was conceived in original sin and so raze the very foundation of true Religion for if the root be impure all the Branches must be impure Christ then would have needed a Saviour himself and could not have saved others 2. His Resurrection his Ascension his session at the right hand of God I say examine your own conscience whether you can be clear or not who have done all this by your senselesse Alegories for my part I leave it to God to judge who searches the heart and knowes whether you have done his out of malice or ignorance Now it is fit your weak and absurd description of the sin against the Holy Ghost be examined You say to sin against the holy Ghost is to rebell to war to resist the spirit and to prove it you bring Chap. 5. to the Gal. v. 17. The words are these The flesh lusteth against the spirit c. and so by consequence you make the flesh lusting against the spirit to be the sin against the holy Ghost A sin which Gods best children are guilty of Read Rom. 7. 21 22 23. This deserves to be hiss'd at rather then answered and let me advise you to read more and write lesse For howsoever your purblinde seduced Followers may beleeve you yet all men of sound judgement will plainly see that it is not the spirit of God that hath inspired you but the spirit of blindnesse and ignorance that hath missed you I woulde here conclude this Chapter but that you confesse the sin against the holy Ghost shal never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come which is the truth grounded upon the words of Christ Matth. 12. 32. and therefore by your own confession such as commit thissi nne shall never be redeemed out of hell CHAP. 10. In this Chapter you endeavour to prove that man shall not be destroyed but onely the sin that is in man Your words are Therefore man shall not be destroyed but the work of the Devil in him Your first argument to prove this is because God made man therefore man shall not be destroyed and you may as well say Because God made all sensitive and vegetable creatures as Beasts and Plants therefore they shall not be destroyed Are not the Creatures made subject to vanity by reason of the sin of man if they be much more shall man that made them subject be subject himself What do you think of the old world were not they created by God yet you know they were destroyed You will say this was but a temporal destruction it is to be hoped that when the waters rose upon the earth many repented and so though their bodies perished yet their souls were saved but yet the most part perished both temporally and eternally as Peter testifies 1 Pet. 3. 19. Your 2. Argument is Christ came into the World to save Man the work of God but all mankinde is the work of God therefore Mankind who is the image of God shall not be destroyed is not here a goodly conclusion that hath more in it then the premises to answer it though man that is renewed restored to the image of God shall not be destroyed yet man that is not restored to the image of God shall be destroyed though he be his Creature for without holiness no man shall see God Depart from me I know you not ye workers of iniquity Thirdly your third argument is Christ came into the World to destroy the works of the Divel therefore man shall not be destroyed how doth this follow Your argument ought to be thus framed Christ came to destroy the works of the Divel in men therefore those men in whom the works of the Divel are destroyed shall not be destroyed but there are some that have not the works of the Divel destroyed in them Jo. 8. 44. therefore they shall be destroyed Your fourth argument is if man must die for his own sins and go to Hell with them in vain then did Christ die for mans sins pray where lies the fault in Christ or in the man that will not applie Christs death unto his soul for his Salvation Rom. 9. 30 31 32. 1 Cor. 1. 18. A Physitian composeth a medicine which is able to cure his patient and to save him fromdeath but the patient will not apply it for his remedie according to that in Jer. 51. 9. Balm was provided for her but she would not be cured and likewise the Pharisees rejected the Counsel of God against their own Salvation Luke 7. 30. Christ would have gathered Jerusalems Children together as a Hen doth gather her Brood under her wings and they would not Luke 13. 34. Something is here spoken of that place of Scripture 1 Iohn 3. 8. He that commits sin is of the Divel c. that is he that commits sin as the Divel doth or as did the Pharisees John 8. 44. ye are of your father the Divel and the lusts of your father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him but to infer from this Text that he which commits sin although of infirmitie as Paul did Rom. 7. 14 15 16. is a most impudent perverting of Scripture Do not the best of Gods children sin In many things we sin all saith the Apostle James If there be any that saith he hath no sin he makes God a lyer and his word is not in him 1 Iohn 1. 10. Peter confesseth as much of himself when he saith Depart from me for I am a sinful man Luke 5. 8. But you urge Christ came to destroy the works of the Divel 't is true but not in your sense but in the sense which the Scriptures do allow that is Christ came to destroy the works of the Divel which he did by his death and Resurrection He did not only justifie us Rom. 6. 22. but also sanctifie us Rom. 6. 3 4 5 6. c. Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it c. Ephe. 5. 25 26. yet so long as she is in this world the Jebusite will dwell in her coast with whom she must have a continual conflict which made Paul himself to say I am carnal sold under sin Rom. 7. 14. carnal but not totally as the unregenerate are but partly carnal and partly spiritual the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and therefore he cries out O wretch that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin mark what he saith me and therefore he speaks in the Person of a Regenerate man And this may serve to satisfie Captain Smiths question whether Paul spake in the person of a Regenerate or unregenerate man in that he saith who shall deliver me You say in the conclusion of the tenth Chapter it is manifest that all men were and are the people of God though untill this
