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A86881 Animadversions and considerations upon a sheet, printed for Francis Smith containing a confession of the faith of several catapædobaptists, whose names are thereunto subscribed. As also the absurdities of the doctrine of arminianism, free-will, and general redemption; and that it is a popish doctrine; and their objections briefly answered. By J. H. Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Humphreys, John, b. 1637. 1679 (1679) Wing H3666A; ESTC R224279 30,889 102

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Chap. 17. entitled Of the Voyage by Night and Chap. 18. called the Chapter of the Cave 27 28 29 30 lines To the second that all the misery and death and condemnation of the World brought in by the fall of the first Adam is but temporal corporeal and only as to this life is a Lye against Scripture Reason and the Authority of good and approved Authors This Opinion was held by Jacobus Faber and many other Papists but not by Bellarmine Gen. 2. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death is a Hebrew phrase signifying eternal and temporal death moriendo morieris Eph. 2.23 Rom. 8.6 7 8. Rom. 5.6.8 Rom. 6.23 Rom. 7.14.17.20.23 Rom. 5 14. to 21. Ezek. 16.3 to 9 10. Mat. 25.41 Gal. 3.1 the wages of all sin is death in that kind that the gift of God is life But the gift of God is life eternal to all Abraham's Seed ergo the wages of all sin is eternal death by the Rule of compar contrar My Authorities are Calvin Instit lib. 2. cap. 1 2 3. the Assemblies Catechism Quest 19. and Answer to it Dr. Willet against Papists in his eighteenth general Controversie read at large besides Luther Zuinglius Melancthon and more Ancient Augustine Hierom Chrysostom Ambrose Tertul. Justin Martyr The third Article professes General Redemption that the Father gave Christ out of his love to the whole world and a Ransom for all universally wherein 1. The Fathers gift is diminished and 2. The Sons Ransom belied for the Father gave him to be a Propitiation for the sins of the world of the Elect and none else that is to all the Elect of Jew and Gentile so is all taken 2 Cor. 5. definitely and John 17.6 7. and 10. he gave him to the Sheep only whose sins he laid on him Isai 53.6.11.1 Pet. 2.24 25. 2. Cor. 5.21 and to whom only he gave and imputed his Righteousness 2 Tim. 1.9 10. Gal. 1.15 16. The Elect Jews were his Sheep and other Sheep I have that is the Elect of the Gentiles and the Reprobates he called Dogs Wolves Lyons c. which he ransomed not neither was given to ransom so he did more for his Elect than you acknowledge viz. transacted and bore their sins on his own body 2. He did it not for all but only for them whom the Father gave to him and him to them Joh. 17.2.6.8.9.11.29 Joh. 6.44.39.37 Joh. 10.3.11.15 16 26 27 28 29. These only by his Blood hath he cleansed in his sight not by Water-Baptism but by his Blood 1 Joh. 1.7.9 and Chap. 5. and of this is the Water of Baptism a Figure and by his Blood hath satisfied Justice for all their sins past to come and present and redeemed them and of this is the Supper a Symbol or Sign 1 Cor. 11. c. The fourth Article sings the same Song wresting the word All to a false sense that God is willing that all should come to repentance and none should perish and that the pardon of sins should be preached to every Creature that none might suffer in Hell The Word of God is belied making it speak what it intends not and the Gospel sophisticated For first the Gospel is ministerlally offered to all Mark 16.15 but by recommunication of the Spirit only to the Elect Rom. 9.11 12 13 18 19 20. with 1 Pet. 3.17 Mat. 13.11 To the Elect it is given to know the Gospel but not to the Reprobate Joh. 12.40 Rom. 11.7 8 9 10. And Piscator a Protestant Divine saith Gratia affertur à deo animo communicandi eam folis Electis hand quaque singulis To the fifth I say degrees of Christianity abstractively adapt not to the Ministry beside I deny you to be a Church of Christ Ergo have no power to give your approbation in Ordination Beside the Church alone though true cannot by Divine Authority ordain Ministers or Commissionate them to go forth to Preach The sixth Article is ambiguous as most of your Preachments are to deceive the simple and obtain Proselites Rom. 16.17 18 19. Submelli Hybleo venenum latet Faith don't justifie as an Act nor is it the Root of Justification as Papists say it is Christ and his Personal Righteousness that justifies the ungodly being Elected Rom. 4 Rom. 8.33 Psal 32.1 2 3. and they by Faith when God gives it them Ephes 2. apprehend and receive this Righteousness of Christ wrote in his Person for their justification Rom. 8.2.3 Joh. 1.12 where you say Believers commit themselves to his Grace I boldly assirm you Arminians