tend to the glory of God for to that end was man created Prov. 16.4 Ephes 1.15 And therefore neither have the elect cause for which they should boast because what they do receive is of undeserved grace 1 Cor. 4.7 neither are those who are pretermitted cause to complain whiles they have but their deserved reward Rom. 9. the Potter having power over his lump of clay to make one vessel to honour another to dishonour That which hath the fourth place is Election which is not to be understood of an election to a civil or sacred place or office as 1 Sam. 10.24 Iohn 6.70 Nor of a people separated to a special Covenant as Deut. 4.37 Nor onely of such as were called to the outward profession of the Gospel whereof a Church may consist as 1 Cor. 1.27 But it is A personal definite and immutable separation of certain singular men from the rest of mankind and preordaining them to salvation by such means as it hath pleased him to appoint in his most wise decre Matth. 20.16 and 24.24 Mar. 13.20 Rom. 11.7 And means for the execution of this decree of election are Redemption by Jesus Christ effectual vocation justification by faith and sanctification joyned with perseverance Rom. 8.29 30. Eph. 1.4 1 Thess 5.9 1 Pet. 1.2 Act. 13.48 Tit. 1. 1. Phil. 1.6 In election Christ is the basis and head thereof Eph. 1.4 5. both in that he was designed by the Father as a Redeemer of the elect 2 Cor. 5.18 Esa 12.2 As also because that such so elected were given to Christ to be redeemed by him and to be brought unto glory Ioh. 17.6 and 10.16 So that Christ is inrolled in the decree of election not as a meritorious cause of it nor as the foundation thereof but as executing that decree and the meritorious cause of grace and glory to be conferred upon the elect according to the decree of God Faith likewise sanctification good works and perseverance are ingredients in the decree consequently as means ordained to the end by that decree but not antecedently as the foundation or causes upon foresight whereof our election doth depend For if upon the foresight of our faith or foreseeing who would believe or embracing of the means or continuance therein our election should depend then were it necessary that the same should be foreseen in us either as those graces or works wrought in us by our selves and of our own innate strength or else wrought in us onely by God and of his grace and gift alone If you l ' say they proceed as from our selves as from the innate activity and choice of our own free-will then have we whereof to boast and then have we made our selves to differ from others contrary to that of 1 Cor. 4.7 for what maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it what dost thou glory is if thou hadst not received it But if we have received that grace from God and that it be onely of his working in us to give us faith and repentance from dead works c. Then God hath decreed to give us those graces which since they are infallible means unto salvation therefore they are to be drawn and derived from infallible election wherin salvation is decreed unto us for the further clearing wherof consult these places Matth. 11.25 26. Luke 12.32 1 Tim. 1.9 Rom. 9.11 12. and 11.5 Eph. 1.4 Rom. 8.29 Ioh. 15.16 Acts 13.48 1 Cor. 7.25 Ioh. 6.37 and 8.47 2 Tim. 2.19 Matth. 24.24 1 Ioh. 2.19 The last proposed is Reprobation which is the eternal Immutable and most free decree of God wherein a certain company of men considered in an alike lump and mass of corruption and guilt with all others he hath decreed to pass them by and not to have mercy upon them neither to confer on them the means tending to salvation but leaving them in their sin whereinto they had cast themselves for the same sin to condemn them for the manifestation of his liberty and justice and power This reprobation by a metonymy is styled in Scripture Hatred Rom. 9.13 So the purpose of God Rom. 9.11 that determined counsel of God Acts 2.23 the good pleasure of God Mat. 12.25 26. And the Reprobates are called vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9.22 men of old ordained to condemnation disobedient whereunto they were appointed 1 Pet. 2.8 Appointed unto wrath 1 Thess 5.9 wicked made for the day of evil Pro. 16.4 All which do argue that God is the efficient cause of Reprobation and that hell fire is prepared for such Goats as well as for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 that God must be the efficient cause of Reprobation as well as of election appears in this that as he elects i. e. decrees to save some so likewise he decrees to Reprobate i. e. to pass by and leave others and not elect them as Matth. 24.40 41. For else had not he fore-determined what to do with a great part of mankind but to have left them to an uncertain event which is unsuitable to his wisdome Now the act of God in Reprobating may be distinguished into a negative and privative act i.e. of not granting salvation nor conferring means of salvation and into an affirmative or positive act i. e. of inflicting damnation and of blinding and hardening After both these waies the Scripture sets forth Reprobation 1 Negatively Mat. 7.23 and 25.12 I know you not Ioh. 10.26 you are not of my sheep Ioh. 17.19 I pray not for the world Matth. 13.11 to them it is not given to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven 2 Affirmatively Rom. 9.13 Esau have I hated Rom. 9.22 vessels of wrath sitted to destruction Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardens Ioh. 12.39 40. They could not believe because he had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts So that if it be demanded wherefore God when he saw all men in an alike condition sinners and children of wrath Reprobated some i. e. did not elect them or suffered not his face to shine on them as he did on others viz. those which he did elect no reason can be assigned for this but the absolute good pleasure of his will But if it be demanded why he doth not confer salvation on them or glorifie their persons in heaven but contrarily inflicts upon them eternal torments in hell here the cause is assigned to be their own sinnes Matth. 25.41 42. Go ye cursed into everlasting fire for I was hungry c. and Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death And therefore in the matter of Reprobation God is to be lookt upon partly as a sovereign who hath the sole power and dominion over his creature Psal 145.17 Gen. 18.25 and partly as a Judge who is righteous in all his waies and doth right to every man As a sovereigne and so according to his absolute power and liberty dependent on
any preparation or disposition thereunto but solely in the bosome of the God of heaven who according to the counsel of his own will from all eternity differenceth one person from another Iacob from Esau decreeing and destinating both unto glory as the end and likewise unto saving grace as the means conducing to that end For if besides the act of God thus specifying or distinguishing man should have any stroke as that through his own strength or acting at all Ephes 2.9 Hab. 1.16 1 Cor. 4.7 as to his own being decreed to salvation then a man had whereof to boast then might he sacrifice to his own net and burn incense to his own drag then man had made himself to differ and he had that which he never had received And if those former Scriptures by me alledged seem not to you of full weight Luk. 6.38 take these following to the bargain which doutbtless will make it good measure pressed down shaken together and running over First as to the exclusion of all creature-interests besides the alone will of God which is his decree of election Mat. 11.25 Luke 12.31 Secondly as to the confirming of this grant ad numerum numeratum as to a set definite and known number The Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 he knows whom he hath chosen Ioh. 13.18 he knows his sheep Ioh. 10.27 yea he knows them by name Ioh. 10.3 their names are written in heaven Luk. 10.20 yea in the spirits book Rev. 13.8 even in the book of life Phil. 4.3 Rev. 21.12 So that having discharged this Argument likewise from the burden you cast upon it by your crude exceptions I am now at liberty to come to the relief of My fourth Argument which is this If faith and works be the fruits and effects of election then they are no waies causes of it for which God should elect But they are fruits and effects Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained to life believed Eph. 2.4 7 8 9 16. To which you answer First See here what ado the man makes with works and causes as the position never mentioneth Answ Sir that I inserted works into any of my Arguments I have given the reason thereof in my defence of my second Argument to wit for the avoiding of vain Tautologies I must refer the Reader and as to causes to my first Argument and though it be true that totidem verbis causes are not exprest in the position yet by an unavoydable consequence they are implied and therefore if the man had holden fast the forme of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 1 Tim. 6.3 and consented to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness much of this contest would have been spared The holy Scriptures and this mans learned writings were not calculated for the same meridian they will not easily suite for one hemisphere where find you in all the holy writings such a style as this especially as to matter of election God saw some men embracing the means and those he elected I have not found the like in Scripture whatsoever this man hath done in his rarer observations but sure I believe he laid it purposely as a gin to catch woodcocks no Sir when you set forth any doctrinal truth by way of a position you ought to keep as close to a Scripture-phrase as possibly the subject matter will bear Secondly you answer by way of a demand what ground he hath to say that faith and works be the fruits and effects of election except it be this that because election goeth before and faith and works follow after and by that way of reasoning he may as well say that Abels death was the effect of Cains birth and that may be accounted the cause of it but yet Cains being born had not effected it if he had not afterwards rose up against him and slew him and so he came to his death it being effected by that means so likewise notwithstanding the Decree of election was before man had any being yet faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10.17 as a means appointed by God for the effecting of it that so men might fall under the decree of salvation that is appointed by God to be the portion of believers from before the foundation of the world Answ I shall return upon you in our Saviours language Luk. 19.22 Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee thou wicked servant But even now did you consent Promises did flow from the decree of election and yet though we had not reum confitentem we are not so barren and empty of solid grounds for what we say or do affirm Ephes 1.3 that all those spiritual blessings in heavenly places thâ—â— a believer from first to last is made partaker of they all flow unto us and are conferred on us as fruits and effects of election Rom. 11.7 election hath obtained it that Christ was given of the Father that he was incarnate crucified dead raised from death to life that he ascended up on high and that now he sits on Gods right hand and acteth now daily as an intercessor all these flow from election Gal. 4.4 1 Pet. 1.20 Luk. 24.26 Phil. 2.6 c. That any are effectually called according to purpose t is the effect of election Rom. 8.28 and ver 23.24 c. Justification is from election 8.30 c. Sanctification from election Rom. 6.22 Your fruit unto holiness Ephes 1.4 Chosen that we should be holy All which Graces and priviledges as they are fruits and effects of election so are they all of them in their several stations and relations causes of salvation and every antecedent grace is a cause of its consequent grace and the salvation of the elect which is their consummate Glorification is the common effect both of the first cause as of all the intermediate and secondary causes At last you bid defiance to this Argument by having a fling at that Classical text of Scripture Acts 13.48 retorting it upon me thus To his Greek that he writeth in the margin of his paper from Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained c. I do desire him to look once more into his Greek Testament and then let him as he will be willing to answer it before the Judge of the world the Lord Iesus at his appearing when he shall come in his glory and let him speak according to his conscience upon that account whether he cannot read the same words in the Greek from which the word ordained is translated to be the same with that in 1 Cor. 16.15 from which the word addicted is translated and also I shall appeal to the consciences of reasonable people whether it be not a suitable and an agreeable kinde of reading it being directly contrary to what the Jews did v. 45. they spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul contradicting and blaspheming and so
