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
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
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
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
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
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
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
but the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy and righteous Will who will do with his creature what he will do neither can any expostulate why hast thou done thus Esa 45.9 It is true that sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but yet not the causes of their reprobation that is solely and singly in the good pleasure of his Will Ephes 1.5 which I prove by these Arguments 1. Arg. That which the holy Ghost in the Scripture ascribes unto the sole will and good pleasure of God that we are not to assign other causes to But the Scripture assigns reprobation solely to Gods will Therefore For proof of the minor proposition see these texts Rom. 7.18 whom he will he hardeneth ver 20 21. Nay but O man who art thou that replyest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour ver 22. What if God willing to shew his wrath and make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted or made up for destruction Matth. 11.26 Even so O Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Matth. 10.15 Is it not lawful to do what I will with mine own ver 16. Many called few chosen Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil Rom. 9.11 12 13. for the children being not yet born ver 17. for this same purpose have I raised thee 2. Arg. That which is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation cannot be the cause of it But sin unbelief and rejecting the means is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation Therefore The major is as clear as the sun The minor proposition is proved from these texts Math. 11.25 26. I thank thee father c. for so it seemed good in thy sight He hid those things not outwardly but inwardly Ioh. 6.36 37. Christ to the Capernaites I said unto you that ye also have seen me believed not all that the father giveth me shall come to me signifying that they are not given to him of the father and therefore reprobated Ioh. 8.46 47. Christ to the Pharisees If I say the truth why do ye not believe me he that is of God heareth Gods word ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God i.e. ye are reprobates Ioh. 10.26 Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep i. e. not of the number of my elect Ioh. 12.39 40. Of the whole company of the Jews Therefore they could not believe because Esaias said he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts viz. God according to his decree Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardens and ver 33. Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence Rom. 11.7 8. the election hath obtained it the rest are hardened for God hath given them the spirit of slumber c. 1 Pet. 2.8 which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed 3. Arg. If sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means of salvation are the onely causes why God reprobates any then there is no such mystery in the decree of reprobation neither are Gods waies herein so unsearchable and past finding out but that the true and undoubted cause may be assigned But yet they are mysterious and unsearchable See Rom. 9.14 What shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Rom. 1.33 34. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellour 4. Arg. If the foresight of sin and unbelief and rejecting the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation then these absurdities will unavoidably follow 1. That no child dying in infancy can possibly be reprobated 2. Neither such Gentiles or Turks Indians or Salvages that never heard of Christ who never enjoyed the Gospel nor ever had the means tendred to them for how can they believe in him on whom they have not heard Rom. 10. and how can they reject that which was never tendred unto them as many nations in the world who are strangers from the life of God Ephe. 1.12 3. 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 Rom. 9.21 22 23 24. Iohn 15.19 20. If ye were of the world c. Ephes 2.1 2 3. children of wrath as well as others Rom. 3.10 and there is 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 14. The first is if God reprobated Esau because he hated him then he was unjust The second ver 19. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will For he might in one word have answered to both the objections and said that sin was the cause of reprobating both of Esau and Pharaoh but he saith the contrary ver 11. When they had done neither good nor evil Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated Mal. 1.2 6. Hereby we confine Gods infinite soveraignty over his creatures to the narrow scantling of our subordinate power as though he might not do with his own what he lists without our controll and not make a vessel either of honour or of dishonour unless he were accountable to us for the reason of his so doing For the fourth and fifth Positions These may pass with a grain of Salt bating some impropriety in the expressions and I am not so at leisure to teach such men to express themselves after a Theological manner either in their teaching or writing For the sixth Thesis I must ingenuously confess it is such a Mystery or Paradox and so involved with seeming contradictions that I want an Oedipus to unriddle the meaning of it I have been a little acquainted with the opinions of the Pelagians Semipelagians Papists Arminians Socinians and Anabaptists and amongst them all can observe none of them jumping in with this mans judgement for thus he writes All men are sometimes convinced of sin and the state of nature What his meaning is by the state of nature I cannot divine If his sense be that every man is at one time or other convinced that by nature he is a child of wrath and disobedience and dead in trespasses and sins and so t is false for most men have not such convictions Next And are made alive by the works of the spirit by this all men should be
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
