to love God and to give him thanks to hate God is so intrinsically evil that it is impossible but that it should be forbid If it were possible for this not to be forbid it were possible for this to be lawful for where there is no Law there is no Transgression but it is utterly impossible it should be lawful therefore it must be granted there is an evil in order of nature before the prohibition of it and so some things must needs be good in their own nature as bearing a resemblance of the Image and goodness of God before any external Law pass upon them These things premised my answer is Although the Will of God be a rule of justice to us yet it is not a rule of justice to himself but his justice is rather a rule of his Works and of his Will and he works all things according to the Counsel of his Will and that Counsel adviseth nothing rashly or unmercifully unreasonably or unjustly but according to the greatest Equity and Chancery in the world and therefore cannot without the greatest violence to Reason and Religion be thought to make irrespective Decrees to torture for ever the greatest part of mankind chiesly for the pleasure of his Will Again they say Omnipotent Power authorizes all actions Now if God will make Vessels of wrath what hath any one to do with it May he not do what he pleases with his own Creatures My answer is we must not magnifie Gods Power so much as to eclipse his goodness or his truth which doth assure us that he is loving unto every man and that he delights not in the death of any sinner These men make God a Tyrant rather than a King and attribute such Prerogatives to God as are broadly inconsistent with his nature Acts of Power are not good in themselves but as they are accompanied with Justice and Mercy otherwise they are bad and lay a mans honour in the dust we must not so magnifie one Attribute in God as to justle out all the rest The Lord proclaimes his name to Moses Exod. 34.6 after this manner The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Now Gods name is every ways agreeing to his nature which is rather than his Creature should perish to forgive iniquity transgression and sin and not to decree everlasting fire to it without the intuition of sin Let us not therefore entertain any hard thoughts of Almighty God Rev. 20.12 13. when the earth and the Sea gave up their dead they were all judged according to what was found in the Books and those Books were written only according to their works Conscience is one of those Books which shall be opened at the last day and it will acquit God of all hard dealing towards men that perish When Moses prayed thus Exod. 32.32 Either forgive this People or blot we out of the Book which thou hast written The Lord said Whosoever sins against me him will I blot out of my book Where you see sin only blots out of Gods Book and not any Fatal Decree If it should happen to men according to their Lots to be under such or such a Decree and not according to their Works there would nothing be remaining for us to do but only patiently to obey Fate for if an irrespective Decree do shut up the most of men under Condemnation can any one of those men by all his industry alter his Destiny Surely no unless he were stronger than he that made that Decree To what purpose then were all his endeavours or to what purpose should we beat the air and persuade him to impossiblities Yes to good purpose say the Abettors of such a Decree because no particular man knows under which Decree he is I confess this answer is the best they have to give but it nothing enervates the Argument for it is not the knowing of a Decree or the being ignorant of a Decree makes any thing to the altering of a Decree for neither if I know it will it be repealed neither if I be ignorant of it will it cease to be accomplished Now then although no particular man knows under which Decree he is yet he must needs know he is under one of them if there be such Decrees and under which soever he be he is bound with an Adamantine Chain unto it and his end is fixt by reason of it as unalterably as the Laws of the Medes and Persians Who then believing this can believe that his fasting weeping or mourning renting heart or garment can avail any thing to the altering of that Decree under which it was his Lot to be born So that he that hath imbibed this Doctrine hath cut the Sinews of all industry if he acts consequentially to what he himself doth believe Nay but the means are ordained as well as the end may some say True they are so But to the far greatest part of men if their opinion were true God should command them to seek his face in vain for those means could never attain the end for which men should use them namely the Salvation of their souls For never any man from the foundation of the world under that Decreo was sav'd neither indeed can be though Moses and Samuel should pray for him or an Angel from heaven preach unto him he could not believe To what purpose now was the means ordained to these or the use of them Nay to what purpose should God wish the conversion of such sinners send his Embassadors to intreat and beseech them expostulate the case with them Why will ye die swear unto them As I live I had rather you should live if in the mean while he hath decreed their death before they did good or evil and in order to that Decree was resolved never to afford them power to perform any one act of saving grace Now whether there be insincerity in these Expressions or in their Opinions judg ye Nay let God be true and every man a liar Let us heartily believe that every mans destruction is wholly from himself and not from any fatal Decree of God Lastly it is objected the seventeenth Article of the Church of England says God hath decreed before the foundations of the world were laid by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind From whence they thus argue Before the foundations of the world were laid no man could do good or evil but even then some were chosen and consequently some not therefore those that were not chosen were rejected before they had done good or evil To this I answer as some were chosen in Christ and consequently others not chosen before the foundations of the world were laid so known unto God were all things before the foundations of the world were laid He knew the first man would fall
