have a being c. And then I shall answer some objections and their wresting of some Scriptures for the maintenance of their Error And the first reason may be this because there is not any amongst the Saints of God mentioned in Scripture that the spirit of grace hath not charged with some sinne the most perfect in their generations were not without their failings and that after their long walking with God as Noah drunk Lot incestuous Abraham had some diffidence when he consented to unlawfull means in going into Hagar for bringing about Gods purpose Sarah lied and distrusted when she laughed at the promise of a Sonne Moses and Aaron were barred out of Canaan for dishonouring God by diffidence and passion Hezekiah lifted up with pride Job impatient and humbled for it David had foul sinnes and secret sinnes which he repented for and prayed against Jehosaphat and Asa reproved Vzziah and Zachariah punished for sinne the one by untimely death the other dumb And yet these are reported in Scripture to have served God with all their heart with a perfect heart and to have been faithfull And therefore August against the Pelagians bids them examine all the Saints and all will confess that whilest they lived here they were not without sinne And again the perfection we have is such that we daily need to pray forgive us our trespasses If any Saint on earth had to glory it was with men but not with God for saith the Apostle in that Rom 4.2 If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God Now if this were the state of the best men how may it be expected that it should be otherwise The best of men did still strive to grow in grace and to be better neither doe we read of any that did so stand but that they fell into some sinne and had defects in their best performances What needed else that prayer of godly Nehemiah 13.12 who when he desired that his good service might be remembred with Gods reward he also prayed it might be remembred with Gods forgiveness So also we read that the high Priests offered for their own sins and did typically bear the sins of the holy things noting that our best workes want Christs attonement to make them acceptable They came not from such a pure principle of grace as doe exactly fill the Soul but some corruption remaining stayns them with some defects there being in the principle of grace some defects and the works flowing from it some imperfection Because in this life it is not consummate as I have shewed and shall further shew And therefore sin dwelleth in us and is not wholy abolished God reserves the consummation of grace for the state of glory Grace is glory begun glory is grace consummate Glory inchoat here grace perfected hereafter The spirits of just men made perfect are in heaven Heb 12.23 All our graces are imperfect in this life To speak of those three divine Graces Faith Hope Charity First Faith is not perfect in this life because Faith must be grounded upon knowledge For how shall they believe in him whom they doe not know But the Apostle tells us That we know but in part 1 Cor. 13.12 and therefore we believe but in part So that our Saviour may say of the best of us as once to his Disciples O yee of little faith Matt. 8.26 And the best of us may say unto him with him whose child was possessed Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help my unbelief Again Faith is not simply perfect in this life because that which is perfect admitteth no increase nor addition But there is no man that liveth in this life which can say that he believeth so perfectly as that he hath not need continually to pray Lord increase our faith Therefore there is no man can say his faith is perfect and yet his faith shall be perfect hereafter For it is absurd to say there is no Faith in heaven because Faith is tam apparentium quam non apparentium as well of things seen as of things not seen according to our common saying I believe mine own eyes Surely we must believe the continuance of that happinesse which we have in heaven and therefore there is a perfect Faith in heaven because it is grounded upon a certain knowledge Secondly Our hope in this life is imperfect for although the Apostle compares it to an Anchor yet that doth no wayes prove the perfection of Hope but yeeldeth a great consolation unto us that although we should feel our hope wavering and reeling sometimes to and fro yet it is sure enough to stay us and preserve us against all the windes and stormes of Sathan Thirdly Charity is not perfect in this life First Because as I proved before We know but in part and therefore we can love but in part It is a Maxime amongst Divines that tantum scimus quantum diligimus imperfect knowledge cannot produce perfect charity Quod latet ignotum est ignota nulla cupido Ovid. Things unknown cannot be loved and according to our knowledge and acquaintance with any one so is our affection towards that one Bernard saith We can neither desire what we know not nor enjoy what we love not We love things according as we know them and therefore seeing in heaven we shall know God so perfectly as such Creatures are capable of knowing him many degrees better than we know him now We shall in like manner love him far otherwise than we love him now Secondly Perfect Charity expels fear 1 John 4.18 but there is no Saint on earth without feare therefore no Saint here indued with pefect Charity Thirdly