though the ill digesting and composing of them will not deserve a Schollars eye much less answer yet because if it be possible that the Authour may not further befool himself or further delude his over credulous proselytes and lead captive 2 Tim. 3.6 silly women laden with sin I will draw a line of confutation over his more remarkable Errors and willingly pass by his smaller faults of incongruous or improper expressions First I do consent that the most holy and high God from all not in Eternity by one sole and single act did see all whatsoever he purposed to do or permitted to be done by any of the creatures he intended to create for else he could not be Omniscient Omnipresent Infinite and Eternal But whereas it is said That God saw some men embracing the means of salvation and those he elected in Christ from the foundation of the world to everlasting life this is so far from soundness that it is flat Pelagianism an old Heresie exploded forth of the Church for many ages since by which it must be concluded that the eternal decree of Gods unchangeable election must be dependent on the intervention of mans liberty of willing and working but no proof from Scripture brought to evidence it nor appearance of any colour of reason Whereas the Scripture when it speaks of election makes it to be altogether independent on the creature or from ought at all wrought by or in the creature but wholly resting for the ground thereof in the bosome and holy will of God himself and therefore it is called Ephes 1.5 the good pleasure of his will and Ephes 1.11 the purpose and counsel of his will Nay so absolute and irrelative is this decree of election from any thing out of God besides his good pleasure as to be any motive or incentive for which God elects as a meritorius or a procuring ground or cause of it that even Christ himself is excluded as for whose merit man should be elected and therefore we are said to be elected in Christ not for Christ But because Socratical discourses are not so convincing I shall produce some irrefragable Arguments to which if the adverse party shall give any the least colour of answer to satisfaction then I shall say as they believe that learning is good for nothing but to puffe men up and gull the world but till that be done which I am certain will never be I shall bless the God of my salvation who Ephes 4.8 11. hath given such gifts unto men 1. Arg. If the rise of our election be grounded in the free grace of God then it is not upon Gods foresight of mans embracing of the means of salvation but it is founded on the meer mercy and free grace of God therefore not upon the foresight of the embracing of the means The first proposition or major is unquestionable for that there is but one cause to produce the effect The second proposition or minor viz. that our election is founded on the meer mercy and free grace of God see for proof hereof Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself the Lord did not set his love upon or choose you because you were more in number c. but because the Lord loved you where the single love of God is pitcht upon as the cause of their election exclusively from any other outward causes See further Deut. 10.15 Matth. 20.15.21 Luk. 12.22 Rom. 9.11 18 21. Ephes 1.5 11. 2 Tim. 1.9 2. Arg. If the Patriarch Iacob was elected meerly out of grace without any respect had to any of his faith works or use of means then all others are likewise so elected for there is the one alike motive for the election of all as of one But Iacob was elected meerly out of the good will of God without any respect to faith works or the use of means at least for the moving of God to elect him Therefore all others are so likewise elected The minor proposition is confirmed out of Rom. 9.11 for the children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said the elder shall serve the younger 3. Arg. If the decree of election be absolute without any respect had to faith works or means Then God did not elect upon a foresight of the embracing of the means but the decree of election is absolute c. Therefore See for proof Rom. 9.11 Rom. 11.5 6 7. Ephes 1.4 5 11. Matth. 20.16 and 22.14 4. Arg. If faith and works be the fruits and effects of election then they are no wayes causes of it for which God should elect but they are fruits and effects Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained unto life believed Ephes 2.4 7 8 9 13. 5. Arg. If our foreseen faith works or embracing of the means were the cause of our election they should be likewise the cause of our vocation and justification but the later is false therefore the first The major is proved by that undeniable axiome Quicquid est causa causae est causa etiam causati That which is the cause of a cause is also a cause of the thing caused i. e. of the effect The minor is proved 2 Tim. 1.9 and Ephes 2.8 Rom. 3.24 justified freely by his grace 6. Arg. If our election were dependent on mans embracing of the means then these absurdities would follow 1. Then the will of God should be moved and determined by an external cause i. e. the first cause should be ordered and guided by the second and thereby the first is made the second cause and e contra which is against the rules of all Philosophy and Divinity 2. God hereby is supposed to be capable of passion i.e. when thus moved but God is altogether immutable and impassible 3. Then there should be