St. Paul who was led by the Spirit of Christ Ephe. 1. 20 21 22. God hath highly exalted his Son and placed him at his right hand in Heavenly places where he shews the exaltation of his Humane nature to the highest degree of blessedness that it can be capable of He hath put all things in subjection under his feet and that propter Mortem Crucis because he became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 8 9. Your Allegorical fancy is as far different from the truth as a Goat is from a Sheep or an Asse from a rational man Secondly Non-sense in the contents of your third Chapter as all that read it cannot judge it otherwise Thirdly Confusion in turning the Holy Scriptures into Allegories where they are to be understood literally and so overthrow the meaning of the Holy Ghost Disput. 2. You begin with truth as Pilate and yet you go about to crucifie it you assume unto your self the name of a light as the Pharisees did and yet our Saviour calls them blind guides that went into the ditch themselves and drew others after them You tell Mr. French you are not of his Spirit and I believe so too for he defends the truth and you maintain falsehood Neither are you of the spirit of Christ for he hates the doctrine of the Nicholaitans Rev. 2. 15. you hate no mans opinion as you declare page 15. a difference then for there is the spirit of Christ and your spirit they are not the same Here I meet again with two Heresies disputed of and confuted before and therefore I shall not need to adde much The first is that the deity of Christ was not only united to the nature of man but to the sin of his nature which is as impossible as for two contraries to agree together in the same subject puritie and uncleanness Righteousness and unrighteousness Light and darkness He was a perfect man in all things sin excepted Heb. 4. 15. We have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we were yet without sin And Heb. 7. 26 27. for such an high Priest became us to have who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher then the Heavens Who needed not daily as those high Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sin and then for the peoples And what can be more plaine that he was without sin clearly as the other high Priests were not without they having need he having none Again he took upon him the nature of man but not the sin of his nature Sin and concupiscence are not of the nature of man but an hereditary disease that sticks unto his nature as doth the Leprosie For indeed if it had stuck to his nature he could neither have been a Priest nor a sacrifice Not an high Priest for such an high Priest it becommed us to have who was holy as in that Text of Heb. 7. 26. Not a sacrifice for that must be without spot that must take away sin And so was Christ John 14. 30. The Prince of this world had nothing in him 1. Pet. 1. 19. A lamb without blemish and without spot 1. Pet. 2. 22. Who did not sin And whereas you object he bore our sins in his body on the Tree you could not have brought any place that makes more against you Mark the words He bore our sins not his own We were the principals He was but our suertie He suffered not for himself but according to that of Daniel 9. 26. The Messias shall be slain for his people You urge moreover that place He hath made him to be sin that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him which makes nothing for your purpose rightly understood For he made him sin by imputation God imputed his righteousness to us and our sin to him I have shewed you before how he was conceived by the Holy Ghost not begotten by man Here we are come again to that old exploded Heresie of Origen which hath been answered already and that enough to the satisfaction of any good Christian yet because I meet with it again I shall adde somewhat more God doth threaten eternal punishments as he promises eternal blessings as in that Text of Mat. 25. 46. before spoken of Which Text runs thus in the Original {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Here the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifies eternal you see is the Epithite for the future condition both of the righteous and unrighteous and though the English translation render it by two several words as eternal and everlasting yet their force and meaning is the same and signifie the same And here me thinks this one passage might discover to the weakest and most ignorant follower of your erâ—ours what a perverter of Scripture you are But for all this you have the face to tell Mr. French that this Text proves it not and tell him that you had answer'd it before but let us see how you have answer'd it before Your answer was that the word everlasting did signifie a dispensation or administration of God to man which as I told you before is an absurd expression your meaning is as you have somewhat exprest your self in the beginning of the eighteenth Page that it signifies such a perpetuitie as is not absolute but hath a Period Captain Smith very seasonably charg'd you to prove it hath such a signification You instance in the Covenant God made with Abraham which was called an Everlasting Covenant Your words are The Covenant which God made with Abraham was called an everlasting Covenant and this Covenant upon these conditions did last but for a time for we read that God did afterwards make a new Covenant with us that should never be ended To this Mr. French replied I deny that the Scripture you brought out of the 17. of Genesis is taken in your sense For that was an everlasting Covenant And indeed so it was therefore the pains of Hell are eternall that is have no Period To this you say Sir you say nothing but what your brother Roswel had said before which I then answer'd and you understand not for the first everlasting Covenant as to the conditions thereof which were the works of the Law had an end as to us when God made a new covenant with us upon better conditions without end Oh Monstrum horrendum cui lumen ademptum Oh blind deceived deceiver to say that the covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of works when it was a covenant of grace as the Scriptures every where prove but especially Rom. 4. and in that Chapter especially the 16 Verse Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the seed of Abraham who against hope believed in hope and