Perfect Charity expelleth sin for love is the fulfilling of the Law in Rom. 13.10 And perfect love is the perfect fulfilling of the Law and where the Law is fulfil'd there is no sin committed because sinne is the transgresion of the Law Gal. 5.14 1 John 3.4 But in many things we offend all James 3.2 And therefore there is no man indued with perfect Charity Greater love can no man have saith our Saviour than to lay down his life for his friend and yet this is not perfect for they may doe it out of vain-glory pride and ambition for a vain-glorious reputation as many have done for the safety of their Common-wealth They may doe it for many other sinister ends yet this cannot prove a perfection of Charity There cannot be a greater argument and signe yet our Saviour doth not bring this to prove the perfection of our love Which we cannot judge of because their ends intentions and many other circumstances which are requisite for the perfection of any thing are unknown But to shew the greatnesse of his love by the surest argument that he could make unto them so far as might be understood by outward apprehension And as for the testimony of St. John 15.14 that is an hypotheticall proposition that can never prove the perfection of charity
Adam and Moses by the wicked of the world and with it sin because sin hath no strength where there is no law Though men had not any such legible characters of Gods will in their nature as Adam had at first And therefore did not sin after the similitude of his prevarication Yet even from Adam to Moses did sinne reigne over all them even that sinne of Adam and that lust which that sinne contracted Secondly there is universality of men and in men universality of parts All men and every part of man shut up under the guilt and power of this sinne And both these the Apostle notes at large Rom. 3.9 19.23 What then are we better then they no in no wise for we have before proved both Jewes and Gentiles that they are all under sinne Now we know that what things soever the law saith it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Rom. 11.32 for God hath concluded them all in unbeliefe that he might have mercy upon all So also Gal. 3.21.22 If there had been a law given that could have given life verily righteousnesse should have been by the law but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin c. This shewes the universality of persons in the 3. to the Rom. 13.14.15.16.17 c. The Apostle addes their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used deceit c. And the 6. Gen. 5. and the 8. and the 21. The imaginations of the heart are evill continually These particulars are enough to make up an induction and to inferre an universality of parts That from the understanding as it were the Crown of the head to the affections as it were the sole of the foot there is nothing but loathsomnesse A lively description whereof you may read in the 16. of Ezehiel In the understanding there is a sea of ignorance uncapable of good things but wise and witty in wickedness The conscience full of blind feares and terrors or else seared and senselesse The memory slippery to retaine good impressions but of a marble firmnesse to hold fast that which is evill The will pliable and obsequious to the devill in his hands as wax but as stiffe and hard as clay in Gods All our affections are inverted we love what we should hate and hate what we should love we are bold where we should feare and feare where we should be bold we remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember And so of all the rest c. Thus the whole frame of mans heart is evill continually The rout and rabble of impure and impious thoughts and desires are not to be expressed Thus we see how universall a corruption originall sinne is Therefore in scripture the whole man is called flesh Now because in carnall works we work secundum hominem when we are carnall we walk as men 1 Cor. 3.3 As our Saviour saith of the devill John 8.44 when he speaks a lye he speaks de suo of his own that is according to his own nature So when men walk after the flesh they work of their own they walk according to themselves For of our selves we can doe nothing as the Apostle speaks but only sinne 2 Cor. 3.5 when we doe any good it is by the grace of God 1 Cor. 15.10 But by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vaine but I laboured more abundantly then they all yer not I but the grace of God which was with me Secondly consider the closenesse and adherency of this sin it cleaves as fast to our nature as blacknesse to the skin of an Ethiopian which cannot possibly be washed off And therefore the Apostle cals it an incompossing sin Heb. 12.1 A sin that will not easily be cast off that doth easily occupate and pâ—ssâ—ss all our members and faculties A men may as easily shake off the skin from his back or poure out his bowels out of his body as rid himself of this evill Inhabitant It is an evill that is ever present with us Rom. 7.21 evill is present with me see verse 23. It will be ever present with us to derive a deadnesse a damp a dulnesse and an indisposednesse upon all our services an iniquity upon our holiest things which we stand in need of a priest to beare for us Exod. 28.38 And herein appeares also the contagion of this sin Such a pestilentiall humour there is in it that it doth not only cleave inseparably to our nature but