est Vitiositas nativa seu peccatum Originis a quo nihil boni cogitari praestari potest and this Mr. Pole in his Synopsis leaves for the meaning of it Now this I cannot acquiesce in as a full description of the Subject Flesh here spoken of there is something of the truth in it but it is not satisfactory That it cannot be meant of sinful flesh or a principle or root in us that unavoidably carries sin in it or produceth sin seems apparent to me from the Expression of the Apostle in the latter end of this Verse The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be The Apostle makes a great assertion That the carnal mind is enmity against God then he gives a reason Because it is not subject to the Law of God and then follows this reason with an high proof or aggravation which makes the reason very full and evident That it is not only actually not subject but incapable of becoming subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither indeed can be Now to me it would be no wonder no high discovery at all to say That a sinful nature cannot be subject to the holy Law for every body knows that that which hath sin necessarily in it cannot be subject to that which is holy for there is a perfect contradiction in one to the other But now if there be such a thing which by nature is indifferent to sin or not to sin but by accidental circumstances becomes sinful and whil'st it is under those accidents and circumstances cannot but be a sinning Principle and productive of variety of sins to assert concerning his that whil'st under these circumstances it cannot be subject to the Law of God This may be a great discovery and worth our best and strictest notice and observation Now such a thing I take the flesh and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be in this Discourse of the Apostle's We know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flesh and spirit are the two contradistinct and constituent parts of Man Tee spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Matth. 26.41 Sometimes there are three parts made of a Man Body Soul and Spirit Corpus Arima which make Animals and Spirit which make a Man which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thess 5.23 Now there was a time when Flesh and Spirit did sweetly agree in the Service of God and the Flesh was without sin But since Adam fell there was a sad divorce made between the Flesh and the Spirit of a Man and every sinner and unregenerate person adheres to his fleshly part with the neglect of the Soul and Spirit or Mind and Conscience and is led by the inclinations and tendencies of the Flesh and so the Flesh in them is deserted of its Guide the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath lost its Bridle and now the Flesh gives the denomination to a carnal Man Nay the Flesh that is as destitute of its Guide which ought to be the Spirit of a Man enlightned and assisted by the Spirit of God is called by the name of a sinning Principle and partly in the Saints themselves for that none of them is perfect So you have it Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to another so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Now Men that are wholly unregenerate are wholly under the command of their fleshly inclinations and they follow the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which the Flesh dictates and commands and this is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be that is whil'st they remain carnal till they have received the Gospel they are in the flesh and walk after the flesh Nay there is a further piece of mystery in this matter that whereas the Flesh according to the order of Nature and institution of God in our first Creation ought to be influenced and guided and ruled by the Spirit in carnal Men the Flesh influenceth and infecteth their very Mind and Conscience which is the only Fort and Garrison that God holdeth in a wicked Man Therefore we hear of a fleshly Mind Col. 2.18 And there even their Minds and Consciences are defiled Tit. 1.15 So that the sence of this seventh Verse seems now somewhat clear to me wherein the Apostle proves what he had asserted in the sixth That to be carnally minded is death namely because it is enmity against God and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be And therefore what wonder is it that it brings on a spiritual Death whereas on the contrary to be spiritually minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Life and Peace When a Man hath entertained the Gospel and therewithal received the Spirit of God into his Heart he is alive to God and full of Peace and Joy I might add one thing more which may possibly elucidate this matter and that is this The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tendency and strong bent of the Flesh or the Flesh itself deserted of the Spirit of a Man and of God is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be because the Flesh is not the immediate Subject of Religion any more than a Brute is the brute Animals are not under any Rule of Religion the Body is but the Soul's Jumentum its inferiour Associate it is not capable of seeing any Beauty or goodness in Religion but when the Mind is convinced and brought over to God the Flesh may and will joyn with the Soul its ancient Friend and Guide even in all its faculties and appetites so long as it is well watcht and guided and prudently provided for accordingly the Apostle adviseth his good holy sanctified Believers Rom. 6.12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body or flesh that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye should obey it that is Sin in the lusts or desires of it that is the mortal Body as I have discoursed at large in the sixth Chapter The Paraphrase therefore of this Verse is this The carnal Mind or rather the tendency and humor or mind of the Flesh deserted of the conduct of the Spirit hath set up an interest against God Thence we have it in Greek Latin and English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virtutem aspernantes and unbridled Lusts Effraenes cupiditates and is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rebus sic stantibus till the Bridle Fraenum that it hath lost be super-induced It is like a mad Horse snuffing up the Wind and taking its Course whither it pleaseth and lusteth So then Verse 8 they that are in the flesh cannot please God No wonder then that they that are in the flesh cannot please God This Inference will be easily admitted They that are in the flesh
of St. Paul †Rom. 7.18 In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing seems inconsistent with those places where he says ‖ Gal. 2.20 I live 〈◊〉 yet not I but Christ liveth in me and where he informs us that the Spirit of God dwells * Rom. 8.11 1 Cor. 3.16 in the Faithful and that their Bodies were the Temples †1 Cor. 6.19 of the Holy Ghost And I do not see what Solution can be given of this Difficulty unless it be that as Origen * Meris est Scripturae Divinae personas latenter res causas de quibus dicere videtur nomina commutare into potius eisdem nominibus in aliis atque aliis rebus uti Orig. ubi supra tells us It is the manner of the Holy Scripture tacitly to change the Persons and Things and Causes and Names of which it seems to speak or rather to use the same Names in representing different Matters An Observation which being rightly understood may be of great and frequent use but it requires great caution and judgment in the application of it With Origen many others both Ancient and Modern Writers of great eminence concur in this Interpretation And amongst the last some of our own Nation especially have done excellently on this Subject But the Learned Author of this Treatise hath handled it more copiously than any that I have seen and as he hath in my opinion managed it with great strength of Reason so he hath carried on the whole Work with that Spirit of Piety and Charity for the good of Souls that I hope it may contribute something towards the Reformation of a degerate Age which abounds both with Hypocrisie and Prophaneness and calls for the helping Hands of those that are in a capacity to stem the Torrent of Iniquity This is what I thought fit to say by way of Preface and I add no more but my hearty Prayers That the Almighty who is of purer eyes than to behold sin would bless those Endeavours that are employ'd against it and in the vindication of Holiness and that he would so dispose the Hearts of all Men that the Disobedient may be turn'd to the Wisdom of the Just and that the Just may be justified * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 22.11 still that they that are in Error may be brought into the Light of Truth and they that have received the Light may walk worthy of it and give diligence to make their Calling and Election sure April 20. 1693. Robert Burscough THE EPISTLE TO THE READER IN my first Address to thee I make a solemn Profession That I serve no Party of Men neither can I see any worldly Interest that I can promote in the Writing of this Treatise but rather the contrary and if I had not hoped it might be of some use to the Publick I should not have troubled my self in the Composing nor thee in the Perusing of it and having said thus much I shall shew thee first the Occasion and then the Reasons of my Vndertaking The Occasion was this I have for these Thirty Years and more kept my Thoughts suspended in the Controversie of Election and Reprobation and the Liberty of Man's Will not without making Enquiry by Reading Discoursing and Meditating with all which I have joyned serious Prayer But I was very loath to determine my Thoughts without a clearness and evidence At last observing the Clashing that there was in Books and in the Pulpit by one against the other the Animosities and Feuds raised in the Parties the Intricacy of the Knots and the Abstruseness of the Discourses upon this Subject as they lye in Controversal Writers I thought the safest quietest and surest way was to endeavour to find out the Truth as it lay in the Scripture alone and by it self and to this end I taskt my self to commit to my Memory all the first Eleven Chapters of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans in Greek for in the ninth and eleventh Chapters of that Epistle is the chief Seat of this Controversie and I was willing to learn all the Chapters before that so I might observe as warily and curiously as I could begging God's assistance how the Apostle made his Approaches to that great Mystery of Election and Reprobation which especially in the ninth Chapter hath been made the Rise and Occasion of dreadful Disputes for that I did not question but this wise Master-builder did raise this high and lofty Superstructure of his ninth and eleventh Chapters upon a sure Basis and though I know that an Epistle may contain distinct Subjects that may have no great if any connexion and dependance yet it is very obvious to any Observer that the most disputative and argumentative part of the ninth Chapter hath a clear relation to and connexion with the third and fourth Chapters foregoing wherein the Apostle is proving Justification by Faith Rom. 9.30 31 32. What shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after Righteousness have attained to Righteousness even the Righteousness which is of Faith But Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness Wherefore Because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law And this was the reason of their reprobation So that the Election of the Gentiles and some few Jews was really grounded upon their cleaving to the way of the Promise and Faith whereas the reprobation of the Jews was as I have said from the contrary reason And accordingly Dr. Hammond concludes his Paraphrase upon the ninth Chapter with these words The Sum then of this whole Chapter will be reduced to these five Heads 1. The Priviledges of the Jews and among them especially Christ's being born of that stock 2. That those of them which resisted and believed not in Christ were delivered up to obduration by God and the Gentiles taken in their stead 3. That 't was most just with God to deal thus with them 4. That some of the Jews at that time believed in Christ 5. That the cause that the rest believed not was that after a Pharisaical manner they sought Justification by the Works of the Law Circumcision c. despising the Faith and Doctrine of Christ and that Evangelical way of Justification and so stumbling at the Christian Doctrine which they should have believed were the worse for him and the preaching of the Apostles by whom they should have been so much the better And I bless God in about half a Year's time I picked up so many spare Hours as in which I obtained what I designed the getting by heart those eleven Chapters and have repeated them often exactly and in the getting of them and at last my ninth and eleventh I have attained a very comfortable Satisfaction in the Controversie about Election and Reprobation and do not at all repent any Hour's time spent in the endeavour with relation to
