Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT763 .B35 1655

( 121 ) noxii ltioadpeccatum penitta ex carne exporgabitur : net feqtei6 tur, Alipea peccati pcena efl reliqua infanUis: ergopeccatum non ell els plene rensifrion : flew no fequitur aliqua Cicatrix apparet wet- nere, ergo vulialt non ell plenefanatum. I have been fo long on this Teftimony of Pareus that I muff omit the reft,whereof I (hall foon produce an hundred, ifI do but underftand that it will be worth the labour. Here I recur to my former obfervation, How the fury of contentious Difputation would rob men of that, which both Grace and Nature evidently teach. And I (hall but defire the Reader that wants humane effimony, T. To read over our Englifh Sermons that have been preached in any times ofPlague or other Calamity, or on daies of humiliation , whereof of late years we have had great fore, and tell me whether theydeny Gods anger, and difpleafure, his threatning and our fin, to be caufes of our fufferings ? 2. To hearken to the Confeffionsof the Godly in their fufferings, yea of the oppofers of this truth, when they come to lye under any long or heavy fuffering,and approach their death, and hear whe- ther they will fay, that none of this is a pnnifhment for fin, nor fromGods wrath, or threatning, and whether they never pray God to turn from his wrath and difpleafure againft them ? Conclu. 2.7. Punifhment is the Genur : and it is, ANatural Evil inflided for a Moral Evil : or M.IIHM paffloni4propter ;nation ca- pe, as force define it , Punifhment is either , or rKz-e-ny,)), which we call ordinarily chaftiiement, which is for the amendment of the fufferer, fo that chaffifement is a ffrecies of puniihment. Ifany doubt of this, I will give him a catalogue long enough of Schoolmen, Lawyers,Philofophers and Reformed Divines to prove it, as foon as r find it worth the white. Conclu. 28. Gods farietifying5 the fufferings ofthe Saints, and working out ofthem a greater good,doth not make them ceafe to be Evils in their own nature, nor to be fo far as evil, puniflarnents for our fins. The good is but by accident, . Poifon is poifon f ill, though the Phyfitiab can make a medicine of it : yea in the ufe it is fill pcenal, as being a natural evil inffitled for a moral evil, that is, for fin. Conclu. 2'1. God threatneth thefe things to his own people if they fin. The matter of all threatnings is evil of Punifiament : therefore thefe chaftifements are Evils of punifhment. It is the Ii Benefit

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=