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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93868	Vindiciæ fundamenti: or A threefold defence of the doctrine of original sin: together with some other fundamentals of salvation the first against the exceptions of Mr. Robert Everard in his book entituled, The creation and the fall of man. The second against the examiners of the late assemblies confession of faith. The third against the allegations of Dr. Jeremy Taylor, in his Unum necessarium, and two letter treatises of his. By Nathaniel Stephens minister of Fenny-Drayton in Leicestershire.	Stephens, Nathaniel, 1606?-1678.	1658 (1658)	Wing S5452; Thomason E940_1; ESTC R207546	207,183	256

the violence of their hands as being one fruit of original sinne Moreover he was sent to admonish the people of God in those dayes of their sinful confederacies and marriages with Idolaters and whereas he saith no man supposeth it fit to send a Preacher to dehort men from being guilty of original sinne Though the best as long as they live here are subject to that sinne yet I hope he will allow that a Preacher may be sent to exhort men to mortifie the lusts of their nature and to fly to the mercy of God for the pardon and forgivenesse of that sinne as well as others What the Economy or dispensation of grace was in those times I will not take upon me to define sure I am the Lord himself saith My Spirit shall not alway strive with man The best Scholars according to the original have it My Spirit shall not alway dispute reason or plead with man It argues then that as the Spirit was in the Ministry of Noah so it was some way operative in the consciences of the people of those times to bring them to repentance Compare with this 1 Pet. 3.19 20. Now he comes to lay the blame of all upon evil-custome which is the very height of Pelagianisme Blame not nature saith he but thy own evil customes for the neglect of thy fields will make fearne and thistles to grow It is not onely because the ground is accurst but because it is neglected it bears thornes Thou art deceived if thou thinkest that vices are born with us No they are super-induced and come upon us afterward To which we reply These strange expressions he hath not from any of the Prophets or Apostles but from Horace and Seneca As these things are scarcely tolerable in them so they are not to be born with in our Authour and others which have had their being and education in the Church of God Because in these dayes there are more then too many which cannot distinguish between Ethicks and Divinity between that which is moral and that which is spiritual we will insist upon this point a little more largely The chief principals and foundation of moral Philosophy are such as these First that nature is pure Secondly that nature hath the seed of all vertue Thirdly there is a natural freedom of the will Fourthly by the repitition of many vertuous acts men come to the habit of vertue These and many such like rules there are in the treatises of the learned Grecians and Romans And according to this sense the aforementioned sayings of Horace and Seneca are to be understood We deny not but toward the attaining of a Philosophical good a man hath some power by general assistance he may do some duties of the first and second table He may containe his hands from the outward acts of murder adultery theft and the like But for the spiritual and theological good to love God above all to delight in him to beleeve in him to trust in him In order to these plaine experience sheweth that he hath no ability nay the contrary is evident that he hath a down-right enmity The wisdome of his flesh is alwayes prone to reare up some earthly excellency or other and to set it in the place of the true God Therefore these are the true principles of Theology First the nature of man is depraved from the pollution of the natural birth Secondly that he hath no freedome to spiritual good Thirdly in this miserable estate the first step to his recovery is by the reproving work of the Spirit whose office it is to convince the conscience of the guilt of sin and of the bondage of corruption Fourthly the conscience being so convinced it is prepared and fitted for the grace of the Gospel and the freenesse of the promise that he which hath no help in himself may have it from Christ Fifthly When he is come to Christ and united to him by faith he hath ability from him as a root of all grace life heating spiritual nature and in a word all that we have lost in the first man is to be recovered in him This is the very scope the Gospel By these things it is evident that the endeavour of man is not destroyed by the principles of Theology Onely he is more soundly directed to the attaining of that good which is spiritual There be many passages in moral Philosophy concerning the liberty of the will which we may well admit of and again others there are which will scarce hold water As in the young man in the Gospel our Saviour did not disallow his outward moralities onely he convinced him that he fell short of the holinesse purity and spirituality of the Law When he was put upon it to love God above all to leave all for him by this he was brought to understand his own imperfection and that he had need of some power from above But that this matter may be the more fully understood we will referre our selves to that place of Scripture which is commonly called Saint Peters Ethicks There we may distinguish between the Ethicks as I may so say of the Apostles and those of the ordinary moral Philosophers These are his words According as his divine power hath given us all things that pertaine to life and godlinesse by the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we may be made partakers of the divine nature having escaped the pollution of the world through lust And besides this giving all diligence adde to our saith vertue and to vertue knowledge c. 2 Peter Chap. 1. ver 3 4 5. As in our ordinary books of moral Phylosophy so these words of the Apostle may conveniently be divided into two parts into that which treateth of the divine nature and vertue in general and into that which speaketh of particular vertues For the divine nature these particulars are to be observed First the Apostle calls it a nature as there is a nature of Birds Beasts and Fishes so there is a nature peculiar to the Saints which they have and none else Secondly it is called the divine nature though in a more peculiar sence Father Son and holy Ghost are said to have the divine nature yet in a more general acception the new creature is said to have the divine nature because he comes in the nearest similitude to the nature purity and holinesse of God because he derives it from Christ as the root of the nature The Apostle hath a like expression that ye may be filled with the fulnesse of God that is with the fulnesse of the grace and the love of God Eph. 3.16 17 18 19. But the chief thing in the Apostles words is concerning the meanes how we may come to this nature As in moral Phylosophy great regard is had to the natural liberty of the will to the towardlinesse of the disposition and too