do enjoy then their not knowing of Christ and believing in him as we do will never be charged upon them as sin For we do not find that the Lord Jesus doth require the use of a talent of them which never received any of him to use Answ Sir what faith infants have by which they are saved hath formerly been discussed It is such as is suitable to their infantile state differing not in nature and essence from those which are adult but onely in degrees of the discovery of it It hath been likewise acknowledged that the Gentiles who never heard of Christ unbelief will not be their sin for which they shall be condemned for they shall be judged not by the law of faith but by the law of works 2 Cor. 5.10 according to what evil they have done in the body and therefore I do affirm that the onely breach of the covenant of Grace is too narrow to be the adequate cause of damnation for many pagans who never heard of Christ and are under no covenant but that of works are condemned not for not believing in him of whom they never heard Rom. 10.14 nor for the breach of the covenant of Grace but for the breach of the covenant of works and without doubt uncleanness covetousnes sorcery lying Idolatry c. and many the like sins are the causes of their damnation They received a talent in Adam their primogenitor and he forfeited it both to himself and all his posterity whereof unless redemption be made by Jesus Christ they are utterly lost persons They have likewise received a general talent bestowed on them by Jesus Christ Ioh. 1.9 Rom. 1.20 who enlighteneth all that come into the world even enough to make them inexcusable And kind Sir if you revise your own position it is limited to the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel and therfore as you put the case your supposition utterly clasheth with what you have in your position But it is an easie matter for such intoxicated unsteady brains as yours to cross leggs now and then You absurdly conclude what you have to say in discharge of your self from the second absurdity thus But the Gentiles if they cannot notwithstanding all that they can do hear of Christ in the Doctrine of the Gospel in express words that they have a means from God by which they in their consciences may be accused or excused in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Rom. 2.14 15 16. See also chap. 1 from ver 18. to the end also Psal 19. at the beginning by which means there is such a discovery of God from the creation of the world that the invisible things of him are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made so that they are without excuse but not onely in the far countries but even here in England where the Gospel is preached there are many that are strangers from the life of God I do freely grant the greater is their sin and as it is just with God to give those Gentiles over to a reprobate mind that did not like to retain the knowledge of God which they had or might have had by the things that are made so in like manner will the just and righteous judgement of God appear toward them which have Jesus Christ preached unto them in the Doctrine of the Gospel and they receive him not in suffering the mystery of iniquity to cloud and darken their understanding by the coming of the man of sin 2 Thes 2.9.10 11 12. Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness by which mystery of iniquity their understandings are so darkned and their minds blinded by which they look that all must be in a mystery removing mountains in a mystery the body of Christ in a mystery the Ascention of Christ into heaven and his second coming in a mystery the resurection out of the Grave or dust of the earth in a mystery to be out of the grave of sin and all these and many more such dark and cloudy conceits there are and will be more and more in men because they receive not the love of the truth even the teaching of Jesus Christ in these things that are written Ioh. 20.31 that they might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing they might have life through his name Answ Truly Sir your revolution of mysteries is a mystery to me And if in this whole paragraph your meaning be onely this that in the defect of the revelation of Jesus Christ Rom. 1. Psal 19.1 Rom. 2.14 yet that the Gentiles have so much made known unto them by the invisible things of God and the objective works of the creation and the reliques of the law of nature so far as to render them inexcusable I shall joyne with you in it and give my vote against them But if you have any secret reserve for indeed you are a pitiful soul that any of those herd of Goats the Gentiles I mean should have any possibility of salvation or hopes to be excused in the day of Judgement from receiving of the just reward of all their iniquities Joh. 15.5 Joh. 14.6 I do then abominate any such conceit Without Christ we can do nothing he is the way the truth and the life and none cometh to the Father but by him neither is there salvation in any other nor none other name under heaven given among men whereby they can be saved If it should be otherwise then farewel the prerogative of the Jew above the Gentile of the Christian Church above the Pagans If God may have his Church his converts his right worshippers his beloved and saved ones even amidst the blindness and darkness of Gentilism without the knowledge of Christ and all divine revelation of Gods wil in his word then let 's bid adieu to al Scripture to all religion to all profession but alas what are such opinions as those but like sick mens dreams or rather mad mens ravings But I pray Sir tell me in good earnest what your meaning is by those words you thus write viz. The Gentiles if they cannot notwithstanding all that they can do hear of Christ c. which as the words import imply an abominable slander against the majesty of God as though the Gentiles had a desire and thereupon did endeavour to know and learn the mind of Christ but being impeded by a more supreme power were not able to compass their desires Sir learn to be more modest and reverent in treating of such divine things Alas so far are the heathens for
we shall for the baptizing of infants And one caution more I desire to adde viz. that in the reading there be not sometimes a mistaking of that which is Tazwells for mine which yet I hope the sense will direct the understanding Reader to for else it is in many places not distinguishable either by difference of Characters nor by any other eminent mark These things thus premised Consider what I say 2 Tim. 2.7 and the Lord give thee understanding in all things J. R. The ERRATA PAge 1 Line 15. for ingenious read ingenuous p. 5. l. 36. for grave r. grand impostor p. 12. l. 16. for r. and. p. 15. l. 20. me r. we p. 17. l. 31 for delivered r. continued p. 18. l. 12. their 's r. yours p. 24. l. 22. equipend r. equipond p. 25. l. 6. after difficulty in your r. proof for the baptizing of women then we shall for p. 27 l. would r. wave p. 27. l. 15. Islington r. Osmington p. 31. l. 9. peribis nunquam r. redibis nunquam p. 41. l. 11. Faswell r. Tazwell p. 41. l. 29. objecto r. adjecto p. 44. l. 5. fumbles r. jumbles p. 45. l. 24. eternol r. external p. 57. l. 32. metti r. memento p. 59. l. 6. learners r. hearers p. 61. l. 29. seâ—t r. Close p. 62. l. 4. me r. one p. 63. l. 5. to wit r. to which p. 65. l. 29. certifie r. rectifie p. 67. l. 19. I curtail r. I shall curtail p. 67. l. 25. back r. bare p. 84. l. 11. for which r. but hath been p. 87. l. â— for a heavenly writ r. oh heavenly wide p. 92. l. 3. for refused r. refuted p. 94. l. 15. for much r. may p. 109. 11. Comma at understood and at consequently and for yet r. not p. 110. l. 27. for that r. the p. 115. l. 20. for affectati r. affectation p. 121. l. 40. then thus sin r. than thus to sin p. 133. l. 40. for rate r. rank p. 139. l. 18. for first r. force p. 139. l. 34. for child in infancy r. child dying in infancy p. 150. l. 17. for understanding r. undertaking p. 150. l. 24. for the word r. your words p. 251. l. 35. for to r. the p. 152. l. 14. for had preached r. had not preached p. 153. l. 38. for the r. that p. 156. l. 25. for those r. these p. 156. 36. for for r. from p. 162. l. 30. for infective r. infective quality p. 169. l. 5. for rom r. from p. 169. l. 15. for proposition r. position p. 197. antiquestion 12. to relate to Tazwels 6 Querie p. 203. l. 31. for indiscriminate r. indiscriminable p. 205. l. 8. for sin r. him p. 206. l. 44. for most r. mostly p. 208. l. 10. for truly r. onely Thomas Tazwells POSITIONS GOd did in all eternity before any thing was brought forth in order behold all things that should or would be as perfect as if they had then been in being God saw man created and man fallen Christ crucified and fallen man redeemed and also the means of salvation tendred God also saw some men embracing this means and some rejecting it as God saw some men embracing this means those he elected in Christ from the foundation of the world through sanctification of the Spirit to everlasting life So God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief yet haply not without the exact form of Godliness but denying the power those he reprobated to everlasting destruction from the foundation of the world Those whom God hath elected unto life and salvation shall never finally fall or come to condemnation the subtilty of Sathan the policie of man nor the corruption of nature shall never prevail against them Those whom God hath reprobated to condemnation shall never be saved Christs mercy and means shall never save them yet God is not the cause of mans condemnation neither Reprobation the cause of unbelief but mans destruction is of himself and unbelief of the devil All men are sometimes convinced of sin and the state of nature and are made alive by the work of the Spirit of grace to every man in the world God also giveth a Talent to every man and power to improve it but mans not improving it when receiving it with a power is the cause of mans destruction Christ hath redeemed all men from the first transgression and crossed the score of Adams sin yet the pollution of that sin is upon all men but not the condemnation also Adam did not fall for want of power but for consenting to Sathan not improving the power Christ hath laid his life and shed his bloud for every man in the world yet not intending thereby to save every man for Christ came to fulfill not to cross his Fathers Will and this is his Fathers Will never to save those whom he hath reprobated from eternity for disobedience and rebellion The first answer to Tho. Tazwells POSITIONS VVE cannot but wonder that the Grandees of this Nation have seemed as Acts 17.30 to wink at the spronting Errors of these times and not rather to have Cant. 12.16 killed the foxes while little and Esa 14.29 crusht the serpent in the root for doubtless they in their grave wisdoms do prudently foresee that such Meteors or Ignes fatui are more easily supprest by slightings and contempt then by strength of opposition neither will they honour the broachers or fomenters with any condigne punishment lest they should unjustly glory in a pretended persecution and so their rabble might the more increase under affectation of singularity for surely it is very visible to all exact observers that those who were the prime promoters incendiaries and blew the coals first of these strange opinions they have many of them either withdrawn from the heat of the contest and deserted the cause or else have changed their judgements or otherwise are so divided amongst themselves that many of them know not whom to follow whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas but leave their Conventicles to be gulled and deluded by the dregs of men such as wisemen would disdain Iob 30.1 to have set with the dogs of their slock an evident symptome that their kingdom is of no long time for standing for Matth. 12.25 If a kingdom c. and if Satan cast out Satan c. What particular opinions these fanatick spirits do maintain besides rebaptization I have been hitherto blest from entring into their secrets Gen. 49.6 until this week a friend of mine presented me with a dish of their crude and unsavoury Positions no better then Coloquintida That I may well say of them mors in olla 2 Kings 4.40 death is in the pot but I conceive it well bespeaks what qualified persons they are from whence they come Similes habent labra lactucas like lips like lettices They dropt I believe from the pen of a younger brother in profession so that I resolve to wink at small faults and