derives venome upon every action that comes from us Obser For although we doe not say that the good works of the regenerate are sinnes and so hatefull to God as our Adversaries doe belie and misreport us for that were to reproch the Spirit and the grace of Christ by which they are wrought yet this we affirme constantly That unto the best work that is done by the concurrence and contribution of our own faculties Such a vitiousnesse doth adhere and such stubbornnesse of ours it superinduced as that God may justly charge us for defiling the grace he gave and for the evill we mixe with them may turn away his eyes from his own gifts in us Thirdly consider the fruitfulnesse of this sin to beget to conceive to bring forth to multiply and to consummate actuall sinnes James 1.13,14,15 where the Apostle sets forth the birth and progresse of actuall sin Every man saith he is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed of his own lusts There lust is the father the Adulterer and lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin There lust is the mother too And there is no mention of any seed but the temptation of lust it self Mark The stirrings the flatteries and dalliances of the sinfull heart with it self And thus suddenly this sin brings forth like summer-fruit Esay 66.8 We may see in our children this sin shewing it self before they have haire or teeth Vanity Pride frowardnesse self-love revenge and the like I have seen Aug. in confes l. 1. c. 7. saith Augustins a sucking Infant that was not able to articulate a word look with a countenance even pale for envy upon his fellow suckling that shared with him in the same miâ—k upon which consideration the holy man breaks forth into this pious complaint Vhi Domine quando Domine Domine Where ever was the place O Lord when ever was the time O Lord that I have been an innocent creature Fourthly this sin breaks forth unexpectedly instance Hazaell 2 Kings 8.13 Is thy servant a dog that he should doe this great thing c. Instance also Peter Mat. 26.33.35 Who could have expected or feared Adultery from such a man as David after such communion with God Or impatience from such a man as Jeremy after such Revelation from God Or
So that briefly in statu confectionis Adamus acceperit posse si vellet he received a power to be if he would sed non habuit velle quod posset but he had not power given him to will that he might be Which first power having willingly cast away man now can challenge no more but what God will give for God owes no Creature any thing If he gives it is of his free grace if he withholds he doth no man wrong In the second state in man fallen born of corrupt parents and yet not regenerate Although man hath lost that first grace of liberty to be if he will yet the will doth work freely but it is carried to evil only and can doe nothing else but sinne And the reason is because the privation of the knowledge of God in the understanding ensued on the fall together with the want of inclination in the heart and will to obedience Instead where of blindnesse and aversenesse from God succeeded the which man cannot shake off unlesse he be regenerate Briefly it is the fitnesse and pronenesse in man after his fall being unregenerate to chuse only evill Of this blindnesse and corruption of mans nature after the fall it is said All the thoughts of man are evill c. Gen. 6.5 and can the Ethiopian change his skin Jer. 13.23 And a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.28 and dead in sinnet by nature the sonnes of wrath Ephes 2.1.3 and we are not able of our selves to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 With these testimonies concurreth every mans experience and the weary conscience which proclaimeth that we have no liberty or pronenesse of will to doe that which is good but too great freedome and readinesse to practise evil unlesse we be regenerate as it is said Jer. 31.18 Convert thou me and I shall be converted c. Wherefore there is no love of God in us by nature and therefore we have by nature no readinesse to obey God From whence it comes to passe that the enmity between God and man is not in God but in man who will not now rank himself in the roome of a subject and yield to the Lord the place of a Commander There is only now this question between God and man Whose will should be done The Lord craves that man should subject his will to Gods will But man aspires to make his own will the rule of his actions and in this miserable state lives every man not renewed by grace he sets up within himself a will contrary to Gods most holy will And this is the fruit of Adams apostasy for in his Creation he had a perfect conformity to the law or will of God and had power to yield exact obedience to the same But now onely a readinesse to doe evill But no power of it selfe to doe good Thirdly in the third state Take a man as he is renewed we deny against all our adversaries that our will is a co-worker with grace by the force of nature But we say it worketh by grace with grace We deny that grace doth enable the will of it self to doe good works if it please But we say that grace worketh in the will to please and to doe such offices as God requires at our hands God doth not hang his work upon the suspended If of our will but he worketh in us to will and causeth us to doe the things that he commandeth to doe as in Ezekiel 36.27 