somewhat in the creature out of God before greater and better then God because that every cause is before and better then the effect 4. If there might be imagined to be any thing in the creature which might move God to the decreeing or appointing of this or that then it would follow that the actings or issues of things have not a dependence upon the decree of God contrary to Iam. 3.37 5. Then man might have just cause of boasting in himself 6. What then would become of children dying in infancy before they had the use of faith or works or any embracing of the means and which never were to have a being to act therefore they were never to be foreseen For the third Position That God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief those he reprobated to everlasting destruction But this hath the like unsoundness in it as the former of election there being no other ground or reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelief or rejecting of the means
not put my self to the trouble to fight against your vain shadows and so exit your own Position Et valeat ut valere potest Your next advance is to the rescue of your second Position viz. Position 2. That God saw persons embracing the means of salvation and those he elected in Christ from the foundation of the world to everlasting life c. This is so far from soundness you say that it is flat Pelagianism an old heresie exploded out of the Church for many ages since by which you say that it must be concluded that the eternal decree of Gods unchangeable election must be dependent on the intervention of mans liberty of willing and working c. To which you frame this answer What it was that Pelagius the Monk held you may see in the Ecclesiastical Chronography of Eusebius Pamphilus pag. 595. also it makes no matter to me in these things it is possible he might hold a truth as well as Calvin But the Fathers of whom we have learned these things are those that have not erred in their doctrine which are those before mentioned to wit Jesus Christ himself the holy Prophets and Apostles but the Scripture when it speaketh of election makes it to be altogether independent on the creature so as that nothing acted or done by the creature is to be accounted of as a motive incentive meritorious or procuring ground or cause as this man doth endevour to cast upon me I freely grant to be a truth according to the Scriptures by him brought in Ephes 1.5 11. Answ Sir there was no need to have informed me but to evidence your reading where I might have an account of the abominable paradoxes of blasphemous Pelagius cried down by all antiquity as well as by all our modernâ— for his detracting from the free grace of God and exalting of the liberty of the will and placing it in Gods stead at least putting them cheek by jowl together For though by other several Chronographers the grosseness of his heresie be more copiously painted out yet in the tripartite History according to you cited there is to be found so much as to abominate even the name of the man by reason of his cursed opinion being there ranked out in the columne of Hereticks and therefore it seems a wonder to me that any one that is but a pretender to Religion should have so much impudence and be so Galliolized Act. 18.17 as not to care for these things But to put him into the scales with reverend Calvin Psal 112.6 whose good name shall be had in an everlasting remembrance and whose lustre will dazle all your new lights I know none besides your self would have had the face of brass to have done it For the latter part of this paraphrase in your confession of Gods independency on outward things and that he hath not from thence any motive or incentive c. for his election of any I heartily thank you especially if I could imagine that this did not proceed ex labiis dolosis but that it were done in reality and truth but when I find that this acknowledgement of yours doth so much interfere with your often dictates I shall onely judge of you as of that clown in the fable who blowes both hot and cold with one breath here you seem to ascribe all to the good pleasure of Gods will in the business of election but otherwhere as I shall hereafter manifest a mans free will according to you in working and believing must be joynt-parceners with God so that the vote shall be as was the Harlots which came before Solomon to determine of the dead child 1 King 4.26 nec mihi nec tibi sed dividatur let it be neither mine nor thine but divide it You go one with your discourse neither is there any thing in this Position tending to the exaltation of the creature to be any motive or incentive cause for which God elects as a meritorious or procuring ground or cause of it for to say God saw some men embracing the means of salvation or that the embracing the means of salvation is a meritorious or procuring ground or cause of our election any more then the words of the holy Spirit spoken by David Psal 4.3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself should be a meritorious cause of the godly mans being set apart or chosen to the Lord neither is there any more ground or cause to call the words of this Position flat Pelugianism or an old heresie then there is to call the words of David so Answ It was heretofore generally observed that when anyone came to consult the Delphian Oracle whether out of curiosity or necessity it matters not that the