would abound more and more For yee know what commandements wee gaue you by the Lord Iesus For this is the will of God euen your sanctification that yee should abstaine from fornication The exhortation is very forcible and full of waight Hee presseth it by the authority of the Lord Iesus he mindeth them of it as one of those lessons he had deliuered formerly by word of mouth and they had receiued hee calls it a duty How yee ought to walke yea a duty to God How yee ought to walke and please God hee calls it a speciall commandement which hee gaue them by the Lord Iesus as which the Lord Iesus gaue him in charge to deliuer to them hee calls it the will of God he calls it their sanctification Now what is all this which the Apostle here aymeth at What but this That yee abstaine from fornication Whence I argue thus Proposition Abstinence from fornication is a part of keeping of the Morall Law Assumption But this abstinence from fornication is a duty acceptable to God is a doctrine to be taught by the Ministers of Christ to be receaued by the people of God is a commandement of the Lord Iesus it is the will of God it is our sanctification or a fruite and effect of it Conclusion Therefore the keeping of the Morall Law is commanded of God of Christ as a duty to all true beleeuers To what part of this Argument will the aduersary answere To the Proposition That hee dare not for the Law sayth Thou shalt not commit adultery To the Assumption That he cannot for that is the Apostles in the fore alledged place Therefore I will conclude with this conclusion That the keeping of the Morall law is commanded of God and of Christ as a duty to all true beleeuers When I vrged this argument or the * as rhis What soeuer is Gods will we should doe is our duty to doe But the doing of Gods Law is Gods will wee Should doe therefore it is our duety to doe Gods law so farre as we are able Now all this is plainely concluded by the Apostle This is the will of God euen your sanctification that ye should abstaine from fornication To abstaine froÌ„ fornication is a part of keeping the Moral Law and what is true of a part is true of the whole as Iam. 2.10 11. like in forme syelogisticall out of this very place of the Apostle to this our aduersarie occasionally face to face and had to satisfie his demande repeated it ouer twice or thrice hee could not giue a present answere but desired to haue it written downe But I expect not an answere because none can be giuen to this which is here written No can he not in all his budget finde an answere doth hee not as I heare hee was wont to doe at least carry his trunk-hose full farsed stuffed with Protestant Authors as Luther Zanchee Paraeus with sundry others of good note that with their graue authority and reuerend names he may the more easily impose vpon his credulous and ignorant Disciples who admire that most which they vnderstand least cannot he out of all these beate out an answere to these things For of these he braggs much in the conclusion of his letter But till hee can bring some I will content my selfe to bring his belweather Author euen Luther whose no lesse puissant then elegant and heauenly speech wherewith I will for this time conclude this short discourse shall run full butt vppon and push downe all that he hath sayd for his pretended counterfet false hereticall scandalous Anabaptisticall libertine fayth Luthers words are Admittimus quidem Mosen legendum audiendum a nobis vt predictorem testem Christi Deinde vt petamus ab eo exempla optimarum logum morum Cetaerùm dominium in conscientiam nullo modo concedimus ei ibi mortuus et sepultus esto nemoque sciat vbi sepulchrum eius sit we indeede admit of Moses to bee read heard of vs as a Prophet witnesse of Christ Againe that wee may fetch from him examples of good lawes and manners But dominion ouer the conscience to a man in the state of grace as Rom. 6.10 wee by no meanes yealde him there let him bee dead and buried and let no man know where his sepulchre is So Luther And in his argument vpon the Galatians Sum quidem peccator c. I am indeed a sinner according to this present life and the righteousnesse of it as the son of Adam where the Law accuseth me death raigneth and will deuoure mee but aboue this life I haue another righteousnesse another life which is the Sonne of God who knoweth not sin and death but is righteousnesse and life eternall for which also this dead body of mine shall be raysed vp againe and freed from the bondage of the Law and of sin and together with the spirit it shall bee sanctified So both these remaine while we liue here the flesh is accused exercised made sad and contrite with the actiue righteousnesse of the Law but the spirit raigneth reioyceth and is saued by passiue righteousnesse because it knoweth it hath the Lord sitting in heauen at the fathers right hand who hath abolished the Law Sin Death and hath tâ—ampled vnder feete all euill things hath led them captiue and tryumphed ouer them all So he Now God