The true doctrine of justification asserted and vindicated, from the errors of Papists, Arminians,…The true doctrine of justification asserted and vindicated, from the errours of Papists, Arminians,…

A sixth sort of Arguments shall be from those places,¹ where God is said to take notice of our sin, more then we can or do, 1 Joh. 3.18, 19, 20. where the Apostle presseth believers to a sincere love of one another with this Argument, that hereby we shall assure ⟨p. 64⟩our hearts before him; the Greek word signifieth to persuade, and doth excellently set forth the difficulty of being assured in Gods presence. Now this great benefit he illustrates by the contrary, if our hearts condemn us, God is greater then our hearts; and this holdeth universally in every holy duty, as well as that of love: if our hearts condemn us for hypocrisy, and insincerity in them, God doth much more, for he knoweth more evil by our selves then we do. Now how can this Apostolical assertion be true, if so be God took no notice, or were not offended at the sins of his people? Its an argument of sweet meditation to humble us, that if where there is but a drop of grace, our sins are so loathsome and offensive; how much more must they be to the ocean of all purity?² To this the Antinomian replieth (Honey-Comb p 89.) that John speaks this of hypocrites, and not the justified children of God; But 1. he gives the express title of little children to them, ver. 18. and my little children, so that he taketh upon him the bowels of a father to them. Again, let it be granted that he describes hypocrites, yet there is no godly man but this text will in some sense belong to, there is no man so godly, but he hath some hypocrisy and insincerity in his best love; there is that worm in his best fruit, that dross in his best gold. It followeth then by proportion, that so far as the godly do discern imperfections, and insincerity in their duties, so far they are to be humbled before God, who knoweth much more by them then they discern; as you see little moats are discerned by the Sun-beams in the Air, which were not discerned before: therefore when John addeth, If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence with God, his meaning is not, as if we could have no confidence where our hearts do condemn us in some degrees, for then none in the world could have confidence; but he speaks of condemning our selves upon a discovery of a total and wilful hypocrisy;