though the ill digesting and composing of them will not deserve a Schollars eye much less answer yet because if it be possible that the Authour may not further befool himself or further delude his over credulous proselytes and lead captive 2 Tim. 3.6 silly women laden with sin I will draw a line of confutation over his more remarkable Errors and willingly pass by his smaller faults of incongruous or improper expressions First I do consent that the most holy and high God from all not in Eternity by one sole and single act did see all whatsoever he purposed to do or permitted to be done by any of the creatures he intended to create for else he could not be Omniscient Omnipresent Infinite and Eternal But whereas it is said That God saw some men embracing the means of salvation and those he elected in Christ from the foundation of the world to everlasting life this is so far from soundness that it is flat Pelagianism an old Heresie exploded forth of the Church for many ages since by which it must be concluded that the eternal decree of Gods unchangeable election must be dependent on the intervention of mans liberty of willing and working but no proof from Scripture brought to evidence it nor appearance of any colour of reason Whereas the Scripture when it speaks of election makes it to be altogether independent on the creature or from ought at all wrought by or in the creature but wholly resting for the ground thereof in the bosome and holy will of God himself and therefore it is called Ephes 1.5 the good pleasure of his will and Ephes 1.11 the purpose and counsel of his will Nay so absolute and irrelative is this decree of election from any thing out of God besides his good pleasure as to be any motive or incentive for which God elects as a meritorius or a procuring ground or cause of it that even Christ himself is excluded as for whose merit man should be elected and therefore we are said to be elected in Christ not for Christ But because Socratical discourses are not so convincing I shall produce some irrefragable Arguments to which if the adverse party shall give any the least colour of answer to satisfaction then I shall say as they believe that learning is good for nothing but to puffe men up and gull the world but till that be done which I am certain will never be I shall bless the God of my salvation who Ephes 4.8 11. hath given such gifts unto men 1. Arg. If the rise of our election be grounded in the free grace of God then it is not upon Gods foresight of mans embracing of the means of salvation but it is founded on the meer mercy and free grace of God therefore not upon the foresight of the embracing of the means The first proposition or major is unquestionable for that there is but one cause to produce the effect The second proposition or minor viz. that our election is founded on the meer mercy and free grace of God see for proof hereof Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself the Lord did not set his love upon or choose you because you were more in number c. but because the Lord loved you where the single love of God is pitcht upon as the cause of their election exclusively from any other outward causes See further Deut. 10.15 Matth. 20.15.21 Luk. 12.22 Rom. 9.11 18 21. Ephes 1.5 11. 2 Tim. 1.9 2. Arg. If the Patriarch Iacob was elected meerly out of grace without any respect had to any of his faith works or use of means then all others are likewise so elected for there is the one alike motive for the election of all as of one But Iacob was elected meerly out of the good will of God without any respect to faith works or the use of means at least for the moving of God to elect him Therefore all others are so likewise elected The minor proposition is confirmed out of Rom. 9.11 for the children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said the elder shall serve the younger 3. Arg. If the decree of election be absolute without any respect had to faith works or means Then God did not elect upon a foresight of the embracing of the means but the decree of election is absolute c. Therefore See for proof Rom. 9.11 Rom. 11.5 6 7. Ephes 1.4 5 11. Matth. 20.16 and 22.14 4. Arg. If faith and works be the fruits and effects of election then they are no wayes causes of it for which God should elect but they are fruits and effects Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained unto life believed Ephes 2.4 7 8 9 13. 5. Arg. If our foreseen faith works or embracing of the means were the cause of our election they should be likewise the cause of our vocation and justification but the later is false therefore the first The major is proved by that undeniable axiome Quicquid est causa causae est causa etiam causati That which is the cause of a cause is also a cause of the thing caused i. e. of the effect The minor is proved 2 Tim. 1.9 and Ephes 2.8 Rom. 3.24 justified freely by his grace 6. Arg. If our election were dependent on mans embracing of the means then these absurdities would follow 1. Then the will of God should be moved and determined by an external cause i. e. the first cause should be ordered and guided by the second and thereby the first is made the second cause and e contra which is against the rules of all Philosophy and Divinity 2. God hereby is supposed to be capable of passion i.e. when thus moved but God is altogether immutable and impassible 3. Then there should be somewhat in the creature out of God before greater and better then God because that every cause is before and better then the effect 4. If there might be imagined to be any thing in the creature which might move God to the decreeing or appointing of this or that then it would follow that the actings or issues of things have not a dependence upon the decree of God contrary to Iam. 3.37 5. Then man might have just cause of boasting in himself 6. What then would become of children dying in infancy before they had the use of faith or works or any embracing of the means and which never were to have a being to act therefore they were never to be foreseen For the third Position That God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief those he reprobated to everlasting destruction But this hath the like unsoundness in it as the former of election there being no other ground or reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelief or rejecting of the means
it will sound forth good sense that the Gentiles were addicted to eternal life and believed Answ Here you conjure me into a circle and by expressions more potent then any charm charge me that as I am willing to answer c. Sir I shall answer you not as by virtue of your spell but as setting the fear of God before mine eyes when first I alledged that place for a proof to what I did intend it and sure it is no wayes enervated but rather gathered strength by your opposition The word I readily acknowledge used Acts 13.48 comes from the same primitive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in its proper and primitive signification is to ordain constitute appoint determine and whereas you say that in 1 Cor. 16.15 t is translated addicted I confess t is true but under submission I conceive they so render it rather as Interpreters Expositors then Translators when as withall they kept the sense and scope of the holy Ghost and that they foresaw no great controversie or article of faith did depend upon it But when once Soeinus lib. 4. de servat cap. 13. not able otherwise to resist the power of the Spirit speaking in that text had found a starting-hole by rendring of it dispositos praeparatos proclives sive bene affectos the whole croud of Aâ—minians treading in his steps pervert the genuine interpretation of that word and speak in his language whose apes the Anabaptists are But if we take a view of that place and there behold the mind of the holy Ghost it cannot properly be rendred otherwise then according to the native sense of that word viz. ordained And then why should such a shrimp as you incline to the false gloss of a forreiner an Heretick and wave the common received translation of those reverend Orthodox Divines our own countrey-men but onely out of an affectation of singularity I know you l ' say as before of the pragmatick Pelagius comparing him with blessed Calvin why may not Socinus be in the right and our Translators in the wrong and therefore to certifie your judgement I shall make the contrary to appear by these convincing Arguments 1. This signification which I assert is most frequent with this Evangelist see Acts 15.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They determined that Paul should go up and Acts 28.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they had appointed him a day so Rom. 13.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the powers that be are ordained of God and therefore why not so here 2. T is most consonant with the text it self where the ordination there spoken of intimates a relation to the end and not a disposition of the subject 3. Hereby the scope of the Evangelist is best preserved who speaking here of divers of the Jews and Gentiles proselytes ouâ— of curiosity coming to hear Paul preach he shews that whiles the Jews contradicted and blasphemed divers of the Gentiles were brought to believe in Christ but some did not now to any who should demand why the rest of the Gentiles should not likewise be converted the reason is implyed in the text that onely some of them were ordained unto life i. e. elected the rest were not as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed Wherein is a plain Antithesis not onely of the persons ver 45 48. viz. of the Jews contradicting and blaspheming and of the Gentiles being glad and glorifying the word of the Lord but also of the first cause according to Gods ordination viz. that some were ordained to life others were not 4. To render it addicted or disposed is gross Pelagianisme As many as were ordained i. e addicted prepared or disposed to eternal life for the same preparation either it must be of our selves or of God 2 Cor. 3.5 1 Cor. 4.7 1 Cor. 2.14 If you say it is of our selves that contradicts the evidence of such places as teach that we are not sufficient to think any thing as of our selves and who made thee to differ neither can any unregenerate man have any disposition to faith before he actually believe If you say it is of God then we have what we desire that God alone prepares disposes and ordains us unto life 5. The Evangelist useth not a participle active as thus as many as ordained themselves to eternal life believed but a participle passive as many as were ordained believed and therefore it speaks not of any action whereby they had disposed themselves but as they were