this Preface would seek to justifie such horrid Things What pretense of Reason he had for so doing Besides his partiality and concernmen for one of the chiefest of his Party we shall see hereafter in his Reply § 5. Fifthly whilst he blameth me for giving the Title of modest or immodest Blasphemy to such as make God to be the Author of Sin sometimes in those very words sometimes in such as are equivalent and sometimes worse he quite forgetteth how great a Contumely he hath heaped upon them who have spoken more broadly than I have done though not with a purer or more disinteressed zeal to the honour of his Attributes for whom I pleaded May he be pleased to consider these following Instances 1. When Florinus did but seem to make God the effecter or Cause of Sin although he said it only by Consequence and not in plain or downright terms yet Irenaeus an Apostolical Father thought it fit to confute him and chide him too And intituled his Epistle which he wrote to Florinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning God's not being the cause of Sin It may satisfie some Readers to be told a few of the Fathers own words These Opinions O Florinus are not of wholesome Doctrine they are disagreeable to the Church they carry them that believe them into the greatest Impiety These opinions the very Hereticks without the Church were never so daring as to affirm the Elders before us who conversed with the Apostles delivered no such things unto us To which he adds I am able to testifie before God that if Polycarp had heard any such things he would have stopped his Ears and have cryed out as he was wont O good God unto what times hath thou reserved me that I should indure such things He would have fled from the place wherein he sat or stood when he had heard such expressions And this might be manifested saith Iranaeus out of Polycarp's Epistles which were written to Neighbour-Churches or to some of the Brethren the words follow thus as a new Testimony 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. When St. Augustin was accused by some of his Correptory Correctors of having Denyed universal Redemption and other things of that nature which all my Adversaries do hold and teach he was so angry and so impatient of such slanderous Imputations that he could not with-hold his pen from sharper language than I have used though more provoked than he could be He did not only say that those ungodly and profane opinions had not the very least footstep in his Heart nor did he content himself to call them Blasphemies but prodigious lyes of most foolish Blasphemies and no less than Diabolical 4. When the same Austin was accused by some Pelagians of making God an Accepter of Persons by asserting irrespective and unconditional degrees of Reprobation and Election he did not give them the lye only but told them besides they were bewitched by the Devil to its invention what then are They who either directly or indirectly do make God himself to be the Author of sin 5. When the French Massilians objected it as the opinion of St. Austin that God denieth perseverance to some of his Sons who are regenerate in Christ because they were not elected out of the Masse of perdition Prosper makes answer in these expressions That of those that are regenerate in Jesus Christ some forsaking their Faith and pious maners do apostatize and fall from God and end their wicked life in that aversion is proved too plainly by many examples But to ascribe their fall to God is an immoderate wickednesse as if God were the Impulsor aud Author of their ruine because he foresaw that they would wilfully fall away and for that very reason did not sever them from the sons of perdition and therefore men ought not to calumniate God How many wayes this makes for me and my cause againg my revereud Assailant let who will judge 6. The second Arausi can Councel which was held in the time of Leo the first against the Semiplegians let that be marked as it hath much for my cause who have been publickly calumniated for more than Semipelagianism so it hath this sharp passage against the very Man that hath opposed me This we believe according to the Catholick Faith that all who are baptized and have by Baptism received grace are both able and bound in duty by Christ his help and cooperation to fulfil those things which do belong unto Salvation if they will faithfully labour in order to it But that any were Predestinated to Evil by the divine power we do not only not believe but withal if there are any who will believe so great an evil we do with all detestation pronounce an Anathema against them If the indifferent Reader will compare this definition of that Councel with either my greater or lesser Catalogue of those horrible doctrines which I condemned and for the condemning of which I have been publickly condemned by that reverend Person with whom I now deal he will not fail to think it much more than strange For as all the great and holy Men of that so venerable a Councel who were deeply acquainted with the mind of God in his word have detested those Doctrines as well as I so that unseasonable reproof to say no worse which was given to me by my Antagonist doth reach as far as those Fathers of which that Councel was composed 7. In Nicetas