of Grace, is a very hard faying and a very fevere thing, and in effect is an excluding all Mankind fince all are Sinners fome way or other, and none are fo perfect as to live wholly without Sin: Now the firft of these I fhall answer very briefly, because I would not enter into any long difpute about the sense of that Chapter; and the other I fhall more largely confider in a diftinct Section, because it will occafion my giving an account of the difference of Sins, what are and what are not confiftent with a Good State, which is a very material point in the right ftating and understanding the Nature of Repentance and the Nature of Sin.

First then as to St. Paul's description of himself, Rom. 7. One of these two things muft be allowed by all Sober and Understanding Men.

1. That if he speaks in the Person of a Regenerate Man, as fome would, have it, then all the Phrafes and Expreffions of fin dwelling in him, and the like, muft relate only to thofe fins of Frailty and Infirmity which a good Man is liable, to and cannot be wholly free from, and which are therefore confiftent with a good State, as I fhall particularly fhew in the next Section. A Good Man, who is especially under a state. of imperfect goodness, and not arrived to any great degree of Chriftian perfection, may fay of himself in many Cafes, that which I do, I allow not; I am guilty of many a hafty word,

word, and undue paffion and unreasonable defire and foolish imagination and the like, which I do not approve of with my reafon, but diflike and wish I could be perfectly free from, and fo in many cafes may fay what I would, that I do not; many degrees of Charity and Devotion and other Vertues which I willingly would yet I do not perform, nor come up to fuch a pitch of goodnefs as I gladly would, but fall fhort in many things of my Duty, and fuch attainments as I would propofe and come up to, fuch an one may be very fenfible of the body of death and the bondage of Corruption he is in, and of the ftrength of Concupifcence and the Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind, Chap. 4. Sect. 3. But these may only relate to fuch Imperfections and Infirmities and fins of Frailty and Infir mity as may confift with a Good State and belong to a Good Man, but they are by no means to be applyed further to the committing any wilful and known and prefumptuous fin, which cannot be faid of a Regenerate Man or one in a good state: And therefore,

2. Some of thofe Expreffions in that Chapter seem to be fuch as cannot belong to a Good Man, fuch as thofe ver. 14. 1 am carnal fold under fin, ver. 23. That the law of his members brought him into captivity to the law of fin. ver. 25. That with his flesh he ferved the law of fin: So that St. Paul feems to fpeak here not of himself as a good Chriftian, but of an Unregenerate Perfon under the Convictions of the Law; and though

he

he uses his own name, yet 'tis by a Metafchematifm, a Figure ufual to him in other places, as Gal. 2. 17, 18. If I build again the things which I deftroy, I make my felf a tranfgreffor, and we our felves are still found finners, Rom. 3. 7. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie, why yet am I judged as a finner? where though he uses his own Name yet 'tis under the Perfon of a Blafphemous Objector, and 1 Cor. 13. 2. If I have all faith and no charity what doth it profit me? which is an inoffenfive way of transferring odious things to our felvs when we would defcribe and reprove them. Thus St. Paul here only perfonates an unregenerate Man; for in other places he gives a quite other Character of a Regenerate one, directly contrary to what is here, as that He hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lufts, Gal. 5. 24. And crucified the old man, Rom. 6. 6. and that he is dead to fin, Rom. 16. 11. and free from fin and the fervant of Righteousness; Whereas here it is faid, that fin dwelt in him, that he was carnal fold under fin, that the law of his members led him into captivity to the law of fin, and that with his flesh he ferved the law of fin, this must be the state not of a good Chriftian, but of a Man at least under the Law; and therefore the Apostle in oppofition to this immediately defcribe 3 the other more happy ftate of a Chriftian under the Gospel in the next Chapter, and in answer to the grievous Exclamation, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from

from this body of death, he comfortably re plies to himself, I thank God through Fefus Christ our Lord, ver. 25. i. e. there is a remedy for it by Chrift and Christianity, and the law of the fpirit of life in Chrift Jefus bath made me free from the law of fin and death, ver. 2. chap. 8.

The Anfwer to the other Objection will be fully given in the next Section.

SECT. II.

The Differences of Sins; what are, and what are not confiftent with a good State..

TH

HAT all Men are Sinners not only Experience but the Scriptures do in many places affure us, that there is not a righteous man upon earth who finneth not; that in many things we offend all; and that if we say we · have no fin we deceive our felves, and the truth is not in us by which is not ony meant that ; no Man is wholly free from all manner of Sin in the whole courfe of his Life, or can pass all his days without falling into fome Sin or other, but that no part of his Life, even when he is come to his best State, a State of Grace and Vertue, is fo perfect as to be quite finlefs, and without any Sin of what kind foever, fo that he should not be obliged to beg Pardon of God, and fay dayly, Forgive us our Trefpaffes. Now this as it is matter of Humiliation to the best Men, fo it is turn'd to another ufe and quite dif

ferent

ferent purpose by the worft; they comfort themselves in all their greatest Sins, that all Men are Sinners as well as themselves, that none are free from all Sins, and let them that are so, caft the first stone at them; they plainly confound hereby the different states of good and bad Men, and are not willing to distinguish or make fuch a true judgment as the Scripture does plainly between them; for the fame Scripture that tells us all are Sinners and hath concluded all under Sin, yet declares that every wilful Sin is damnable, and that they who commit it and live in the practice of it shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, and that he who fhall keep all the law befides, and yet offend in any one point is guilty of all, and fhall be punish'd as truly though not fo fully for one wilful unrepented Sin as for more.

There is no way to reconcile this, and take off any feeming difficulty about it, but by that plain difference which both Scripture and Reafon allow between Sins, that fome of them are Sins of Frailty and Infirmity, which are unavoidable to us in our prefent ftate, and which are confiftent with a good one, and which the best of Men cannot live wholly without whilft they are in this Body. of Flesh and Blood; and that others are wilful and prefumptuous, known and deliberate Sins, which are committed with full consent of the Mind, and against a plain Law of God, and with that prefumption and difobedience that makes them unpardonable B b without