ordained of God 6. There is no good consequence from that place of 1 Cor. 16.15 the house of Stephanus have ordained themselves or addicted themselves to the Ministery therefore it is in the power of an unbeliever to dispose himself to faith or eternal life for there is one way of those which are believers in disposing themselves to the ministery of the Church and another of those which as yet do not believe in respect of their disposition to faith and life eternal And thus Sir howsoever hand over head you have by tradition swallowed down the feculent dreggs of Socinus his interpretation yet it is too palpable that Glossa corrumpit textum and that it sounds plain non-sense that the Gentiles were addicted to eternal life before they believed And thus having thrown you out of your triumphing Charet wherein you marched so furiously against my fourth Argument I have leisure to attend to what you shall say against my fifth Argument which is this If our foreseen faith works or embracing of the means of salvation were the cause of our election they should be likewise the cause of our vocation and justification but the latter is false therefore the former The Major is proved by that undeniable Axiome Quicquid est causa causae est causa etiam causati that which is the cause of the cause is the cause of the thing caused The Minor is proved 2 Tim. 1.9 and Ephes 2.8 Rom. 3.24 justified freely by his grace To which you offer an answer thus That this argument may tend to the confutation of them that hold foreseen faith works or the embracing of the means to be the causes of their election but it hits not us for we hold no such thing neither is any such thing asserted in this position Answ Short and therefore sweet I curtail mine as you do yours by telling you that I delight not to surfeit the Reader with a dish of Crambe terque quaterque recocta but shall desire him to revise my defence of my first Argument and so impartially to judge whether foreseen faith and embraing of the means be not implicitly asserted in your Position as motives to election so that the Argument not onely hits you on the back but so gores your sides that your Position staggers and expects a better cordial then either your wit or art are able to administer to keep life in it Your next advance is against my sixth Argument which is this If our election were dependent on mans
embracing of the means then these absurdities would follow then 1. The will of God should be moved and determined by an external cause i. e. the first cause should be ordered and guided by the second and thereby be made the second cause e contra which is against the rules of all Philosophy and Divinity 2. God hereby is supposed to be capable of passion i. e. when thus moved but God is altogether immutable and impassible 3. Then there should be somewhat in the creature out of God before greater and better then God because that every cause is before and better then the effect 4. If there might be imagined to be any thing in the creature which might move God to the decreeing or appointing of this 〈◊〉 that then it would follow that the actings and issues of things hâ—â— not a dependence on the decree of God contrary to Iam. 3 3â— 5. Then man might have just cause of boasting in himself 6. What then would become of children dying in infancy bâ—fore they had the use of faith or works or any embracing of thâ— means and which never were to have a being to act thereforâ— they were never to be foreseen To which you frame this answeâ— If our election were so much dependent on mans embracing 〈◊〉 the means as that there might be imagined to be any thing in thâ— creature which might move God to the decreeing or appointinâ— of men and women to eternal life then I deny not many absurdities would follow and this Argument may do something where it hits but as it happeneth it hits not us for we hold no such thing neither is there any thing asserted in this Position as that our election is dependent on mans embracing the means 〈◊〉 as that God should be thereby moved to elect Answ This is no more nor other then what was said against the former Argument onely the baby is swadled in other clouts Nor is that ere a jot the better which follows But any rational man that shall read these Arguments with a single eye and with an honest and upright heart and with a single mind compare them with the Position they are brought to answer cannot certainly but judge that either the man did not well mind what was in the Position or else had forgotten what was in it when he writ his Arguments or otherwise it must be his folly for all the expressions he seemeth to quarrel at be of his own making for not one of the expressions be found in the Position as that anything wrought in or by the creature is any motive or incentive for which God elects as a meritorious or procuring ground or cause of it but the whole substance of it is that God saw some men embracing the means of Salvation and those he elected in Christ c. Answ Whereto I say that I did seriously weigh the fraud of your Position before ever I put pen to paper and was now again very considerate of what I had undertaken and though in terminis motives and incentives causes are not therein exprest yet in that you say that God saw some men embracing the means those he elected it is necessarily implyed that those must be singular and numerical persons who must be elected for or because of their embracing of the means for why God did chuse those that he did foresee would embrace the means rather then those rhat he did foresee would reject the means and whether in this is not embracing of the means according to you a cause of election I leave it to any unbyassed man to Judge Besides I do demand whether in this your supposed foresight that you ascribe to God did he foresee that which he himself would work in them viz. this embracing of the means or did he onely foresee that which they themselves that were so foreseen would woâ—k by their own power viz. that they would of themselves embrace the means If you ascribe it to God then I demand why he works that power in one rather then another 1 Cor. 4.7 wherein at last you must ascend to the good pleasure of his will But if you ascribe this power to man himself then man hath made himself to differ and hath that in himself which he hath not received and hath cause whereof to boast But upon this account besides the absurdities before mentioned the whole doctrin of predestination would be quite overturned for 1. So it might come to pass that notwithstanding any decree with you yet possible it were that no one might be saved viz. if no one would embrace the means which was in their own power to resist 2 So might there be an election unto life and yet no one elected to life 3 Those onely should be the persons designed to salvation who were objectively and antecedently believers and embracers of the means before their election not considered as such who by vertue of their election should consequentively and effectively be made to be believers thereupon the effects of election to be taken for antecedent conditions necessarily prerequired in the object 4 So should the whole fabrick of divine predestination be dependent on the free will of man which is abhorrent to all religion 5 So there would not be such a considerable difference between Iacob and Esau those to be saved and those to be damned as to a meer performance of the condition under which men are to be saved and damned 6 Upon this account predestination and election of men is to be adjourned even to the moment of death it being suspended not onely on the embracing of the means but continuance therein I could burden you with many more absurdities and evil consequences flowing from your opinion but these are enough for you to beare That of yours which follows is a chip of the same block But if he do or shall at anytime say in plaine words that which he seemeth to intimate in his Arguments that we hold that our faith works or embracing of the means is a motive incentive or procuring ground or cause for which God elects or that there is any such thing held forth in this position that God elects men in Christ for these things then let him receive the words of Solomon for an answer in Prov. 10.18 he that hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth slander is a fool Answ Prov. 24.7 Sir I shall onely return upon you in Solomons language that wisdom is to high for a fool these absurdities and many more do unavoydably follow upon the position though your eies be so blinded that you cannot see it Prov. 26.3 and therefore a whip for a horse a bridle for the asse and a rod for the fools back that when he is told of it yet will not see his own error Answ For that which follows for we know and are sure that the Lord hath set apart or chosen to himself Psal 4.3 a godly man which godly
not put my self to the trouble to fight against your vain shadows and so exit your own Position Et valeat ut valere potest Your next advance is to the rescue of your second Position viz. Position 2. That God saw persons embracing the means of salvation and those he elected in Christ from the foundation of the world to everlasting life c. This is so far from soundness you say that it is flat Pelagianism an old heresie exploded out of the Church for many ages since by which you say that it must be concluded that the eternal decree of Gods unchangeable election must be dependent on the intervention of mans liberty of willing and working c. To which you frame this answer What it was that Pelagius the Monk held you may see in the Ecclesiastical Chronography of Eusebius Pamphilus pag. 595. also it makes no matter to me in these things it is possible he might hold a truth as well as Calvin But the Fathers of whom we have learned these things are those that have not erred in their doctrine which are those before mentioned to wit Jesus Christ himself the holy Prophets and Apostles but the Scripture when it speaketh of election makes it to be altogether independent on the creature so as that nothing acted or done by the creature is to be accounted of as a motive incentive meritorious or procuring ground or cause as this man doth endevour to cast upon me I freely grant to be a truth according to the Scriptures by him brought in Ephes 1.5 11. Answ Sir there was no need to have informed me but to evidence your reading where I might have an account of the abominable paradoxes of blasphemous Pelagius cried down by all antiquity as well as by all our modernâ— for his detracting from the free grace of God and exalting of the liberty of the will and placing it in Gods stead at least putting them cheek by jowl together For though by other several Chronographers the grosseness of his heresie be more copiously painted out yet in the tripartite History according to you cited there is to be found so much as to abominate even the name of the man by reason of his cursed opinion being there ranked out in the columne of Hereticks and therefore it seems a wonder to me that any one that is but a pretender to Religion should have so much impudence and be so Galliolized Act. 18.17 as not to care for these things But to put him into the scales with reverend Calvin Psal 112.6 whose good name shall be had in an everlasting remembrance and whose lustre will dazle all your new lights I know none besides your self would have had the face of brass to have done it For the latter part of this paraphrase in your confession of Gods independency on outward things and that he hath not from thence any motive or incentive c. for his election of any I heartily thank you especially if I could imagine that this did not proceed ex labiis dolosis but that it were done in reality and truth but when I find that this acknowledgement of yours doth so much interfere with your often dictates I shall onely judge of you as of that clown in the fable who blowes both hot and cold with one breath here you seem to ascribe all to the good pleasure of Gods will in the business of election but otherwhere as I shall hereafter manifest a mans free will according to you in working