An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

At other times these Men make the work of Sanctification so imperfect, ¹and ⟨p. 535⟩so like an unsanctified state, that it is impossible to distinguish a sanctified and unsanctified Man; upon this account holiness must be a very sorry evidence of our union to Christ, when it is so imperfect that it cannot be known: An unregenerate Man is under the Law of sin, under the reigning power of it; and a regenerate Man (as they describe him) is in a state as like this, as one Egg is another: For a regenerate Man may be carnal, sold under sin, that is, a Slave and Captive to it, he may do those things he allows not; nay, those things which he hates, that is, he may sin against the clearest convictions of conscience and sense of duty; he may neglect to do those things which he knows he ought to do, and do those things which he knows he ought not to do; he may find a Law in his Members, that when he would do good, evil is present with him; a Law in his Members, warring against the Law of his mind, which brings him into captivity to the Law of sin, that is in his Members: For so they tell us, that St. Paul complains of all this in the person of a regenerate Man, Rom. 7. Now an unregenerate man does the very same, and indeed cannot do much worse; he sins against conscience, is brought into captivity to ⟨p. 536⟩sin, is overpowered by indwelling sin; he finds natural fears and terrors, when he is tempted to sin, which gives some check to him, and makes him sin against his own will with some unwillingness and reluctancy; he approves the Law of God as just and equal, his conscience assents to it, but there is a strong bias upon his will, which runs counter to all those holy Commands, and makes him a Slave and Captive to his lusts. Now, not to dispute which of these two the Apostle means in Rom. 7. I think it is hard to assign any difference between them; the regenerate Man, according to this description, is full as bad as the ungenerate; or if there be any difference, the regenerate Man is the worst of the two, because in the regenerate Man the spirit is led into captivity; but in the ungenerate only natural conscience, which is a much weaker principle, and so is capable of a better excuse, is led into captivity: But which of these two it is, no Man can tell, and therefore a regenerate Man hath great reason to fear, that he may be unregenerate;