seems to turn his Speech into a figurative Expression as I have noted above out of Doctor Hammond and chuseth rather to say Ye are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ crucified for else there would have been no similitude in this Case for the Matter to which the Apostle doth assimulate the Case of every true Christian was to that of a Wife who was once bound to an Husband but by the death of her Husband became free to be married to another the word ye therefore answers to the Wife therefore when he says ye are dead to the Law the meaning is the Law is dead to you for else he would not speak of the death of the Husband but of the death of the Wife And accordingly the Apostle continues the Allegory in the next two Verses For when we were in the flesh Verse 5 the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring ferth fruit unto death But now we are delivered from the law Verse 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are cancelled to the Law signifieth saith Dr. Hammond the Law is cancelled to us that being dead wherein we were held that is the Law which was our first Husband being dead wherein we were held or to which we were obliged as a Wife to a Husband during his life that we should serve in newness of spirit that is according to a free ingenious Gospel-Principle of Love and not in the oldness of the Letter that is according to the severity and rigour of the Law written in Tables of Stone which was our old and first Husband So that in this Antapodosis or Reddition which is here made by way of Similitude to the Case of an Husband and Wife I take it we have these several Propositions clearly expressed or strongly inferrible 1. The Law is a Man's first Husband 2. The Law is every Man's Husband that is his Soul's Husband till he betake himself to Christ by Faith for there is no middle State every Man is either under the Law or under Grace 3. The Law is a rigid and severe Husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 6. Wherein we were held Gal. 3.23 24. Before Faith came we were kept under the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law had set a guard upon us shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed shut up as it were in Prison in Salva Custodia Verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ and a severe Schoolmaster 4. That whilst we are under the Law and before we betake ourselves to Christ by Faith we can do nothing but Sin Verse 5. For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Whilst we are under the Law we are in the Flesh wholly carnal and then the motions of Sin did work and nothing but they and did bring forth Fruit unto Death This is the Issue of our Wedlock whilst we sinners have no other Husband but only the Law 5. That the Law was in very good earnest since killed as to the condemning power of it for all Mankind by the Body of Christ crucified 6. That every Man in the World where the Gospel is preached is declared to be free from the condemnation of the Law upon condition that he betake himself to Christ as an Husband and a Lord. And this I take to be the greatest thing in the Gospel 7. That till a Man repent and believe this Gospel and be joyned to the Lord Christ as one Spirit with him he can never bring forth fruit unto God Verse 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law or rather the Law is dead to you by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God This is the Fruit of the New Wedlock and without this change of State there can be no such Fruit. All these severally I take to be included in the Apostle's Similitude and so I come to the seventh Verse wherein the Apostle answers a terrible Objection which seems to arise rationally against what he had said What shall we say then Verse 7 is the law sin God forbid The Objection rises naturally thus You have said above That when we were in the Flesh the Motions of Sin which were by the Law did so work as to bring forth Fruit unto Death and that we need to be delivered from the Law even by the death of it as an Husband that so we may serve God with a new Spirit and bring forth Fruit to God Why what a strange kind of thing do you make the Law to be Quod efficit tale est magis tale That which is the cause of any thing and brings it forth into being is much more such a thing as that is which is produced and effected by it What shall we say then is the Law Sin or a sinful thing or the direct cause of Sin This Question or Objection the Apostle answers with an abhorrence Verse 7 God forbid and then gives a very substantial reason for it Nay I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet So that it is as much as if the Apostle had said 't is true if this bringing forth Fruit unto Death had been the natural and kindly Effect of the Law as a Cause it would be so it could no be freed from this aspersion of being a very sinful thing nay Sin itself in the abstract If innocent Man and the Law meeting together the natural product of the Law should be Sin the Law would indeed deserve the name of sinful and of sin but it is not the univocal natural kindly Product of the Law upon a Man but the accidental Effect of the Law upon a Sinner But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence The Law is so far from deserving the name of sin or sinful saith the Apostle that I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet The natural Effect of the Law is first to forbid Sin and to command all that is holy just and good and in the next place to discover Sin to convince and condemn the sinner which is quite contrary to the promoting encouraging and producing Sin Well then having removed Sin far enough away from being the natural Effect of the Law he comes to shew how the Law did occasionally and accidentally produce Sin But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence Verse 8 for without the law sin was dead or is dead there is neither of them no Verb substantive in the Original And here I think it a very fit occasion to set
highly approve but the quite contrary He certainly did not only condemn himself but was worthy to be condemned by all that observed it and heard or read him to make such a Description of himself But to speak more closely to the words this is a plain Description of a Man if not maliciously wicked yet at least impotently so and the very Character which Medea the Witch gives of herself in the Poet Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor I see better things and approve of them but I follow worse things Dolus an Virtus quis in hoste requirat What odds is there if an Enemy does us a mischief by Stratagem or by Valour So what odds is it whether a Man does wickedness of choice or because he cannot well or easily help it whilst the Devil himself cannot force us to sin of whatsoever a Man is overcome of the same is he brought under bondage 2 Pet. 2.19 If a Man does the thing that is wicked frequently and omits the good that he should do frequently and usually let him pretend necessity or that he could not help it or indeed let him say what he will in his excuse if he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the words that can be used to express the doing of a thing and declares he can do no otherwise but omit good and do that which is evil he is a sinner a carnal person a fleshly person or what can be more expressive sold under sin If then I do that which I would not Verse 16 I consent unto the law And what if he do consent unto the Law that it is good Will this make amends for the constant breach of it Is it not an high aggravation of such a one's wickedness Now then Verse 17 it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me If this should be spoken as an Excuse for the Sin committed that it is not the Sinner's Action but Sin 's Action it would be the most absurd Excuse that ever was offered For what is Sin in any Man is it a Person or Agent or rather a vicious Quality of the Person The latter no doubt See if any one will be content with this Excuse in a matter of Theft or Slander or Wounds to say 'T is not I that stole but my thievish Temper 't is not I that struck you but my angry Passion 't was not I that railed at you or spoke evil falsly of you but my intemperate and malicious Tongue this is a Tale to tell a Child but not to be believed by a Man or admitted for an Excuse in a Court of Justice It is thy angry Person that strikes 't is thy lustful Heart that commits lewdness 't is thy covetous Heart that steals and defrauds 't is thy prophane Heart that blasphemes It will be imputed to thy whole Man what thou dost with thy Hand or Tongue or any Member of thy Body Sin will not be called to account as a Person but the Person for the Sin And therefore to make a little sence of the Excuse here it can only be this That a Man under conviction of Sin may say indeed that he doth not sin with all his heart that he hath a Conscience within him that checks him in and for what he doth But yet if Conscience cannot restrain him from doing evil nor command him to do the good that he should that renitency of Conscience will not excuse him before God but he shall be condemned as a Criminal at last for all his Commissions and Omissions if he doth not get beyond this state of Conviction to a state of Conversion and the renitency and reluctancy of his Conscience will be so far from excusing him that it will be the highest aggravation towards his condemnation For I know Verse 18 that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Here is another poor Excuse that the Man under legal convictions and not St. Paul converted makes use of to quiet his Conscience or to plead for him with the World whilst he lives in the practice of Sin and in the omission of his Duty I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing I am fleshly and in the flesh and alas in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing and how can I do otherwise than sin the Flesh and the Body is not properly the seat of Religion though after a Man is regenerate it is influenced by religious Principles and brought into good order and into the service of the Spirit as I shall have occasion to shew in the Exposition of the next Chapter but in a state of unregeneracy which I take to be the state of the Man in this Chapter it runs a Man headlong into all impiety and wickedness for it has not on its Bridle And accordingly he confesses further in the end of the Verse For to will is present with me but to perform that which is good I find not Verse 18 To will is present with me this will can only be accounted a Velleity as the Schools speak a wishing and a woulding he would fain do this good and avoid that evil but is perfectly impotent as to the matter of practice and what is this will good for which can bring nothing to effect For the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that do I. Ver. 19 20. Now if I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me This is no more than what was said before and 't is an usual way with the Apostle to repeat to keep things fresh in memory that had been discoursed and an illustration of what had been said in the 18th Verse I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me Verse 21 Now the Apostle comes to sum up the Evidence and to put the Matter to an issue And the sum of the Evidence is this I find then a Law The Man that was in the flesh Verse 5. and under the Law 's convictions Verse 9. deceived and slain Verse 11. under the workings of all manner of Concupiscence Verse 8. he finds himself not only under the Law of God in a way of Conviction and Condemnation but under a Law of Sin I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me For I delight in the law of God after the inward man but I see another law in my members Ver. 22 23 The inward Man was his Conscience which had some kind of complacency in the Law of God as a just and an holy thing For God keeps that Hold or Garrison in every Man's Breast that is not quite profligate and past all sence of good and evil which yet is very hard for any Man perfectly to attain unto much less for the Man in this Chapter whom all Intepreters will allow to be under strong sore and quick Convictions from the
thing to be proved But yet the Apostle goes on and gives a more full account of this matter which leaves the thing without all pretence of doubt as I conceive Ver. 3 4. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh Verse 3 God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did i.e. and for sin condemned sin in the flesh The Explication of this Verse alone clears the whole matter as I judge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What was the impossible thing which the Law could not do Why to justifie or sanctifie a sinner How came it impossible to the Law to effect either of these Why not from any weakness in itself it would have justified innocent Man with good authority But it cannot justifie a sinner that is impossible for then the Law of God would cease to be holy it would have sanctified innocent Man that is have led him on from one kind of holy action to another and made him conversant in and ready at doing the whole Will of God But when it meets with a sinner through the sin which reigns in his flesh it not only condemns him but irritates and provokes Lust till Sin by the Commandment appear in its colours appear Sin and become out of measure sinful as we have at large discoursed this matter in the foregoing Chapter This argues no weakness in the Law that it cannot justifie or sanctifie a sinner for it is weak only through the flesh So that any Man that doth not betake himself to Christ and the Gospel but is only under Convictions from the Law must needs be in such a condition as the seventh Chapter describes But now God in infinite Mercy since the Law under which Man was created was utterly disabled from justifying much more from sanctifying fallen Man sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and by so sending him did that for us which the Law could not do and for sin or as it is in the Margin by a Sin-offering condemned sin in the flesh that is expiated our sins and shewed us a way how we might effectually subdue our lusts or to give you the Paraphrase of the Verse in Dr. Hammond's own words they are these For when through the fleshly desires of Men carrying them headlong into all Sin in despight of the Prohibitions of the Law Chap. 7.14 the Law of Moses was by this means weak and unable to reform and amend Mens Lives then most seasonably God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh that is in a mortal body which was like sinful flesh and differed nothing from it save only in innocence and that on purpose that he might be a Sacrifice for Sin and by laying our Sins on him shewed a great Example of his Wrath against all carnal Sins by punishing Sin in his flesh that so Men might be perswaded by Love or wrought on by Terrors to forsake their sinful Courses By this means Sin itself is condemned in our flesh that is destroyed as to its guilt and power which before by the Law had condemned us That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh Verse 4 but after the Spirit By this means namely the sending Christ to die and giving us the Gospel which discovers to us his Death and Resurrection and the ends of them we are perswaded the Spirit working together with it in the Preaching of it to betake ourselves to Christ for Pardon and Salvation and for Strength against every Lust of the Flesh and being truly converted by and to the Faith of the Gospel the Righteousness of the Law comes to be fulfilled in us and we are enabled through the Grace of God to do the substance of all that which the Moral Law requires and our Failings are hid by the Intercessions of Christ and we are truly said to walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And now see if there be not a vast alteration of states from the Man in the seventh of the Romans and the same I in the eighth the one is legal and under the Power of Sin led captive by the Law of Sin the other is set at liberty by the Gospel from the Law of Sin and Death that is that Sin which necessarily ends in Death For the wages of sin is death and this is done by the Law of the Spirit of Life which is only in Christ Jesus and conveyed by his Gospel into the minds of Men. 'T is the new Law the Law of the Spirit so the Gospel is called We are Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter that is the Law killeth but the Spirit that is the Gospel giveth Life 2 Cor. 3.6 The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life John 6. â—â— Tâ—erefore the Gospel coming in power is called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and it is also called the Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 I have now done with the argumentative Part as hoping that the Cause is won which yet whether it be or no I must leave to the serious and candid Reader to determine for himself only I shall desire of any that is unsatisfied to give as fair an Account of his contrary Opinion and Perswasion as I have here done by insisting upon the several Verses of the 7th Chaper especially and let him see if he can make sence of every thing as I have done and not only argue against the whole together by some little Arguments that he may imagine to himself to have some strength in them I have not that I know balked or avoid d any thing in the whole Chapter that looks like an Argument for the Opinion which I contradict And that I may not be alone is this Discourse I thought it convenient to subjoyn out of Dr. Hammond's Commentary what were his Sentiments upon the Subject debated which after I have transcribed I shall willingly follow the Apostle's Discourse throughout the whole eighth Chapter For that therein as I humbly conceive the Apostle pursues the Mystery of the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus till he makes it evident that this new Law otherwise truly called Gospel and the Ministration of the Spirit carries a Man on not only to a freedom from the Law of Sin and Death or the bondage and power of Corruption but carries him through the whole course of mortification of Sin and vivification even of our natural Flesh bringing it on to the service of the Spirit the Spirit of our Mind or the Law of the Mind and indeed into a rejoycing in the Conduct of the Spirit of God it brings us on to a Spirit of Adoption praying to God with holy Boldness as a Father It carries us on through the heaviest
