every man in the world In this likewise the novice leads me in a mist for if his meaning be that the death of Christ and the shedding of his bloud is sufficient for every man in the world but effectuall onely to those to whom it is intended then I joyn with him but if he be otherwise minded then the close of that Position trips up the heels of the former part But I could have heartily wisht that this Seraphical Doctor had not so magisterially dogmatized and after an Apostolical manner sat in his Cathedral Chair by delivering his dictates like an ipse dixit I say unto you but rathet that he had endeavoured to have proved out of the sacred Scriptures what he hath so crudely ventilated so might we better have tryed the spirits whether they be of God or no 1 Ioh. 4.1 Truly I do profess by what I find in these positions I cannot discern of what sect he is for by what he writes he is neither pure Pelagian Papist Arminian Socinian nor Anabaptist but a hotch-porch of them all jumbled together And that as it is written of Mahomet at the first he framed his Alchoran by the advice of Sergius the Monk a renagado partly of the Jews partly of the Christians and partly of the Gentiles opinions so hath this Evangelist composed his doctrinals So that in this we may see what fruits may be expected at Cockolds-pit and all such places of such illiterate and confused assemblies ex ungue leonâ—m ex pede Herculem If the blind lead the blind both must fall together into the ditch Matth. 15.14 But so it was in the Apostles time there arose such amongst them who desiring to be teachers 1 Tim. 1.7 understood not what they said themselves nor wherof they affirmed yea this was foreprophesied 2 Pet 2.1 that false teachers should arise up amongst them who should bring in damnable heresies but never so fully accomplisht as in these our dayes wherein many unheard of formerly and blasphemous opinions are daily ventituted under some specious appearances of truth and holiness The God of love and truth lead us into all truth So prayeth he that is the less then the least of all Saints James Rawson Short heads of the subsequent discourse THe title of the Pamphlet examined Page 1 2 The Preface examined 4 Toleration rightly stated 5 Magistrates power to interpose in matters of Religion 6 Bishops vindicated 7 Matth. 23.29 30. interpreted 8 Whether the doctrine of the Anabaptists be tolerable 9 Who are inconstant in their profession 11 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Examined 12 Eph. 6.11 12. Examined 13 Universal redemption offered to consideration 14 Isa 53.4 5 6. Interpreted 15 16 Psal 145.8 9. Cleared 17 Joh. 3.16 17. Opened 18 Rom. 5.18 19 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Interpreted 20 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Discussed 21 Tit. 2.11 Examined 22 Heb. 2.9 and 1 Pet. 3.9 Opened 23 Baptisme of Infants confirmed 24 c. Whether the Anabaptists be fixt to their principles page 27 Or at unity among themselves 28 Thom. Tazwells first position questioned 29 Whether the second position be not Pelagianisme 30 Ambiguity in the stating of the position 31 Psal 4.3 Explained 31 Who they be that are elected 32 Psal 37.9 c. Opened 34 Pro. 3.33 and Mar. 16.16 Discussed 34 Of the decrees of God 35 Of Gods foreknowledge and predestination 36 Of election 38 Of reprobation 39 My first Argument confirmed 40 Gods foreknowledge Independent 41 The pamphleter plowes with another mans heyfer page 42. As God decrees the end so likewise he decrees the means 43 Election to be distinguished from justification 44 Arminians make faith a foreseen cause of election page 45 c. Deut. 7.7 8. Expounded 48 Faith no foreseen cause of election 50 What place faith hath in justification 52 Rom. 9.1 c. ad ver 19. Analysed and interpreted page 53 c. The laws impotency to satisfie 57 What efficacy faith hath in justification 58 How God a respecter of persons to be understood 59 Absolute justification flows from Absolute election 60 Faith as much as works excluded from election 61 Gods alone will the cause of cause of election 62 Grace flows from the decree of election 63 Acts 13.48 Vindicated 64 c. Absurdities following foreseen faith in election 68 Other absurdities following that doctrine 69 What God did foresee in election 71 Marks of election no causes of election 72 Instrumental causes of salvation no causes of election 73 As God decreed the end so he decreed the means 74 Joh. 16.27 Explained 75 Of reprobation 76 Eph. 1.5 Discussed 77 Of the decree of election 78 Isa 45.9 Opened 79 No contradiction in what I do assert 80 What place Gods foresight in election and reprobation 81 God as he decrees the end so he decrees the means 82 The pamphleter begs the question 83 A twofold reprobation one before all time another in time 84 The pamphleter interferes with his own positions 85 Could Reprobates truly believe they might be saved 86 Reprobation includes both a denyal of the end and means of salvation 86 God the immediate worker of all spiritual graces 87 Sin foreseen not the cause of Reprobation 89 Sin the efflux not the effect of reprobation 90 Sin the consequent of reprobation 91 Our doctrine intrenches not on the divine attributes 92 Reprobation inforceth not to sin 93 A threefold necessity 94 Reprobation as by us stated not against the mercy of God 95 Nor against the truth of God 96 Ezek. 18.23 32. and 33.11 Explained 97 Absolute reprobation and exhortation to repentance argue no Hypocrisie in God 99 Absolute non election not against the wisdome of God 100 Isa 5.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Interpreted 101 God may expect the performance of our duty though we cannot do it 103 Matth. 11.25 26. Vindicated 104 What God doth in time he decreed to do before all time 105 What power we have to do good we have from God the redeemer 106 Those whom God decrees to save he decrees to save them by faith 108 Sin the cause of positive reprobation viz. of damnation 109 1 Pet. 2.8 Vindicated 111 c. Rom. 9.19 c. Analysed and interpreted 116 c. Thom. Tazwells uses upon the doctrine of reprobation 124 What use the Saints may make thereof 125 Though there be no external yet there is an internal cause of reprobation viz. the will of God 128 Arminian positions very aequivocal 129 Rom. 11.33 44. Vindicated 139 Mille narianism not inconsistent with the Articles of faith 132 Absurdities cleaving to Tho. Tazwells positions 132 Whether sin foreseen be the cause of reprobation 133 c. Whether Infants may have faith though not the use of faith 135 c. Whether any Infant can be damned 137 Infants elected or reprobated as well as others 138 c. Hope onely of such Infants as are within the covenant 140 The Spirit of God and not the word that doth regenerate 141 Rom. 4.15 and 5.13 Opened
