Spiritual refining

3. From a collation or comparison between the two Fountains or Fathers of him that doth sin, or him that doth righteousness; the one is of the Devil, the other is born of God; and this difference my Text amplifieth: So that in the words you read, you may observe five Propositions; first, He that is born of God sinneth not; what it is to be born of God is easily known, viz. to have the image and holiness of God stamped upon us by his Spirit quickening of us; we must not imagine any communicating of the Divine Essence to us; in which sense the second Person is born of the Father, and so called, The Son of God; but by participation of those supernatural graces which make us resemble him; The greater doubt is about the predicate, He sinneth not; which hath much exercised the thoughts of men: some understand it of a perfection attained to in this life, not to sin at all. Thus Papists, Pelagians, some Anabaptists and divers of late; but if this were the meaning, the Apostle within a very little space would expressly contradict himself, for Chap. 1. 8, 10. he saith expressly, If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves, and make God a liar. Not to sin therefore is not wholly to be without sin. Others limit it to a certain kind of sin, in this sense, He sinneth not, viz. unto death, so that he shall be damned; and without question to this purpose the Apostle speaketh Chap. 5. 16, 17, 18. But this seemeth to straiten it too much. Others, as Arminians, he sinneth not, viz. in this respect, and so far as he is born of God; but what an absurd sense would this be, and who knoweth not that a godly man doth not sin in that he is godly, or because he ⟨p. 73⟩is born of God. The most genuine and unforced interpretation therefore is, to understand it not universally, but according to the subject matter, he sinneth not, as one who is of the Devil his father, he sinneth not as Cain, all within him is not corrupted; so that he makes sin his trade, his custom and delight. The very opposition makes this the meaning, I do not ground this opposition upon the phrase [Greek or Hebrew], as if that did always signify more then [Greek or Hebrew], for I grant that that phrase sometimes signifieth no more then barely to sin, not de noting custom or delight, as Rom. 7.

3. From a collation or comparison between the two Fountains or Fathers of him that doth sinne, or him that doth righteousnesse; the one is of the Devil, the other is born of God; and this difference my Text amplifieth: So that in the words you read, you may observe five Propositions; first, He that is born of God sinneth not; what it is to be born of God is easily known, viz. to have the image and holiness of God stampt upon us by his Spirit quickning of us; we must not imagine any communicating of the Divine Essence to us; in which sense the second Person is born of the Father, and so called, The Sonne of God; but by participation of those supernaturall graces which make us resemble him; The greater doubt is about the predicate, He sinneth not; which hath much exercised the thoughts of men: some understand it of a perfection attained to in this life, not to sin at all. Thus Papists, Pelagians, some Anabaptists and divers of late; but if this were the meaning, the Apostle within a very little space would expresly contradict himself, for Chap. 1. 8, 10. he saith expresly, If we say we have no sinne we deceive our selves, and make God a liar. Not to sin therefore is not wholly to be without sinne. Others limit it to a certain kinde of sinne, in this sense, He sinneth not, viz. unto death, so that he shall be damned; and without question to this purpose the Apostle speaketh Chap. 5. 16, 17, 18. But this seemeth to straiten it too much. Others, as Arminians, he sinneth not, viz. in this respect, and so farre as he is born of God; but what an absurd sense would this be, and who knoweth not that a godly man doth not sinne in that he is godly, or because he