Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
work_n cause_n faith_n justification_n 11,997 5 9.4732 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A61105 The vvay to everlasting happinesse: or, the substance of christian religion methodically and plainly handled in a familiar discourse dialogue-wise: wherein, the doctrine of the Church of England is vindicated; the ignorant instructed, and the faithfull directed in their travels to heaven. By Benjamin Spencer, preacher of the word of God at Bromley neer Bow in Middlesex. Spencer, Benjamin, b. 1595? 1659 (1659) Wing S4945; ESTC R222156 362,911 329

There are 5 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

society then murther for that destroieth but some men but Heresie and Schisme destroieth or endeavoureth to destroy the Church 2. Murther can but destroy the body but this the soule Murther destroies only naturall life but this destroieth life spirituall and eternall Beside Heresie rents a man from the truth and Schisme from the communion of the Church and so breaks the bond of unity and charity by which God is forsaken as well as the Church and if they think to maintain these rents they have made from the Church of England to be lawfull let them tell you what Church hath lesse error or lesse evill manners and yet maintains none either by her doctrine or authority I beleeve they will find even the Church of Corinth and many of the Churches of lesser Asia to be guilty of greater error and worse manners then the Church of England was when they separated from it and yet Paul cals one the Church of God and Christ in the Revelation doth call the other Churches yet these men while they condemn the Church of England of tyranny they have been more cruell to themselves by separation then the Church could be or was by excommunication Mathe. I pray before you tell me of their punishments let me know what other kind of Sectaries have vexed the Church Phila. Papists when they were in authority they persecuted the Church when they were supprest Papists then secretly they corrupt the Church By Papists I mean not the old before the Trent Councill or rather Conventicle begun in the year 1546. in the time of Pope Paulus the third though they were bad enough but the Papists that sprung up since because they have brought in new errors as other new Sectaries have done As 1. Concerning free will that it works by it selfe with grace in our conversion though the Apostle saith that the naturall man receiveth not the things of God 2. 1 Cor. 2.14 They say originall sin is quite taken away in baptisme so that it ceaseth to be sin yet St. Paul saith that when he doth that which is evill it is by sin that dwelleth in him Rom. 7.17 So they hold that the certainty of salvation depends only upon hope not on faith contrary to John 1.12 saying Christ gave them power to be made the sons of God that beleeved on his name They say the merit of Christs death and obedience is our satisfaction not our righteousnesse but Paul saith he was made to us righteousnesse and made sin for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him So they say we are justified by a generall faith of apprehension by which we beleeve the Scriptures to be true but Paul saith by a particular faith of application of Christ and all his merits to our selves as Gal. 2.20 who died for me and gave himselfe for me So they say a man is not justified by faith alone but by other vertues but Paul saith we are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law for indeed good works do but justifie our faith not us nor do they justifie us as a cause but are signs and fruits of our justification So they say a man may merit at Gods hands because God hath promised to reward us and Christ hath deserved that out works should merit but Paul refuseth all for Christs merits and desireth only to be found in him Phil. 3.9 and not in his own righteousnesse So they say that Christ hath satisfied for our sins and eternall punishment belonging to them but the temporall we must satisfie in this world or in purgatory It is true we must satisfie men for wrongs done this is but a civill satisfaction So we must fatisfie the Church by some testimony of repentance if we have offended the Church but we know of none we can make to God but only in Christ and for purgatory after life we find none in Scripture but beleeve as death leaves us so judgement finds us So they talk much of traditions to be beleeved as necessary to salvation because the Apostle bids the Thessalonians to hold fast the traditions which they had been taught 2 Thes 2.14 whether by word or by our Epistle But then they ought to prove to us that the traditions which they would have us receive are such as were delivered of Christ to his Apostles or from the Apostles to the Church 2 Tim. 3.16 or else give us leave only to hold that the Scriptures alone hold forth to us all things necessary to salvation So they hold vowes of things not commanded are a part of Gods worship such as is a vowed single life wilfull poverty and blind regular obedience which destroy Christian Liberty and therefore till they prove such things commanded in Scripture they must give us leave to hold only our vow in baptisme and to reject the other as humane inventions of seducing spirits spoken against 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. So they hold the worshipping of images to be a religious work but that is forbidden in the second Commandement which they have taken away and divided the tenth into two Pascha Raubertus first sets it forth in lib de Corp. Christi sang cap 14. Ioannes Diaconus in vita Grego 1. Legend of Simeon Metaphrastes in vit Arsenii the better to bring the people to image-worshipping So they hold Christ to be bodily present in the Communion Bread and Wine a strange opinion which was at first but at School-Question afterward maintained by tales and fictions of Christ appearing in the Sacrament like a little child A shamefull opinion to subject Christ to orall eating and gutturall swallo wing True it is that Christ is really there present in a spirituall and mysticall manner in a Sacramentall relation to the signs and by faith to the beleeving receivers yet I know the Church of Rome hath peremptorily condemned them for hereticks that would not hold the bodily presence For Pope Leo the ninth and Victor the second and Nicolaus the second called Councils against Berengarius who had disproved it by Aug. and Scotus Yet Pope Innocent the third in his Conventicle of Lateran gave it the name of Transubstantiation and ratified the doctrine thereof and hath been the destruction of many a godly Martyrs life in the time of Queen Mary So they call the Lords Supper a sacrifice which they call the Masse and it serves for the quick and dead with them But it is not properly so called but only as it is a memoriall of Christs offering up himselfe or because then we do in Christ offer up our selves a living sacrifice or because we make an offering at that time for the Minister and the poor So they make fasting it selfe a part of Gods worship Rom. 14.17 whereas the Kingdome of God consisteth not in meat or drink nor in fasting from it though temperance is a good vertue in a Christian but to set up a necessity of formall fasting as a piece of
This swelling title of head of the Church and Christs Vicar and Universall Bishop was a forerunning signe of Antichrist as said Gregory the great who was Pope in his seventh Book Greg. M. lib. 4. Ep. 36. and Epist 39. to Mauritius the Emperor and therefore he much declined and waved such titles Mathe. I pray what think you of Antichrist what or who is he Phila. You know St John tels you there were many Antichrists in his time 1 John 2.18 that is some that were contrary to the Gospell of Christ in faith or manners or both Jerom. in Mat. 24. Some account all the heads of Heresies to be Antichrists Others say that they be such as overthrow all good manners and so one describes the state of the Church of Rome saying that the Princes and Judges are the beasts seale Papa Honorius in dial de libero arbit the Clergy his pavilion the Monasteries his Tabernacle the Nunneries his bedchamber and the people to bear his image This he spake of the second Beast Rev. 13.11 And Bernard the Abbot saith plainly Bern. ad Gaufrid Lorat Epi. 125. who writ about 546 years since that the Beast in the Revelation to whom a mouth is given speaking blasphemies is he that sits in Peters chair The other Beast is more subtle as this is cruell yet both joine against Christ So many other conclude the Pope and Papacy to be that man of sin and son of perdition that hath laied an opposite foundation to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thes 2.3 4. politickly pretending Christian profession and yet overturning his truth Indeed if one would be lead by Chronograms or the numerall letters in the word Lateinos Pet. Mart. in 2 Reg. 4. Iren. l. 5. c. 25. or Ecclesia Italica or in the Hebrew word Romiith or in Maometis one may find the number of the Beast Rev. 13.18 which is 666. about which time after Christ the Pope was made supreme and universall Bishop in the West and Mahomet chiefe Prophet in the East And though I will not build my faith on numbers in names nor do I think that all names be imposed inevitably by the influence of the stars yet this is not altogether to be despised since Nimrods name included his nature i. an apostate rebell and Cyrus his name in Hebrew was like himselfe wh was an head to