So that briefly in statu confectionis Adamus acceperit posse si vellet he received a power to be if he would sed non habuit velle quod posset but he had not power given him to will that he might be Which first power having willingly cast away man now can challenge no more but what God will give for God owes no Creature any thing If he gives it is of his free grace if he withholds he doth no man wrong In the second state in man fallen born of corrupt parents and yet not regenerate Although man hath lost that first grace of liberty to be if he will yet the will doth work freely but it is carried to evil only and can doe nothing else but sinne And the reason is because the privation of the knowledge of God in the understanding ensued on the fall together with the want of inclination in the heart and will to obedience Instead where of blindnesse and aversenesse from God succeeded the which man cannot shake off unlesse he be regenerate Briefly it is the fitnesse and pronenesse in man after his fall being unregenerate to chuse only evill Of this blindnesse and corruption of mans nature after the fall it is said All the thoughts of man are evill c. Gen. 6.5 and can the Ethiopian change his skin Jer. 13.23 And a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.28 and dead in sinnet by nature the sonnes of wrath Ephes 2.1.3 and we are not able of our selves to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 With these testimonies concurreth every mans experience and the weary conscience which proclaimeth that we have no liberty or pronenesse of will to doe that which is good but too great freedome and readinesse to practise evil unlesse we be regenerate as it is said Jer. 31.18 Convert thou me and I shall be converted c. Wherefore there is no love of God in us by nature and therefore we have by nature no readinesse to obey God From whence it comes to passe that the enmity between God and man is not in God but in man who will not now rank himself in the roome of a subject and yield to the Lord the place of a Commander There is only now this question between God and man Whose will should be done The Lord craves that man should subject his will to Gods will But man aspires to make his own will the rule of his actions and in this miserable state lives every man not renewed by grace he sets up within himself a will contrary to Gods most holy will And this is the fruit of Adams apostasy for in his Creation he had a perfect conformity to the law or will of God and had power to yield exact obedience to the same But now onely a readinesse to doe evill But no power of it selfe to doe good Thirdly in the third state Take a man as he is renewed we deny against all our adversaries that our will is a co-worker with grace by the force of nature But we say it worketh by grace with grace We deny that grace doth enable the will of it self to doe good works if it please But we say that grace worketh in the will to please and to doe such offices as God requires at our hands God doth not hang his work upon the suspended If of our will but he worketh in us to will and causeth us to doe the things that he commandeth to doe as in Ezekiel 36.27 I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and doe them We will indeed saith Augustine but God worketh in us to will we work but God worketh in us to work we walk but God worketh in us to walk we keep his commandements but God worketh in us to keep them according to that in the Philippians 2.13 It is God that worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure So that in this estate the cause for which the will beginneth to work well is this Because by the singular grace or benefit of the holy Spirit mans nature is renewed by the word of God there is kindled in the mind a new light and knowledge of God in the heart new affections in the will new inclinations agreeing with the law of God And the will effectually moved to doe according to these inclinations and so it recovereth both that power of willing that which God approveth and the use of that power and beginneth to be conformed and agreeable to God and to obey him Deut. 30.6 The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed c. and Ezekiel 36.26 a new heart will I give you c. and 16. Actâ— 14. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia and 1 Cor. 3.7 Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty And yet notwithstanding we must know first in this life the renewing of our nature is not perfect neither as concerning out knowledge of God neither as concerning our inclination to obey God And therefore in the best of men while they live here doe remaine sinnes both originall and others And Secondly that the regenerate be not alwayes ruled by the holy Spirit but are sometimes forsaken of God God withdrawing himself for a season either to try them that is to make their weaknesse without God known to themselves as in Peter or to chastise or humble them but yet are recalled to Repentance that they perish not Of the first the Aposte testifieth Rom. 7.18 I know that in me that is my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but I find no means so performe that which is good And in Marke 9.24 Lord I believe help my unbeliefe Of the second it is said Take not thy holy spirit from me and Esay 63.17 It is said O Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy wayes and hardened our heart from thy feare Return for thy servants sake the Tribes of thine inheritance and in the 1 Kings 8.57 The Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers