§. III.
Sect. I.Proof 1. The Doctrine of Pleading for Sin for Term of Life absurd. First then, This Doctrine, viz. That the Saints nor can nor ever will be free of sinning in this Life, is inconsistent with the Wisdom of God, and with his glorious Power and Majesty, who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity[76]; who having purposed in himself to gather to him that should worship him, and be Witnesses for him on Earth, a chosen People, doth also no Doubt sanctify and purify them. For God hath no Delight in Iniquity, but abhors Transgression; and though he regard Man in Transgression so far as to pity him, and afford him Means to come out of it; yet he loves him not, neither delights in him, as he is joined thereunto. Wherefore if Man must be always joined to Sin, then God would always be at a Distance with him; as it is written, Isa. lix. 2. Your Iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your Sins have hid his Face from you; whereas on the contrary, the Saints are said to partake, even while here, of the divine Nature, 1 Pet. i. 4. and to be one Spirit with the Lord, 1 Cor. vi. 17. Now no unclean Thing can be so. It is expresly written, That there is no Communion betwixt Light and Darkness, 2 Cor. vi. 14. But God is Light, and every Sin is Darkness in a Measure: Hath God’s Wisdom been wanting to prepare a Means to serve and worship him perfectly?What greater Stain then can there be than this upon God’s Wisdom, as if he had been wanting to prepare a Means whereby his Children might perfectly serve and worship him, or had not provided a Way whereby they might serve him in any Thing, but that they must withal still serve the Devil no less, yea, more than himself? For he that sinneth is the Servant of Sin, Rom. vi. 16. and every Sin is an Act of Service and Obedience to the Devil. So then if the Saints sin daily in Thought, Word, and Deed, yea, if the very Service they offer to God be Sin, surely they serve the Devil more than they do God: For besides that they give the Devil many intire Services, without Mixture of the least Grain to God, they give God not the least Service in which the Devil hath not a large Share: And if their Prayers and all their spiritual Performances be sinful, the Devil is as much served by them in these as God, and in most of them much more, since they confess that many of them are performed without the Leadings and Influence of God’s Spirit. Now who would not account him a foolish Master among Men, who being able to do it, and also desirous it might be so, yet would not provide a Way whereby his Children and Servants might serve him more intirely than his avowed Enemy, or would not guard against their serving of him, but be so imprudent and unadvised in his Contrivance, that whatever Way his Servants and Children served him, they should no less, yea, often much more, serve his Enemy? What may we then think of that Doctrine that would infer this Folly upon the Omnipotent and Only Wise God?
[76] Hab. 1. 13.