Sufferings and teacheth us not only to call them but account them light it teacheth us to live by Faith and Hope it teacheth us lastly fully to acquiesce in the holy Will good Will and Favour of God as unconquerable and invulnerable and makes us to tryumph in God and in our Lord Jesus as inseparable from his Love by all that can befal us here and so makes us the glory of Christ here by bearing and doing all for him which must needs end in being glorified with him in the Heavens The Words which I thought fit to transcribe out of Dr. Hammond's Commentary upon this Subject you may find at the Letter d on the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans I had not known sin Dr. Hammond Rom. 7.7 It is an ordinary figure saith the Doctor to speak of other Men in the first Person but most frequently in blaming or noting any fault in others for then by the putting it in this disguise fastning it on one's own person it is more likely to be well taken by them to whom it belongs So saith St. Chrysostom of this Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he mentions things that are any way grievous or likely to be ill taken he doth it in his own person And St. Hierem on Daniel Peccata populi enumerat Persona sua quod Apostolum in Epistola ad Romanoâ— facere legimus Confessing the Sins of the People be doth it in his own person which we read practiced by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans that is most probably in this place Thus the same Apostle 1 Cor. 6.12 All things are lawful to me but all things are not expedient that is those things which are by you look'd on as indifferent if they be yielded to may be very hurtful in you And 1 Cor. 13.2 If I have all Faith and have not Charity that is if you want Charity to your other Gifts So Gal. 2.18 If what I have destroyed I build the same again I make myself a transgressor that is whosever doth so or whensoever ye do so it must needs be a fault in you Thus Rom. 3.7 If the truth of God hath more abounded by my lie unto his glory why am I also judged as a sinner Which words are certainly the personating of an impious Objector which speaks or disputes thus not of the Apostle himself And the same Scheme or Fashion of Speech or Writing is very frequent among all Authors Secondly By the severals affirmed in this Chapter which cannot belong to St. Paul it appears that St. Paul did not speak these things of himself For that Paul was at the writing of this a reformed regenerate person there is no doubt but if we compare the severals which are here mentioned with the parts of a regenerate Man's Character given by the same Apostle in other places we shall find them quite contrary Here in the eighth Verse he saith That sin had wrought in him all manner of concupiscence whereas of the regenerate Man it is affirmed Gal. 5.24 they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Here in the ninth Verse it is said sin revived and I died whereas of the regenerate Man it is said Chap. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Here in the fourteenth Verse it is said I am carnal whereas of the regenerate Man it is affirmed Chap. 8.1 that he walketh not after the flesh but after the spirit Here again in that fourteenth Verse 't is said I am sold under sin whereas of the regenerate 't is affirmed Chap. 6.18 that be becomes free from sin and becomes the se vant of righteousness Here Verse 20. Sin dwelleth in me and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accomplisheth worketh that which I will not like not with my mind and conscience And so 't is said Ver. 23 24. That the law of the members carries him into captivity to the law of sin and who shall deliver him from this body of death And so that he is under the power of the law of sin and death that he obeys the law of sin Ver. 25. Whereas Chap. 8.2 of the regenerate 't is affirmed That the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the law of sin and death Nothing can be more contrary and irreconcilable to a regenerate state in these so many particulars than what is here affirmed of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I he person here represented And indeed unless sinning against Conscience be the only way of alleviating and not aggravating sin it is impossible that the doing that ill he would not the not doing the good he would Ver. 19 20. can be deemed a fit Ingredient in the Character of a regenerate Man 'T is certain this was in the Person of Meâ—ea made by the Heathens the highest pitch of Villany to see and like that which was good and to do the direct contrary and therefore cannot in any reason be thought to be the Apostle's description of a regenerate Man a good Christian I add much less of himself And now methinks these Lines that I have quoted and transcribed out of Dr. Hammond are so grave learn'd and wise that I look upon what I have written as trifliâ—g in comparison with them which in two or three Pages contain in a manner the substance of all that I have written Yet I am not utterly discouraged from making it publick because that may please and convince one that may not have the same influence on another And what I have written I hope I have done in the fear of God and with true zeal for the good of Souls and there is certainly an Use of various ways of Expressing and Arguing for the Information of various Capacities I come now therefore to my promised Work of going through the several Verses of the eighth Chapter for that in that Chapter what follows in several Verses is a mighty confirmation of what hath been delivered and a great improvement of the Discourse by several gradations shewing how the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sers a Man still more and more at liberty from the Law of Sin and Death and leads him up to his high places as Habakkuk's phrase is Hab. 3.9 The Lord God is my strength and be will make my feet like hind's feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places Proverbs 15.24 The way of life is above to the wise to deliver from hell beneath And indeed till a Man be enlightned in the Gospel and lifted up by the Spirit of God as it were to walk over other Mens heads he is as nothing in the World 1 Cor. 2.19 The spiritual man judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man For they that are after the flesh Rom. 8.5 do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit The Apostle
that is wholly addicted to and commanded by the lusts or desires of their flesh I take it to be all one with that Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that are after the flesh only there may be this little difference that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the state and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies conversation as walking after the flesh or according to the motions and dictates of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piscator and Beza say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so then or therefore but others sav 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then it must be translated Now they that are in the flesh cannot please God and therefore the righteousness of the Law is not fulfilled in them This I take to be the most genuine Interpretation And this Verse is confessed to be the Conclusion of the whole Argumentation of the Verses foregoing But ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be the spirit of God dwell in you Now the Apostle hath done with the Argumentation beginning from the first Verse which Argumentation I take to be directed against the state of the Man under convictions in the seventh Chapter And so speaks to his converted Romans Ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit with this caution If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you For every Man that hath received the Gospel sincerely and betaken himself to Christ and his Righteousness from the Condemnations and accidental Irritations of the Law hath the Spirit of God dwelling in him for the Gospel is the Ministration of the Spirit which the Law is not Gal. 3.2 This only would I learn of you Received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Verse 9 This Expression you see is doubled and therefore needs the greater consideration and serious reflection of every Man upon himself to know his state by I cannot here stay to make discovery how a Man may come to know whether he hath the Spirit of God and of Christ which is much or all one and it is the less necessary for me to do it because the Apostle himself in several Verses following makes the discovery himself by several high and glorious effects of the Spirit 's inhabitation And if Christ be in you that is by his Spirit the body is dead because of sin Verse 10 but the spirit is life because of righteousness I fancy or apprehend this to be the meaning of these dark Expressions for which I shall seriously consult Expositors Dr. Hammond Pole and Marlorate and give any thing that I find in them which I think considerable But I presume first here to give my own thoughts for which I beg the Reader 's pardon If Christ be in you by his Spirit the body is dead because of sin that is your Flesh and Body by which you were heretofore strongly impelled and as it were forced on to the commission of all sorts of sin is dead * Piscator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod ad peccâ—tion scuratione peccati ne scilicet possit amplius nos impellere ad petulanter peccandum as to sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of sin propter or secundum where I imagine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have the force of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this I am sure is less straining than to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Piscator and Beza do and our English Translators in the eighth Verse So then they c. Tho' Pole tells us from another Author Tolet that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I take it is never so used But to make good this Exposition see how the sence seems to force it If Christ be in you the body is dead because of or as to sin That is the Flesh in its Lusts is mortified I am sure this is true Divinity But the spirit is life in the abstract or alive in the concrete that it may answer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dead in the Antithesis in the words that is Whereas when you were without the Spirit of Christ the Flesh and the Body was alive and regnant and the Law of the Members warred against the Law of the Mind or Spirit and had the better of it and brought you into captivity to the Law of Sin which Law of Sin was in the Members in the Flesh and Body Now this Body this rampant Flesh unbridled Lust which had cast off the Bridle of the Spirit and the Law of the Mind and Conscience which ought to have ruled the Flesh this Body is dead not simply but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body is dead in the matter of Sin so that you need not obey Sin in the lustings of the Body though the Body hath its desires still of eating and drinking c. yet it hath not those strong impetuous irregular desires that it had but is dead in a great measure because of Sin or as to Sin But the * Significat spiritum hominis tum ob Antithesin Corporis Spiritus tum extollat v. seq Animam five rationalem partem gratia Christi renovatam Estius ex Oecumen Cass spirit is life or greatly alive because of righteousness or as to the matter of Righteousness Now the Law of the Mind prevails over the Law of the Members you are alive to God and Righteousness and Holiness But if the spirit of him that is God the Father that raised up Christ from the dead Verse 11 dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your morted bâ—dies by his spirit that dwelleth in you Here I confess I have a peculiar Notion which I have been hammering at these thirty Years but I will assure thee Reader that it is honest and will lead thee into no dangerous Errour and therefore consider it If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you That is in your mortal Body in which the Apostle forbids that Sin should reign Rom. 6.12 I say this mortal Body shall not only be dead as to the matter of Sin which is affirmed in the 10th Verse and is a great attainment by the Spirit of Christ's dwelling in us The World is well altered with such a Man that whereas his Flesh did rule and lead him captive to the Law of Sin now this Flesh and this mortal Body of his should be dead as to the matter of Sin this I say is a great attainment and a blessed alteration from his former state But this is not all no the chiefest thing is yet behind