responses of the Flamens were so abstruse and equivocall that which way soever the success did fall yet they might have a starting hole to preserve the credit of their Oracle As for instance in one of their answers Ibis redibis nunquam per bella peribis the issue thereof being contrary to expectation they made another sense of the words onely by pointing of them thus Ibis peribis nunquam per bella peribis and truly howsoever all those Oracles ceased at the coming of Christ in the flesh yet methinks I see the same spirit of delusion now working in these children of darkness for look upon this man as to his Positions here so by others his complices the Arminians and Socinians when they find themselves pincht by any Argument that they can finde no subterf ge for evasion then they betake themselves to shifts of Amphibology and fall to denying of the proper sense and scope of their own tenets because perhaps not comprehended in express syllables and words of their Positions for this man with whom I have to deal though he wants not that face of brass to deny that there is nothing couched under the Position to exalt the creature as in whom there should be somewhat which God should look upon as a motive or procuring ground or cause for God to elect such so qualified Yet by the assistance of my God I shall clearly make it to appear in my defence of my first Argument that according to these men believing or faith and perseverance therein is such a condition prerequisite and so lookt upon by God in the Act of election as without which he elects not and for which he doth elect and so becomes a moving or procuring cause why he doth elect any one as is generally by them maintained For that Scripture alledged Psal 4.3 is nihil ad Rhombum being quite alien from the case depending we are now treating of the eternal and Immanent act of God in electing before all time and the place quoted is to be understood of Gods effectual vocation a transient act of God in time where he actually sets apart him i. e. him that is in existence and being him that is Godly i. e. such
your principles for if Gods foresight of faith and the embracing of the means be the ground-work of election as it is by you and that in children dying in infancy nothing either of faith or works can be foreseen because never reducible into any act of faith upon what ground with you can such be elected is a riddle to me Your next work is to make an apology for your tediousness in these words I am constrained to be larger in answering these arguments because I cannot but a little follow him that I may find him out in his crooked waies that so he may be discovered and therefore I cannot but take notice of this expression before they had the use of faith by which one would think that the man is of that opinion that faith comes by generation because his words do seem to intimate as if infants had faith but not the use of faith but Paul certainly was of another mind when he said faith cometh by hearing Rom 10.17 Answ Sir to let pass your crooked words you seem to make it a wonder for one to affirm that infants may have faith but not the act or use of faith and from such an opinion to conclude that faith then might come by generation which indeed were an absurdity in grain But Sir are you onely a stranger in Jerusalem and know not these things or have you not learnt to distinguish between the habit of faith and the act of faith I know a regenerate person when he sleeps hath the habit of faith though at that time he want the act and use of faith A convert likewise under a spiritual desertion may have the principle and seed of faith and yet want an active and an operating faith And so an elect Infant though in respect of the imperfection of its natural faculties he is indisposed actually to believe yet in regard he is a subject capable of the inward workings of the Spirit of God to sanctifie his corrupt nature he may passively receive the grace of sanctification and therewith the habit root seed or principle of faith and from thence to be denominated a believer Infants are reputed in the number of reasonable creatures yea even before they have the act or use of reason onely because they have it in semine in the seed or root of reason and why not alike to have faith in the habit or root and so reputed for believers though they cannot actually exert it Phil. 19 Sir I must tell you first that faith is infused not acquired t is given to believe which passively infants are in a capacity of as well as those that are adult 2. That their souls may as well be now sanctified by infused grace as if Adam had not fallen they should have been holy from the womb by original justice propagated unto them and inherent in them 3. That the humanity of Christ was in this manner holy even from the conception which was therein by special priviledge like unto that course which should have been ordinary in our conceptions and births if we had not sinned in Adam 4. That it cannot fairly be denyed to be so in Iohn Baptist but that so great a Prophet was sanctified by the holy Ghost even from the womb which may be confirmed by that his extraordinary motion upon the salutation of Mary the mother of our blessed Saviour and of Ieremy it is not improbable by that which God saith of him Ier. 1.5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the nations But wonder I know to be the fecundous spawn and brood