ABSOLUTE Election of Persons Not upon foreseen Conditions STATED and MAINTAINED In some Sermons preach'd at Hartford With some ANIMADVERSIONS on some Pelagian Passages in a Book entituled Vulgar Erros in Divinity removed written by Mr. Ralph Battell present Minister at St. Alhallows in Hartford By WILL. HAWORTH Servant of Jesus Christ in the Ministry of his Gospel Rom. 11.6 If it be of Works it is no more of Grace if Grace no more Works c. LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1694. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE Lord who hath determined the Bounds of our Habitation Acts 17.26 having cast my Lot at Hartford where I have continued in the Ministry of the Gospel above twenty Years yet not without Interruption and having from the time of my Conversion received in the Doctrine of Election much sweet and pleasant Comfort to my Soul as the Church of England's Phrase is speaking of it in the 17th Article I have been a constant Preacher of it and not without various Effects to several Hearers it hath been as the Apostles speak of their Doctrine 2 Cor. 2.16 A Savour of Life unto Life to others a Savour of Death unto Death Some that at first through Novelty stumbled at it now rejoice to hear it preached Others have so stumbled at it through Ignorance Conceitedness and Prejudice that to this day they have not recovered themselves Some forsook our Meetings and turned Quakers upon hearing of this Doctrine the now George Keith a chief Preacher among them owns the Doctrine of Election of a definite Number of Persons that shall infallibly be saved The Church-of England-Professors in Hartford are as far as I can learn most-what prejudiced against it tho it is owned so plainly in their Articles of Religion and no wonder when one of their Teachers is such an Enemy to it witness his slender Book entituled Vulgar Errors in Divinity removed printed 1683. wherein he doth with Bullets of Glass batter the Brazen Mountains of the absolute Decrees of the Supreme Soveraign Zech. 6.1 Who giveth not an account of any of his matters Job 33.13 but this Man impudently disputes with God contrary to that in Rom. 9.20 and arraigns his Creator saying Why hast thou made me thus and yet P. 8. confesseth God might have made him as to his Temporal Being a Dog a Hog or poisonous Serpent and bethinks himself and modestly in his Preface faith If his Superiours think he is in an Error he will disown it I am confident the late Reverend Bishop Barlow of Lincoln would have branded the Book had the read it as fulsome Pelagianism In the fifth Page he writes And what he saith to Moses is most equal I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy Thanks be to the Gentleman for that ingenous Judgment upon Jehovah's Dealings But now hear his own Comment that is It belongs to me to appoint upon what Terms I will shew Mercy and justify Men whether by the Law of Faith or by Works For as he that builds an Hospital hath an equitable Right to appoint the Qualifications of the Persons that shall partake in this Gift whether poor Children or Widows aged Persons or the like so it belongs to God to appoint upon what Terms he will justify me it should be Elect for of that he is treating whether by the Law of Works or Faith It is evident by this that the Author is for Election upon Conditional Terms and Qualifications and that it is a vulgar Error viz. Free Election of Persons unto Qualifications The Phrase shewing Mercy in this Paragraph can be no otherwise interpreted but of Election tho he adds the word justify to it Foreseen Faith according to this Author is the Cause of God's Election and that Faith must surely be accompanied all a Man's days with good Works else it is not true Faith so that Election is upon Works as much as Faith and there is no Election but at the utmost Period of a Man's Life Against this Arminian vulgar Error do I militate in the following Sheers wherein the Reader will I question not find sufficient Armoury against it As for absolute Reprobation no wonder the Author is against that whenas he is against absolute Election But that God of his own Will and Pleasure and for no other Cause should decree to damn any which this Author upbraids us withal was never asserted by any Divines that ever I read but they constanâ—â—y uno Ore affirm That God hath from Eternity determined to condemn Man of Sin persisting therein to the end of his days in Unbelief 2. They are all in one Mind That no Man whoever but sins freely when he sins notwithstanding the Decree to permit Sin Now it is no Injustice in God to condemn Man for final sinning and Impenitency therein nor to decree so to do from Eternity tho withal we say the desert of Sin is not the Cause of the Purpose and Decree it self And let them quarrel with us for that Thomas Aquinas a great School-man shall answer for us long since he writ viz. He is mad that saith there can be any Cause of the Divine Will that which is in Time cannot be the Cause of that which is eternal the Cause must exist before the Effect The foresight of the future Sin of Man in time before it hath Existence cannot have a causal Influence upon the eternal Will of God Neither can God fore-see any thing future before he had will'd it to be There could have been no Evil in the World if he had not decreed to permit it That the Decree of Damnation should precede the Decree of permitting Sin our Divines