doubt but in this list or catalogue he hath respect as well to things that belong to the irascible as to the concupiscible faculty yet all is contained under the notion and name of concupiscence For in the verses immediately going before he exhorteth walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh According to the original it is ye shall not accomplish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the concupiscence of the flesh In the present case then when the Galathians did live in malice envy hateful and hating one another they did fulfill the concupiscence of the flesh And so by this account the lusts both of the concupiscible and the irascible faculty are comprehended more generally under one name and title of concupiscence And all his contrary reasoning is just nothing at all Now let us come to his last Scripture The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishnesse to him 1 Cor. 2.14 Here he bestows much paines to weaken the force of the text An animal man saith he that is a Philosopher or a rational man such as were the Greeke and Roman Philosophers upon the stock and account of the learning of all the Schooles could not discern the excellency of the Gospel-mysteries as of God incarnate Christ dying the resurrection of the body and the like Rep. It s true that the Philosophers aforementioned were such natural or animal men but it is not the whole truth For they that come to Church and publickly professe may be animal men also and in their animality may be far from receiving the things of the Spirit A schoole-boy that is able some way to make a Gramatical construction of the Greek of Euclide and Ptolomy is not presently capable of the mysteries of Geometry and Astronomy That requireth the skill of an Artist as well as of a Gramarian And if the laws of the land were translated into English I think we should not be all Lawyers out of hand So in the present case though all may outwardly own and some may preach the Doctrine and mysteries of salvation this doth not presently entitle them to that kinde of learning that comes only by the teaching of the Spirit Many may speak much of the love of Christ that never had the feeling of it in their hearts Moses tells the people in his time ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare unto this day Deut. 29.24 They did see and they did not see they did outwardly see the works but they did not inwardly believe the truth wisedome goodnesse and power of God For had they seen these things as they ought they could not but have loved the Lord their God and have lived in obedience to his laws So then not only the Greek Philosophers but many Christians also may be called natural or animal men He further sheweth what animality is Animality which is a reliance upon natural principles without revelation is a state privatively opposed to the Spirit and a man in that state cannot be saved because he wants a vital part he wants the Spirit Rep. What he saith here and in the words immediately following is the same in substance that we speak and is extreamly contrary to the designe that he derives at For if in the state of animality a man cannot be saved because he wants the Spirit the chief vital of salvation Why doth he to make religion intelligible deny original sin plead for the freedome of the will and establish the purity of the natural birth We say because a man is borne in original sin and dead in trespasses and sinnes therefore he cannot be saved without the infusion of a new life He saith that a man in his animality cannot go to heaven without the Spirit the chiefe vital of salvation Let a wise man now judge where we and he do differ But to blind the businesse he hath a subtle distinction between carnality and animality Carnality saith he or the state of being in the flesh is not only privatively opposed but contrarily also to the spiritual staee of grace Rep. This expression of his might passe well enough were it not for that which followeth First speaking of the state of animality and then of carnality afterwards he hath these words The first is only an imperfection and a want of supernatural aides the other is indeed a direct state of sin and hated by God but superinduced by choice and not discending naturally Rep. In this expression of his there are two things that need a better enquiry First how doth he prove that the state of animality is only a state of meer imperfection and no more St. James tells us the wisdome from beneath is earthly sensual devilish or according to the original earthly animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devilish I think none will say that the animality of this wisdome is a bare imperfection and no more It s positively opposed to the wisdome that is above and can there be a greater enemy to the wisedome above then that which is beneath The Apostle St. Jude also saith that Mockers should come walking after their ungodly lusts These are they that separate themselves sensual not having the Spirit ver 18 19. the word is they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animal not having the Spirit Now in this case will any man be so void of understanding to affirme that these in their animality were meerly defective and that they were not in a direct state of enmity against God I think none will easily assert it Sure I am many ensamples may be brought to prove the distinction between animality and carnality to be a meer non-ens or nullity Secondly we agree that the state of carnality is a state of sin and hated of God but whereas he saith that it is only superinduced by choice as also that it doth not naturally descend Herein we crave liberty to depart from him The Scriptures all along specially the writings of St. Paul speak of the flesh in opposition to the Spirit Now will he or any man else assert that this is a state meerly superinduced and that men come to be flesh purely by the choice of their own will If this be so how do all come to agree in one and the same choice All do not agree to be Souldiers to be Scholars to be Merchants to be Mariners yet all are flesh before they come to be sanctified by the Spirit Seeing he will not have this state naturally to descend let him assigne some general cause how all do agree to be carnal Necessarily some general cause must lye at the bottome but he further saith Adam did leave us all in an animal state but this is not a state of anmity of direct opposition to God but a state insufficient and imperfect Rep. This state of meer imperfection which he speaks so
10 Suppose all this be granted that Adam was not to beleeve a Saviour because he was not in a lapsed or fallen condition how doth this prove that he was absolutely carnal and destitute of the Spirit He was to beleeve the Father as Lord Creator he was bound to love him to delight in him and how could he possibly do all this but he must have some measure of Spirit Therefore Adam had the Spirit and was a spiritual man before his fall You go on and say whatsoever qualifications the children of God have attained unto in and through Jesus Christ their Lord by remission of sinne or the hope of a resurrection and the attainment of a better life Adam was not capable of To this I answer though the difference may be in circumstances the substance is the same For if you reckon all that Adam had in present possession and all that he might have had if he had stood if you compare his whole state with the state of the Saints with that which they have and that which they shall have you shall finde an excellent correspondence betwixt both For what if Adam was not capable of remission of sinne by Christs blood it is all one if he be made in a state free from sinne What if he was not capable of regeneration because he had no pollution of nature yet he was created with a pure and spiritual nature in original righteousnesse What if he was not capable of the resurrection from the dead because he died not a natural death yet he was capable to eate of the tree of life to keep himself from death and so to live for ever Your whole way of reasoning is meerly fallacious because Adam had not spiritual life every way the same in circumstance therefore he had not the spirit in the substance and being thereof You go on and tell us If men will hold this opinion that righteousnesse and true holinesse is the Image of God which the Lord created man in and is not to be found there residing then it is very requisite that this holinesse and righteousnesse be released But how do you prove that this holinesse and righteousnesse did not reside in Adam If you shall say that he was not capable of such Evangelical holinesse as is set forth in the second Covenant what of all this notwithstanding the difference in circumstance he may have the same in substance Saint Paul saith I delight in the Law of the Lord after the inward man Rom. 7.22 He had the same spiritual delight in the Law by Renovation which Adam had before his fall by Creation where then is the difference Adam had no rebellion no law of the flesh warring against the law of his minde as Saint Paul had There was the same spirit of love in both but in the one it was with the love of the flesh and with conflict with the love of the flesh but the other was absolutely free He did not know by experience what it was to have the flesh rebel against the spirit Because the Law requires entire obedience of bodie and soule inward and outward throughout all the parts of our life because it is spiritual it self and requires that the thoughts words and deeds be spiritual we must necessarily conclude that the first man must be spiritual in a large degree seeing the Law was tempered and proportioned in the beginning to that ability he had But you have another evasion you say that at the Creation Adam was not made conformable to the Image of the Sonne seeing he had no such lawes to be conformable to Here you still harp upon the same string Because Adam was not conformable in the same manner therefore he had not the conformity to the Image of Christ in substance I pray you tell me the meaning of this Scripture Come let us make man after our own Image Is not this the speech of Father Sonne and Holy Ghost You cannot deny it No more can you deny that Adam was made after the Image of Christ as Lord Creator In this point we must necessarily say that Adam had the same Image of God and the same spirit in the general nature of it as the Saints have in the state of Regeneration only the difference lies in some circumstances He might also have the same faith in the general nature of faith though it was impossible for him in that state he stood to have justifying faith Seeing he was absolutely without the guilt of all sin he needed no pardon by Christs blood Suppose all this be granted that Adam was not to beleeve in a Saviour because he was not in a lapsed or fallen condition yet all this doth not prove him to be a carnal man or absolutely destitute of the Spirit before his fall He might beleeve in God the Father as Lord Creator to prevent that misery which should ensue by the fall And to such a kind of faith it is necessary that he should have some measure of spirit Upon this ground also we may conclude him to be spiritual and to have the Spirit before his fall But whereas the Scripture saith That God made man righteous you put off all with this shift That God made Adam without any stain or blemish in the beginning page 13. This we willingly confesse to be true but it is not the whole nor the principal part of truth For uprightnesse in the Scripture-language doth not only signifie a freedome from evil but also a positive habit of righteousnesse and holinesse and in this state did God make man in the beginning But admit that be granted What do you gather from hence you say If those that would have holinesse and righteousnesse to be entituled the Image of God and shall mean by it a condition without sin simply so considered then the whole Creation of God might be said to bear the Image of God page 13. Answ Your consequence will not hold That Adam was without sin at the time of his Creation it was from hence that God made him a holy creature after his own Image That other creatures are without sin is meerly from incapacity seeing they have neither an understanding to know the Law of God nor a will to embrace good or evil therefore they cannot sinne For that speech of yours page 14. It will appear that the Image which Adam did bear wherein he represented God lieth in some other place where none of the creatures are in acapacity to come it being beyond them all Though in the general I do acknowledge this to be a solid truth yet you do not rightly apply it What think you of that saying of our Saviour There are some Eunuches that are so borne from their mothers wombe and there are some made Eunuches of men and there are some that have made themselves Eunuches for the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.12 Here are three sorts of Eunuches but one sort only is so made by grace and the mortifying work of
the holy One of Israel page 126. Sir I would intreat you not to make the doctrine of salvation odious by picking quarrels against words For we do not peremptorily define that there was no other way possible to save man unlesse Christ had stepped in we leave it onely to the Lord himself to judge of the several possibilities of the salvation of man This onely we affirme so far as it is revealed to us the present is the most excellent way to satisfie the justice of God and to shew abundant mercy And though you now as others before you go about to cast an hatred upon the doctrine of the Church in the points of the fall of Adam original sinne free-will and the like I must tell you if you and they would not tear those things asunder which should be joyned together if you would compare one thing with another you should find that there is nothing so deformed in the state of the first man but there is that in the second which will answer all But here is the misery you look upon the mystery of salvation in some broken pieces and parts onely and do not consider the whole compages or sum of the truth in one body We will now proceed to your next Chapter CHAP. XV. Whether Adams posterity were guilty of his transgression IN this Chapter you endeavour to make good the purity of nature and the freedome of all infants from original sin you do not as the Jesuites and Arminians extenuate the matter but after the manner of the ancient Pelagians you deny the sinne of the nature And here you do not go alone The Confession of faith lately set forth by the thirty separate Congregations doth not speak one word of this sin of the nature If we go to the beginning of their book where all other Chatechismes do shew the misery of man by nature they are altogether silent in the point of original sinne In the middle where they speak of the grace of Christ there is not one syllable concerning the grace that doth regenerate or purge out the sinne of the nature In the third and last part of the book when they come to duties after regeneration they speak nothing of the great work of the mortification of the Old man and the putting on of the New man but onely of dipping and baptizing Disciples and of the manner of living in their way of Church-membership And thus one great errour at the foundation doth in a manner overthrow the whole building of the Christian faith And this is the wofull state of the separate Congregations with us Neither are these Churches in so bad a condition but the Examinors and Censors of the late Confession of faith set forth by the Assembly of Divines these clancular Authours whosoever they be have further swarved from the truth ☜ For they in their late Examen do not onely maintain the purity of the natural birth but also have many other positions and damnable tenents I will therefore take the liberty to joyn all together And therefore Mr. Everard where you and they do agree one answer shall serve both and where they have any thing which you have not touched I shall begin with them as assoon as I have ended with you Before I come to answer your arguments let me put both you and them in mind of your sophystical dealing ☞ For neither you in your treatise nor they in their Examen do mention our chiefest argument drawn from Job 3. These are the words of our Saviour to Nicodemus Jesus answered and said unto him verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God Nicodemus saith unto him how can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be borne Jesus answered verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Marvail not that I said unto thee you must be borne again verse 3.4 5 6 7. These words are most plain and significant to prove the impurity of the natural birth and the necessity of the new birth as every one that readeth may easily understand I do marvell then that you should overpasse this place in silence But let us now come to the meaning of the text to prove the necessity of Regeneration our Saviour doth use this medium that which is borne of flesh is flesh Because man is polluted in his natural birth therefore he needs have a new birth By flesh we do not understand that masse and lump of the body which we carry about us for in it there is neither good nor evil but our Lord Christ doth here intend the corruption of nature as it is opposed to the sanctifying work of the Spirit for so flesh and Spirit are commonly opposed in Scripture This may more particularly be seen in Rom. 8. in the beginning of the Chapter Therefore our Saviours argument is much in effect because the nature of man is defiled with original sinne from the very birth the remedy must be proportionable to the disease ☞ it is necessary that every one that shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven must be new born There be divers cause that do bring men to a habit of sinne and there are divers means to be used to break of such habits First men are brought to a custome in sinning by example and therefore the Word commands that we should turn away from such evil communications as will corrupt good manners Secondly men are brought to a habit in sinne by long custome which is as it were a second nature and therefore the Scripture speaks that we should break off such kind of customes by a kind of violence Thirdly men come to a practise of sinne by temptation as Achan saw the wedge of gold and the babylonish garment and coveted it and therefore the Scriptures do every where say that we should resist the temptations of the world the allurements of the flesh and to pray unto the Lord that he would not lead us into temptation These are in part the causes of the habit and practise of sin but they are not the original the principal cause that lies higher in the natural birth There is a necessity of Regeneration by the Spirit because all that are borne in the natural way are defiled with sinne They then who maintain the purity of the natural birth as the Examiners Mr. Everard and the separate Churches do overthrow the doctrine of the foundation of Christ Now Mr. Everard ☞ let us come to your arguments First you say we could not sinne in Adam our souls and bodies were not together in him and how we could commit sinne you know not therefore believe not page 127. But Sir if you would seriously consider