the Flesh shall not only not be a clog to the Spirit but it shall be a meet-help it shall not only be dead as to Sin but it shall be quickned up into the Service of the Spirit the Flesh of the Saints in their mortal Body before they have died and past through the Grave shall be brought by the indwelling of the Spirit to an usefulness in the Service of God * Piscator in Polc Certurn est hic non agi de Resurrectione Corporâ—m Calvin Non de ultima Resurrectione hic loquitur sed de continua Spiritus Operatione qua Reliquias Carnis paulatim mortificans Coelestem Vitam in whis instaurat ibid. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body while it is mortal it may die and must die By the spirit that dwelleth in you which I take to be an Expression signifying our present State here after Conversion and not a Glorified Estate in Heaven for though the Saints in Heaven shall not be void of the Spirit of God there as we may conceive yet I take it this Phrase by his spirit which dwelleth in you signifies the State of this Life and that whilst we live here and have the Spirit of God and of Christ dwelling in us Our mortal Bodies which are yet only wortalia and not Mortua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be quickned into the service of our Spirit which was the design of God in his Creating Man before thâ— rebellion of the Flesh happened and our Spirits led by the Spirit of God So then we shall Eat and Drink to the Glory of God we shall Marry in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 Servants shall serve their Master as serving the Lord Christ Col. 3.24 And so I might instance in all the particular actions relating to the Body and the Animal Life If they are Musical they will not endure wanton Songs their very Musick shall be Innocent which is now so much devoted to the Devil to Bacchus and Veaus and Mars the Heathen Deities Therefore brethren we are debtors Verse 12 Now the Apostle comes to make some Application or practical Reflections upon this mysterious and sinewy Discourse we are debtors You see we are all obliged and that greatly we are not our own Men all Men are Debrors engaged one way or another Verse 13 But what are we Christians Debtors to not to the flesh to live after the flesh For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live The Spirit of God and of Christ dwells in every Saint and we are to make use of the Assistances of the Spirit dwelling in us to mortifie the Deeds and Affections of the Body so far as the Body was engaged in Sin and captivated â—o the Law of Sin Gal. 5.24 They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts and therefore no Doubt also in his deeds Col. 3.9 For as many as are led by the spirit of God Verse 14 they are the sous of God The Apostle still grows in his Sence as the Rule is in Oratory Cresâ—at Oratio The Apostle had before affirmed that if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and then he tells us That where the Spirit of Christ is the Body is dead because of Sin or as to the matter of Sin and the Spirit is alive as to the matter of Righteousness and that the very mortal Body shall be quickened as I take it in this Life to the Service of the Spirit that is of our natural Spirit and Conscience not excluding but highly including the Spirit of God And now that we shall find our whole selves Debtors or owing ourselves not to the flesh any longer than it must be to the Spirit and in this 14 Verse That we are led by the Spirit go ten under the conduct of it that we are safe indeed unless we wickedly depart from such a Guide And now he takes one step further that by that time we are come thus far we are gotten under a Spirit of Adoption And here I take it the Apostle hath much done with the Discourse of Holiness and Sanctification as brought about by the Gospel and so proceeds to other priviledges which a Saint enjoys and arrives at which I am willing to prosecute to the end of this Chapter for it is a rich Mine and a most luscious Discourse The Lord grant that I may beable to proceed in it more than Notionally and Speculatively that I may have the true enjoyment of these Discourses by being able to apply every thing to my own Soul for my comfort and elevation of Heart in the wayes of God as having a particular Interest and Concern in these Mysteries But before I go any further on in the following Verses I must endeavour to perform my Promise of giving what I find in Hammend Pole and Marlorat considerable and different from my apprehensions here signified upon the 10 and 11 Verses But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you Verse 9 Now if any man have not the Spirit of God he is none of his Paraphrase But ye Christians under the Gospel if ye have any of that Spiritual Divine Temper Dr. Hammond upon the 9 Ver. hath these words which Christ came to infuse by his Doctrine and Example are thereby engaged to all manner of sincere inward Purity to mortify the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts and if you do not so you live not according to the Gospel and if not so ye may know that you are not Christians Christ will not own you for his however ye have received the Faith and are admitted into the Number And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life Verse 10 because of righteousness Paraphrase But if ye be Christians indeed translated and raised above the pretensions of the Jew to the purity of the Gospel of Christ and your Lives be answerable thereto then though being Sinners the punishment of Sin that is Death befall you and so your bodies dye and return to Dust which is the punishment of Sin yet your Souls shall live for ever an happy and a blessed Life as the reward of your return to Christ in the sincerity of a new and righteous Life to which the Evangelical Justification belongs But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you Verse 11 he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you Paraphrase And then even for your dead Bodies they shall not finally perish neither they shall be sure to be raised again for the Spirit of God by which ye are to be guided and led is that Divine Omnipotent Spirit that
that But that which I have now to acquaint thee with is That while I was making my Progress in getting and repeating the several Chapters there did a considerable light arise to me concerning the true and genuine sence of the seventh Chapter which I had been often puzzelled about heretofore And this I thought worthy a new Labour to acquaint thee with so here I have given thee the occasion of my writing upon it Now for my Reasons moving me so to do take as followeth First then Reason I I have observed That several Expressions in that seventh Chapter to the Romans are the common shelter of many profligate Persons who would fain pass in their own apprehensions and in the judgment of others for good Men though if they would make any serious Reflections they must needs see themselves in a very evil state When I would do good say they evil is present with me the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not do that I do so then it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me With my mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my flesh the Law of Sin And so lick themselves whole presently after every the foulest Commission With an O wretched Man that I am and all because it is allowed by some that St. Paul used these Expressions as speaking in his own person after conversion Now this Scripture is to be wrested out of their hands by shewing them that St. Paul speaks this in the person of an unregenerate Man and therefore 't is a Plaister that will not cover much less heal their Sore Again Secondly I fear that even good People or at least People well inclined Reason II do too easily take comfort after having failed in many Points of their Duty in such Expressions as these When I would do good evil is present with me and I find a Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of Sin When they ought to take refuge only in a sound Repentance and the Blood of Christ after having humbled themselves and returned to their Duty as they ought And they need not be dispoiled of the Comfort that is ready at hand for them after ordinary failings and sins of infirmity for which I doubt not but there is a Pardon of course for them upon their Confession to God So that these Failings need not make any terrible disorder in their Peace and Comfort and they may have as much relief in Gal. 5.17 as they can justly pretend to have out of the seventh to the Romans Gal. 5.17 you have these words The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would There is as much comfort in these words as a sound Christian can seek for out of the seventh to the Romans in cases of infirmity And I know no Divine that hinders them of the relief of this Scripture for the Flesh not being perfectly subdued by and to the Spirit may hinder and clog them so as they may fail often and may not come to be so good as they fain would be or do all the good that they fain would do And yet they are not forced to acknowledge that they are sold under sin as the Expression in that seventh to the Romans by which they put a Sword into all wicked persons hands to kill themselves withal and to bear themselves out in their vilest Enormities Thirdly Reas III And indeed let the words in the seventh to the Romans be but allowed to be spoken of St. Paul in and of his own person after conversion and I know not what you can say by way of conviction to the wickedest Man in the World He will tell you when you charge him That he was drunk such a time and filthy such a time and can prove it of him That it is true it was so but he hates it 't was not he that did it but indwelling Sin with his Mind he himself serves the Law of God but with his Flesh the Law of Sin How can you confute him how know you but it is so as be saith and then upon what pretence can you excommunicate him or censure him if he declares his hatred of what he hath done how do you know but he may be a Saint like Saint Paul whenas the Church of God in all Ages hath and doth and ought to proceed in its Censures against Men according to External Actions 1 John 3.7 8. He that doth righteousness is righteousness even as he is righteous He that committeth sin is of the devil Verse 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him St. John's Epistle 3d. 11. He that doth good is of God he that doth evil hath not seen God Fourthly Reas IV This taking the seventh to the Romans in the sence above mentioned casts a great disparagement on St. Paul Methinks those two Expressions in the fourteenth Verse of that Chapter can never agree to St. Paul The Law is spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin What was St. Paul carnal after his conversion The highest Christian that can bear that Name St. Paul tells us is but a Babe 1 Cor. 3.1 2 3. And I brethren could not write unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat c. Verse 3. For ye are yet carnal and whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men What was St. Paul a Babe after he had written all that Epistle to the seventh Chapter But the next Expression is a thousand times worse if St. Paul speaks in his own person as of himself after conversion He is not only carnal but sold under sin a very vile Captive under the slavery of sin I remember such an Expression no where but in Ahab's case who it is said sold himself to work Wickedness And if St. Paul was sold under sin he either sold himself or was sold by another to this slavery And who could sell him after he was become God's but the Holy God which is Blasphemy to affirm or he himself which is to make him another Ahab Then in Verse 15. he explains how it appears that he was sold under sin by the causal Particle For For what I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that I do And this is a clear Description of Slavery So Verse 23. the Law in his Members brought him into captivity to the Law of Sin made him a Slave Fifthly Reas V This contradicts all that St. Paul speaks of himself in other places of his Epistles 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the good fight I have finished my course
are much the same What need of so much caution and exhortation to avoid a thing that shall never come to pass Why truly because though you may certainly avoid and escape the dominion and reigning power of sin by care and diligence watchfulness and holy activity still praying for depending upon and making use of the Grace of God yet if you be not thus employed however you may seem to your selves and others to have clean escaped those that live in error 2 Pet. 2.18 and to have escaped the pollutions that are in the world through lust the evil spirit will return and take with him seven other spirits worse than ever he was and will take possession of his swept and garnished old mansion and sin will again have dominion and reign over you To recite the whole Verse For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace Verse 14 Here the Apostle expresses the great reason why true Christians may be and are freed from the dominion of sin it is because they are not under the Law and seek not to be justified by the Law but under Grace Justification and Sanctification have one and the same Root Source and Foundation Jesus Christ is made of God unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 So the Apostle hath well confuted that Paralogism in the first Verse Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound by turning it into a Violentum He takes the Enemies Cannon and turns them upon themselves therefore you must not continue in sin because grace hath abounded and doth abound For sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are under grace I shall need here to say something to make it appear how the Dominion of Sin is destroyed by Grace and not by the Law though I know I shall have much more occasion several times to speak to this in the seventh Chapter which indeed cannot be made intelligible without the unfolding of this Mystery And first for the explication of it I shall give a parallel place it is Gal. 5.16 18. Verse 16. This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Verse 18. If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law The Apostle had before been exhorting them to love one another because Love was the fulfilling of the Law and tells them further in Verse 15. If they did bite and devour one another there was a great danger they would be consumed one of another Now for prevention hereof the Apostle adds Verse 16. This I say then walk in spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh that is that lust of envy and bitterness Verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Even in good Men there is a remainder of flesh as it is taken in an ill sence which hinders them from doing much of that good which they would fain do when they are more themselves But then the Apostle minds them of what he had said before in the sixteenth Verse as the Apostle loves to inculcate and repeat If you be led by the spirit or walk in the spirit which I take to be all one if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law