phrasifie it in order to their everlasting good that then it is in the power of that mans freewill to accept or refuse of that means so tendered whereas this is a heavenly writ from the truth of Gods revealed will in the Scriptures God in his eternal purpose hath denyed decreed not to give to such the use of that freedom to good which was lost in Adam 2 Cor. 3.5 Phil. 2.13 so that now we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God who worketh in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure Joh. 6.44 Phil. 1.29 1 Pet. 1.21 Tit. 1.3 and no man can come unto Christ except God the Father draw him So that when a man believes it is given him to believe and faith is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 and peculiar to the elect And so likewise it is God that gives repentance unto Israel Act. 5.31 and so he grants it to the Gentiles Act. 11.18 2 Tim. 2.25 Now tell me in sober sadness how it is in right reason imaginable that God will give these things which in his eternal purpose he hath decreed not to give but to leave them in their own lost and ruined condition for the manifestation of his glory when he shall render justice upon them according to their demerits They are held as captives to the devil fast coopt up in his prison 2. Tim. 2.26 Isa 45.13 so that unless the Lord by his almighty power shall let go those captives and open the prison door and proclaim liberty unto them they have not so much as a will to help themselves Isa 61.1 1 Cor. 2.14 for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned And in vain it is to talk of a day of grace Deut. 3.6 Act. 16.14 Ezek. 36.26 Ezek. 11.19 Psal 110.3 and means of salvation for except the Lord circumcise the heart and open it and pour in his spirit and cause them to walk in his statutes and take away their stony hearts and give them hearts of flesh and of an unwilling people make them to become a willing people in the day of his power all the outward means in the world though never so powerful and effectual elsewhere when God is pleased to adde a blessing to it yet without this particular operation of the Spirit of God inwardly enlightning inclining perswading new molding and new creating and sanctifying the inner man all the outward actings do become like water spilt on the ground 2 Sam. 14.14 2 Cor. 3.6 It is but a dead letter it cannot work that which it hath not in it and of it self It is onely the finger and almighty power of God that must effect it And now you seem to make a retreat or be at a stand for thus you write But I shall forbear to proceed any further in this place by way of proof because it will fall in to be spoken to more at large in answer to his following arguments in which I shall have occasion to shew the plain sense of those Scriptures in Rom. 9. and others that have the same sound with them which are mustered up for the proof of every Argument Answ In good sooth Sir if you like a chieftain maintain your cause no better then already you have begun and if you acquit not your self with more dexterity in the routing or discharging of my mustered forces now in the rere otherwise then you have done in the van surely the Infantry of the Anabaptists will coâ— you little thanks I am confident they will never inforce that honour upon you as to make you the Defender of their faith You conclude this paragraph thus In which I shall by the help of the most high God make it appear that Gods act of Reprobation in time in hardening the hearts of men giving unto them the Spirit of slumber eies that they should not see and ears that they should not hear breaking them off from their olive tree hiding the things which did belong unto their peace from their eyes that they could not attain unto the law of righteousness giving them up to their own hearts lust and to all uncleanness and vile affections and to a reprobate mind and the like cometh not upon men meerly solely singly and alone by the will of God as the onely and alone cause without assigning any other thing as a cause thereof but that these things come upon men as the just and righteous judgement of God upon them for their continuing in sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means as aforesaid Answ Noble Sir take it not amiss that here again I pull you by the sleeve and tell you that you are like a stragling sheep making a frivolous digression from the matter in contest keep your wits about you and mind this that our dispute is about reprobation before all time and your deviation here is by a discourse of Reprobation in time wherein we little differ Onely I must informe you of a mistake in you in this likewise in conceiving that there can be no decree of God of leaving men to the liberty of their own wills in committing of sin that can be antecedent to the guilt of actual sin I pray kind Sir be pleased out of your vast knowledge to inform me what foregoing or foreseen sin was there in our first Parents Adam and Eve for which God out of his vindictive Justice did give them over to the liberty of their own wills and so suffered them to eat of the forbidden fruit thereby breaking the most holy and righteous law of God Or those non-elect Angels who are now reserved in everlasting chains under darkness Jud. 6. what antecedent sin can there be imaginable to that their first sin for which they were forced to leave their own habitation and were delivered unto chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement 2 Pet. 2.4 And what I say of these the like may be spoken of all the non-elected there is not any one sin that the heard of Reprobates ever did or shall commit but that Gods decree of suffering them to fall into those very same sins is antedated infinitely before any such sin is acted Though I shall withall confess that in the very Reprobates God often in a judiciary way punisheth sin with sin turning malum culpae into malum poenae and so Vons avez to my first Argument Your next motion of course is to my second Argument which is thus That which is the efflux and consequence of Reprobation cannot be the cause of it but sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are the efflux and consequence of Reprobation Therefore The Major is as clear as the Sun The Minor is proved by these Texts Matth. 11.25 26. Ioh. 6.36 37. Ioh. 8.36 37.
