neither the dread of his name nor the blisse held forth in promise can perswade to embrace them A viler thing cannot be named than a Christian in sinne a Christian in wayes of unbeliefe and wickednesse Were the name of a Christian off and no covenant bonds engaging to the Lord then there were no more than a creature in rebellion and that were bad enough the work of Gods hand to strive with its Maker But standing vested in this covenant-relation honoured with this glorious Name here is an addition of Hypocrisie Apostasie and defection We hate none more than those that are false to us and we may well conclude that God hates none more than those that are false to him and therefore challenges his people whether they have found any iniquity in him Jerem. 2 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone farre from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain A servant doth not use to quit one Master and betake himself to another but he gives some reason of his change One that hath been engaged for the ways of God as all are that are called by the Name of God and dignified with the title of a Christian would be hard put to it to give a reason of his revolt from God When God and vanity are set in competition that God should be refused and vanity chosen when the fountaine of living waters that never can be drawn dry is left and cisternes broken cisternes chosen that are alwayes running dry How does the holy Ghost set out these 2 Pet. 2. 22. The dog is turned to his own vomit againâ—â— and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Can the sow find no other place than filth nor the dogge no other food than his vomit A returne to sinne is more loathsome than these and such are all the wayes of all men in sinne of all of a Christian profession that are seen in ungodly ways Nothing so glorious as a Christian that holds to his principles that answers in conversation to his profession Nothing so inglorious as a Christian in sin A Jew outwardly and a Heathen inwardly a face for God and a heart for iniquity When such as these came out of the holy land for Babylon they there said in way of reproach of their God These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36. 20. Rom. 2. 24. Insomuch that God is put to it for his vindication not to suffer them to carry their sin with impunity Ezek. 39. 23 24. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies so fell they all by the sword according to their uncleannesse and according to their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them This falsehood in covenant draws present sufferings National plagues I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant Levit. 26. 25. Every Christian Nation under sufferings may sadly reflect upon all that they groan under and say their iniquities have procured these things unto them But this breach of covenant with God hath greater evils even unto eternity following upon it Men of sinne and unbeliefe that lie in distrust and disobedience can claime no interest in the grace and mercy of the covenant God in covenant engages to Faith and Repentance these as we have seen are his termes when men come not up to them they dis-interest themselves and disengage God from any tye of conferring blisse and savation upon them Their own folly and madnesse puts a barre to their own happinesse and glory They cannot be self-saviours yet they will not go out of themselves for salvation by another when they have received the sentence of death in themselves they will not come to Christ that they may have life He may worthily bear his own debt that in pride of spirit refuses anothers bounty Christ offers himself as a Surety in our stead to make payment for us in his own person The unbeleever will stand on his owu bottome and make pay out of his own store or perish Having heaven and hell set before them the tender of the one and the terrour of the other quitting heaven and all the glory of it and happinesse in it they make choice of that fire that is prepared for the Devil and his Angels covenant-breaking having the certaine doome of destruction fastened upon it Assurance of salvation cannot be gained but in a way of covenant-keeping yea the conditions of the covenant are the basis and never failing bottome of our Evidence and Assurance It is gathered thus He that believes and repents shall be saved This is evidently laid down in Scriptures A man void of saving faith and impenitent may give his assent to it Then the sould is to assume to it selfe but I beleeve and repent therefore I shall be saved These two as at large hath been shewn are the conditions of the covenant these we must finde wrought in our souls or else all Evidence is wanting and when these are concluded an undeceiving interest in salvation follows There is a twofold work to be done on the soul that is in sin in order to bring it to salvation There is a third to be done for assurance of salvation The first work is to set the soul free from Hell to deliver it from the sentence of Death to which by the rule of justice man stands condemned A man must be fetched out of prison before he can be for any preferment or place of honour This is done by the blood of Christ Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace This is the price of our ransom Being redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1 18. Secondly to make a man meet for heaven A man so vile as sinne makes is a man fit for nothing but hell and must have a change wrought before he be meet for heaven Upon this ground the Apostle is
