Remission of sins belongs to such and such yet let me ask cannot the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanse the Heart from all Guile and Malice seeing the Evangelist telleth us it cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 And what know you but that this purifying Act may in instanti powerfully operate upon the Hearts of millions of men in the World whom you without any warrant have doom'd to everlasting Destruction Hereafter then I advise you meddle not with the Hearts of men so as to pass your censure upon them lest you be judged at last to be an Intruder upon God who alone is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 1.24 for as it hath been a true word Cathedram in Caelo habet qui corda docet so it is as true Cathedram in corde habet qui ad Caelum ducit Reflector Those words of St. Paul 1 Thess 5.9 God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ are to be explained by those of the 13 verse of the second Chap. of the second Epistle viz. God hath from the beginning chosen us to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and Belief of the Truth Your Comment hereupon is this God hath chosen us to be sanctified and hath sunctified us to the end that he might save us Answer Seeing you will have such an Explanation of the former words by the latter though some would have put a difference between them not only in respect of the distance which the Apostle hath set in his writing of them the scope of the Writer not being always the same in one place as it is in the other but because of the Persons whom the Apostle distinguisheth viz. us and you yet I shall chuse rather to let you know that by the words which you insist so much upon viz. through Sanctification of the Spirit is meant the Sanctification wrought in them by the Spirit of God which may be also in millions of millions of Persons not discernable by the World This certainly is that Sanctification which all true Believers are to glory in not boasting of any Holiness or Worthiness of their own as Quakers commonly do but rejoycing in the work of Gods abundant Grace upon them For you must know that which the Apostle here meaneth is not so much an active Sanctification manifested in the Life as that which is passive wherein they are but patients under God though they do indeed actually receive it into their Hearts by Faith God begins with his work of Sanctification and the Believer seconds it with his work of believing both which are here joyned together by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In by or through the Sanctification of the Spirit and Belief of the Truth Whereas if it were an active Sanctification that were here meant such as is commonly visible in the Life of a Believer then may that Doctrine be received again among us which hath justly been exploded by us viz. that we are chosen to Salvation for or because of our foreseen Holiness which is that that you ignorantly contend for But you should remember it is Christ who is all in all in the work of mans Salvation and that it is nothing but Faith which is expected from us That no Flesh should glory in the presence of God 1 Cor. 1.29 and mark what the Apostle there addeth v. 30. For of him are we that is born of him in Christ Jesus who is made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption meaning all that is required of us in this matter He is our Wisdom to instruct us our Righteousness to Justifie us our Sanctification to sanctifie us our Redemption to save us What are you then poor man without Christ what is your Wisdom but Folly what your Righteousness but a filthy Rag what your Sanctification but sin at the best your Holiness no better than the Popes Holiness what your Redemption but everlasting Bondage under Satan From all which good Lord deliver you Talk no more therefore so proudly of your Sanctification But let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. By this time I hope you begin to see your Error in making so false a gloss upon that comfortable word of the Apostle viz. God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation by Jesus Christ Which word will stand firm and strong against your ignorant and absurd Cavils yea and against the gates of Hell neither is it weakened at all by that other word of the Apostle which you have ravished from the pure simplicity of the Gospel but confirmed rather Whereupon I conclude your Argument is so far from that Nervofity you boast of in overthrowing the True and Sound Doctrine of the Common Salvation that it is as weak as water Only it sheweth how apt you are to catch at any thing in Scripture though you wrest it to your own Perdition which may but seemingly strengthen your destructive Opinion Reflector All the world fallen in Adam deserving the Curse and Eternal Damnation it is a signal Mercy to spare some from that General Condemnation Answer We have heard in the late times of Legal Preaching but what can be more legal I mean more disagreeing with the Covenant of Promise than your words here are and in many other places of your Book It is we confess an Eminent Mercy to save some of those that had by their Disobedience made themselves liable to the