let him not leave us or forsake us And therefore the regenerate in this life doth alwayes goe either forward or backward neither continueth in the same state Here then are deduced these two conclusions First as man corrupted before he be regenerate cannot begin new obedience pleasing and acceptable to GOD so he that is regenerate in this life although he begin to obey God that is hath some inclination and purpose to obey according to all his commandements and that unfeigned though yet weak and strugling with evill inclinations affections and desires and therefore there shine in his life and manners a desire of piety towards God and his neighbour yet he cannot yeild whole and perfect obedience to God because neither his knowledge nor love to God is so great and sincere as the law of God requireth And therefore it
is not such righteousnesse as may stand before God according to the Psal 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord c. Secondly they who are converted can no further retaine good inclinations thoughts affections or purposes to persevere and goe forward therein then as the holy Spirit worketh and preserveth these in them for if he guide and rule them they judge and doe aright but if he withdraw they are blind and wander and slip and fall yet so as they parish not if so be they were ever truly converted according to these places 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received c. 1 Philip. 4. and 2 Philip. 13. and John 15.5 and 1 Cor. 1.8 1 Cor. 10.13 and 1 Pet. 1.5 In the fourth estate after glorification after the end and consummation of this present life In this liberty the wil shal only be free to chuse good and not to chuse evil and this shal be the perfect liberty of our will by which we shall not only not sin but shall abhorre nothing more than sin and also shall not be able to sin any more No place shall be for ignorance or for error or any doubting of God or for the least stubbornnesse against God Because in the mind shall shine perfect knowledge of God and his will In the will and heart a most perfect and exceeding inclination to obey God an exceeding love of God a joy and resting in God and an agreeablenesse and conformity with God so much and in such manner as such Created vessells are capable of And this shall continue for all eternity they shall be continually ruled by the holy Ghost in all their actions So that it cannot possibly be that any of their actions there should once swerve from righteousnesse and therefore it is said they are as the Angels of God in heaven Mat. 22.30 The liberty of the will shall be truly conformed and perfected to chuse only good to obey and love God with unexpressible alacrity for ever And thus having laid down the four-fold state of man and the four-fold liberty of will answerable to his four-fold state it may serve for one ground to confirme the point in hand That sinne will have a being in the best of men so long as they are here Their renewed state upon earth being but begun not perfected their state being but a growing in grace and profitting more and more and prevailing in mortifying their corruptions but not attaining in this mortall life to have grace consummate nor corruption abolished but sin in part remaines and will remaine till they lay down the body and be compleatly sanctified in the state of glory And for farther confirmation I shall lay you downe the testimony of the Scripture the Confession of the Fathers and some Reasons grounded upon and backed with the Word of God First for Scriptures see Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation c. In which words we may observe the Apostle doth not say that there is no sinne to them that are in Christ but he saith there is no condemnation to them In the fore-going Chapter he had confessed that he did the evill which he would not doe and that he saw a law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind But now he rejoyceth in Christ that sin in him is not able to condemn him But here I expect from my friend either Cajetan or Aquinas false exposition or that of Mr. Parker that the Apostle spake this when he was a Babe in grace But I desire withall that they will acquaint us what state it was when the Apostle acknowledgeth himselfe the chief of finners 1 Tim. 1.15 The glorious Gospel was then committed unto him enabled by Jesus Christ counted Faithfull and put into the Ministery as you may see in the fore-going verses And yet then saith he notwithstanding all this This is a true and faithfull saying JESUS CHRIST came into the World to save sinners Whereof I am chief Mark the present-tense not preterperfect-tense he doth not say whereof I have been but whereof I am Nay I pray see the second Epistle 1. from 6. to the 13. was all this when he was a babe in grace I would faine know how long it was between the time of writing these Epistles to Timothy and his Epistle to Philemon 1. for there verse 9. he was then Paul the aged But these Jesuiticall Cavillings and reasonings are too well known They never doe nor never shall prevaile against Gods truth Againe in the second verse for the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death Here we may observe that the Apostle saith not that we are fully freed from sinne in this life but from the law of sinne That is both from the commanding and condemning power of sinne Sinne doth not now reigns in our mortall bodies neither now hath it any more power to detaine us under death But as for temptations of sin Christian