Which I take to be all one with the other part of the sixteenth Verse Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh And accordingly he reckons up the lusts of the flesh which when brought into act are the works of the flesh In the next Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest c. But the parallel I seem to my self to find in these words of the Epistle to the Galatians compared with those in Romans 6.14 appears thus in Ep. to Gal. t is If ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the law or ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are consequent one upon another and therefore used as synonimous or equivalent Expressions and if so they fully answer the words that I am now upon Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace Now if not to be under the law and not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh be all one then to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are all one for Contrariorum contrariae sunt rationes and if to be under the law and to fulfil the lusts of the flesh are all one that is in the way of inferring one another as Posita causa ponitur effectus being under the law is the cause fulfilling the lusts of the flesh is the effect I say if these are all one or rather if they do mutuo se ponere tollere then the Apostle's is a good Argument in the Text before us Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace But I shall leave the Argument from a parallel which serves only to prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so it is that he that is under the Law as his way of justification will certainly fulfil the lusts of the flesh and that sin shall not have dominion over him that is not under the law and come to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the reason why it is so which evermore proves the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is so Now the reason why it is so that he that is under the law will always and cannot but fulfil the lusts of the flesh and that he that walks in the spirit is led by the spirit or under the conduct of grace and the promise for justification and sanctification will not and cannot whilst such yield himself a slave to his lusts and suffer sin to have dominion over him is this because a sinner as we are all sinners that is under the law and betakes himself to the law for justification and goes no farther is not well schooled under the law so as to betake himself to Christ and Grace for a righteousness as the law is only a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we may be justified by faith Gal. 3.24 he finds the law commands him to be holy persectly holy and threatens every sin with death and gives him no strength nor hope without perfect unerring obedience besides all the wrath that the law is charged with against him for his past sins And here the poor Man finding it his duty to abstain from all evil and do all that is good and having no strength and no hope but in the way of perfect unerring obedience besides the making amends and giving satisfaction for his past sins he grows sad and mad and desperate and falls to
Law of God But to what purpose was this small delight in the Law of God which had no influence upon Practice or the mortification of his Flesh for he plainly acknowledges that he saw another Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind Verse 23 The Law of his Mind was a Rule in his Conscience that he ought to do all good and to avoid and eschew all evil But the Question is Which Law prevails Why he tells us plainly and why should we not believe him And bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members The two Laws indeed did both war but the Law of Sin was the conqueror And of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought under bondage 2 Pet. 2.19 And then being captivated no wonder he crys out in the 24th Verse Verse 24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death or this Body of Death Now when the Law hath perfectly left him for dead in a spiritual sence a condemned Wretch strugling for life by the help of the Holy Law which yet could afford him no comfort nor help here we must imagine as I conceive that God in wonderful Mercy made a discovery of Christ and Grace to him the Law was his School-master to bring him to Christ Now Christ is precious to him as the only Saviour that was before utterly lost and undone in himself and as to all hopes from the Law Now I suppose this Verse is that which hath misled all those Interpreters and good Christians that mistook this Chapter as if St. Paul had spoken it of himself after conversion The Expression indeed is admirable and truly Evangelical but I take it as I said before as a new discovery made to him under his Bondage and Captivity under Sin by which he might attain unto true deliverance from the guilt and power of Sin I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 25 Not a word of Christ before in all this struggle and agony wherein the personation is made of one under Convictions and Condemnations and Irritations unto Sin accidentally from the Law till the Man is utterly undone and crys out for deliverance I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 25 So then with my mind I my self serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin This I take to be added in the close of this Chapter as the summa totalis or the Epitome of all the foregoing Discourse But yet even in it though there is one little word added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I my self because the Mind is indeed more principally a Man's self than his Flesh or Body is yet it is to me very insignificant to prove what Men would have for as long as the Law of the Members prevails against the Law of the Mind and brings the Man into captivity to the Law of Sin What is that Service of God with his Mind worth 'T is the predominant Party in the Man that denominates him spiritual or carnal and indeed he allows the Denomination quae sumitur a Majori in the fourteenth Verse I am carnal and I am a person sold under sin And so I dismiss the seventh Chapter and hasten out of this cold shivering Water as I called it above into the other hot Bath of the eighth Chapter which will more evidently and demonstratively clear the sence and importance of the seventh and was given us as I said above as another surety for the seventh that the seeming ill sence of that might have no evil influence upon us nor give any disparagement to our noble Gospel-Religion But I shall take along with me as Ariadnes thread that Expression which was put into the dying and otherwise despairing Man's mouth in the 23th Verse of the seventh Chapter when he had said gaspingly O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And from that Expression I take my rise to begin to explain the first Verse of the eighth Chapter ROMANS Chap. VIII THere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Verse 1 Now I see by this last discovery made to me when I was even giving up all for lost that to avoid condemnation which the Law inflicted and could not otherwise chuse but thunder out against a sinner we must all betake ourselves to Christ so the Illative therefore may well convert this eighth Chapter with that Expression in Verse 25. of the foregoing Chapter Therefore if you will flee from condemnation you must flee to Christ for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Why who are they that are in Christ Jesus It follows who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Ay they are the Men indeed and none but they free from condemnation The Man in the seventh Chapter was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the flesh Verse 5. and therefore was followed with condemnation but they that are in Christ Jesus walk after the Spirit their state is altered and therefore no wonder they are freed from their Desperations But the second Verse makes all clear For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus Verse 2 hath made me free from the law of sin and death There are several things very observable in this Verse 1. Here is the personation continued in the first person I and me hath set me free as much as to say I that before was a captive to Sin under the Law of Sin and Death am set free 2. Here is a quite different Law never before mentioned viz. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus 3. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sets the person free that was captive under the Law of Sin and Death Now let it be allowed Disputandi Causa that the word or person I all along the seventh Chapter was St. Paul yet sure they will not deny that me which is but the Accusative Case of I is St. Paul also Let all then depend upon this word And then it will plainly appear that Ego non sum Ego The I in the seventh Chapter though spoken of the same person is not spoken of the same person in the same state here In the seventh Chapter he is led into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death In this Chapter the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath set him free from the Law of Sin and Death Therefore the Man in the seventh Chapter that was led into captivity to the Law of Sin Verse 23. needed the Gospel which is here called the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus to set him at liberty from this Law of Sin Therefore he was before only a miserable Man under the convictions and condemnations of the Law and not converted which was the
having as I have above declared setled the Doctrin of Justification by Faith and ended the Discourse in tryumph at the end of the fifth Chapter and proceeded in the sixth Chapter to shew at large how Holiness and Sanctification also necessarily and effectually follows upon the hearty embracing the Doctrine of the Gospel thereby they are baptized into the Death of Christ and profess themselves dead to Sin and are actually set free from Sin and become the Servants of Righteousness and yield themselves unto God and their Members Instruments of Righteousness unto God Ver. 13 14. and have their Fruit unto Holiness Verse 22. He as in a Parenthesis in the seventh Chapter gives you a Parable of a Man endeavouring to be holy by the Law but is utterly defeated of his design and instead of attaining Holiness thereby loseth all his comfort and hope and is plung'd into a far worse condition as to Holiness than he was in before and being brought into a state of desperation thereby betakes himself to Christ then in the very nick of time revealed to him and by betaking himself to Christ is set at liberty from Condemnation and Desperation and also from the Law of Sin and Death which he acknowledged himself before to be led into captivity unto after a fierce Battel betwixt the Law of the Members and the Law of the Mind and so finds by blessed experience that he is one of them in whom the Righteousness of the Law is now fulfilled which Righteousness by the Law could never have been effected accomplished and fulfilled The Righteousness of the Law can never be fulfilled in any mortal Man but by the Grace of the Gospel received that is a Man can never become holy but by Faith Acts 15.9 Purifying their Hearts by Faith Gal. 5.6.6.15 Faith working by Love to the keeping the Commandments of God is the new Creature Compare those two places in Gal. Such Men as have this Faith they walk not after the Flesh any longer but after the Spirit For they that are after the flesh Verse 5 do mind the things of the flesh but they that This Particle for is a causal Particle and shews the Reason of the Assertion going before The Assertion before in the fourth Verse is this The righteousness of the law is or that it might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Now this is proved to be so because they that are after the Flesh do â—ind the things of the Flesh and they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Therefore they who are after the Spirit do truly attain unto the Holiness and Righteousness of the Law which is a Spiritual and an Holy Law because their whole Mind is set upon spiritual things or the things of the Spirit but for carnal Men or Men that are after the flesh their whole mind is upon fleshly or carnal things and accordingly as Mens minds are set if they have undertaken a feasible thing such will their attainments be They that are after the Flesh as all those are that are under the Law Rom. 7.5 When we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work do mind the things of the Flesh * Cogitant desiderant curant sapiunt they savour and relish and give their mind to nothing but †Carnalia bona mundana honores opes c. Corpores Voluptates vel opera Carnis ad quae Concupiscencia Carnalis inclinat ut peccata omnia fleshly things they cannot freely lift up their Heart to God and heavenly or spiritual things but true Saints of God that have received the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus have embraced Gospel-Principles with a Spirit of Faith and Love and so walk after the Spirit their mind is wholly or at least chiefly ser upon the things of the Spirit which I take in other words to signifie Matters of Religion And therefore since their minds are wholly set upon them no wonder they make great attainments in them so as to have the righteousness of the Law fulfilled in them For to be carnally minded is death Verse 6 but to be spiritually minded is life and peace For a Man to be carnally minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the carnal mind or carnal mindedness or to be wholly set upon carnal things is a stare of Spiritual Death and will end if continued in in Eternal Death There can be no life in Religion where the mind is carnal and his tendency is altogether towards and his relish is only of carnal things But to be spiritually minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole tendency of a Man indued with the Spirit and that hath heartily embraced Gospel-Principles is towards heavenly life and living unto God and as he hath a lively activity for God so his comforts accordingly grow upon him to be spiritually minded is not only full of life and activity for God but full of peace and comfort ordinarily Great peace have they that keep thy law and nothing shall offend them Psalm 119.165 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God Verse 7 neither indeed can be It is no wonder that the carnal mind should have no activity for God and so consequently no peace whilest it is enmity against God yea neither is subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Why what is this carnal mind Here I must make a grand Enquiry that we may find out if it so please God what this carnal mind is for if we know not the Subject spoken of we can never well understand what that is which is predicated or affirmed and asserted of it at least not the manner how it is affirmed of it For non entis nulla sunt attributa and non esse non apparere idem est What then is meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but an accident or attrioute We may know what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is best by knowing what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Now in Verse 27 of this Chapter it is said God that searcheth the Hearts knoweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is the Mind of the Spirit when it maketh Intercessions for us within us and doubtless there the meaning is what the Spirit would have So here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is what the Flesh would have the relish savour or tendency of the Flesh What is this that is here called Flesh which hath in it such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a tendency such a relish such a savour as neither is nor can be subject to the Law of God Till this Question be well answered till this Enquiry be prudently and satisfactorily made I despair of ever giving a right Paraphrase or Interpretation of this Verse or any of the like nature Caro saith Vorstius