and believing must be joynt-parceners with God so that the vote shall be as was the Harlots which came before Solomon to determine of the dead child 1 King 4.26 nec mihi nec tibi sed dividatur let it be neither mine nor thine but divide it You go one with your discourse neither is there any thing in this Position tending to the exaltation of the creature to be any motive or incentive cause for which God elects as a meritorious or procuring ground or cause of it for to say God saw some men embracing the means of salvation or that the embracing the means of salvation is a meritorious or procuring ground or cause of our election any more then the words of the holy Spirit spoken by David Psal 4.3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself should be a meritorious cause of the godly mans being set apart or chosen to the Lord neither is there any more ground or cause to call the words of this Position flat Pelugianism or an old heresie then there is to call the words of David so Answ It was heretofore generally observed that when anyone came to consult the Delphian Oracle whether out of curiosity or necessity it matters not that the responses of the Flamens were so abstruse and equivocall that which way soever the success did fall yet they might have a starting hole to preserve the credit of their Oracle As for instance in one of their answers Ibis redibis nunquam per bella peribis the issue thereof being contrary to expectation they made another sense of the words onely by pointing of them thus Ibis peribis nunquam per bella peribis and truly howsoever all those Oracles ceased at the coming of Christ in the flesh yet methinks I see the same spirit of delusion now working in these children of darkness for look upon this man as to his Positions here so by others his complices the Arminians and Socinians when they find themselves pincht by any Argument that they can finde no subterf ge for evasion then they betake themselves to shifts of Amphibology and fall to denying of the proper sense and scope of their own tenets because perhaps not comprehended in express syllables and words of their Positions for this man with whom I have to deal though he wants not that face of brass to deny that there is nothing couched under the Position to exalt the creature as in whom there should be somewhat which God should look upon as a motive or procuring ground or cause for God to elect such so qualified Yet by the assistance of my God I shall clearly make it to appear in my defence of my first Argument that according to these men believing or faith and perseverance therein is such a condition prerequisite and so lookt upon by God in the Act of election as without which he elects not and for which he doth elect and so becomes a moving or procuring cause why he doth elect any one as is generally by them maintained For that Scripture alledged Psal 4.3 is nihil ad Rhombum being quite alien from the case depending we are now treating of the eternal and Immanent act of God in electing before all time and the place quoted is to be understood of Gods effectual vocation a transient act of God in time where he actually sets apart him i. e. him that is in existence and being him that is Godly i. e. such
the substance thereof is contained in your Positions and that you grant the force and virtue of a moving cause unto faith in respect of Gods electing it must thence be concluded that you assert some moving causes and That faith is lookt upon by you as a moving cause will appear by these ensuing Arguments 1. I know it will not be stood upon by you nor any of your gang that faith is a condition or qualification so lookt upon by God as that without which he doth not elect no as we affirm that to such persons so elected he decrees to give it but according to you that where he finds it which is the sense of their foresight there or those he will elect and if thus tell me in sober sadness what difference can you make between a qualification or condition wherein God placeth his purpose and decree and that which we call a moving cause 2. In election you make believers the adequate object thereof and faith is made the formal reason of this object now this is a known axiome to those versed in these controversies Ratio formalis adaequati objecti semper est specificans causa illius habitus potentiae vel actus cujus est objectum That the formal reason of the adequate object is alwaies a specifying cause of the habit power or act whereof it is the object So a thing that is good being apprehended by the intellect is the cause of willing because it hath the reason of its formal object So after the same manner when you set down faith in respect of election as the formal reason of the object and that as you teach God hath from without himself proper causes of willing you can give no just reason why we may not say that you make faith the cause of election 3. This moreover I believe you wil not deny that what place infidelity hath in the point of Reprobation the like should faith have in the point of election as being opposite species But according to you infidelity is not onely affirmed to be the cause of Reprobation but the contrary doctrine is cryed down by you as most abominable and therefore in election should faith be the cause thereof 4. If faith doth determine the will of God being otherwise indifferent to choose one rather then another then it is a cause of election But according to you faith hath this determining power for with you besides faith and the embracing of the means nothing antecedes the decree of election which is not common to the non-elect and nothing that is common doth determine and therefore it is necessary that the reason of the determination be placed in faith and embracing of the means so that notwithstanding all your fair flourishes of denyal of motives causes and inâ—entives I must needs conclude that you do at least implicitly assert faith foreseen in those that will believe is the motive cause and procuring ground of Gods electing any to salvation And thus I conceive my first Argument stands in its full strength notwithstanding the assaults of your dudgeon dagger drawn aginst it So that this may be enough to those who are wise to understand that which is good and for others I shall sit down quietly upon Solomons account Prov. 27.22 Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a morter with a pestle yet will not his foolishness depart from him But in the close of this you except against some of those portions of Scripture by me cited saying It is to be minded that the people spoken of in those Scriptures by him quoted out of Deut. 7.7 8. and 10.15 are said in the first verse of the seventh Chapter to be a holy people unto the Lord their God and those people which are said at that time to be a holy people and chosen to be a special people unto the Lord their God above all the people that were upon the face of the earth afterwards for their murmuring against God and tempting of him ten times and not hearkening to his voice were destroyed in the wilderness and their carcasses fell in the wilderness through their unbelief and doubtless saith God you shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein Numb 14.29 30. and thus they came to know his breach of promise vers 34. See also Heb. 3.16 17 18 19. Sir this excursion of yours I imagine is intended upon another account viz. to lay a stumbling-block in the Saints way that they may fall away from grace received for in so far as I made use of them to prove that there was no external motive in the object neither of holiness nor believing for which God did set his love upon them to elect them those places alledged will carry it clear enough And therefore to what you mind that they are called ver 6. a Holy people I hope you will distinguish of the holiness of a people There is first an external and federal holiness and this they had by circumcision outward profession and as being visible covenanters Secondly Internal and real holiness wrought onely by the finger of God in changing of their natures and making of them new creatures t is the first that is here meant and not the second And whereas you write that these people which are here called a holy people fell in the wilderness through unbelief Sir I must tell you that I do not take you to be so excellent at Chronography as to make it appear that they were these numerical people here spoken of See 1 Cor. 10.5 with many God not well pleased that so fell in the wilderness But admit they were it is said their carcasses fell in the wilderness i. e. they died in the wilderness but what followes hence did they all therefore fall into hell Absit God forbid that any one should make such a desperate conclusion But youl 'e say they fell through unbelief yet I must tell you that though they wanted that historical faith in not believing the relations of the searchers of the land of Canaan See 1 Cor. 10.4 they drank of that spiritual rock and that rock was Christ Numb 23.19 yet they might have a saving and justifying faith in believing Christ should be crucifyed for them notwithstanding what is here or can be alledged to the contrary But why you set these words and thus they came to know his breach of promise in words at length and not in figures I am unwilling to deliver my thoughts But do you think that God is a man that he should lye or as the son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good Isa 46.10 no his counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure But this is spoken by an Anthropopathy bringing in God to do after the manner of men for our weak capacities For the temporal promises of God are but conditions
and means appointed of God for that end and one would think that this man were a little of my mind in this by what falleth from him in the close of this second Argument using these words at least for the moving of God to elect Sir If here where you make mention of any Instrumental cause you intend onely the Instrumental means of salvation then I joyne with you for as I have before asserted That as God hath decreed the end so likewise hath he decreed the means conducing to that end But as there is no external cause at all and therefore none Instrumental for which he doth elect before all time but all arising from within himself even his own love and good pleasure so when that decree comes to be put into execution in time then there are subordinate causes but all set on work by the first cause which is God himself but not as to election but all as tending to salvation And therefore that fell very advisedly from me when I said at least for the moving of God to elect where I place a vast difference between election and salvation God elects without respect had to faith works or use of means as to the decree but yet he saves with by and through faith works and use of means as in respect of the end 2 Thes 2.13 1 Pet. 1.2 You pack up these your fardles of exceptions thus Now if he do not hold that it is some cause by which men come to be more peculiarly interessed into the favour of God by believing then they are without believing why did he not rather say it must not be accounted any cause at all upon any account whatsoever But it is that which the Lord Christ hath said in Ioh. 16.27 which perswadeth me to be of that mind in that he hath said the Father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God and therefore If I should say that loving of Jesus Christ and believing in him were no cause at all by which we came to be chosen into the Fathers love I should sin against Christ in speaking contrary to his word But this is more then was in the Position and yet it is no more then truth Answ Sir now I will give you an account why I used that expression at least for the moving of God to elect my meaning was not that any man came to be interested into the first favour and love of God which is the good pleasure of his will immanent and eternal in himself more by believing then without believing For in election God lookt upon men as sinners enemies ungodly in their blood in a doleful plight and the objects