reason of which the word of truth might be evil spoken of but that they may be mindeful of that excellent admonition of the Apostle 2 Ioh. 7. 8 9 10 11. For many deceivers are entred into the world who confess not that Iesus is come in the flesh This is a deceiver an Anti-Christ Look to your selves that we loose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ hath both the father and the Son If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God-speed for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds CHAP. 14. You argue those that do preach the Doctrine of Damnation telling the people that they are eternally damned are no Gosâ—el-Ministers do preach from an evil spirit but Christ did not preach this Doctrine of eternal damnation to any for he did preach salvation to all men and the acceptable year of the Lord and to prove this you quote Luk. 4. 18. Iohn 3. 17. To tell you your Major or Minor is false or to treat you after the manner of Disputants is a thing passeth your understanding therefore I shall answere you thus Those that preach according to the Commission Christ gave unto his Disciples to preach at his departure are Gospel preachers but those that preach damnation to the impenitent and unbelievers as well as Salvation to the penitent and believers preach according to that Commission therefore they are Gospel preachers Mark 16. Go into all the World and preach the Gospel that is he that believes and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned is not here damnation to the unbelievers as there is Salvation for believers Are they not commissionated to preach this throughout the World and did they not faithfully perform it Read Rom. 2. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. where the Apostle pronounceth Glory Honour Immortalitie and Eternal life to every man that worketh good but denounceth tribulation and anguish wrath and judgement at the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgement of God to the impenitent that obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness Likewise in the 2. Thes. 1. 6 7 8 9. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mightie Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. read also 2 Pet. 2. 2 3 4 5. and the whole Epistle of Iude. I hope you will not say now these men were not Gospel-preachers or that they had not the spirit of God for it was after the day of Pentecost when the cloven tongues descended and sat upon them Acts 2. 1 2 3. But let me ask you one question when Christ gave unto his Disciples the keys of the kingdome of Heaven wherein did the power of the keys consist Was it not in binding as well as in loosing You will finde it was in Iohn 20. 23. You falsely and impudently say that Christ never preached damnation to any but Salvation to all Certainly you have read Christs Sermon upon the Mount and it is most certain you understand it not for it is plain Mat. 5. 21 22 23 24. and in the 29. It is better that one of thy members perish then that thy whole body should be cast into Hell Mark 6. 11. It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in that day of judgement then for that Citie Likewise read Mat. 23 from the 13. verse to the end of the Chapter and you shall finde how many woes are pronounced by Christ there and the greater damnation to Hypocrites for their holy pretences verse 14. and the 30. It seems plainly you know not what you say and care not what you affirm that you are led by the spirit of falshood and errour and not by the spirit of truth who dare thus boldly contradict the truth But that text of Mat. 23. 14 and 33. quoted by Mr. Sanbroke I perceive confounded you that you know not what to say or at least said you knew not what something nothing to the purpose which was That Christ was then a fulfilling the Law which you your self overthrow at the latter end of this disputation Page 64. out of Heb. 13. 8. Iesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Now if he were the same yesterday as certainly he was for he was the lamb slain in Gods decree ab origine Mundi therefore he had fulfilled yesterday Gods account but if it were so yet it doth not lessen your fault who have falsely affirmed that Christ preached not damnation to any but salvation to all Not to pass over your playing Legerdemain with the Scriptures your saying that Christ told the Pharisees that the kingdome of God was to be revealed in them and which should suddenly come unto them and that they hearing this demanded of Christ when the kingdome of Heaven should come also that Christ answered them The kingdome of Heaven comes not with observation Now let any one read that Chapter of Woe and damnation to the Pharisees Mat. 23. and he shall finde there is no such question or answer in that Chapter nor in that Evangelist neither is there any thing like it and therefore you falsifie the Scriptures to make a colourable answer to that which is unanswerable and what you quote out of the 17. of Luke 20. 21. is spoken upon another occasion and the answer concerned not the Pharisees but was directed to the Disciples verse 22. and he said unto his Disciples c. I think there is no man so deluded except your self as to think that Christ should tell the Pharisees that the kingdome of Heaven was within them of whom he had given this Testimony in the words before that their inside was full of extortion and excess that they were like unto painted Sepulchers full of dead mens bones and of all uncleanness But you say the Kingdome of Heaven was within the Scribes and Pharisees though yet they knew it not But Christ that knew all things knew them intus in cute he knew their conditions and concluded they were a generation of Vipers and should not escape the damnation of Hell You tell us our Schools will never teach us this lesson of knowing Christ within us First you are ignorant what Doctrine the Schools teach and I therefore can give no account of it a fools bolt is soon shot praised be God our Schools teach no such doctrine as you teach nor any of the