experience teacheth that there is no sort of men more troubled with them then they whom God hath begun to deliver from the law of sinne For Sathan being impatient of his losse seeks dayly to recover his former dominion By which it may appear That Our deliverance from sin is but begun now not perfected But we know our God is faithfull by whom we are called he shall also confirm us to the end Phil 1.6 even He who hath begun a good work in us Blessed be the Lord where before we were Captives of sin now the case of the Battell is altered and changed Sin is become our Captive through Christ It remains in us not as a Commander but as a Captive of the Lord Jesus The bolts of sin are yet upon our hands and feet to admonish us of our former miserable condition We draw the chains of our sins after us which makes us indeed goe forward the more slowly But they are not able to detein us in that bondage wherein we lay before We are delivered from the law of sin whilest we live and the nature of death the wages of sin is so changed That it is not the death of the man but the death of sin in the man mors est Sepultura vitiorum saith Ambrose Death is the buriall of all vices and as Chrysostome saith As the Worm which is bred in tho Tree doth at last consume it So death which is brought out by sin doth at last consume and destroy sin in the Children of God sin will remain though not raign Again in the 13. verse If ye mortifie the deeds of the body whereby the Apostle sheweth That after regeneration by Grace and before glorification Grace is not consummated nor is corruption wholly abolished For although the Apostle affirmed before in the 9. verse that these godly Romans were not in the flesh yet now he exhorts to a further mortification of the lusts of the flesh which exhortation
because we are never able to perform the condition For although Bellarm. saith We can keep Gods Word that is fulfill his Commandement yet he proves it not And for to say his Commandements are not grievous and to say that we can keep them is not the same For a thing may be very light and yet heavier than I can bear For the Commandements are just and holy and good Rom. 7.12 And the yoke of obedience is easie and light Mat. 11.30 yet it is more than we can doe and a great deale heavier than we can beare Acts 15.14 And that not in regard of the heavinesse of the things required but in respect of the weaknesse of us that should perform them It must therefore follow where there is imperfection of Grace there must needs be sin but in this life Grace is not consummate and perfect Ergo c. Lastly that which is the priviledge of the Saints in Heaven is not to be attained here on Earth but to be exactly perfect to be filled with God to have no defect or imperfection remaining is the priviledge of the Saints in Heaven Therefore not the priviledge of the Church Militant Here we pray Enter not into Judgement with thy Servants O that my waies were so directed that I might learn thy Statutes Make me a cleane heart O God Here we still finde our need of Christ our Mediator who is our Advocate with the Father 1 John 2.1 2. What need of an Advocate if no sinne When shall he exercise his Office if not for us in this life c. Here we have cause to admire Gods Mercy to bewaile our sinnes to goe forward to rise after falls to be kept by the mighty power of God 1 Pet. 1.5 But in Heaven sinne and feare shall be gone and all tears wiped away from our Eyes I hope what I have written may suffice for satisfaction to them whose eyes the God of this World hath not blinded that sinne will have a being in the best of men so long as our souls have a being in these houses of clay As to our adversaries I shall pray all that are faithfull to pray with me for them that God would open their eyes that they may see their sinne and then I doubt not but that they will be ashamed of their Doctrine Considering out of what puddles they draw them either from Pelagius or Bellarmine Bayly Becanus the Jesuits or from the Adamits who are conceited that they are renewed to that purity which Adam had before the fall Daneus on Aug. de heresibus 6. cap. 31. or else from some of Romes fraternity that are now crept in amongst us who are very well versed in the old trade of Arch heritiques falsifying truths to maintain lies But I doubt not but God will discover them in due time and in the intervall will keep them that are his from being deluded by them What Men without sinne It was good hap for the woman that was taken in adultery John 8. that her accusers were none such as these Preachers for if they had been such they would have obeyed our Saviour And the woman had not scaped without a volley of stones about her eares And if it be true that they say that a man may live and not sinne then that Article is in vain to believe the forgivenesse of sinne What need I believe the forgivenesse of sinne if I be without sinne But to draw towards conclusion of this point I shall say as the Eunuch answered Philip Acts 8.30 31. When he asked Vnderstandest thou what thou readest How can I saith he understand without a guide So we may answer the Lord when he commands us to walk in his wayes How can we walk in thy wayes O Lord without a guide I shall therefore commend this counsell to all people that desire to serve the Lord and to walk in his wayes as a point of good Religion To turn the Lords precepts into prayers and to say with holy David Psal 43.3 Send out Lord thy light and thy truth and let them lead us into thy holy Mountain and thy Tabernacle