Neither do the scriptures any where say, that the being of sin, (yet mortified in part,) shall remain in the saints till the next life. Though we grant, God took six days to create the world, and rested the seventh; and so he carrieth on his work gradually in the true believer for the perfecting of the new creation. The six days work thereof, as also the seventh day of rest, are to be experienced in this life. The work of holiness is to be perfected while in the body, and he that believeth enters into his rest or sabbath, to enjoy the holy day in that inward retired waiting upon the Lord in his own light, wherein man must not think his own thoughts, nor speak his own words. And as for God's work, it is perfect; each day's work was perfect, as such the first day's work was not mended on the sixth day. And he that hath begun a good work in the soul is able to perfect it.

S. S. states the question and answer thus: viz.

Question. "But why will he not in this life?" (viz. remove the being of sin.)

He answers: "It is his good pleasure."

I reply-A damnable doctrine, to affirm that it is God's good pleasure that sin should remain in his saints all their life time, or till the next; when he hath no pleasure in evil, therefore prohibits all sin.

Question. Can he see the continuance of evil good; or that his command should not be kept?" To this he answers: "He sees good to suffer corruptions, in part mortified, in his saints, to keep them humble, drive them to his blood, and righteousness," &c.

Reply. Let the sober reader mark the nature and tendency of this doctrine. 1. How impiously he reflects upon God, as seeing it good to suffer corruptions, either but in part mortified, or in part unmortified, in his saints in this life. For his doctrine bears the same sense on both hands, as that God sees it good to suffer corruptions; if but in part mortified, then in part unmortified in his saints. 2. What a great use and service does he place upon the remaining of corruptions in the saints. namely, to "keep them humble," exercise and “ drive them to his blood and righteousness," which is as good doctrine as to say, "There is a necessity for the saints to sin, that they may be humbled, to do evil, that good may come of it. And by this, the more they sin, the more humble they are; the more unrighteous or corrupt, the more they are partakers of the blood and righteousness of Christ; which are gross inconsistencies. "Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid." Christ's blood cleanseth us from all sin, as we walk in the light; and his righteousness admitteth of no iniquity to continue. For us to feel the remission of sins past, through the blood and righ

teousness of Christ, when we are come to the lively act and operation of faith therein, doth sufficiently render the infinite perfection of pardoning grace both splendent and glorious; and not to say, that God sees good that corruptions in part should continue in his saints to keep them humble." For this is a manifest pleading for sin, and a commendation given to it, as to those good effects (vainly supposed) of corruptions, viz. "To keep the saints humble, to drive them to his blood;" whereas, when they are truly humbled, and partakers of the blood and righteousness of Christ, and living in the sense thereof, they withstand all sin and iniquity, and dare not give way thereto, that they may be righteous. They that will teach men true humility, must not teach them to be proud, that they may be humble; nor tell them that it is God's good pleasure that sin and corruptions remain in them all their days, or till the life to come, to keep them humble. Neither is a perfect or holy state so void of true humility as this sin-pleasing doctrine implies.

But this is something like the Papists' high commendation of man's fall, where, in their Saturday mass, in the Deacon's hymn, are these words: "O certe necessarium Adæ peccatum quod Christi morte deletum est. O felix culpa quæ talem ac tantum meruit habere redemptorem. O vere beata nox, quæ sola meruisti scire tempus & horam, in qua Christus ab inferis resurrexit."* That is, "Oh surely the sin of Adam was necessary, which by Christ's death was blotted out. O blessed fault, that hast deserved to have so great and such a Redeemer. O truly blessed night, which alone hast deserved to know the time and hour, wherein Christ rose from the hells.”

Again: to prove it God's good pleasure not to remove the being of sin in this life, that he sees good to suffer corruptions, &c. and in answer to my objection, that his pleasure is not contrary to his command, which requires us to be perfect, he saith: "God commands to offer Isaac, he purposeth Isaac shall not be offered. This shows he doth not efficaciously will every thing he commands." p. 64.

Reply. 1. This instance is not pertinent in this case, it being a peculiar command and act to Abraham, and not common to the saints, nor relative to those commands enjoining holiness of life, which they are all concerned in. 2. He is mistaken in saying, "He purposeth Isaac shall not be offered;" for the scripture saith, that by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten Son." Heb. xi. 17. It is evident, that neither God's command nor purpose was to kill Isaac; but that

* Vid. Mass in Latin and English, by J. Mountain, p. 121, 122, 123.

Abraham's faith should be tried in offering him up, which by faith he did; in which he said, God would provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." Gen. xxii. 8. And be accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure." Heb. xi. 19.

But this is no proof that it is not his pleasure that his commands, requiring perfect love and obedience, should be kept. They that enter into the covenant of grace, enter into an agreement with God in Christ, which though it remits sins past, yet gives no liberty to continue in sin; neither is it any condition of this covenant, that the being of sin should remain to keep the saints humble. For, by this covenant God taketh away sin, not only by remission, but by receiving the soul into agreement with himself.

Jesus Christ is our surety, mediator, and advocate, both in his being a propitiation or sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, that upon the act of faith in his blood, and believing in his name, sins past may be remitted; as also in his enabling us to obey the conditions and obligation of the covenant of grace, or law thereof, which we are under, and in fulfilling the promises thereof to us; for without him we can do nothing. We can obtain no privilege but in him, in whom the promises of God are all yea and amen. And seeing God receiveth true believers in Christ into agreement with himself. Christ being their surety, doth not exempt them from the payment of what is their due obedience, but enables them thereto. For, to be in covenant or agreement with God, is not consistent with disagreeing with him by transgression or sinning against him.