raised Christ's dead body out of the Grave and if ye be guided by that animated and quickned by that live a pious and holy life there is no doubt but God will raise your mortal Bodies out of the Graves also by the power of the same Spirit that raised Christ's As for Pole's Synopsis I have read over all that he saith upon these Verses and you see what I have gotten out of him from Piscator Calvin Estius and others towards my sence and as he hath all the sences of divers Authors so in it you have this of Dr. Hammond Now for Marlorat I find the same Quotation out of Calvin that Pole hath upon these words Vivificabit Mortalia Corpora vestra He shall also quicken your mortal Bodies Mortalia Corpora vocat quiequid adbuc restat in nobis Morti obuoxium ut mos est illi usitatus crassiorem nostri partem hoc nomine appellare ut jam saepe dictum est Vnde colligimus non de ultima Resurrectione quae momento fiet haberi Sermonem sed de continua Spiritus operatione qua reliquias Carnis paulatim mortificans coelestem Vitam in nobis instaurat In English thus St. Paul calls that our mortal Bodies whatsoever yet remains in us liable to death as it is an usual Custom with him to call our grosser part by that name as I have often already said Whence we gather that he doth not here speak of the last Resurrection which shall be done in a moment by the Spirit of Christ and of God but of the continual Operation of the Spirit in us whereby mortifying by little and little the relicks and remainders of the Flesh he doth renew and establish an heavenly Life in us And so I have done with the 10 11 12 13 Verses For as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God Verse 14 I am now past the discourse of Sanctification by Faith as brought about by Gospel-Principles and impossible to be effected by the Law or attained unto by a legal Spirit or frame of Heart and I come to some other high Priviledges which a Man Sanctified attains unto The first is he is led by the spirit of God and so secondly is one of the Sons of God I shall hasten now with as much brevity as I can to the end of this Chapter And such a one is not only a Son but is in a very fair way to understand and to have the boldness of a Son in the presence of God For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again to fear Verse 15 This Expression seems to have an eye and respect to the Old-Testament Dispensation we in the Dispensation of the Gospel have not received the Spirit of Bondage again as they did under the Law who though they were truly and really under the Covenant of Grace yet their Dispensation looked much like Law and accordingly their Spirits were low and legal and they were more like Servants than Sons as you have it professedly and at large discoursed in Gal. 4.1 2 3. to the end of the 7th Verse Verse 15 And Gal. 3.22 23 24. Ye have received the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father Ye Romans have received the Spirit by which same Spirit we Christians of all Nations cry Abba Father for the Saints drink all into one Spirit according to that Article of our Creed the Communion of Saints The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits Verse 16 That we are the Children of God There are two Spirits spoken of in one Verse the Spirit itself that is the Spirit of God bâ—areth witness with our Spirits that is with our Consciences being enlightned by the Spirit of God and renewed thereby and restored to its empire over the Flesh by which renovation we are made the Children of God that we are the Children of God First we must be the Children of God and then the Spirit of God can and will bear witness to this Truth that so it is unless our Consciences can bear this Testimony the Spirit will not cannot bear such a Testimony because it is a Spirit of Truth And if children Verse 17 then heirs See how the Priviledge rises all Children among Men are not Heirs but all God's Children are Heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs or Co-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together See what little reason we have to be asraid of Suffering if we suffer for a good Cause and with a good Conscience Phil. 1.29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer for his name It is an additional Gift to that of Faith to suffer for the Name of Christ to bear the Cross is the way to the Crown but we are apt to have dastardly and cowardly Thoughts and Spirits St. Paul was quite of another mind as he shews in the next Verse For I reckon Verse 18 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us This is the third Priviledge that a Sanctified Man hath viz. Courage in the midst of all sorts of suffering for Christ and that upon this account namely the inconceiveable Glory which he is to receive which will be so great when it comes that the whole groaning World waits with earnest expectation to see the blessed Time when the Saints shall receive this Glory and what Comfort should the Saints themselves then take in the Expectation of it and what Patience should they excercise in the mean time For the earnest expectation of the creature Verse 19 waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God this with the 20 21 22 I shall not meddle with as containing no doubt a great Mystery which good and learned Men are divided about and which I confess I do not understand but thus much is evident that there is a wonderfull Glory to come for the Saints and that this life is a suffering life but so ordered for the Saints that they have great cause of Patience nay Joy and Glorying in all their Tribulations seeing the whole suffering and groaning World is contented under their sufferings meerly with the Expectation they have and Participation that they shall have of the Saints Glory for it is said Verse 21. That the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God This is a groaning time There are three sorts of Groans 1st That of the whole Creation 2dly That of the Saints Verse 23. 3dly The Spirit of God also maketh Intercession for us with Groanings which cannot be uttered The First sort of Groans I have passed over with a Confession of my Ignorance only that we see the sad effects of sin in which the brute Creatures suffer The Second sort of Groans we may and ought to understand And
not only they Verse 23 that is the brute Creatures the Gentiles saith Dr. Hammand but ourselves also which have the first-fruits of the spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies I shall not pretend here to give an Account of every particular word but shall content myself with the general fence as hastning to the end of the Chapter only observing the Temper and good Qualities of the sanctified Man till he comes to the top of his Attainments And here I find a 4th Priviledge or excellent Quality of this person that waâ—keth not after the Flesh but after the Spirit which is this Though he bear the heaviest Afflictions as light and thinketh them not worthy to he compared with the Glory to come yet he groans mightily within himself not for the pressure of the Afflictions but for the presence of that which he longs * Gemimus propter faturum quod deest after He hath received the First-fruits in earnest but longs after and groans for that of which he hath received the earnest waiting for the adoption viz. The redemption of our bodies This Scripture seems to be much of the same import with 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burthened not for that we would be uncloathed they do not desire to die to be freed of the burthen of affliction but that they might be cloathed upon with their house from heaven that mortality might be swallowed up of life So here they did groan waiting for the Adoption viz. The Redemption of our Body Corporis nostri id est Corporum nostrorum a corruptione mortalitate concupiscentia aliisque vitae miseriis quae in resurrectione demum nobis continget adoptionem expectantes id est redemptionem vel liberationem Appositio redemptionis filiationem declarat Adoptio hic metonymice sumitur vel pro patefactione adoptionis vel pro adoptionis fruitione Adoptio ergo sicut redemptio hic intelligitur quoad effectum qui in resurrectione perfectus erit c. Vide Polum By Adoption and Redemption is here meant the declaring our Adoption and Redemption and the full enjoyment of both and this all Saints when themselves do groan after For it is certainly an essential part of the new Creature to have at times if not frequently a desire to be dissolved that they may be with Christ for seeing God hath made that their happiness and they have made it their own choice when they act like themselves they must needs with St. Paul have a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ and the only reason of a Saint's desiring to live here should be that he may glorifie God for by Faith he hath made a discovery of a far better state than that of this Life can be and this he must needs desire far more than to live here or he is absurd For we are saved by hope All the salvation that we have here excepting the First-fruits Verse 24 spoken of before called the First-fruits of the Spirit is a salvation of hope which the prophane wretches of the World have gotten into an Oath with which they bind that they would have you to believe As I hope to be saved say they True Saints hope to be saved And this is the chief salvation they are possessed of For hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Verse 24 But if we hope for what we see not then do we with patience wait for it Verse 25 Though we groan as longing for our hope yet we groan not as impatient of our burthen but with patience wait Likewise also the spirit helpeth our infirmities Verse 26 for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit Verse 27 because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God This I take to be a fifth Priviledge of the sanctified person that walks not after the Flesh but after the Spirit That he hath the Spirit of God helping his infirmities and teaching him to pray both for what he ought and as he ought for these are both specified in the 26th Verse For we know not what to pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with unexpressible groans groans of that force urgency and fervency which cannot be expressed that is what the force of them is All true Saints have the Spirit of Grace and Supplication they are enabled some way to pray for what they ought and as they ought and they have Groans that follow their Petitions that have a meaning in them that God only knows no Man can conceive of the workings of their Hearts and Affections so as God the searcher of the Heart understands them For thither it is ultimately reserred by the Apostle He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have spoken somewhat to that Phrase in the 5th 6th and 7th Verses of this Chapter Whether it be the Mind of our Spirit in its groanings which comes not forth into words or rather what is the Mind of his own Spirit because it maketh Intercessions for the Saints according to the Will of God The Mind and Meaning of the Spirit answers to the Will of God and therefore is so acceptable to him But whose shall be the Groaning Will any one ascribe these to the Spirit as groaning I question the Divinity of such an Ascription Therefore the Groanings are made in the Saints and actually exerted or groaned by the Saints only guided and effected by the Spirit it self dwelling in them If so then the Intercession that is made for us with these Groanings is not only made for us in Heaven but in us on Earth therefore we are taught what to pray for and how to pray by the Spirit which makes these Intercessions for us within us of which God who searcheth the Hearts judgeth according to what of the Spirit is in them I cannot here descend to speak to the Controversie of Praying by Forms or without Forms I think we may pray in the Holy Ghost as the Phrase is Ephes 6.18 with a Form and I question not at all but many good Ministers and private Christians pray in the Holy Ghost without a Form And that is all I have to say at present Only both ways you see that the sanctified person in this Chapter hath this fifth Priviledge to be assisted by the Holy Ghost in offering his Prayers and Supplications to God he doth not only groan within himself for the glory to come for the hope which yet he doth not see but the Spirit it self helpeth him in his Groanings and to his groanings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