of pity and compassion and not as on believers And therefore my words carried this sense that though there were no cause or motive at all why he should elect one rather then another because all were in an equally lost condition yet in the decree of election wherein there was a love unto and a purpose to save some he likewise decreed to save them by such means which in his wisdome he had ordained to be suitable for the attaining of the end so that salvation should have adequate causes for the effecting of it viz. faith works and use of means though election it self had none but singly and simply the love of God arising onely out of his own bosome And therefore it excluded causes as to election but did admit of causes as to the accomplishment of salvation For the rest of this paragraph of yours it trips up the heeles of all the former your seeming fair concessions and plainly discovers the secret guile and fraud of your heart For now you begin to speak plain enough saying If I should say believing were no cause at all by which we come to be chosen into the Fathers love I should sin against Christ Here indeed is plain dealing though all along before you have juggled with me and denyed all causes as to election And this indeed though you are not aware of it moâ—lders to nothing all your former exceptions which have still denied all causes motives c. And now you grant loving and believing to be causes and confirms every argument that I have raised and fortifies every of those absurdities that I have charged upon you as following upon your position to any of which you make not the least appearance of an answer But I tell you as before God in electing lookt upon men as in the corrupt mass and lumpe of perdition regarding nothing what they could be as of themselves for they must unavoidably be in a lost condition till by his own act transient flowing from that of Immanent in himself he made them believers by giving of them faith and all of this for the greater advance of his own free grace which he did not do to others For that place of Ioh. 16.27 brought to confirm their purpose I answer that the love of God hath a two-fold acception The first is amor benevolentiae which is the foundation and fountain of all the good his people have and receive t is the wombe that conceives and sends forth all the good things we do enjoy of which Ier. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love and so 1 Ioh. 4.10 we love him because he loved us first and of this no cause or reason can be rendred besides the good pleasure of his will The second is amor complacentiae when in time the Lord is delighted with the persons of those that he loved from eternity Ezek. 16.14 thy beauty was perfect through the comeliness I put upon thee Cant. 3.1 Behold thou art fair c. and thus the Lord crowns rewards and delights himself in those graces given to his elect ones and of this love of complacency is this text to be understood and not of the everlasting love spoken of Ier. 31.3 in electing of us before all time and whereof onely this controversie is And now gather up altogether and make up your accounts and see to what an excrescency of advantage your numerous exceptions against my arguments will amount unto and you shall find that the Summa totalis will be just o Hitherto have we fayled in that still river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God Psal 46.4 Psal 87.7 Rom. 11.33 and from whence all our springs flow viz. Gods electing of us to life eternal But now we are to lanch into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that unfathomable gulfe of the wisdom and knowledge of God whose judgements are unsearchable and his waies past finding out viz. that of non-election or Reprobation Concerning which this Gentlemans Position did assert this viz. That God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief yet haply not without the exact form of godliness but denying the power those he reprobated to everlasting destruction from the foundation of the world But In
torments from both of which it follows that sin and unbelief is the cause of the adjudication to hell and eternal torments and that by the decree of God but is by no means the cause of the decree it self that singly proceeds from his good pleasure And as it is an undoubted truth that God as he never saves any adult person but such as are penitent and studious of good works so he hath not decreed to save any but such so qualified with repentance and good works whence we argue that repentance and good works are truly the causes of salvation 2 Thess 2.13 and that by the decree of God who hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth but it doth not thence follow that repentance and good works are causes of the decree for upon that account election should be dependent not onely upon faith foreseen as you would have it but likewise upon good works as antecedent to it which hitherto for ought I see you have not that impudence to affirme The like must be said of reprobation That as he never damns or decrees to torment and adult person but such as are impenitent unbelievers and rejecters of the means so he hath not decreed to damn any but such so qualified and whence the like Argument may likewise be taken up that impenitent unbelief and rejecting of the means are truly the causes of damnation Heb. 11.6 Heb. 12.14 and that by the decree of God who hath declared that without faith it is impossible to please him and that without holiness no man shall see the Lord But it doth not thence follow that impenitence unbelief and the rejecting of the means are the causes of the decree reprobates were not sinners at least in existence when the decree of non election or reprobation first pâ—â— upon them which was from all eternity as the elect were not penitents at the first instant of their election in the mean time God hath not decreed to adjudge any but sinners and unbelievers unto eternal torments as he hath not decreed to reward any with eternal life but penitents For what God doth or permitteth to be done in time the same and no otherwise hath God decreed to be done or permitted to be done before all time so that the prevision of sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means did no more antecede negative reprobation then the prevision of repentance and good works did antecede the decree of election So that I hope reasonable men will or may now judge that I have reconciled the enmity that your dim deluded sight had imagined and broken down that partition-wall which your Panick fears raised between these two positions and by the good hand of God have so reconciled your supposed difference between them that they go neer like Hippocrates twinnes hard â—n hand together though that the one ordine naturae not temporis have a priority before the other to which the last is subservient So that now I am at liberty to attend to what you will say to my first Argument which is this That which the holy Ghost in Scripture ascribes to the sole will and good pleasure of God that we are not to assigne to other causes But the Scripture assignes reprobation soley to Gods will Therefore To which you answer His Major proposition he bringeth nothing at all to prove for proof of his Minor he alledgeth these Texts Rom. 9.18 20 21 22. Mat. 11.25 Matth. 20.15 16. Rom. 9.11 12 13 17. Answ to which I answer The Scriptures which he quoteth and all that he can find in all the book of God cannot prove his argument for it is false in the Minor proposition therfore the Scripture cannot prove it for 1 Ioh. 2.21 no lye is of the truth although the Scripture doth speake of the will of God as a cause concerned in mans reprobation in having his eyes blinded and his heart hardned and the like yet the Scripture doth not assign it solely and singly to the will of God without assigning it to any other cause but on the contrary it doth assign the continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means of salvation as a cause thereof Answ I pray learned Sir what need I prove the Major that is unquestionable even to you i. e. would you have me beat the ayre and fight against mine own shadow No Sir t is the Minor that sticks in your sides so that you cannot breath out any one thing in a probable way of contradiction to any one of those texts by me alledged Yet with a face as full of impudence as ignorance you adventure to say but do not to which I answer c. This passage of this Doctor-like undertaker calls to my mind a Doctor of Oxford whom I well did know and to this day he is well remembred for it by some who in an University sermon of his falling upon a point of controversie wherein he found Bellarmine his adversary uttered words to this effect I will saith he confute him in two words mentiris Bellarmine and marke I pray whether this Gentleman tread not in the same steps he begs the question by saying it is false therfore the Scripture cannot prove it And what doth he do less than give the lye to the Spirit of truth when by his own confession the Scripture ascribes reprobation to the will of God which though afterwards he palliates by saying that it doth not assigne it solely to the will of God but that sin unbelief are concomitant causes yet he might have shewed some ingenuity in alledging of such places of Scripture which had done as he did say that so there might have been some appearance of an answer and not that Pythagoras-like his ipse dixit should be taken for currant coyne when as I am certaine it is but counterfeit but to give the lye and that to his betters as I am informed is as ordinary a dish with him as his dayly bread Well Sir but to attend your procedure which is thus But whereas he saith that sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but not the causes of Reprobation I do understand that the decree of God which was before time resteth for the ground thereof more peculiarly in the will of God without assigning other causes to it than reprobation it self which is the execution of the same purpose and decree of God in time â—â—en and where the continuance in sin and unbeleif and the rejecting of the means of salvation is found in men Answ Here like a Sorbon Doctor speaking ex cathedra you tender your simple sense of the decrees of God wherein your mistake is supposing that we confound the decrees of God with the execution of those decrees which is not ours which hath been your errour all along For this reprobation which I