forbid that I should glory but in the crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is crucified vnto me Gal. 6.14 and I vnto the world For in Christ neyther Circumcision auayleth any thing nor vncircumcision but a new creature 15 And as many as walke according to this rule peace bee on them and mercy and vpon the Israel of God I thought here should haue bin an end But as the Prouerbe is 16 One absurdity begets a thousand as one of Lerna his 7 heads being cut off 3 grew in the place thereof Parua mâ—tu primo mox sese attollit in auras Ingred túrque solo et caput inter nubila condit Monstrum horrendum ingens c. Virgil. Aenead Such is the nature of heresie which of a small seede growes to be an hiddeous monster if it bee not strangled in the first conception Like Fame which for feare at first is small but finding entertainment with Dame Credulity and loquacity growes bold and big vpon it Or like a small leprous spot in the beginnig which quickly runneth ouer the whole body Or like a drop of sweet poyson which at first goes pleasantly downe but in a short time insinuateth it selfe to the infecting of the vitall spirits and ceasseth not till it hath wrought its mortall effect Or like a Gangreene or like a Canker as the Apostle compares it This Antinomian leprosie doth spread and get strength and boldnesse euery day euen vnto impudency madnes And the reason it finds so many disciples to imbrace it because cutting off sanctification denying
of her many subtractions and purloynings from the diuine truth is strangled and become stone-dead and on the other side to charge the reformed Church of hauing the dead fayth because she teacheth iustification by faith onely with outworkes but behold a wonder that any sonnes of this our deare mother Church should proue so vnnaturall and vnreasonable as and that most impudently though withall cunningly euen pretending the doctrine of the Church of England to be for them and they for it a thing too vsuall to impute vnto her the dead fayth as whereof she is the teacher while vnto the doctrine of iustification by fayth onely she addeth and presseth the doctrine and practise of sanctification not onely as a frute but as a duty springing from the same From which impious and senselesse reproach while we shall purge our mother wee shall with one bush stop two gapps both the wide mouth of Mother Babell crying out against vs that by teaching Iustification by faith onely we destroy sanctification and the impudent mouthes of the misbegotten homebred bratts that exclaime we destroy the iustification of the true liuing fayth And this done we shall by Gods grace eyther so conuince these men as to pull them from their dead fayth or make it so euident to all men as they shall confesse the dead fayth of Belial or of Baal to be with these men and the liuing fayth to be onely on our side Now the occasion of our taking this taske vpon vs is this there is a new sprung-vp opinion which not onely in this City but in some parts of the Country spreading like a Cancer or gangrene hath infected many poysoning them with a schismaticall spirit and not only alienating their minds from but opening their mouthes against our Congregations and Ministers so as they scoffe and scandalize euen the soundest and sincearest preaching of the word of God They deny any vse at all of the morall law so farre as to be a rule of life and christian conuersation after that a man is once brought to be a beleeuer in Christ They allow the law no further vse then as to bee a Schoolemaster to bring vs to Christ and then farewell law And if Ministers Preach and presse the duties of sanctification these Antinomians ieare at them yea and rayle on them to their very faces calling them Anabaptists and telling them that they preach the dead fayth and that such goodly doctrines are good for nothing but to carry men to Hell And for my part I should not haue beleeued there had bene such mouthes of blasphemy in the world had not mine cares bene witnesses of them And for a further proofe hereof to make it euident to others also besides other writings which the ringleaders of this Antinomian or lawlesse sect of Belial conuey and scatter among their Disciples a letter written with the chiefe ringleaders own hand for ex vngue leonem but consigned or subscribed with the name of one of his prime she-Disciples and sent to one Mr. T. may suffice to manifest their virulent spirits to all the world The copie whereof is here affixed verbatim onely I haue forborne to set downe the parties name at large but onely the first letters of her name concealing the Masters name who is the inditer and writer altogether And I follow therein the example of holy Ierom who writing to Ctesiphon against the Pelagians Hieroinmus ad Ctesiphontem aduersus Pelagianos sayth No mans name is particularly touched in this small worke wee haue spoken against the Master of a peruerse opinion who if he shall be angry and shall write againe hee shall like the