his Saracenica there is this solemn form of renouncing Mahomed and his Religion I do Anathematize the Blasphemy of Mahomed saying that God deceiveth whom he will and whom he will he leadeth to what is good for if God would Men would not war one with another but he doth what he will and is himself the cause of all good and of all evil all things are governed by Fate and Destiny which infers a necessity of all events If the Authors whom I cited both in my greater and lesser Catalogue have said the very same things with the Idolaters of Mahomed and every whit as much worse as worse may be and whether they have not so done I appeal to all who shall compare them it will not be much for my Adversaries credit that the loss of my thanks should be the best reward of my Devotion 8. Melancthon saith that no Stoical opinions are to be brought into the Church for how can he call upon God who holds that all thengs do come to pass of necessity Plato though a Heathen doth speak more honourably of God and would have every one banished from the Society of men who should say in a Poem or any other narration that God is the cause of any Mans evil In the opinion of Melancthon they make a Stoical God who feign him giving a necessity to all events And is not that to blaspheme him without saying in terminas he is the Author of Sin Whilst
corrupt will is not fit to be punished or to manifest Gods Glory in being punished and if so then how could that be the subject in the fourth proposition on which God is absolutely pleased to manifest the glory of his Iustice In plainer words If untill the Creature hath actually sinned it is not materia apta disposita matter fitly disposed for the eternal vengeance of the Almighty or for the manifesting his Glory in their eternal punishment then even my Adversary must acknowledge upon his own grounds that there cannot in massâ be any absolute Preterition Thus his seventh proposition is the destruction of his fifth and brings him over to my opinion by irresistible consequence even before he is aware for he confesseth that the matter of Reprobation must be fitly disposed and that it must be by the corrupt will of the Creature but he knows that the Reprobates had no such thing as a will when they were in massâ some thousands of years before they were born and therefore they must be born and have wills of their own before their wills can be corrupted or make them matter adapted for condemnation and as they are in time just so they were considered from all Eternity But to conclude this Chapter If all were granted which is desired in these eight propositions yet would it not come home to Mr. Barlee's pretensions who saith that God is not a meer legislator of conditional Decrees Laws and Statutes but An absolute Determiner in a soveraign way of the several acts of Disobedience in relation to them though he saith also that God himself is without sin and determins the several acts of obedience also yet that doth not lessen but rather aggravate his Blasphemy because he makes no difference betwixt Gods determining the Acts of obedience and Disobedience whilst he saith he is an Absolute unconditional Determiner of both the one and the other Whither Iames Nayler hath said any thing like it I have not hitherto been inform'd but They who adored him as a Christ did give the Magistrate this reason That they were forced thereunto by the power of the Lord and commanded so of the Lord and thereunto moved of the Lord and directed by the spirit of the Lord. And when the Presbyterian Ministers of the Kirk of Scotland sent a Letter to the Lord Hamilton inviting Him to head their Forces which without the least pretense of Authority of Parliament the Preachers and They only had made to rise they told his Lordship in their Letter that the people were animated by the word and motion of Gods Spirit to take up Arms that is to Rebel Now by what principles and opinions they were betray'd to these things I leave it to be Iudged by other men It is in perfect hatred to blasphemous speeches against God but not for want of perfect charity to any mans person in the world that I am forced to name the Authors of such Impiety which if I should not do I might be suspcted by a few to have born falsewitness For the peace and safety of Church and State as well as for the Interest and good of Souls I am obliged and concerned to deliver mine own soul by giving fair warnings to other mens And may it for ever be remembred by such as are of a party which they are kinde to and extreamly willing to excuse That he who justifieth the wicked is an Abomination to the Lord as well as He who condemneth the just To shew my Innocence from so great a Transgression as the latter I have not whisperd my Accusations in a Corner but spoken them out unto the world nor have I urged them from giddy Rumors and Reports as one sort of men are wont to do but from the published writings which I accuse as may be seen in the Catalogues which I have heretofore made CHAP. XI E. R. So then 1. God did ab aeterno most absolutely will and decree his own Glory as the supream end of all consulting therein the counsel of his own will and not the wills of any of his Creatures 2. In order unto that supream end he did freely elect some Angels