conclude that not only all these things mentioned but all other things whatsoever do work together for good to them that love God The whole Creation groans for their Deliverance they Groan within themselves for their glorious State and the Spirit helps them in their Groanings and to further Groanings in Prayer beyond all Words and Expressions even to meanings which God knows and God alone and they shall all be answered in full Returns not a Sigh or a Groan lost sent out from them that love God from them that are effectually called according to his purpose For I question not but all things are done according to purpose which lies hid as I may humbly say in the breast of God According to the purpose of Eternal Ages as the Phrase is Eph. 3.11 Which he made or purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then it follows as it were occasionally from this Expression called according to his purpose Ver. 29. For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son Verse 29 that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whem he called Verse 30 them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified The Purpose of God is so strongly made that it goes thorough and thorough with the whole train of Successive glorious Effects and this demonstrates a Wonderful Co-operation for good to those that love God to those that are called according to his Purpose Onely I must here honestly offer my Apprehensions in this most profound-Matter for I would deal honestly with all the World and especially with the Church of God And my chief Observation upon this Golden Chain as it is well called is this That the first Link of the Chain which is fastened to the Mercy-seat and all the World can never loose it thence is fore-knowledge whom he did fore-know which I humbly conceive is meant of God's fore-sight * Quos praescivit nempe tales per ductum Gratiae suae consensum liberae Voluntatis futuros bene victuros vel Gratiae oblatae assensuros vel credituros in fide perseveraturos Sic exponunt Chrysost Theodoret. Hieronymus c. Pole in loc The English is this Whom he did fore-know viz. that they would be such through the conduct of Grace and the consent of their own Free-will as would live well assent to Grace offered would believe and persevere in Faith what Men would do placed under such and such circumstances and thereupon did predestinate call justifie and glorifie in his eternal and irrefragable Purpose And so I dismiss the great Subject of these two Verses only I shall remark upon the 29th Verse Whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born amongst many brethren That though Men have a true liberty of will in their choice of and adhering unto Christ yet God did not leave the whole issue and success of things to the liberty of Men but fore-seeing what Men would do purposed and decreed to do more for them infinitely than they could themselves do in carrying on the work of Grace in them so that Christ should not be an Head without a Body and a First-born without Brethren but the First-born amongst many Brethren And this fore-knowledge of God what Men would do in believing and returning to God is as easie for us to conceive of as it is how God should foresee that Adam would certainly fall when it was in his power to have stood and yet this certain fore-knowledge of God must be allowed in a matter perfectly free for ought that we know or else the purpose of sending Christ as a Saviour which was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could never have been made by the All-wise Jehovah What shall we say then Verse 31 if God be for us who can be against us As much as to say The whole matter of our salvation is a certain well-laid inexpugnable thing if we are but once brought over to God if we are once well convinced of sin by the Law and see our need of Christ if Christ become precious to us and our only deliverer if we are by him freed from the Curse and Condemnation of the Law and have the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus setting us free from the Law of Sin and Death if we have the impossible thing of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrought in us that is if we are enabled to walk after the Spirit and no longer after the Flesh if we have been taught to mortifie the Deeds of the Body and so come to be led by the Spirit to call God Father by a Spirit of Adoption are content to suffer with Christ to long for his presence and groan after it we need not question but all things shall work together for our good we shall find ourselves effectually called and therefore elected Make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 We have no other way to know our Election but by our Calling and then and not till then can we take comfort in the Doctrine of Election namely when we may have ground to hope that the golden Chain hath fastened upon us and if so what can harm us if God be for us who can be against us unless they can be too hard for God Now from hence the Apostle runs on with a clear and triumphant Argumentation Verse 32. He that spared not his own Son Verse 32 but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things This is the clearest Argument in the World we have no reason to doubt of the good will of God for our final salvation and therefore present happiness for he that gives us the greatest gift he could give will never deny us the small matters of the World if they be good for us This Argument is like that of our Saviour's He that gave us Life will give us Food he that gave us Body will give us Rayment a majori ad minus Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect It is God that justifies Verse 33 And if we be interested in election by effectual calling who shall lay any thing to our charge in judgment when he that is to be our judge and whose approbation alone justifies will justifie us Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died and so took off our condemnation Verse 34 by suffering the penalty of out sin and he that died is not dead yea rather that is risen again who is ever at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us The Spirit in us and for us here on Earth and Christ for us in Heaven What abundant Consolation is here He that died for us on Earth to free us from Death and Hell is ascended to Heaven and there maketh intercession for us
who answered the Law and that they must change their old Husband and Master and get their Mind quiet and at rest only by believing in him loving him going to him for strength to fulfil the Law that the Righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in them walking not after the Flesh but-after the Spirit These alery unconcerned speculative Gentlemen have a great work to do which they are not aware of for I dare boldly advance this Proposition though amongst Divines it is no bold Assertion but amongst Gentlemen it may be thought so That whosoever under the clear preaching of the Gospel as now it is in our Land doth not esteem Jesus Christ more precious than his Life and all his Worldly Interests yea of greater benefit to him by his Death and Intercession than all his Moral Excellencies shall be condemned at last to Hell for slighting the Gift of God in giving his Son to be the only Saviour Such persons may be excellent Commonwealths Men good Subjects to any Soveraign good that is in some sence good Friends and Neighbours but they will be never admitted for Saints into the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore let them look to themselves in time As for these mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me saith our Saviour in the Parable meaning it of himself Luke 19.27 By way of Address to the Philosophers of the Age which are not a few and withal as penetrating Use IV profound and comprehensive as perhaps any Age in the World ever saw the learned Ages of Athens Chaldea and Egypt not excepted You take great delight in the search of Wisdom and indeed it is worthy of Men so to do far more worthy than to heap up Riches or to enlarge Empire and Dominion though by fair means yet I am much of Socrates's mind of whom I have several times read that he was chiefly for Moral Philosophy how a Man should guide his Actions and his Thoughts Now in my mind this discourse of the Apostle concerning the advance of true Holiness which I verily believe the honest Philosophers aimed at under the name of Virtue is as acute and profound as practical and experimental as any Discourse that ever was framed by Man and it hath this advantage of all other Philosophical Discourses That though as I humbly conceive it was managed really with the Apostle's Reason and with his humane Understanding yet was his Pen guided all along by the holy Spirit and the three conjoyned Chapters of 6 7 and 8 to the Romans is a Compleat System of Moral Philosophy By Moral all the Learned as I take it understand that which concerns Manners and is of perpetual and everlasting Obligation As the Moral Law is opposed to the Ceremonial and Judicial as being but positive and temporary and whereas I call it Philosophy we know that the first Word or Name for that which we now call Philosophy was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 2.6 7. the Wisdom of God in a Mistery even the hidden Wisdom We speak Wisdom saith the Apostle amongst those that are perfect that is Men of any strength and growth in Religion And I humbly conceive this was the meaning of the Apostle We speak that which hath a good consonancy and harmony and agreement in itself with all the true reason of a Man And indeed though I have been formerly when I was a Child in Years and a very Novice in Knowledge though now I do not pretend to any great strength yet perhaps through the Grace of God I may know a little but though when I was a meer beginner I was affrightned by many from using Reason in Religion yet for more than Thirty Years I have made bold in my small reading and Speculation to use my Reason which I do heartily acknowledge to be very small And though I am not of the Socinian Principle as it is generally said of them that 't is theirs that we are not to believe any thing that our Reason cannot comprehend yet I am not for believing any thing but what we have reason o believe But then I think it reason enough to believe any thing to be true if I have reason to believe that it is revealed by God And I think it is the greatest honour we can do to God to use our utmost reason in understanding what he hath revealed and as far as we may to endeavour to perceive the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reason of things revealed but to acquieâ—ce in the 〈◊〉 or that it is so if we can see no further and to bless God for it and to practise universally according to our Information Now as I conceive in this Subject which I have treated of and offer to your Consideration as Philosophers you have the whole of Moral Philosophy or rather Theosophy set forth in the most comprehensive Generals you have the End which we ought to aim at compleat Happiness hereafter and a wonderful Foretast of it in this Life The means of attaining it is vertuous or holy practice now the means again of attaining to this ability of vertuous Practice the Stoickssay is the cutting off or mortifying the passions or affections which some have truly said is the cutting off the legs or wings which we should go or fly upon and turning a Man into a Stock the Peripateticks say with more reason the moderating of the passions is the better way But alas all the Question lyes here How shall we come to moderate the passions The Apostle tells you with a great deal of truth That if you go to the Law which is the Rule of Duty to all the World and try to get any affection mortified saith the Stoick regulated saith the Peripatetick it will enrage all your evil inclinations and make them more rampant and mad than ever they were before You might remain alive and be pretty quiet and have a good Opinion of yourself and obtain a good esteem with others if you would not come too near the unalterable Rule of Holiness and true Virtue but if once you come strictly near that and compare yourself with it and observe your aberrations from it and then try to reform by it that you may answer the Pattern of it you shall only still find that it will convince you and condemn you and at last make you weary and make you mad and fill you with despair You may chance find the Cittadel of Conscience and the mind hold out for the Law and for God that is in its bare Vote but the City and Country round the Affections and Body every limb and every faculty shall revolt and desert and do what they please and yield no obedience you shall find at length no more conformity to the Rule than the raging which Medea had by her Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor She
flies from one Country to another with her Familiars and Enchantments and exerciseth such mad passions as I confess I cannot bear the Description of in reading them without a great discomposure of thoughts And where is then the Stoick or Peripatetick with their two distinct wayes But now when we come to Christ who hath satisfied the Law and leave our old Schoolmaster our old Husband as being dead in all its Condemnation by the Body of Christ crucified and do not so much as pretend to exact Obedience to the Law but yet honestly endeavour to give all due Conformity to its Precepts yet without the fear of being cast into Hell for every Failure serve Christ and God in him as an honest Son serveth his Father or an honest Servant his Master allowing ourselves no idle haunts no extravagant ouâ—lets of any kind enjoy the good things of this Life as other Men do but in moderation do the work of our Callings Trades Occupations Studies but without carking cares as being assured that if we be diligent God will provide and will let us want for nothing Here all is quiet we have or may and ought to have a sweet Calm nothing disturbs us If we walk according to this Rule To do all to the Glory of God and in dependance upon him giving Thanks for so great a Saviour peace shall be upon us as upon the whole Israel of God If we are guilty of Negligence we must presently go to God by Prayer confess our sins charge ourselves honestly severely bitterly according to the neglect but we must not despond but endeavour to double our Diligence and Watchfulness In this way God hath the true Glory of an hearty Obedience the Law of God is no whit dishonoured for we bid not the least defiance deny no Duty of Conformity to it but we are free from the danger of its Condemnation being secured by a Surety and Advocate Thus the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And whilst we remain faithful to our God in this way of fincere constant uniform Obedience we have free Access to God as a Father If we presume to Sin wickedly against our God we must expect to be dealt with as Deserters and Apostates and though even some of those may possibly be renewed again unto and by repentance yet it is an evil and bitter state indeed and God alone knows when they shall recover their boldness and liberty of Access to God by a Spirit of Adoption And in this plain Account I hope is contained the true Moral Philosophy or rather Theosophy which we need all to learn and practise by And here I hope I may with very good pretence make an humble Address to the Reverend Heads of Colleges and learned Tutors in the Universities which I would do with the most submiss Deference to intreat them That in preparing Instructers of the People for the next Generation they would teach them the Truth as it is in Jesus and I would bespeak them in the words of the Apostle Paul Ephes 4.20 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Apostle is speaking of the evil state and conversation of the Gentiles But ye have not so learned Christ By learning Christ I doubt not is meant their learning the Doctrine of and concerning Christ as Scholars and Students learn Authors and study Philosophers Ver. 21. If so be that ye have heard him The Ephesians never heard Christ in person but they heard him preached And been taught by him or in him How could they be taught by Christ Only by his Word and by his Spirit And what were they taught by him The Answer follows As the truth is in Jesus This is the greatest thing that you Scholars are to learn and you are to teach I say not that it is the only thing But this is the true Philosophy without which all that they can learn is perfect folly Rom. 1.22 speaking professedly of the Philosophers I do not pretend to teach you but only humbly to mind you of that which you cannot but know I humbly beg you for God's sake for the Honour of our Lord Jesus and for the Interest of so many Souls as all Yourselves and present Pupils may be concerned with and for in Preaching and in the Press that you make a most accurate distinction betwixt Law and Gospel that Moses may not sit in our Saviour's Seat You see how the Law-Preachers among the Galatians blended the Law and Gospel together and thereby transferred their Auditors from him that had called them unto the Grace of Christ or in the Grace of Christ to another Gospel Gal. 1.