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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54842	An impartial inquiry into the nature of sin in which are evidently proved its positive entity or being, the true original of its existence, the essentiall parts of its composition by reason, by authority divine, humane, antient, modern, Romane, Reformed, by the adversaries confessions and contradictions, by the judgement of experience and common sense partly extorted by Mr. Hickman's challenge, partly by the influence which his errour hath had on the lives of many, (especially on the practice of our last and worst times,) but chiefly intended as an amulet to prevent the like mischiefs to come : to which is added An appendix in vindication of Doctor Hammond, with the concurrence of Doctor Sanderson, Oxford visitors impleaded, the supreme authority asserted : together with diverse other subjects, whose heads are gathered in the contents : after all A postscript concerning some dealings of Mr. Baxter / by Thomas Pierce ...	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1660 (1660)	Wing P2184; ESTC R80	247,562	303

though guilty still § 47. That some of our Divines did change their judgement notwithstanding their employment at the Synod of Dort will not I think be denyed by any who hath not the forehead of a Hickman For Mr. HALES his conversion is known to most as Tilenus his to all and Dr. GOAD'S to very many That Bp. DAVENANT was at last for Vniversal Redemption I have long since proved and more then once what hath been said by Bp. Hall against the tenent of absolute or irrespective reprobation I have elsewhere at large informed my Readers That Dr. WARD and Bp. DAVENANT were of opinion that all Infants by Baptisme are freed from the guilt of Original sin and in a state of Salvation implying some to fall totally and finally too because there are some who die Impenitents being men notwithstanding being Infants they were Baptized Mr Gataker hath assured us by divulging of their Epistles If I would passe over to France I could tell him of Famous Moulin who had an interest in the Synod although not there and yet was exactly an Arminian as to the point of Reprobation and accused as such by Dr Twisse so was Camero Amyrald Testard and D●ille as well accused by Spanhemius as by other followers of Calvin for passing over to the Arminians in the point of General Redemption but to speak of such as these is to pay Mr. H. in more then full measure § 48. To Mr. H.'s two Questions proposed in one breath what thinks Mr. P. of the Vniversity of Oxon did not she know the Opinions of the Church of England p. 46. I briefly answer First that whilest she had the privilege of injoying a Real Vniversity which she injoyed until the year 1648. I think as well of the Vniversity as when she burnt the Book and condemned the Doctrine of the great Calvinist Paraeus who sowed those Presbyterian seeds of the late prosperous Rebellion of which such fellows as our Compiler enjoy the harvest To the 2. I answer by way of Interrogation Did not the Church of England so much as know her own minde when she commanded Erasmus his learned Paraphrase to be had in such honour throughout the Nation as to any Piece of Calvin was never given how came the prayers of Erasmus to have a place in our publick Liturgy from King Henry the 8. dayes unto these our own if all our Church was fermented with Calvins Leven The Vniversity of Oxford knew well her Doctrins especially then when she was most of all knowing which was in the time of the late Arch-Bishop in the vilifying of whom Mr Hickman hath shamed his own dear Faction For whilst he calls him an evil instrument p. 48. he makes himself an example of Puritanical Petulancy and passion whereby the men of his Faction will grow more vile And whilest he saith they were never well till they had spewed out his Grace as an evil instrument ibid. he implyes his Faction was deadly Drunk so indeed were the Jews when they were sick of Christ and thought they could not recover till they had spewed him out of the earth But as Titus Vespasian came about 40. years after and cured those Jews of all Diseases so if our Pharisees will be patient but half that time they may perhaps meet with that th●t will stop their spewing § 49 Now I come to the objection which Mr. H. confesseth doth lye against him the Church of England is for Vniversal Redemption The Calvinists that are Anti-Arminian are against it p. 48 49. To which he answers two wayes First by a confession that King Iames gave it in charge to the Divines sent to Dort Not to deny that Christ died for all and that this was affirmed by Bp. Vsh●r for so he calls the late Primate who also said That he gave in his own judgement to Dr. Davenant for universal Redemption and accordingly it was one of Bp. Davenants conclusions that the death or Passion of Christ as the Vniversal cause of mans salvation doth so far appease and reconcile God the Father to Mankinde by the very fact of his Oblation that he is truely now said to be ready to receive every man into Favour as soon as he will believe in Christ notwithstanding the aforesaid death of Christ restoreth no man no man at least who is come to ripenesse into a state of actual favour Reconciliation or salvation untill he actually believes No man saith the Bishop no not any of the elect before