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
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
to tender unto fallen mankind by his son Jesus Christ and did not look at any thing that was in the creature or should be acted by the creature as any motive by which he was drawn thereunto but the moving cause was the fountain of everlasting love that was in himself towards his poor perishing creature freely to enter into an engagement by purpose and decree and from that purpose and decree to make forth promises in the Scripture that are 1 Cor. 1.20 yea and Amen in Christ Jesus to the glory of God by us that all sort or kind of people that do embrace the means of salvation to wit the free tenders of grace in the Gospel and continue in the faith and way of Jesus with a single heart and humble mind to the end of their lives Matt. 24.13 shall undoubtedly be saved and God can as soon cease to be as that he should fail in making good these promises to that sort or kind of people aforesaid because they flow from his purpose and decree which is unchangeable like unto himself as I shall by the assistance of God hereafter make appear in the following discourse Answ Here I will intreat the intelligent Reader considerately to take notice how this merchant of rags endeavours to juggle with me and by acting the Gypsies part to play fast and loose with my first Argument for howsoever it is by me affirmed that Gods election is absolute in it self irrespectrive and irrelative as to the end viz. salvation to which there was no motive or incentive whether of faith foreseen or embracing of the means or continuing therein or any thing else yet withal as before hinted I do maintain that the same God that determined of the end did likewise decree unto such persons so elected fit and suitable means conducing to that end viz. that he would send his Son to become a propitiation for them that he would effectually call them by his Gospel that he would give them faith to answer that call by believing that he would justifie their persons and sanctifie their natures and keep them by his power through faith unto salvation And whereas he writes although mans believing and obeying the Gospel be not a motive incentive or procuring ground or cause for which God elects c. who would not think here but that this man meant plainely and honestly but tuta frequensque via est sub amici fallere nomen for mark what followes but it hath been the good will and pleasue of God to engage himself by purpose and decree to elect justifie and save all those men and women that did or should in time embrace the means of salvation Answ Here is his warping for see how he fumbles together the decree it self of salvation with the means for the execution of that decree no waies distinguishing but confounding election with justification and embracing of the means It is very true and it is a Gospel-declaration that God will save all those that he doth justifie and who do embrace the means in sincerity and truth Rom. 8.29 Eph. 6.24 But if he prove out of any part of the Bible from Genesis to the Revelation that God will elect all those that do or shall embrace the means of salvation I will give him the cause and cry peccavi and it is to be marked that we are about the point of election and not of justification and therefore all such proofs that speak onely of justification and not specifically of election are alien to the point For all the rest of his words if the grant may gratify him I will freely give him viz. that all sorts of people that do embrace the means to wit the free tenders of grace in the Gospel shall undoubtedly be saved But what 's this to the Argument of Election You further add But if by these words Then it is not upon Gods foresight of mens embracing the means but onely that the embracing of the means is not a motive or moving cause for which God elects then his Argument is true in every part of it but I have some cause to except against the sequel of his major proposition viz. then it is not upon Gods foresight of mens embracing the means not so much in respect of any untruth I find in it if his meaning be as aforesaid but the exception that I make against it is in respect of the terms of it because it varieth from the position not answering the expressions of it for the position doth not say that God elected men upon the foresight of their embracing the means but the substance that is in it is that God saw some men embracing the means those he elected and therefore if it had answered to it it should have spoken thus Then God hath not elected those men which he saw embracing the means of salvation and then it had been so palpably false that it must needs have been denied without any further trouble but as it is it may be a truth and yet proves nothing in the position to be false Sir what need all these frothy words to wast time and to spoile clean paper you know my sense is that the embracing of the means is not a motive or moving cause for which God doth elect and howsoever it is that you are ashamed to outface so much clear light of the Scripture which confirms this truth but that your pretence is that you except against my Argument in respect of the terms of it because as you say it varieth from the Position not answering the expressions of it The substance whereof is this that God saw some men embracing the means those he elected Therefore now I must deal plainly roundly with you and shall unkennel you our of yout fox-holes You know the Water-men on the Thames when they cry Westward Hoe they have their faces Eastward So whiles you here pretend against motives incentives or procuring causes of election yet in very deed and truth you are most mainly for them as I shall God assisting me make plainly to appear Sir possible it is that you may not dive into the bottom of this mystery of Iniquity nor foresee at such a distance as you are into the depth of this design and therefore may with the more confidence protest against and utterly disclaim all motives incentives or procuring grouds or causes why God elects any but ascribe all to the good pleasure of his will as in words you seem to assert But if we cast a reflexe eye upon this Heresie I mean for eternal causes of election as it was at first hatched by Pelagius though shortly after it was crushed by a Councel and next again revived in part by the Semipelagian Papists and at last refined and put into a new garbe by those Interpolators your correspondents the Arminians it will be very visible to all considerate men that howsoever in words you deny any moving cause in respect of election yet so long as
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