they so continue they are in the way to damnation yet we cannot absolutely pronounce concerning the persons themselves it belongeth onely to God to judge of their final and eternal condition And for that place which you alledg that God sweareth that he desireth not the death of him that dyeth I pray you now tel us the particular man in our method and way of teaching hat is not a capable hearer of this doctrine Whatsoever God doth intend in his secret Decrees concerning the eternal state of men what is that to us We must make the tenders proposals and offers of grace according to the termes set down in the Gospel Indeed as men do submit to the promise and do take Christ for their Head so God doth bring about that which he hath determined in his secret will And therefore when you speak concerning this sort of people That they should not beleeve his revealed will at all if they hold his secret will to be the Superiour what good reason can you shew for that for though the secret will of God touching the salvation of his elect be the Superiour yet all the tenders of grace all faith in the promises are but the ordinary way to bring us to salvation Here is no contrariety of will against will but an excellent subordination Because the Lord had many people in the City of Corinth that did belong to him in the determination of his secret will therefore the Apostle had a command to preach the Gospel in that City and he did continue there the space of a year and six moneths Acts 18. ver 10 11. But if it be further objected how can you pray for the salvation of all seeing that the Lord doth determine to passe by a great number of men I answer though it be so we are to do the duty Paul did know that a greater part of the Jewes should be hardened and that a remnant onely should be saved yet for all this he did preach the Gospel and use all means that he might save some of them Rom. 11.7 8 9 10. Augustine one of the greatest assertors of the prerogative of free-grace in his book de correptione gratiâ hath these words We not knowing who belong to the number of the predestinate and who not ought so to be moved with the affection of charity that we should will all men to be saved And so far as it doth appertain to us who are not able to distinguish the predestinate from them who are not predestinate for this very thing because we ought to will all men to be saved we must medicinally use sharp reproof to all men to save them from perishing Dr. Twisse also hath these words moreover of those who are now alive though the greater part of them should be reprobated seeing this is not known to us there is nothing doth hinder but we may make supplications for all Vindic. grat lib. 2. Crimin 4. Sect. 9 Page 91. Many more testimonies I might bring of that kind of people as you call them who maintain the secret will of God to be the more prevailing yet in order to our understanding they shew that we are to look onely unto that which is revealed They do with one heart and with one mouth declare that you must begin at the lower end of the ladder before you can come to the top As for the secret and the revealed will of God though this seem to us to be contradictory there is no contradiction The river that in appearance seemeth to go another way if you follow it by divers mazes turnings it will bring you to the Sea at last But if you further urge how can the sending of Christ into the world to dy for the lost sonnes of men stand with the Decree of election where some onely are chosen to salvation Answ This point is solidly handled by Dr. Davenant in his answer to that book that bears the title Gods love to mankind and in another Treatise of the death of Christ The scope and tenor of the whole discourse is to shew that the non-elect may be partakers of many fruits of the death of Christ though they are not partakers of that grace which will certainly and infallibly bring them to salvation ☞ and so he doth concord the general attonement with the peculiar Decree of election But because this point is exceedingly controverted in these times and is as it were the very rock of offence I will particularly shew how farre I can go along with you First I do agree that by his death the Son hath removed the bar out of the way that hinders the salvation of man For God having once made a Law in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death according to the rigour of the Covenant of works and the strictnesse of divine justice there was no possibility for any mans salvation But the Lord Christ having once satisfied the justice of God and removed the barre there is now a possibility for all the lost sonnes of men to be saved they are brought into a savable condition notwithstanding all the strict demands of satisfaction according to the first Covenant And this I take to be the natural sense of that place which you and others stand so much upon Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. The scope of which words is briefly this that seeing the Lord Jesus Christ did give himself as a ransome for all men there is a possibility of salvation forall upon termes of repentance and faith Secondly I do agree with you that by the death of Christ the Lord doth shew patience and long-suffering to the rebellious to invite them to repentance Rom. 2.4 And though since the fall of man the thoughts of his heart were evil from his child-hood yet respect being had to the Mediators blood typed in the sacrifice of Noah the promise to the whole world was that the Lord would no more curse the ground for mans sake but seed time and harvest winter and summer day and night should continue to the worlds end Thirdly I do also agree with you in this that the Lord Jesus by the shedding of his blood hath not onely procured a possibility for the lost sonnes of men but also at seasons he doth give them some portions of spirit enabling them to judge themselves And for temporary believers they go so far in the participation of the fruits of the death of the Son as to tast the good Word of God and the powers of the life to come Heb. 6.5 These are the general fruits of the death of Christ and in this sense we may say that he tasted death for every man In what sense then doth Christ dye for the elect