out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the Dead But you say Iob was then in darknesse uttering words without knowledge for which he was reproved first by Elihu Secondly by the Lord and thirdly he confest it 1. Oh horrible that you should have the impudence to say or infer that Elihu reproved Iob for that most excellent Confession when it is plain as the Sun that he reprehended him for saying I am clean and there is no unrighteousnesse in me c. Iob 33. 9. doth not Elihu restrain his words to the same expression Behold in this thou art not just verse 12. 2. You affirm that God reproved him for it By which it seems you know not what you say or care not what you affirm for that which God reproved him for was for standing too much upon his own innocency And though Iob was not thus afflicted for his sin but for a Triall as appears Chap. 1. and Chap 2. yet was there matter enough in him that deserved it if God should have entred into judgement with him 3. You say that Iob confest it Doth he confesse that he had erred in that confession of his concerning the resurrection or that he had maintained a false cause no God himself determines the contrary Chap. 42. 7. My servant Iob hath spoken the thing that is right and you have not and therefore they were appointed to go to Iob that he might pray for them The cause that Iobs friends maintained was that God did handle men in this world according to their deserts and therefore Iob was a wicked and cursed creature because thus afflicted and tormented Iob maintained the contrary that God did not alwayes handle men according to their deserts in this world for many times the wicked have prosperitie and Gods children adversitie Iob 21. 8. Now though the foundation of Iobs cause were good yet in the prosecuting of it he committed many errours through the infirmities of the flesh for which God reproved him but on the contrary the foundation of his adversaries cause was evil 'T is therefore a false and an impudent assertion to say as you do that Iob never spoke the thing that was right of the Lord until he said now do mine eyes see thee c. Job 42. 5 6. The reason that moves you to deny or at least to underminde and overthrow the Resurrection of the bodie is because there is a Resurrection of the soul and you may aswel denie there is no death of the body because there is a death of the soul in sin as Satan slays both so Christ doth raise up both in his members If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead be in you he that raised up Jesus shall also quicken your mortal bodies c. Rom. 8. 11. but this hath been sufficiently proved already I shall only adde our Saviours argument to the Sadduces Mat. 22. 23 24. unto Verse 32. God is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him that is they are alive in his account because he hath decreed to raise them again I shall turn your proof out of the 11. Iohn Vers the 21 22 23 24 25. upon your self Christ comes to Bethany where Lazarus lived who was now dead Martha goes forth to meet him saying Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died Christ answered thy brother shall rise again and this is spoken of the Resurrection of the body for his soul was then in the hands of God Martha replies I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day So 't is plain that the Resurrection was no strange and new doctrine then though it be now so to you Martha knew it and believed it as did Iob also Iob 19. Christ taught it saying I am the Resurrection and the life Iohn 10. 25. that is the cause of the Resurrection of the body and the life of the soul not a bare signe to signifie as you falsely and foolishly affirmed but an effectual cause 1 Cor. 15. 20 21 22. also he teaches it Iohn 2. 19 20 21. where he saith unto the Jews destroy this temple and in three dayes I will raise it up again which he spake of the temple of his body mark Christ can any thing be more plain which he performed accordingly Mat. 28. Mark 16. Luke 24. now Christ was a publick person what he did he did not for himself but for us also so that if we believe that Jesus is dead and is risen even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him CHAP. VIII In this Chapter the doctrine of the Trinity is principally treated of I will therefore first set down the truth that we may the better discern the falshood The Doctrine of the Trinity God is a most simple infinite eternal immutable and omnipotent spirit One in essence three in Persons Father Son and the Holy Ghost A spirit Iohn 4. 24. simple Col. 1. 15. 1. Tim. 1. 17. the image of the invisible God whom no man hath seen nor can see Eternal Exo. 3. 14 15. Immutable Mal. 3. 6. Omnipotent Gen. 17. 1. Rev. 19. 6. I name but some of his Attributes because I am to speak principally of the Trinity God is one in essence three in Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost One in essence Deut. 6. 4. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Three in Person Father Son and the spirit 1 Iohn 5. 