the people and in the Persian language a glorious Sun This Antichristianity is called the mysterie of iniquity 2 Thes 2.7 for it is a secret wickednesse in the name and nature of it for Antichrist may signifie one that is a vicegerent for Christ As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Deputy or a Lievetenant for him and thus the Pope would be thought Christs Vicar because he sitteth in the Temple of God or a part of the Church visible corrupted and exalts himselfe above all earthly power that hath given to it the title of God or Lord and shewing himselfe as God 2 Thes 2.4 both in placing and displacing Kings and forgiving sins So is the nature of his doctrine opposed to Christ very subtilly namely because faith must appear by works therefore to set up works to justifie our persons which works the popish writers call also the works of faith not of the law though they be but works of mens inventions and so they prefer works before the formall righteousnesse of Christ imputed to man for justification Mahomet speaks also very well of Christ but he enjoins externall works of his own collection by which men must be saved So the Pope and Mahomet join in one against Christ in this and also in holding that the holy Scriptures are not sufficient for salvation but their canons and rules of obedience have more attributed to them for performance then the obedience of faith which devices are like the locusts that came out of the bottomlesse pit of their inventions Rev. 9. having the face of a reasonable creature but a scorpions sting which gives no rest to the soule but poisons it yet if hue and cry were made after the Pope and Mahomet a man might justly stop the Pope upon suspicion of being the more proper Antichrist for these reasons First because the name of Antichrist agreeth most properly to him and his seat yea all the descriptions of Antichrist in Scripture doth so likewise But by the Pope we mean not every Bishop of Rome from the Primitive times for many of them were Confessors and Martyrs till the time of Sylvester neither was Antichrist discovered much till Boniface the third took from the Emperor Phocas the name of Universall Bishop and his See of Rome to be called the supreme head of all Churches After this we find in the Pope and Church of Rome all the marks of Antichrist for he sets in the Temple of God like an Hornet in a Bee hive driving out the labouring Bees and devouring their hony The popish writers make this an argument of their Church being the true Church and Temple of God because Antichrist sits there It is true that they have the name and shew of a Church Christian but have neither true Doctrine nor Sacraments in their simplicity as the Scripture sets them forth and hath delivered them to the Church so that they have only the name of a Church as Sardis had that she was living but indeed was dead Rev. 3.1 And in this Church Antichrist sitteth as a usurping Tyrant over Gods ordinances abusing them and changing them at his pleasure and over all authority Ecclesiasticall and Civill that beareth any similitude of Elohim even as St Paul foretold 2 Thes 2.3 4. And this may be proved from their own writers some of them saying that it is not lawfull for any man to reprove what the Pope approves for all men ought to be judged by him Zodericus Zamorra lib. 2. cap. 1. but he by none and that he hath all power in heaven and earth so assuming to himselfe the right of Christ as well as his title King of Kings and Lord of Lords which made him so bold as to let Emperors kisse his feet Alexand. pap 3 and to set his foot upon the neck of the Emperor Frederick abusing the 91 Psalm saying thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Dragon as also Pius the fift did when he deposed Queen Elizabeth abused Jer. 1.10 Behold I have appointed thee this day over Nations and Kingdomes Beside is not he right Antichrist that arrogates to himselfe power over Gods word and his law and saith Gratia in gloss that he can dispense with the law of nature and contrary to the Apostles and therefore hath dispensed with Princes to marry their brothers wives which St John Baptist would not allow to Herod and make parricides saints and forgives sins to the unrepentant yea sins before they are committed yea they say it is lesse dangerous to break Gods Commandements then the Popes