of ignorance and therefore I cannot wonder at the wonder Yet to extricate your self out of this absurdity you undertake thus But whereas he seemeth to make it a very doubtful thing if not altogether impossible that children dying in infancy should be elected to life and salvation from what we hold I must tell him there is a great ground to hope if not a certainty whereby we may believe that no child dying in infancy before they come to have a being to act shall ever be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death because they not having the use of those faculties as hearing together with the use of reason to understand what is spoken and being not capable of any embracing of the means and which never had a being to act therefore they cannot reject the means of salvation and their not having of faith will never be charged upon them as sin for where no law is there can be no transgression Rom. 4.15 and there can be no law to infants as such because they cannot know it when they are Infants and sin is not imputed where there is no law Rom. 5.13 and also we find that Christ himself said Luke 18.16 That of such is the Kingdom of God and hath no where said that such are reprobated to everlasting destruction if he hath shew us where he hath spoken it in Scripture or appointed it to be spoken by any of his Ministers It is true we find that we shall appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 but we do not find that any shall receive any thing at the day of judgement as a punishment for what hath been done in the body of another although we 1 Cor. 11.22 all dye and go to the dust in the first Adam in that all have sinned or in whom all have sinned Rom. 5. ver 12. compared with the Margin and God himself hath declared against such iniquitie of proceeding in Ezek. 18.20 The soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father c. Now that this was a dying that was more then to dye and to go to the dust it is evident for all must undergo that whether they be righteous or unrighteous and we find ver 26. that when a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dieth in them he shall dye which doth imply that it was a death that is to be the portion of those that dye and go to the dust in wickedness and impenitency after that death when the judgement cometh which is called in Scripture the second death and it doth appear that that death will not be the portion of any for any thing that is acted in or by another but for the wickedness and impenitency of every particular soul that liveth and dieth therein In answer to this rabble I say that as there is salvation for all sorts and degrees of persons of age in covenant but not to be extended to all of those sorts and degrees to reach every individual person so in a parallel way we may think of infants I know no Text giving us
17. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Answ That God doth put forth acts of Grace of free and undeserved love unto his worthless creatures we have willingly acknowledged we further say that that love of God is no passion not proper affection in God who is not capable of such but onely a purpose in God of willing well and doing well unto the creature and that out of the wel-spring of that love did slow that good pleasure of his of the sending of his Son into the world But that either it was the purpose of God in sending or the intention of Christ in coming into the world to be a Redeemer of all and every particular person or to offer himself a sacrifice for all this text doth not evinâ—e Yet I say that this love here spoken of may be said to be universal in respect of the Elect and of believing persons answerable to that Rom. 3.22 Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God which is of faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe and yet withall particular in respect of the whole mass and lump of mankind according to that Rom. 9.13 Rom. 9.13 Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated and ver 18. he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Neither doth Christ intend any other universality here then this mentioned first because that those for whom Christ came into the world are also saved for what shall be able to hinder his purpose or resist his will Secondly because believers onely are saved Rom. 8.19 Phil. 1.2 Mat. 13.11 and shall not be condemned onely to the Elect it is given that they shall believe Phil. 1.29 Matth. 13.11 And thirdly to what purpose was this pretended love and affection in God if it never did nor can take any gracious effect in saving any reprobate That which takes the fourth place is Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Answ That by All men unto whom did slow the benefit purchased by Christ is not meant of all and singular men absolutely but all men that did appertain unto him who were given him of the Father i. e. the elect and believers For the Apostle here makes a comparison between the first Adam and the second Adam as being two roots either of whom do communicate unto their several branches i. e. unto a certain company descending from them what they have do or shall enjoy and therefore saith that as the first Adam by his carnal generation did communicate two pestilent evils Sin and Death unto all descending from him So Christ the second Adam by his spiritual generation did communicate two contrary blessings