Grotians and Pelagians don't mean by Grace to the imputation of his Righteousness wrought in his Individual Person for all his Sheep and given to them for their justification and received by Faith of them Thus all true Protestants but you with Bellarmine and all the Papists mean that the Act of Faith in this your Opinion and new-fangled Gospel and Christ with repentance and obedience to your holy Baptism this is your justification and the Papists for which you will be ashamed in the day of the Lord Jesus when the Thrones of the Kingdoms of the World shall bow before him Phil. 2. and all that own and receive not his imputed Righteousness shall be slain and cast in the Lake Rev. 21.8 and 22.15 The seventh Article tells a loud Lye like his Fellows for God gives his Spirit to his Elect Sons before you do believe or can believe repent or obey for all these are done by the Spirit or some Power else but no Power else but the Spirit can work these Ergo the Spirit is given first not before their Redemption Reconciliation and Justification but before the Application of this Grace by the Office of the holy Spirit this Grace is revealed received and applied to the Elect only Gal. 4.6 Col. 2.10 11 12. Joh. 14.15 16. Chap. 1 Cor. 2.10 11 12. Rom. 8.15 16. Ephes 1.13.18 19 20. The eighth Article is swoln big with the poyson of Sophistication and Contradiction and that because you hide your Errours under a disguise like a hitter Pill wrapt up in a little Sugar or Wormwoodseeds in Plumbs to deceive the simple and Children for you would make us believe you own the Decrees of God while indeed you deny them 2. Acontradiction because if they be Elected for foreseen Faith works or repentance then it is not of meer mercy and good will and nothing in the Creature but sin So that the second part of your Article contradicts the first and the first is sophisticated You say God Elects from the Foundation of the world such as believe that is when they believe he Elects them that is he hath decreed to Elect all that believe but he Elects them as meer sinners and because he Elects them they believe and not that he Elects them because they believe The ninth is like his Fellows full of falshood for they were ordained to Condemnation before they were ungodly men and because of their Reprobation
parts for one may be supposed to be erronious Now what is more cruel than false worship Ergo the Magistrate is to punish false Worshippers or else he must not punish all evil doers forasmuch as such are the greatest evil doers in quality if not in quantity or number But here lies a Falacy occult to most mens judgments false worship say they consists in mode or manner of worship not considering that the greatest evil in worship lies in the substance not in the mode For false worship consists either in the substance as in a false Faith and false Principle or else in false mode or manner of worship the last is bad but the former worst of all because it is the ground of the latter the latter though true is but a form of godliness if the former be wanting Hence all Arrians Socinians and the greatest part of Rattabaptists Arminians Free-willers General Redemptionists Conditional Decretists and Quakers err in the former though some of them may not in the latter therefore at best have but a form of godliness and from such we are commanded to turn away for the Power consists in true Faith and true Principles and true love to God and Man both arising from the diphthongued Union between the Soul and the Man Christ Jesus by the Spirit of the Lord and then mode order and disciplinal method will be soon rectified if the Premises be truly grounded or else not The Doctrine of Quakers Pelagians Arminians Grotians Pharisees Assidians Papists and Justitiaries ABsurdities from your Errours arising That God gave his Son for all Universally upon condition that they believe repent and obey him and so Election upon condition of something in the Creature either naturally as restored by Christ at once as the Pelagians or else wrought in them by the Spirit upon the assent of their free will as the Papists and Council of Trent only by Gods fore-knowledge ab Eterno but not determination and free act and without considering any thing in the Creature and particular free Personal Election from Eternity meerly of good pleasure without any thing in the Creature but to be wrought in the Elected as the purchase of Christs Blood after Election 1. You make Christ the Minister of sin Gal. 2.17 for you make man's act of Faith Repentance and Obedience the formal cause of their Justification not only without which sine quâ non but by which they are justified before God and not by Christs Merits only But man's act of Faith repentance and obedience is sin and filthy rags Isay 64.6 Phil. 3. Ergo