or concoct before they can mix to make a perfect conception yet no doubt the spirituall parts being more quick and active do move in a lesse time and are conceived at the first meeting of the parents seed and so become the form of man from his very beginning which if the seed should want the generation comes to nothing because it wants a form to inform and dispose the matter towards quickning But then you will say Obj. the soule must needs be weak at first but it groweth and increaseth with the body and then it must decrease and die with the body To this it is answered Ans That the soul of man is at first what it will ever be but wanting organs and fit means to exercise her power she lyeth still as seed in the ground for a season till the means to expresse it selfe be administred yet the vegetative soule of the seed is as perfect in it at first as at last and so is the soule in man for it being the essentiall form of the creature and the prime act it must be perfect at first as well as in the processe or else it cannot give perfection to the other parts of the creature because it is not perfected in it selfe Mathe. But all this that you say doth but yet probably set forth that it is so but doth not directly prove it Phila. You say true for indeed the generation of mankind is more wonderfull then any other creature as in Psal 139.6 14. David confesseth the knowledge too wonderfull for him But when I conceive how that some main points of Christian Religion depends upon this opinion I had rather speak something against reason then any thing against Religion Mathe. Make that forth namely that the production of humane souls by propagation hath ground in Christian Religion Phila. If it be found in Scripture or by just consequence drawn therefrom then it may be founded on true Religion And that it is so I find 1. By Gods institution Increase multiply and fill the earth Gen. 1.27 i. not with bodies only but with persons of men consisting of soule and body or else other creatures had power to preserve their own kind and not he who is the best of all 2. We find that God so ordered nature in the creation that every thing in nature should persist by themselves and multiply their kinds that he might make no new creatures after that he ceased from all his work which he had made 3. So we read that God took Eve out of Adam yet no mention is made of a new soule infused into her Nor can I understand lesse in Gods promise That the seed of the woman should break the serpents head but that a person should come of the womans seed who should do it which person must consist of a soule as well as a body or else Christ redeemed mankind by a body without a soule Mathe. Was not Christs soule created immediately of God Phila. No otherwise then ours is and that ours is not we have proved in part and will prove it farther and next that Christs soule was not First that ours is not is plaine from the description of Adams begetting Seth after his own likenesse Gen. 5.3 if by likenesse and image we understand the spirituall form rather then the bodily frame as it is said When God made man after his image Gen. 1.27 So when God said to Abraham I will be the God of thy seed it must be understood of an informed seed not a seed inanimate for God is not said to be the God of a senslesse no more then of a livelesse or dead substance Mat. 22.32 To this purpose also I conceive that the Scriptures say so many souls came of Jacobs loins which if some say it is figuratively spoken yet I know not how a man may be said to be a father of that to which he contributeth the least and more base part of substance Nor is that of Zachary the Prophet to be neglected which saith Zach. 12.1 The Lord formeth the spirit of a man within him for it sheweth first the Lord to be the externall efficient without whose immediate act of providence the soule cannot be traduced and the word forming which is not creating sheweth the manner of it as done by his power yet not created only as not propagated only but formed within man of the spirituall matter of the parents informing their seed in this regard it is said of David Psal 51.5 Ps 51. in sin my mother conceived me not my body sure but my whole nature So when our Saviour saith that which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3.6 he meaneth the whole man and if so then the soule which if immediately created of God cannot possibly be called flesh nor properly fleshly that is sinfull beside if the soule be not propagated how may originall sin be possibly conveied for by one man sin entred and by him therefore it must be conveied to his off-spring for the doing whereof propagation is the most apt and likeliest way because every like begets his like so sinfull man begetting man propagates with him a potentiality of sinning from the first mans privation of originall righteousnesse and inclination to evill but this cannot be unlesse the soule be derived from the parents for the body is not the subject of sin but the whole man for if the soule be immediately created of God it must be good and pure and if so then he cannot justly cast it into an evill condition without a first guiltinesse Gen. 18.25 nor