nature how came he to be exempt from original sinne For the first he did assume our nature with all the miseries thereof sinne onely excepted that he might make expiation of sin in that nature that had sinned He did not take the nature of Adam before his fall nor that humane nature which the Saints shall have in the state of glory but meerely the nature of man clothed with all the infirmities thereof to sanctifie that nature and to satisfie divine justice To this purpose the Apostle speaketh Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sent his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh In these words we may note that because Christ came in the similitude of sinful flesh all flesh besides his of infants as well as others was sinful flesh onely Christ came in the similitude of sinful flesh He had the reality of our nature with all the miseries thereof onely he was born in the similitude of our sinfulnesse that he might satisfie the justice of God And for the second point how he came to be free from original sinne this is plainly expressed in the articles of the Creed He was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary For his conception that part of the Virgins flesh was so sanctified by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit that it might be free from the natural contagion and that the nature of God and the nature of man together might make one person And that which may further amplifie the truth of this Christ was not born by vertue of that promise increase and multiply for this since the fall hath filled the world with sinners but he was born by vertue of the special promise the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head And this is the true reason for though Christ was born of the Virgin Mary a Daughter of Adam though he had the common nature of all mankind for truth and substance yet he was made free from original sinne by the mean of a wonderful generation And in this matter by way of retortion we may turn your own weapons upon your self and upon the Examiners For if that be true that all infants are free from natural pollution what need was there that the Son of God should be conceived by the Holy Ghost and be born of the Virgin Mary His conception needed not to have been by the Holy Ghost in case the natural generation did not necessarily inforce the propagation of original sinne These extraordinary means would have been superfluous in case he might have been exempt from all sinne in the ordinary way The arguments which you further alledge are as invalid as the former You say If we were in the transgression assoon as Adam himself how come we to derive it from him page 139. To the satisfying of this doubt I would entreat you to distinguish between the things that are attributed to Adam as a publick man and the things that are ascribed to him as a particular person If you speak of his publick relations as the root and head of all his posterity It is true what he did we did in him we were in the transgression assoon as himself was his sin was not so much his own as the sin of the humane nature But if you speak of him as a particular person according to the order of existence he is the first of the race and so in succession of generations all that were in the corrupted masse as they come to be born severally and individually to derive from him In a sense therefore it is true that we were in the transgression assoon as himself was It is the Apostles own expression in whom all have sinned Yet in flux and succession of generations it is as true that he did go before and all others did follow after in their respective times Next you argue If we sinned in him why might not we have sinned without him how came we all to be of one mind page 139. You may I confesse make such a supposition and a thousand more of the like kind and there will be no end of your cavilling But the Scriptures tell us plainly that one man was made in the beginning he was the root of all mankind and by this one man sinne entred into the world If this seem harsh to you to the Examiners and to others that all should be brought under a necessity of sinning and perishing by the disobedience of one man this should pacifie your minds that all are brought under a possibility of salvation by the obedience of the second man This is the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles Take heed then lest by diminishing the sinne of the first man you do not take away from the grace and the blessing brought in by the second If your nature was never defiled what need have you of a Christ What need of a new nature What need of regeneration of the Spirit I hope the Examiners and you will not say that these are onely for the purging out of actual sinne or the habit of sin got by imitation Let us now come to hear your admirations I strange say you at your hard thoughts of Adam that he had more pronenesse to sinne after the fall than before If you can bring no proof for what you say for this or for the like case then you must excuse my infidelity in the point You proceed after that manner as your brethren do they desire to have their infidelity excused because they do not read in so many letters and syllables of the Baptisme of infants in the new Testament And so here you do not read of such and such particular sinnes which Adam did commit after his fall and therefore you desire to be excused for your unbeleef in that point But Sir If you would look to the harmony of Scripture you should finde that this testimony is not onely given of Adam but also of all his posterity God saw the wickednesse of man that it was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was onely evil from his childhood Gen. 6.5 If every imagination of his heart was evil from his childhood then there must be some particular time assigned where this universal corruption and depravation of nature did begin If it did begin at the fall as there begin it must then you must also necessarily conclude that Adam had a greater pronenesse to sin after the fall than he had before But say you If it could be proved that Adam sinned ten thousand times afterward must we therefore set all his sinnes upon the first sinnes score page 142 As difficult a point as you make of it the Apostle doth set all upon the disobedience of the first man as he doth put all upon the obedience of the second man As by the disobedience of one many were made sinners so by the
and the depravation of his nature as afterwards shall be shewed Next he seemeth to speak more fairely Man being left in the state of pure naturals could not by his own strength arrive to a supernatural end for eternal life being an end above our natural proportion cannot be acquired by any natural means Answ In this and such like passages of his he doth seem to me to crosse his whole undertaking One chief end of entitling his book as may appear by the preface The Doctrine and Practice of repentance rescued from popular errours is the scandal offence that he seemes to take at our Doctrine of original sinne For thinks he if the nature be depraved a necessity of sinning will be introduced and the natural liberty of the Will will be taken away and therefore in much compassion and tendernesse he seemeth to himself at least to vindicate the truth to make Religion more reasonable and intelligible and to rescue the Schooles and Pulpits from the rigour and austerity of the doctrines of such a nature But when all is done he speaks the same in effect that we do For if man being in his natural condition by his own strength cannot arrive to a supernatural end but needs the help of the Spirit This being suppos'd I will put it upon him seriously to consider whether the same Spirit that helps a man out of this imaginary deficiency privation and imperfection is not as able also to rescue him from that inherent defilement pravity and corruption of the natural birth The Spirit can do as much in the one as in the other And exhortations will be as useful in the one case as in the other What need then hath our Authour to raise up all this dust But he further addeth What gifts and graces or supernatural endowments God gave to Adam in his state of innocency we know not God hath no where told us Answ Though he hath no where told us in so many letters yet by collation of circumstances we may gather that Adam had the Spirit and was a spiritual man before his fall In the creation it is expressely said come let us make man after our own image Gen. 1. The Apostle doth declare wherein this image doth consist That concerning the former conversation ye put off the Old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts and that ye be renewed in the Spirit of the mind and that ye put on the New man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Ephes 4.22 23 24. In these words there are four particulars that seem to speak faire for Adam that he had the Spirit and was a spiritual man before his fall First it is said that they should put off the Old man corrupt according to deceitful lusts Corruption is of a different nature according to the condition of the subject-matter there is a corruption of seeds of graines of metals of the members of a mans body but here the Apostle must needs speak of the corruption of that which is spiritual From whence we collect that the Old man or the disposition of the flesh is but the corruption of that holy and spiritual state n which Adam was made Secondly it is said be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds The word renewed doth import the restoring of a thing to that perfection which sometime it had in its first institution An house is renewed not when it is built new from the ground but when it is amended When an infant is born into the world it is not proper to say that he is renewed but a man doth renew his strength when he doth recover it by degrees after a long sicknesse So in the present case when the Apostle saith be renewed in the spirit of your mind he speaketh of the renovation of that knowledge holinesse and righteousnesse that Adam sometimes had but lost it by his fall Thirdly it is said after the image of him that created him Though this is specially meant of the new creature yet it is with respect also to that passage in the old creation let us make man after our own image For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum Deum according to God is as much in effect as after the likeness similitude and image of God who upon this account must needs be the pattern in both creatio'ns Fourthly to put all out of question it is expressely said which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse What difference soever there may be between Adam in innocency and the Saints in the state of regeneration certain it is that holinesse and righteousnesse must needs be the morality of the Law and none can rationally deny but that Adam was endued and invested with these two before his fall By his righteousnesse he was enabled to deale justly with man and by his holinesse he was carried out to know God to love him to delight in him to fear him and to take him as his chiefest good All these particulars expressing the spirituality and purity of the Law do signifie to us that Adam had the Spirit and was a spiritual man before his fall Now let us go on Receiving more by the second Adam than we lost by the first the sons of God are now spiritual which he never was that we can finde Answ That which he writes here doth manifestly contradict what he speaks elswhere for page 383. He plainly sheweth that original righteousnesse in Adam and habitual righteousnesse in the Saints are all one These are his own words if one sinne saith he could naturally and by a physical causalty destroy original righteousnesse then every ones sinne in the regenerate can as well destroy habitual righteousnesse because that and this differ not but in their principle not in their nature and constitution And why should not a righteous man as easily and as quickly fall from grace and loose his habits as Adam did naturally it is all one so farre he To which we answer Adam fell from original righteousnesse because he stood onely by the covenant of workes the Saints do not fall from habitual righteousnesse because they have their standing by the covenant of grace But as to the point in hand original righteousness in Adam and habitual righteousnesse in the Saints he tells us that both are one and the same in essence and constitution and then again he tells us the sons of God are spiritual which Adam never was that he could finde So great a faculty he hath to blow hot and cold in the same breath Now he comes to explicate that Scripture by one man sin entred into the world Rom. 5. c. That sinne saith he entred into the world by Adam is therefore certaine because he was the first man It must needs enter in him because it first comes in by the first Answ It is true that sinne entred into the world by Adam as the first man but it is not the whole truth for in such
VINDICIAE FVNDAMENTI Or a threefold defence of the DOCTRINE OF Original Sin Together with some other fundamentals of Salvation The first against the exceptions of Mr. Robert Everard in his book entituled The Creation and the Fall of man The second against the Examiners of the late Assemblies Confession of Faith The third against the Allegations of Dr. Jeremy Taylor in his Unum Necessarium and two lesser Treatises of his By NATHANIEL STEPHENS Minister of Fenny-Drayton in Leicestershire LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. for Edmund Paxton in Pauls Chain right over against the Castle-Tavern near Doctors Commons 1658. THE PREFACE TO THE Reader Shewing the Reasons of publishing the present Treatise in these times ALthough we are fallen into an age where books of all sorts do abound yet in two cases as long as the Lord hath a Church upon the earth there will be still need of writing more The first when many divine mysteries do remain still inclosed and sealed up in the Scriptures no man will doubt upon such a supposal but it is the duty of those that read according to ability to bring the truth to light I did in order to this publish a Tract concerning the Beast his name mark and the number of his name c. Here if any will say shall we be wiser than our fore-fathers to endeavour the discovery of that which they could never finde out The answer is cleare truth is the Daughter of Time A Pigmy upon a Gyants shoulder may see farther than the Gyant himself Even so we standing upon the shoulders and enjoying the labours of those that have gone before may see as farre as they did and by wading into further depths may go further than they Upon this account it doth more peculiarly belong to us to continue the 〈◊〉 where they left it to adde to the stock of knowledge to be clear where 〈◊〉 were confused to turne into the way where they went 〈◊〉 and to bring those things to light that have been either totally or in part obscured from them Some are of the judgment that we are come to the very Zenith and top of all kinde of learning and that we know already all that we need know But an hundred and a thousand ensamples may be shewed to the contrary We are dark in many of those things that are reserved for the industry and diligence of the latter times If men would convert the course of their studies this way as they would make a better return of their labours so they would be lesse prejudicial to the writings of former times At least all must acknowledge that there will be just occasion of printing 〈◊〉 books as long as new matter remains to be published to the world A second case of new writing is when the plain fundamenal common truths of God are made dark by the new fangled opinious and brangling queres of each age In such a case a necessity doth lie upon us and woe is unto us if we do not plead for the truth when it is notably and eminently endangered by others In the present case I have not to do so much with that which is darke and abstruse in its own nature but with that which is made so by the devises and subtilties of men The doctrine of original sin and the natural servitude of the will at least to any