Curse But to save a numberless multitude or a million for one that shall sink under the Curse is a Mercy more to be magnified yea and might with more truth have been asserted by you than to talk of a general Condemnation Reflector How Excellent soever the Efficacy of Redemption may be it is only for those whom God hath a mind to save Answer Miserable Man do you know what you say A Report hath gone of you that you are mad because you have been thrust out of your Preferment at Oxford If it be so it is the best excuse that you can have for making these frantick Reflections Would any Christian who is right in his Wits speak thus unreverendly of the great work of our Redemption as you have here spoken Do you not know the Excellency of it in its Efficacy You might surely have known it partly by the Price of it not by corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the Precious Blood of Christ partly by the Fruits and Benefits that arise to us by it as the Holy Scripture sets them out viz. we are redeemed from the Curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 from our vain Conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 from all Iniquity Tit. 2.14 c. Partly by the end or final Cause that we may be Consecrated to God and the Lamb Rev. 14.4 that our sins may be forgiven Eph. 1.9 that we may receive the Adoption of Children Gal 4. that we may be reconciled to God c. If you know these things why do you
why do you so But before I proceed any further herein let no man here so far mistake me as if I were pleading for Popery It is only to lay open the plain truth in this case without Partiality The Church of Rome is doubtless faulty enough yea most abominable in her Doctrines and Doings yet will it not become us to make it worse than in truth it is She hath Guilt enough upon her that will certainly in Gods due time bring her down wonderfully so that the World shall say Babilon the Great is fallen is fallen But that the aforesaid Opinion of her is a great untruth and consequently that the Doctors Collections from thence were vain shall be here made manifest from that which is past all Contradiction 1. The Author of the said Canon was not a Pope as it hath been Imagined But it was St. Boniface a faithful Martyr of Jesus Christ as in the Title of the said Canon is expressed which Boniface was never Pope but a Virtuous Learned Englishman who lived about nine hundred years past and was the first Archbishop of Mentz in Germany of which People and Countrey he is called the Apostle by antient Writers for that he publickly converted the Nation Erected that Primate See and suffered glorious Martyrdom by the Heathen for the Faith 2. The Canon Si Papa c. was taken by Gratian out of the Writings of that St. Boniface The Introduction into which Canon is according to the words of that Holy Man in this manner Damnatur Apostolicus qui suae Fraternae Salutis est negligens Plagismultis in aeternum vapulaturus The Pope is damned who is negligent in the Affairs of his own Salvation and of his Brethren after which beginneth the Canon Si Papa suae Fraternae Salutis negligens c. Shewing that albeit the Pope have no Superior Judge in this World which may by Authority check him unless he fall into Heresie Yet shall his Damnation be greater than of other sinners for that by Reason of his high Dignity he draweth more after him into Perdition than any other Whereby we may perceive that this Canon was written not to flatter the Pope but to warn him rather of his Peril c. But how then came the World to mistake this Canon as if it said though the Pope should carry many people with him into Hell yet no mortal Creature may presume to say unto him why do you so To give a short Answer to this demand I might relate the story at large and make mention of the names of those Persons engaged in a Contract about this Canon which occasioned those hard words clean differing from the Intent and Scope of it and which did put some upon a more strict Inquiry into it The Result whereof is briefly this some of the words of the said Canon were mis-placed some omitted and some misquoted The omission of that which is in the Canon is this Cum ipso plagis multis in aeternum vapulaturus that such a Pope is to suffer eternal Punishments and to be scourged with many Stripes together with the Devil himself if by his evil and negligent Life he be the cause of others Perdition which Threat being omitted these words as immediately following in the Canon are misplaced and joyned with the Antecedent words which should have been put after viz. Hujus culpas redarguere Praesumit nemo c. That which is mis-quoted is Praesumet for Praesumit no man shall or may presume for no man doth presume to Control Lastly That which followeth containing a Reason of all that went before is left out viz. Quia cunctos ipse judicaturus a nemine est judicandus nisi deprehendatur a fide devius c. For that whereas he is the Judge of all other men he cannot himself be judged by any except he be found to err from the true Faith Here is the case in as few words as it could possibly be put which clearly shew the sinister Sense that hath been put upon that Canon yet this it was certainly