mouse bee bewrayed by his owne discouery and expose himselfe to receiue yet greater wounds in a set pitcht field And let me also aduertise the reader concerning this letter as also of others of the like kinde which I haue seene that howsoeuer it hath poyson enough in it yet it is so ministred in a goulden cup so couered ouer with clowdy and obscure words and so tempered with sugared phrases of scripture as that both his Disciples may with the lesse suspition and more delight drinke it downe and his iust aduersaries may haue lesse cause to cast it in his dish or to quarrell him and bring him in Quorum for it And that this was the ancient guise of Hereticks the same Hierom tels vs in the same place where speaking to the Pelagian he saith Nosti c. Thou knowst what thou teachest thy Disciples priuately expressing one thing with thy mouth and concealing another in thy conscience and to vs who are strangers none of thy Disciples thou speakest by Parables but to thine owne scholars thou vnfoldest thy mysteries and this thou boastest thou dost according to the scriptures because it is sayd Iesus spake to the people abroad in parables and to the Disciples within dores hee sayth To you it is giuen to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heauen but to them it is not giuen And againe Sola haec haeresis c. This onely is heresie which blusheth to speake in publike what it feares not to teach in priuate The rage of the schollars vttereth the silence of the Masters That which they haue heard in the chambers they preach on the house tops that if they shall please their hearers it may bee attributed to the praise of their Masters if it displease the fault may bee the scholars not the masters Ideo creuit c. Thus hath your heresie increased and you haue deceiued many because you alwayes teach and alwayes deny Sententias vestras prodidisse superass est c Hieron It is the Churches victory when you speake plainely what your opinion is To shew your opinions is to subdue them So Hierome Now let me appeale to the consciences of the Disciples of such Masters as we speake of whither they doe not deliuer their documents and lessons in plainer termes and more perspicuous amplification in their priuate schole or chamber by word of mouth then they do or dare do publikly in their loose papers and pamphlets Let them tell me wherein they differ or come short of the Pelagians in the guise of broaching and venting their opinions noted by Ierome And this is the nature and practise of all heresie which serpent-like walkes with a doubled gate and like the snaile puts forth her hornes slowly to proue her way but vpon the least resistance quickly puls them in againe or iugler-like playing fast and loose with his spectators or like lying Fame which for feare is sparing at first till spreading it selfe it finde credit and intertainement in the world Yet the quicke sighted Reader shall finde this letter to be not altogether so euen spun but that it hath many knobbs and knots of grosse errour which is euer vneuen and neuer but vnlike it selfe sufficiently bewraying a poysonous minde and virulent spirit in the author 2 Tim. 3.5 c. being of the number
of those who hauing a forme of godlinesse deny the power thereof from such turne away Of which sort are they which creepe into houses and lead captiue silly women laden with sins led away with diuerse lusts euer learning and neuer able to come to the knowledge of the truth And as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses soe do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the fayth But they shall proceede no farther for their folly shall bee manifest to all men as theirs also was All which how fully it is verefied and exemplified in the Author we haue to deale withall this little discourse seconded with the subscription of his owne handy worke will abundantly testifye Now because the letter is teadious so as to answere to euery circumstance would clogge our discourse with many vnnecessary and vnprofitable matters therefore I will epitomize or contract the whole into one briefe view and pitch vpon such points as the Author stands most vpon and wherein he placeth the maine strength of his battalion And first I will muster vp his scattered skirmishes and brauadoes And those I finde to be diuided into two speciall companies The first is a brauado setting forth his cause with many specious and glorious titles as his ascribing it to Gods gratious calling that it is the true liuely iustifying faith which he maintaineth which words hee often repeateth that it is of the household of true faith the most holy and heauenly calling into the true liuely iustifying fayth that it is the gracious leauening of the Gospell that it is the effectuall calling to true christianity and assured free saluation that this leauen is the wedding garment of Christs perfect holinesse and that this is the good and old way which Abraham walkt in that it is the established protestant doctrine of our