Ioh. 10.26 Ioh. 12.39 40. Rom. 9.18 33. Rom. 11.7 8. 1 Pet. 2.8 Whereunto you say To which I answer first by distingushing upon his Major proposition and to enquire into his meaning therein now if he mean by Reprobation the decree of God before time distinct from Reprobation in time or Rom. 1.28 Gods giving them over to a reprobate mind which is the execution of the decree then I deny that sin and unbelief is the effect of it for God is so far from decreeing and appointing men to commit sin or that sin is an effect that cometh to pass by his decree and appointment that he doth not so much as tempt any man to sin as we may see Iam. 1.13 yea the Apostle Iames is so far from laying sin upon Gods decree as if that should be the cause that should produce such an effect as sin and unbelief that he saith v. 14. that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed and then v. 15. he saith when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death By which we may see that the Apostle doth not make Gods decree the cause of sin but that indeed which is the cause which bringeth it forth is even lust Quem recitas meus est Sed male dum recitas incipit esse tuus Answ Here were matter for you to work upon indeed if I would own the Argument as it is by you thus mistated and truly I do not well know how this error crept in as you have thus translated my second Argument whether you lookt upon it with a squint eye or a wry neck and so had a mind to pervert both the words and sense of it but I am sure in mine own written paper which one alone and no more I ever had which is now in my custody where as your pamphlet hath it That which is the effect and consequent of Reprobation is and so should be That which is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation which one word of effect for efflux doth much vary the case and overthrows at least silenceth a great part if not all what you have said against it for I utterly disown the word effect I know sin followes negative Reprobation or non-election not as an effect the cause but as the consequent flowing from and following its antecedent and therefore I protest against the word as spurious and illegitimate and no brood of my brain But yet if cause may be lookt upon in the latitude it is many times used and taken for I see not but that in a large sense Reprobation may be said to be a cause of sin viz. causa sine qua non for had there not been such a negative reprobation or non-election as the mother sin at least actual sin had never been born nor brought into the world as the daughter Had God elected all at least had not God decreed to permit the sin of Adam and of his posterity he had not permitted it at all for whatsoever he purposed to do or permitted to be done in time the same he did decree before all time so to do or to permit to be done and if he had not permitted sin at all and so decreed to permit it sin would never have been but it must have been hindred But I insist not upon this but apply my self to that member of your distinction of Reprobation viz. that which is before all time Wherein for so much as is contended for by you in this paragraph if I may gratifie you in it I will sâ—bscribe unto it abating me but this that whereas you say lust is the cause of sin I say the devil combining with the corruption of mans nature which is originally and totally depraved and hath little of other proper and innate quality but to sin and so I come to the other member of your distinction which is worded thus Secondly if by Reprobation he meaneth the act or execution of Gods decree in time which is Gods giving up of people to their own hearts lust and to a Reprobate mind as aforesaid then also we find that Gods act in the first place is not the cause of mans sin but mans disobedience in the first place is the cause why God doth execute the same as his just and righteous judgement upon them for their continuance in sin c. as it is expressed in this Position as appeareth Psal 81.11 12. Rom. 1.22 23 24 25 26 27 28. and yet I do not deny but sin and unbelief may be the effect and consequence of Reprobation in this sense as mens delaying and not coming in while the door is open is the cause of the door being shut against them and the door being shut against them is the cause of their abiding still without Wherefore strive to enter in at the straite gate before the good man of the house be risen up and hath shut to the door Luke 13.24 25. While it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 Answ I wonder why you should think I meant it of Reprobation in time which is not in the decree about which our controversie is but onely the execution of the decree though this be your practise yet I use no such extravagancies as to run from the question which is onely about Reprobation before all time and therefore this requiring no other answer I proceed to that where you hit the nail on the head for thus you write But I do partly believe that his meaning by reprobation in his argument is that which is generally held amongst them That Gods will and decree before any thing was brought forth in order or before man had any being is the onely and alone cause of Reprobation and so consequently of sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation and that no other fruits at any time can be brought forth by them notwithstanding all that they can do but that these things must unavoydably follow they being bound up thereunto by the decree of God and that which doth make me inclinable to believe that his meaning is so is because I find his Arguments tend much to the maintaining of such a thing Answ All this I stedfastly believe saving an ill-favoured expression that is interwoven viz. That being bound up thereunto by the decree of God which in my subsequent discourse shall be clearly refused But as though that in thus affirming I had maintained some formidable doctrine abhorrent to the Churches of the Saints he seems to bless himself from it thus But as I tender the honour and glory of God in the exaltation of his Psal 145.8 9. tender mercies over all his works and the purity of that truth and sincerity that is in himself together with his faithfulness in his upright and sincere dealings towards the sons of men and also when I think upon the excellency of