7. an example we finde of this in the Baptisme of Christ The Father speaks from Heaven the Son stands in the Water and the Holy Ghost descends in the likeness of a Dove As in the Sun there is the body of the Sun the beams issuing from the body and the light and yet there is not 3. Suns but one Sun so is there the Father the Word and the Spirit three distinct Persons in the Deity and yet not three but one God These three you call three Manifestations Which are three Persons three Hypostases three Subsistances in one essence as in a Rivulet there is the fountain or Well-head in the Earth the spring boyling out of it and the stream which is made of them both and dilateth or sheadeth it self far from thence which three are distinct subsistances and yet but one Water You tell us of Christs being within us c. We know it But not corporally for so he is in Heaven but spiritually or by his spirit 1 Cor. 6. 19. know you not that your body is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you c. this spirit unites us to Christ by working faith in us whereby we are united to him according to that in Ephes. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and Christ is said to dwell in us by
was conceived in original sin and so raze the very foundation of true Religion for if the root be impure all the Branches must be impure Christ then would have needed a Saviour himself and could not have saved others 2. His Resurrection his Ascension his session at the right hand of God I say examine your own conscience whether you can be clear or not who have done all this by your senselesse Alegories for my part I leave it to God to judge who searches the heart and knowes whether you have done his out of malice or ignorance Now it is fit your weak and absurd description of the sin against the Holy Ghost be examined You say to sin against the holy Ghost is to rebell to war to resist the spirit and to prove it you bring Chap. 5. to the Gal. v. 17. The words are these The flesh lusteth against the spirit c. and so by consequence you make the flesh lusting against the spirit to be the sin against the holy Ghost A sin which Gods best children are guilty of Read Rom. 7. 21 22 23. This deserves to be hiss'd at rather then answered and let me advise you to read more and write lesse For howsoever your purblinde seduced Followers may beleeve you yet all men of sound judgement will plainly see that it is not the spirit of God that hath inspired you but the spirit of blindnesse and ignorance that hath missed you I woulde here conclude this Chapter but that you confesse the sin against the holy Ghost shal never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come which is the truth grounded upon the words of Christ Matth. 12. 32. and therefore by your own confession such as commit thissi nne shall never be redeemed out of hell CHAP. 10. In this Chapter you endeavour to prove that man shall not be destroyed but onely the sin that is in man Your words are Therefore man shall not be destroyed but the work of the Devil in him Your first argument to prove this is because God made man therefore man shall not be destroyed and you may as well say Because God made all sensitive and vegetable creatures as Beasts and Plants therefore they shall not be destroyed Are not the Creatures made subject to vanity by reason of the sin of man if they be much more shall man that made them subject be subject himself What do you think of the old world were not they created by God yet you know they were destroyed You will say this was but a temporal destruction it is to be hoped that when the waters rose upon the earth many repented and so though their bodies perished yet their souls were saved but yet the most part perished both temporally and eternally as Peter testifies 1 Pet. 3. 19. Your 2. Argument is Christ came into the World to save Man the work of God but all mankinde is the work of God therefore Mankind who is the image of God shall not be destroyed is not here a goodly conclusion that hath more in it then the premises to answer it though man that is renewed restored to the image of God shall not be destroyed yet man that is not restored to the image of God shall be destroyed though he be his Creature for without holiness no man shall see God Depart from me I know you not ye workers of iniquity Thirdly your third argument is Christ came into the World to destroy the works of the Divel therefore man shall not be destroyed how doth this follow Your argument ought to be thus framed Christ came to destroy the works of the Divel in men therefore those men in whom the works of the Divel are destroyed shall not be destroyed but there are some that have not the works of the Divel destroyed in them Jo. 8. 44. therefore they shall be destroyed Your fourth argument is if man must die for his own sins and go to Hell with them in vain then did Christ die for mans sins pray where lies the fault in Christ or in the man that will not applie Christs death unto his soul for his Salvation Rom. 9. 30 31 32. 1 Cor. 1. 18. A Physitian composeth a medicine which is able to cure his patient and to save him fromdeath but the patient will not apply it for his remedie according to that in Jer. 51. 9. Balm was provided for her but she would not be cured and likewise the Pharisees rejected the Counsel of God against their own Salvation Luke 7. 30. Christ would have gathered Jerusalems Children together as a Hen doth gather her Brood under her wings and they would not Luke 13. 34. Something is here spoken of that place of Scripture 1 Iohn 3. 