Church of England grounded vpon the word of God which euery one ought to imbrace if hee will be a loyall subiect to his Protestant King againe This is the Protestant fayth this is the established doctrine of our Church that he is as one true Prophet to a great number of false Prophets that he with a few more goe with a right foot to the truth of the Gospell such as call the people to a chearefull zealous godly life onely for and by the ioy and excellency of free iustification but marke how deepely considered onely those few doe apply the law purely and truely that these are the few foresayd true ministers of Christ and such as follow them the true beleeuers that they onely bring in the true meanes of true sanctification and of doing all good workes that these are the true teachers who doe truely establish the law that these are the onely true ministers and their followers the onely true people of God that this doctrine is and may bee proued in euery point with two or three plaine scriptures and two or three plaine testimonies of Orthodox Protestant writers These and the like bee the glorious guildings wherewith hee doth so fairely inammile his leaden cause which anon will come to the Test The second company wherewith he skirmisheth all along is of such reproches as hee casts vpon all those that are aduersaries to his opinion I take them in order as they lie That to auouch the contrary is a sinfull preiudice of Gods truth that it is a blaspheming of the true liuely iustifying fayth such are too much leauened with the sowre leauen of the deuouter sort of Pharisees which with the false brethren among the Galatians leauened and corrupted the faith of the Galatians Thus the pentificians where they find certainety of Saluation they call it presumption c. and that with a conceited holinesse of doing and keeping the morall law this is a dangerous leauen of the Pharisees which vnder the visour and conceit and opinion of sincerity and obedience to God and zeale of God is but hipocrisie Christs marriage garment is now a dayes eagerly opposed and subtilly betrayed with a Iudasses kisse in this regard these are the perilous times wherein men and women are euer learning and neuer able to come to the truth of the assurance of their free saluation and that there is in a manner now no fayth on the earth because the dead fayth before God is no fayth although it be varnished and guilded ouer with a blinde prepostrous zeale and opinion of obedience and walking in all gods commandements as Paul before his conuersion was in this blind zealous dead fayth which phrase is very frequent with him that it is another Ghospell that the blinde zealous dead faith thinkes it knowes something when it knowes nothing as it ought to know that they are not some few teachers among vs that trouble the people of God by Preaching another Gospell but especially when God meanes to punish an vngratefull Church and Nation many false teachers This great prophet Iwis as of old there are many hundred false Prophets to one true Prophet hanging relying and depending yea bragging of their obedience workes and weldoings and keeping of the law these bad ministers and teachers that trouble the people of God are and for the iuster iudgement and scourge of the great vnthankefull multitude euer haue beene the greatest multitude and these are deuided into two sorts the first sort are such as are euill beasts slow bellies that vse to preach a little for their liuing sake and for their bellie but care not for the sauing of soules but for their ease their pompe and worldly esteeme and those ministers make onely Hoggschristians that trampling free iustification and the Pearles of the Gospell vnder the feete of their durty affections doe care for nothing but rooting in the earth and filling the belly but the other sort of bad teachers although their right eye also of true fayth bee out and doe more deepely delude themselues and others in the dead fayth yet they haue the light of nature more strongly stirring in them described Rom. 2.14.15 where it is sayd that the Gentiles which haue not the law doe by nature the things conteined in the law which shew the effect or worke of the law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witnesse and their thoughts accusing them that is with feare of punishment when they doe ill and will preach it as the true Gospell I warrant you and excusing them that is hoping to speede well when they doe well and this light of nature they varnish ouer with titles of the Gospell whereby especially young Ministers being carryed with a preposterous zeale of Gods glory Rom. 10.2.3 in workes and conceited weldoings they slight ouer fayth and free iustification with a wet finger thinking with the Papists by a carnall vnderstanding of them that they are quickly or rather learned too fast and so doe preach neyther true law nor true Gospell but a corrupting blending and marring of both law and Gospell whereby they put out the right eye of