and some lapsed men unto blessedness for he might do with his own gifts what he would himself 3. In order to the same supream end he did leave some Angels and some lapsed men to themselves to their own mutability and corruption not being a debtor unto any of them 4. But he did not ordain any Creature to absolute Damnation but to damnation for sin into which they fall as they themselves know by their own wills and whereof they are themselves the alone Causes and Authors Gods work about sin being only a willing permission and a wise powerful and holy Gubernation but no actual efficiency unto the formal being and obliquity thereof I am sorry I am led on by mine own thoughts thus far into your proper work But here I stop T. P. § 1. ONce more he begins with four Positions trying whether this course will be more prosperous then the former So Dalilah cast about which way to binde Sampson that his strength might depart from him So when Balak was succesless upon the high places of Baal he brought Balaam to do his work into the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah and when that also was in vain He would trie another mountain and therefore brought him to the Top of Peor for peradventure said he it will please God that thou may'st curse me them from thence But 't was strange that Balak should imagin any vertue in the meer change of places when the Cause of his war was still the same And I cannot but wonder that my Assailant should attaque me by several sets of Questions and Propositions when he knows the matter is still the same Mine Host in Livie did not amiss when he made such variety of unexpected Dishes all of one and the same Porket in entertainment of the Embassadors who came from Rome But in the management of a controversie it cannot be so graceful to say the same thing often in several shapes yet as a token of my respect I will proceed to say something to this last Quaternio of Propositions § 2. The first is granted by all the world for no man living can be so mad as to say or think that God consulted the will of the Creature in decreeing his own Glory The second is back't with a shew of Reason and it runs in this Form He did for he might but à potentiâ ad Actum non valet argumentum God might have made us all as he did Adam out of the Earth without the methods of generation and Birth but hence it follows not that he did Nor was there need of any proof much less of that which was worse then none for the confirming of an assertion which Nothing in Christendome ever denyed for all
than by desiring my Readers Patience and his Impartiality For first admit it were so that none of those writers whom I accused had ever writtē any such thing as that God is the Author and Cause of sin Admit they had said it only in substance or by way of Consecution in terms aequivalent or tantamount as the speaking very falsely is equipollent to a Lye althought it is expressed in cleaner phrase yet If the Holy Father Irenaeus was deeply offended with Florinus for meerly seeming to make God the Author of sin If the blessed Martyr St. Polycarp an Apostolical Father upon the hearing of any word which did but sound that way would have started out of the place where he stood and have stopped his ears and have broken out upon a suddain into a passionate Ecphonésis as if a Dart or Javelin had been shot into his Eye sure my Disorder and Indignation had been excusable in case the Doctrines which I accused had only seemed so much injurious to the Spirit of Holiness meerly sounded that way If that Antient Author the very Contemporary of Austin who writ the Haeresis Praedestinatorum did worthily reckon it a sin to be but silent in such a Case such silence seeming to give Consent If the Famous Synod at Orange which my Adversaries themselves pretend to reverence did pronounce an Anathema against it and that with great sharpness to its Abettors If Nicetas did account it the frightfull'st Blaspemy of Mahomet If learned Moulin was frighted by it into the Doctrine of Arminius touching the Businesse of Reprobation which made him suffer so great a measure of Dr. Twisse his Correptory Correction If the pacifick Melancthon is often provoked out of his Patience and shews that one great end of our Saviours comming into the world was to teach us that the Devil is the Author of sin If the most moderate Hemingius doth express the Doctrine of unconditional Praedestination almost as often as he speaks of it by such disgraceful phrases as Parcarum Tabulae and Fatum Stoicum and affirms it mischievous to the maners of men as well as blasphemous against God If Remigius Lugdunensis and the greatest Favourers of Gotteschalk and Dr. Whitaker himself with our late most learned and Reverend Primate of Armagh did count it an evident and an horrible blaspeming against God to say He imposeth upon his Creatures any Necessity of sinning yet by how many and noted Men how often and how publickly hath that been said If S. Chrysostom thought it better to be ten thousand times buried than that God should hear any such word because of us If Bish. Bancroft at Hampton Court with the good liking of King James did call it a Desperate Doctrine of Praedestination from whence King James was of opinion that a desperate Presumption might be arreared by inferring the necessary Certainty of standing persisting in Grace If learned Deodate of Geneva did so much abhor the ascribing unto God the least Causality of sin as not to allow a possibility of his being so much as the occasion of it In a word If St. Austin and Prosper and divers others whom I shall mention Chapter 4. § 5. 