that which is sin you make to justifie and consequently Christ must be then the Minister of sin if his Righteousness alone be not sufficient to justifie being imputed by God and received by Faith for something that is sinful and of man's must help to justifie and Christs Merits only make it passable and acceptable so then Christs Merits makes sin passable and acceptable for all our righteousness is but filthy rags Is 64.6 Phil. 3. dung and dross yea loss which is worse than sin for man hath no righteousness except it be wrought in him by the assistance of the Spirit therefore it must be that righteousness wrought in man that the Prophet means and the Apostles for in him we live move and have our being Acts 17. Now the major is proved by all the Testimonies and Writings of Arminians Baptists of that Sect and Pelagians and Papists and is notoriously known The minor is made good from Isay 64.6 and Phil. 3. Ergo the COnclusion is true That they make Christ the Minister of sin The second Absurdity is That those of this Errour do make the Souls of Men before Christ's coming mortal and to dye with the Body which is contrary to the Apostle Phil. 1.23 24. worse than the Papists their Purgatory For a live Dog is better than a dead Lyon and agreeable to Atheists Stoicks and Heathens Besides it makes all Christ's Sufferings on the Cross as they say to remove the first Covenant of perfect works and to bring in a Lex remediens a milder Law to be only Temporal Punishment For such as was our Deliverance such was his Passion 1 Thes 1. ult to deliver us from the Wrath to come did he die Ergo our first death is both Eternal and Temporal Again such was Gods promise to Adam had he stood such was his punishment if he fell But if he had stood he had life Eternal Ergo falling Eternal death besides The wages of Sin is Death Rom. 5. and Rom. 6. ult and James 1.13 14 15. But all man's Sin entered with his first fall Rom. 5.12 Ergo the first fall is the ground of Eternal Death And that Unbelief only is the cause of Damnation is a Lye against the Scriptures For 't is true Unbelief is the cause of all sins efficiently And Sodom and Gomorrah were damned instrumentally for Adultery and Fornication Ep. Jude 2. Pet. 2. and not instrumentally and directly for Unbelief in the Son of God Yea Originally because they were reprobated from Faith effectual Calling and Glory 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. and because he did not taste death for them nor deliver them because they were not elected ab eterno 2 Thes 2.13 1 Thes 5.9 John 22.40 Heb 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That by the Grace of God he might taste Death for every Son The third Absurdity is 2 Tim. 2.19 then by these mens Doctrine the Foundation of God is not sure if the acceptance of Christ and his Merits depend on mans Free-will for conditional is not certain for Faith is no condition on mans part but a Necessary Qualification wrought in the Elect to apply his Grace and purchased by his Blood too and wholly wrought by his Spirit in them as effectual Calling Rom. 9. Fph. 2. Cratia non offertur Deo singulis animo communicandi eam sed solis Electis Piscator against Papists The fourth Absurdity is That God's Grace is not free which is by his word declared to be most free Rom. 7. and Rom. 4. not at all of our works wrought in us for then it is not free Now Election is the top of his free Grace from whence flows all the other Justification and effectual Calling and Glory Rom. 8.29 30 31 c. for if it be upon any condition in us then it is not free but it is most free Ergo upon no condition in or by us at all Acts 13.48 None can believe but who are pre-ordained to live Ephes 2.8 9 10. The Elect are created unto good works according to his good pleasure Phil. 2. Huberus and Hemingius the great Jesuits and Patrons of this Sophistry say non absolué statuit sed defixit in Christo ut credant in eo salvi fiant but predestination is de scientia Dei voluntate ejus and Act of his Will Ephes 1.4 7. as well as of
is Disciple all Nations But the Question may be asked How shall we Disciple them the Answer is Baptizeing them c. then teach them to observe all things c. the Jews did so Disciple their Children and Children Acts 15. are called Disciples and doubtless the Righteousness of Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven is given to the Elect of them Mat. 18.4 5 6. 