8. He that commits sin is of the Divel c. that is he that commits sin as the Divel doth or as did the Pharisees John 8. 44. ye are of your father the Divel and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him but to infer from this Text that he which commits sin although of infirmitie as Paul did Rom. 7. 14 15 16. is a most impudent perverting of Scripture Do not the best of Gods children sin In many things we sin all saith the Apostle James If there be any that saith he hath no sin he makes God a lyer and his word is not in him 1 Iohn 1. 10. Peter confesseth as much of himself when he saith Depart from me for I am a sinful man Luke 5. 8. But you urge Christ came to destroy the works of the Divel 't is true but not in your sense but in the sense which the Scriptures do allow that is Christ came to destroy the works of the Divel which he did by his death and Resurrection He did not only justifie us Rom. 6. 22. but also sanctifie us Rom. 6. 3 4 5 6. c. Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. Ephe. 5. 25 26. yet so long as she is in this world the Jebusite will dwell in her coast with whom she must have a continual conflict which made Paul himself to say I am carnal sold under sin Rom. 7. 14. carnal but not totally as the unregenerate are but partly carnal and partly spiritual the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and therefore he cries out O wretch that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin mark what he saith me and therefore he speaks in the Person of a Regenerate man And this may serve to satisfie Captain Smiths question whether Paul spake in the person of a Regenerate or unregenerate man in that he saith who shall deliver me You say in the conclusion of the tenth Chapter it is manifest that all men were and are the people of God though untill this
St. Paul who was led by the Spirit of Christ Ephe. 1. 20 21 22. God hath highly exalted his Son and placed him at his right hand in Heavenly places where he shews the exaltation of his Humane nature to the highest degree of blessedness that it can be capable of He hath put all things in subjection under his feet and that propter Mortem Crucis because he became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8 9. Your Allegorical fancy is as far different from the truth as a Goat is from a Sheep or an Asse from a rational man Secondly Non-sense in the contents of your third Chapter as all that read it cannot judge it otherwise Thirdly Confusion in turning the Holy Scriptures into Allegories where they are to be understood literally and so overthrow the meaning of the Holy Ghost Disput. 2. You begin with truth as Pilate and yet you go about to crucifie it you assume unto your self the name of a light as the Pharisees did and yet our Saviour calls them blind guides that went into the ditch themselves and drew others after them You tell Mr. French you are not of his Spirit and I believe so too for he defends the truth and you maintain falsehood Neither are you of the spirit of Christ for he hates the doctrine of the Nicholaitans Rev. 2. 15. you hate no mans opinion as you declare page 15. a difference then for there is the spirit of Christ and your spirit they are not the same Here I meet again with two Heresies disputed of and confuted before and therefore I shall not need to adde much The first is that the deity of Christ was not only united to the nature of man but to the sin of his nature which is as impossible as for two contraries to agree together in the same subject puritie and uncleanness Righteousness and unrighteousness Light and darkness He was a perfect man in all things sin excepted Heb. 4. 15. We have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we were yet without sin And Heb. 7. 26 27. for such an high Priest became us to have who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher then the Heavens Who needed not daily as those high Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sin and then for the peoples And what can be more plaine that he was without sin clearly as the other high Priests were not without they having need he having none Again he took upon him the nature of man but not the sin of his nature Sin and concupiscence are not of the nature of man but an hereditary disease that sticks unto his nature as doth the Leprosie For indeed if it had stuck to his nature he could neither have been a Priest nor a sacrifice Not an high Priest for such an high Priest it becommed us to have who was holy as in that Text of Heb. 7. 26. Not a sacrifice for that must be without spot that must take away sin And so was Christ John 14. 30. The Prince of this world had nothing in him 1. Pet. 1. 19. A lamb without blemish and without spot 1. Pet. 2. 22. Who did not sin And whereas you object he bore our sins in his body on the Tree you could not have brought any place that makes more against you Mark the words He bore our sins not his own We were the principals He was but our suertie He suffered not for himself but according to that of Daniel 9. 