do not say but one of them saith This is the Order which God takes in his Decrees Dr. Twiss in his Answer to Hoard Book 2. p. 30. God at once decrees both to create Men and suffer them to fall in Adam and to bring them forth in their several Generations into the World and to bestow the Grace of Faith and Repentance upon one sort and so to save them and to deny the same Grace unto others permitting them to go on finally in their sinful Courses and so to condemn them for Sin and all to manifest the Glory of Mercy in one and the Glory of Justice on the other yea and his Soveraignty too But wherein not in rewarding the one with Salvation and inflicting Damnation on the other but only in giving Grace to the one and not to the other What fault can be found in this Order of God's Decrees Why should this Author exclaim and say that we make God to ruine the Innocent and make him like the Devil Pag. 8. to be a Murderer from the beginning These are but old cankered Pelagian Cavils against the Cause of God that will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardens and yet is righteous How do we make God to
or other it may be thou wilt not commit it but thou wilt salute it it may be it hath not actual but it hath contemplative Commission the whole Act is in thy Thoughts tho not in thy Practice there is a constant breaking out of Corruption upon all Occasions Now 1 Joh. 1.6 If we say we have Fellowship with him and walk in Darkness we lie and do not the Truth i. e. as when Mens Consciences tell them that when they lie they speak not the Truth so when a Man goes about to lay hold on Assurance his Conscience tells him he cannot be assured of his Election who walks not sincerely with the Lord. A corrupt unprofitable Word will grieve the Spirit by which ye are to be sealed Ephes 4.30 3. We want it because we are not sollicitous to grow and encrease in all Graces but only in some one we neglect some Graces while we follow after others we do some Duties not others or all we know If we would make our Election sure 2 Pet. 1.5 the Apostle tells us We are to give all Diligence to add to Faith Vertue c. He reckons upon all the Cardinal Graces and Vertues of a Christian which comprehend all the rest in which our Diligence is to be not one but all We have prayed for it no question but never joined Fasting to Praying we have done both but only alone never in Company of the Saints that understand the Voice of God it may be we have done this but yet never waited upon the Lord in the Use of those Ordinances which he hath appointed his People to walk through and as Trunks by which he speaks and conveighs himself It may be thou art given to Anger Passion Frowardness and strivest against it but then art led and not a little by a covetous Worldly Spirit it may be thou art against this yet there is in thee a vain foolish Spirit following the Customs and Fashions of the Times that the World may know thou hast a Liberty I do not say that those that do such things cannot have assurance but that the allowing a Man's self in any one Sin or the neglecting of any one known Duty is the Cause many times that Assurance is not given 4. Suppose that be not the Case yet it may be thou takest not the Hints and Opportunities God gives when he would speak his Mind to thee or thou withdrawest when he hath spoken a word or two thou hast made nothing of it yet such there have been upon thy Spirit and thou hast not regarded them every Touch of God upon the Heart every Intimation is like a Character which is but a little Dash but it contains a whole Word or like some Hieroglyphicks of the Heathen a whole Story was comprehended in one Sign or Image So if thou hast been able to have construed or expounded that Touch of God upon thy Heart it would have told thee the Love of God from Eternity and would have shewed how it hath waited on thee and done thee good in several Estates as in the knowledg of Duty And if a Man would know his Duty he must take the least Motion and Intimation of it and the least Light must be made much of if he will grow up to know the Mind of God fully So it is also in the knowledg of our State thou must begin with Principles to know thy Duty thou must begin with Intimations to get Assurance God begins after that manner with his People whereas Presumption is all at once and comes by Violence Lastly If that be not the Case it may be thou dost not go on with the Trial of thy self it may be when thou art sick or in imminent danger or to do some hazardous Duty then thou goest about it diligently else desistest Now Suits in Law hang long come not to an end because they are not followed As he that would have a true understanding of any Science must traverse the Principles clean through so he that would have Assurance must go on the next day where he left off before Thou dost not make it the Work of every Grace and every Prayer to search into thy Heart nor the Work of every Day but now and then when thou art in some imminent danger or special Service Let us know this to encourage us there is nothing God takes more Pleasure to reveal than his electing Love tho it pass thy Knowledg yet as the Apostle saith Ephes 3. Christ and the Spirit dwelling in thy Heart by Faith will make you see into all the Heights and Depths Lengths and Breadths that pass Knowledg And tho it be the Weakness of a Christian to analise and go from the Effect to the Cause yet