1 Cor. 14 20. Mark 9.42 Luke 17.1 2. and belongs to them and therefore the Sign of the Covenant belongs to them which is the Water of Baptism and the very rantizing or sprinckling in the Figure is sufficient because the Sprinckling the Blood in the Substance is sufficient 1 Pet. 1.2 The same way that Abraham was Discipled are all aged ones in all times that being ignorant of God's Covenant never knew it or received the Figure before and this by teaching them the Covenant of God as God taught Abraham and then set the Sign on them But the way to Disciple Infants as in that day by Circumcision so in this day by Baptism Acts 15.10 1 Cor. 12.13 Their Children were called Disciples and so are ours Disciples of right if the Substance of the Covenant of Grace be the same as it is for there is no new thing sub Coelis and our Baptism now doth Baptize into the whole Body or Church Universal 1 Cor. 12.13 that is into the number of the Elect and not into particular visible Congregations and when they do actually believe then are they Members of the visible particular Church actual Members and then as Baptism shadowed out their cleansing by Christ's Blood and the Application of it to them in the Womb by God So doth the Supper when they believe figure out Christ's Redemption and Satisfaction to them by his Blood Joh. 6. ult 1 Cor. 11. ult And though the Sacraments be distant in Administration and Respect of time yet Satisfaction Redemption and Cleansing was actually done at once for all the Elect by Christ John 18.34 35. with 1 Jo. 5.6 7 8. and yet I say the Elect have their cleansing sealed and signed Externally for the Internal Seal is the Spirit Ephes 1.13 Rom. 4. mostly in their Infancy because God imputes Christs Righteousness to them in their Infancy Rom. 9.10 3. Gal. 1.16 Mat. 19.14 And because Baptism is not a Communion Sacrament as the Supper is 1 Cor. 11. hence they did not eat the Pascal Lamb till they were able to stand on their Feet eat bitter Herbs and walk Exod. 12. for the Pascal Lamb under the old Administration of Grace was the Sign of Christ's Death for the Elect as the Supper is now both figuring out the same thing to wit the pardon of Sins by Christs bearing them as the Lamb taking them away John 1.29 only that figur'd out the actual time of discharge of the Elect to come but the Supper that the actual time is past Heb. 9.29 and ch 10.14 Neither is Baptism the way of making visible Churches but Profession of the true Faith of Christ Rom. 10.11.10.12 Gal. 3.26 By Faith and not by Baptism you make Baptism your Christ and so slight the Lords Blood by placing life in the Figures But the Apostle when some in his time see 1 Cor. 1. did too much magnifie it he thanked God that he he had not Baptized but a few Families and tells them His Mission was to preach the Gospel A more weighty Affair than administring Baptism though both belonged to him The Apostles never preached up Baptism as the Catabaptists do And though Circumcision did make Disciples of right yet it did not make them visible and actual Disciples but Faith in God's Covenant and the eating the Pascal Lamb was a or the visible Communion as the Supper is now to professed Believers You belie the word of God to prove your own Heresie For this you must answer one day mark it Generation was not the way of the Jews intromiting Church-Members or making them It was the knowledge of God's gracious Covenant Gen. 15.6 Faith in Christ as now Christs Priestly Office took away the Sins of the Elect under the old Administration or Testament as well as now under the new The Covenant was and is substantially and formally the same only differs diathetically and by way of Administration Heb. 8. Jer. 31.31 32 33. 1 Joh. 2.1 2 3. Why do you lye against the Scriptures and say That Vnscriptural Sprinckling for 1 Pet. 1.2 as the Blood of sprinckling purges away the Sins of the Elect so will the Water of sprinckling sufficiently figure it out A little Wax will seal a great Lease when the Covenants therein are firmly agreed do you know what you prate of the Bond-woman and her Son You your selves are Children of the Bond-woman Gal. 4 The Seed of the Adulterer and Whore Isay 57.34 10. and 12. You trust in the life of your hand in your Faith Repentance and Obedience for your formal justification as all Papists do and as the carnal Jews did suppose that the Law of works was given for them to fulfill in their own persons and what they failed of it was to be supplyed by the Sacrifices and Ceremonies Thus mistaking the whole Order and End of the Law which was to carry them to Christ the Mediator who was ordained in his person to fulfill all the Law of God and that Righteousness of his to be imputed to the Elect for their justification and received by Faith when God gave it them to believe And so the Law at Sina given in Thunder and Tempest was to shew them their Sinfulness Rom. 3.19 20 21 22. and God's Wrath boyling against Sinners Rom. 1. and 2. ch who all in Adam have violated Gods holy Law Rom. 3. and come short of the Glory of God by it and to break the Rock of their Carnal Confidence and security 2 Cor. 3. Exod. 19. and 20. To bring the Elect thereby humbly to submit to Christ the Everlasting Mediator on whom the Lord laid all the Sins of the Elect Isay 53.6 11. 