Of free justification

Therefore I answer to the Minor with a distinction, that sin is said to be abolished in the Adult that are Regenerate, it is partly true and partly false, with ¹a different respect had to divers circumstances; But how that is understood it must be explained, first; as touching the death of the Mediator, which brings Salvation, there is no defect in that, but it hath abundantly recovered whatsoever perished by Adam: yea it hath brought us much greater benefits, than the evils which Adam procured unto us. But if it be asked how, and in what order the Death of ⟨p. 79⟩Christ effects this? I answer, not ²by denying, but by distinguishing. For seeing two things are considerable in every sin, the guilt obliging, or the punishment of damnation, which Lombard calls passive corruption: and then active corruption, or the very act of sin, or the infirmity of corrupted nature. Therefore there is again a twofold remedy prepared for this twofold evil, guilt Obliging to eternal punishment, is not only taken away in the life to come, but also in this life, by the holy laver, and continual remission of sins for the sake of a Mediator. But the infirmity of sinning, which is concupiscence in the flesh, and ignorance ³in the mind, (that I may speak with Hugo) it also is abolished in the regenerate, but yet after its own order, and by its own degrees. For it is daily diminished in this Life by the renewing of the Spirit, and it shall be abolished in the Life to come, by the Resurrection of the Flesh. In the interim the relics of infirmity stick yet in the Flesh, as both Death and Temporal punishments stick yet in the Flesh, to exercise the Saints unto Combat; not to condemn them to destruction. Just as the Land of Canaan was promised to the Hebrews a great while before, which yet they did not suddenly take ⁴possession of: Neither was the frame of this World made immediately in one moment, but the Works of God were perfected in distinct intervals of Days: So neither ⟨p. 80⟩