and as in the 143.10 Let thy good Spirit lead me into the land of righteousnesse And from blinde Jesuiticall Guides with their false pretended new lights in a dark Lanthorn their feigned lies pretended Revelations but delusions Good Lord deliver us Much good may their perfection on earth doe them The Lord in mercy discover unto me my imperfections more and more and humble me in the sense of them so long as I live on earth that I may alwayes with the poor Publican say Lord be mercifull unto me a sinner And that with St. Paul I may still forget what is behinde and still press forwards towards the Marke putting forth all the strength that the Lord shall be pleased to lend me and improve all opportunities that the Lord affords me to the best advantage for the mortifying of sinne and sinfull corruptions in me and for the growing in grace untill I attain unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ which shall be after grace consummate in heaven hereafter And for him that can finde perfection here on earth let him never look for it in Heaven Now in the last place I shall lay you down some of their arguments against this truth and some of the Scriptures that they wrest to maintain their error First They deny originall sinne and say it is taken away from the Saints of God on earth and therefore they cannot derive it to their posterity Unto the antecedent we answer that we must distinguish of sinne There are three things therein the Offence the Obligation the Pollution For the first Although God hates sinne in his dearest Saints yet this to the regenerate man is abolished and blotted out by the mercy of Jesus Christ Secondly For the Obligation of the Sinner to punishment this likewise is pardoned to such a man through Christ But as concerning the pure essence of sin the pollution thereof that is the vitious inclination or pronenesse which that sin leaves in us to fall into it or the like this remaineth in them Although the power and strength of this be taken away that it cannot reign in a regenerate man yet the life and being of sinne is not quite taken away And thus we say God forgiveth all our iniquities and healeth all our infirmities Psalme 103.3 quatenus as to the fault guilt and strength yet this is not done all at once but gradually by degrees he begins this cure here and goes on from day to day But this renewing is not perfected in this life otherwise then as I have shewed you Wherefore the godly doe derive such a corrupt nature to their posterity as they themselves have But they reply That which Parents themselves have not they cannot derive to their posterity But the guilt of originall sinne is taken away from regenerate Parents therefore at least the guilt is not derived Unto
due to you for your sinnes in the name of the Lord Jesus that is for the merits and righteousnesse of Jesus Christ But some may here object and say The Righteousnesse is Christs and how can a man be justified by the justice of another I answer As sinne is ours by propagation so righteousnesse is ours by imputatiou and as Adam derived sinne by nature to our condemnation so Christ brought life by his obedience to our justification So if many be made sinners by the disobedience of one man Then how much more shall many be made righteous by the obedience of one man especially seeing the nature of Christ was farr more divine than the nature of Adam and thee fore more powerfull in ability to work this effect to justifie us than Adam's was to condemn us And in 1 Joh. 5.11 12. That eternall life which God giveth us that is that righteousnesse whereby he bringeth us to eternall life is in his Sonne And this the Apostle doth most excellently shew unto us when he saith that God made Christ to be sinne for us and as in the place before cited 2 Cor. 5.20 For as our sinnes were made the sinnes of Christ not by alteration of them inhesively into his own person but by assumption of them imputatively to make satisfaction for them as fully and as truly as if they had been his own inherent sinnes Even so the righteousnesse of Christ is as truly made ours by imputation as if we had most perfectly fullfilled the Law by our own actuall operation And therefore justification is a gracious and judiciall action of God whereby he judgeth the elect being in themselves liable to the accusation and condemnation of the Law to be just and righteous by faith in Jesus Christ through the imputation of his Justice to the praise of his glorious power and the eternall salvation of their souls Now for the Canses of justification they are especially first Efficient secondly Materiall thirdly Formall fourthly Finall and each one of these must be considered two wayes first Actively in respect of him that justifies us secondly Passively in respect of Man that is justified First The principall efficient Cause of this our justification actively considered is God freely purposing to send his sonne to be made man to work righteousnesse for men 1 Pet. 1.10 Gal 4 4. then in the fulnesse of time sending his son made of a woman made under the Law then revealing his son to us by the preaching of the Gospell and perswading us to believe the same and to lay hold on the sonne of God by the operation of his blessed Spirit and then accounting to us the obedience of his son for our righteousnesse To shew that he is the beginning the middle the end of our justification And to prove this the Lord himself saith Isay 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sinnes And the Apostle plainly saith Rom. 8.33 