6. 7. were as deeply concerned as I have been and much more pungent in their Expressions Then why should I have been charged in so high a Degree as I have been for having been jealous of God's Honour as well as They and equally zealous for his Glory who is my Redeemer as well as Theirs If I have met with such writers who pretending to be godly as well as learned have sent those Doctrines to be printed and left for lessons to Posterity which have not only made God to be the Author of sin even in those very words but also in all other words in which an Author can be exprest and even in many more words than can be used with any Truth of any Reprobates whatsoever whether Men or Devils whereby to charge them with the sins of such as are ensnared by their Seducements why should any Man condemn me for the natural effects of my Resentment If my Reverend Assailant may be allowed to be a publick Defender of those very Doctrines which are condemned by Holy Scripture by the publick reasō of the Church throughout all Ages and by the private reason all the world excepting the Sectaries themselves who have been the Authors or Fautors of them as destructive to the purity to the verity of the Godhead with how much a greater force of reason must I be allowed if not commanded to assert the purity of his Goodness against the daringnesses of men who carry their life in their Nostrils whose Foundatiō is in the Dust If Paul Barnabas on such an occasion would have torn their hair from off their heads Nay if a Jewish High Priest would have rent his Garment upon the hearing of any sentence reproachfully spoken against his God Nay if the Heathen man Plato would not have any one to live in a well order'd City who should say or hear with any patience any such horrible affirmations as that God doth Predestin or Decree the moral evils of his Creatures why then should a Christian be less Religious Nay if Vedelius and his Followers have affirmed those Doctrines to be so perfectly essential to Religion it self that we cannot be Advocates for God but at the peril of being Atheists how can we choose but look upon them as on the worshippers of Hermes who thought that to hurle stones at him was the godliest Instance of their Devotion Let my Reader carry in his mind from the beginning to the ending of what I have or shall publish as well for whom as against what my pleadings are And then I shall demand no other favour If He that strook at the Father did force the * Dumb Child to speak who but for that provocation had liv'd in silence it must needs be difficult for me whose provocations were so much greater to keep my self from an outcry against the Persecutors of Heaven and bold Invaders of Immortality who but for that sollicitation had never once appeared upon these subjects Fourthly I do consider I am in Duty both to God to my self and perhaps to some of my Brethren also to lay to heart the Nature of true Repentance which doth import an endeavour of Restitution and in some degree of satisfaction as well as Grief It is not enough to cry Peccavimus in our Closets or to shed some Tears behind the Door as Peter did when he repented but we must imitate St. Peter in that better effect of his Contrition his peaching publickly for Christ because he had privately deny'd him I cannot but think my self admonished by the words of Christ to St. Peter when Thou art cōverted strengthen thy Brethren Had I never been misled into the contrary opinion
am every where willing to put the fairest construction upon the words of my Assailant and not the worst that they can bear But what he meant by his Oyl and Balsom in the beginning of his attempt he hath enforced me to feel by his After-Blowes To make profession of respect not for Honesty or Truth or Ingenuity of dealing for profane polite parts of wit and learning and presently after to accuse me of injuriously fixing the Name of Blasphemy upon the Doctrines of some men whom he espouseth for their Opinions when as himself will confess upon his serious perusal of my fourth chapter I only called that Blasphemy which hath been ever so called and is acknowledged to be Blasphemy by the ablest men of that party from whose publick writings it hath been ciâ—ed This I cannot but pronounce to be a very corroding and wounding Balsam I would not for all the world be so unhappily polished with witt and learning as my Glycupcirous Assailant would make the world beleeve I am It is so far from being grateful or pleasant to me to have my head thus broken with Commendations But yet I will possesse my soul in patience I will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay farther yet I will endeavour to take some pleasure in such afflictions which I suffer for being sensible of dishonours done unto my God When meer mortal men are pleaded for against me in revenge of my having pleaded for God himself against men when I am sullied as a Bolsec who is presumed