spiritual good is plainly enough set forth in the Scriptures yet there are more than too many in these times who endeavour with all their might to draw a cloud over this cleerenesse I cannot see but as a Minister is to preach and to live according to the truth so it is his office and duty also to clear the same truth from the errours and intanglements of his own age As evil manners occasion good Laws so evil opinions and evil interpretations of Scripture specially where gain-saying spirits do endeavour to puddle the stream should make us more skilfull in the mystery of salvation Whatsoever the reason is many of the friends and followers of the separation with us do not rest satisfi'd with the denyal of Infant Baptism but they proceed also to deny al infants to be born in original sin The confession of the faith of the thirty separate Congregations hath not as farre as I can perceive any one word of the sin of the nature Some do more apparently deny the thing and others are more close in what they hold But Master Everard in his Book entituled the Creation and the fall of man containes the substance of all their arguments Which Tract of his seeing it is spread farre and neare to the deceiving of many poore soules and to the troubling of others I have thought it necessary to examine all the material passages and to detect the subtilties and fallacies thereof The chief points he doth insist on are these whether had Adam the Spirit or was he a spiritual man before his fall Secondly how farre do obedient actions proceed from the operation of the Spirit and how farre are they a mans own act Thirdly he treats concerning the contrariety of the two wills the secret and the revealed will of God Lastly he cometh to the maine point to assert the innocency and the purity of the natural birth And for this he seemes to himselfe and others of that way to have some coulourable reassons When I had done with him there came to my hand the Examen of the late Assemblies Confession of Faith I am uncertain whether one or more are the Authours Some circumstances do not obscurely insinuate it to be the act of more than one man and therefore in the ensuing Discourse I do speak of them in the plural number Because in the points of free will and original sinne they do concord with Master Everard and the Antipedobaptists of our Vicinity I have taken them into the Company to which they do belong Now this last year considering the State of our Affairs when certain friends of mine Ministers as well as others did desire me to publish what I had written At the same time did Doctor Jeremy Taylor set forth his Vnum Necessarium In that Book of his Chap. six as also in two other small Treatises the answer to the Bishops letter and The Further Explication doth the Authour fall upon our differences alleadging the same things in effect which our Antagonists for certaine yeares past have alleadged against us Onely this difference is to be made he doth ascribe much to the Testimonies of the Fathers and other Ancient Authours They do slight all such kindes of authority He doth owne for ought as I could ever hear the Baptisme of infants They more securely to deny infant Baptisme do seeme also upon the same reason to deny all Infants to be borne in original sinne His Writings are like to have a free passage in all the parts of the Land Theirs for ought as I can heare are received more chiefly in their own society His
shall be sufficient for thee my strength shall be seene in thy weaknesse 2 Cor. 12.7.8 9 But the way to come by this ability is not in your method to set up nature but to die to a mans self and to be emptied of all natural abilities Most gladly therefore will I glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me 2 Cor. 12.9 The Authors of the Confession do seeme to speak more fairly for the grace of God then you do They do not shun to affirme that we have all from Christ and that of our selves we have not ability to think a good thought and much to the same purpose But by this affirmation of theirs how can they possibly agree with their own principles of the purity of nature For where there is no depravation of the natural birth what need or what use is there of the grace of regeneration They conceale themselves and you openly professe your judgment they seeme to speak more fairly but you are more true to the principles and positions of the Separate Churches CHAP. III. Whether righteousnesse and holinesse be Gods Image HEre you endeavour to prove the Negative to wit that righteousnesse and holinesse in man was not the image of God in the first creation Because this is not your own single opinion but also the doctrine of the thirty Congregations who place the image of God onely in dominion over the creature we will debate the point more fully And so much the rather because you did urge me at Earle-Shilton in Leicestershire Anno 1650. Decem. 26. before a multitude of people to answer this question what place of Scripture have you to prove that Adam had the Spirit of God or that he was a spiritual man before his fall I did then cite three several texts the natural sence and import of all which is to shew that God made man after his own Image and that this Image did principally consist in spiritual and inward holinesse For that place Gen. 1.26 Come let us make man after our Image in our own likenesse There is none doth doubt but this is the speech of the three persons in Trinity Onely the question is wherein did this Image principally consist The separate congregations and you also affirme that it did appear onely in Dominion and Lordship over the creature these words do immediately follow in the text let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fowle of the aire and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth But herein both they and you are deceived for primarily and properly the Image of God was resplendent in the conformity of the soule to the spiritual Law of God Secondarily the Image of God was resplendent in that external priviledge of rule and dominion over the creature Now that it may appear that the principal part of the Image of God is in inward holinesse and that the soule so inwardly and spiritually endowed doth more lively expresse his similitude for this reade that Scripture Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Col. 3.10 Here note what it is that the Apostle would have the Colossians to put on Put on the new man By this he doth mean the Christ-like and spiritual disposition set in immediate opposition to the old carnal disposition of the flesh which they had already in good measure begun to put off Secondly the word renewed doth note a repaire or renovation of that which formerly was decayed So the Psalmist prayeth Create in me a clean heart and renew within me a right spirit Psal 51.10 He doth pray for the returne of the same spirit which formerly he had but now seemingly had lost So thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Psal 103.5 As much in sense as that he makes thee vigorous like an Eagle who by casting her beak and feathers renews her former agility And so in the present case wherein it is said Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge this noteth the repaire and renovation of that spiritual disposition which Adam had but lost it by his fall Thirdly for the matter of the renovation venewed in knowledge doth signifie spiritual knowledge in the nature thereof and that which comes from the Spirit of God as the cause Fourthly for the pattern of the renovation it is expressely said after the image of him that created him Therefore the first man must be made in a state of spiritual knowledge and holinesse If this be not so how could the beleeving Colossians be renewed after this example as the Prototype Let us go to the next Scripture that ye put on the new man which after God is created in rigteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.24 This Scripture also doth plainly shew that Adam had the Spirit of God before his fall For first why is it said be renewed in the spirit of your minde This implieth that we were sometimes such Secondly the expression of righteousnes and true holinesse is opposed to feigned and hypocritical sanctity Thirdly the whole tenour of the speech is to this end that the Ephesians should put off the old Adam-like disposition with all the deceitful lusts thereof and that they should put on the Christ-like nature which is renewed after the similitude and pattern of the image of God in man before the fall The argument is thus grounded upon the text What the Saints are by renovation such Adam was by creation But by renovation the Saints are just and holy From all which we do conclude that Adam was a spiritual man and had the Spirit of God before his fall Now to the Scriptures let us adde a few reasons First it is a Maxime generally received that the Law was made for man before his fall Now how the first man could be conformable to so spiritual and divine a Law and he himself be destitute of the Spirit it is not within the compasse of my understanding to discerne If we will argue a posteriori from the event we must necessarily conclude that he must not only be spiritual but also have a great measure of spirit to keep such a divine and spiritual Law Secondly the Apostle saith you hath he quickned that were dead in trespasses and sinnes Ephes 2.1 2. If all be dead in trespasses and sinnes this spiritual death must begin at the fall and so by consequence the first man must have the spirit and spiritual life before his fall For what is spiritual death but a privation of the life of the Spirit of God These and many more reasons might be brought to prove Adam to be a spiritual man as long as he stood in that state in which God had placed him Now let us hear your arguments to the contrary You say that Adams righteousnesse and holinesse was not in beleeving a Saviour because be was not in a lost condition pag.
the Spirit So in the present case the creatures were free from sin as well as Adam but their freedom was meerly from incapacity because they were not able to receive a spiritual Law And Adams freedome was from the holinesse of that state in which the Lord had made him Therefore in the point of nontransgression Adam was put into such a state as none of the creatures could come to Next you enquire Whether the Image of God did consist in light These are your words If the light that Adam had was the Image then it must be a light spiritual or natural or both Now that it was not the light of the Gospel that Adam had is clear there being neither malady nor remedy which were in being in the time of this light page 15. Though there was neither malady nor remedy at that time yet he might have spiritual light in the substance thereof and the Image of God might principally consist in this The Apostle speaking of the regenerate hath this expression renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Col. 3.10 This sheweth plainly that man in the beginning was created after the Image of God and that Image did chiefly consist in the spiritual light that was in the understanding But because there is a great controversie between the Arminians and us about the nature of this light viz. Whether Adam had a power before his fall to beleeve in Christ and because this is a point pertinent to our purpose I will briefly recite three Arguments used by Corvinus in his Answer to Du Moulin First saith he Adam was not bound to beleeve in Christ therefore he did not receive ability to beleeve in him such an ability would be unnecessary and unprofitable where there was no use of it at all Chap. 11. sect 4.5 page 156. Answ The Argument doth not hold God did not require Adam to beleeve the Stories written in the five Books of Moses the Books of Josbua Judges Samuel c. But will any man be so void of reason to argue that he had no power to beleeve these Stories in case they had been revealed to him so God did not require Abraham to beleeve in Christ as he was revealed and exhibited in the last dispensation of the promise shall we therefore argue that he had not ability to beleeve or that he had not the same spirit in substance which the Saints now have He that doth so judge let him answer the meaning of this Scripture We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written I beleeved and therefore have I spoken we also beleeve and therefore speak 2 Cor. 4.13 It is clear from hence that the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles had all of them the same spirit of faith in substance yet all of them have not the same revelation of the promise in the circumstances thereof Secondly Corvinus saith that before the fall the Gospel was not credible because in the Gospel a sinner is commanded to believe himself to be a sinner and that by himself and his own works he cannot be saved and that all salvation is placed in Christ the Mediatour And further he addeth It was so far from man to be able to believe all these things that he was then bound rather to believe the contrary to wit himself to be upright and that he should be blessed if he did persist in his uprightnesse p. 154 162 164 165. Answ To this we willingly agree That the way to salvation as now it is doth differ very much from that state wherein Adam stood But the question is not concerning the diversitie or contrariety of the states but concerning the power and ability that Adam had whether it be one and the same in substance with that which the Saints now have White and black are two contrary colours yet the same eye doth see both Heat and cold are two qualities in the extream yet they are tangible objects to one and the same sense of seeling So in the like case though the Word of the Law and the Word of the Gospel are two contrary wayes to salvation yet there is nothing doth exclude but they may be apprehended by one and the same spirit of faith The Word may be one and the same in the general notion and nature of the Word and it may be apprehended by one and the same spirit of faith yet it may differ in circumstance But because the force of the Argument doth lie in the contradictory nature of the two states we will come to instance in a case or two Adam before his fall could not shew mercie if we look to the outward act or the performance of the duty for where there is no misery what mercy can be shewed shall we therefore argue that he had no such affection in him as mercy So in the like case it is not compatible with the state of the blessed Angels to beleeve in a Christ to recover them out of their fall for they that never fall have no need of a recovery what then shall we say that they have no ability to understand the Mysterie of the Gospel This cannot be for so the Apostle reasoneth By them which have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 Though the blessed Angels have no need of salvation by grace held out in the Gospel yet they have ability to understand it they have a desire to pry and gaze into it So in the like case though Adam had no need of salvation before his fall by the Mediatour yet he might have ability to understand that way of salvation in case it had been revealed Thirdly Corvinus saith that greater abilities are required to faith in Christ then that ability which Adam bad before his fall Answ I cannot see possibly how he can consist with his own principles For seeing he doth stand upon it in his Treatises against Moulin page 159.165 that God doth proportion abilities to commands and seeing also he saith that God did promise life to Adam under the condition of most perfect and absolute obedience By the position of these two he must necessarily affirme Adams abilities to be exceeding great before his fall For seeing the work required was to yield such a perfect obedience as none else can perform since the fall but Christ alone it must necessarily follow that Adam must have a large portion of spirit fitted for such an employment As in some Monuments of Antiquity we do argue how strong such a Prince was that died many hundred yeares ago from the greatnesse and weight of his sword so from the spirituality of the Law given to Adam before his fall we do infer his abilities to have been exceeding great And thus much out of Corvinus his own principles Now Mr. Everard let us return back again to you And here to deal plainly with you and the Churches that do