can the soule but unwillingly unite with the body to become sinfull But surely I understand not if the soule be immediatly created how it can be corrupted or made sinfull for from whence should the corruption arise from the soule it cannot being created good from the body it cannot being meer matter neither capable of vertue or vice because it wants intellect will and affection If you say it ariseth from union how can that be if the soul be created good and the body be uncapable of evill If you say it comes by imputation you make God to do and undo to give good and take it away again without cause and so an unjust at least a vain work to give goodnesse to the soule and presently to take it away again by infusing it or uniting it to the body by which it should become sinfull I know some will say God may impute it to man for Adam's fall as well as righteousnesse to us for Christs merits but friend the case is much unlike for imputation of righteousnesse is a work of mercy which is to be done without cause but the imputation of sin is a work of justice which canot be done without some cause but if the soule be created pure and the body untainted with sin both because it is meer matter and sin of a spirituall nature which cannot taint meer passive matter then
revolution of things or else by some fatall necessity or else by chance Phila. Because there is no reason to ground such thoughts upon for till something was made out of nothing by creation there were no things to be the subject of revolution or if there were yet revolution runneth to confusion without a disposer to order those things Nor by fatall necessity for who should determine or impose that fatality but God who hath done what he pleased both in heaven and in earth and for whose pleasure all things are and were created Rev. 4. ult Nor did the world come by chance for no man can impute erection or making things to chance but rather destruction as death not birth Every house is builded by some man but he that made all things is God Heb. 3.4 For God first made the common matter of all things included in the first words of Moses Gen. 2.2 In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void which the Poets called Chaos and the Philosophers The first matter Chehn Vabobu This was made by the effective word of God who is Being it selfe Heb. 11.3 who gave this fusion by his word which Chaos or fusion had no power in it selfe to produce any thing no more then an egge can make it selfe a chick without some heat added thereunto Therefore the Spirit of God moved or coured on the waters Gen. 1.3 who by its vertue made a perfect digestion of this heape bringing that into act which was before only in possibility by giving it life and form as an Hen by sitting on an egge produceth a living creature Omnia sub uno igne genita sunt Trisme For as he first made the universall matter so next he made out of that first things more generall as the elements then things more imperfect as things without life before things with life that the things that had life might feed on them which had not as beasts on the herbs and Adam on the fruits Mathe. What did God make first Phila. The Mahometans say the first thing that God made was a pen A simple conceit it may be their Prophet put in that to make them beleeve God have him a transcript of his mind for them This pen surely was his wisedome and power by which he did expresse his mind by his works and his first work was light not to give him light with whom is no darknesse but to give light to his works that they reflecting one upon the other might all glorifie him whose light is the life of men John 1. By this light contracting or dilating it selfe the evening and morning was measured till God on the fourth day made the light to know its center the Sun as he did make every herb before it grew in their center the earth Gen. 2.5 From whence come such divers occult qualities though many of them grew upon one turfe Mathe. When were the Angels created and in what numbers Phila. Their number no doubt is innumerable as Dan. 7.10 a thousand times ten thousand ministred to God And they were no doubt created with the third heavens Philo in Peri-Cosmo Job their habitation and that was made the first day Gen. 1.1 And therefore Job cals them the morning stars and the sons of God shouting for joy at the beginning And the Apostle cals them Angels of light 1 Cor. 12. And of these no doubt some were superiour some inferiour as may be perceived by their severall names in Scripture Isa 6.2 Gen. 3.25 1 Thes 4.16 Colos 1.16 Seraphims Cherubins Archangels Angels Thrones Principalities Powers Dominions none of which he made to help him in creating the world as Simon Magus and Cerinthus and other hereticks have taught and