An Answer To a printed BOOK falsely Intituled A BLOW AT THE SERPENT It being truly A BLOW of the SERPENT lately published by one Richard Coppin Wherein among many others these following Heresies and Abominable Errours of his are briefly and plainly confuted out of the Word of God 1 That the Deitie of Christ was united to the sinful Nature of MAN and consequently that his conception was impure 2 That there is no Resurrection of the body 3 That the pains of Hell are not eternal 4 That there is no General Day of Judgement but such a Temporal judgement only as befals MEN in this world 5 That God will not destroy any MAN but only Sin in MAN 6 That all shall be saved the Divel not excepted 7 That the Humane Nature of Christ is not ascended into Heaven By EDWARD GARLAND M. A. and Minister of Gods Word at HARTCLIP in KENT Vt homo circa Mortem Phantasias videt sic et Mundus in exitu suo multos patietur Errores Chrysost. in Mat. Hom. 48. 2. Pet. 2. 1. 2. 3. But there were false Prophets also among the People even as there shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in most damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of And through covetousness shall they with fained words make Merchandize of you whose judgement now of a long time lingreth not and their Damnation slumbreth not LONDON Printed for Philemon Stephens in St. Pauls Church Yeard 1657. To the worshipful his much honoured friend and kinsman Robert Watson of Friendsbury in Kent Esq Worthy Sir I Have read over Coppins Book which you were pleased to leave with me And I finde it to be a magazine of Heresies a Pandora's box full of dangerous poyson which Satan hath sent him with into the world to infect the people of God Indeed it is painted over with a golden title for he calls it truth triumphing against falsehood when there is scarce any thing of truth in it But this is a common practise which such Hereticks of whom Hillarie Ingerunt nobis primum nomina veritatis ut virus falfitatis introeat they first set forth unto us the names of truth that the poyson of falsehood may enter now with them Hill de Trin. lib. 6. and St. Aug who was well acquainted with these cunning practises saith that the promise of truth which they are continually making is nothing but a vaile to cover their errours or a goodly fore-gate for errours to enter in stealing into the minde of the unskilful Aug cont. ep. fundantur cap. 11. wherefore St. Paul gives the Church of God an Item to beware of them Rom. 16. verse 17 18. now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple I did think him not worthy the answering as indeed he is not but because I hear he hath done much mischief to the Church of Christ and drawn many proselytes after him I thought it not amiss to borrow so much time from my imployment in the publick ministerie as to return an answer hoping that it might reclaim some of those that are gone astray or else at least settle those who have not departed away or confirm those as have defended the truth against this uncircumcised Philistin of which number Sir I understand you have been one who with Mr. Maior of Rochester some worthy ministers gentlemen Captains and Commanders have laboured to stop the flood of errours which this Serpent hath cast out of his mouth Sir I desire you all not to be weary of well doing your praise will remain in the Church of Christ besides in due time ye shall reap if ye faint not But Sir I conceive the best way to deal with this clamorous Heretick is not by extemporal speaking but by writing let the arguments answers and replies be set down and setled on both sides and then the Church of Christ will easily judge that his doctrine is not from above but from below not from the father of lights but from the father of lies and forger of delusions Sir I shall adde no more at present then that I desire the God of truth to establish you in the truth and to encrease your happiness not only here on earth but in the highest Heavens which is the prayer of your obliged friend and servant EDWARD GARLAND On J. L. and his Verses prefixt to Richard Coppins Heretical Book entituled a Blow at the Serpent truly a Blow at the brazen Serpent Scribimus indocti doctique LIke as a Black-brow'd Whifler to the Play A masked Poetaster leads the way J. L. or Iohn of Leydens ghostly front His Vizard is it frights me to look on 't And that dull Ray shot from the Fiery lake Coppins new light we for his Link may take Being thus prepared up he rashly climes Parnassus foot and belcheth forth his Rimes But with such fortunate success be 't known The Ballet-makers vote him all their own And joy their Tribes increase when loe the Prise He 's but some old one in a new disguise Mean while the Nine and all Apollos Court Have sentenced the bold Intruder for 't And that because he never slumbred on Parnassus or the Banks of Helicon Nor hath been dip't in the Font-Caballine Though in some perhaps right Asinine And all admire that he should have the face To commence Poet with so little Grace When neither Art nor nature seem to be Concurrent in him unto Poetry What Stuffe hath he dropt from his Gooses quill To praise a Subject suitable as ill Had learn'd Erasmus been as void of wit And Art when he the * Praise of Folly writ He would have wanted one to praise him too As both this Poet and his Author do For what appears of Wit or rather shame Is only the concealing of his Name Whereby we doubt what Soul this Mevius yields Although we know not the Arcadian fields But as the Mountain breeds and teem's to light The sillie Mouse that nibbles out of sight Some Pelion hath this Pigmy Poet born To Cant for Baal and Gods Church to scorn To lurk in dark concealment and revile His Ministers in a mad Chem'rim's Stile What doth his Caution fancy'd from the course Of Stars but shew he 's Lunatick or worse And could he make an Almanack his Strein Would much out-rail old Chem ' rim Lilly's vein The Priests should surely have more wounds then any Nay then the Bloody naked man by many But since 't is plain he and his Author look Up to the Host of Heaven witness their Book We can't but judge