counsel hath decreed appointed to permit in the manner to come to pass But you have another bout with this text and say But secondly I do therefore affirme that the disobedience o◠unbelievers is in not doing of that which they should do by the appointment of God and as some of the former translations 〈◊〉 read being disobedient to that whereon they were set and if this man do but look on his Greek Testament and say no otherwise o◠this text then in his own conscience he judgeth to be the clea◠sense of it as he is freely willing to answer the same before the great and righteous Iudge the Lord Iesus at his appearing when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory Then I am perswaded that he will say no otherwise of it Answ Sir in answer to this your conclusive cathedral gloss viz. that the disobedience of unbelievers is in not doing of that which they should do by the appointment of God I must tell you it is very luxuriant and corrupts the text and perverts the whole scope of the Holy Ghost and sense of the words both of which according to the mind of the Spirit and given in before I need not to repeat it The word which the Translators here render disobedient is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies an unperswaded person an incredulous unbelieving and refractory person that wil give no assent unto that which he hears And now I pray learn me one lesson In what Grammatical construction can these words whereunto they were appointed have any manner of relation but onely unto their antecedent disobedient or unbelieving and not to any implicit command or injunction of God as it is by you feigned And then it must necessarily carry this Interpretation being disobedient unperswaded or incredulous unto which their disobedience misperswasion or incredulity they were before hand even from all eternity predetermined predestinated or appointed of God But that which followes of yours puts me into a wonder as it was to the Jews concerning Christ Ioh. 7.15 How knoweth this man Letters or Learning as it is in the Margin having never learned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suppose you are not a pretender to any Enthusiastical raptures as if you could speak any exotick languages as by an immediate divine inspiration which you never learned as one in London once did in my hearing pretending a miraculous gift in his speaking of Hebrew and Greek he being no scholar but let that pass and him too that set you on this buz which onely makes a noise but comes to nothing For those former translations you mention which render the words being disobedient to that whereon they were set I have not met with any such and therefore leave them to their own sense But upon your proposal and heavy charge thereon I have surveyed the original the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it properly signifies as I said before a person unperswaded not believing and for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereon you lay the stress of your interpretation if we shall follow the usual sense of the holy Ghost in divers other such like places it cannot in any other fair construction be rendred then Appointed ordained viz. by the decree of God and so is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usually taken as Ioh. 15.16 I have chosen you and ordained you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 1 Thes 5.9 God hath not appointed us to wrath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now why you should tread in a path by your self and wave the best received Interpretation I know no cogent reason for it but that you have a vain affectati-of singularity Nor indeed much would it conduce to your purpose had you your desire in this sense of the word but such men as you are when they can no wayes evade the power of the Spirit speaking in any Scripture then they fall to their wrenches and turnings and doubles as the Hate doth when she is hard hunted and in danger to be taken and can find no other way to escape and therefore I will leave you to your vain subterfuges and attend to what you further say Object But the objection that usually is made against this is grounded upon Rom. 9.19 20. Thou wilt say unto me why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will Nay but O man who art thou that repliest against God c. Now that which some do infer from it is That God doth Reprobate men to eternal destruction without assigning or ascribing any other thing to be the cause of it but the will of God as this man doth in his argument Answ To which I answer that there is no need at all for men to dispute with God so as to demand of him a ground or cause of mans Reprobation for he hath shewed them the things of himself by the things that are made even his eternal power and God-head so that they are without excuse Rom. 1.20 and hath shewed sufficiently in the Scripture that the rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief is the cause of it as hath been already proved and yet I shall by the help and assistance of God endeavour to make it more plain for consider that the people that Paul speaks to in these words Thou wilt say unto me why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will c. were the Iews which notwithstanding all that God did publish and declare unto them by Jesus Christ and by his Apostles first tendring unto them the choice and precious mercies of himself in his Son Christ that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Ierusalem and so it was declared unto them Acts 4.10 11 12. that there was no other name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved but onely by the name of Iesus of Nazareth whom they had crucified whom God hath raised from the dead Which is the stone that was set at nought by the builders the Iews yea this truth was plainly declared by Paul also in Acts 13. from ver 16. to ver 46. and he applying his speech to the men of Israel and children of the seed of Abraham in the conclusion thereof ver 38 39. saith these words Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Beware therefore saith he ver 40 41. Lest that come upon you whsch is spoken of in the Prophets Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your dayes which ye shall or see Hab. 1.5 will in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you and by this it may solely be concluded that Paul was not of