depend upon your Institution I must tell you that neither Arminius nor Corvinus nor any other of that party to my knowledge did ever spin such a course thread as you do For though they stand upon it that Adam had not abilities to beleeve in Christ to raise himself from his fal yet none of them do utter such speeches as these that Adam was altogether destitute of the Spirit of God and that he was a meer carnal man before his fall This to my understanding doth cast a blurre upon the Creator himselfe Now I would intreat you to shew some further reason wherefore the Image of God did not stand in spiritual light You say it remaineth yet to prove that Adam had a supernatural light Which they will never be able to do unlesse they will prove that he was set about some spiritual employments For God giving light suitable to the employment he sets his creature about so suitably God proportions his light that it might be just suitable for his works and no more page 16. And for the works wherein Adam was employed you tell us what they were p. 17. He was to look after the Garden to dresse and keep it and to settle names and titles upon every creature to eat and drink with such like works as also to bear rule and dominion over the creatures But Sir in this point you are wonderful fallacious For first what warrant have you to take the height length and breadth of Adams abilities from his present employments There is many a true Christian man in these times that doth beleeve some truths who hath ability to receive more if it would please the Lord to reveal them So we may say in the like case concerning Adam he was able to receive more truths if they had been revealed and to do more duties if he had been commanded We are not absolutely to tie and confine mens abilities to their present employments Further what ground have you to affirm that Adams employment was only in those externals of keeping the Garden and giving names to all cattel c Will you argue because you reade of no more that therefore he had no more employment Thirdly suppose it should be granted to you that Adam was wholly taken up in these outward actions this doth not prove that he was destitute of spiritual abilities When the Apostle speaks to servants to obey their Masters according to the flesh Eph. 6.5 There is no man doubts but he speaks of an outward work but when he saith that they should do it with singlenesse of heart as unto the Lord Christ and not unto men Here is the performance of an outward service in a spiritual manner Even so Adam might be spiritually employed in those works of his of dressing the Garden and of giving names to all cattel c. And thus we have tried your Reasons how far you are able to prove that the Image of God in Adam did not consist in righteousnesse and true holinesse and that he was not a spiritual man before his fall This also is the doctrine of the Thirty Separate Congregations who place the Image of God only in Lordship and dominion over the creature Next you come to enquire Whether the Image of God in dam did consist in degrees of light And here say you if this be admitted upon such a supposition not one in all the world can tell what it is to beare the title for how can they tell of what height length and breadth this knowledge should be of page 17.18 To ease you of all the pains of searching out the several degrees of longitude or latitude I say precisely at that time when a man doth receive the true light of the Spirit he doth resume more or lesse that Image of God which Adam lost And look by how many degrees this light doth increase by so many degrees proportionably this Image of God is renewed The Apostle speaketh very properly to the purpose We all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.19 Here these foure things are to be noted First the pattern or the Idea we are changed into the same Image to wit into the Image of the Lord Christ himself Secondly the degrees or the several stages we are changed from glory to glory Thirdly the mean or the instrument of the change we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of Christ revealed in the Gospel by prying into it and gazing upon it we are altered and translated into the same image Fourthly the principal cause of the transmutation even as by the Spirit of the Lord by the inward work of the Spirit men come to be enlightned and so more and more to put on the Image of God From these several particulars it is clear that the Regenerate are renewed after the Image of Christ and the excell noy thereof doth stand in spiritual light And this light in substance we say that Adam had before his fall They are the words of the Apostle as we have formerly said renewed in knowledge after the Image of him who created him Further you endeavour to shew that the Image of God did not stand in holinesse You say If it had layen in holinesse never so Evangelical and spiritual surely the woman that beleeved in the Lord Jesus would not have been deprived of that title but the Apostle expostulateth the cause of the difference 1 Cor. 11.7 where he clearly ascribeth that title scil the Image of God to reside only in preheminence page 23. But this will not serve your turne neither for when God created the woman in the beginning she was not only created after his Image in righteousnesse and true holinesse but she was also created in a state to have Lordship over the creature These are the words of the Text So God created man in his own Image in the Image of God created be him male and female created he them And God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea Genes 27.28 These words were not only spoken to the first man but to the first woman also and to all mankinde whether male or female that should come of them that they should people the world and bring it in subjection If this be so the man and the woman were both created in that state to have preeminence over the Creation And for the words of the Apostle they do not deny the woman to be made after the Image of God though this Image was more immediately and fundamentally in man the head and lord of the Creation If you look narrowly into the text you shall finde a reason wherefore man doth more immediately bear the Image of God and is a more lively representative of his Majesty because the woman was
have you to assigne the difference between the power appertaining to a Magistrate and the power belonging to every private man for if that be true as you say that Rulers are to be obeyed so far forth only as they bring the Word I pray you tell me must not every man be obeyed upon the same termes what do you make then of the power of the Magistrate when Pilate boasted Knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee and power to release thee The Lord made him this answer Thou hast no power but it is given thee from above John 19 10 11. It is plain then that Pilate as a Magistrate and a Judge had a power given him of God Now then if that be true which you say that the Magistrate hath no power but the Word it self then it will follow that these are co-incident termes For to speak properly the power of the Magistrate and the Word are not one and the same but the Authority of the Magistrate doth depend upon the Word from whence it hath its Original and Institution You go on and argue Are not all men Gods creatures if so how cometh it to passe that one should be in subjection to anothers will and that upon such sore punishment page 30 31. Here in these words you come very near the doctrine of the Levellers Can you make no distinction between subjection to the lawful power and mans illegal will And then turning off from this digression you conclude that the Command of God is the Power and therefore so far as the Lords Command did extend so much power Adam had But for this matter we are content to let you passe with your own peculiar way of expression Let us now see how you describe Adams entertainment in the Garden CHAP. VI. Adams entertainment in the Garden IN this Chapter you discourse how Adam was placed in the Garden how Eve was made an helper meet for him and how the Lord brought all the creatures to him that he might give them their several names and titles Because these are Plain Scripture-truths I will not be an adversary to you here But then two questions are to be demanded First whether was his chief emploiment in these externals Secondly whether he did act in them as a meer carnal man For the first if you shall say that Adam was only employed in these externals then shew why was the Law of God written in his heart None can imagine but that it was engraven and written there to that end that he should yield proportionable obedience he had spiritual abilities that he might be proportionable to a spiritual Law If you shall deny this you will unavoidably be cast upon that rock that Adam had the Law put into his heart for no use or end at all Secondly though he was taken up in externals in giving names to all creatures and in tilling of the ground yet in this you must look upon him as a man that was spiritual able to do these things in a spiritual manner These two points I thought good to re-minde you of because you did a little before affirme that Adam was a meer carnal man before his fall and that his occupation and employment was only in externals Let us go to the next Chapter CHAP. VII Free will in its nature unfolded HEre in the beginning you define free-will to be a cheerful putting forth of those abilities which the Lord hath given us to action And this you prove by many Scripture-instances to clear the nature of freedome By this account it will follow that a natural man as such without the help of the Spirit hath no free-will at all he is so far from a free voluntary and cheerful putting forth of abilities that in spiritual things he is utterly void and destitute of all ability But as in the former Chapter you had your digression to turne out against the Magistrate when you spake of the power of Adam before the fall so now speaking of his free-will you have your vagaries and excursions against the Ministry These are your words Paul preached the Gospel freely he stood not upon such punctilio's to have the tenth of the labours of the people page 40. The Separate Congregations also agree with you here For say they the maintenance of the Ministers which labour in the Word of God ought to be the free and charitable benevolence or the cheerful contribution of those that acknowledge themselves members of the same fellowship page 22. And the ground they have to prove it is from that place of the Apostle while by the experiment of this ministration they glorifie God for your professed subjection unto the Gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all men 2 Cor. 9.13 It is clear that the Apostle in these words speaketh of the distributions and the voluntary benevolences of the Churches to the necessities of the poor Saints at Hierusalem But by what Logick the brethren of the Separation can apply this to the maintenance of the Ministry in the time of the New Testament for my part I cannot discern Sure I am when you and they shall go about to make the people free-willers in so doing you will make a servile and a slavish Ministry As for the due in the payment of the tenth it doth as truly appertain to the Ministers as any mans possession or inheritance doth belong to him And therefore if either you or any man else shall endeavour to take away the tenth from the Ministry it is all one as to endeavour to take away the proprietie from other men Having gone so far along with you in your digression let us now come to that freedome of will which Adam had before his fall And here I do agree with you that he had libertie to put himself forth chearfully and freely to action by vertue of such abilities as he had received from God yet when you come to the negative part to pluck that down which is built by other men you plainly shew that your definition is not proper to the case in hand For thus you conclude Now some have conceived that free will had been a mans being left to his choice whether he would do the Will of God or no. But I know no such freedom given by God that a man should have liberty to dispose of himself unlesse you will call that freedom of will which a man is prohibited from upon penalties of death but God gives no man freedom to sin but preventions To this I answer though the Lord gave Adam no freedom to sin but rather tied up his liberty by a contrary command yet it is a sure rule that he made him in such a pendulous estate that he might stand or fall And though in that state he had freedom and power to will that which was good nay chearfully to put forth his ability to act yet for all this his condition was but mutable he might fall
to us For though we wholly ascribe all to grace ☜ yet we acknowledge man to be a free agent who worketh and acteth by the help of grace administred Though God himself be almighty often doth work so almightily that none can or shall resist him yet his way of working in the soul in the excitings and movings of his grace are not always in that almighty way Sometimes men do resist nay the very elect themselves do oppose the workings of his Spirit though they do not nor cannot finally resist We constantly affirme that the grace is Gods and the act is mans For proof of this let us consider the meaning of that expression By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace in me was not in vaine but I laboured more then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Here he doth ascribe all to grace when he saith by the grace of God I am what I am Though he doth attribute all to grace as to the Architectonical and principal cause for all was done by the vigour and efficacie of that grace which was in him yet for all this he doth not deny himself to be a free agent He did instrumentally work by the power of that grace which was in him Therefore in the work of his Ministery there is a truth that grace did all and Paul did labour more then any of the Apostles Grace did it principally and Paul did it organically and ministerially And thus you see though the action be mans the vigour spirituality and efficacie is wholly from God and nothing from man This is the substance of our doctrine Now let us see how you concord Gods grace with mans endeavour Without further controversie say you let it be confessed that the teachings of God come in to the sons and daughters of men as the tillings and manurings of God to provoke them to produce obedient actions page 50. This passage of yours we might let go for present were it not for a Pelagian sense which it carries with it For from what Scripture or experience have you this similitude that mans nature is to be compared to a fruitful soile in such things as concern salvation A fruitful soile though it do want due culture hath a natural aptnesse to bring forth fruit will you say that there is the same aptnesse in the nature of man to produce actions of obedience doth not this go against the scope of Scripture and do not the Saints for the production of obedient actions finde need of a daily and continual supply of the Spirit of Christ All shall turne to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 Though the Saints do bring forth fruit and though it be the act of their own free obedience yet it is not from nature as a fruitful soile but from Christ the Vine John 15.1 2 c. Our Saviour doth plainly shew that every branch abiding in him brings forth fruit But if you will needs argue from hence the goodnesse and fertility of the branch in it self he saith in expresse termes without me ye can do nothing Further you add If this opinion should take place that God giveth our actions it would as well dismisse the office of the Spirit of God and so destroy the internal meanes The Spirit standeth at the doore of the heart and calleth provoking us with a multiplicity of allurements that we would put forth our abilities to a present performance of action p. 51. Here Sir as I have formerly said we have nothing to do with that idle opinion that obedient actions are only the gift of God we have nothing to do with them who demolish the endeavour of man let them bear their own burden whosoever they be But on the other side we must needs blame you for running into a contrary extreame for whereas you say that the Spirit standeth at the doore of the heart provoking us with a multiplicity of allurements to put forth our abilities to present performance here I would entreat you to define what those abilities are which the Spirit doth provoke us to exert and put forth If you mean our natural abilities as you can mean no other seeing they stand contradistinct to the allurements of the Spirit then you will ascribe the chief work of salvation to mans nature and the part of the Spirit shall be onely to allure and perswade By this account not onely the action but also the ability and the power to act will be from man But because the Pelagians of old the Arminians of late and you now have such frequent recourse to this Scripture Rev. 3. 17 18 19 20. let us read the words Because thou sayest I am rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art poor miserable blind and naked I counsel thee that thou buy of me gold tryed in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white rayment that thou mayest be clothed that the shame of thy nakednesse do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and amend Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man heare my voice and open the door I will come in and sup with him From the words these Corollaries may be deduced First not onely the Church of Laodicea but also all men else are spiritually dead and miserable if we look upon them as considered in the state of nature Secondly men by their natural ability do not discern the miserie of that condition Thirdly such as Christ doth intend to bring to salvation he will begin with them in the opening of the eye of their understanding to see that in themselves they are poor miserable blind and naked Fourthly by the conviction of his Spirit he will shew them that he hath a supply for all their wants for their blindnesse he hath eye-salve for their nakednesse he hath white raiment for their poverty he hath gold tried in the fire and for all their wants he hath a proportionable supply Fifthly the Lord Christ at sundry intervals of time doth stand at the door shew these things to the hearts of the sons men if therefore they see them receive them and in the sense of their own emptinesse go to him for all they shall have more large and full communications of himself he will come in and sup with them This is the natural sense of the text and what is here to set up the ability of man The whole scope of the place is rather to pluck down his abilities that the Lord Christ may be all in all But in case you stand upon these words if any man hear my voice and open the doore we grant that in the matter of salvation man is a free agent when God sends the Spirit into his heart to reprove