viz. Righteousness and Life to all that did believe in him The truth of this interpretation is clear from the scope of the Apostle which is to compare Christ the Authour of Righteousness and Life with Adam the Authour of Sin and Death from ver 12. to the end of the Chapter and therefore hereupon ver 19. repeating the same matter which in probability should be more clear the word all is interpreted by many For had it been otherwise the Apostle would have pulled down what before he had built up and clearly contradicted himself in that doctrine which he had before delivered in the third and fourth Chapters therein asserting the justification onely of believers and therefore here is but little advantage to be gotten from this Antithesis But you will say if more perished in Adam then are saved in Christ his Grace then should be weaker then Adams sin where is then the much more abounding grace spoken of ver 17. To which I answer that the greatness and power of grace above â—n ought not to be esteemed according to the multitude of those that are condemned in Adam and of those that are justified and glorified in Christ for so Grace should be equal onely and nothing at all stronger then sin if every of these should be made righteous in Christ as many as were born sinners in Adam But herein consists the extensiveness of Grace beyond what sin did First in that whereas sin brought forth death and grace righteousness and life now it s well known t is easier to destroy and condemn an innumerable company then to quicken and save one single person all the world compacted together could not save one but Adams single sin could make obnoxious the whole world Secondly In Adam all the whole world are involved and made liable to condemnation by his one only offence but Christ doth emancipate his little flock not onely from that one original sin contracted by stain and imputation but likewise from all actual sins wherein they themselves are personally culpable neither is there any Righteousness besides Christ as there be some sins besides the sin of Adam And how mighty is this gift which innumerable sinners cannot withstand and this is that which the Apostle hinteth ver 17. and not as c. And so I proceed to your fifth Text prest to give in evidence which is 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again True it is Christ is said here that he died for all but for what all therein lies the doubt truly then the resolve must be that Christ died first for those all to whom his death is imputed viz. such who through the virtue and efficacy of the death of Christ which he underwent for them are accounted as dead and secondly Rom. 13.14 for such as do repent i. e. whereas before they did indulge their pleasures and lived to the satisfying of the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof now they live no longer to themselves but do endeavour to live conformably to the will and honour of him that died for them Now whether this can be extended to any but believers let my adversary judge for it were blasphemy to think that Christ could not obtain the end of his death had it been intended by him for any else besides believers yea even those to whom he had purposed to give them power to believe and to become sons of God The sixth Text forced by you to give its vote is 1 Tim. 2.1 c. I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and
nothing that we have not received neither do we glory as if we had not received it for Iohn 1.16 Of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace or grace to obtain grace yea so far are we from maintaining that we exercise any power of our own in repenting and believing in the name of Jesus that we do hold and believe that we have no power at all to do either good or evil but what we do enjoy through the mercy of God by our Redeemer Who is Col. 1.17 1 Cor. 8.6 our Lord Iesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him Acts 17.28 for in him we live and move and have our being And so wicked men dishonour God not with any thing they have of their own but with those members of the body and faculties of the mind which are in themselves good as they do enjoy them from God through Jesus Christ but are abused by being excercised in the speaking of words and doing of actions that are contrary to the mind of God See Iames 3.9 10. speaking of the tongue and saying Therewith bless we God even the father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing my brethren these things ought not so to be Now those that we read of in Scripture that said with our tongues we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us were wicked men and pâ—oud boasters but we have learned not to glory in these things but in this we delight to glory that we know Jesus Christ to be the Lord which exerciseth loving kindness judgement and truth on the earth Answ Marry Sir this is brave skirmishing indeed But I pray inform me were you so disciplined in the wars to raise sconces your selves and when you had raised them immediately to make an assault and battery upon them This would suddenly crown your victorie and enlarge the number of your triumphs and Trophees But to what you confess that you have no power to do either good or evil but through the mercy of God by our Redeemer as to matter of evil who required such a confession at your hands and therefore by so much it is more then was necessary