which led the Doctor into this Error For saith he it is that which we learn from the Canon Si Papa c. The second mistake is in that he quoteth St. Austin Lib. 1. de verâ falsâ Poenitentia Cap. 5. Affirming that he hath there an excellent Thought as his usual word is whereas if he meaneth by Lib. 1. the first Book as probably that must be the meaning this must go into the mistakes for there is but one Book of that Subject de verâ falsa Poenitentia Neither is that one any of St. Austin's Work But it is thrust in by others as an Appendix only to St. Austin yea more the Author of that Book whoever he was produceth a Sentence out of St. Austin expresly naming him Cap. 17. to which saying of St. Austin the said Author refuseth to give his Consent which is a clear Argument it is not St. Austin's But instead of this mis-quotation I could wish that the Doctor had thorowly perused that Book de verâ falsâ Poenitentiâ for he would have found in that Book a full Confutation of his Opinion concerning a general Damnation and that which I have written in my Antidote to be as fully confirmed Moreover besides these Mistakes the said Doctor after all the dreadful Clamour made of Millions of Millions that shall perish in their sins addeth that which may well be accounted in Effect a plain Contradiction to his Opinion by shewing what is the concurrent Judgment of some English Divines in this Case whom he nameth calling them The true Barnabasses and to whom he subscribes his Consents viz. That the Justice of Gods Tribunal at the last day is full as much laid open in the Pardon of the greatest sinners that Repent as it is in the Vengeance and Punishment of the Impenitent and those that know not God That when Jesus Christ shall come in the last times he will do the same to those that truly have Repented though even at the last Period of their Lives That the Mercies shewen to Zacheus and the Thief upon the Cross were particular and personal but the Comfort which is to be received from thence is common and publick Adding likewise further in the same Page Pag. 39. that the same English Divines do also agree with all the Casuists c. In one considerable mark of a Child of God and which as he saith is comprehensive all Divinity and the practise of Piety and which may also be shut up in one Period to wit that notwithstanding the Atheism whether Speculative or Practical secret or open that Reigns at this day in the World and all the Difficulties which are met with in the Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures which Human Reason cannot unravel and understand a man ought to be strongly and powerfully perswaded of the Truth Goodness and Excellency of the Christian Religion and of this holy
Heaven And rather say I than to wrest them to a sinister Sense disagreeing from the whole Current of the Gospel as you have done with those Texts mentioned often by you for the Confirmation of your Opinion viz. Mat. 7.14 Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way which leadeth to Life and few there be that find it And Luke 12.32 Fear not little Flock it is your Fathers good Pleasure to give you the Kingdom and Mat. 20.16 Many are called but few are chosen So Mat. 22.14 To shew you your Error in these it is needless here having said enough of it already in my Antidote set forth against you which hath been sufficient in the Judgment of Rational Men to expel the Poison of your corrupt Doctrine Reflector They that hold the Opinion of the small number that shall be saved alledge the Rigour of the Examination at the day of Judgment and the words of St. Paul in the 2 Cor. c. 5. v. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad c. Answer Those who hold it And are not you one of them that hold it Nay do you not in Rigor surpass all men that ever held it by uncharitable Judging and Condemning your confident boldness therein will appear more in the Sequel of this Discourse But to our present Business First I do not like your uncouth word here Rigor as you use it A more Reverend Term might in this Case have easily been thought upon by you and more proper for your purpose but that your rigid Spirit would have an unseasonable Vent according to its Humor whether with Sense or without you cared not There shall it's true be a strickt and severe Examination at that day of all the whole Race of Mankind all their Thoughts Words and Works shall be made manifest and placed in order before them Gods Law-Book which may be called his Doomsday-Book whether it be the Law of Works for such as are in a Reprobate Condition or the Law of Faith for such as are the Elect of God shall then likewise be opened By both which the sin of the World shall be set out in its Colours I mean as the Apostle It shall be made exceeding sinful for by the Law is the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 All this and whatever else you Mr. Reflector can be able to add warrantably from the written word of God concerning that most exact scrutiny and search that shall then be into the Hearts and Lives of all Mankind I do readily consent unto for it will be the day of the Lords Vengeance upon all his Enemies who lived and died in their Malice against him and