to his people they remaining faithful for he hath confirmed it with an oath which to men is an end of all strife Heb. 6.16 17 18. Wherein God willing the more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lye we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us Fourthly let the express words of Jesus Christ be accepted of as a sweet counsel to all people Ioh. 12.35 36. Yet a litle while is the light with you walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you while you have the light believe in the light that ye may be the children of the light also Heb. 3.13 exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Hearken unto these things ye sons of men seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Answ Sir I shall not have much to say to your uses as containing little of controversie though somewhat might be said to each of them but I shall wink at small faults as being weary with your former doctrine and therefore insâ—eâ—d of answering any one of yours I shall deduce from the doctrine that I have delivered certain consectaries flowing from the breasts of consolation Isa 66.11 and naturally arising from the subsequent words of the Apostle which may conduce much if well applied to the business now in controversie between us First here we may behold as in a glass the hatred of God against sin and for the sake thereof against sinners viz. that whiles we see him by his vindictive justice executing of wrath upon sinners he hereby declares himself to be a God hating sin neither that any iniquity can dwell with him Psal 5.4 And as his anger is extended against sin so it is onely against sin sin is none of Gods creatures no part of the creation for all that he made was good and therefore God is not angry with nor hates the devil intensively and that immediately as to his person and nature for that is good but as he hath contracted sin and so that renders him hateful and abominable How then can God be charged with any iniquity when he is pleased for the manifestation of his justice and therein of his hatred unto sin he is pleased I say not to elect but to reprobate some and fits them makes them up or appoints them to destruction that all the world may ring of his anger and hatred against sin Secondly and as God was willing to shew his wrath so was it needfull there should be such subjects even the Reprobates on whom he might make his power known that whiles we look upon God avenging himself on his enemies the Reprobates Isa 1.24 and therein shews us his wrath against their sin so withal we might take notice of his power Psal 2.9 that he may break them with a rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel and that onely because of their sin Psa 2.11 and that we might hence learn to serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Thirdly this may likewise serve as a watch-tower or warning-piece to the elect that when as they see how infinite the anger of God is against sin and how full of power he is to take vengeance for sin Jude 23. they might thence be provoked to hate the garment spotted with the flesh and alwayes stand in awe and reverence of the most mighty God Heb. 12.29 whose wrath is like a consuming fire And therefore it is not said what if God willing to be angry and to put forth his power as though that God were delighted in anger and in the acting of such a power and therefore to this end did not elect or Reprobate such a multitude of men But it is said What if God willing to shew his wrath and make his power known viz. to all the men in the world in all ages and generations to the Reprobate that they thence may be made inexcusable But to the elect that they having in their eye so many examples of Gods wrath and power upon the reprobrates for their sins they might thereby be stirred up to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.28 Phil. 2.12 so working out their salvation with fear and trembling Fourthly this will serve as a Mercuries finger to point unto the honour of the Saints and to set forth the high advancement that from all eternity they have had in the bosome of God viz. that God could be well pleased that a greater part of the sons of men should be passed by as not known of God Pro. 8.31 and so left to the original hardness of their own hearts which Adam voluntarily drew upon himself and all his posterity and for which to be doomed to everlasting torments to this end among the rest that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy Rom. 9.23 contraria juxta se posita mutuo se illustrant But how are the riches of his glory made known to the Saints by the reprobating of some Why herein it is manifested that when as there was an equality of condition in all all alike lookt upon as in one corrupt lump and mass of perdition wherein it was in the free power and holy liberty of God to have reprobated those whom he hath elected and to have elected those whom he hath reprobated from eternity 1 Thes 5.9 Yet he hath not appointed us unto wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Iesus Christ all which doth proceed from the riches of his glory and no foreseen worth or works or faith in us And now worthy Sir by comparing of your Enthusiasms with my Analysis and practical uses thereupon let the impartial Reader judge whether hath more candidly represented the scope sense and mind of the holy Ghost you or I. So that now after this tedious conflict for the defence of my second Argument I must attend your summons to see what you can say against my third Argument which followeth His third Argument is this If sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation are the onely causes why God reprobates any to destruction then there is no such mystery in the decree of reprobation neither are Gods wayes therein so unsearchable but that the true and undoubted cause may be assigned But yet they are mysterious and unsearchable See saith he Rom. 9.14 What shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Rom. 11.33 34. O the depth