It is God that justifieth And the very Scribes that rejected Christ most impiously professed this most truly that none can forgive sinnes but God only And so Gregory saith It is meet that he should be the giver of Grace which was the author of nature Gregory in Psal poenitent pithily saith It is his office to absolve the guilty by whose justice he is made guilty Again The impulsive Cause that moved God to doe all this for man wee finde to be two fold first Internall secondly Eternall The first is The meer Grace and free Mercy of God towards man and that because he would be mercifull unto man Because we can ascribe none other Cause of Gods Will which is the cause of all things but only this Quia voluit because it pleased him And therefore St. Paul attributeth our Redemption to the Riches of hâ—â— Grace 1. Eph. 6 7. Rom. 3.24 and so likewise in 3. Tit. 4. he saith that after the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed in us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Whereby you see the Apostle maketh the Kindenesse and Love and Mercy of God to be the first efficient principal Cause or Motive that moved God to send Christ to be the means to save us And St. Aug. in Psal 30. Idoe de nat grat saith That it is the ineffable grace of God that a man guilty of sin should be justified from sin And especialy against the Pelagian Heresie that magnified nature to vilifie and almost to nullifie Grace He saith That the grace of God whereby Infants and men of years are saved is not procured by deserts but tendered freely without merits And so Anselmus in Rom. 12. saith That because all men are shut up under sin the Salvation of man commeth not in the Merits of men but in the Mercy of God The second is Christ God and Man which purchased by his Merits that we should be justified in the sight of God because the chastisement of our peace was laidupon him that we by his stripes might be healed Isay 55.5 Secondly The material Cause of our justification actively considered is Jesus Christ And the benefits we have by Christ are especially two First Redemption Secondly Propitiation First Redemption is a word borrowed from the use of warres and it signifieth freedome from captivity And thus Christ is our deliverance First From the wrath of God Because he is our reconciliation unto God through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 Secondly From the Tyranny and Dominion of sinne Because That obeying from the heart the form of Doctrine which is delivered us that is the Gospell of Christ we are made free from sin and are become the servants of Christ which is our Righteousness Rom. 6 18 Thirdly From the punishment of sinne Because it is against Justice that the punishment should be inflicted when the sinne is pardoned For sinne being the cause of punishment it must needs follow that sublata causa c. the cause being defaced the effect must be abolished Object But against this it may be objected That the sinnes of the Elect are pardoned and yet they are continually afflicted and as the Prophet saith Psal 73.13 Chastised every morning And therefore how can it be that albeit he forgiveth the guilt of their sinnes yet as the Prophet saith Psal 99.8 he punisheth their inventions Sol. I answer That the miseries of men before the pardon of sinne are the punishments of sinne but the afflictions of the Saints after the remission of their sinnes are not to be reputed penalties from Gods anger but exercises of his Servants and arguments of his love For as many as I love I rebuke and chasten Rev. 3.19 Heb. 12.6 c. And that for a double end First principally for our Salvation that wee may
of Adam is destroyed and passed away and all things are become new Quia Christianus renevatus est per omnia because a regenerate man is renewed in all things throughout in every part and power both of body and soul and therefore the Regenerate are quite free from all corruption of sinne and indued with all perfection of grace Resp I answer that it is not the meaning of the Holy Ghost in those or the like places to shew that sin is quite abolished and grace perfected in the Saints no otherwise then I shewed unto you before Inchoative non perfective by way of inchoation not perfection But the spirit of God by these formes or phrases would give us to understand two special things First To assure us that now sin is like a serpent crushed in the head according as God said Gen. 3.15 That the promised seed should bruise the Serpents head and therefore can never recover his former strength nor any wayes hurt the regenerate man but only to bruise his heel that is by the wrigling of her tail to cause some temporary affliction to light upon them Secondly to signifie unto us that this should be the main scope of all Saints to strive continually to mortifie the deeds of the flesh and to doe their best endeavors to be clean rid of them and for to perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 And this is plainly intimated unto us in all the exhortations of the Scriptures as where we are advised to abstain from filthy lusts and mortifie the deeds of the flesh and the like For if there were no lusts no deeds of the flesh in us to what end are we bidden to mortifie them Script 3 1 John 3.9 quoted before He that is born of God sinneth not therefore say they the regenerate sin not Answ First He sinneth not to death For they doe not wholy forsake God albeit they may sin against their Consciences but they retein still some beginnings of true godlinesse by which as by