the contrary virtues? So it is still the same thing as before these contrary virtues are made by this way the means of pardon. But if the argument be good, it is believing that is the mean: for the Scripture expressly tells us, that men are condemned because they have not believed, John iii. 18. and Christ calls believing the work of God, John vi. 29. and John calls it his command (1 John iii. 23.) by way of eminency.

OBJECTION 4. ult. In the promises of the covenant, remission of sin is subjoined to the exercise of repentance, as necessarily antecedent; so that without it there is no access to any promise of pardon. Lev. xxvi. 40, 41, 42. "If they confess their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant:" which doth pre-suppose confession, and the exercise of repentance, and the humbling of the heart, to go before the application of the covenant. And lest it should be thought a legal covenant, it is expressly said to be the covenant with Abraham, which cannot be denied to be of grace. 1 Kings viii. 47. Solomon expressly covenanteth for pardon on these terms; and 2 Chron. vii. 13, 14. the Lord doth expressly assent to these articles. It may be confirmed from 1 John i. 9. which supposeth that there is no engagement, to speak so, upon God's faithfulness to pardon any sinner, but him who repenteth.

ANSWER. I have already proven the contrary of this in the fourth argument; having produced several promises where there is no vestige of any such order, but of the contrary. If there be no access to the promise of pardon without repentance, it is we ourselves that bolt the door; and therefore let us blame ourselves, and those who advise us to find any good qualification in ourselves, before we embrace the free pardon. But if God's hand be at the work, the pardon shall find access to us, and our hearts shall be opened to receive it; and being received, it shall, by its supernatural efficacy, melt and thaw the heart into true repentance, though we know not whence it comes, nor whither it goes; but are busy in preparing the room for it, while we neglect to open the door to let it in. As for the covenant itself, it is our consent that brings us within the bond of it. The Lord offers to be our God in Christ; we by faith consent to take him so. Call it the condition, mids, or what you please; I hope you will not say, I dare not give this consent until I repent; for this consenting or believing is my necessary and indispensable duty, whatever state I be in. But you will say, I dare not embrace the pardon till I repent. If you mean de facto, it is my weakness; if de jure, how strange is this? I may not embrace what is lesser; and yet may, and must what is infinitely greater and better; for God himself is better than ten thousand pardons. But I am per

suaded, that when I find my soul content to take God in Christ to be my God, and do actually consent to that gracious offer, that the promise of pardon is absolute to me, Ezek. xxxvi. 25: for eo ipso that God is my God, his free pardon is mine, and it can be no presumption in me to embrace what is mine own. God holds it forth to me in the covenant, I by faith lay hold on it; there is nothing here that intervenes, so that it is still absolute; and if absolute, how can it be said there is no access to it without repentance? As for these Scriptures, Lev. xxvi. 40. &c.; 1 Kings viii. 47; 2 Chron. vii. 13; I grant they pre-suppose repentance, &c.; but they touch not the point in hand, in regard they respect the pardon of sin, as it is the removal of temporary strokes, as I have already shown, and will be manifest to such as view the places: for who sees not, that the multitude of those things there required, is very unlike the simplicity of the gospel offer-Believe, and thou shalt be saved? It is clear, that the people are considered there in a national capacity, and under national strokes for national sins; for removal, repentance of the same kind is required. And though, in such a general repentance of a people, they that believe are spiritually and theologically serious, and, with a removal of common calamity from off the society whereof they are menibers, get God's countenance to shine on their souls; yet the generality are never evangelically penitent. But moral seriousness in such a case, according to the Lord's way of dealing with nations, is a mean to get these temporal strokes removed; as may be seen in the case of the Ninevites, and many a time in the case of the Jews. What though this covenant be a covenant of grace? the covenant of grace has undeniably temporary strokes threatened in it; and it is generally allowed, that there is a twofold being in this covenant; the one external, the other internal. The one gives people to share of the outward blessings of the covenant, the other makes them partakers of special and saving blessings. And thus one and the same person may be under the covenant of works and the covenant of grace; in the former, in respect of his soul's state, with God's curse upon him; under the latter, externally partaking of the external privileges, protections, deliverances, &c. given to the visible church. So then we may plainly see what it is for God to remember his covenant. When the captive, broken, and afflicted Israelites confess their sins, humble themselves, &c. God removes the temporary strokes they lie under. And this is applicable to particular persons, in respect of the spiritual and saving federal relation to God; for so it is in the inward and special administration of the covenant: but then it respects such as are justified and sanctified, but none other, as these

promises and prayers concern Israel separated from among all other people, 1 Kings viii. 53. As to that Scripture, 1 John i. 9. "If we confess," &c. the author himself tells us afterwards, that John is there writing to believers, and puts himself in the roll. And there is no doubt but it is so: for he writes to his children, and that their joy might be full; and speaks of God as faithful, in respect of his promises to them; and just to forgive, in respect of the merits of Christ imputed to them. And, as Case tells us,* he asserts the doctrine of actual sin in the justified against the Simonians, Gnostics, and other heretics of that age; of whom he shews, out of Augustine, that they taught, that there was no sin but unbelief; that to the justified all things were clean, however they live; that a just man does not so much as commit a small sin; and upon this they could not but teach, that the justified were not to confess sins. Against these then the apostle sets himself here, and teacheth the justified to confess their sins. Whence it appears, that this doth not at all concern the point in hand; the question being of the means necessary in order to justification, and the pardon of sin at first; betwixt which and the subsequent pardons, I have proven above that there is a vast difference.