I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and doe them We will indeed saith Augustine but God worketh in us to will we work but God worketh in us to work we walk but God worketh in us to walk we keep his commandements but God worketh in us to keep them according to that in the Philippians 2.13 It is God that worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure So that in this estate the cause for which the will beginneth to work well is this Because by the singular grace or benefit of the holy Spirit mans nature is renewed by the word of God there is kindled in the mind a new light and knowledge of God in the heart new affections in the will new inclinations agreeing with the law of God And the will effectually moved to doe according to these inclinations and so it recovereth both that power of willing that which God approveth and the use of that power and beginneth to be conformed and agreeable to God and to obey him Deut. 30.6 The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed c. and Ezekiel 36.26 a new heart will I give you c. and 16. Actâ— 14. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia and 1 Cor. 3.7 Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty And yet notwithstanding we must know first in this life the renewing of our nature is not perfect neither as concerning out knowledge of God neither as concerning our inclination to obey God And therefore in the best of men while they live here doe remaine sinnes both originall and others And Secondly that the regenerate be not alwayes ruled by the holy Spirit but are sometimes forsaken of God God withdrawing himself for a season either to try them that is to make their weaknesse without God known to themselves as in Peter or to chastise or humble them but yet are recalled to Repentance that they perish not Of the first the Aposte testifieth Rom. 7.18 I know that in me that is my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but I find no means so performe that which is good And in Marke 9.24 Lord I believe help my unbeliefe Of the second it is said Take not thy holy spirit from me and Esay 63.17 It is said O Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy wayes and hardened our heart from thy feare Return for thy servants sake the Tribes of thine inheritance and in the 1 Kings 8.57 The Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers let him not leave us or forsake us And therefore the regenerate in this life doth alwayes goe either forward or backward neither continueth in the same state Here then are deduced these two conclusions First as man corrupted before he be regenerate cannot begin new obedience pleasing and acceptable to GOD so he that is regenerate in this life although he begin to obey God that is hath some inclination and purpose to obey according to all his commandements and that unfeigned though yet weak and strugling with evill inclinations affections and desires and therefore there shine in his life and manners a desire of piety towards God and his neighbour yet he cannot yeild whole and perfect obedience to God because neither his knowledge nor love to God is so great and sincere as the law of God requireth And therefore it
not doe it being a doctrine that shews us the way of life but doth not minister grace unto us to walk therein But all these which the Law could not doe Jesus Christ by whom commeth grace and life hath done unto us Therefore there is no life to be found in the observance of the Law It being impossible for the Law to give They therefore that seeke life only in the observance thereof shall never find it Again the Apostle in another place calls the Law the Ministery of death and condemnation and that because it instantly bindes men under death for every transgression of her Commandements So that he that hath eyes to see what an universall rebellion of nature there is in man to Gods holy Law Yea what imperfections and discordance with the Law are remanent in them who are renewed by grace may easily espy the blinde presumption of those who seek life in the ministry of death Yet so universall is this error that it hath overgone the whole posterity of Adam Nature teaching all men who are not illuminated by Christ to seek salvation in their own deeds that is to stand to the covenant of works But the Supernaturall doctrine of the Evangelist teacheth us to transcend nature to goe out of our selves and to seek salvation in the Lord Jesus And so to use the Law not that we seek life by fulfilling it which here is impossible but as a School-master to lead us unto Christ in whom we have remission of our sin sanctification of our nature acceptance of our imperfect obedience benefits which the Law could never afford us Thus you see it is impossible for us in our own persons to fulfill the Law of God no such grace being given from above as I shewed you before or if we could yet it is not possible for the Law to save us not in respect of any desert or imperfection in the Law For the Law is just good and holy Rom. 7.12 But in regard of the corruption of our nature which is not able to yeeld such perfect obedience unto the Law as the Law requireth Nay I say further that although the Law be good yet it is not good to this end neither was it ordained of God for this purpose For the Law was given to a double end First common to all men Secondly proper to two sorts of men