unto this Men should endeavour and labour that they come to know the Cause and Fountain whence all their Good comes and God hath given you two Lights in this Firmament for the revealing of it 1. Your Faith 2. Your Love As the Sun doth sometimes make another Sun in the Firmament so doth the Love of God work in us a Love of electing him again That you may read all the whole Heart and Frame of God's Intentions towards you in the Reflection of your Heart towards him make it your Work to make your Election sure He is a happy Man that knows the Causes of things and he is the wise Man that doth know things by their Causes There is nothing more pleasant and delightful than for you to drink of the Fountain a little of the Knowledg of God's electing Love will be like the Spirit of Wine like a Spring within you like a strong Motion The Saints do much by the Power of Grace but much more by the Power of Love and aspecially by that Love that hath ordained all those things to be given so freely to them even the Love of Election And if it were for nothing but for this that you may come to know your Estate abhor Conditional Election which puts you to work but gives you no Certainty nor Security of your Condition but only by your Walkings as they say themselves which are changeable and that Doctrine will bear it that he that lived forty or fifty Years in a holy way and all things ready to go to Heaven yet hath his Will so changeable and slippery that in one moment he may turn off from God and lose all he hath done and never be remembred but perish eternally were there nothing but this to make a Man stand at a distance from that Doctrine it should do it However it may seem to the Flesh to keep a Man cautious and wary in what he doth yet notwithstanding a Man can have no Knowledg in this World how it shall be with him to Eternity whereas our Doctrine calls up to the Mount and bids us there sit down and read our Names in the Book as they are made known by the effectual workings of the Spirit If you would know whether you be
Love holds as long as the Person holds God hath pitched his Love on thy Person therefore whatever hath been thy Hazard in the Way to eternal Life it is all but suffered for this End to make thee cleave to Christ in whom thy Strength is and to prize him and the Gospel the more Thou shalt never come into Condemnation tho thou may'st say God hath cast thee off I am but Reprobate Silver Why what is the matter why I have done Evil so and so why thy doing Good so and so was not the Cause of God's electing thee thy doing Evil is displeasing to him but his Love was not pitched upon thy doing so and so Well neither doth it cease when thou dost so and so Ill but if thou dost so he will bring thee by Weeping-cross because of his Love unto that eternal Glory to which he appointed thee Vse IV. That as to your Judgments ye would stand fast in this Doctrine viz. That God hath chosen Persons singular Persons and Means for them and will enable them to perform those Means believe repent and persevere and bring them infallibly to Glory Receive this and stand fast in it in this day when it is so much spoke against every where The other Doctrine as hath been said before casts great contempt upon the Godhead 1. To make God to be at the Will of the Creature is a very bad thing Now this is evident their Way by Election upon Conditions for according to them God that is the first Cause cannot determine of Love or Hatred whether the Man shall be elected or reprobated till such time as the Creature hath tried and so shewed whether he will chuse and embrace the Means or not he waits to see what the Creature will do before he determines any thing as to particular Persons It was so under the Law that if a Child or Wife had made a Vow without the Father's or Husband's Consent it was null and void Now to make God stand in the same Obedience to the Creature is a great Evil according to this Doctrine Man can make void all God's Desires and Ends that he hath as to particular Persons 2. Things wherein Contempt is cast upon the Godhead by this their Doctrine Bucer affirms that if any say there is any Good done which God doth not do he denies God for God is the Author of every good thing But now there is some Good done according to these by the Creature that is not done by God for it is Man makes that Love special which God made but common This is a Good done and makes those Means effectual which he did but leave at liberty and at the Will of Man Come to the Height and Critical Question Whether that which determined the Will and cast the Soul upon Christ by Faith and chuseth him be any thing on God's part or from it self If as they must say from it self he did it his Will determined the Business for that is the very thing we dispute about then some Good may be done which God doth not if from God on his part then we have done the Cause is ours 3. God cannot know who shall be saved and who not as to the Persons he cannot certainly know for there cannot be in God a Fore-knowledg of that which is uncertain but now nothing more uncertain than this what the Will of Man will do tho is hath the best Means God can give yet it must be left to its own Inclination how it will act otherwise the Nature of Free-will is destroyed according to them Now to say God doth not certainly foresee who shall be saved is to take away his Prescience and make him no God But the very