so brought in the worshipping of Angels confuted by St Paul Col. 2.18 But surely God made them the first witnesses of his works and to administer to the Church of God and hath imploied them in the highest matters of the Church except in matters of his own prerogative viz. the justification and sanctification and the donation of grace and the like And so the Law was given by the ministration of Angels Gal. 3.49 Dan. 12.1 Zach. 12.1 Drusius Zeza in Rev. 1.4 and Michael the Archangel stands for the Jewes Dan. 10.21 And Zachary tels us there were seven eies set upon one stone i. some say seven spirits watching and guarding the new Temple of which Zorobabel laid the first stone So Gabriel is sent to instruct Daniel in the Vision and to Zacharias about John Baptists birth Luke 1. and to the blessed Virgin Mary concerning Christs conception and birth So Raphael accompanied Tobias and Jerechmiel instructs Esdras Tobit 5.4 These were elect Angels not only by predestination but eminence Mathe. But all the Angels continued not in their created estate how came that Phila. In their fall appeared first the effect of Gods foreknowledge and decree for many of them kept not their first estate and so brought in the first mutability Their sin was pride rebellion and envy Pride in seeking to stand by their own created perfection Heb. 1.6 without dependency on the grace of the second person Col. 1.15 whom they were to worship as Gods first born The chiefe of these is shadowed out in Scripture under the name of Lucifer and his glory by Nebuchadnezzer and the King of Tyrus Isa 14.12 He drew to his faction many others who liked not the said dependency Zanc. de laps Angel And to this they were moved by envy say some finding either by diligent inspection into Gods work or else by revelation that Gods first born would be a medium of uniting a more inferiour creature then an Angell to himselfe 1 Tim. 3.16 seen of Angels and that all the Angels of God must worship that glorious Union Upon this they fall into rebellion against whom stood up Michael and his Angels and by the power of the highest drove them down to these lower regions where they are reserved in chains of darknesse in a dim and uncomfortable knowledge of God against the judgement of the great day In the mean time he ruleth as a Prince in the aire especially in the hearts of the disobedient for whom is prepared the blacknesse of darknesse for ever Mathe. How do you gather that this was their sin Phila. Because he not only continueth in the same but also hath endeavoured to draw men into the same sins of pride envy and rebellion as our first parents to be as gods and to envy to God their obedience and to rebell against Gods commandement Beside we see that he hath alwaies kept up the same sin among men by making men to set up Idolatry some to aspire to be worshipped and called Elohim or Lords some to debase God to the image of creatures Gen. 4.26 vid. R. Kim Rom. 1.23 Some to root out Gods revelation of
scabit mutum said that God had revealed to him that Iohn should be King of the world and should destroy the Princes of the world by a mighty army but spare the simple multitude and such as would imbrace righteousnesse and that he should send forth twenty eight Apostles to convert the world to Anabaptisme And Iohn himselfe pretending to awake out of a trance seemed dumb like Zacharias wrote in tables that it was the will of God that twelve men of his naming should govern the City and that a man might marry as many wives as he pleased and he beheaded some that opposed it He himselfe took fifteen and many of these brethren upon this ordinance lay with the hansomest women without marriage or contract He was called King of New Ierusalem and proclaimed King of Zion But his Apostles were executed as seditious persons and he and his Prophet were hanged in iron chains upon the high steeple of St Lambert after Munster was taken 1535. being besieged halfe a year The madnesse of this man was strange for one of his wives pitying the distresse of the City he cut off her head himself in the market place Sleid. 