1 Pet. 2.24 25. Mica 7.18 19. Psal 89. and Psal 80. ult and imputes his Personal Righteousness to them for their justification 2 Cor. 5.21 Gal. 3.13 Now as they corrupted their Administration of Grace under the Old Testament so do you and your Generation Pelagians Arminians and Papists under the New Testament For the Apostle in that Text Gal. 4. opposes the Covenant of Grace to the Covenant of Works or to the Law made by the Jews as a Covenant of Works as aforesaid and not the New Testament or Administration of Grace against the Old for as they did take the Law for a Covenant of Works so do you the Gospel calling Faith Repentance and Obedience the Conditions of it which are freely given to them as Fruits of the pardon of Sins not procurers and rejecting the imputed Righteousness of Christ as Papists do and make the Acts of your Faith to justifie you which is full of Sin yea full of
Christ the Lord. And lastly the old Whores Purgatory is better than your mortality for a live Dog is better than a dead Lyon Eccles 9.4 The one and twentieth Article acknowledgeth a general Judgment but tacitly denieth the particular Judgment because the Authors of the Article deny the Immortality of the Soul from the time of the death of the Body to the general Resurrection as I said before It is saith Paul appointed once for every man to die and after that death to Judgment that is every particular man for the Premises is particular therefore the Assumption must be particular the death he speaks of is a particular death Ergo the Judgment that follows is a particular Judgment which I say these good Gentlemen tacitly deny It is absurd that the Soul should not live a moment for if the Soul be immortal à parte post that is from the instant of its infusion into the Body it may not desist from life a moment for then it would lose its Immortality If we grant you Mortality of the Soul for a time they may as well beg its Mortality for ever for to unreasonable persons that have not the true Faith of Christ grant an Inch and they will crave an Ell. But I pass to the two and twentieth Article which is like a Jewel in a Swines Snout What the Kingdom of Christ set upon the Foundation of the Whore of Babylon and Antichrist it loaths my Soul to see it The Reign of Christ in the Kingdoms of the World in his Saints in a restorative Apostolical manner before the final dissolution of the World is and ever was the Judgment and Faith of Saints and not only so but at the general Judgment when Christ shall again the second time appear Acts 1. in that glorified body of his and descend from the Throne in that flesh he did ascend with the innumerable Societies of Saints and Angels the then living Saints being changed 1 Thes 4. ult Phil. 3. ult to meet the Lord in the Clouds of Heaven and together with him to return to take the Kingdoms of the World into his possession Dan. 7. Rev. 11. and so to judge the Earth and give his beheaded and suffering Sons Rev. 20. quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the new Heavens and new Earth Isai 63. and 2 Pet. 3. till the second and last Trumpet 1 Cor. 15. whether numerically for a thousand years or less or more may be disputable by some but for the sum and substance hath been owned from the very Apostles days by the Fathers as Papias Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and almost if not all except August and Jerom who yet spake very favourably fo the Chyleasts or fifth Monarchical Judgment Licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quia mult● Ecclesiasticorum virorum ista dixerunt Jer. 23. Ep. de regnand secundo Christi But to set up this glorious Truth and Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon a rotten Papistical Pelagian Arminian Heretical Antichristian Foundation you will receive the reward of the Pharisees Mat. 7. Lord we have prophesied in thy Name and cast out Devils but saith Christ depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for unbelievers The three and twentieth Article pleads for the holy Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Life it is one thing to take the Letter of the Scripture with the Doctrine and sense of the Holy Ghost included and another thing to accept for our Rule the humane glosses of mens natural or deluded spirits the latter of which is equal with their Errour that deny the regular Authority of the Scriptures The Letter of the Scriptures and the Spirit of Jesus are both in Commission from Christ our Prophet to teach his people they that exclude the Spirit and pretend the Letter are as unfortunate as Arminians Socinians Pelagians and other Carnal Hereticks but they that reject the Letter and pretend the Spirit