Light of Nature will show you that God foresees all things 4. The Love of God is wronged mightily For what a Love is that worth Little be sure that doth not save a Man from Hell effectually that doth not effectually deliver him from the Danger he is in whenas he could very easily do it What Love had that Parent that seeing a Knife in the Hand of his Child and should know that his Child would certainly cut himself to Death with the Knife would so wound it self as to kill it self yet leaves the Child to it self to do as it will when as he could save the Child from killing it self satisfying it with some other thing as well as the Knife Now surely God is able to make our Wills consent and that infallibly and yet preserve their Freedom make us freely believe in Christ as he is able to raise from the dead create the World of nothing What Love then is that which is spoke of nothing but a poor low common Love that effects nothing You see God is abused by this Doctrine of the Adversaries 5. It wrongs the Soveraignty of God He may not do with his own as he pleaseth but according to the Law of distributive Justice He is bound up to such a Rule to respect Persons to give what is due to very one what he deserves Mat. 20.15 Is it not for me to do with may own as I will 6. It wrongs the Wisdom of God For according to this Man is not made to a certain End Now what wise Man is there but makes every thing he makes to some certain End or else God makes Man to such an End as he cannot attain without his Good-will 7. It takes off from the Grace of God for he gives eternal Life only for a Life of Faith and Works it is not Grace every way and so no way 8. It 's against his Perfection God wills that which shall never be giving them Conditions with a Desire they all may be saved and yet they are not saved and that befals God which he would not have come to pass viz. that any are reprobated and damned Is this for God's Perfection 9. It makes God changeable God's Will was that all shall be saved and thereupon gave them Means Preaching and Scripture or Light of Nature helped by the Works of Creation and Providence but upon their not fulfilling those Conditions of Faith and Perseverance he casts them off reprobates them is not this then a Change to love and hate the same Persons in a small time to elect and reprobate the same Persons 10. It makes God's governing the World to be in Weakness For his Government according to this Doctrine of Conditions is ordered according to the inconstant Mind of Man sometimes he hath this End to glorify his Mercy if Men accept believe obey sometimes to glorify his Wrath when Men refuse thus he is unsteady weak in his Goverment it makes as if God had not without depending upon Man determined from Eternity how his Mercy and Wrath should both be glorified 11. The Omnipotency of God is greatly wronged in this thing it makes Man stronger than God tho God puts forth all his Power yet if Man will he can refuse and disobey surely if God really
ruin the Innocent whenas we heartily declare that God never determined to ruin any but for Sin and never did execute his Will and Determination and so actually ruin any but for Sin contumaciously continued in to the end And is this to ruin the Innocent When the Decree was made Man was neither nocent nor innocent for the Creature had no Existence before the Creation nothing had a Being but the Decree and so that of Reprobation had a Being before the World was The Nature of God he saith cannot come so nigh the Nature of the Devil as to be a Murderer from the beginning intimating that by our Doctrine we make God to be like Satan a Murderer from the beginning But I doubt not but this Author will by this Crimination make himself like Satan a Liar and false Accuser of the Brethren Ad triarios ventum est Cannot we defend our selves Satan was the moral Cause of Eve's sinning and so of Destruction Did we ever say that God was the moral Cause of Eve's sinning I trow not And then how can he be said to be the Murderer He that is not Causa Causae how can he be said to be Causa causati Is the Judg that passes Sentence upon a Criminal a Murderer or the Sheriff that executes the Sentence We profess constantly steadily that God never did sentence any to Death but for final Sin we are speaking of the Adult neither did he decree any to Hell but for final Impenitency in Sin much less doth he execute any inflict Death eternal upon them but for persevering obstinately in Sin to the end of their days without Repentance And to say that the Judg of the Earth in executing Judgment upon Sinners is to make him like the Devil is Monstrum horrendum c. This is all that can be laid to our Charge that God denies Faith and Repentance to some which he gives to others and hath decreed so of his meer Will and Pleasure according to that in the 9th of the Romans He will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardens not by infusing any Hardness into any but by not infusing Grace Is this to make God like Satan a Murderer Is Satan Sovereign Lord Hath he Power over the Creature as the Potter over the Clay But this Man doth apprehend God to be like Satan a Murderer because he wills to punish some for their Sin persisted in and because he will not give Faith and Repentance to all Who can think but he is for universal Salvation The Adversaries do much insist upon this Theam crying out that we render God cruel