torment me not before the time You say that God hath been with you to make sweet and pleasant your sufferings and Imprisonment to you It is a fearful judgement when God gives up men so far to believe their own lies that their own Poyson becomes pleasant and delectable unto them and that he doth this we find 2. Thes. 2. 10 11 12. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness You boast of the sufferings as for the truth when they are for your abominable Blasphemie and bearing witness to lies for denying Christ Assention Session and the general day of judgement in that sense which the Scriptures deliver them unto us we know there are Pseudomartyrs as well as true Martyrs and as God comforts and supports the one so the Divel deludes and deceives the other for it is manifest to all sober Christians that read your Book you suffer not as a Martyr but as a Malefactor for rotten and detestable Heresies You complain some have revil'd you as a Blasphemer you should have said rebuk'd you What they have done I know not but I am sure it is their duty to warn their sheep to beware of the Wolf our Saviour himself hath done it Beware of false Prophets that come unto you in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Mat. 7. 15. and if they neglect to do it and the Sheep perish they shall answer for their blood Eze. 3. 20. But if they do it and the Sheep be slain the Shepherds shall deliver their own Souls Ez. 33. 9. And certainly a more dangerous Wolf or Heretick was not in the Church from the dayes of the Apostles until this time What do I speak of one if Pythagoras's transmigration of souls could captivate my belief I should not judge unreasonably should I judge that the souls almost of all the former Hereticks were transported into you for not any one of them maintained so many damnable opinions God give you a sight of your sin and grace to repent that if it be possible the sin of your heart may be forgiven you As for your Book it is a Labyrinth of errours and you your self a blind guid that run headlong into the pit of perdition and draw others after you For the Aspersions which you and your deceived followers cast upon us the Ministers we regard them not It is an honour to be evil spoken of by such companions especially for the truth and for righteousness-sake But we shall leave our cause to God and pray with the Psalmist Psal. 35. 1. plead thou our cause O Lord with them that fight against us and Psal. 27. 12. Deliver us not over unto the will of our enemies for false witnesses are risen up against us and such as speak wrong Before I enter upon this disputation it will be requisite to say somewhat of Blasphemie because it is much spoken of in the ensuing discourse To Blaspheme God is to detract from his sacred majestie to offer injurie to his holy name and dishonourable and reproachful speeches the sin of Pharaoh Exod. 5. 2. the sin of Rabshaketh 2. Kin. 18. the sin of the Israelitish womans son Lev. 24. 10. The punishment of this sin was death when it was manifest and notorious Lev. 24. 16. Dan. 3. 29. This sin is committed three wayes First when that is ascribed unto God which is repugnant to his nature as if any say he is corrupt or subject unto evil affections Secondly when that is taken from him which is proper unto him as when any shall say God is not merciful good just c. Thirdly when that is attributed to the creature which is proper to the Creator as when any shall say the Angels made the world or that a meer man can forgive sins Or if any shall assume to himself the name of the Messias as did the false Prophets c. moreover I may adde that Heresie is Blasphemie and that Hereticks are Blasphemers First because they manifestly oppose the truth and so God who is prima veritas upon which account St. Paul condemns Hymineus and Alexander 1. Tim. 1. 20. Secondly because they make God the Author of their lies by wresting his word to confirm their errours which is the property of Satan the patron of lies Thirdly because they set Gods stamp upon their counterfeit mettal telling the people it is Gods gold when it is no other then Satans dross of most of which this Heretick is guiltie as will appear by the ensuing discourse these things premised I proceed Christ who knew no sin you say took part of mans flesh and blood which was sinful Again you say Christ took upon him the sinful nature of all that sinned By Christ it seems you mean the Deity And by sinful nature you mean his Humanitie for what else can be your sense Which Proposition is both false and Blasphemous for the Holy Ghost in the conception sanctifi'd the Masse whereof Christ was made and separated it from sin Luke 1. 35. The Angel said the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall over-shadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God The holy thing which shall be born of thee implies he was holy before he was born And this was done upon special cause First that it might be joyned to the Person of the Son which could not have been if it had been defiled with sin Secondly Christ was a Saviour as he was both God and man If he had been sinful himself he could not have saved others but should have stood in need of a Saviour himself therefore the humane nature of Christ was not polluted with Original sin but was sanctified And this sanctification hath two parts First the stoppage to the propagation of Original Corruption and the guilt of Adams Sin which was on this manner God in the beginning set down this order concerning man that what evil or defect he brought upon himself he should derive the same to every one of his Posteritie begotten of him and accordingly when any father begets his Child he is in the place of Adam and conveys into it beside the nature of man the very guilt and corruption of nature now for preventing this evil in Christ God provided in great wisdome that he should be conceived by the Holy Ghost without any generation by man and by this means he took the substance of the Virgin Mary and not the guilt and corruption of the substance Secondly as your proposition is false so it is blasphemous for you charge Christ with Original sin for as the soul and body make but one man So the divine and humane nature make but one Christ not the divine nature alone as you erroneously suppose