are swallowed up of Enthusiastical Delusions as Quakers and such like For whom God hath joyned together we must not dare to separate asunder without incurring the Curse of adding or diminishing The twenty fourth Article pleads for Liberty of Conscience in spiritual matters It is not to be doubtted but that the Saints of God ought to have their liberty to worship God and to hinder them is the greatest sin next to the sin against the Holy Ghost but the question is who are the Saints 2. Whether false worshippers may have liberty from godly Magistrates 1. Saints are either called to the Faith of Christ and so to the profession of it and such are visible though they may differ among themselves in some circumstances 2. Saints that are Elect but uncalled may be among them that are false worshippers till called the first only worship God truly because none can worship God truly but such as truly believe in the Son of God according to the Declaration of God and that Record he hath given in the Word of his Son viz. that Christ was made Sin and a Curse that he laid their sins on Christ and so freed them and their Curse and so that Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in his Person as God-man is imputed to them for their whole Righteousness which they by Faith alone receiving are visible Saints and do worship God truly they that have not this Faith though Angels in appearance are but false worshippers because the Law of Faith in Christ is the fulfilling of the whole Law directly the first Table towards God Exod. 20. containing first four Commandments that is fulfilled compleatly in a true Believer and forasmuch as Love flows from Faith so is the second Table fulfilled in a true believer but this fulfilling the Law by Faith in a Believer is not his Justification or Righteousness before God for that is Christs fulfilling it in his Person Rom. 8.2 3 4. and Gods imputing it to the sinner Rom. 4.5 6 7. and Faith as an Instrument receives it and applies it to its self So then the Act of Faith in us doth not justifie for then our Works and the Law would justifie but it is still Christ alone that justifies Rom. 8. To the second question the Magistrate may restrain false worshippers See Rev. 2.20 and 2 Cor. 10.5 the Instruments of the Church for this purpose are spiritual 1 Cor. 5. delivering the proud and contemptible to Satan and the godly Magistrate is but a Ruling Elder whether in a Congregation or Nation Let the Tares grow with the Wheat some say is meant of secret Hypocrites but I suppose that blood-shed consiscation or any corporal persecution in this day is not to be in any wise inflicted on deluded Consciences The twenty fifth and last Article seems to contradict his Predecessor for he allows the Magistrate to punish evil doers and incourage the good but his Predecessor flatly denies the Magistrate to have any thing to do with matters of Divine Worship Now among the Pretenders to Spiritual Worship three
them up to Sun-beams which if they can't endure they cast them down as none of their own it is to do all works obedience and repentance quid non in the light of Christs Righteousness and Justification from all sin guilt and wrath by Christ and then 't is freely done and not for any reward for repent believe obey is to be justified but sincerity is to do them because I am freely justified by Christs transaction of my sins and his perfect Righteousness imputed to me This is the mark of Popery and Pharisaicality which in the end will batter you all to pieces The 2d word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Innocence and Simplicity as it were non cornibus feriense ex à privative and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to stick with horns or to be pushed at as only the innocent perfect Keepers of Gods Law as freed from Deut. 27. ult for except all sin be clearly abolished without any spot wrath will break out Now is your Arminian Faith and Repentance and Obedience so spotless else wrath will break out upon you one day or other and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aufero as if all sin must be quite taken away or else the work is not sincere but Faith and Repentance is our work because done in us though by the Spirit And the Apostle in 1 Cor. 2. saith The natural man cannot receive the things of God which it might if yours were the things of God for there is no Mystery in your Arminian Pelagian Papistical and Socinian Doctrines but meerly Reason And that word in 1 Cor. 2. may be well and properly read the rational man or reason it self cannot receive the things of God for they are a mystery Pseuchicos Anthropos the rational man for the Soul is the subject of Reason and before Faith is given is rational but not spiritual 't is Faith in the Blood of Christ wrought by the