Rom. viii. 10. Phil. Col. faith, when it ceaseth to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world. The cause of life spiritual in us, is Christ, not carnally or corporally inhabiting, but dwelling in the soul of man, as a thing which (when the mind apprehendeth it) is said to inhabit or possess the mind. The mind conceiveth Christ by hearing the doctrine of Christianity, as the light of nature doth the mind to apprehend those truths which are merely rational; so that saving truth, which is far above the reach of human reason, cannot otherwise, than by the Spirit of the Almighty, be conceived. All these are implied, wheresoever any of them is mentioned as the cause of the spiritual life: wherefore if we have read, that "the Spirit is our life;" or, "the word our life;" or, "Christ our life:" we are in every of these to understand, that our life is ii. 16. Christ, by the hearing of the gospel apprehended as a Saviour, and iii. 4. assented unto through the power of the Holy Ghost. The first intellectual conceit and comprehension of Christ so embraced, 1 Pet. i. St. Peter calleth the seed whereof we be new born: our first Ephes. ii. 5. embracing of Christ, is our first reviving from the state of death 1 John and condemnation. "He that hath the Son hath life," saith St. John," and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life.” If therefore he which once hath the Son, may cease to have the Son, though it be for a moment, he ceaseth for that moment to 1 John have life. But the life of them which have the Son of God, is Perpe- everlasting "in the world to come." But because as Christ being tuity of raised from the dead died no more, death hath no more power over him; so justified man, being allied to God in Jesus Christ vi. 10. our Lord, doth as necessarily from that time forward always live, as Christ, by whom he hath life, liveth always. I might, if I had not otherwhere largely done it already, shew by many and sundry manifest and clear proofs, how the motions and operations of life are sometime so undiscernible, and so secret, that they seem stone dead, who notwithstanding are still alive unto God in Christ. v. 12. v. 13. faith. Rom. John χίν. 19. For as long as that abideth in us, which animateth, quickeneth, and giveth life, so long we live; and we know that the cause of our faith abideth in us for ever. If Christ, the fountain of life, may flit, and leave the habitation where once he dwelleth, what shall become of his promise," I am with you to the world's end?” If the seed of God, which containeth Christ, may be first conceived and then cast out; how doth St. Peter term it immortal? How doth St. John affirm it abideth? If the Spirit, which is given to iii. 9. cherish and preserve the seed of life, may be given and taken 1 Pet. i. 23. away, how is it the earnest of our inheritance until redemption; how doth it continue with us for ever? If therefore the man which Ephes. John is once just by faith, shall live by faith, and live for ever, it follow-i. 4, 5. eth, that he which once doth believe the foundation, must needs v. 14. believe the foundation for ever. If he believe it for ever, how can he ever directly deny it? Faith holding the direct affirmation, the direct negation, so long as faith continueth, is excluded. Object. But you will say, "That as he that is to-day holy, may to-morrow forsake his holiness, and become impure, as a friend may change his mind, and be made an enemy; as hope may whither; so faith may die in the heart of man, the Spirit may be quenched, grace may be extinguished, they which believe may be quite turned away from the truth." 28. Sol. The case is clear, long experience hath made this manifest, it needs no proof. I grant we are apt, prone, and ready, to forsake God; but is God as ready to forsake us? Our minds are changeable; is his so likewise? Whom God hath justified, hath not Christ assured, that it is his Father's will to give them a kingdom? Notwithstanding, it shall not be otherwise given them, than if they Col. continue grounded and stablished in the faith, and be not moved i. 13. away from the hope of the gospel; "if they abide in love and 1 Tim. holiness." Our Saviour therefore, when he spake of the sheep ii. 15. effectually called, and truly gathered into his fold, "I give unto John x. them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand;" in promising to save them, he promised no doubt to preserve them in that without which here can be no salvation, as also from that whereby it is irrecoverably lost. Every error in things appertaining unto God, is repugnant unto faith; every fearful cogitation, unto hope; unto love, every straggling inordinate desire; unto holiness, every blemish wherewith either the inward thoughts of our minds, or the outward actions of our lives, are stained. But heresy, such as that of Ebion, Cerinthus, and others, against whom the apostles were forced to bend themselves, both by word and also by writing; that repining discouragement of heart which tempteth God, whereof we have Israel in the desert for a pattern; coldness, such as that in the angels of Ephesus; foul sins, known to be expressly against the first or second table of the law, such as Noah, Manasses, David, Solomon, and Peter, committed: these are each in their kind so opposite to the former virtues, that they leave no place for salvation without an actual repentance. But infidelity, extreme de lii. 9. spair, hatred of God and all goodness, obduration in sin cannot stand where there is but the least spark of faith, hope, love, and sanctity; even as cold in the lowest degree cannot be, where heat in the highest degree is found. Whereupon I conclude, that although in the first kind, no man liveth which sinneth not; and in the second, as perfect as any do live, may sin: yet sith the man 1 John which is born of God hath a promise, that in him " the seed of God shall abide;" which seed is a sure preservative against the sins that are of the third suit; greater and clearer assurance we cannot have of any thing, than of this, that from such sins God shall preserve the righteous, as the apple of his eye, for ever. Directly to deny the foundation of faith, is plain infidelity; where faith is entered, there infidelity is for ever excluded: therefore by him which hath once sincerely believed in Christ, the foundation of Christian faith can never be directly denied. Did not Peter? did not Marcellinus? did not others both directly deny Christ after that they had believed, and again believe, after they had denied? No doubt, as they confess in words, whose condemnation is nevertheless their not believing (for example we have Judas); so likewise, they may believe in heart whose condemnation, without repentance, is their not confessing. Although, therefore, Peter