Vulgar Errors IN DIVINITY REMOVED Qui erranti comiter monstrat viam quasi lumen de suo lumine accendit facit nihilominus ut ipsi lucet Mat. 22.29 Ye err not knowing the Scriptures 2 Pet. 3.16 In St. Pauls Epistles are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke and Joanna Brome in St. Pauls Church-Yard MDCLXXXIII Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber TO The Right Honourable THOMAS Earl of Sussex Baron Dacres One of the Gentlemen of His Majesties Bed-Chamber Health and Happiness My Lord I Am bold to Dedicate these my first fruits to your Honour as a testimony of my grateful mind for your Lordships favours towards me Three things prompted me on to this undertaking First The great honour I bear to Almighty God whose Nature being mistaken his Name is blasphemed whilst he is rendred so unlovely as fatally to doom the greatest part of Mankind to everlasting fire chiefly for his own glory and not for the bad usage of the Talents they have received at his hands by making their sins but the subordinate cause of their damnation and Gods omnipotent power to justifie such a Decree Now I would fain know how these fatal Dogmatizers could paint out the Devil in worse colours than they do our gracious God if he had Gods omnipotent power to abuse towards the far greatest part of mankind But certainly God is more merciful than these men would have him be else such blasphemers of his merciful nature had not died the common death of all men Secondly The great honour I bear to the King and the great love I bear to Kingly Government as least subject to oppression or renting the State in pieces by Faction In all Governments some body must necessarily be trusted with the Supremacy upon their honesty and who is fitter to be trusted than he whom God and Nature shall design for so great a trust If ungodly men have a mind to change still they must trust or again rebel and so in infinitum for unless somebody be trusted at last there can be no peace Who shall keep the Keeper is an unanswerable question unless you say God alone If you say the Law that indeed ought to keep him in the Right and to be the Kings Director but the Law cannot keep him as his Superiour so as to touch life or limb if he be a Transgressour He that hath a Prerogative to save other mens lives when by Law condemned must needs be supposed to be above Law for his own And blessed be God for the Kings Prerogatives without which the Nation could not long continue in peace and safety If we revolve the English Histories of King Henry III. in the Grant given the Douze Peers as they were called or of King Charles I. in the Grant to the Long Parliament and consider the fatal destruction of Simon de Montford their General and most of the Peers in the end although so triumphant at Lewis in Sussex at the first as a consequence of the one and of King Charles of blessed memory after so much bloudshed and oppression as a consequence of the other it may teach us how unsafe it is for the People to desire any thing of the King or for the King to grant away any Prerogative to the People which may make him too weak for Government upon any difficulty or fair pretence whatsoever Thirdly The great love I bear to the truth as desirous to raise the decayed credit of it that so men may walk in it For Error embraced debases the understanding as a Noble person his bloud by marrying one of mean Parentage and base conditions and men acting generally according to those Principles they have espoused for all their after reasonings and deliberate actions are founded on those Principles when they are erroneous they take false measures of honour and dishonour of right and wrong and the more zealous they are for them the wrose they are as the Arrow ill levelled at hand the further it flies the further it is off the Mark. That God would give your Lordship length of days riches and honour and at the end of those days everlasting felicity is the Prayer of Your Lordships obliged Servant and Chaplain Ralph Battell To the Reader AS I have seen a double or pleated Picture on one side appear a beautiful Woman but if you go to the other side of the Room it would appear an odious Serpent So although truth be but one and not double yet it will appear diversly according as we look upon it For if with solid judgment we behold it it will appear lovely as it is if with prejudice being wrong byassed with interest or education it will appear a foul error Wherefore thou art desired that readest this Book to lay aside all prepossession and to weigh what is said with candour and ingenuity with naked and impartial reason One adviseth very well to suppress at least nine years any Notions we have a mind to make publick and if then upon so long consideration we still like them to set them forth I assure thee I have done so by most of these herein contained and upon mature deliberation bring them into light and if God lend me life and opportunity intend a Second part of a like nature If any thing seem contrary to the Church of England I am confident it is thy error to think so but if my Superiours judge so I here disown it for I never thought any new Notion of mine so good but the authority and peace of the Church was much better and to be preferred before it Shall I speak plain English Those that are brought up in Error I have but little hopes to recover but rather think I shall provoke such to produce their little exceptions and vulgar plausible blinds to keep up their Party But I nourish a good hope that those that are disengaged from error in the particulars herein mentioned this Book may prevent them from embracing it which is the hearty desire of the Author THE CONTENTS Vulgar Errors concerning 1. REprobation Page 1 2. Kingly Government Page 25 3. Gods House and Service in it Page 53 4. Mans Will Page 71 5. Mans Redemption Page 99 6. Praying by the Spirit Page 117 Vulgar Errors CONCERNING REPROBATION Removed THat some are Reprobates is out of question broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be go in it But how they come to be so is not without great controversie nor without great mistake Some say that God meerly for his glory made some Vessels of wrath according to the good pleasure of his Will So that the object of Gods Decree of Reprobation was not mankind considered as sinners but meerly as his Creatures which is such a Doctrine that whosoever brings I shall never bid God speed Now the Texts of Scripture at which they have stumbled and fallen into