QUEST. IV.

WHERE HATH SIN ITS LODGING-PLACE IN THE REGENERATE?

"GOD made man upright, but he found out many inventions." He was a glorious creature, as he dropt from the forming finger of God, all whose works are perfect. It was man's glory, that he was created after the image of God. It was God's will he should be created mutably so. Of his mutability there can be no controversy. Sad experience teacheth us, that man is not now perfect; but, on the contrary, a mass of sin, and lump of hell, the noble kind being affected with diabolic contagion, which he voluntarily received. Whereby it comes to pass, that all is infected. The understanding, which formerly was a sun of light in this little world, is not only overclouded, but utterly darkened, as to any saving uptaking of spiritual things. The will, which before

was the Lord's deputy-governor there, endued with principles of true loyalty to its Supreme Master, is now turned traitor, and utterly perverse having forsaken its allegiance to the great King, gathers in the rents of the crown to itself, and in very deed, with sacrilegious audacity, attemps to occupy the throne of the Highest. Call it no more Naomi, but Marah; no more will, but lust; for we have dealt bitterly with ourselves. The affections, formerly subject to right reason, having lost their master, go up and down roving as lawless miscreants; set themselves on lawful objects excessively, and unlawful objects are their desire. Neither conscience nor memory can do their work. And the body with its members is made slave to this unruly beast; which also is made to serve the polluted piece of clay, which wants not a miserable influence on the more noble part of man.

*

But grace makes a change, and sets right the disjointed members, though not perfectly; for the saint's complete deliverance cometh not till the pins of this tabernacle of the body be loosed. The body of death remains till the death of the body. Then shall they be made perfect in holiness. But now they groan under the burden of indwelling sin, and, with Paul, cry out, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death!" That sin doth remain in the regenerate, is evident from Scripture and experience, against deluded perfectionists. Where it remains, is the question. The Dominican monks, and some others, were of opinion, that though original sin remains after baptism, yet it is only in the inferior part of the soul, as they speak, or in the sensitive part; but not in the mind and will. Some have been of opinion that it remained only in the body, and that it was nothing else but desire of meat, &c. or sensual pleasures. No wonder these things entered into the minds of men, who were left to grow vain in their imaginations, without a due sense of the remaining corruption of nature. But I find some express themselves in this matter to this purpose, viz. That sin which is left in the regenerate, dwelleth in the body properly so called, and is as an enemy beat out of the town or stronghold, and lodging in the outworks, and as it were about the walls; from whence it makes its sallies, and infests the soul. Which I suppose we may soon find contrary to Scripture, reason, and experience.

ARGUMENT I. The Scripture plainly holds forth sin dwelling in the heart Jer. xvii. 9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" There is an un

fathomable depth of wickedness therein, which none can search out unto perfection. Our Lord tells us, that the heart is the spring and source of all evil, Mark vii. 21, "For from within, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, &c. So Matth. xii. 34, he brings a general reason to prove that the Pharisees being evil could not speak good things: "For" says he, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." These places are manifestly general, and agree both to good and bad. Is there not deceit and desperate wickedness even in the hearts of the regenerate? Have any such perfectly known their own hearts? Do not evil words proceed out of their mouth? This then is from the abundance of the heart. Hereunto add the necessary qualification requisite in those who shall have access to God in duties, "That they know every one the plague of his own heart," 1 Kings viii. 38. Not without reason doth the wise man call for "keeping of the heart with all diligence,"* that we may set double guards on it. It plainly tells us that the heart is a deceitful thing, and bent to turn aside after crooked ways. Say not, that all the hazard is from the influence which the body hath on it; for the heart can go astray in such things wherein it is not capable of being influenced by the body, as will appear afterwards. But indeed if that were so, we should rather have been directed to keep the body with all diligence. But it is plain, the greatest hazard is from the heart; as Moses teacheth in that parallel place, Deut. iv. 9, "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently," &c. Mr. Gray speaks feelingly, and no less truly, concerning the heart: "I think," says he, "such is.the desperate deceitfulness of our hearts, that if all the saints since Adam's days, and who shall be to the end of the world, had but one heart to guide, they would misguide it."

ARGUMENT II. The Spirit of God calls the regenerate to carry on the work of renovation in their souls, minds, and wills; which evidently holds forth, that there is much of the old man remaining there still, even in their souls, and that in the most noble faculties thereof Rom. xii. 2, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind;" where it is clear the apostle is speaking to regenerate persons. Eph. iv. 23, he calls those who had learned Christ, yet to be "renewed in the spirit of their minds." And the apostle speaking of himself, 2 Cor. iv. 16. tells us, that "the inward man is renewed day by day." If any shall say, that by the renewing of the inward man, is meant the strengthening of the soul to bear afflictions; I grant the same without any prejudice to what we assert; for it sup