faith because as the body from the head receives life and motion so do we from Christ who is our head and we his members You tell us that God the Father did appear as a Son Which is false it was God the Son that took our nature upon him In the fulness of time God sent his Son Gal. 4. 4. The Father never appeared or spake immediately but twise and that was at the Baptisme of Christ and in his Transfiguration Mat. 3. 17. Mat. 17. 5. You say now so long as man is without this manifestation of God which is Christ in him he is a Reprobate This is also false for Christ telleth us that he hath Sheep that are not called aswell as Sheep that are called Iohn 10. 16. other Sheep I have which are not called that is that have not this spiritual manifestation Now until men are called and converted we know they have not the manifestation of the spirit and we know also that there is a spiritual desertion sometimes for trial as in Iob sometimes for correction as in David and yet neither of these were Reprobates You say what is a Reprobate but not to have Christ in you Which is a most absurd definition of a Reprobate and to prove it you produce Rom. 1. 28. because they did not like or retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate minde When Reprobation is a part of Gods eternal decree whereby God hath purposed to pass by some that were in the state of corruption as well as to elect others unto eternal salvation Rom. 9. 11 12 13. c. Now how doth your definition suit unto this Nay how doth that of Rom. 1. 28. prove your definition which was a spiritual judgement inflicted upon the Heathen for not walking according to that natural light which God had imprinted in their minds which indeed was a fearful judgement whether it be taken actually or passively if actually as a mind approving things to be reproved and reproving things to be approved a mind judging good to be evil and evil to be good Iob 21. 14. Isa. 5. 20. Wo unto them that call good evil and evil good that put light for darkness and darkness for light Or else passively as a mind reprobated and rejected of God and such a mind was in Abab who sold himself c. in Iudas that sold his Master in Esau that sold his birth-right or blessing Something more is insinuated by you in the end of this Chapter for universal Redemption And to prove it you mention that of 1 Tim. 2. 4 5. Who will have all men to be saved c. which is understood of his revealed will which is if they repent and believe Iohn 3. 14 15 16. Mark 1. 15. Mat. 16. 15 16. Acts 20. 20 21. and many more places so that if they repent and believe they shall be saved if not for ought that God hath revealed unto us they are utterly lost But have all men power to repent and believe By nature they have not For we are dead in trespasses and sins Ephe. 2. 5. and God must quicken and put life into us before there can be any motion in us and this he doth put into his elect by his spirit the Word and Sacraments being instruments Ephes. 4. 20. which because God doth minister by men it is therefore attributed to the Ministers of the Gospel 1 Cor. 4. 15. Let therefore men so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. Trample not therefore Gods Ordinances under your feet lest you neglect your own Salvation CHAP. IX The subject of this Chapter is the sin against the Holy Ghost of the which I could wish you were as clear as you are ignorant but your ignorance must be your best Plea otherwise scarce any ventured farther to be guiltie of it then you have done First we will set down the nature of it so far forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures unto us It is called the sin against the Holy Ghost not because it is done only against the Deitie of the Holy Ghost for he that sins against the Deitie of the Holy Ghost sins also against the Deitie of the Father and the Son because the three Persons are all one God but because it is against the immediate action of the Holy Ghost that is against his immediate Illumination for albeit this be a work common to the three Persons in the Trinity yet because the Father and the Son do effect this by the holy Ghost it is therefore called the sin against the holy Ghost onely 1. The efficient cause of it is obstinate Malice against God and against Christ as in Julian the Apostate who when he was strucken with an arrow received the blood issuing out of his wound into his hands he threw it up despitefully into the Aire and cryed Vicisti Galilee 2 The object of this sin is God himself and the mediator Jesus Christ Heb. 10. 29 30. 3. The subject in which it is found is onely such as have been inlightned by the spirit of God and have tasted of the good gift of God Heb. 6. 5. So that the elect cannot commit this sin and therefore they that feel in themselves a sure testimony of their election need not despaire for they are kept by the power of God unto life everlasting This sin cannot be forgiven not because it is greater then the merit of Christ can satisfie for but because after a man hath once committed this sin it is impossible for him to repent for the gift of Repentance proceedeth from the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost remaineth in us through Christ apprehended by faith now no man doth apprehend Christ who doth maliciously despise and contemn him Out of this which hath been spoken we may thus define this sin The sin against the holy Ghost is a voluntary denyall of and blasphemie against the Son of God or of that truth which was before acknowledged concerning him and so consequently a Vniversal defection from God and his Church We have an Example of this in the devil who though he knew well enough that Iesus was the Christ yet he never ceased both wittingly and willingly to oppose the very sacred Majesty of God in him together with the kingdom of Iesus that as far forth as he could he might utterly supplant the same by the Pharisees Mat. 12. 32. Iohn 3. 2. Now Sir consider whether those men that have maintained the articles of that faith into which they have been baptized which articles have been and are professed by all the true Christian Churches in the world and are firmly g rounded upon the word of God which is the pillar of our faith have committed this sin or you that have first profest and afterwards fallen away from the faith and opposed the chief Articles or fundamental points of it as Christs conception in saying he