ransom for them But certainly he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him For as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation So by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life If Christ did not redeem all it was either because he was not able or because he was not willing to do it If you say he was not able you blaspheme the power and vertue of his death for St. John tells us If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world If you say not willing you blaspheme his goodness who would have all men sav'd and is not willing that any should perish 2 Pet. 3.9 If any part of Mankind left unredeemed Christ must needs be willing that part of mankind should perish else he would have redeemed them without which he saw they must perish Nothing could hinder but his Will for he might have redeemed all at the same rate but he was not willing any should perish therefore it roundly follows he left none unredeemed When we urge those Scriptures which assert universal Redemption their answers are so weak that it would make a man pity the strength of a wrong byassed education that will not let them see that their answers are mere frivolous evasions When we urge that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 2.1 Some deny the Lord that bought them they answer he bought them for Slaves and not for Children Now I would fain know what slavish work Christ hath to do for his redeemed ones whose service is perfect freedom When we urge that place Heb. 2.9 That by the grace of God Christ should taste death for every man They answer Voluntate signi non beneplaciti that is he signifies so but he means not so If he means not so when he says so how shall we then know at any time by his words what he means When we urge God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son into the world that whosoever believes in him might not perish They answer by the world is meant only the Elect chosen out of the world That by the world in Scripture is often meant that Party of men in the world which is contrary to the Saints many places may be brought as the whole world stands in wickedness these are not of the world even as I am not of the world c. but that in this place God so loved the world by the world should be meant only the Elect I have not saith enough to believe and I am still to seek for that place of Scripture where the Holy Ghost by the world meaneth only the Elect. In a word what Scriptures soever we bring to prove that Christ paid a price for all mankind they reply to us that Christ paid a price for all sufficiently but not intentionally Now I appeal to the universal reason of all Mankind whether if Titius and Sempronius be in slavery he that paid nothing for Titius can be said to pay for him what was sufficient to bring him out of Captivity because he paid more for Sempronius ransom than would have bought it and which Sum if he had designed it so might have redeemed Titius also That such weak answers as they bring should satisfie any rational men must be imputed meerly to the strength of prejudice and prepossession If Christ died for all says St. Paul then were all dead 2 Cor. 5.14 By all say they were meant only all the Elect Then say I by vertue of the Antithesis only the Elect were dead but in Adam Elect and Reprobate are alike dead therefore the Apostles meaning cannot be that Christ died only for the Elect for all were dead both Elect and Non-elect and he died for all that were dead Christ in no wise took upon him the nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham to shew that he came not to redeem the lost Angels but Mankind that was lost Now if any of Mankind were left out of this Redemption Christ should tender their Salvation no more than the Salvation of the Devil and his Angels but he doth not leave the most of men in as hopeless and helpless a condition as he left the Devil and his Angels whose nature he never took upon him It shall never be laid to the charge of a wicked Angel that he did not believe in Christ but it shall be laid to the charge of a wicked man that he did not believe in Christ which plainly shews he did more to redeem a wicked man than a wicked Angel It should not be a sin in a wicked man to refuse Christ as his Saviour if he be not his Saviour unless he thought him so to be and yet refused him but it must necessarily be always a sin to refuse Christ whether a wicked refuser of him think him a Saviour or no because in deed and truth he is the Redeemer of all mankind He came to seek and to save that which was lost but all mankind was lost therefore he came to seek and to save all Mankind Mar. 16.15 Christ bids his Disciples preach the Gospel to every Creature that is offer life and salvation to all in case Christ should offer it to all when he hath purchased it but for a few there would be matter of disparagement in it For what makes us despise Mountebanks as one says well but that they promise more than they are able to perform Therefore seeing he bids us preach the Gospel to every Creature the glad tidings of the Gospel belongs to every Creature and we are to exhort every man to believe in Christ and promise him life and salvation if he do which thing we could not truly do if he laid down his life but for a few and paid no ransom for the most of mankind This Doctrine of our Church that Christ redeemed all mankind hath no malignant influence in it at all which makes me admire why men are so bitter against it If it were not true yet methinks even for humanity sake we should wish it were true and not to be so narrow hearted as to desire salvation only for our selves That must needs be the best good which is most diffusive and wherein most may partake If Moses was so affectionate to the Souls of a provoking poople as to pray after this manner for them O Lord forgive their sin and if not blot me out of the book which thou hast written as if his own happiness could not please him unless it might be accompanied with the happiness of his people how can we chuse but be enlarged with love and gratitude unto God that he hath reconciled the world unto himself and how chearfully should we publish that glad tidings If St. Paul was so diffusive of his charity as to wish himself accursed from