to be of a foul complexion meerly for proving that God is Pure and that he cannot indure to behold Iniquity that he cannot away with it that his soul doth hate it that 't is a trouble unto him that he is weary to bear it that he will rather have us dye or be temporally undone than commit it in the least measure when we are able to avoid it through him that strengthens us that he will punish it with infinite and endlesse pains so far is he from decreeing that men shall inevitably commit it and suffer for it unavoidably through the necessitation of such Decree when I am defamed by no unplausible man as very scandalously erroneous meerly for saying in effect what St. Paul said before me Let God be true and every man a liar and every man a Blasphemous liar who shall say in contradiction to the true word of God that God is the Willer Ordainer Predestiner Decreer Necessitator Author and Cause of Sin When I say I am a sufferer for not enduring or suffering such things as these to seduce the People without controul by making them Libertines and Atheists at least in practice if not in judgement and as far as they have power or opportunity subverters of Government and razers out of the distinction 'twixt Right and Wrong which is the Foundation and the Cement of all Civil society I will endeavour to rejoyce in such my sufferings And sure in this present case of my being thus assaulted by Dr. Reynolds I need not take any thought as to my personal concernment For § 3. Thirdly He hath used me no otherwise than he hath used the very Truth which he commends and persecutes in the very same breath I say he commends her in that Rule of Aristotle That truth is preferrable to all other Friends But then he persecutes her too by giving thanks and commendations even to that very Lictor who gave to truth rather than me such store of Correptory Correption And by styling that signal volume no less than an Elaborate and learned Answer which was so full of the most groundlesse and the most palpable Inventions It is not my Accusation but the observation of the people That Mr. Barlee's papers are gone abroad with the concurrence and approbation of Dr. Reynolds And this partaking with the Erroneous must pass for friendship to the Truth because a Text out of Aristotle is misapplyed to make it good The youngest birds peradventure may be caught with such chaff till they are warned to coÌ„sider That never any man yet hath so contended for an error as not at least to pretend a friendly praeference of the Truth Truth hath many great flatterers but few true friends To give her very good words is cheap and easie But whether it is truth or specious error which my Reverend Adversary doth here prefer our Impartiall Reader will best discover by the following parts of his Epistle CHAP. II. E. R. I was sorry to see this controversie revived amongst which caused antiently so much Trouble to the Church of God in our memory so much Danger Distemper to the Belgick Nation whereof King James was so sensible that in a letter to the States he calleth Arminius an Enemy of God chargeth Bertius with grosly living against the Church of England in avowing that the Heresies contained in his blasphemous Book of the Apostacy of the Saints they are the Kings own words were agreeable with the Religion and profession of this Church and he did solemnly desire the Embassadours of that state to forwarn them from him to beware of the Disciples of Arminius of whom though himself lately dead he had left too many behind him T. P. § 1. IT seems the Authority of King Iames is of great weight with him And since it hath made it his own choise to imbue his Reader in the first place with the judgements and censures of that wise King I am heartily glad to find it is so For although that King in his younger years had imbibed and suckt in even before he was aware that Presbyterian opinion of the genevizing Scotish Kirk which no man living will think strange who knows the place of his Birth and his Education yet in his riper and wiser years he found so great reason to retract and abjure his former error that he readily accepted of Bishop Mountagues appeal and commanded it to be printed and to be dedicated also to his royal self when even this was the Doctrine appealed for That the children of God may fall away according to the Tenor of our sixteenth Article which saith that After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given and fall into sin and by the Grace of God we may rise again and amend our lives Which the King perceiving to be the words and mind of the Church of England and that Bertius had discerned it a great deal sooner than himself he did not think it below him to grow in Knowledge and Wisdom as well as years To forsake an error repent is an ingenuous and valiant as well as pious nay farther a glorious and Princely thing Therefore Melancthon was not ashamed to write against that opinion which he had formerly been of And my contemptible self till I was Master of Arts of half a years standing was as fully if not as fiercely of Dr.