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is not another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diversum non aliud There was but one Gospel and could be but one yet this might be so diversified by legal mixtures as to be called another Gospel And. I shall give no further proof of this at present than the foregoing Discourse which I have thought necessary or at least convenient to make in which I hope I have made it appear That the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is not to be understood of St. Paul as in his regenerate Estate but as under legal Convictions or rather of a third person personated in the first which is so far from being rightly understood that perhaps the greater half of Divines understand it of St. Paul himself So subtile an evil is that of Legality or seeking to be justified by the Law that it cannot easily be understood in the clearest Gospel-light But Qui bene distinguit bene docet and if any Monopoly be fit to be claimed by an Academy I humbly conceive it is that of Distinctions Your Students are taught learned and polite Ethicks but if they be not taught how to avoid the Condemning Power of the Law by the Grace of the Gospel the Law will condemn them If they be not well warned of the enraging irritating force of the Law occasionally upon all their Lusts when they seek to be reformed by it alone that which was ordained unto Life will be found Death unto them and Sin taking occasion from the Commandment will work in them all manner of Concupiscence and Sin that it may appear Sin working Death in them by that which is good will by the Commandment become out of measure sinful Rom. 7.10.8.13 Here I have a very fair and just occasion to speak to those that I doubt will have little mind to hear or read what they should Use VI but if any such chance to read this Paper let them consider it If those that endeavour in some seriousness and earnest to reform themselves by the Law yet for want of understanding the Grace of Christ cannot attain unto true Holiness and Peace What Peace what Comfort belongs to those that heed not either the Precepts of
Ephes 6.10 11 12. And for this end you have a Suit of Spiritual Armour the Armour of God on the Right-hand and on the left from Head to Foot and ye shall be made more than Conquerors through him that hath loved you to the Death of the Cross Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce Read the eighth Chapter to the Romans and take Courage and Everlasting Consolation All things are made sure for your good and interest Be but faithful to God and never fear his Grace to you Sing your Triumphant Songs the Song of Moses and the Lamb both Law and Gospel shall comfort you If God be for us who can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things We are the circumcision that worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Phil. 3.3 I will lead you to one rich Walk where you may expatiate and deliciate your holy Souls For I speak here to none but those that are sanctified and effectually called It is Gal. 3.1 2 3 to the 7th inclusive Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father even so we when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world but when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons Under the times and dispensations of the Old Testament till the coming of Christ in the flesh the People of God even the true Saints of God were like Children though great Heirs kept at School bred up at a distance from their Father's House in a state of darkness fear and bondage knew little of their Priviledges and Inheritance tho' they were saved by Faith and had the Gospel preached to them in an obscure way yet it lookt all like Law till Christ the Eternal Son of God was made of a Woman and made under the Law they also were as it were under the Law But now in the days of the Gospel especially since the Ascension of Christ and his Mission of the Spirit the Dispensation is quite altered and they are like Heirs called home to the possession of their Inheritance to live like those that are Lords of all Now they are endued with a Spirit of Adoption by which they come to know themselves Sons and Daughters unto God Almighty Verse 6. And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Abba Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek for Father That is Father in all Languages to Saints of all Nations Verse 8. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ. In the days of the Gospel heavenly things are brought down to us in the greatest plainness so that a truly holy Soul may converse and treat with them with great freedom Ephes 2.5 6. In two Verses you have three of the greatest Priviledges expressed that the mind of Man can possibly conceive We are said there to be quickned together with Christ to be raised up together and made sit together in heavenly places with him Can there be a nearer approach of an Heir to his heavenly Inheritance Col. 2.20 If therefore ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances Col. 3.1 If ye be therefore risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right-hand of God Verse 3. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God We must live as those that live in Heaven with Christ Phil. 3.20 For our conversation is in heaven 1 Cor. 3.3 Are ye not carnal and walk as men Saints should not live like other Men no not like Men You are Sons and Heirs and have liberty to call God Father Our Lord hath taught us to begin our Prayers to God with this rich and high Appellation of Our Father Endeavour therefore but to live like Children of God and you may with holy boldness call God Father and if you can look up to God as your Father you highly dishonour him and disparage yourselves to doubt or fear of what may betide you from Men or Devils all your life long Therefore I say it to all the Saints of God and I humbly beg of God that I may ever attend the Exhortation Endeavour to walk worthy of God unto all pleasing keep your Watch strictly over your Hearts and Ways and go on your Way rejoycing through Thick and Thin through Fire and Water through Troops and Armies of Men and Devils the World is conquered for you Devils and Principalities are triumphed over your own innate and inbred Lusts shall not be too strong for you if you still by the Spirit faithfully endeavour to mortifie the Deeds of the Body Heaven stands open to you Mansions are prepared Angels are ready for your safe Convoy Die you must but Death hath lost its Sting and there is no greater Friend than Death itself next to a Holy Life for Death is also Yours and that is the Porter that lets you into your Resting-place The Law cannot condemn you and the Gospel will save you AN APPENDIX THat the assertion of the Apostle in Rom. 7.9 When the commandment came sin reviv'd and I died is plainly meant of the Moral Law I shall now endeavour to make appear For this I reckon there are several proofs in this 7th Chapter to the Romans First if we consider to whom this Epistle was written it was to the Romans who were certainly as much Gentiles as Jews and more Rom. 11.13 The Apostle tells them I speak to you Gentiles forasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles I magnifie mine office Now to these he saith Rom. 7.4 Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him that is raised from the dead c. How could they become dead to the Law that were never alive to it or to whom the Law was never alive For the Law was never alive to them except the Moral Law written in the Heart They were never under the Ceremonial Law but under the Moral Law they were born Rom. 2.14 For the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves Verse 15. Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts c. The Ceremonial Law was not written in the Heart of Man Therefore here by Law viz. in the
doing good Actions therefore the other part of the Antithesis must speak of doing ill Actions by bringing forth Fruit unto Death for Contrariorum Contrariae sunt Rationes Again Verse 8. Sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence 't is one thing to work it and another to discover it so it follows for without the law sin is dead that is or seems to be dead as to energy not as to discovery or being made to appear or becoming alive in its guilt only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But let this 8th Verse and the 9th and 10th following be taken in this sence For making the guilt of sin to revive Yet what shall we say to the 11th Verse For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me First this Phrase taking occasion by the commandment Arrepta occasione inflammandi per legen vetantem concupiscentiam Vatablus in Pol. Versu 8vo Multi interpretes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exponunt occasionem putantque idem dici quod vulgari proverbio intimur in Vetitum Grotius in Pol. So that this taking occasion by the Commandment is by these Interpreters understood of taking an advantage towards new Commissions 2. Again Deceived me How can sin that is indwelling sin or sinful Inclinations be said to deceive but as it had a kind of malicious Design by a Prosopopaeia here to draw the sinning person farther into actual Commissions by which also it slew him not only by charging the Guilts that had past for that is the work of the Law to kill that way by way of charge and not the work of sin or sinful Inclination called Concupiscence sin doth not charge home sin upon the Conscience but Concupiscence here called sin promotes further Commisions seduxit me i. e. in suas partes me dolose traxit ab errare me fecit longius me abduxit a via justitiae ad peccandum me pellexit c. Menochius Estius Beza in Pol. But methinks the 13 Verse plainly makes it appear that sin takes a great advantage towards strengthening and promoting itself in the Sinner or sinful Person by the Law according to the Prosipopaea wherein the Apostle makes sin an Agent and as it were a Person Was that then which is good that is the Law made death to me God forbid But sin that it might appear sin and shew itself in its Colours working death in me by that which is good that sin itself by the commandment might become out of measure sinful I would fain know what tolerable sence can be made of these words but that they must afford a plain proof of what I have been contending for 'T is true 't is sence to say that sin by the Commandment appears to be sin because it is forbidden by the Commandment and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 3.4 Every sin is a transgression of the law And it is sence to say that sin brings us to death by that which is good that is the Law forbidding it but how will this plain honest sence bear all the heighth and heat and smartness of the Apostle's arguing in this Verse But sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good that sin by the commandment might become out of measure sinful Sin appears to be sin by the Commandment but how doth it appear out of measure sinful How doth this But come in But sin that it might appear sin namely for this Reason for that it works death in me by that which is good I say how doth this But come in 'T will not bear a Discretive to say only that the Law threatens with Death a Man that doth such and such things and he sinning or transgressing falls under this penalty this is no wonder at all How doth sin appear out of measure sinful by this How doth sin shew such extraordinary Venome in this That it lays a Man under the penalty of the plain Law But now if sin that is indwelling-sin or Concupiscence hath such a mischevious devilish nature in it that it doth not only lay us under the penalty of Death but will therefore sin because sin is forbidden and will therefore break the Law because it forbids sin and take its very rise and occasion to all manner of Wickedness and work in us all manner of Concupiscence from that which is holy just and good this shews sin and that by the Commandment to be a thing out of measure sinful this sets forth sin in its true Colours and shews it to be sin indeed a thing that cannot be decyphered by any worse Name than it hath already Sin that it might appear sin c. and out of measure sinful FINIS BOOKS Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhil THE Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ c. By William Bates D. D. The Changeableness of this World with respect to Nations Families and particular Persons With a practical Application thereof to the various Conditions of this Mortal Life By Timothy Rogers M. A. A Mirror for Atheists being some Passages of the Life and Death of the Right Honourable John Earl of Rochester written by his own Direction on his Death-bed By Gilbert Burnet Lord Bishop of Sarum An End of Doctrinal Controversies which have lately troubled the Churches By Richard Baxter The Certainty of the Worlds of Spirits fully evinced by unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts Voices c. proving the Immortality of Souls By Richard Baxter The Protestant Religion truly stated and justified By the late Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter prepared some time before his Death Whereunto is added some Account of the learned Author By Mr. Daniel William and Mr. Matthew Sylvester The Christian's Converse with God or the Insufficiency of Humane Friendship and the Improvements of Solitude in Converse with God with some of the Author's Breathings after him By Richard Baxter Recommended to the Reader 's serious Thoughts when at the House of Mourning and in Retirement By Mr. Matthew Sylvester The Mourner's Memorial in two Sermons on the Death of the truly pious Mrs. Susanna Soame With some account of her Life and Death By Timothy Wright and Robert Fleming The whole Works of Isaac Ambrose Fol.