truth with Master Cartwrights authority making them as to the thing full parallel as to every eye they are hath there wrought some silence so I doubt not but it will follow here It is not the Apostles intention Gal. 2. 15. to speak of the birth-priviledg of the Jews nor yet the want of it in the Gentiles yet there he mentions both neither is it his intention to treat of such a distinction of births in the Church Jewish or Christian but the hostile disposition of one so born against another yet in that place he plainly signifies such a distinction of births in either Church both Jewish and Christian Can any man deny that Abraham had two sons of such different births as the Apostle from the hystory in Genesis shews v. 22 23. Ishmael is set out as a son of Abraham and upon that account we know he had the honour of circumcision Isaac had the same but a degree of further honour with it being born as Ishmael was not by promise And whatsoever Allegory the Apostle makes of it which is not to my purpose to examine yet in his reddition or application he looks at the hiâ—story not at the allegory as the adverbs of time Then Now neither of which are allegorised do demonstrate And though Ishmael may be a type of a justitiary seeking righteousnesse by works and persecuting those that seek a righteousnesse by faith whether typus factus or destinatus I will not enquire yet I think it will never be proved that Ishmael was such a one in his own person persecuting Isaac on that account which must be proved if the Apostle in his reddition do no look at the history but the allegory as my adversary contends or else he speaks besides the purpose Then looks at the history denoting time as none can deny and Now must not referre to the allegory without great absurdity My interpretation as is said will not hold in that according to it there is no agreement correspondency or parity in the parts of the compound proposition And I wonder what agreement correspondency or parity there is or can be in the parts of this compound proposition according to the interpretation opposed against me confounding history and allegory together Thus it must be as Ishmael no justitiary then jeered Isaac a sucking babe as my adversary out of Hierome speaks who was not in capacity to look after any righteousnesse so it is now justitiaries persecute those that do follow after righteousnesse by faith If this glosse stand it should not be so it is now but rather now it is otherwise He that will come to a right understanding of the Text must refer this 29. verse to 22 and 23. looking upon verse 24 25 26 27 28. where the allegory is prosecuted as a parenthisis seeing the words in v. 29. cannot be refer'd to the allegory in those words where there is no mention made of persecution but to the history in the former I am told that the Apostles distribution cannot be of a subject by its adjuncts but of a genus into its species because birth is neither substance quantity nor quality but an action or a passion and actions though they be capable of various modifications yet Logiscians as is said do not call them subjects But doubtlesse the person borne is and may be called a subject and stands in a capacity of adjuncts and I look to the persons here distinguished some with more inferior and others with more noble adjuncts When I cite may Master Baine brought in against me as an adversary saying The children of the flesh here are those onely who in course of nature came from Abraham I am told it is true that Mr. Bayne so interprets the terme children of the flesh Rom. 9. 8. as I have cited him which place he meant but not the terme he that is borne after the flesh Gal. 4. 29. yea p. 138. he saith for though children of the flesh in some other Scripture meaning Gal. 4 29. doth note out justitiaries seeking salvation in the Law yet here Rom. 9. 8. the literal meaning is to be taken a childe of the flesh being such a one who descendeth from Abraham according to the flesh But how can Mr. Bayne possibly meane Gal. 4 29. as I am here told he doth when he speaks of the children of the flesh when those words are not to be found there but born after the flesh and those terms children of the flesh and born after the flesh are in this very place by my adversary distingushed And though Master Bayne do not quote Gal 4 29. in that place which I mentioned yet Doctor Abbot in Thomsoni diatribam p. 115. saith Circumcisus est Ishmael circumcisus Isaac solus autem Isaac natus secundum spiritum Ishmael tantummodo secundum carnem non est autem justificatus qui natus est tantum modo secundum carnem Ishmael quanquam circumcisus non est tamen justificatus c. Here he plainly makes the birth of the flesh an honour giving circumcision though an honour inferiour to that of the birth of the spirit which justification accompanies and he quotes Gal. 4. 29. as a proof of what he speaks and I am much engaged to my Antagonist for his quotation out of Hierome Sicut ergo tum major frater Ishmael lactentem adhuc parvulum persequabatur Isaac sibi circumcisionis prerogativum sibi primogenita vendicans ita nunc c. Whence had he this prerogative of circumcision but from this birth that I speak of from Abraham and there is the like prerogative of birth still continuing or else there is no parity in the Apostles reddition Here I shall take notice of a fourfold absurdity endeavoured to be fastened upon me 1. That I understand this to be said of Infants which then must be said to persecute But I understand it not of Infants but of those which sometimes were Infants and had their birth in infancy from such and such parents 2. That I take being born after the flesh in the latter part to note a natural birth but that is clean besides the Apostles meaning who considers persons borne after the flesh not as borne by humane members and seed but as born by a fleshly covenant otherwise it would import no allegory contrary to the Apostles speech ver 24. which tells us these things are an allegory If I should take it in one part of the proposition in one sense and in another part of the proposition in another sense I should then quite spoile the agreement which I am told must be in it and then I might have been indeed argued against for an absurdity whereas it is said that the Apostle considers persons borne after the flesh not as born by humane members and seed but as borne by a fleshly Covenant I say that that is false as to the history and I have shewed by reasons that have yet no satisfying answer that the Apostle