same spiritual drink for they drank of that rock which followed them and that rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 5. Further after the fourty years pilgrimage were ended the Lord doth promise that their Convoy should not leave them but that he should go before them and drive out the Canaanites because it was not in their own power to bring the land into subjection This is the Lords promise and therefore in sense and substance the Angel must do the whole work Secondly let us consider what is the duty of the people and that is contained in these words Beware of him obey his voice provoke him not c. Because they did wholly depend upon him for all therefore they should be careful to observe him and to follow him in his leadings The force of the reason is the same in the words of the text work out your salvation with fear and trembling because God works in you the will and the deed because his Spirit is all in all the cause of mans salvation to carry on the work because his Spirit doth convince reprove teach comfort seal and guide the Saints therefore they should walk tenderly and carefully toward him The Apostle saith grieve not the Spirit of grace by which ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes 4.30 In case they do with him as disobedient children do with their parents when they give them good counsel the Spirit will neither comfort nor seal them any more but will leave them to a state of darknesse and discomfort And this is the true meaning of the text We may hereby understand how God doth carry on the whole work of salvation and this doth no way impair or diminish the endeavour of man In the close of all you tell us Let us say with the Apostle in our hearts that we desire to strive with dayly labourings according to the mighty workings whereby he worketh in us Col. 1.29 And do not say any more it is God that worketh our actions but be thankful to him that giveth us sufficient means Page 63. You have heard before that the Lord doth work in us the will and the deed and therefore the spirituality of the action is wholly from God though we are free workers by the help of his grace But let us take your words in the fairest construction If you will stand firmly to this principle that God gives sufficient means by a power working in us you need not fly to the purity of nature to natural free-will and to such like beggerly rudiments to salve the endevour of man In this place you seem to speak for grace when elsewhere through your whole treatise you drive the bargain altogether for the natural abilities of the will But seeing you have offered this text to our consideration we will endeavour to draw from it the concord betwixt the grace of God and the endeavour of man The words are these Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily The Apostle speaketh of the work of the Ministery whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus whereunto I labour according to the mighty workings that he worketh in us Here it is plain that the Apostle did work in teaching and instructing every one and it was not so much his work as the work of the Spirit in him and by him When he was at Athens his Spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry Why are not the like excitations of spirit in men in there dayes who travell to Constantinople to Ligorn to Rome seeing hose people are wholly given either to Mahumetan superstition or Popish Idolatry The reason is manifest the same spirit doth not work so mightily in the hearts of men as it did sometime in the heart of Paul because he was filled with the Spirit he did shew abundant sympathy and bowells of affection towards all the lost sonnes of men But to come to instances in these last times when the Gospel was plucked down and the Mass was set up in Queen Maries dayes the Martyr being in a journey declared his intention that he would preach in his charg the next Lords day and when he that journeyed with him told him then he would certainly be cast into prison his answer was I am in prison till I am in prison He was bound in his spirit to preach the Gospel to the soules which he had taken charg of he could have no peace otherwise then in the discharge of his duty He did labour freely yet so as his labour was by the inward moving of the Spirit But of all other places that passage of our Saviour is most used by the Enthusiasts Ye shall be brought before Kings and Princes for my sake but when they shall deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given to you in that houre what you shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you Mat. 10.18 19 20. Though this promise is made to the Martyrs and Confessors in times of persecution yet it is not made to them in that manner as to extinguish and drown all endeavour of their own as though God would do all and they should be discharged of their duty The promise is only made to such as should engage themselves for Christ and should humbly in the use of the means depend upon him for the supply of his Spirit And thus we see that the Spirit does all and yet in the most spiritual actions man himself is a free-worker It shall be given you in that houre what you shall speak This expression what you shall speak sheweth plainly that the Saints are free Agents Let us now consider that place Ephes 2.8 9. For by grace ye are saved through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God ☜ Here you yield that salvation as purchased by Christ is the gift of God but you will not have faith it self to be the gift of God you grant one part of the text to deny another If you consider the words you shall finde that not onely salvation but also faith it self is Gods free gift If this be not so how could the Ephesians come to beleeve The Apostle saith that they were dead in trespasses and sinnes they walked according to the course of the world they fulfilled the lusts of the flesh and of the mind Therefore they could not come to beleeve by any natural ability but meerly by the quickning work of the Spirit Further this expression is added ver 10. We are his work manship created of God unto good works By nature they were dead in trespasses and sinnes and if that now they could perform any spiritual act they were made able to do this by the new creation or workmanship of God Further if faith be not the
second man is the Lord from heaven So though Adam was the first man a living man yet it was not a living soul that proveth that Adam had a quickned Spirit page 12◠But in this you do miserably soobisticate For though the Apostle doth draw a parallel between both the Adams If you do well ponder the Scripture you shall finde that the parallel doth not stand so much between Adam before his fall as between the first Adam the second after the fall 2ly upon good consideration you shall finde that the Apostle in this Scripture doth not speak so much concerning the Spirit of God in the soules of the Saints as concerning the spirituality of their bodies that shall be at the resurrection It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body There is a natural body and there is aspiritual body 1 Cor. 15.43 44. If then you will needs conclude Adam to be a carnal man before his fall because his body was not made a spiritual body by the same reason you must conclude all the Saints that have ever been since the creation of the world to be carnal men and absolutely destitute of the work of the Spirit For the bodies of the Saints are yet carnal and must abide in their incarnality till the resurrection of the dead But whereas you build so strongly upon that expression the first man Adam was made a living soul the last man Adam was made a quickning Spirit verse 45. This doth not prove the first man to have been meerely carnal or absolutely void of the Spirit before his fall For it is not the scope of the Apostle in this Scripture to speak of the excellency of man made after the image of God but onely of the corruptible state of the body as it standeth in immediate relation to that immortal condition which it shall have at the resurrection of the dead And whereas it is said the second man was a quickning Spirit this is meant principally of the divinity of Christ by and thorough which he will raise the dead So then if you will build upon this ground and argue from hence that the first man was a meere carnal man because he was not a quickning Spirit by the same principle you must conclude that all the Saints living are carnal men For of what one of them may it be affirmed that he is a quickning Spirit who by his power and divinity is able to raise the dead But if you will make a right analogy let us compare the things that ought to be compared First let us consider what the first man was before his fall and what the Saints are as renewed by grace Secondly let us compare what the first man might have been if he had eaten of the tree of life and what the Saints shall be at the resurrection of the dead For the first of these if you speak of the Saints as renewed by grace though their bodies be natural they are spiritual in respect of the inward man The same may be said of Adam before his fall though his body was made of the dust yet by grace and special favour he did carry the image of God For the second if you shall affirme that all the bodies of the Saints shall be made immortal and spiritual at the resurrection consider what the body of Adam might have been if he had continued in his obedience and eaten of the tree of life If you would make a right collation between state and stat ethe parallel should runne in these termes But because you stand so strongly upon this expression that the first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven seeing you will have all this to be applied to Adam before his fall I pray you resolve me this question seeing the Apostle saith as we have born the image of the earthy so shall we bear the image of the heavenly Who are they that bear the image of Adam before his fall I think if you were put to it you could not produce any one instance in all Europe Asia Africa or America that ever stood up after this similitude The scope of the text is onely concerning man after the fall and how the resurrection of the dead doth take away that death which is brought in by the fall In the close of the Chapter you propound this question whether was not Adam to have dyed an eternal death for eating of the forbidden fruit For the clearing of the question let us distinctly set down how the three kinds of death did seize upon Adam and how they come upon all his branches First for spiritual death it is evident that he died this death as soon as he did eat of the forbidden fruit For the temporal death he fell under the reign of it the same day he sinned And for eternal death though according to the truth of the commination Adam and his posterity should have dyed the Lord Christ stepping in did set a stop to the sentence And therefore for the cause of the condemnation of man it is now principally and immediately for the neglect of the grace of God that should lead him to repentance But you adde further I can safely say that if Adam was to have dyed an eternal death and that by the appointment of God then Christ neither would nor could have stept in nay he could not have lifted up his little finger to have helped Adam or his posterity page 125. I answer If God had decreed in his secret purpose that Adam and all his posterity should have dyed the death in such a case Christ neither would nor could have stept in to cross the Decree of God but Sir who is the man that doth maintain that position For my part I take the Decree of God to be one thing and the outward denunciation of judgment to be another For the Decree that cannot be changed but the sentence may recieve alteration according to divers outward circumstances and conditions that may occurre Besides if you should build never so strongly upon the letter of the text we can easily reconcile the truth of the commination in saying that Adam might dy the death the same day he sinned ☞ though the Lord was not pleased presently to inflict death in all its kinds From all which we do conclude if the Lord Christ came to free men from the reign of death Heb. 2.14 15. We may easily gather that Adam brought himself and all his posterity under the dominion of that syrant and so he and all his should have dyed that kind of death if the Lord Christ had not stepped in But you go about to deface this speech in the end of the Chapter for if in case that Christ had not stepped in there had been no recovery this were to exclude all other means and to limit
the emproving of nature to those ends to which God had assigned it These are the Chimera's and fictions of mens own devising For if we will go to the utmost that a natural man can do at seasons he hath ability to judge himself this is not from himself but from the convictions of the Spirit And it is never better with him in the way to attain salvation than when he is beaten off from all his own abilities when in the sight of his own misery and emptinesse he doth rely upon the mercy of God Now we will go on to the meaning of that expression and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Here you distinguish betwixt that wrath which is due by the appointment of God for Adams sinne and the wrath which is due for despising the riches of grace Concerning this text say you we were by nature the children of wrath as well as others if it be universal it must be meant of the first condemnation which came by Adam But if it be meant of the second wrath then it belongs to such persons onely as are dead in trespasses and sinnes that is such as have been in actual defiance which walked after the course of the world after the Prince of the power of the aire in opposition to the Spirit of truth page 150. Here I do agree with you that distinction is to be made between the wrath due for the sinne of Adam and the wrath due for the actual refusal of Christ in the tender of grace Though this distinction be admitted yet it doth not disanul that truth we were by nature the children of wrath as well as others For infants so farre forth as they come out of Adams loynes in that precise and single consideration they may be the children of wrath by nature though the cause why wrath doth not seize upon them is from the shedding of the blood of Christ Secondly let us take this expression and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others that it is meant onely of those who have been in actual defiance this will avail nothing so long as it is clear from the text that men by nature can do no other than live in actual defiance against God Neither do the Examiners mend the matter by their Intepretation when they say it is one thing to be sinners from our first nativity and another in time to become the children of wrath by our personal fall and actual disobedience which also coming to pass in our natural man and by his default we may truly be said to be by nature the children of wrath especially when sinne by custome becomes a second nature to us page 78. Here we will be no adversaries to them so farre as they say that men become the children of wrath by their own personal falls and actual disobedience But the question is whether this disobedience doth not radically and originally proceed from the default of the nature They seem to say so much in sense when they do oppose it Secondly though it be true which they say that the evil doth come upon men throught heir personal fall yet the Apostle doth especially look unto the sinne of the nature And therefore doth amplifie the grace of God in quickning and enlivening again when he saith you hath he quickned that were dead in trespasses and sinnes They were not onely truly dead in sinne thorough custome and sinful conversation but also thorough the state and condition of their natural birth they were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Upon these grounds he tells them that God who was rich in mercy did quicken them when they were dead in trespasses and sins Next you come to open the meaning of the expression dead in trespasses and sinnes You say a spiritual death must be meant of a declining from spiritual things which is a resistance of the spirit or a dying that is a forsaking the truth of God made manifest in them Now such a death as this cannot befall any who never had that spiritual life for it is the losse of life that must prove a death or otherwise we may say that all other creatures besides man are spiritually dead page 151. In this point you and I do agree that the losse of life must prove a death and this to me is the great reason why not only the Ephesians but also all mankind had sometimes spiritual life before they became to be dead in trespasses and sinnes It is plaine from the scope of Scripture and the Analogy of faith as I have proved before that this death came in by the fall of Adam therefore he had spiritual life before his fall And for that expression of yours otherwise we may say as well that all other creatures are spiritually dead I answer not so neither other creatures can not properly be said to be spiritually dead because they never had a capacity of spiritual life And though men are dead in trespasses and sinnes they are not dead as stocks and stones and other sencelesse creatures but they are dead as they who sometime had spiritual life and may have the return of the same life again in and thorough Christ the way the truth and the life So also the Examiners in the Chapter of free will page 130. do but calumniate when they say that we teach that a man is a meere passive block or a dead trunck without a willing or a nilling faculty This is an odious imputation of their own devising we hold that man is a rational creature and he hath those natural and essential properties of the soul though in spiritual things he be altogether dead And for spiritual things also he may be said to have a remote capacity when blindnesse shall be taken away from his understanding and perversenesse from his will It is an excellent speech of Augustine posse credere naturae est hominum to have a remote ability to beleeve is of the nature of men for stocks and stones have no such capacity And in opposition to natural men he saith velle credere gratiae est fidelium to have a will to beleeve is of the grace given to beleevers shewing that no natural man hath an immediate power to beleeve till he come inwardly to be enlivened by the Spirit Let us hear then what you can say how the sonnes of men may be said to be dead in trespasses and sinnes If you shall mean that every man or all mankind in that sense is dead before the light or the life of the Gospel is made known to them then I shall grant it But I shall deny that such a death is any sinne For where no Law is made manifest there is no transgression But all children if you mean infants have no Law or Law made known page 152. This is true in the case of actual sinne that there must be a Law and a Law made known or else there can be