he is qualified by faith meaning that faith which worketh by love an Universal obedience to the commandments of Christ. But by the offering of himself upon the Crosse the Bp. saith that he made God appeased and reconciled observe the word not onely to the Elect but indefinitely to all Man-kinde and that as an Vniversal cause not onely of salvability but saith the Bp. of salvation Arminius never said more no nor ever so much for ought I am able to remember Nor was ever so much said by the Church of England as that Christ reconciled his Father to Man-kinde ipso facto by the oblation of himself ut Vniversalis causa Salutis Humanae as the Vniversal cause of mankind's salvation but I suppose by Salvation he only meant Salvability or no more by cause then meritorious And then indeed he doth no more then Arminianize with the Church of England as Mr. Hickman is wont to phrase it It being the Doctrine of our Church that Christ by his own oblation of himself once offered made a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world And again more fully that the offering of Christ once made is that perfect r●demption propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both Original and Actual So exactly opposite to the Calvinists is the Church of England in her belief This doth prompt me to tell the Reader if he knows it not or hath forgot it that at a conference held about the Books of Bp. Montague One of the Lords made it his motion that the Doctrine of the Dort Synod as to the points we speak of might be received into the Articles of the Church of England But this was opposed by Bp. White and even for this very reason because our Church in her publick Catechisme doth teach her children to believe what is denyed by the Synod of Dort Christ died for us and for all mankinde Why Bp. Chappel before Bp. did refuse an excellent place in Ireland because he would not subscribe to Dam man alluding merrily to Damman who had the office of Scribe in the Synod of Dort And how at last he became one of the Bishops of that Church by the advantage of that Canon procured by the power of Archbishop Land in Intuition of Bishop Chappel That a man was qualified for preferment in the Church of Ireland without subscribing the Irish if he would but

the love of God and his glory I shall be willingly bound up from ever speaking or writing or injoying any place in the Church of God if my Superiours can but imagine how that maytend to the publick good rather than lay the least Block in the way of unity which now is attempting a return to such a Babel as ours hath been But besides my contention will be believed to have been such as mine Adversary in time will applaud me for when he shall find my Rudest twitches were but to snatch him from a Praecipice As soon as Mr. Hickman shall be convinced that though for a sinner to hate God and to murder men are as positive entities as any actions to be imagin'd yet they cannot but be reckon'd among the worst sorts of sins and therefore cannot without impiety be said to be any of God's creatures or God himself which yet Mr. Hickman hath often taught I say as soon as he shall discern not onely how dangerous and sinfull but how irrational and sensless his errour is he will as heartily thank me even for this very Book as I would thank that man who should pluck a thorn out of my eye Besides that my aime in what I have written hath been the same with that of the most moderate Doctor Sanderson For to express it in his words I have not written against the moderate but onely the Rigid-Scotized-thorow-paced Presbyterians Of them Mr. Hickman can be but one And even with him I am as ready to be upon just as good Termes as with my neighbour Mr. Barlee I long have been Let him onely forbeare to wound me in the Apple of my eye nay in the tenderest part of my very soul by dishonouring God and his Anointed long before whose restauration which is but hoped whilst ● am writing I had sent my Vindication of his Supremacy to the Press and which had certainly been as publick as now it is though the Republicans had prosper'd in their Cariere Let him I say but do that and my work is done If I shall ever again appear in the behalf of any one of the five controverted points it will be likelyest to be in Latine as being the Scholars Mother-tongue and onely in order to reconcilement Now that the God of peace and unity will make us at unity and peace within our selves enlightning our heads with that knowledge which is the mother of humility and inflaming our hearts with that zeal which is according to such a knowledge and thereby making up our breaches as well of judgement as of charity or at least of charity if not of judgement that we may all be held together by the bond of unity in the truth shall be as heartily the endeavour as it is the frequent and fervent prayer of Your meanest Brother and Servant in our Lord and Master Iesus Christ. THOMAS PIERCE Brington May 2. 