of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counsellour To which I answer first that had I not been acquainted with the blindness of these men that love to be called of men Rabbi or Master I should have been taken up with admiration that one boasting so much of schollarship should make a parcel of Arguments directly against the truth and yet should appear no better the one with the other In this first Argument in answer to this Position he giveth out as if the will of God were solely and singly the cause of reprobation and that no other cause can be assigned for it either of sin unbelief or rejecting the means but the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy and righteous will as in the preamble to his Argument and in the minor proposition of the Argument it self he saith the Scripture assignes Reprobation solely to Gods will and yet in this third Argument he strongly calleth in question the truth of all this in giving out as if the true and undoubted cause cannot be assigned or as if that which solely singly was the cause of Reprobation were not the true and undoubted cause of it what a piece of confused stuff is this let them that have understanding judge Answ Truly I do not malice but rather pity this simple sophister who doth Nodum in scripo querere peeps about for contradictions in my Arguments whereas if a man be not blinded through prejudice he shall find a most harmonious concord Sir I willingly pass by your scandalous Ironies of blindness Rabbi Master boasting of scholarship as unworthy of a return but I now tell you t is very true that in my first Argument and so indeed al along I do ascribe non-election or Reprobation solely and singly to the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy and righteous will But I pray Sir make it to appear how in this third Argument I do trip up the heels of my former Argument calling into question the truth of all this as though the true and undoubted cause could not be assigned or that the will of God were not solely and singly the cause of Reprobation Curious Sir learn this from me that he that doth exclude all outward causes as to Reprobation which are transient and in time are acted in and by the creature doth not thereby exclude all inward causes which are immanent immutable and eternal resting in the bosome and breast of God himself which we call his will and good pleasure now the first we deny this later we affirm to be the alone cause of Reprobation That which makes the decree of non-election or Reprobation to be mysterious and unsearchable is not because there is no cause of it at all for I have affirmed the will of God to be the inward and eternal cause thereof but this is that for which the Apostle calls it mysterious because that no external cause can be assigned but that the further that men out of curiosity or rather desperate boldness have attempted to find out an external cause the more they have entangled themselves and the more have they intrencht upon the holy majesty of God And therefo e where in all the holy Scripture the Spirit of God hath not a tongue to speak of any such external cause or causes of eternal reprobation there must not Gods people have an ear to hear but in defect of an external cause to ascribe all to the internal viz. the good will and pleasure of God himself 2 Thes 1.7 1 Cor. 13.12 Phil. 3.15 who hath no otherwise been pleased in his revealed word to give any other account unto us of such his actings besides his own will But when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed and that we do behold him face to face this which now is unto us a mystery and unsearchable by reason of humane frailty God shall then reveal even this unto us and in the mean time let us lay our hands upon our mouthes Rom. 11.33 and with admiration say O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out And now my good friend let those that have understanding judge whether this of mine be a piece of confused stuff or that it rather be not simplicity in grain in you to suppose a contradiction in that which doth most strongly confirm what is most destructive to your Position but such crude stuff as you have here vented is as ordinary with you as your meat and drink But you proceed further 3. Again why doth he say If sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are the onely causes why God reprobates any what need he put in that expression onely since the position doth not say expresly that it is any cause at all but that God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation c. and these he reprobated and if that sort or kind of people that continue in sin and unbelief and reject the means of salvation be not those that God doth reprobate then let him shew us by plain Scripture-proof who or what sort of people they be that so they may be known But the truth of it is that he can find no expression in the position that he can except against and therefore he putteth expressions into his Arguments which be of his own making and them he quarrels at and shews what great absurdities follow when there is no such thing in the position But I have followed him a litle in owning his expressions as far as they will stand with the truth viz. that rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief are in some measure the cause of Reprobation and through the good hand of my God upon me have proved it by Scripture And notwithstanding this man hath so strongly opposed it in his two first Arguments in answer to this position yet one would think by what he saith in this third Argument that he were a little inclinable to be of my mind or otherwise why doth he use those words the onely cause if he do not in some measure grant these things to be a cause of Reprobation Answ Sir if the word onely disgust your palate let it be expunged and yet the Argument will hold well enough without it and when so I will never stand quarrelling upon the punctilio of a word And whereas you say that the position doth not say expresly that sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are causes of Reprobation I yield you for surely every one of your positions are as so many gins and snares and that generation of men that are of your judgement ordinarily your positions are so intricate and involved so full of Amphibologies equivocations and mental reservations that you onely stand at the catch