come and let him that is athirst come Revel 22 17. c. All these desires are the fruit of the Spirit He that comes to the first doth not come to the second at least not to the third or fourth degree However the whole course of Christianity is unum continuum sitis one continual succession of spiritual desires And in immediate opposition there is unum continuum auxilii an interchangable supply of auxiliary grace this latter answering the former as the one part of the deed doth answer the other So then though the Saints have no ability in themselves to supernatural duties yet they may have it from Christ and the freenesse of the promise These things I have drawn out more at large because I see as formerly it hath done to others So our doctrine doth seem to give great offence to our Authour It seemeth strange to him that we should exhort men to spiritual duties and yet teach that all mankind through the condition of the natural birth lye under a necessity of sinning Whereas if he did well understand the grand designe of the Gospel he should finde that all ability to do these things is to be had from Christ alone and that upon termes of beleeving desiring longing and waiting for them The Prophets Apostles Martyrs and other holy men have in their several times done their duties and served their generation But how not by any ability of their own but by the continual supply of the Spirit of Christ as the Scriptures and all experience do abundantly testifie Now we come to the next Section SECT 2. Consideration of the objections against the former Doctrine THE first Scripture which he insists upon is Gen 6. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart are onely evil continually Here he doth end avour to frame sundry answers First it is true saith he they were so but it was their own fault not Adams for so it is said expressely All flesh had corrupted their way upon earth and the earth was filled with violence Repl. It was their own fault and Adams too It was their own as they corrupted their own wayes it was Adams as they were flesh for he brought them into that sinful condition by his fall So then the force of our argument stands thus First the thoughts of man were evil Secondly they were all evil Thirdly they were onely evil Fourthly they were continually evil Fifthly they were evil from his childhood Now such an universal effect cannot be without some universal cause from whence all this evil must necessarily spring And where shall we look for the cause but in the text it self My Spirit shall not alway strive with man because he is but flesh Because he is but flesh and borne in the sinne of the nature therefore the thoughts of his heart are evil from his childhood Secondly saith he if this corruption had been natural and unavoidable why did God punish all the world for it except eight persons Why did he punish those that could not help it and why did others escape that were equally guilty Repl. That which God did punish in the old world in ordinary men was the violence of their hands and in his own people was the breach of covenant Though these two did naturally flow from original corruption as all other evils do yet we cannot say that they are absolutely unavoidable for the act of violence and of marriage with the daughter of a strange god men have a liberty to forbeare the outward execution of these evils And for the lust of the heart though it is unavoidable by nature yet it is not simply unavoidable for God is so full of mercy that he is ready to help all those that flee to him in the sense of their own misery He hath declared himself to be a Physician ready to cure all broken-hearted sinners The men of Nineveh did turne from the violence of their hands and how ready was he to forgive them The people in the dayes of Ezra and Nehemiah did repent of their Idolatrous marriages and how did he passe by their iniquity Of all the Authors that ever I met with Luther in his Tract deservo arbitrio is most severe against the liberty of the will yet in the end of the treatise he bringeth in Erasmus thus speaking Why doth he command us any duty seeing all things are done by necessity His answer is he doth command that he may admonish and instruct us what we ought to do that being humbled in the sense and feeling of our own evil we may repair to his grace for help as we have abundantly spoken And as for the Lords punishing of those that could not help it We say in publick solemn and exemplary judgments he hath alway reserved a liberty for the exemple of others and the declaration of his justice and mercy It is true also that they that were equally guilty did not perish in the waters of the flood What of all this though they did escape that judgment they were lyable to the judgment of God Thirdly saith he God might have as well punished all the world for sleeping once in a day or for being hungry as for sinning if so to do be natural and unavoidable Repl. The cases are not equal mankind cannot live without meat and drink sleep and such other refections of nature when they were made in the beginning they were made in such an estate that they had need of these things I trow they had no need of sinne Againe for sinful acts though they come from the corruption of the flesh as the sparkes do out of the Chimney yet in externals man hath a liberty to commit or not commit such an evil Also for the lust of the heart that which is unavoidable by nature is avoidable by grace The guilt of sinne may be taken away by the blood of Christ the power of it by the Spirit of Christ and the very being of it when the Saints shall be made partakers of the adoption or the redemption of their bodies Fourthly if God in these words complained of their natural and original corruption why did he but then as if it were a new thing complain of it and repent that he made man since he proved so bad Repl. God did then complain of original corruption because in a most eminent degree it did put forth it self in oppression breach of covenant and other evils He did complain in those times because iniquity was then come to a ripenesse and the years of his patience was almost runne out Fifthly saith he this malice and corruption was such that God did send Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse to draw the world from it But no man supposes that it was fit to send a Preacher to dehort them from being guilty of original sinne Repl. So farre as we may gather Noahs message to the old world was the same in effect as that of Jonah's to Nineveh he was to exhort them to turn from
nature Infants are born in a sinful nature and do need the sanctification of the Spirit But he hath a passage out of Suidas when the Apostle saith you were by nature the children of wrath he means not that which is the usual signification of nature for then it were not their fault but the fault of him that made them such To which we rejoyn In men of ripe years it is both their fault that they do abide in the sinne of the nature and it is also the fault of Adam that did vitiate and deprave the nature at his fall That men do fulfill the lusts of the flesh and mind is their own voluntary act And though indeed and in truth it is not their personal fault that men are born in original sinne yet it is their fault that they fulfill the lusts of their nature and continue in that state at least that they do not use and hearken to those precursory motions and previous workings of the Spirit which the Lord doth administer to them at some seasons at least The end of all which is to bring them out of the evil of that state The first workes of the Spirit are to reprove to convince to accuse to terrifie men to humble them for their evil deeds that so they may come to Christ for pardon of their sin and for the healing of their nature But here they wilfully shut out the light will not see what they may and this will be the great condemnation Joh. 3.18 19 and 20 verses He goes on By nature the Apostle saith he means not by birth natural extraction or any other original derivation from Adam Rep. By the same reason he might argue that the Ephesians when they were quickned had not a new life by regeneration or spiritual extraction out of the second Adam which is immediatly opposed to the other as the counterpane or the other part of a deed In seeking to deny the misery by the first he must take away the happinesse grace and life that comes in by the second man But he gives his reason The Ephesians were no more guilty than every one else and no more before their conversion than after We say the same in effect and it is the force of our argument because all need a new life a new birth a new extraction out of the second Adam as well as the Ephesians therefore all are equally by nature the children of wrath and do partake of the sinne of the nature as well as they But whereas he addes that the Ephesians were no more guilty of this sinne before conversion than they were after in this he is monstrous absurd For after conversion the guilt of that sinne was done away and the power of it was broken by the inward work of the Spirit now he cannot say that this was done before their conversion He further addeth By nature the children of wrath must be expounded as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really and truly the children of wrath it is agreeable to the usuage of the same phrase Galatians 4.8 Ye did service to them that by nature were no gods that is which really are none Repl. We may understand the meaning of the Apostle in this Scripture by comparing it with others God that made the world and all that is therein dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Acts 17.24 The invisible things of him are clearly seen from the creation of the world even his eternal power and Godhead Rom 1.20 So in the present case when the Galatians did service to those that by nature were not gods his meaning is no other but this they did service to them that had not the essence and the being of the Godhead As in a little case the nature of Birds Beasts and Fishes is taken for the essence and the being it self As in the expression of Saint James every kinde of Birds that is every nature of Birds Beasts and Fishes is tamed and hath been tamed by mankind or according to the original by the nature of man So in the present case when the Apostle saith that the Ephesians were by nature the children of wrath he doth not say onely that they were really and truly the children of wrath For so they might be by ill-custome when their nature was good as the water is really and truely hot though it be not naturally hot But his meaning is this that their very essence and being was sinful and that their corruption was in the very nature it self as they did derive out of Adam a common root The scope of the text doth plainly shew that this is the meaning the sinfulnesse of nature immediately opposed to that life spiritualnesse and new nature they had from the second Adam And whereas he saith as these Ephesians were before their conversion so were the Israclites in the dayes of their rebellion a wicked stubborne people insomuch that they are by the Prophet called children of transgression a seed of falshood All this doth confirme the truth of our interpretation he calleth them a seed of evil doers meaning that they were not onely sinners by custome and evil ensample but by propagation of the kind Let him grant this in the case of the Ephesians and the question is at an end This is all that he hath in his Vnum Necessarium Now let us consider what further he saith to this Scripture in his answer to the Bishops letter Here he tells us that these words do not at all relate to the matter of original but to the state of Heathens sinnes habitual Idolatries and impurities in which the world was dead before the great Reformation by Christ page 74. Repl. By this account when the Ephesians had a new life infused this was onely to cure them of their heathenish Idolatries and superstitions In which sense the Jewes free from such Idolatries needed no new life at all Besides how is it possible that the words are to be understood onely of heathenish Idolatries and impurities when the Apostle himself expressely saith among whom we all had our conversation Did he live in heathenish Idolatries before his conversion or was he an Idolater before his calling But seeing our Authour tells us how the Bishop did admonish him to remember how often the Apostle calleth concupiscence sinne we will urge the text a little more closely and consider what is the value of his answers To ground the businesse we argue thus If the Ephesians were accounted the children of wrath because they had their conversation in the lusts of the flesh by this reason then the flesh must needs be evil because it was evil to converse in those lusts Further to come to the point If the lusts of the flesh be evil it must be true in a sense that the flesh it self must be more evil because it is the very fountain from which the lusts do streame When he hath said all that he can when he hath accused the Ephesians of an evil
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world of ungodly but that there were no spiritual promises in those times this we utterly deny What shall we make of that promise the seed of the woman shall breake the Serpents head What shall we make of the sacrifices were they not all figures of the blood of Christ to come Saint Peter also plainly tells us That the spirits of the fathers were disobedient in the times of the old world In what sense then doth he call them disobedient Their disobedience must be expounded in reference to the teachings convictions that they had by and through the Spirit of Christ whether in Noahs Ministry or otherwise Many more reasons might be alledged to prove that the fathers were not altogether destitute of spiritual promises If our Author will prove it let him shew how they were too blame for their disobedience But he is as strange in assigning that which he tearmes the second cause of the general impiety A second cause saith he of the general iniquity of the world is because our nature is so hard put to it in many instances Not because nature is originally corrupted but because Gods laws command such things which are a restraint to the indifferent and otherwise lawful inclinations of nature And then going on he doth in the same page explain himself more fully Our unwillingnesse and aversenesse came by occasion of the Law coming crosse upon our nature not because our nature is contrary unto God but because God was pleased to super-induce some commandments contrary to our nature For if God had commanded us to eate the best meats and to drink the richest wines as long as they could please us and were to be had I suppose it will not be thought that original sinne would hinder us from obedience But because we are forbidden to do somethings which naturally we desire to do and love therefore our nature is hard put to it and this is the cause of the difficulty So farre he page 413. 