1660. A PARAENETICAL PREFACE Shewing the purpose of the Author with the Necessity of the Work Representing its usefulness in all Times but more especially in these with some Praeparatory Advertisements making the whole the more manageable to the less Intelligent of the people Christian Reader IF thou shalt ask in curiosity why I happen to come so late to this Discharge of my Engagement to which I stood by my Promise so long obliged Know that my several Praeengagements with severall Books of Mr. Baxter together with several interventions both of sickness and journies and other Impediments unavoidable do conspire to give thee the Reason of it For these did keep me from the thought of what I have brought to a conclusion till somewhat after the beginning of this last Winter Besides that at the end of my Autocatacrisis which I conceive more useful then all my Controversies besides and upon which I bestowed the greatest labour that it might put a full end to the whole Dispute I made a promise to my Readers of what I had purpos'd within my self that if I return'd to any Dispute in any kind whatsoever as it would fall out Cross to my Inclinations so I resolved to do it onely at times of Leisure That whilst my howers could be spent in my chief employment I might not lose too many of them in my least necessary Defences For though I remember I am a Shepherd and bound as well to defend as to feed the Sheep yet it cannot but be to me an unpleasant Game to tyre my self in the hunting of Wolves and Foxes But after the Reason of my lateness I am to render another Reason why I betook my self at last to the present service I saw the flock was indanger'd by several Vermin and partly driven out of the Fold too Nay the great Master-shepherd was himself assaulted by their Inventions by whom he was slanderously reported to be the principal cause of their going astray Some I found teaching and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in broadest Terms That God is the Author of Injustice the Author of Adultery the Author of the evil of sin not onely the Author of the sinfull work it self but of the evil intention too In a word The Author of all th●se things which we affirm to come to pass by his mere permission and not at all by his appointment Others I caught in the Act of teaching That God doth incite or stirr men up to wicked actions that He seduceth commandeth doth make obdurate draws sends in deceipts and effects those things which are grievous sins Of which I now give an Instance from Peter Martyr in my Margin because he was the most famous and learned Calvinist of Florence In so much that Doctor Whitaker did most ingenuously confess when he answer'd Campian that if Calvin or Peter Martyr or any other of that Party affirms God to be the Author and cause of sin they are all of them guil●y of the most horrid Blasphemy and wickedness And yet when the Florentine I spake of had put the Question in the page preceeding his above cited words An Deus causa sit peccati whether God be the cause of sin he presently call'd it Quaestionem non dissimulandam and professedly held it in the affirmative A third sort I found there were who taught That God is the Author not of those actions alone in and with which Sin is but of the very pravity Ataxie Anomie Irregularitie and sinfulness it self which is in them yea that God hath more hand in mens sinfulness then they themselves These were publickly and in Print the very words of Master Arch●r a Presbyterian Minister of London in Lombard street who went over into Holland with Thomas Goodwin Oliver Cromwel's Ghostly Father and the present usurper of the Presidentship in Magdalen Colledge by which Goodwin he was commended for as pretious a man as this earth bears any In Holland he was Pastor of the Church of Arnheim as we are told by Mr. Edwards his loving Friend too His book he was pleased

take res to signifie a substance and express an accident by nihil or non existens meaning non per se subsistens Which as I have hinted by some examples already given so now I will make it undeniable by one taken out of Saint AVSTIN Who saith of the very act of sin which is acknowledged by all to have a positive being that it is not any thing Actus peccati non est Res aliqua To which Aquinas makes Answer that by res he means substantia which is res simpliciter not intending to deny that it is an Accident which with Aquinas is res secundum quid And therefore GROTIVS in imitation of the Antients opposeth such accidents as actions are to things which have a true subsistence Cum diximus Deum omnium esse causam addidimus eorum quae ve●è subsistunt Nihil enim prohibet c ut superius paulo cit so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Maxim on Dionys. p. 317. 9. Again it must alwayes be carried in mind that all those expressions of the Non-entity of sin were taken up in opposition to SCYTHIANVS and MARCION and the following crue of the MANICHAEANS who ascrib'd to evil a being of it self and by it self and that eternal no less then God Nay duos Deos adfert saith Tertul. of Marcion tanqnam duas symplegadas naufragii s●i Scythianus before Manes composed four books in which he asserted two distinct and coequal principles of things to wit of white and black of moist and dry of body and soul of heaven and earth of just and un●ust of good and evil Now however this Heresie is very worthily exploded by all true Christians yet right may be done upon a very wrong ground And so it is if all the ground be the Non-entity of sin which yet the Fathers did onely use by a catechresis in opposition to that substance or self-subsistence which that many-headed-sect ascrib'd to evil And this I say in Iustification of the Fathers and Schoolmen from those mistakes of their meaning by which the mistakers would