and to boot more then is truth for who dare affirm that Jesus Christ shed his bloud to purchase power for us to do that which is evil What power any man or creature hath as simply to an external action he hath it as by virtue of God the Creator and not God the Redeemer but onely as to such actions which may have a tendency to goodness heaven c. and so with you I will confess that Ioh. 15. Without him we can do nothing But in good sooth Sir this confession being so inconsistent with your other principles whatsoever it is that you pretend or fair flourishes you make of denyal of your selves and making Jesus Christ all in all yet it is too palpable you do exalt the freewill of man above all that is called God and whatsoever is done or spoken in the advance of that especially in that point of conversion it is done to the dishonour of God and of his Son Jesus Christ Whosoever gives fâ—ee-will any power at all in the choosing or acceptance of any thing that is good as from a principle of any innate quality it hath in it self he doth in so much dethrone Jesus Christ from his kingly power and Priestly office Jesus Christ died that he might purchase a freedom to the will and Psal 110.3 they shall be a willing people in the day of his power and then Ioh. 8. If the Son make you free then are you free indeed For that which followes I was very unwilling to trouble either my self in transcribing of it or the Reader to perplex him with so much of nothing but by reason I have injoyned my self to that method I cannot omit it and thus it begins And to those Scriptures in Rom. 9. which seem to be the ground-work or foundation upon which these Arguments are built they hold forth no such thing as this man doth endeavour to draw from them or wrest out of them by which he would have his Argument seem currant gold but will be found to be but dross for they speak forth no such thing as that God doth elect men in Jesus Christ to eternal life without any respect had to faith or the use of means although they do exclude the works of the law wholly in that thing as hath been already shewed neither do they speak forth any such thing as that God doth assign the Reprobation of persons to everlasting destruction solely and singly to his will without assigning it to any other cause but the contrary is in it as hath been already made to appear in ver 32. and in Chapter 11.20 in which it is plain that unbelief or the not seeking of righteousness by faith in Christ Jesus was the cause why the fleshly seeds or natural branches were broken off from their own Olive-tree were blinded or hardned had the spirit of slumber given unto them eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear and so were Reprobated because they sought not righteousness by faith and because of unbelief and thus neither Ismael nor Esau nor Pharaoh were cast out of Gods presence given over or hardened meerly solely and singly by the will or decree of God without assigning any other thing in Scripture as a cause of it for Ismael was persecuting the son that was born by Promise Gal. 4.29 Esau was a prophane person and for one morsel of meat sold his birthright Heb. 12.16 and his posterity also which is much concerned in what God said to Rebecca Gen. 25.23 For the Lord did not speak to her of two persons but said that two nations were in her womb and two manner of people should be separated from her bowels and the one people should be stronger then the other people c. And those judgements that are to befall the Edomites or the posterity of Esau are not assigned solely and singly to the will of God mentioning nothing beside the will of God as a cause of it as appeareth in that Prophesie of Obadiah ver 10. For thy violence against thy brother Iacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever and Pharaoh likewise we do not find to be hardened or given up of God until he had hardned his own heart first if we mind and consider well his evil dealing towards God and his people in the first place Do but read and consider well Exod. 8.32 and Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also which is a plain intimation that he had hardened his heart several times before and so God maketh vessels of diâ—honour not in the first creation as hath been imagined by some for then he made all things good Gen. 2.31 and God made man
or be angry with the Reprobates when they sin this he takes for a false conclusion and therefore he checks the boldness and petulancy of wanton carnal reason saying Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God wherein the Apostle flatly condemns the daring boldness of such men who when God had plainly declared in his word that according to his free good will and pleasure he had elected whom he would and therewith had mercy on whom he would and that he had likewise not elected or reprobated and therewith hardened more and more whom he world yet they would be so adventurous as to reply answer again dispute or expostulate the case with God thereby tacitly accusing him of injustice and making him either the author or approver of sin and so extenuating their own wickedness In short it tends thus far to our purpose that the Apostle insists not on a refutation of these reasons but by his silence gives consent unto them onely he rejects the sequel thence deduced by this express reproof who art thou that repliest against God Next for a further