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Show t!JC irn1ge ofGorl created he him; and how ready are we 'to (~y in our hearrs, Oh that man had never faUm, then a man might have gone from F.artb to Heaveu,as out of his Kitchin into his Parlour ! But hearken my beloved, you know not what you fay; The 1\ate of a Soul in Chrifl is infinitely more defireable, infinitely more happy. Divines ufe to exprefs it thus: Adam had a po{fe .Jton 1'tccare; The jullified Soul hath a noH poffi peccart. Adam was ere• ted with a liberty of will, in a I\ ate of righteoufnefs, and with a /zberty of wiU: in thefe two things 1\ood. Ad,•mt happinefs. He came into the World not in debt , not a chzld of wroth, (as we all are born :) his Father was God. Here ind,ed he had the ad vantage of us ; we are clog'd with his guilt, we are behind-hind 'with the Jullice of God, in the very hour in which we are born. This is truth : But fet this alide, our fiate is far better than his. He indeed might have chofen whether he would or no have eaten of the tree of forbidden-}rttit. But of the ju{fified S•ul it is true, 11011 potcj/ pee care, he cannot fin, that is, not unto death, 1 1ohn 3. 6. Whojoever abideth in him finneth rtot, whofotver finneth h.zth not feen him neither ~Mown him. Adam might have flood .: The jufiified S~ul {hall fiand,r.o manjhall pl~~ck it out of its Fathers hand, nor out of Chrifis hand. The jufiified Soul indeed fiands not like the good Anfl;lt,,confirmati in bonitate, fo confirm• d. in holinefs that it doth fin ; no, who lzveth, and finneth not ~gamft God l but fuch a Soul (lands confirmll~ ;,. fa:lioitate, confirm' d. i~ happinefs it cannot more be damned than an Angel can. Sm mdeed by Adam's fall it diffufeth itfdfto all his Pollerity: but upon the fall Gracehatb'mucbmoreabounded. Give me leave here to cry out with a devout Author, ( though a 1eJ.uit, ) Malo deber~ 1efit mea Jalutlitn q11am Adamo, narn 4e~eo ce_rt~orem, (ortaffe;:na;orern, &c. and fo he goes on. I !hall give you It 10 Enghlh; ·I had rather "(faith he,) be indebted to Chrifl form~ Salvati~n than to, Ll· "Jam· I am indebted for a more certam Salvation, perhaps a "gre<U~r : 1 rejoyce, I rcjoyce in th~ grac; of Chril\ venera~le, "and almoft envied by Angels; I re)oyce 1n the. wou?ds ofh1m, "who w.s th~ only-begotten Son of God. I rqoyce 10 the pa" tience of him who was mofl mighty, in the fufferings of h1m, "who [ according to his divin~Nlture J could not ~uffer. ~t is true Ad•m had lefs mifery but he had alfo lefs certainty of h1s happy 'r,.ate. 0 my Soul! blefs the Lord .fo~ the Covenant of Grace blefs the L":Jrd for thy Gofpel-llat e, It IS a far more excel- ~ lent The DpCirine tpplieel. Jent~fl~tc than tha.tofAd•m. Though we meet with more affiid:ions !nIt, yet th~ •fHid'ions are but fuch as Chtijl· hath born, Chnfi hath fand:tfied, and in bearing of which we are conformable unto Death. But let that be enough to have fpoken to that firfi Branch. We may (Secondly) conclude from hence whahit to be judged of thofo who totally and finally fall {row their P>"ofrffion. Such were Jufar and others, :ovhofe examples therefore mu!\ not be brought as arguments a~amfi th1s truth, though this be too ordina rily done: thus Berttut, ( whom the Heirs of his Dod:rine may if rhe pleafe add for a new _example, for I think he did a renegado fro~ the. Proteflant Reltgwn:) argues for the poilibility of the Saints falhngfromtbeexample of the Angelt, Jude.6: ( bllt they were not the elect of Angels fure (the examples of Saul Hynmteus Philetus, Demas, DorotbeU<, Nicbolaf the Deacon, ( whom he fup: poferh th_e Author of the Dod: nne of the Nicholaitanu, ( he intlanceth alfo 111 Ailam and Solomon ; but it .will be hard for his friends to prove that either of them fell away, totaYy or finally. In Chart the Apollle hath taught us what to determine, 1 ]oh.2.,9. They went Mtfrom ut, they tt>ere not of us ; for if they had been ofttt tbry had contmuedtt>ztb '"· w.e know the Scripture fpeaks offome that lhould depart from tbe F azth, I Tim. 1. r. That jhould deny the Lord that bought them, ~Pet. I r. I. that lhould depart ffom the holy I>ollriHe received, which they bad better never have k.,now», 2. Pet. 2 • 2o. but we ~ay the Scripture no· where fpeaks of the eltll, or of any truly Jujhfied_or Sanllifed,that fell away and peri01ed; nay we fay not only partrc~lar Scnptures, but the whole Sylleme of Go[fpel- Dodrlne IS qu11eco~trary to this. We grant that Gods people may fall foully,as Davzd, Solomon and others did but not totaUy not fiMUy. We grant there are "f;g""'P"• tempor;ry profelfors' !"a.ny that t~k.c up a profellion ~f the Gofpel, and go a great way rn It, b~t rec~ZV!Ilf!, not the trnth tn the love of it, God may give tbem 11}' to beiHve ll~s,tb.zt they t1lay be damned, wha have pleafurt in unrzg. hteQujnefi: m lhort,there can be no argument from examples a£ 1tnll ths truth,becaofe there can be no example produced of any .wh9m the Scripture mentions, as jullilied and truly Sanctified, who fell away anJ ro(~ no more; if any profejJor! fall away totally !lnd finally, they were fucha5 were Hypocrites, and in who-m the .root of the mat~er never w:u, though they made a fJir gliilering Chew and glonous appearance to the world, and deceived many. Thirdly, |