upright but he hath sought out many inventions Eccles 7.29 Answ Grave Seignior to what you say that I deduce from the Scripture that God doth elect men in Jesus Christ to eternal life without any respect had to faith or the use of means I pray point out the place where either I or any man else have vented such stuffe if you cannot blame me not to charge you for bearing of false witness against your neighbour yet this both my self and others constantly do affirm that in the decree of election God hath no respect at all to faith or use of means as a motive incentive or cause why he should elect one rather then another but yet in that decree those whom he sets his love upon to appoint them to salvation those he doth decree that they shall be saved by faith in his Son and by exercising of such means as he hath or will appoint in his word To what you do insert by way of concession although they do exclude the works of the law wholly in that thing Sir this is your mistake as I have told you of it before For I would have you to learn this from me if your pride be not too great that where works of the law are excluded and faith required that is onely meant in the business of Justification and not to be meant about the matter of election for in the cause of election both faith and use of means are as much excluded from having any casting voice at all as well as the works of the law yet this to be understood excluded as antecedently to election but not as consequently excluded as from being a means cause or motive of the decree but yet excluded as from being of a consequent means for the execution of the decree for as so works are as necessary to salvation as faith it self for Heb. 12.14 without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Nor is there any more truth in that which follows that we should collect from that portion of Scripture that the Reprobation of persons to everlasting destruction proceeds solely and singly from the will of God but this is that we do affirm that God did not elect some but past by them and left them in their lost condition and this was simply and singly from the same will whereby he elected the rest and that for the sin whereinto they had irrecoverably cast themselves which would unavoydably fetter them and make them obnoxious to all other sort of sins for those same sins I say at the last to condeme them and who can in this expostulate against the justice of God For Ismael Esau Pharaoh whom the Spirit of God makes instances of non-election or reprobation they were by the decree of God which is his will or good pleasure left in or past by in that corrupt mass of perdition out of which the Lord determined not to deliver them nor to supply them with grace sufficient for their salvation and this was from all eternity before they were in existence concerning which our dispute is which as yet you do not meddle withal but onely about reprobation in time concerning which I have no cause to contend but shall readily acknowledge that when these men came to be in being they in their several generations were led away by their own lusts which as they did flow from that principle of their non-election so one sin in Gods justice might be the cause of another sin You make your progress thus But it is found in Scripture that Gods way in making vessels of dishonour is in respect of what he doth by men in time when they come to have a being and so it appeareth from that similitude of the potter Ier. 18.3 4. Then went I down to the potters house and behold he wrought a work on the wheels and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it and we do find that God doth not apply the parable or similitude to any work that he did in the first creation or before man had a being but he doth apply it to his dealing with men in time when they have a being for saith the Lord by the Prophet ver 5 6. O house of Israel note the house of Israel was a people then in being and yet were not at that time made vessels of dishonour or given over of God to their own destruction but God pleadeth from that similitude that he had power and also wo ld do it if they did walk stubbornly against him which accordingly came to pass for saith the Lord by the Prophet ver 11. Behold I frame evil against you and devise a device against you return ye now every one from his evil way and make your wayes and your doings good and they say there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices c. ver 12. and more for the clearing of this you may find if you read chap. 19. and especially mind the 15. ver the words are these Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel Behold I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it because they hardened their necks that they might not hear my words Answ My friend why this of the Apostle Rom. 9. must necessarily be relative to any other place but immediately from that inspiration of the Holy Ghost I am assured you can bring no cogent reason for it T is true the margin of the Bible gives a hint of some such parallel places of the like import but it doth nor thence follow that the interpretation of the one must be concluded to be the sense of the other But if any man in this list to be contentions to make it relative then surely it must rather be to that in Isa 45.9 as I could evidently make it to appear if it were necessary and then all what this Gentleman hath said to that of Ier. 18.3 4. must needs fall to the ground where I have nothing to say either to him or it the strength of my Argument being nothing at all concerned in it What is in this paragraph spoken as to vessels of dishonour I shal by and by meet with that in the Analysing of this 9. to the Rom. and in the mean time proceed to attend to what you farther say And this is that which is pleaded for in Rom. 9. that God hath power and also it is his will to harden the hearts and blind the eyes or darken the understandings of those that will not obey the truth in their day of grace when light is held forth unto them as it came to pass upon the Jews as the just and righteous judgement of God upon them Luk. 19.44 Because they knew not the time of their visitation Rom. 9.32 Because they sought it not by saith and Rom. 11.20 Because of
9.21 22 23. Ioh. 15.19 Ephes 2.1 23. Children of wrath as well as others Rom. 3.10 and ver 20. None righteous no not one 4. Then Paul was mistaken Rom. 9.11 in not assigning sin to be the cause of Reprobation 5. The same Apostle then answered very unsoundly to those objections Rom. 9.13 19. The first is If God Reprobated Esau because he hated him he was unjust The second ver 9. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will for he might in one word have answered to both objections and said that sin was the cause of reprobating both Esau and Pharaoh but he saith the contrary ver 11. When they had done neither good no evil Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated 6. Thereby we confine Gods infinite soveraignty over the creatures to the narrow scantling of our subordinate power as though he might not do with his own what he list without our controll and not make a vessel either to honour or dishonour unless he were accountable to us for a reason of his so doing Answ 1. I cannot but take notice of his evil dealing in the making of his Arguments that he should make no less then ten Arguments against two Positions and not one in all the ten that answers to either of them now as I have said before I must be constrained to say yet once more that the Position doth not say that foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejection of the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation but the Position saith God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation to wit free tenders of Christ in the Gospel continuing in sin and unbelief c. which word continuing is forgotten and not mentioned in all the Arguments but I must not abate him that expression Continuing lest I should be guilty of letting the truth suffer through my negligence for if he had put in that expression into his Argument and framed his Argument accordingly to have answered the Position as it lyeth there could not one absurdity have followed but yet I shall examine your absurdities particularly to see whether they follow from the Position or any thing that we hold or whether they will all prove to be absurdities yea or no. Answ There are a sort of beggers that give them what you will to yield to their craving natures yet they are never satisfied Some of our children are of such pettish and peevish dispositions that answer what you will to their wanton fancies yet they are never contented Sir take it not amiss that I must rate you with one of these two though I have given you ten to two the least of which might have been satisfactory to a rational man yet nothing will convince you but that you are stil grumbling that my answers and Arguments hit not your positions because I bring not every several word of your Positions into my Arguments severally therefore you say they are not framed against what you do hold Sir before this I did not conceive that the rules of arguing limited men to such punctilioes of words but if that any thing might be necessarily deduced from the Positions besides the bare letters and words of the Position it might have been a warrantable way of argumentation let the word continuing be put into any or every of the Arguments and you will get nothing by it nor will it abate any of those absurdities I have already marked out to flow from your doctrine If the subtilty of any of your party have drawn out and stated your Positions so as to lye at the catch for a starting-hole when you feel your selves pincht by an Argument it will prove but a jadish trick to shift your necks out of the collar by saying such expressions are not in the position or this contains not all that is in the position Howsoever it is these your concessions and owned by you as they are stated by me will convince you that though your position be God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation c. and those he reprobates c. yet your reserved meaning is that the foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejection of the means of salvation be the cause of Reprobation and indeed what can be less collected thence God saw some men rejecting of the means of salvation those he reprobates and why did he reprobate those that did reject the means rather then those that did embrace the means of salvation but onely for this because they did reject the means so that the rejecting of the means according to you must be the cause of their Reprobation and hence it is that p. 33. of your Pamphlet you set down these words in a great and distinct character because they receive not the love of the truth and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions But I will quarrel no more about words but see how you will shake off those absurdities laid at the door of your position But hereby the way let it be taken notice of that you have not swept the door of your former position clean from those absurdities which cleave fast unto it but you have skipt them all over because in deed they were too hot for your fingers onely you make an adventure to have a fling at the sixth absurdity flowing from that former position by comparing it with the first that flowes from this concerning which thus you write Absurdities answered And I shall compare the first absurdity as he calleth it with that sixth or last absurdity which he putteth to his sixth Argument in answer to the second position viz. God saw some men embracing the means of salvation those he elected in Christ c. and there he giveth out as if such an absurdity must needs follow that no children dying in infancy could be saved saying what then would become of children dying in infancy before they had the use of faith or works or any embracing of the means which never had being to act and to this he saith that such an absurdity as this must needs follow that no child dying in infancy can possibly be reprobated Now whether two such different things can follow these two positions I shall leave to the judgement of others that have understanding Answ Sir if any Lyncean eyes can spy out the least inconsistency or contradiction between those two absurdities laid to your charge to say they clash one against another according to your principles ce do quemvis arbitrum I appeal to any that hath understanding to judge And yet you have not so much confidence as to make out this your supposed enterfering you onely speak to the absurdities apart thus To the first of these he seemeth to make their election to eternal life very doubtful if at all possible and the ground or reason is because that children dying in infancy have not the use of faith or works Answ T is true Sir I do so according to