make them fall from a great errour into a greater It being worse of the two to think that sin hath no being or that God is the Author if it hath any than to think that good and evil did proceed from two fountains and both eternall 10. I am exceedingly confirmed in what I say touching the Fathers and their acception of the word nature res and aliquid by what I find to be the judgement of learned VASQVEZ whose words I think wo●thy to be inserted somewhat at large Observandum est inquit Patres fere omnes Doctrinam Manichaei obiter aut ex professo refutare voluisse qui ass●rebat substantiam aliquam in se ex se malam esse omnem autem substan●iam naturam appellabat aliquid rem sicut Aristoteles in Categor c. de substantiâ omnem substantiam dixit esse hoc aliquid Quare nomine Naturae quoties S. Patres disputant cum Manichaeo de hac re non com●le●tuntur operationem accidentia quae aliquam habea●t naturam sed solam substantiam secuti sententiam Aris●otelis 2 phys c. 1. 5. Metaph. c. 4. qui solùm materiam formam naturam appellat Immo ex his proprie solùm formam materiam autem mataphori●è tantùm Contendunt igitur Patres nullam esse naturam substantiae malam quatenùs substan●ia natura est De actu verò non loquuntur Concedunt enim malum esse opus arbitrii nostri actum Sicut Augustinus l. de perfect iustit qui ratiocinatione 4. quaerit quid sit peccatum Actusne an Res. Quia ●i res est inquit habeat Auctorem si Auctorem habet jam alter erit auctor quam Deus alicujus rei Quod si hoc impium est necesse est dicere peccatum esse actum non rem Patres non tam curarunt propriam rationem vitii peccati in genere moris exprimere quàm per aliquid conjunctum nobis magis notum eam desc●ibere Quare cùm per boni privationem peccatum definierunt non sunt ita intelligendi quasi sit ipsa essentia ratio formalis peccati sed quia est necessario peccato conjuncta Christianis maximè nota Multò enim faciliùs per negationem intelligimus 11. To this let me add what does just now occurr to my present purpose That substantia with many FATHERS as wel as with GROTIUS and other MODERNS hath often carried away the name of ens because ens is Analogum as every smatterer in logick know's though Masters in it sometimes forget and the common Rule is here verified Analogum per se positum pro famosiori stare praesumitur Whosoever therefore is found to say Peccatum est non ens must be known to mean that it is not substantia unless he be one who dares add that it is not an accident And so if any is found to say that every finite en●ity is produced by God he must be charitably concluded to understand every substance unless he shall dare to add also That God produceth as well the worst as the best of actions It being granted by all the world that the former are accidents no whit less then the latter 12. Some perhaps in good earnest do think the best way to confute the Manichees is by saying that sin is nothing reall Because denying it such a being as Manes gave it and yet allowing it a being although not that it must needs have a being either from God or some Creature If they shall dare to say from God they sadly fall into the Blasphemy which Manes or rather Scythianus devised his principle to avoid If they say from some creature they make that creature a kind of Creator in making it able to give a being where God himself doth give none But omitting that this last were the safest errour if it were any these men do not consider that God was able to make a creature with such a light of understanding and such a liberty of will as to be fitly left in the hand of his own counsel and to be a self-determiner to this or that object which lyes before him And so to be an Artificer of such unclean works by abusing the liberty of his will as could not by any possibility have been produced by his Creator God made man upright but he hath found out many inventions And if it be in the power of man to give being unto any thing most easily may he be thought to give Being unto s●n sin it self being no more then what is displeasing to God Almighty and no where else to be imagined much less to be but in the voluntary actings of created Agents in contrariety to the law which they receive to act by That so it is is very evident by

my flock by a hand unskilfuller than mine own Let it suffice that I am not so self-conceited as to flatter my self with his opinion My Assistant was very much fitter to teach the people their Christian duty than Mr. Hickman or his peers can be in hast Fitter I say from after the time of his conversion whatever he might have been whilst he was yet a Presbyterian But he hath long since left the world and well it had been for Mr. Hickman if he had not thus rake'd in an honest mans Grave But that he had rather look'd inward and laid to heart the common Rule Qui alterum incusat probri c. For if it is true wh●t I have heard from many men of good credi● and what I have partly read in print too that Mr. Hickman at the same time possessed three Livings at once and had not any right to either to wit an excellent Fellowship in Mag. Coll. besides the Parsonage of St. Towles as it s vulgarly call'd enough to keep a worthy man who has wife and children and also the Vicaridge of Brackley where his neglects of his children are most notori●us if I may call them his which by another kind of Plagium he seiz'd upon then is he of all others the