in this Point of absolute Reprobation One of them hath this strain 'T is contrary to sound Reason which cannot but argue such a Decree of extreme Cruelty c. But doth not sound Reason also argue the Prescience of God of as extreme Cruelty as this Doctrine of Reprobation and they cannot without offering Violence to the Light of Nature deny the Fore-knowledg of God and whatever Absurdity they would fasten upon us from our Tenet of absolute Reprobation shall necessarily divolve upon themselves in every respect if they preserve but the undeniable Doctrine of God's Prescience Another vulgar Error is concerning Free-will in Mr. Battell's Book why he should call the Calvinistical Tenets vulgar Errors is uncouth whenas the Pelagian Heresy sutes the Reason and Affections of all natural Men and is very plausible to the common People There is Popery and Pelagianism in every ones Belly by Nature whole Towns and Countries espouse this Harlot and wonder after her but strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way of Truth and few find it I have read over the Treatise of Free-will and find nothing but what is in Cardinal Bellarmine the Jesuit The Author describes Free-will in the same Terms with the Jesuit but how well does he agree with his Mother the Church of England hath he not undoubtedly spit in her Face while he contentedly sits in her Lap and sucks her Breasts Did he ever subscribe or swear to the tenth Article of Free-will is it not diametrically opposite to his Book Let the Reader judg The Condition of Man after the Fall is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself mark that by his own natural Strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no Power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us Mark that that we may have a good Will But the Import of all this Treatise is viz. That there is a Free-will-in-fallen Man to spiritual and supernatural Acts tho indeed he calls it a remote Free-will to supernatural Acts that this Will of Man is not subject to the special Motion of God in the Act of Conversion so that the Grace of God is irresistably powerful P. 73. This as the Opinion of our Divines he disputes against that this Will is ready tho with some Remoteness to act with God's Grace and is as bent to chuse Good as to refuse and chuse Evil is not dead but sick and lame and this Power waits for God's Power that they may act evenly and jointly in the working out of Salvation pag. 81. And that Man's Will together with the Grace of God casts the Scale in Conversion not to wrong him he saith Grace hath the chiefest Stroke in it pag. 91. But which of them moveth first he saith not and surely the first Mover hath the greatest Stroke Now Bradwerdine asserts God to be the first Mover in all Actions and it 's most consonant to right Reason and if in all then surely in good Actions He hath it 's true mentioned preventing Grace In pag. 77. he is there setting forth the difference betwixt one dead naturally and one spiritually dead and the first difference is this viz. The one is capable of preventing Grace and the other is not but is not he that is naturally dead as capable of the miraculous preventing Power of God in raising him up from that kind of Death to Life as he that is spiritually dead is capable of Grace preventing to convert him And must not this Grace as really go before Conversion in Order of Nature at least as the other miraculous Power precedes the Resurrection or quickening of him that is naturally dead He saith one may be raised by Means the other only by Miracles we query what those Means are External only or Internal i. e. infusing of spiritual Life as a Principle and is not this a Miracle Job 5.25 compared with 28. there you plainly perceive there is as much Power exerted in raising the spiritually as the naturally dead but the Author supposeth external Means only according to that he writes p. 79. Efficacious Grace is nothing but Perswasion which doth not determine the Will This is noisom Pelagianism Our Opinion is plainly this and we have Boldness in the Truth viz. In our Conversion Free-will
is neither a total or partial Cause pre-operant co-operant but the passive Subject recipient of that Vim Gratiae verticordiam as Austin called it the changing Power of Grace The Will in Conversion is neither a free Agent nor natural Agent but an obedient Subject of the efficacious Grace of God This we are ready to maintain All the Author's Arguments are in Bellarmine Pelagius Arminius and fully answered by Bradwerdine Twiss Ames and Davenant a Bishop of the Church of England Is 't not pity that this Dish of twice sodden Coleworts should be made ready and set on the Table for the poisoning of so many Souls making them lazy proud and hypocritical Without an Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lay open the Fallacies and Absurdities of this vulgar Error it may be done in season In the Interim I offer a few things to manifest the Absurdities of this Tenet viz. The Power of Free-will co-operating with the Grace of God being a Partner with God in Conversion First See what Bellarmine saith of this matter The Concourse of God doth not impress or work any thing upon our Wills but immediately flows upon the Effects it is like to that of two carrying a great Stone which one of them singly cannot do the Will and God work together in one and the same moment of time but now