universal assurance of their happiness in case there were and that all this that you have said were truth I suppose there were much more cause for believers to beg of God their infants death then with David in prayer to seek their life there being as you say full assurance of their happiness dying and so much fear of their condemnation living to see the temptations to which in their growth they are subject Nay if no child dying in infancy shall ever be cast into the lake of fire what should then deny but that it should be enrolled in the Chronicles as the mercifullest act that Herod ever did in all his life Mat. 2.16 when he commanded that all the male children in Bethlehem from two years old and under should be murthered for had they live to ripe years probably they would have filled up the measure of their fathers Mat. 23.32 and contributed as much and had their hands dipt as deep in the blood of Christ as any other of their brethren and therefore Herod to be as a blessed memorable butcherous murtherer that sent so many poor souls as Martyrs to heaven by the sleight of hand who had been like never to come thither had it not been for his merciful cruelty Yea you your self might be registred as the most indulgent father who for the saving of the souls of your children would expose your own to loss by cutting of your childrens throats as soon as they were born and so posting of them to heaven before their due time whereas perhaps if they had lived so long as with their mothers milk to have suckt in the venome of your principles and positions they might have endangered both body and soul from ever coming thither But what horrible things are these to think of I am amazed to write it and yet consectaries that without any inforcement might very well flow from your positions viz. that no child dying in infancy before they come to have a being to act shall ever be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death Whereas we do affirm that children as well as others being the objective subjects of Predestination and so considered as in the corrupt lump and mass of perdition with the rest of all the posterity and brood of old Adam according to the eternal and immutable decree proceeding from the sole good pleasure of Gods most holy will 1 Sam. 25.29 the souls of some of them are bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord their God and the souls of the rest being past over or not elected they shall be flung out as out of the middle of a sling But yet for confirmation of what you here assert you do endeavour cum ratione insanire to have some reason for this your wild assertion and next you basely prostitute the pure and undefiled word of God to fortifie your first I shall undertake them both in their order and by Gods assistance shall first prescribe you a pill to purge this your melancholy frenzy and next shall rescue those Scriptures by you alledged out of your hands giving them to speak in that peculiar sense they were at first intended by the holy Ghost And first my learned Antagonist had you placed the ground of your hope distributively viz. upon the children of believers you might have had some foundation for it because the promise of the Covenant doth no less appertain to Infants then to those of ripe years Gen. 17.7 I will be a God to thee and to thy seed The promise is to you and to your children Acts 2.39 Acts 2.39 But whereas you take it collectively and universally including therein the children of Turks Jews Pagans Infidels you have neither rule nor word nor promise for any such hope that they shall be saved And now the first reason that you produce for your Infantissimous assertion that no child in infancy shall ever be cast into the lake of fire is Because they not having the use of those faculties as hearing together with the use of reason to understand what is spoken and being not capable of any embracing of the means and which never had a being to act therefore they cannot reject the means of salvation Sir for this time admit it so that children cannot hear nor have not the use of reason Sir neither can those that are born deaf nor Ideots nor madmen in what state or rank will you then place them And for the rejecting of the means of salvation neither can they that never enjoyed the means reject it and in what squadron will you place them And therefore this assertion of yours is grounded on a false supposition that God cannot or at least he will not or doth not regenerate without the word heard understood and embraced but good Sir I must tell you that what expressions are used in Scripture as necessarily requiring the hearing of the word and receiving of the means it speaks of to such as are in a capacity so to hear it and receive it viz. those of ripe years and rationalists and where the Scripture is silent viz. as to children deaf or fools do not you undertake to determine without Gods advice and counsel but leave all the work as I do to Gods secret decree of predestination wherein he may do with his own what his good will and pleasure is either to save or to damn without the control of any And though we in a charitable way may hope the best of all those children that are born within the compass of the Covenant viz. of believing parents yet how God is pleased to bring his purpose to pass in the saving of any one of them is to me and sober-minded men as inscrutable as is the fashioning of their tender bodies in their mothers wombs and it is enough to me that we may hope well of them because God by his promise hath ingaged himself wherein he cannot lye 2 Tim. 2. Tit. 1.2 nor deny himself to be a God in covenant not with us onely but with our children likewise and were it not upon the account of the decree of election which is the foundation of all the promise wherein God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens and that not for any thing of good either done or foreseen but meerly out of his own good pleasure we should have just cause to doubt that all children dying in infancy should unavoidably be damned Besides my good friend have you yet learnt or do you understand what it is that doth regenerate If you ascribe this work to the word heard as it seems you do you are mainly mistaken 2 Cor. 3.6 The word of it self is but a dead Letter at best it is but a moral instrument and therefore it can never operate unless it be understood which can never he by one that is as yet unregenerate 1 Cor. 2.14 for the natural man receiveth not the
a can or a will I mean power or desire that there is neither of them in professed Christians Phil. 2.13 but what is of Gods own working who giveth both to will and to do according to his good pleasure And as for the heathen instead of doing or any desires thereunto as to good there is nothing but backwardness indisposition aversness yea an enmity against any thing that is really good at least in a saving way But alas what persons or cause is there in the world that are so base and degenerate that cannot suborne some luxuriant tongues to plead their case though never so abominable I have now done with this and so proceed to hear what you can speak for your selfe in the defence of the position from the third absurdity which is this The third absurdity If the foresight of sin should be the cause of reprobation then the elect should be equally lyable to the decree of reprobation as the reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams transgression Answ See how he minceth his argument that he may bring forth absurdities from his own expressions and then father them upon us In the front of his argument he putteth in unbelief and the rejecting of the means but leaveth out the word continuing and now he hath thrust out all except it be this one single term Sin that he may bring reprobation to eternal destruction to the narrow scantling of Adams transgression but that shall never be granted by me until I see a better proof for it than he hath yet brought and I can allow him more Scriptures then he hath set down to his argument Iob 14.4 and 15.14 Psal 51.5 all which together with the Scriptures he bringeth do I confess prove that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with Sin and I deny not but that this pollution or corruption is in a measure from Adams transgression but that any ones being reprobated to everlasting destruction in the lake of fire which is the second death is for Adams transgression I deny for although all the fruits and effects of that sin in the first Adam do accompany us untill we come to the dust from whence we were taken which is Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Womens sorrow being multiplyed and their conception and bringing forth children in sorrow together with the curse that is upon the ground for mans sake so as that man must eat of it in sorrow all the dayes of his life eating bread in the sweat of his face being accompanied with pain and sickness which are the companions of death till he return to the ground for out of it was he taken for saith God dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return and this was the sentence of that condemnation that God hath pronounced against the first Adam or 1 Cor. 15.27 earthy man and we being then in him when the sin was committed and the sentence pronounced we have our part with him in these things as our portion in this life for the original sin or first transgression But the holy Spirit in Scripture doth no where declare as I could ever yet find nor as any one could ever yet shew me that mans reprobation to the second death is for being in Adams sin nor for sin in their own persons no nor yet for unbelief simply so considered but for continuing in sin and unbelief For if they do repent confess and forsake their sins they shall find mercy and be saved as hath been already proved and if the elect should continue in sin and unbelief and not repent and believe or imbrace the means of Salvation they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation as the reprobates themselves and there would be no difference but they in repenting believing and embracing the means of salvation fall under the unchangeable decree of Gods election so as they cannot miss of salvation as hath been already shewed Answ Truly Sir before this I did not rightly apprehend where the shooe did wring but now I find that it is Original sin that pinches you so sore that you cannot well endure the name of it which had I foreseen I would not have minced any thing in the Argument no not so much as the continuing in sin for howsoever it is that we affirm that Original sin is an hereditary disease which every soul brings with it into the world yet it leaves not a man suddenly no not when he is regenerate but continues to the end of a mans dayes It is the very last enemy of ours that death destroyes so that in respect of this Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus Now what you have to say against our doctrine of Original sin I find not much in this your discourse for this you grant First that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with sin and which pollution as you say flows from Adams transgression And secondly that all the fruits and effects of that sin do accompany us till death there is onely then your bare denial that eternal death is not the reward or wages of this sinful pollution the contrary whereof is incumbent on me to prove to make my charge good against you with that third absurdity Now to prove that the first sin of Adam was ours not because he is our father by nature though that be a ground of the imputation also but because he is such a father by Covenant and law the law and Covenant of works being laid in pawn in his hand we are to understand that there be three parts in Original sinne 1. First a partaking of the first sin of Adam we all sinned in him Rom. 5.12 14 15. 2. Secondly the want of the Image of God Rom. 3.23 called the glory of God or original righteousness 3. Thirdly Concupiscence or a bentness or proneness of nature unto sin Rom. 7.7 14 17 23 24. As to the first Adams sin is ours really and truly not so much because it is ours as because it is imputed to be ours by God who so contrived the law of works as that it should be made with Adam not as a single father or person but with Adam as a publique person representing all mankind and having our common nature as a father both by nature and law which came from the meer free-will of God He was as the root and stock of all mankind Rom. 5.19 By one mans disobedience many were made sinners i. e. morally and legally but not physically and personally the fruit and effect of which is death and damnation for Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death not onely temporal or natural death but as the Apostles Antithesis necessarily carries it spiritual and eternal death in opposition to eternal life acquired by Jesus Christ the second Adam Yea and the whole series and purport of the Apostles discourse Rom. 5.12 to ver 19. carries this clear that every mouth may be stopped