Spirit of Christ that makes it truly spiritual But Pucksius the Jesuit answers for you to that place in Rom. 4. alledged that the Apostle admired because he knew the depths of Gods Counsels and that it was beneath so great an Apostle not to know the depths of God I leave his foolish Assertion as not worth the answering and refer you and all your Tribe to Doctor Willet against the Papists in his Synopsis of the Controversies between the true Protestants and Papists where all your Doctrine is fully answered and confuted by irrefragable Argumentsl which when you have answered we will prepare new ones for you The tenth Absurdity if this universally be true then all have power to believe if they will contrary to Rom. 3.3 then all have Faith given them and then their unbelief resists Gods gift Consider which is the greatest Mystery the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation of persons freely from Eternity or conditional Election upon fore-sight of works or Faith or the Election of Seed not persons as the Quakers prate Arminians and Papists would be justified by obeying Christ without them Quakers by obeying Christ within them What difference is here but as much as is between an Heretick or Papist without doors in a plain dress and a Papist dressed up in a Mystery or an arrant Whore in honest Womens apparel sic etiam But neither will be justified by the obedience of Christ for them that they scorn that any man should pay their debts for them but give them but leave and let God have patience and they will pay him all their own way Mat. 18. 2. Consider which is most for the glory of Gods Justice Truth Mercy and Love and for exalting of Christ and Gods free grace for that of necessity must be the truth and all men lyars 3. Consider which is most for the security of Gods Children for that is Gods great care either to leave all men to their free will an invention much like the Popes Purgatory of later years congenerated out of the drunken Pates of filthy dreamers Jude Ep. to overthrow the Grace of God and Righteousness of Christ imputed for this Doctrine knows nor owns nothing of that kind of righteousness or to secure them in the hands of Christ without and above themselves and he and his Spirit to do all for and in them freely They object that by Jacob and Esau in Rom. 9. are meant two Nations and Peoples I answer with Calvin they do so But the Apostle doth not bring them in so but as two Persons signifying the Eternal free Personal Election and Reprobation of God either Gods will or mans will are most prevalent God desires not the death of a sinner yet they do die because they will not believe and repent when the Ministry bids them therefore to conclude that mans is more prevalent is blasphemy against God but if Gods Will is then is there eternal free personal Election and Reprobation I demand when did God give this grace to all men when did Christ restore all men if as soon as they fell in Adam then all are conceived and born pure contrary to Psalm 51. to David's experience and contrary to Psalm 58.3 for then the wicked could not err from the Womb and contrary to Prov. 22.15 for then is not iniquity bound up in the heart of a Child Now there are a parcel of Feminine and Womanish Objections drivelling at the unclean mouths of Quaking and Arminian Jezabels all which were they a thousand more and the strongest that their Jesuitical Tribe can bring are anticipated with an Answer by our great Apostle Rom. 9.19 20. in the 19th verse is the protoplot of all Objections and the Answer in the 20th verse Octject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who hath resisted his Will then if it stand in the Free and Personal Election before and without any thing in man or of man Why then doth he find fault Or Why doth he accuse us seeing we cannot help it Or Why doth he expostulate the Case with men As Why will ye dye c. Ans v. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea say you me so O! man But who art thou that replyeth against God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or that judgest from the Truth against God as the Word signifies What will these busie Bodies and Tatlers not stick to meddle with God Shall the Clay oppose the Potter Shall the Ax resist the Hewer O! monstrum horrendum ingens cui lumen ademptum for indeed these Sophisters have but one Eye Object 1. If Christ dyed for all what need preaching Acts 13. ult 48. He that ordained the persons hath ordained the end for them and the means to come as via regnandi to that end Let this suffice for an Answer Object 2. If there be a particular Election then they shall be saved and the rest damned Answer Sape etiam stultus opportunè loquitur Fools may tell truth and so in this do you Object 3. This renders God unjust and unequal