sparks they are stirred again to repentance as David Peter and others Secondly He sinneth not as he is regenerated but he sinneth as long as he abideth in this life sin not reigning in him and yet sometimes reigning too as he is regenerated but in part and in part carnall For regeneration or renewing us to the Image of God is not perfected in an instant but is begun only in this life as I have formerly shewed you and in the life to come is at length finished for so doth John himself pronounce of himself and all the Saints in this life 1 John 1. If we say c. And if we acknowledge our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forigve us our sinnes this therefore is the meaning of St. John that the regenerate indeed doe sinne but yet not so as that they make much of their sinne Or doe so at any time yeeld and assent to evill desires that they cast away all love of godlinesse and repent not For alwayes in the regenerate there remaineth some remnant of a regenerate nature Which causeth either a strife against sinne or else true repentance that is it suffereth them not to sinne to everlasting destruction Or thus more briefly He that is born of God makes not a trade of sinning he lives not in his sinne he lies not in his sinne he delights not in his sinne he sinnes not with purpose with pleasure with malice with perseverance sinne raigneth not but as the Apostle saith the evill that I doe I would not doe c. Object It is said His seed remaineth in him neither can he sinne because he is born of God Sol. The Spirit of God remaineth in him so that he cannot sinne a sinne unto death he cannot come under the power of sinne Script 4 1 Pet. 1.23 Bring born a new not of mortall seed but of immortall by the word of God who liveth for ever If therefore say they the seed of Gods word never dieth in them that are born a new they ever remain regenerate and ever retain Grace neither ever fall into sinne Answ I answer first that the regenerate may loose and doe often loose Grace and the holy Spirit as concerning some guifts sometimes more somtimes fewer although they loose it not if we respect all the guifts For still there abideth in them some beginning or print of true Faith and conversion which although when they yeeld to evill inclinations or desires it is so oppressed and darkened that it neither can be known of others neither confirm them of the Grace of God and their own Salvation for the present yet it suffereth them not wholly to forsake God and the known Truth and to cast away their purpose of embracing by Faith the Merits of the Sonne of God So David prayeth Psal 51.10 11. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me and restore me to the joy of thy Salvation He had lost therefore cleanness of Heart rightness and newness of Spirit and the joy of Salvation which he beggeth of God to be restored unto him and yet he did not wholly want them for otherwise he would not have asked neither would he have looked for from God this renueing and restoring Secondly The Seed of God that is the Word of God working true Faith and Conversion in the Elect abideth and dyeth not in the regenerate as concerning their coversion and finall perseverance how ever they may fall often grievously and foully before their end If they had been of us they would have continued with us saith the Apostle 1 John 2.19 Script 5 A good tree cannot bring forth evill fruit Answ I answer it cannot as it is good which shall so come to passe in the life to come But if it be partly good and partly evill such is the fruit also whereof we have sufficient tryall and experience in this life Script 6 Eph. 5.25 26 27. This shews us how Christ in this life by the Word Sacrament and the operation of Grace doth cleanse us that in the state of glory we may be perfectly holy without spot or wrinkle and that the words are to be understood of the state of glory I shall prove by these ensuing Reasons Reas 1 First Reason Because here we are absent from Christ and know but in part and so although we love inchoatively yet we love not perfectly Reas 2 Second Reason Because otherwise there would be no distinction between the state of Glory and the state of Grace if Grace were consummate in this mortall life Reas 3 Third Reason Because the Saints on Earth have sinne remaining in them and they that deny it are lyars and no truth in them And we shall finde that all the Fathers against the Novatians and Donatists so understand the place The Church Triumphant without spot or wrinkle and not the Church Militant Script 7 2 Tim. 4.7 Paul had fought a good fight and finished his course And
pure eyes which found folly in his Angels And the best of men whilest he lives on earth is both a Saint and a sinner A Saint by reason of Gods Grace wrought in him And a Sinner by reason of his own naturall corruption which in some measure tainteth every Grace of God And therefore not only the worst of men but also the best of Gods Saints that being compared with their fellowes might seem just indeed Yet looking to the strictnesse of Gods justice they disclaimed all their own righteousnesse and relyed wholly upon the righteousnesse of God so Job 4.17 18 19. and Job 15.14 and 9.2.3 and Psal 130. and Psal 143.2 and Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 4.4 That he knew nothing by himself Yet he confesseth that thereby he was not justified because that although he served God most faithfully in the inner man yet he saw another Law in his members which did alwaies rebell against the Law of his mind and made