154. And another time at his great feast to which another false Prophet had called Thuscocuvar had excited him as being sent from God he accused a man of treason and cut off his head and returning administred the communion with those bloody hands But for all he took on him the title of a King yet this shewed him a Butcher as the stealing the Churches rich vestments and making them into robes for himselfe argued he had been a Tailor After Iohns death the Anabaptists chose another King Hort. p. 74. who killed his wife in a wood that he might quietly lie with her daughter and killed a poor wench lest she should discover him This man had his house well stored with Church-plate He and his Treasurer were burned After him succeeds Iohn Cordwainer John Cordwainer Cornelius Appleman Ch. Nelles p. 52 55 56. John Wilhelms and then Cornelius Appleman both which were executed at Brussels as the Captains of theeves and committers of sacriledge Then Iohn Wilhelms executed also at Vtrecht He wrote a book in defence of Polygamy and affirmed that to rob the ungodly was no sin and that the land belonged to Jesus Christ and his disciples He had one and twenty wives some mother and daughter and some sisters daughters He was burned It is lamentable to behold these peoples hypocrisie Sleidan Bullinger They pretended nothing at first but holinesse humility and honesty They used no swearing nor obscene speech yet being once got aloft they broke all lawes of humanity and honesty so they would bear no office Hortensius Gastius yet at last would be Kings They said it was unlawfull for a Christian man to bear arms or punish offenders yet they made nothing of murdering many you may read more of them in divers authors Of this sect was David Georgius in Holland who said he was Jesus Christ David Georg and held many other wicked errors He fled out of the Low Countries to Basil and very covertly dispersed his errors but being dead they were revealed and by the Councill of Basil his bones were digged up and burned in detestation of his blasphemies Mathe. What be the common received opinions of these men and your judgement of them Phila. You are to understand that their opinions in divers times and places varied they not holding alwaies the same Anabapt opinions But their opinion first and last are neither fit for Church Commonwealth nor Families First not for the Church for they have affirmed that Christ did not take flesh of the Virgin Mary yet they can shew no other save her and for that the Scriptures prophecie that he should come of a woman Gen. 3. and of Davids line Psal 132.11 and that woman should be a virgin Isaiah the 7. and that her name was Mary saith Luke cap. 1. and yet she could not be his mother if he had not taken flesh of her nor our flesh have any hope of eternall life These are worse Christians then Turks Bulling adver Anab. fol. 6. for they beleeve he was so born but these curse the flesh of the Virgin and so deny Christ to be come in the flesh 2 Ioh. v. 7.2 they say in Moravia that Christ was not true God but only better gifted then other men yet St Iohn saith The Word was God Joh. 1.1 and Christ said he and his Father were one Joh. 10. and he that sees him seeth the Father Iohn 24.9 10. Michael Servetus a Spaniard held the same who was burnt in Geneva And Valentinus Gentilis who called the Creed of Athanasius the Creed of Satanasius he was justly executed at Berne Thirdly they hold we are not saved by faith but by the works of charity and affliction yet Christ saith we obtain eternall life by beleeving on him Iohn 3.16 So Paul Rom. 3.24 28. for afflictions they are either punishments of sin or Gods corrections but no causes of justification or salvation But the blood of Christ only clenseth us from all sin 1 Iohn 1. and by him only we have peace with God Rom. 5.1 And fourthly they deny originall sin because Christ hath taken away the sins of the world but that is the penalty not the being of it So they say that children doing neither good nor evill are under grace and without sin But then how comes death to lay hold on them Rom. 5.14 and cap. 6.23 And therefore fifthly they may well deny baptisme to them if they have no originall sin But Christ said let little children come to me and yet none can tell how they should come but by this Ordinance Sixthly they rebaptize people which is no where commanded in Scripture nor allowed by the Church nor the imperiall lawes which put them to death that did or suffered it to be done Seventhly they expect a Kingdome by some called the fist Monarchy wherein they hope to reign alone and destroy the ungodly This savours of carnall and worldly wisdome for Christs Kingdome is not of this world Iohn 18. but is spirituall so is the meat and drink of it Rom. so are the weapons of it 2 Cor. 10. Nor can they reign alone and kill all the ungodly unlesse they kill themselves too But both must grow together till the harvest Mat. 13. These people do but furbush the old error of the Chiliasts or Millenaries who said the Saints must raign 1000 yeers on the earth before the last judgement who were by the Church condemned above 1000 yeers since Eighthly they say with the old Pelagians that man by his own free will can do all that God hath commanded or else God gave his law in vain nor would he punish delinquents if he had not given them power to do it which is contrary to Scripture for the Law is holy Rom. 7. just and good but we