confirmation of what he hath in hand he brings a similitude from the Potters house Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus In which words are condemned the desperate audaciousness of such who fear not to contend with God their maker why he had not made them otherwise then he hath a like parallel place we have Esa 45.9 Wo unto him that striveth with his maker let the potsheard strive with the potsheards of the earth shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it what makest thou Further in these words Hath not the potter power c. the Apostle by an argument a minori ad majus clearly evinceth that God may without the least tincture of unrighteousness elect or reprobate have mercy or harden appoint to salvation or damnation whom he will For if the potter may enjoy that freedom without the control of any that of the same lump of clay he may make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour how much more may God who is such a Lord that no man may say unto him Job 9.12 What doest thou Adde moreover this to make it weigh heavier the potter though he be the maker of the vessel yet he is not the maker of the clay whereof the vessel is made but God he made us of nothing at least he made the lump of clay whereof man was made Now the Apostle purposely made use of the word clay to prevent a cavil which might be made viz. that there is a great deal of difference betwixt us and earthen vessels be it so but yet what are we but as clay in the hands of God for thereof were we at first formed so Ier. 18.6 And therefore without dispute we are more properly as clay in the hands of God then the clay whereof the vessel is made in the hands of the potter And that the Lord hath a far greater power over us then the potter hath over his clay because we are more properly Gods then the clay is the potters for the potter made not the clay but God made both the clay and the potter he made the clay of nothing and of that clay fashioned man Besides the potter as he made not the clay so is it not in his power to unmake it but that it will be clay still but God as he formed man of nothing so if he would please he might reduce us to our first nothing Moreover we see that there is a great difference between the potter and his pot that he makes and yet it is but finite for both are creatures But between God the creatot of all and us his creatures there is an infinite disproportion so that hence it comes to pass that the power and soveraignty that God hath over the work of his hands is infinitely beyond what the potter hath over his clay If therefore the potter hath such power over his clay that is not simply his own but holding all in capite from God himself how much greater power then hath God over us worms and no men to frame fashion and do with us what seems good in his own eyes without any dispute to be made with him From all which it is as clear as the day that God in Reprobation or non-election though he had no respect to sin as to the decree yet in respect of the soveraignty that he hath over his creatures he may according to his good will and pleasure form and appoint any vessel to dishonour without being accountable to any or in the least measure charged of unrighteousness And thus having done with my Antagonist for his doctrinal part out of that ninth chapter of the Romans I must attend unto the practical uses that he draws from them which are these following Now the use that we make of this is first it doth hereby appear that Gods decree before the foundation of the world doth not hinder men from being eternally saved if they be not wanting to themselves in the use of that means and the exercise of that power that God giveth unto them for the accomplishing of their everlasting happiness Secondly It may be a precious incouragement to all people to go unto God by Jesus Christ in the use of that means that he hath appointed for life and salvation forasmuch as he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Thirdly those that have embraced Jesus Christ by that way and means may be sweetly comforted in the everlasting love of the Father manifested to their souls through the precious promises of God in Christ Jesus which are not yea and nay but in him they are yea and amen which promises of remission of sins the everlasting inheritance and the holy Spirit of promise as Ephe. 1.13 14. 2 Cor. 1.12 a seal or earnest of the same inheritance and those promises are assigned and made over so firmly to penitent believers being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus together with seeking for the same spirit by prayer and laying on of hands believing the resurrection of the dead and the eternal judgement and growing up upon those principles in holiness of life in the fear of God and with a single heart in obedience to Christ delighting to observe all his counsel and so going on unto perfection in the way of righteousness with perseverance enduring therein to the end of their lives that they shall undoubtedly be saved in the day of the Lord according to these and such like Scriptures Ioh. 3.15 16. Chap. 15.16 Matth. 18.14 It is not the will of your father which is in heaven that one of those little ones should perish Note It hath an allusion to ve 6. Those little ones that believe in me Mark 16.16 Acts 2.38 Chap. 16.31 32 33 34. Matth. 24.13 Rev. 2.10 for God cannot fail in making good his promises