knowing the terror of the Lord we should all be perswaded in this our day to know the things that belong unto our Peace before they be hidden from our Eyes But after all he granted which you can well Imagine what will be the result of this Righteous Examination Will a general Damnation follow upon it Yes must you say for so you have said though most impiously else your arguing comes to nothing As for your alienating the matter in the twenty fourth Page of your Book it is not a retracting of your bold Censure You say indeed the Apostle did by the Consideration of the Terror of the Lord perswade men to fly to Jesus Christ but what 's this to your opinion of the general Damnation That you hold still in worse terms as may be seen in the following parts of your Discourse than any of your Fraternity for ought I know ever did before you and such as cannot enter into the Heart of Man to conceive which is not void of all Humanity I will therefore here tell you what I believe will be the sequel of this great Judgment and Scrutiny I do not say it shall be for your Condemnation or mine because I hope and pray that both you and I shall before we die repent us of our sins you of your misjudging the World and I of my misjudging you if I have offended therein and of my many other failings wherein I am too sure I have very much offended But this I say that when the horrible Ugliness of sin shall then be discovered an Amazement shall generally seize upon men for their folly in committing it insomuch that those who have been tryed by the Law of Works and are found guilty of the Violation of that Law as all unbelievers and impenitent Persons shall be will say to the Mountains and Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits upon the Throne and from the Wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his Wrath is come and who shall be able to stand But others that have been tryed by the Law of Faith and have thereupon found their Judge to be their Advocate as I believe a great multitude not one alone amongst many Millions but a great multitude Rev. 7.9 which no man can number of all Nations and Kindred and People and Tongues i. e. The major part of Mankind shall find him to be they shall then lay aside their Amazements at their former Folly and with loud Acclamations Chant out their Hallelujahs ascribing Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever These undoubtedly are some of the immediate Consequents that will follow upon the Righteous Judgment of that great Day Some I say for I do not take upon me to determine of all but only what concerns our present purpose viz. the beginning of everlasting Sorrows to all the Reprobate and the beginning of everlasting Happiness to all the Elect People of God I know there will follow the Justification of the Judge himself for it is called Rom. 2.5 The day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God which may be taken not only in an active Sense but in a passive which will signifie that which is written he will be justified in all his sayings and be clear saith the Prophet overcome saith the Apostle when he is judged meaning all mouths shall be then stopped which have been apt to cavil against him and be forced even against themselves to confess the Judgment of God is according to Truth But to return to our purpose You 'll say how shall they that have lived all their days in unbelief and the hardness of their Hearts as the greatest part of Mankind made up of those that are without alienated from the Life of God and those that are within living under the Light of Gods Word yet have been Ignorant and Prophane how shall they be able to stand with any Confidence in the Judgment at the last Day Hereto I have already also given an Answer in my Antidote to which I remit you But because you object so much that terrible
This appears to me pardon my Confidence an unquestionable rendring of the sense of these words and a manifest clearing of all Difficulties yea and of all Differences too which have been raised about them if men would but follow the conduct of Truth and Reason For let it be considered though we find a distinction of Gods Covenants with Mankind viz. the old and the new yet I ask Is not the Covenant of Grace the same now for Substance which it was from the beginning Was not the same Spirit of Christ in his Ordinances given unto the Fathers under the Law which is now given to the faithful under the Gospel excepting only in the Accidents and Circumstances of Effusion and Manifestation How else can Christ be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same yesterday and to day as it is said he is Heb. 13.8 and will be so for ever Had the Fathers a Saviour and Deliverer exhibited unto them in the Paschal Lamb otherwise more than symbolically than we have in the Lords Supper Did they not all eat the same spiritual Meat and did they not all drink the same spiritual Drink the same not only with and among themselves as Popish Writers would have it but the same with us Christians also For the Apostle addeth they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 Can any truth revealed in Scripture be more plain than this viz. that Christ was