unfittest creature in the world to tell his Readers by intimation of my omissions towards my Flock which are very well known to have been none Nor will it advantage him now to plead that he spake with an if and that his inference is true upon his bare Hypothesis or supposal For then without offence to him I may also bespeak my Readers thus That if Mr. Hickman is very ordinarily drunk and if he is given to swear fearfully by fits and if he is a great striker when intoxicated with rage Then hath he put something on his Doomesday book which I wish he may have time to take off by Repentance ●his I speak with an if and my supposal being granted my Inference cannot but be true But I abominate these courses and have onely shew'd him as I have done his brother Baxter that their Trade is as easie as 't is inhumane § 26. In his next ensuing words p. 6. he does distinguish my opinion to which he is an enemy from my person to which he saith he is a cordial friend And yet in the next words to those he does not equally distinguish betwixt the persons and opinions of those Beyond-sea Divines of whose opinions I hope I may use as hard speeches as Mr. Hickman hath used of mine and yet be no less their cordiall friend We have seen Mr. Hickman his cordial friendship towards me But I was never so unmanlike as to exercise the like upon his Divines whose pages and very lines I have laid together with their words whilst heaven and earth are call'd to witness what they have said against God as well as what in that case I have duly said against them § 27. In that he adds of his pretious Divines that they are scarce to be equalled by any now alive or to be excelled by those in any Calendar ibid. he hath spoken most unhappily to say no worse For 1. he knows in some Calendars Mr. Fox his Martyrs are recorded And was it not much more excellent to dye for Christ then to write for irrespective decrees of sin and damnation Besides 2. He either knows or ought to know that all the saints are in the Calendar Novemb. 1. so is Michael the Archangel and as our Collect understands it All the the Angels of heaven on September 29. John Baptist the Virgin Mary who is no less then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mother of God in the expression of the Greek Fathers Nay Christ himself and the holy Ghost and the Father too upon Trinity Sunday are either by name or in equivalence at least in some Calendars Thus he committ a spirituall whoredome by Idolizing Mr. Calvin and other men of his sect yet has the heart more then once to accuse another of partiality § 28. Whilst he talks how he will shew not that the Remonstrant but the contra-Remonstrant opinion hath been the Doctrine of the Reformed Church of England p 8. he talks unskilfully enough for a man of his own Breeding for 1. The Remonstrants and their Opponents are much too young to denominate the Doctrine our Church espouseth to that here he speaks as a parach●onizer But 2. I do not pretend that in every point the Remonstrants agree with the Church of England our Church having avoided to define in some things 3. That they agree in some things is as manifest as the Sun by what our Article saith of the death of Christ and the falling away of the Regenerate And if in every other point they do not speak the same thing yet they are infinitely liker to one another then either can be to their common Enemies And 4. I am sure Our Church is favourable in nothing to the contra-Remonstrants against the Remonstrants But 5. If the Remonstrants in some things do adhere too much unto Arminius wherein the Calvinists and Arminius do but too much agree as I have elsewhere shewed of some points and am able to shew of others also it is no wonder if our Church doth stand at a distance from both together And so t is a very grosse Fallacy whether by ignorance or craft it comes to passe I do not say To make the Doctrine of our Church and the Doctrine of the Remonstrants though the most Orthodox men of the Belgick Churches to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Aequivalents in our Accompt I can manifest a difference whoever else will say he cannot And holding fast mine Antagonist to the precedent limits of my Discourse or of the Termes I use in it I shall proceed to answer his next assertion first by denying his prooflesse and helpless saying that the countenancing of Arminianisme as that is a Nick-name for the doctrine which we embrace with the Church of England is no older then Bishop Laud and Bishop Montague and for a proof of my Denial I refer him to Dr. H.'s Certamen Epistolare but more especially to his Quinquarticular History 2. By affirming that if Bp. Laud and Bp. Mountague did more eminently then others give great Encouragement and Countenance to what hath been commonly called Arminian the meaning of it is onely this that they would not suffer those Doctrines which were exceedingly remote from what was owned by our Church and in some things contrarie to what our Church had defined to pass with freedom for the Doctrines of the Church of England when they were nothing but the mistakes of particular men in the English Church § 29 But what hath Arminianisme to do with the words of the Homily against the Peril of Idolatry p. 9 that Mr. H. should be so giddy as to make that an Argument for his position does he think that Arminius and the Remonstrants