414 415 416. Reply From these and such like speeches of his I would entreat him that is so apt to condemne others to observe the rigour and the severity of his own principles First he tells us that there was no proposal of spiritual promises to the old world and then Secondly God laid such commands upon them that were altogether above their natural abilities and from the position of these two he sheweth us that the world did so generally overflow with all kind of wickednesse These things are so extreame hard that I do not finde their parallel in any of our writers They do indeed say that God giveth commands farre above natural abilities but not farre above that natural ability that Adam was furnished withall in the beginning neither above that gracious ability which God hath engaged himself to bestow in the Word of promise But to amplifie commands upon feeble flesh and to make no spiritual promises answerable to the command is plainly to make the Lord himself extreamely severe to the sons of men None of our Authours ever would allow such a severity Of all the Ancients Augustine is the Authour that seems to be most rigorous in the points of original sinne and the natural servitude of the will yet if we consider the whole scope of his doctrine he doth not come near to the severity of the position above mentioned when some did reason with him If there be no free-will to what purpose exhortations and commands I answe this he purposely wrote his book de correptione gratia the effect of which is to this purpose In commands know what thou oughtest to do in reproof know what thou hast not done through thine own default in prayer know whence thou mayst receive what thou wouldst have And when the Pelagians did vehemently inculcate that which our Authour doth so much stand upon Peccatum voluntatis an necessitatis est si necessitatis est peccatum non est si voluntatis vitari potest Sinne say they is either of the will or of necessity If it be of necessity it is no sinne if it be of the will it may be avoided To this he hath a double answer First saith he Vt sanemur in vccamus eum cui dicitur in Psalmo de necessitatibus educ me That we may be healed we call upon him to whom it is said in the Psalme bring me out of my necessities His second answer is vitari posse peccatum si natura vitiata sanetur gratiâ Dei per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum Sinne may be avoided in case our corrupt nature may be healed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There would be no end if we should cite all the passages that he hath to this purpose In which he doth acknowledge that we lie under a natural necessity of sinning but yet that necessity is not absolute and irrecoverable where there is a want of ability to keep the command there he doth referre us to the ability to be had from the word of promise Of all our Authours in these latter times Luther in his treatise de servo arbitrio seemeth to speak most hard yet for all this in the case of commands above natural abilities he alwayes incourages men to go to free grace He alwayes testifies that the Law is to be preached to kill and undo a sinner to put him under the curse and under wrath that so he may come to Christ To let passe all ensamples we will come to that one instance in the beginning of the book when Erasmus did argue in this wise What profit or necessity is there to divulge such things seeing from thence so many evils may seem to arise To this he hath a double answer Prima est humiliatio nostrae superâ—â—â—â—â—â— cognitio gratiae Dei alteraipsa fides Christiana c. The first is the humiliation of our Pride and the knowledge of the grace of God the other is the Christian faith it self First God certainly hath promised his grace to the humble that is to those that are cast down and are without hope Now a man cannot be throughly humbled untill he know as wholly out of his own abilities councels studies wills workes so his salvation altogether to depend upon the disposal councell will work of another that is of God alone For as long as he is perswaded that he can do the least for his salvation he doth remaine in the trust of himself neither doth he wholly dispaire of himself Therefore is not humbled before God but presumeth upon place time or some work for himself either doth hope or at least wish for that by which he may come to salvation He therefore that doubteth not wholly to depend upon the will of God altogether dispaires of himself chooses nothing but expecteth God to work it in him and for him he is nearest to salvation More he hath to the same purpose Concerning the second reason he hath these words therefore
piety and godlinesse On the other side others trusting in their own ability liberty of will and the like they bereave the Lord of that honour that is due to him He sheweth that a middle course is to be taken between these two extreames and that the rocks on either side are to be declined For the clearing of this he sheweth how far a natural man may go in all natural civil ecclesiastical actions and how by the general assistance and concurrence of the Spirit he may do great things in all Physical Mathematical Ethical Oeconomical and Political kinds of learning Only when he cometh to that which is spiritual here he plainly tells us that a man hath no power and to use the words of the Author he hath no ability to offer a sacrifice to God What is then to be done here he tells us that we must have recourse to the freenesse of the promise where all fulnesse is to be had To that end he cites the words of the Prophet Isaiah I will poure water upon him that is thirsty and floods of water upon the dry ground Isa chap. 44.3 And againe Ho every one that thinsteth come ye to the waters of life chap. 55.1 Having cited these and such like passages he comes to close in these words Quae testantur ad percipiendas dei benedictiones nullos admit ti nisi suae paupertatis sensu tabescentes Which testifieth to the receiving of the blessings of God no others are to be admitted but such only which languish with a sence of their own poverty And then he addeth Semper sanè mihi vehementer illud Chrysostomi placuit Fundamentum nostrae Philosophiae esse humilitatem That of Chrisostome hath alwayes pleased me exceedingly Humility to be the foundation of our Philosophy Or rather that of Augnstine even as the Retoricion saith when he was demanded what was the chief thing in the precepts of eloquence answered pronunciation what the second pronunciation what the third pronunciation So if thou mayest ask me concerning the precepts of Christian Religion first second and third alway it would please me to give this answer humility and more he hath to the same purpose I have drawn out the words more at length because the Author himselfe is a chiefe leader in the reformed Churches and because indeed they are the patterne of whole some words By this our Author may understand though Original sin be asserted the natural liberty of the will denyed and the necessity of sinning introduced yet neverthelesse according to the tenour of these principles men may have a sacrifice to offer and exhortations may be of good use Dr. Preston in his Treatise of humiliation pag. 224. doth propound the question who is able to practise according to his knowledge His answer is and I will appeale to any mans experience let him look back to the course of his life and examine himselfe was there any particular action in all thy life from which thou wast so hindred that thou caust say that thou couldst not do it was there any particular sin of which thou couldest say this sin I could not abstaine from And howsoever we may make it a matter of dispute in the Schooles yet the worst man in whom we may think corruption of nature to be most strong when he comes to dye doth not excuse himselfe but acknowledges he is guilty In the next page he propounds the maine objection How can a man he condemned for not believing and turning to God when naturally he hath no power to do these things To this he answers Though a man hath no power to believe and repent yet he is condemned for the neglect of such precedent actions which he had a liberty to do c. Our Divines in the Synod of Dort in the Suffrage of the Britans do distinguish betwixt regeneration and those antecedaneous acts that lead towards regeneration These antecedaneous acts a natural man by the help of the Spirit may do as to see sinne mourne over it judge himselfe for it he may go further he may taste the sweetnesse of the promise and have some beginnings of joyes all which he may fall from many other testimonies may be brought to shew that our Authours by the tenour of their principles do not extinguish the endeavour of man but do rather more truely direct and instruct men to follow the right course I shall stay too long upon this point because I perceive that it is the chief rock of offence that our Author doth stumple at he further sheweth All things else are determined and fixed by the divine providence even all the actions of men but the inward act of the will is left under the command of laws only and under the arrest of threatnings and the invitation of promises Answ It s true that laws threatnings promises are made with special respect to the will But that the inward act of the will should be so under laws that it should not be under the decree of God this Tenet doth exclude the chiefest part of the world from being under the care of God Nay if the matter be well considered here is the very height of the Atheisme of the ancient Philosophers To maintaine the absolutenesse independency and sovereignty of the will of man upon the earth they do deny the providence of God in heaven Cicero upon this reason did deny the infallibility of the prescience of God And our Authour seemeth to me to come too near to this coast In the next words he gives his reason And that this is left for man can no way impede any of the divine decrees because the outward act being over-ruled by the divine providence it is strange that the Schooles will leave nothing to man whereby he may glorifie God Answ If it be supposed that the inward act of the will be under the decree of God as well as the outward action this doth not take away that by and through which we may glorifie God For it is not all kinds of necessity that are contrary to liberty but some onely The necessity of nature the necessities of a bruit instinct and outward compulsion cannot stand with liberty but the necessity of the decree of God the necessity of infallibility the necessity of the creatures dependency can be proved to consist with liberty For God usually brings his decrees to passe by the free act of his creature which work under his decrees and are subservient to those ends that he hath appointed And for the inward motions of the will innumerable examples may be brought to prove that they are under the decrees of God The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord and he turneth it about as the streams of water Prov. 21.1 God hath put it into their hearts to hate the whore and to burne her flesh with fire Apoc. 17.11 And speaking of the Egyptians he turned their heart to hate his people Psal 105.25 Besides the promise A new heart and
Lords gift the believing Ephesians must be supposed to have it from their own ability If this be so how shall we agree with the scope of the Apostle who saith in expresse termes You are saved by grace through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Truly Sir if your faith be not Gods gift it will be of your self and you will have cause of boasting as though you did make your self to differ from other men and what is this else but to go point blanck against the scope of the Scripture And though I do plead this truth against you in affirming faith to be the gift of God yet I say also it is the act of man God gives the grace and man beleeves These two are not so parted asunder but that they may be joyned together For your third Scripture concerning the striving for the faith given to the Saints which S. Jude speaks of this is not meant of the grace or habit of faith in the heart but of the doctrine of faith onely That men should strive to preserve the Gospel in its purity and integrity against the heresies of the times But you go further to shew the absurdities that will follow upon the holding of that position that obedient actions are the gift of God you say If God should give the actions as sure as he giveth means to act then a mans conscience might and would as well accuse him for want of means to act as for want of action But I never heard say you that any mans conscience accused him for want of means to performe his actions but because be made not use of the means In this passage of yours as ther eare some things which I allow as true and sound so there are others which I do reject as false and unsound For as I have said before they who deny a man to be a free Agent I cannot see by the tenor of their doctrine how their conscience can accuse them for non-performance of action seeing they hold that both the act the means to act are onely from God and man is meerly passive So far you I are agreed but whereas you oppose the carrying on of the work of salvation by the power the grace of God in this you contradict the Scriptures and by name that place of the Apostle We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 That the Saints do persevere it is mainly from the power of God who carries on the work But how not without their own endeavour Ye are kept by the power of God through faith Men must apply the promise of God and that will engage his power to carry them on to salvation And yet further God speaketh of his elect I will put my Spirit in them that they shall keep my Commandments and do them But most plainly in that place 2 Thes 2.13 We are bound to give God thanks for you brethren that he hath chosen you from the beginning to salvation thorough the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth In the Words going before he doth speak of the great Apostacy that should be in all Anti-Christian times that because men did not receive the truth in the love of it that they might he saved therfore God should deliver them over to strong delusions to believe lies By way of opposition to these Apostates the Apostle comforts the beleeving Thessalonians with the infallibility and certainty of their salvation But how would he bring them to salvation thorough the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth These two means he doth name to shew that God will bring none to salvation as the end but he will first justify and sanctifie them in the use of the means Though he will carry on the work by his own power infallibly and certainly in the hearts of his people yet their act endeavour and obedience shall go along with the working of his grace Many such like places might be brought to shew that the infallible workings of God may stand with the endeavours of his own people Secondly whereas you affirme That you never heard any mans conscience accuse him for want of means but for want of using the means Oh Sir in what corner of the world were you brought up that the fame of this never came to your eares I think it is a truth well known in the Church of God that mens consciences do accuse them not onely because they made no use of the means but also because thorough their own default the means are not administred to them or that they are taken from them If it had been your lot to visit men in trouble of conscience in agonies and gripes upon their sick-beds there you should have heard such words as these again and again repeated Had I sought God had I prayed in faith of his promise had I walked humbly with him had I fruitfully used the grace administred to me as a good and profitable Steward I had never wanted the means to subdue the power and rage of such and such corruptions It is meerely from mine own defect that there is such a strangenesse betwixt the Lord and me These are the ordinary complaints of men who neglect the day of their salvation and you tell us you never heard any mans conscience accuse him for the want of the means when the talent was taken from the unprofitable servant he was deprived of the means but was not that deprivation through his own fault but you further add If conscience be so well informed that it must and wil bear witness then of whom shal it bear witnesse against God No marvail that there be so many corrupt sayings if God had given me abilities powers and actions then I would have done it Nay do not many say I must be contented to stay Gods time Hath God commanded you before his time Nay do not you discharge your self of duties in saying it is not his time page 72. Such a dextrous faculty you have in cavilling against the main truths of Christianity But when I read this and such like passages thorough your whole Treatise I cannot but compare the state of the Church in these times to the ship that carried Saint Paul to Rome the forepart of it stuck in the sand and the hinder part of it was broken with the waves Into such desperate extreams are we now fallen For if we speak of actions of obedience if the power be not placed chiefly in the will of man you and the whole nation of the Free-willers do tell us that we be discharged from duty seeing we are cast upon a necessity of waiting when the matter is not in our own hand On the other side there is sprung up a generation of fanatical men which are so opposite to the freedome of will that they think the Spirit must do all they will not give thanks