26. The Messias shall be slain for his people You urge moreover that place He hath made him to be sin that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him which makes nothing for your purpose rightly understood For he made him sin by imputation God imputed his righteousness to us and our sin to him I have shewed you before how he was conceived by the Holy Ghost not begotten by man Here we are come again to that old exploded Heresie of Origen which hath been answered already and that enough to the satisfaction of any good Christian yet because I meet with it again I shall adde somewhat more God doth threaten eternal punishments as he promises eternal blessings as in that Text of Mat. 25. 46. before spoken of Which Text runs thus in the Original {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Here the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies eternal you see is the Epithite for the future condition both of the righteous and unrighteous and though the English translation render it by two several words as eternal and everlasting yet their force and meaning is the same and signifie the same And here me thinks this one passage might discover to the weakest and most ignorant follower of your erâ—ours what a perverter of Scripture you are But for all this you have the face to tell Mr. French that this Text proves it not and tell him that you had answer'd it before but let us see how you have answer'd it before Your answer was that the word everlasting did signifie a dispensation or administration of God to man which as I told you before is an absurd expression your meaning is as you have somewhat exprest your self in the beginning of the eighteenth Page that it signifies such a perpetuitie as is not absolute but hath a Period Captain Smith very seasonably charg'd you to prove it hath such a signification You instance in the Covenant God made with Abraham which was called an Everlasting Covenant Your words are The Covenant which God made with Abraham was called an everlasting Covenant and this Covenant upon these conditions did last but for a time for we read that God did afterwards make a new Covenant with us that should never be ended To this Mr. French replied I deny that the Scripture you brought out of the 17. of Genesis is taken in your sense For that was an everlasting Covenant And indeed so it was therefore the pains of Hell are eternall that is have no Period To this you say Sir you say nothing but what your brother Roswel had said before which I then answer'd and you understand not for the first everlasting Covenant as to the conditions thereof which were the works of the Law had an end as to us when God made a new covenant with us upon better conditions without end Oh Monstrum horrendum cui lumen ademptum Oh blind deceived deceiver to say that the covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of works when it was a covenant of grace as the Scriptures every where prove but especially Rom. 4. and in that Chapter especially the 16 Verse Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the seed of Abraham who against hope believed in hope and
signes of his comming 1. The preaching of the Gospel through the whole World Mat. 24. 13. 2. The revealing of Antichrist 2. Thes. 2. 3. 3. A general departing of men from the faith 2. Thes. 2. 3 4. Corruption of manners Men shall be lovers of themselves Covetous boasters proud Blasphemers c. 2. Tim. 3. 2. 5. Great calamities Mat. 24. 6. 6. Deadness of heart Luke 21. 26. 7. The calling of the Jews Rom. 11. 25 26. 8. The sign of the Son of Man Mat. 24. 30. The manner of his comming with power and great glory Mat. 24. 30. with all his holy Angels Mat. 25. 31. With the voice of the Arch-angel and the Trumpet 1. Thes. 4. 16. Mat. 25. 31. He shews what he shall do He shall separate the Sheep from the Goats c. He shall say come yee blessed go ye cursed c. Then the consequent The Sheep shall go into everlasting life and the Goates into everlasting Torment Besides he commanded his Disciples to preach this doctrine Acts 10. 40 41 42. Now what can be set down more plain more punctually so that we may say boldly with the Apostles Now speakest thou plainly and speakest no Parable Iohn 16. 29. Let not therefore the scoffing Athiest say Where is the promise of his comming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation Nor let any Apostata ask in derision what his Throne is made of or seek to know the particular time of his comming For our God shall come and will not keep silence devouring fire shall go before his face and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him Then shall be execute judgement apon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jude 15. Psal. 50. The next thing observable that I meet with is your quoting that in the 3. of the Colossians Verse 1. If you be risen with Christ seek the things which are above c. Of which words the sense may be first considered and then what force the consequence may be to the purpose The things above are primarily the joyes of Heaven 1 Cor. 2. 9. secondarily the gifts and graces of Gods spirit as faith love sanctitie according to that of Iames 1. 17. every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and commeth down from the father of lights c. which gifts do far exceed the things below and are the way to bring us to the Kingdome of Heaven Non est via ad Regnum sine primitiis Regni The Apostle gives several reasons to move us thus to seek The first is because we are risen with Christ sacramentally in Baptisme Col. 2. 