mark the Author will not speak out so plainly but I suppose will not oppose the Cardinal yet God works because the Will works not on the contrary i. e. the Will works because God works because he did as it were oblige himself freely of his own accord when he created Free-will Now this is ingenuously spoken Against this we offer 1. This takes off from the Dominion of Providence and the efficacious Government of all the Operations of Human Will. 2. This takes away the Subordination of Second Causes to the First in their Operations 3. This makes Man not God's Subject but Companion not subordinate but equal to God 4. It makes the Gubernation and Directions of Human Actions and of whatsoever follows thereupon first and chiefly to depend upon Man's Free-will 5. It paints out God depending upon the nod and beck of Man in things of the highest Concernment 6. This Opinion inverts and subverts that Piety which God hath taught us in the Scripture James 4.15 which we should use our selves to in our Besolves viz. If the Lord will we will do this or that if Man will to do this or that 7. It is against not only Aristotle Augustine Aquinas and the Thomists and Jansenists but the very Trent-Roman-Catechism Art 8. Symb. n. 22. Deus Providentiâ suâ quae moventur agunt aliquid intimâ virtute ad Motum atque Actionem impellit God by his Providence doth impel with most intimate Power to Motion and Action all things that are moved and act any thing I cannot forbear adding as to the Description of Grace p. 72. It is Strength and Assistance from God to do something above Nature these Men think it enough when they speak or write of God's Actings of us to grant that he aids strengthens assists helps us Bellarmine argues thus The Scripture teacheth that we are helped of God in our Actions but he that doth nothing cannot properly be said to be holpen but he who labours in acting yet I remember that Christ healing the possessed casting out the Devils in which Men were meerly passive is called helping Mat. 15.25 Mark 9.22 Have Compassion and help us Lactantius long since did very well answer this of Bellarmine The Propriety of this word juvare help doth not hold forth to us Divine but only Human Help For Cicero interprets Jove and Juno to be called so from the word juvando to help and Jupiter is called so Juvans Pater the helping Father which Name doth not in the least sute God because to help belongs to Man bestowing something upon one that hath but little none doth so pray to God that he should help them but save them that he would bestow Life and Salvation upon them which is much more than to help And because we speak of a Father no Father is said to help his Sons when he begets them and brings them up this word is too light than that the Greatness of a Father's Bounty should be expressed by it How much more is it inconvenient and unbecoming God who is most truly our Father by whom we are whose we wholly are by whom we were made quickened inlightened c. He doth not understand the Divine Benefits that thinks himself only to be helped of God Therefore he is not only ignorant but wicked that by the word Jove doth impare diminish or lessen the Power of the Highest Now hear a few Queries that should be resolved by these Levellers Co-operators Coadjutors 1. Whether the Grace of Calling or the whole Work of God which he exerts to the converting of a Man be only moral only in perswading proposing inviting exhorting c. or also real and of proper Efficacy 2. Whether there be no Action of the Spirit acting immediately upon the Mind and Will which causeth us to believe but the proposing only of the things to be believed doth suffice to the begetting and bringing forth of Faith 3. Whether there be not the same manner of working as to the Efficacy of Grace in the quickening of the Intellect Affections and Will the Intellect and Affections being quickened in an irresistable but the Will in a resistable manner 4. Whether any other Powers are given to the Will to its Conversion besides the inlightening the Mind and the exciting the Affections 5. Whether besides the inlightening the Mind and the exciting the Affections Grace works any thing by way of Principle or antecedently unto Conversion but only accompanieth the Will already consenting 6. Whether there being all the Workings and Operations which God useth in the effecting Conversion in Men whether Conversion doth not always follow 7. When Conversion follows whether doth it follow and is effected by any Necessity of the Cause or Infallibility of the Event from the Intention and Action of God or only contingently and uncertainly as it pleased the indifferent Will of Man to incline it self Let these Queries be plainly answered A third vulgar Error is viz. That Christ died for the Elect only he is for universal Redemption Now this vulgar Error the Church of England is for with us for they are for the Election of Persons witness their 17th Article and it 's evident that these two Opinions are inconsistent viz. Election and universal Redemption As for those universal Terms he saith p. 101. the Church teacheth the Children in their Catechisms to answer viz. I believe in God the Son who redeemed us and all Mankind And that in her Collect for Good-friday she prays for the Conversion of Jews Turks and Infidels Indeed according to this Author's Opinion there needs no Prayer be made for them that have Power already in