and the rest, for whose faith Christ hath prayed that it might not fail, did not by denial sin the sin of infidelity, which is an inward abnegation of Christ (for if they had done this, their faith had clearly failed): yet, because they sinned notoriously and grievously, committing that which they knew to be expressly forbidden by the law, which saith, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve;" necessary it was, that he which purposed to save their souls should, as he did, touch their hearts with true unfeigned repentance, that his mercy might restore them again to life, whom sin had made the children of death and condemnation. Touching the point, therefore, I hope I may safely set down, that if the justified err, as he may, and never come to understand his error, God doth save him through general repentance: but if he fall into heresy, he calleth him one time or other by actual repentance; but from infidelity, which is an inward direct denial of the foundation, he preserveth him by special providence for ever. Whereby we may easily know, what to think of those Galatians whose hearts were so possessed with the love of the truth, that, if it had been possible, they would have plucked out their eyes to bestow upon their teachers. It is true, that they were greatly changed both in persuasion and affection; so that the Galatians, when St. Paul wrote unto them, were not now the Galatians which they had been in former time, for that through error they wandered, although they were his sheep. I do not deny, but that I should deny that they were his sheep, if I should grant, that through error they perished. It was a perilous opinion that they held; perilous even in them that held it only as an error, because it overthroweth the foundation by consequent. But in them which obstinately maintain it, I cannot think it less than a damnable heresy. We must therefore put a difference between them which err of ignorance, retaining nevertheless a mind desirous to be instructed in truth, and them which, after the truth is laid open, persist in the stubborn defence of their blindness. Heretical defenders, froward and stiff-necked teachers of circumcision, the blessed apostle calls dogs: silly men, who were seduced to think they taught the truth, he pitieth, he taketh up in his arms, he lovingly embraceth, he kisseth, and with more than fatherly tenderness doth so temper, qualify, and correct the speech he useth towards them, that a man cannot easily discern whether did most abound, the love which he bare to their godly affection, or the grief which the danger of their opinion bred in him. Their opinion was dangerous; was not theirs also, who thought the kingdom of Christ should be earthly? was not theirs, which thought the gospel only should be preached to the Jews? What more opposite to prophetical doctrine, concerning the coming of Christ, than the one? concerning the catholic church, than the other? Yet they which had these fancies, even when they had them, were not the worst men in the world. The heresy of free-will was a millstone about the Pelegians' neck; shall we therefore give sentence of death inevitably against all those fathers in the Greek church, which being mispersuaded, died in the error of free-will? Of these Galatians, therefore, which first were justified, and then deceived, as I can see no cause why as many as died before admonition a Howsoever men be changed (for changed they may be, even the best amongst men), if they that have received, as it seemeth some of the Galatians which fell into error had received the gifts and graces of God, which are called åμsraμíλnta, such as faith, hope, and charity, are, which God doth never take away from him to whom they are given, as if it repented him to have given them; if such might be so far changed by error, as that the very root of faith should be quite extinguished in them, and so their salvation utterly lost, it would shake the hearts of the strongest and stoutest of us all. See the contrary in Beza's observations upon the harmony of confessions. Acts a might not by mercy be received, even in error; so I make no doubt, but as many as lived till they were admonished, found the mercy of God effectual in converting them from their error, lest any one that is Christ's should perish. Of this I, take it, there is no controversy: only against the salvation of them that died, though before admonition, yet in error, it is objected, that their opinion was a very plain direct denial of the foundation. If Paul and Barnabas had been so persuaded, they would haply have used the terms otherwise, speaking of the masters themselves who did first set that error abroach, "certain of the sect of the pharisees which believed." What difference was there between these pharisees and other pharisees, from whom by a special description they are distinguished, but this? These which came to Antioch, teaching the necessity of circumcision, were Christians; the other, enemies of Christianity. Why then should these be termed so distinctly believers, if they did directly deny the foundation of our belief; besides which, there was no other thing, that made the rest to be no believers? We need go no farther than St. Paul's very reasoning against them for proof of this matter: "Seeing you iv. 9. know God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to Ver. 23. impotent rudiments? The law engendereth servants, her children XV. 5. Gal. are in bondage: they which are begotten by the gospel, are free. Ver. 31. Brethren, we are not children of the servant, but of the free wo man, and will ye yet be under the law?" That they thought it unto Ver. 10. salvation necessary, for the church of Christ to observe days, and months, and times, and years, to keep the ceremonies and sacraments of the law, this was their error. Yet he which condemneth their error, confesseth that, notwithstanding, they knew God, and were known of him; he taketh not the honour from them to be termed sons, begotten of the immortal seed of the gospel. Let the heaviest words which he useth be weighed; consider the drift of those dreadful conclusions: "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing: as many as are justified by the law, are fallen from grace." It hath been to no purpose in the world so to urge them, had not the apostle been persuaded, that at the hearing of such sequels, "No benefit by Christ, a defection from Christ," their hearts would tremble and quake within them: and why? because that they knew, that in Christ, and in grace, their a Error convicted, and afterward maintained, is more than error; for although opinion be the same it was, in which respect I still call it error, yet they are not now the same they were when they are taught what the truth is, and plainly taught. |