When or where sin shall be removed after death, he resolves not. He tells us not how long a time shall be between death and the perfect removal of sin; for a purgatory he seemeth not in words to own, how nearly related soever his doctrine be to it in his saying: "It sufficeth me to be assured from God's word, that it (sin) is not done away in this life; it shall in the next.” But where and what that God's word” is, that so assureth him, "that sin is not done away in this life, but in the next," he hath not yet demonstrated nor proved; nor doth he clear himself of the Pope's doctrine of a purgatory, but confesseth, that "no unclean thing shall enter the kingdom of heaven," since Christ is to present us holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle." p. 64. Mark here, how he hath manifestly contradicted his pleading for the existence of sin in the saints, and saying, It is not done away in this life, and yet the church must be holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight, not having spot or wrinkle. But then he addeth further, as a part of what Christ hath merited touching this point, and in p. 67: "He hath perfected

forever them that are sanctified meritoriously." To which I say, hath Christ merited or purchased the church's beauty and perfection, even perfect sanctification; and yet is it his Father's good pleasure, that the church shall not receive such perfection here? Or that sin shall not be removed in this life Were it not blasphemy to suppose that Christ hath bought for man that which his Father will not allow him? But I must suppose his sense of Christ's merit, dignity, righteousness, and obedience, is, that they are not to be really partaken of and inherited by true believers in this life, but only in their sense of imputation. But it can be neither real nor true, to reckon themselves holy, unblamable, unreprovable, without spot or wrinkle, while yet spotted with sin and inherent corruptions. Though still I grant, that every degree of real righteousness, true faith, and sincerity to God, springing up from his own life in his children, is owned and accounted of in his sight; for the Lord is well pleased for his own righteousness sake. Isa. xlii. 21. And the fruits of his own spirit are acceptable to him, from the highest growth and muturity to the least appearance, breathing, and breaking forth thereof in the soul; yea, from Israel's triumphing and glorying in the Lord, to Ninevah's believing God and repenting. And God commands us nothing but what he enableth us to perform; although against this S. S. objects, that he commands from the beginning of life to the end of life," to continue “ in all things written in the law to do them." But where this is commanded us in scripture, he shows us not. We are satisfied, that God layeth no more upon man, as to doing or performing, than he enableth man; for his commands are gradually and orderly imposed to be obeyed, according to the ability that he giveth the creature. He doth not command a child to do a man's work. He is no hard master. So in the covenant of grace there is a growth from one degree of strength to another, from faith to faith, from little children to young men, &c. and so according to their growth and capacity God requires obedience, and doth not impose impossibilities on them.

And if the power and glory of God be more manifest in the second covenant-the new covenant of grace-than in the first covenant, by how much the greater man's privilege is in this, by so much the more he is enabled by the same power cheerfully to live in obedience and faithfulness under it. Therefore S. S.'s being assured, that sin is not done away in this life," and his confession, that a believer dies unto sin by degrees, and so at his death the whole of Christ's merit, is immediately applied, whereby sin is forever totally abolished:" these are not consistent; neither doth he write as a man of experience of the work of God, what assurance soever he pretends. For to say, that sin is not done away in this life, or that it shall be in

the next; and yet that it is totally abolished at death, is as contradictory as to say, that sin is done away at death, and yet it is not done away till after death. To the last trump," says he," will sin be in the saints." p. 64. And when that shall be he explains, p. 85, at his coming in the world," quoting 1 Thes. iv. 17.

Mark here, how plainly he contradicts his saying," that at death sin is forever totally abolished!" Now, it is "in the end of the world, when Christ cometh personally," as he supposeth, to judgment. So by this confused work, one while sin is not done away in this life; another while, it is done away at death; another while, it is done away after death; another while, it is not done away till the last trump, or end of the world; whereas there are many believers and saints deceased in the mean time, and many long since dissolved as to their outward man-what becomes of their souls between the time of their departure, and the end of the world?—for he hath confessed that no unclean thing shall enter the kingdoom of God. So then, if the saints that are deceased be not thoroughly cleansed from sin before death, nor sin to be done away till the end of the world, what other place besides heaven can he provide or think of for the deceased saints? How can be avoid the Pope's imagined purgatory, unless he hold the mortality of the soul, that it dies or sleeps in the dust with the body?

To his alleging," that the ministry is to continue to the last trump; and that to the last trump sin will be in the saints; but that then in a moment they will be changed and perfected." If he intend that the saints have their benefit and part in the ministry, each in their life time and several ages, how doth this clear his concluding, that to the end of the world or last trump, sin will be in the saints, and that then in a moment they shall be changed? Many of the saints are deceased hundreds of years since, who, if sin be in them still, do not particularly partake of the blessed end of Christ's ministry and gifts, which were for the perfecting of the saints, till all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man," &c. And yet those deceased saints are not now under the ministry of apostles, &c.

From Ephes. iv. 13, he saith, "That perfect man is Christ, with all his members; for he consists of many: and he is thus to be a perfect man in the other world, not this." p. 46. Whereas the benefit of God's gifts did as well extend to the particular saints and members of his body, as to the whole body; to wit, "till we all come in the unity of the faith," &c. "That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro," &c. Ephes. iv. 14. There is no danger of their being tossed in the other world with windy doctrines. Both their perfection, and establishment, and