their Expectation their Comfort their Refuge their Rock in all their Troubles the Food and Sustenance of their Souls the Object of their Faith even as he is now in this time of the Gospel to all true Believers And consequently that this Sense which is here rendred of our Lords words is most true Well may it therefore be an Amazement unto all men as it is God knoweth unto me that such a pudder hath been made in the World about these words of our Saviour which do and can signifie no more in this case unto us than the Sacramental Form of Instituting a new Sacrament did necessarily require in Rome of the old Let therefore the vain words of Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation and the Questions de modo sine modo as they have been well called of Christs Presence in his Sacrament about which this giddy Generation hath been quarrelling so long be for ever abandoned by us and let us for shame content our selves as becometh us and as the Fathers of old under the Law did with the Overtures of God's love in the Arbitrary Dispensations of his Grace for we never hear of such Annimosities and uncharitable Differences among them about this matter as have been among us and whatsoever is in it which for the present surpasseth our Understanding when we come to see God as he is we shall undoubtedly see more clearly the secret of his Covenant and have a more perfect knowledge of this Mystery than we can now be able to attain unto or than indeed is fit for us while we are cloathed with Mortality to reach at much less throughly to understand In fine the Judgment of Venerable Mr. Hooker concerning this point way well be accounted a ne plus ultra to all sober men His words are these The real Presence of Christs most Blessed Body and Blood is not to be sought for in the Sacrament but in the worthy Receiver of the Sacrament And with this the very order of our Saviour's words agreeth first take and Eat then This is my Body which was broken for you first drink ye all of this then followeth This is my Blood which was shed for you I see not which way it should be gathered by the words of Christ when and where the Bread is his Body or the Cup his Blood but only in the very Heart and Soul of him that receiveth them As for the Sacraments they really exhibit but for ought we can gather out of that which is written of them they are not really nor do really contain in themselves that Grace which with them or by them it pleaseth God to be stow If on all sides it be confest that the Grace of Baptisin is poured into the Soul of man that by Water we Receive it although it be neither seated in the Water nor the Water changed into it what should induce men to think that the Grace of the Eucharist must needs be in the Eucharist before it can be in us that Receive it Now the Reason hereof is in my Judgment beyond all exception For as in the Sacrament of Baptism all that the Minister doth or can do is to Baptise with water after he hath with solemn Prayer and Supplication set it apart from other water it is Christ himself that Baptiseth us with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Our Ministery is but very Wash in comparison of that which Christ doth unto us when we are Baptised So in that other Sacrament of the New Testament the Priest can do nothing but give the outward Elements after he hath by Prayer and reciting the words of Christ put a distinction between them and other ordinary Bread and Wine it is Christ only who by that means feedeth the Soul of a worthy Communicant with his broken Body and his Blood poured out for the sin of the World only as unless we be Baptised with Water we cannot ordinarily expect to be Baptised with the Holy Ghost so unless when we are invited unto the Lords Table we come worthily unto it and there Take and Receive the Consecrated Elements at the Hands of the Minister our Souls must want that spiritual nourishment from and by Christ which otherwise they might be sed with and made strong in the Grace of God Which being so as it is a truth not to be denied what need all those bitter Conflicts that have been and are about this matter We should rather say as that worthy Author had written a little before in the same Paragraph Shall I wish saith he that men would give themselves more to meditate with silence what we have by the Sacrament and less to dispute of the manner how If any man suppose that this were too great stupidity and dulness let us see whether the Apostles of the Lord themselves have not done the like It appeareth by many Examples that they of their own Disposition were very scrupulous and inquisitive yea in other cases of less Importance and less Difficulty always apt to move Questions How cometh it to pass that so few words of so high a Mystery being uttered they receive with gladness the gift of Christ and make no shew of doubt or scruple The Reason hereof is not dark to them who have any thing at all observed how the Powers of the Mind are wont to stir when that alone which we infinitely long for presenteth it self above and besides Expectation Curious and intricate Speculations do hinder they abate they quench such inflamed Motions of Delight and Joy as divine Graces use