First to the Elect and Reprobates First in respect of all men the Law was given First to shew unto all men what was sin for by the Law commeth the knowledge of sin Rom. 3. and I had not known that lust had been sin had not the Law said thou shalt not lust Secondly to shew the wrath of God for sinne and by the transgression thereof to make all men see how justly they be worthy of eternal death And therefore the Apostle saith in 1 Cor. 3. that the Law causeth wrath and is the ministry of condemnation because it sheweth unto us how justly we deserve wrath and condemnation Thirdly to be a rule of righteousnesse to restrain all men from sin and to retein them in a civill course of living for the common good of humane society Secondly the Law was given to these two proper ends First in respect of the Reprobate to make them without excuse because the Law teacheth them what should be done and what should be left undone And therefore it leaves them without excuse if they leave the one and commit the other Secondly In respect of the elect the Law was given to be a means by the sight of their sinnes to seek out a Saviour that should deliver them from their sinnes And in this respect As he that informeth us of some dangerous disease doth tacitly advise us to seek for some expert Physitian So is the Law said to be our Schoolmaster to teach us by the manifestation of our sinnes to seek unto Christ for our deliverance But the Law was never intended to that end that it should justifie us and of it self bring us to eternall life For first if eternall life had been promised only to them that keep the Law then the promise had been made vain because it was impossible for our corrupt nature to perform it Secondly if righteousnesse could have come by Law then Christ had died in vain because it was superfluous for him to dye for us when as we might procure life by the works of the Law And therefore it is apparent that by the works of the Law no flesh living can be justified Thirdly For hypocriticall Gospellers such as seem Saints in ostentation that they may play the Divels without supicion which say they have Faith but shew no works that are not vayled with hypocrisie and intended to wrong ends let Esayas tell you how acceptable these works are to God Esay 1. and whether they be like to justifie them before God or not For the Lord complayneth that he is weary of them that his Soul hateth them and biddeth them to bring no more such sacrifice unto him Fourthly For the true Christians that are born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh but of God If any works could justifie it must needs be that their works wrought in them and thorow them by the Spirit of God should justifie them And yet we say that the best works of the best regenerate men cannot justifie them before God And thus we prove it First Because all the Graces that we receive in this life are but in part given unto us as I shewed in the proof of the other position and so imperfect Graces Not that the Spirit of God works imperfectly but that he means not here to inrich us with any Grace while we are conversant with sinfull men in this vale of misery but only so farre forth as he seeth fit to bring us to the Kingdome of perfection where that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 and therefore our inherent justice being but as our knowledge in part and therefore imperfect it is impossible that it should perfectly justifie us before God Secondly Because that although our good works are perfect in respect of Gods Spirit which effecteth them Yet seeing as fair water is defiled by running through a dirty Channell so our best works are tainted when they passe through us that are so subject to sinne and so many times polluted with so many iniquities It is unpossible we should be justified before him in whosepresence nothing in the least manner polluted can stand uncondemned and therefore as the Prophet saith all our righteousnesse is as astained clothe Esay 64.6 And as Gregory saith Moral lib. 21. cap. 15. lib. 5. cap. 7. All mens righteousnesse should be found unrighteousnesse if God should strictly Judge it And Aug. Wo to the most laudable and best life of man If God laying aside his mercy should discusse the same in the strictnesse of his Justice for alas who knoweth not that God is a God of
due to you for your sinnes in the name of the Lord Jesus that is for the merits and righteousnesse of Jesus Christ But some may here object and say The Righteousnesse is Christs and how can a man be justified by the justice of another I answer As sinne is ours by propagation so righteousnesse is ours by imputatiou and as Adam derived sinne by nature to our condemnation so Christ brought life by his obedience to our justification So if many be made sinners by the disobedience of one man Then how much more shall many be made righteous by the obedience of one man especially seeing the nature of Christ was farr more divine than the nature of Adam and thee fore more powerfull in ability to work this effect to justifie us than Adam's was to condemn us And in 1 Joh. 5.11 12. That eternall life which God giveth us that is that righteousnesse whereby he bringeth us to eternall life is in his Sonne And this the Apostle doth most excellently shew unto us when he saith that God made Christ to be sinne for us and as in the place before cited 2 Cor. 5.20 For