saith the Lord God behold I judge between Cattel and Cattel between the Rams and the he-Goats which is point-blank against you unless you could prove the Reprobates to be the Sheep of Christ which doubtless you are ready enough to hold Jerem. 33. 6. Behold I will bring it health and cure and I will cure them and I will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth To whom is this spoken to Babylon of the Caldeans or to spiritual Babylon the corps of the Reprobate Do not the words following shew that it is spoken to Judah and Jerusalem the Church of God observe the words I will cause the captivitie of Judah and of Israel to return and build them as at the first c. I see you are much necessitated when you bring those promises that God makes unto the house of David Verse 21. to prove the salvation of the reprobate Rom. 5. 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto Justification of life Read the verse following For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous the purpose of the Apostle is to shew that as Adam by his disobedience destroyed all his Posteritie so Christ by his obedience saved all his seed that is all that were the seed of Abraham not according the flesh but according to the Spirit Rom. 9 7 8. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be blessed that is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed 1 Cor. 15. 22. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive What the Apostle brings here to prove the Resurrection of the body you urge to prove the Resurrection of the soul a goodly argument But suppose we grant it yet will not the Text help you at all for the genuine sense of it must be this as all that were in Adam died so all that are in Christ are made alive Luke 19. 10. For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost It is true but it is meant those that know and acknowledge themselves to be lost as the Prodigal did that say in themselves I will go to my father and say unto him father I have sinned c. Luke 15. Christ prayed for his enemies that had imbrued their hands in his blood because they did it out of ignorance Luke 23. 34. Father forgive them for they know not what they do It is true he did and his prayers were heard for some of them were converted by St. Peters Sermon as appeareth out of Acts 2. but yet it doth not follow that he prayed for the Reprobate he teacheth us the contrary where he sayeth I pray not for the World but for them that thou hast given me out of the world 1 John 2. 1 2. If any sin we have an Advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous who is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World I answer as at the beginning that he is a propitiation sufficient for the sins of the whole World but not efficient because all do not believe 1. Tim. 2. 4. Who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth Which must not be understood of his secret will but of his revealed according to which he would have them to be saved if they repent and believe the Gospel otherwiâ—e they cannot expect Salvation and this is agreeable to that doctrine which Christ commanded his Disciples to preach Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Others answer that the Apostle speaks not de singulis generum sed de generibus singulorum that is of all sorts and conditions of men as appears by the words going before But here I wonder to what purpose you bring in the History of the ten Lepers and that in such a fashion that if you did not help it with a lame exposition in the latter end of your book Article 21. a man would judge that you mean Christ was one of them I wonder I say to what purpose you will say to prove that all men shall be saved for this is the subject of the whole Chapter then the summe of the argument must be this ten Lepers were cured by Christ and but one of them returned to give thanks therefore all shall be saved a goodly conclusion But had you any ingenuity or love to truth you would have argued as any School-boy would have done thus ten Lepers were healed by Christ and but one of them returned to give thanks therefore but one of them shall be saved is not this the most probable of the two Seeing Christ himself hath taught us that few are they that shall be saved Mat. 7. 14. Lastly you say that this Doctrine of the love of God to all men is the only means to keep them from sin This is a way both disagreeable to the word and will of God and also to reason That it is to the word of God I have already sufficiently proved yet I will adde more Jude 22 23. And of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire Those that sin either out of weakness of judgement or want of strength are to be gently dealt with but those that sin out of wilfulness are sharply to be reproved Titus 1. 13. Thus Peter did Simon Magus Acts 8. 20. 21 22 23. or as Paul did Elymas the sorcerer Acts 13. 10 11. when wounds are corrupted and stink they ought first to be cleansed before we pour in Balm otherwise we shall heal them deceitfully like false Prophets such as your self is Jerem. 6. 14. They have healed the hurt of the Daughter of my people slightly saying peace peace when there is no peace It is also disagreeable to reason suppose a man to have two sons on which he hath a large Patrimony to bestow and being committed to the care of a Tutor one of them proves a Prodigal I mean not such a Prodigal as is returned from his evil wayes but an incorrigible one that is in the full career of Vice his Tutor intending as in duty bound to reclaim him tells him his father beareth a great deal of love towards him and notwithstanding his evil courses cannot will not disinherit him and much more to this purpose will any one think that this is the best and most rational course to reclaim him Surely no but rather a means to increase his licentiousness a good Tutor will rather with a severe and
