A55299:470
An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…
An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ, and our union and communion with him by Edward Polhill ..., Esquire.
London: printed for Ben. Foster, 1675
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
and yet if this be the difference, that the unregenerate Man chooses sin, believing it to be good, and the regenerate Man chooses sin, though he knows it to be evil, it is plain that the regenerate is much the worse, because his sins have the greatest aggravations that any sins are capable of, which the sins of an unregenerate Man have not: ⟨p. 542⟩viz. That they are sins against knowledge; and so, according to our Saviours reasoning, this regenerate Man will be beaten with more stripes.
and yet if this be the difference, that the unregenerate Man chuses sin, believing it to be good, and the regenerate Man chuses sin, though he knows it to be evil, it is plain that the regenerate is much the worse, because his sins have the greatest aggravations that any sins are capable of, which the sins of an unregenerate Man have not: ⟨p. 542⟩viz. That they are sins against knowledge; and so, according to our Saviours reasoning, this regenerate Man will be beaten with more stripes.
Dr. Jacomb assigns the difference between the Law of sin in the regenerate and in the unregenerate:1 First, When the whole bent of the heart is towards sin, when the propensities are entire and unmixed, there it is the Law of sin in the unregenerate. But, saith the Author, is every one regenerate who hath some good propensities? Who hath some wouldings & velleities, to that which is good? Then there are few unregenerate Men in the World. To which I answer, The unregenerate may indeed have some wouldings and velleities to good, not of himself; for in his flesh (and such he is all over by Nature) there is no good, but from the common motions and operations of the Holy Spirit: Yet, notwithstanding these, the bent of his heart is to sin, the power of sin is habitual in him, which is all the intent and very expression of the Doctor in that place. Secondly, When all the faculties of the Soul are on sins side, when the understanding gives in its final positive dictate, that sin is good, represents it as eligible to the will, the will closes with it, the