I have collected in no more than 8. or 9. pages in my Accompt of the Correptory Correction If such of these are no Blasphemies then am not I to be excused for having avowed them to be such But if they are Blaspemies in grain and published to the world by the Authors of them and if the Authors of these Blasphemies are led into them by those opinions which my Reverend Adversary asserteth and I resist how will he make me a reparation for having publickly done me so great a wrong as to blame me for my distinction How can he answer to all good Men to the Church of God and to God himself that it was matter of trouble to him that I should make a distinction of modest Blasphemers and others who for Ligionem Ligonem Is it not a Blasphemy to speak against God Is it not the very blackest and most insufferable-Blasphemy to speak against the very purity and holinesse of God Is not his Purity himself and therefore it is not worse to asperse his purity than to deny his being And have not those Men whom Dr. Reynolds pleads for aspersed the purity of God with all the Fowlest Affirmations that can be thought on Let him or any Man living sit down and study with what variety of words and phrases it is possible to express the Author of sin and I will publickly demonstrate that all that variety of words and phrases hath been used even in print by the Men of that way which he asserteth and I resist in direct Affirmations of God himself I am sufficiently prepared to shew a very large Catalogue besides the several Catalogues already shewn And though I was so courteous as not to name them at the first yet I had reason to say that there were some in the world for Ligonem Ligonem And § 3. Thirdly when I said that some were modest Blasphemers that is bashful and shamefac'd but did not name any Creature I meant Such Writers as have only made God to be the Author of sin by way of necessary consequence and unavoidably deduction but have not said with Borrhaeus that God is the Author of evil whether of punishment or of sin nor with Zuinglius That Adultery or Murder is the work of God nor with Piscator That whatsoever sinners and flagitious men do they do it by the sorce of God's own will nor with Sturmius That God effecteth those things which are sins nor with Musculus that Gods Reprobation is the cause of the incurable Despair nor with Triglandius That both the Elect and Reprobates were preordained to sin quatenus sin nor with Beza That God predestin'd whom he pleased not only to damnation but to the causes of damnation nor yet with Peter Vermilius That God seemeth to be the cause not only of humane actions but of their very defects and privations nor yet with Smoutius that Man ought to have sinned and to have fallen from grace that God might have matter whereon to manifest his Iustice. Now if I was so civil as not to name either the modest or the immodest Blasphemers I should rather have been thank'd by their Disciples and Followers than have been reviled for my civility But § 4. Fourthly Let us descend in particular to those Things and Persons of which my Reverend Antagonist hath undertaken a defense I mean the Citations in my Notes p. 9. and 10. I will begin with that of Zuinglius because neither Mr. B. nor his Friends have yet discovered it to be his at least they have not owned it under its Authors own Name When God makes an Angel or a Man a Transgressor he himself doth not transgresse because he doth not break a Law The very same sin viz. Adultery or Murder in as much as it is the work of God the Author Mover and Compellor it is not a Crime but in as much as it is of Man it is a wickednesse Is not the scope of those words undeniably this That although God is not a sinner yet he maketh both Angels and Men to be so That Adultery or Murder is the work of God although it is not evil in as much as it is his that God is the Author of sin viz. Adultery or Murder though sin is not sin in as much as He is the Author of it nay that God is a Compeller of Men to sin though it is only sin as Men commit it and not as God compels them to it If this cannot be denied why then said the Prefacer that such words are no where to be found in them but rather the contrary That they are there to be found is apparent to all eyes which shall examine the place by my quotation and is abundantly confessed by Dr. Twisse Whom I observe in that place not only approving but commending Zuinglius for those expressions which being every whit as bad as if he had spoken the words himself is all that here needeth to be said of him besides that the sixth seventh ninth and tenth instance in my Notes may here be noted to have been his My first Citation from Mr. Calvin That all things happen by God's Decree c. Without any the least exception of all ungodly and sinful things nay purposely including as well the evil as the good as I shall prove by and by will soon appear to be a Blasphemy to wit a constituting God the Author of sin by the publick confession of Mr. Calvin himself For in a fit of Anger against the Libertines and in other fit of Forgetfulness which Anger easily produceth what himself had said at other times he chanced to let fall these expressions Whilst the drunken Libertines do jabber that all things are made or done by God they constitnte him the Author of Sin Yet Beza saith plainly more plainly than the Libertines That God efficaciously acteth or effecteth all things without any the least exception whatsoever And