13. being buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him and really by the inward working of the spirit of God which had raised them up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness Titus 3. 5. Secondly because Christ sits at the right hand of God And therefore where our treasure is there should our hearts be also Mat. 6. 21. Thirdly because Christ should come to judgement When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. by life here is understood eternal life 1. Iohn 5. 11. also according to that in Heb. 5. 9. he is called our life because he is the Author of our everlasting life Fourthly because he bestows this life Luke 12. 32. But when may it be asked doth he bestow all this At his appearance Christ appears three wayes First corporally God was manifest in the flesh 1. Tim. 3. 16. Secondly spiritually when he makes himself manifest to the eyes of our souls by the preaching of his word Gal. 3. 1. Lastly when he manifesteth himself in glory and commeth to judge the World Phil. 3. 20 21. Let our conversation be in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Iesus Christ Rom. 2. 16. Not that we shall have other bodies but the same Iob sayes in my flesh shall I see God I shall see him for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another Iob 19. 26 27. But they shall have new qualities 1. Cor. 15. 52 53 54. And now how doth that text of Col. 3. 1. serve for your purpose The truth is you could not have brought any place that did more strongly confute your Heresie It seems plainly you do not understand the Scriptures I shall adde something before I proceed concerning the Allegories which indeed are not Allegories but fancies by which you overthrow as much as in you lies the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures the Articles of sound faith and the foundation of true Religion You say The Scriptures are an Allegorie and to prove it you quote Gal. 3. 24. meaning the 4. 24. Which words are These things are an Allegory that is Abraham having two sons one by a bond maid the other by a free-woman it pleased God to signifie by these two the two Covenants Now these being an Allegorie doth it prove that all the Scriptures are an Allegorie What is the History of the creation of the World The History of the Kings The History of the Acts of the Apostles And of our Redemption by Christ If you make such Allegories you will leave nothing sound in the Word of God The Holy Ghost doth not set down the principles of our Religion such as are Christs ascension and his comming to judgement Allegorically but plainly so that he that runs may read them and he that reads may understand them And I doubt not but that it will appear to all that are not wilfully blind that your Book is not truth triumphing against the enemies and aspersers thereof but falshood aspersing truth and the defenders of it which by Gods assistance I have wiped away and howsoever truth may for a time be clouded yet it will break through the thick mists of errour and Heresie for The truth is great and will prevail The end of the first two disputations CHAP. VII In this Chapter you go about to overthrow the Resurrection of the body Although you say I do grant the Resurrection of the body and do not denie it though you say I do And again you say there were some then as well as now that think the Apostle meant carnally the rising again of the same body of flesh and bones Also you say speaking of the Resurrection of the dead Page 34. line 21. this Resurrection is to be within you and you are to know it while you
live in this body and in page 35. Thus you say and unsay and indeed say you know not what your intention is so neer as I can gather to deny the Resurrection of the body out of the grave and to allow only of a Resurrection from the death of sin as may appear in your answer to the 7. Article at the end of your Book and to maintain or rather insinuate this you most wickedly abuse the Scriptures confound the sense of them and pervert the meaning of the Holy Ghost First therefore I will prove the veritie of the Resurrection of the body and then answer your absurd contradictions and cavils First I will prove the Resurrection of the body by the Resurrection of Christs body who is our head and then by the Resurrection of our own who are his members Christs Resurrection is confirmed by the Testimony of the four Evangelists Mat. 28. 7 9 10 12 14. Mark 16. 6 14. Luke 24. 6 7. Iohn 20. 9. And in 1. Cor. 15. 4 5 6. first he was seen of Cephas then of the twelve afterwards of 500 of the brethren at once The testimony of Angels Mat. 28. 6. nay of his enemies Verse 11 12 13. some of the watch came into the citie c. this now is so plain that it cannot be denied and I think you will not be so desperately-wicked as to say that this must be understood spiritually of a Resurrection from sin for Christ was never dead in sin but purified in the womb if you should your Master would confute you We know who thou art even the Holy one of Israel If Christ be risen how say some among you that there is no Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 12 13. If there be no Resurrection then is not Christ risen but Christ is risen therefore there is a Resurrection for Christ is a publick person in the place of all mankinde he rose not for himself but for us all And therefore the Apostle uses that expression as in Adam we all died so in Christ we shall all be made alive Again Christ is compared to the first-fruits which comparison is very significant the first-fruits were a sheaf of the first of the Harvest Levit. 