to say such a thing was not exprest in the position those who are acquainted not onely with the Anabaptists but likewise with the Arminians and Socinians of both which you have a tange know so much You say it is not expresly which doth admit that it is comprehended in it implicitly which is as much as I look for if it may be deduced thence Howsoever the best of it is that I have reum confitentem that rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief are in some measure the cause of Reprobation but where you have proved these to be the causes he that hath eyes to see let him see I am sure I cannot find it You conclude what you have to say against this Argument thus 3. To the Scripture which he quoteth out of Rom. 9.14 I have spoken to it already and to that in Rom. 11.33 34. it speaketh not at all to that particular business of Reprobation but of that great love and tender respect that God yet hath to Israel for their fathers sake as doth appear from ver 25. and so forward and of the great things which shall be done for them in the latter dayes when their deliverer shall come out of Sion and shall turn away ungodliness from Iacob which great work of God in respect of the manner of it is much mysterious inasmuch as there is so much of the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God that his judgements to us are unsearchable and his waies therein past finding out until the fulness of time shall come that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Isa 11.9 the Lord shal set again his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shiner and from Hamath and from the Islands of the sea c. ver 11. to the end But here I must break off from saying any more of these things at present for my leisure will not serve and it is likely this man will call this Millenarianism as he calleth the other Pelagianism Answ T is very right Sir you have spoken to that place of Rom. 9.14 but at so pitiful a rate and to so little purpose that the Reader will find it would have stood more with your credit if you had holden your peace And for that place of Rom. 11.33 34. howsoever it mentioneth not Reprobation yet it is a solemn conclusion of the things before delivered in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapter For the Apostle having spoken of many difficult points as Election Reprobation rejection of the Jews calling of the Gentiles recalling of the Jews and having answered many questions prevented many cavils satisfied many doubts he now sets a period to this discourse with a sad exclamation O the depth c. whereby he signifies that he was driven into a wonderful admiration of the wisdom and knowledge of God in the administration of his love to the elect and displeasure to the Reprobate As a man wading into a deep river that is not fordable when he comes up to the neck and feels the water begins to heave him up and his feet to fail him cries out O the depth c. and goes back so the Apostle having waded so far as he could by the leading of the Spirit in those unfordable mysteries and being almost swallowed up with admiration at Gods administrations unable to pass any further into that bottomless gulf he silenceth himself because the Spirit ceaseth to give him further discoveries and resolves to enter upon no more questions but to admire the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God whose mind i. e. his will and pleasure is no waies to be known of us but by the effects and consequents And I pray learned Sir did I alledge this place to any other purpose then that whereas you and other bold baiards will desperately undertake to assign reasons and external causes for those immanent actings of God we do with fear and reverence ascribe all to the good will and pleasure of God because by that and no way else hath he discovered himself in his word We do plainly see by the effect of it that it was his will so to be else had it not been and therefore we say it was appointed and ordained to be so by his good will and pleasure as for other reasons or causes we see and know none and surely Sir you limit this too narrowly straitning it to the recalling of the Jews which would the scope and purpose of the Apostle beare it yet would it serve sufficiently for my purpose neither should I make any scruple thereby of your turning Millenary for to that and a hundred more of other unstable doctrines are such men of your temper inclined unto being constant onely in inconstancy persisting in nothing but change But whereas you seem to put Millenarianism into the scales as to poise against Pelagianism Sir herein thâ—s far I shall discover my judgement upon them both that a man may be a Millenary I mean in so much as the reign of Christ upon the earth for a thousand years and yet with a charitable interpretation hold all the Articles of the Christian faith and so be eternally saved I know many learned good and gracious men have been of that judgement but for Pelagianism their doctrine is so gross in the whole lump yea so destructive to and inconsistent with the fundamentals of Christian Religion that to be a Pelagian in all their known profest tenets and to live and die so I do much doubt whether any one of them can be saved But what have I to do to judge another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Rom. 14.4 I have enough to do to attend my own calling but in the mean time to wait what great matters will flow from your wisdom in the rear of all I mean what you have to say to my fourth and last Argument which is as followeth Arg. 4. If the foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation then these absurdities will follow 1. That no child dying in infancy can possibly be Reprobated 2. Neither such Gentiles or Turks Indians and Savages that never head of Christ who never enjoyed the Gospel nor ever had the means tendred unto them for how can they believe in him of whom they never heard Rom. 10. and how can they reject that which was never tendred unto them as many nations in the world who are strangers from the life of God Ephes 2.12 3. 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 Rom.