him therefore cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. Thirdly Because that although it were granted that some works of the Saints might be perfectly good yet because any one sin blotteth out the memory of our precedent righteousness as Ezekiel 18. and makes us guilty of all the Law as the Apostle witnesseth James 2. and that we are so prone to commit sin and so frail to resist sin that in many things we sin all And therefore taught to beg every day of God that he would forgive us our trespasses It is impossible that any righteousnesse of man should justifie him before God Fourthly Because St. Paul saith plainly Rom. 3.28 We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law and Gal. 5.3.4 That is if you seek to be saved or justified by the works of the Law then are you bound to fulfill the whole Law and so you have no need of Christ But no man is able to fulfill the whole Law therefore it is impossible that you should be justified by the works of the Law And that St. Paul excludeth not only ceremoniall works or morall or any other kiâ—de of works before we receive faith but also all works whatsoever it is hereby apparent For he writes these things not to unbelieving Jewes but to the Galatians they were believing Christians Fiftly Because no work of man can be good before the person of that man be justified before God for without faith it is impossible to please God Abel was first accepted and then his offering And therefore it is impossble that any works shall justifie us when we must be justified before we can doe any works that can be accounted good But then it may be objected That it is to no purpose to doe good works if we can neither be justified by them nor merit by them I answer That as gold is good yet not to asswage hunger for then Mydas had not died with gold in his mouth And as the Sun hath divers admirable effects yet is not able to make a blinde man see so then Bartimeus had had no need of our Saviours help that he might receive his sight So good works have many profitable and available necessary uses yet not to justifie us before God nor to merit any thing at the hands of God For when we have done all we can we are unprofitable c. Luke 17.10 Ob. 2 But our adversaries object That if God gives us Commandements which we could not perform them First It were in vain to exhoâ—t us to obey them seeing we are unable to perform them Secondly His promises of happinesse for performing them were but mockeries as if I should promise a Child a thousand pounds for carrying away a Milstone which I know he is not able to wagg such were rather meer mockeries than true promises Thirdly 〈…〉 nishments should he unjust upon the transgressors because 〈…〉 ommandements are beyond their power of performance For Lawes must be made according to the power that we have to perform them Else may he as well be termed a Tyrant and unjust that enacteth the Law which we cannot keep as he which punishes an Innocent which never offended But these cannot stand with the wisedome and justice of God and therefore it cannot be that God should give us a Law beyond our ability or the performance of obedience To this I answer That the consequence is false for though God commandeth us things that we cannot perform Yet these consequences cannot follow because as August saith de lib. arbit cap. 16. God commandeth us to doe those things which he knoweth we are unable to doe that we might learn to know what we ought to seek of him and so likewise for three speciall ends First to teach us what we could have done and what we owe to God because Adam received strength to fulfill it and we had had that strength if Adam had not lost it Secondly To shew unto us that it is our own fault that we cannot doe it because man abusing his power and free liberty to doe what he would did loose himself and his power that now he must doe what he would not Because as Adam received that strength both for himself and us so he lost it both for himself and us Thirdly To teach us what we should ask and of whom we should crave what we want for God doth therefore command us to doe what we cannot perform that seeing our own infirmities and being wearied under the Law of equity We might sue unto the Throne of Grace for mercy and for the gracious assistance of his holy Spirit whereby we may be enabled in some measure to perform that which he so justy requireth As August saith In the Commandement we must know what we ought to have In the punishment we must learn that we our selves are the cause of all our wants And in prayer we must understand from whâ—â—â—â— we must supply the defects that is from God Or to answer more methodically I say That God being on Mount Sinai to deliver a Law not de novo that was never given before but such as was formerly engraven in mans heart and now defaced and obliterated through sinne It was not for him to bend the Rule of Righteousnesse to the crookednesse of our affections to make it answerable to our abilities But rather to set down a straight Rule Not in favour of our sinfull nature but to expresse our whole duty though it be impossible for us to perform it now after we have lost our ability For as he that lent thee a thousand pounds may without injustice demand the same of thee when he knoweth that thou through thy lavishnesse hast spent all and as a Bankrupt art not able to pay one penny So God having given us power to obey all his precepts may at any time most justly call for the performance of the same though he knoweth that we by our sinnes have