23. 10 11. which was raised and lifted up before the Lord and then not only that was holy but the whole Crop Christ likewise was the first and best of the Crop he was first lifted up and then not only he but we all become living Sheafs Again the same Corn that is sown though it be corrupted in the ground springs up again so the same body that is sown shall arise the qualities thereof being changed as the Apostle says it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised again a spiritual body not a spirit but a spiritual body a body endowed with spiritual qualities and they are first charitie secondly impassibilitie thirdly agilitie The just shall shine as the Sun Mat. 13. 43. 1 Cor. 15. 43 44. Rev. 7. 17. Or if Christ be not risen then are we still in our sins but we are not still in our sins therefore Christ is risen This argument will clear the matter if we observe the force of it The Humanitie of Christ is united unto the God-head from whence it received spiritual life now we are united unto Christ by the spirit which createth faith in us We I say not our bodies only but our souls also And by vertue of this union our souls and bodies do rise again our souls from the death of sin and our bodies from the death in the grave If the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies Rom. 8. 11. Lastly the Resurrection of the body may be proved by that place in Iob Chap. 19. 25 26 27. which is a plain prophesie of the Resurrection of the body observe the words I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold him and not another though my reines be consumed within me Job was then in the condition of a dying man his skin cleaved to his bones he was a meer skeleton and all wordly comfort failed him and therefore he comforts himself with this meditation of the Resurrection I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand upon the earth at the last day The word is not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} shall stand but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} shall rise again upon the earth though he was not upon the earth by the malice of his enemies yet he should rise up again and stand and when should this be in the latter day 2. He argues from our Redeemer to himself because he shall rise again I shall rise again what is done in the head shall also be done in the members 3. He saith I shall see in my flesh with these eyes and not with anothers Lastly for himself for his benefit notwithstanding his â—eins were consumed though he were in that deplorable condition And what can be more plain to prove the Resurrection of the body so that if your eyes be not blinded that you cannot see you must of necessity confesse it You say here is a Mystery there is no Mystery except one of your own making and that is such a confused one as neither your self nor any man else knows what to make of it You say that the Redeemer was in Iob though he knew â—t not How could that be doth not his confession of his Redeemer of the Resurrection nay of his own Redeemer prove the contrary could any man make such an excellent confession of a thing and in such a manner as Iob doth and not know it can such fruits arise from ignorance Doth not Iob say plainly I know that my Redeemer lives You say that Iob was then in darknesse I say so too if you understand it of his civil estate for the Sun of his prosperity was set and therefore he comforts himself with a spiritual estate with the Resurrection a usual thing with the holy Prophets Isa. 26. 19. Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for they dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead See Eze. 37. from the beginning to the ending where God signifies the deliverance of Israel out of captivity by the Resurrection of the dry bones To this purpose hath the Apostle Paul expressed himself in 2 Cor. 1. 8 9. For we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed
faith because as the body from the head receives life and motion so do we from Christ who is our head and we his members You tell us that God the Father did appear as a Son Which is false it was God the Son that took our nature upon him In the fulness of time God sent his Son Gal. 4. 4. The Father never appeared or spake immediately but twise and that was at the Baptisme of Christ and in his Transfiguration Mat. 3. 17. Mat. 17. 5. You say now so long as man is without this manifestation of God which is Christ in him he is a Reprobate This is also false for Christ telleth us that he hath Sheep that are not called aswell as Sheep that are called Iohn 10. 16. other Sheep I have which are not called that is that have not this spiritual manifestation Now until men are called and converted we know they have not the manifestation of the spirit and we know also that there is a spiritual desertion sometimes for trial as in Iob sometimes for correction as in David and yet neither of these were Reprobates You say what is a Reprobate but not to have Christ in you Which is a most absurd definition of a Reprobate and to prove it you produce Rom. 1. 