as our sinnes were made the sinnes of Christ not by alteration of them inhesively into his own person but by assumption of them imputatively to make satisfaction for them as fully and as truly as if they had been his own inherent sinnes Even so the righteousnesse of Christ is as truly made ours by imputation as if we had most perfectly fullfilled the Law by our own actuall operation And therefore justification is a gracious and judiciall action of God whereby he judgeth the elect being in themselves liable to the accusation and condemnation of the Law to be just and righteous by faith in Jesus Christ through the imputation of his Justice to the praise of his glorious power and the eternall salvation of their souls Now for the Canses of justification they are especially first Efficient secondly Materiall thirdly Formall fourthly Finall and each one of these must be considered two wayes first Actively in respect of him that justifies us secondly Passively in respect of Man that is justified First The principall efficient Cause of this our justification actively considered is God freely purposing to send his sonne to be made man to work righteousnesse for men 1 Pet. 1.10 Gal 4 4. then in the fulnesse of time sending his son made of a woman made under the Law then revealing his son to us by the preaching of the Gospell and perswading us to believe the same and to lay hold on the sonne of God by the operation of his blessed Spirit and then accounting to us the obedience of his son for our righteousnesse To shew that he is the beginning the middle the end of our justification And to prove this the Lord himself saith Isay 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sinnes And the Apostle plainly saith Rom. 8.33 It is God that justifieth And the very Scribes that rejected Christ most impiously professed this most truly that none can forgive sinnes but God only And so Gregory saith It is meet that he should be the giver of Grace which was the author of nature Gregory in Psal poenitent pithily saith It is his office to absolve the guilty by whose justice he is made guilty Again The impulsive Cause that moved God to doe all this for man wee finde to be two fold first Internall secondly Eternall The first is The meer Grace and free Mercy of God towards man and that because he would be mercifull unto man Because we can ascribe none other Cause of Gods Will which is the cause of all things but only this Quia voluit because it pleased him And therefore St. Paul attributeth our Redemption to the Riches of hâ—â— Grace 1. Eph. 6 7. Rom. 3.24 and so likewise in 3. Tit. 4. he saith that after the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed in us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Whereby you see the Apostle maketh the Kindenesse and Love and Mercy of God to be the first efficient principal Cause or Motive that moved God to send Christ to be the means to save us And St. Aug. in Psal 30. Idoe de nat grat saith That it is the ineffable grace of God that a man guilty of sin should be justified from sin And especialy against the Pelagian Heresie that magnified nature to vilifie and almost to nullifie Grace He saith That the grace of God whereby Infants and men of years are saved is not procured by deserts but tendered freely without merits And so Anselmus in Rom. 12. saith That because all men are shut up under sin the Salvation of man commeth not in the Merits of men but in the Mercy of God The second is Christ God and Man which purchased by his Merits that we should be justified in the sight of God because the chastisement of our peace was laidupon him that we by his stripes might be healed Isay 55.5 Secondly The material Cause of our justification actively considered is Jesus Christ And the benefits we have by Christ are especially two First Redemption Secondly Propitiation First Redemption is a word borrowed from the use of warres and it signifieth freedome from captivity And thus Christ is our deliverance First From the wrath of God Because he is our reconciliation unto God through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 Secondly From the Tyranny and Dominion of sinne Because That obeying from the heart the form of Doctrine which is delivered us that is the Gospell of Christ we are made free from sin and are become the servants of Christ which is our Righteousness Rom. 6 18 Thirdly From the punishment of sinne Because it is against Justice that the punishment should be inflicted when the sinne is pardoned For sinne being the cause of punishment it must needs follow that sublata causa c. the cause being defaced the effect must be abolished Object But against this it may be objected That the sinnes of the Elect are pardoned and yet they are continually afflicted and as the Prophet saith Psal 73.13 Chastised every morning And therefore how can it be that albeit he forgiveth the guilt of their sinnes yet as the Prophet saith Psal 99.8 he punisheth their inventions Sol. I answer That the miseries of men before the pardon of sinne are the punishments of sinne but the afflictions of the Saints after the remission of their sinnes are not to be reputed penalties from Gods anger but exercises of his Servants and arguments of his love For as many as I love I rebuke and chasten Rev. 3.19 Heb. 12.6 c. And that for a double end First principally for our Salvation that wee may