he doth not say that they might have it out of their own strength without special grace but this exhortation implicitly teacheth First what duty is incumbent on us for our part to performe and yet it doth not acknowledge strength enough in us to performe the duty Secondly it shews us what is best for us viz. to choose life rather then death Thirdly such places are as tutors to us to informe us of our natural infirmity when therein we find that we are no waies able to do as we are commanded Luk. 17.10 but that when we have done our best we are unprofitable servants Fourthly this will be as a spur to put us on to prayer to seek that at Gods hands which we cannot compass by our own strength Da Domine quod jubes et jube quod vis Give us Lord power to do what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt Fifthly such exhortations the Spirit of God ordinarily makes use of in converting of sinners there accompanying the inward energetical working and power of the Spirit of God with the outward ministery of the word it was the power of Christ Joh. 11.43 Ro. 1.20 and not the bare words of Lazarus come forth that raised him Sixtly yea such exhortations are useful to make the wicked inexcusable Seventhly t is to this end that when the wicked are punished the justice of God might be vindicated Isa 5.4 What could have been done more Those two other places Heb. 11.24.25 and Luk. 10.42 where you set out the word choosing in capital letters as though they would have beheaded al the arguments brought against your freewil yet speak little to the purpose as to a liberty of choosing that which is good in a person unregenerate for that they must speak or else it were as good that they held their peace as to your cause now in hand For as for that of Moses First I look upon him not as then an unregenerate person but as one of the people and houshold of God Secondly neither are you ever able to prove that this was his first choice as to the waies of God but that he was better principled before this Thirdly the choice which he is here said to make was but a meer civil choice viz when Pharaohs daughter had adopted him for her child when he came to years and well understood his pedegree whence his descent was he then disclaimed this adoptive honour and was not further willing to dissemble his nation and to act for the Egyptians against his own brethren according to the flesh but chose rather to profess himself an Hebrew of the Hebrews Heb. 11. though he suffered affliction with them T is true it s said he had an eye to the recompence of the reward but then surely that must be in his heart before ever he could make any such choice and then what will this place be to the purpose as to persons unregenerate And for that choice of Maries likewise the most you can make of it is but an external spiritual good to choose rather to hear a sermon than to provide a dinner to prefer to hear Christ preaching than how she might give him curious entertainment and this its possible for one to do and yet to go to hell after the sermon is ended Mar. 6.20 Act. 12.21 Herod made choice to hear Iohn Baptist and the text saith that he heard him gladly and yet what became of Herod it is an easy matter to judge without any breach of charity And thus you shake hands at parting with freewill and return to your in and out discourse after this manner And thus when men and women come to repent and be changed from dead works and embrace the means of salvation and believe in Jesus Christ they then come to be such a sort or kind of people that it was in the purpose and decree of God which was from before the foundation of the world to elect justifie in the end eternally to save and the decree of God which was from before time cometh to be actually put in execution upon them in order to their being made vessels of honour when they come to embrace the means as aforesaid and will be fully accomplished when it shall be said unto them Mat. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdome which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world Answ Surely Sir a man had need to have a great deal of patience and much time to spare that can be content to follow you up and down with your so many wrenches and turnings and windings that at first sight one can scarce discover what the subject is you have in hand for here you hunt counter and tell us what sort or kind of people those are whom God did decree to elect justifie and save from before the foundation of the world which hath been often answered to and proved that they were such persons whom God had a love unto and from that love did elect them out of the corrupt lump and likewise did decree to give them faith and repentance to sanctifie their natures and justifie their persons and at the last eternally to save them Yea even those individual persons were so decreed as aforesaid and no other Rev. 21.27 13.8 20.15 whose names were found written in the Lambs book of life and that whosoever were not found written in that book that they should have their portion in the lake which is the second death God did not decree to elect and justifie and save individuum vagums or qualifications to be found no man knows where nor when for so it might be that for all that election by you imagined yet no man might be saved if no man would believe or repent and indeed no man could if God did not give them to believe and give them repentance to salvation And having done with this extravagancy you have one fling more at the business you should look at and this it is And this is that which God hath done not in order to any confinement of himself to any subordinate power in us but in order to the doing of that which he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began for our good and it hath been the good will and pleasure of God to be so far accountable unto us of these things for our comfort and consolation in Jesus Christ that if any shall say unto us who be the vessels of mercy which God hath afore prepared unto glory that we can say Rom. 9.24 even us whom he hath called not of the Iews onely but also of the Gentiles Yea it hath been the good will and pleasure of our God so to make known the mystery of his will unto us in the Scripture that he or they whosoever they be that do with delight embrace the mean of salvation and retain the words of Christ Heb. 2.1 See the margin and not let them slip or