28. because they did not like or retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate minde When Reprobation is a part of Gods eternal decree whereby God hath purposed to pass by some that were in the state of corruption as well as to elect others unto eternal salvation Rom. 9. 11 12 13. c. Now how doth your definition suit unto this Nay how doth that of Rom. 1. 28. prove your definition which was a spiritual judgement inflicted upon the Heathen for not walking according to that natural light which God had imprinted in their minds which indeed was a fearful judgement whether it be taken actually or passively if actually as a mind approving things to be reproved and reproving things to be approved a mind judging good to be evil and evil to be good Iob 21. 14. Isa. 5. 20. Wo unto them that call good evil and evil good that put light for darkness and darkness for light Or else passively as a mind reprobated and rejected of God and such a mind was in Abab who sold himself c. in Iudas that sold his Master in Esau that sold his birth-right or blessing Something more is insinuated by you in the end of this Chapter for universal Redemption And to prove it you mention that of 1 Tim. 2. 4 5. Who will have all men to be saved c. which is understood of his revealed will which is if they repent and believe Iohn 3. 14 15 16. Mark 1. 15. Mat. 16. 15 16. Acts 20. 20 21. and many more places so that if they repent and believe they shall be saved if not for ought that God hath revealed unto us they are utterly lost But have all men power to repent and believe By nature they have not For we are dead in trespasses and sins Ephe. 2. 5. and God must quicken and put life into us before there can be any motion in us and this he doth put into his elect by his spirit the Word and Sacraments being instruments Ephes. 4. 20. which because God doth minister by men it is therefore attributed to the Ministers of the Gospel 1 Cor. 4. 15. Let therefore men so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. Trample not therefore Gods Ordinances under your feet lest you neglect your own Salvation CHAP. IX The subject of this Chapter is the sin against the Holy Ghost of the which I could wish you were as clear as you are ignorant but your ignorance must be your best Plea otherwise scarce any ventured farther to be guiltie of it then you have done First we will set down the nature of it so far forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures unto us It is called the sin against the Holy Ghost not because it is done only against the Deitie of the Holy Ghost for he that sins against the Deitie of the Holy Ghost sins also against the Deitie of the Father and the Son because the three Persons are all one God but because it is against the immediate action of the Holy Ghost that is against his immediate Illumination for albeit this be a work common to the three Persons in the Trinity yet because the Father and the Son do effect this by the holy Ghost it is therefore called the sin against the holy Ghost onely 1. The efficient cause of it is obstinate Malice against God and against Christ as in Julian the Apostate who when he was strucken with an arrow received the blood issuing out of his wound into his hands he threw it up despitefully into the Aire and cryed Vicisti Galilee 2 The object of this sin is God himself and the mediator Jesus Christ Heb. 10. 29 30. 3. The subject in which it is found is onely such as have been inlightned by the spirit of God and have tasted of the good gift of God Heb. 6. 5. So that the elect cannot commit this sin and therefore they that feel in themselves a sure testimony of their election need not despaire for they are kept by the power of God unto life everlasting This sin cannot be forgiven not because it is greater then the merit of Christ can satisfie for but because after a man hath once committed this sin it is impossible for him to repent for the gift of Repentance proceedeth from the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost remaineth in us through Christ apprehended by faith now no man doth apprehend Christ who doth maliciously despise and contemn him Out of this which hath been spoken we may thus define this sin The sin against the holy Ghost is a voluntary denyall of and blasphemie against the Son of God or of that truth which was before acknowledged concerning him and so consequently a Vniversal defection from God and his Church We have an Example of this in the devil who though he knew well enough that Iesus was the Christ yet he never ceased both wittingly and willingly to oppose the very sacred Majesty of God in him together with the kingdom of Iesus that as far forth as he could he might utterly supplant the same by the Pharisees Mat. 12. 32. Iohn 3. 2. Now Sir consider whether those men that have maintained the articles of that faith into which they have been baptized which articles have been and are professed by all the true Christian Churches in the world and are firmly g rounded upon the word of God which is the pillar of our faith have committed this sin or you that have first profest and afterwards fallen away from the faith and opposed the chief Articles or fundamental points of it as Christs conception in saying he