at meat nor pray in their families nor hear the Word nor perform any other spiritual duty untill they have a motion of the Spirit Indeed the Waiters in this sense do come to your pitch they think themselves to be discharged from duty till the coming of the Spirit But is there no middle between these desperate extreames Is there no discharge of duty in obedience to the Commands of God There is no man that lives in the Kingdome of grace but in some one thing or other he must be contented to stay the Lords time what then shall we say because he is necessitated to wait he is therefore discharged of all duty Not so he is still to act in a lower spheare and to wait for further communications as it shall please the Lord to impart them These are the words of the Apostle let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Neverthelesse whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule Phil. 3.15 16. The meaning of the place is this every man should walk according to his present attainments and abilities ☜ and in walking doing and discharging his duty wait upon God for further discoveries A natural man is furthest off from God what then is he absolutely discharged from duty Is he not to come to Church to hear the Gospel and to wait upon the means peradventure God may give him repentance to convince him of the evil of his ways Though it is not in his own power to repent yet thereby he is not acquitted and discharged from all performance of duty And so in sundry cases men are to discharge their duty according to present abilities they are to walk in those paths that he hath appointed and to wait upon him for the supply of spirit It is the voice of the Church in her great tribulation I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation Mic 7.7 Now tell me I pray you seeing the Church was compelled to stay Gods time to wait as it were on a Watch Tower for so the word in the Original doth signifie will you lay that in this whole interval she is discharged from all duty This is not so she did discharge her duty in praying seeking and looking to God onely and in the performance of all these she waited upon him for comfort she had none else in all the world no father no brother no friend no wisedome of the flesh no other refuge but God onely When she had darknesse and no light she had a firme perswasion that at last he would plead her cause execute judgment for her that he would bring her forth to light and she should see his righteousnesse But you go on do not other men say of God that he so pitied the world seeing their hard cold frozen hearts therefore of his own goodnesse did he provide fewel enough to warm and melt them but when that is done with-holds the right hand of his power from putting the fewel into a flaming fire to succour them in their distresse and then comes to them and saith be warmed and comforted likening God to that hard hearted man spoken of Jam. 2.15 16. And more such like passages you have page 72. Who these other men are whom you here intend I cannot certainly tell if you mean the friends and followers of this Church from whom you have departed I must tell you you do charge us with that which we do not maintain It is not the result of our doctrine to resemble God to that hard hearted man Who bids them be warmed and gives them not wherewithall We say there are promises to give faith as well as to faith given to give love as well as to love given to put fear into the heart as well as to fear which is put into the heart There are sundry promises given to that end that men may go chearfully about the performance of action that doing their duties they may feel the power and presence of the Spirit to go along with them Therefore we do not say that God keeps the fewel in his own hand and that men are frozen for want of heat These are your calumnies but not our doctrine But to aggravate the matter you further adde The Physician openeth the mouth of one in a hundred and poureth it in by force as for all the rest they are not alotted any share or part therein and yet shall suffer deeply for not taking it it being proffered but not given them page 73. How hard a thing is it for you to leave your old custome of corrupting our sayings before you do confute them We hold that there is a peculiar number which God hath chosen from the beginning to salvation these in time he effectually calleth justifieth and sanctifieth but we never teach that he poureth his grace into them by force Again for others we hold there is a grace given to them nay temporary believers have very great degrees of grace which they fall from by their own desault It is an Impudent calumny then to affirme of us that we should say there is no share or part alotted to them that grace is proffered and not given For my part I do believe in the ordinary way God gives more abilities to men by the convictions of his Spirit then they do profitably use All the difficulty of the point will come to this issue touching the peculiarity of this grace which carries some infallibly and certainly to salvation when others are left for their resisting of the Spirit If then you list to go further and ask after the reason why God doth deal so unequally with men here the Scriptures doe confine you to the Lords good pleasure This I am sure they would not do if a substantial reason otherwise might be given from any thing in man himself Why else should our Saviour say Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so O Father because it pleaseth thee And yet further ☜ they who do with judgment maintain the doctrine of election do not think that this mystery is to be propounded to all men and at all times as some unadvised and inconsiderate men have done To let passe all that may be said if you will go to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the seventeeth Article you shall finde that the main sense and import of the Article is this that such persons onely should have the consideration of their election in Christ propounded to them who feel in themselves the Spirit mortifying the works of the flesh As for curious and carnal persons it is more proper for them to look to the threats of God that they may be humbled and for others also when they come to be humbled it is not for them presently and immediately to meddle with election but
And for infants though we hold them guilty of sinne by the disobedience of the first man what detriment or dammage is this to them as long as mercy is extended through the obedience of the second man By all that I can understand these men are afraid of nothing more than that Christ should have too much honour given to him in releeving the miserable lost sonnes of men otherwise they would never stand so much as they do upon the purity of the natural birth SECT 2. NOW let us heare what answers they return to our arguments And here I say they are extreamely fallacious for as they do not produce some of our arguments which have most cogent proof so they do mention others which are of small moment which is scarce honest dealing But for the places which they do alledge there are four in number which do carry some weight with them First from that place Gen. 8.21 for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth they gather thus much Even as Esau or Edom though he had a birth-right yet sold it in his youth to satisfie some strong desires kindled in him so men though created innocent do in the time of temptation and tryall too often and too soon yield unto the temptation and sell or forfeit that their innocency and birth-right and so their imaginations become evil from their youth but are not so from their birth unlesse you here understand a spiritual conception or birth in sinne by our personal fall page 71. In this I do agree with them that men in time of their tempration too often and too easily fall from God thorough their own actual disobedience This is a part but it is not the whole truth for if they had compared the text as they should have done with Gen. 6. ver 3.4 5. they would finde that both Scriptures speak of the sinne of the nature First the Lord saith my Spirit shall not alway strive with man for that he also is flesh ver 3. As who would say in plainer times because his nature is defiled I will destroy him from the earth Secondly the whole nature must needs be depraved because the principles and lively fountaines are corrupt every imagination of the thoughts of his heart are evil Thirdly the universality of the depravation it is not spoken of this or that particular imagination but every imagination of his heart is evil and that which is more it is onely evil without the combination connexion and commixture of any good Fourthly the perpetuity of the time in the one text it is said the thoughts of his heart are onely evil continually and in the other the imagination of mans heart is evil from his childhood If we put altogether we may plainly see that there is a depravation of nature that this depravation is generally in all parts and in all times from the very birth and conception And for that example of Esau which they alledge that he sold his birth-right that primogeniture was a special priviledge in the family of the Patriarchs but what is this to every mans natural birth-right can he forfeit that natural innocency which he never had Again Esau did sell his birth-right at a certain time of his age by a deliberate and a free choyce when Jacob and he were come near to mans estate and therefore the Apostle saith Let there be no profane person among you as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birth right Heb. 12.16 Now it is otherwise with the the words of the text there it is expressed that the thoughts of the imaginations of his heart are evil from his childhood As much in sense as that the whole nature is depraved and that depravation doth beginne from the very birth Secondly for the texts cited out of Job I do agree with the Examiners in the general that those wise men speaking of the purity of God in relation to the imperfection of the creature do oftentimes use an hyperbolical way of expression As in that passage of Eliphaz behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clear in his sight Job 15.15 I do agree also that men do voluntarily corrupt themselves how much more abominable and filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water ver 16. Though these things be true yet they do not contain the whole truth nor the Emphasis of that Scripture for the words immediately going before are concerning the natural generation of man what is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous ver 14. The same in substance is spoken by Job himself touching the natural birth who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Chap. 14 4. Both Scriptures do plainly shew that the nature is defiled because it doth proceed from so unclean a fountain And this doth agree with the doctrine of our Saviour when he presseth a necessity of regeneration that which is born of flesh is flesh therfore there is a necessity that man should be born again The whole force of the argument is thus much in effect from the greater to the lesse If the heavens and the Saints which are the more perfect creatures are not pure in the sight of God what righteousnesse is in man who is defiled with original sinne even from the very birth This is the natural sense of the words of Eliphas Thirdly to that place Psal 51.5 behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me they answer We would say they First gladly know of you whether it be not Davids scope in this confession to aggravate his sinne But if he here pleadeth the inevitable corruption of nature which you hold forth his words will be found a meere extenuation of his offences if not a throwing off all or most of the blame upon God who had brought him forth so corrupt and averse to all good and so propense to all evil and that without hope of an absolute cure while he was in this world page 75. Where is the honesty and conscience of these men when they patch that upon others which is none of their doctrine For where can they shew that either the Assembly of Divines or any other serious Authors did ever teach that the nature of man is corrupt and propense to evil without any hope of cure while he is in this world and that in this case man doth lie under an inevitable necessity Do not the Assembly of Divines and all other Authors almost speak of the Covenant of grace after they have shewed the misery of nature For though the nature of man is wholly defiled yet from Christ there is hope to have the nature cleansed Though David was born in original sinne yet he was not destitute of a remedy he beleeved the grace of God made known in the promise and therefore prayeth create in me a clean heart renew in me a right
spirit He did desire that his defilement by natural generation might be done away by the work of the new creation And whereas these confident men would desire to know whether it be not Davids scope in his confession to aggravate his sinne I answer it is and therefore he doth cry out against the sinne of the nature he doth use the same expression in effect as Paul doth Rom. 7. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing ver 18. And O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death ver 24. Where we may observe these three points First they who are inwardly and truly enlightned do feel the burden of a carnal mind which they have by natural generation whereas other men account the liberty of lust their greatest freedome Secondly they feeling the propension of their nature wholly to sinne do hereupon aggravate the sinfulnesse of their nature Thirdly by this means they do more highly prize the grace of Christ and that freedome which he doth bring to set them at liberty from the bondage of corruption and the reigne of their lusts Joh. 8.31 32 33. Isa 61.1 2 3. Mat. 12.20 The promise of Christ is that a bruised reed he will not break and the smoaking flax he will not quench untill he have brought forth judgment unto victory By judgment is here meant deliverance from under the tyranny and reign of original sin when men serve divers lusts and pleasures The deliverance from the power of corruption is the judgment meant in the text This deliverance is not wrought in an instant but by degrees and our Saviour is ready to help the weakest that flie to him in a sense of their own misery There is nothing more weak than a bruised reed and the least degree of fire will make flax to smoak Even so if there be the least grace to feel the bondage of corruption the Lord Christ is ready to cherish it and never to leave till he have brought forth judgment unto victory to make men conquerors of their lusts But the ground of all this is to feel the burden of a carnal mind which it is most probable these Censors are strangers to or else they would not so extenuate the sin of the nature as they do Now let us heare what interpretation they give of the Psalmists words It was say they the lie or lying promises of Sathan with the folly therein contained by which he was shapen in iniquitie or conceived in sin pag. 74. And they ground themselves upon that passage that the devil is the father of sin These are their words besides our natural parents we have spiritual fathers and mothers whether for our begetting in evil and iniquity or for our regeneration in grace and goodnesse Concerning our procreation in sin our Saviour speaks thus unto the Jewes Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your father the Devil and his lusts will ye do Now this father makes use of a twofold mother to beget men in wickednesse besides their own lust which when it is enticed and drawn away by temptation conceiveth and bringeth forth sin Jam. 1.14 15. And here first they reckon the lying word or promise by which Sathan deceiveth men and secondly the false Synagogue which thorough Sathans helps begets men in a false faith Page 75. 76. But this glosse will not serve their turn neither for though the Devil be the father of sin he is so onely by temptation and suggestion but the Psalmist speaketh of sin by derivation and propagation I was shapen in iniquitie and in sin did my mother conceive me And for that which they alledge out of the Epistle of St. James he doth onely speak of the order of generation of sin in the heart every man is drawn away of his own lust and enticed and lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin But what is this to the purpose of the Psalmist he doth not speak of the generation of lust or of sin in his heart but he doth speak of his own generation This is evident from the words themselves I was shapen in iniquitie and in sin did my mother conceive me Secondly it is manifest from the words that follow because he was defiled with the pollution of the natural birth by way of opposition he prayeth unto the Lord to create in him a clean heart because his old was defiled therefore he did beg a new nature Fourthly to that place Eph. 2.3 And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others they answer by a distinction It is one thing say they to be sinners from our first nativity and another thing in time to become the children of wrath by our personal fall and actual disobedience which also coming to passe in our natural man and by his default we may truly be said by nature to be the children of wrath when sin by custome becomes a second nature to us Page 78. Here I yield that the Ephesians before their conversion and all other natural men do thorough their own actual disobedience serve divers lusts and pleasures This is the truth but it is not the whole truth If they were only defiled by custome which in a sense may be called a second nature by good custome then they need onely a remedy of the evil of their nature and we need not the knowledge of Divinity but onely of Moral Philosophie toward the recovery out of our misery For that which is now the judgment of these Censors was sometimes the opinion of Aristotle He did beleeve that man in his birth was like a white sheet of paper and that thereupon the habit of vertue was attainable by many acts But the Apostle doth not deal upon such weak beggerly and Ethical grounds because the Ephesians were not only sinners by conversation but by nature also were the children of wrath hereupon in relation to their natural corruption he saith you hath he quickened which were dead in trespasses and sinnes Their quickening by the spirit a posteriori doth shew the pollution of their natures a priori But if they were the children of wrath only by custome a second nature by breaking off old customes they might reduce themselves to their ancient purity of nature And this is the Moral Philosophie of these Censors and the separate Churches of this way Fifthly for that place of the Romans by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Chap. 5. v. 12. That we may more orderly proceed let us consider how they plant their own interpretation and then how they oppugne ours This one man say they by whom sinne entred into the world is not our first parent Adam but our own earthly or natural man which is called Adam and Edom from the earth of his foundation pag. 78. Here I do plainly and openly confesse I do not know what they meane by this Adam neither can I see how possibly they can apply such a sense to