But to help the matter you make it a thing of indifferency And say I deny it none whose tender conscience doth desire it using that of St. Paul spoken of things indifferent 1 Cor. 9. 22. When it is a thing so far from being indifferent and so necessary that the wilful neglect and contempt thereof is a damnable sin Iohn 15. 22. Gen. 17. 14. yet I doubt not upon deep repentance God will forgive it Read Bern. Epist. 77. The next thing to be taken notice of is that you return to your former Vomit which you cast up in the 14th Chapter and which you again lick up in the second Article towards the end of your Book You say God will destroy mans sins and iniquities but not man And to make people believe this you run through a great many passages of Scripture as if they made for you when in truth they and the whole current of the Word of God are against it I will recite a few amongst many Psal. 5. 6. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing and the Lord abhors both the bloody and deceitful man not the lies and deceits of men only but them that speak lies and work deceit such as your self without repentance which God of his mercy give you Psal. 11. 6 7. Vpon the ungodly he shall rain snares fire and Brimstone storms and tempests this shall be the portion of the wicked upon the ungodly the Psalmist sayes speaking of their persons not of sins Psal 9. 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God wicked people and Nations not wickedness and national sins only And this is verified in the destruction of the old world 1 Pet. 3. 20. In Corah and his company Num. 16. 33. In Iudas the son of Perdition Iohn 17. 12. who is said to go to his place Acts 1. 25. whither all ungodly men shall go without repentance in the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3. 7. he doth not say in the day of perdition of their sins but of themselves Read Iude Verse 15. 2 Thes. 1. 7 8 9. many more places I could adde to the same purpose but that you have done it to my hand as that in Psal. 21. 8 9. Thine hand shall finde out all thine enemies thy right hand shall finde out those that hate thee thou shalt make them as a fiery Oven in the time of thine anger the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devoure them Where it is manifest the Prophet speaks of Persons not of sins of substances not of accidents that do adhere to subjects as for your idle shift that he means the Bryars and thorns in them it is false God doth not consume the Bryars and Thorns as you call them in Impenitent sinners but punishes them and their Bryars and Thorns together and none shall quench them Isa. 1. 32. the soul that sinneth shall die Eze. 18. 20. The Lord will plead the cause of the poor and spoil the souls of those that spoiled them Pro. 22. 23. as for that place you alledge out of 1 Cor. 3. 15. it is expounded and fully answered before in my answer to your third Chapter Page 18. Again you object that of Iacob and Esau Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated a place so fully against you that were you not hardned it were sufficient to convert you They were the sons of Isaac by Rehecca Gen. 25. 26 27 28. where you may read the History at large of whom St. Paul says Rom. 9. 11 12. They being not yet born neither having done good or evil it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger as it is writtten Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated therefore he means not Esau's sins But here you fall to your old shift of Allegorizing the Scriptures but very unhandsomely that place of Obad. 17 18 21. quoted in your Margent Page 77. spoils your Allegory the words are these Vpen Mount Sion shall be deliverance and there shall be holiness and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions and the house of Iacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame and the house of Esau for Stubble and they shall kindle in them and devour them and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for the Lord hath spoken it Here God threatens to destroy the house of Esau and to establish his Church the house of Jacob they should dwell in their possessions he would destroy Esau by the house of Iacob Iacob should be to them like a fire and they should be like stubble which was verify'd in Mac. 2. 10. You object Isa. 27. 4 9. Fury is not in me who would set the Briars and Thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together The sense of which words is this fury is not in me to destroy the Vineyard read the three Verses before but fury is in me to destroy the Adversaries of it though they set themselves in battel against me like Bryars and Thorns yet could I go through them and burn them together The purpose of the Prophet here is to foretel the destruction of Leviathan that crooked Serpent take it either for the Type or Antitype for the Assyrian or Satan and in that day shall the Church sing a song of Triumph Verse 2 3. Secondly verse 9. by this shall the iniquitie of Jacob be purged by what by their repentance whereof he sets down the fruits which should shew themselves in the reformation from Idolatrie when he should overthrow the Altars and Groves of their images Now what is all this to prove as you would have it the purging away of in iniquity form Esau from the wicked and reprobate 1. Here is a destruction of Satan and the wicked threatned 2 A song of Triumph for the execusion of Gods judgments 3. A promise to spare the house of Jacob because they repent And therefore your Allorizing is absurd and erroneous most repugnant to the meaning of the Prophet in this Chapter whose intention is to shew that God will destroy the wicked who are but as briers and thorns when they set themselves in battle against him he will break through them and consume them as fire doth wood Here that place in Isa. 6. 6 7. is also brought to garnish your errour and in this manner God caused a Seraphim with a coal from the Alter to touch the mouth of the Prophet to take his iniquity away whom he was about to send on his message and fit for his calling therefore God will purge lips and take away the iniquity of the reprobate and false Prophets A goodly conclusion is it not it seems plainly your lips have not been touched with such a coal that you utter such abominable falsities and so abuse the Scriptures You reach in Mal. 3.