that Calvin means the same thing when he saith that all things happen by God's Decree is not only very evident by his agreement with Beza in these affairs but by his own positions in other parts of his works as when he saith for example that God did therefore Foresee things because he decreed them and again that no other cause can be rendred for the defection of Angels then that God did reject them Which is to say in effect That God by his rejection or reprobation was the only cause of the first and greatest sin that ever was to wit the defection or rebellion or Apostacy of Angels and again he saith that Man doth sin or do that which is not lawful for him to do which we know is all one impulsu Dei by God's impulse or compulsion or inforcement let him translate impulsus which way he pleaseth And this last as well as the first being one of my instances p. 9. I admire the Author of
Melancthon sayth plainly that the Devill is the Author of Sin what doth he make them to be who say the same of God Almighty Whether they do so or not I again refer it to be judged by what I have shewed in my greater and lesser Catalogue as well as by what I shall shew anon 9. Bishop Cutbert Tunstal of Durham who lived in the dayes of King Henry the eighth and was one of those chief Men who did cast the Papacy out of this Kingdom no Bolsoc therefore a very moderate Writer a great opposer of Pelagianism and very inclinable to the way of Saint Austin as it doth appear by his discourse from p. 35. to p. 40. c. this learned Writer is very severe against the Men of his time who did blaspheme the Majesty of the Lord by imputing the lust of their Petulance to their Creator laying their sins to his charge and alleging this for their Apology that they were predestin'd to be wicked by him that made them These he calls monsters far worse than the Devils because the Devils do not dare to blaspheme God in this manner And thereupon concludes with a Prayer to Christ thae he would purge his Church from these Blasphemies by sealing up the lips of such as vent them Every wicked one saith the Bishop in his following pages doth not fear to affirm that God himself is the Author of his sins and thus blasphemeth within himself Iâ—was created by God to what end God knows If he predestin'd me to Destruction by an immutable Decree why do I kick against the prick and defraud my self of my voluptuousnesse But if I was predestin'd to life Eternal how much soever I sin I shall be saved in the conclusion for his Fore-knowledge concerning me cannot be frustrated or deceived 10. That worthy Disciple of Melancthon Nicolaus Hemmingius whom for his Learning Piety and Moderation perhaps I may call Melancthon Iunior doth seldom or never make mention of snch as propagate the Doctrine of unconditional Decrees and the absolute necessity of all events without a token of his adhorrence and Indignation He calls them stoical imaginations to which he opposeth the Word of God again the stoical opinion of predestination whereby the glory of God is injur'd evil maners confirmed and Epicurism introduced It Feigns an Inequality and partiality in God and makes Men careless to lay hold on that Grace which is offered unto all Again This perverse opinion is not only blasphemous against God but also seduceth many Men either into despair of forgivenesse or into carnal security Again by stoical Dreams and fatal Books and the Tables of the Destinies which they imagin and fancy to themselves they do miserably intangle themselves and pernitiously pervert others Again a little after he obliquely compares them to the Family of Zeno and concludes with an Exhortation not to value or esteem those stoical Decrees though some great Men do patronize them These are the expressions of that Grave writer who was publick professor of Divinity to the King of Denmark and is acknowledged by a Dissenter to have spoken of Dissenters as became a Servant of Iesus Christ. 11. The Ingenuous Author of the preface before Castellio as Mr. B. himself did very happily call him affirms the necessity of all things future to be an opinion invented by the Devil for the destruction of Christian people and to be left wholly to the Mahumetans and men desperately wicked as being the Fountain of most enormities in Christendom which I observe the rather because our Correptorie Correptor gave him in the Epithete of Ingenuous and because he speaks more sharply than I did although his motive is not so great for the Men whom I accused had said much worse and in words more silthy than that there is a necessity of all things Future 12. Immortal Grotius in his InvestigatioÌ„ of Antichrist doth devoutly breath forth into this expostulation To whom can the Name of Antichrist or him that opposeth himself against God be more agreeable than to them who make the good God to be the Auctor and Fautor of all Impieties Thereupon he reckons up some of their prodigious speeches who are wont to hide themselves with their pretended enmity to Arminius of which I intend to give accompt in my following Section I will only here observe that he alludes to those very Men who were a part of my Catalogue and shewes how contrary they are to the Protestant Confession at Augusta and therein to Melancthon which teacheth Free-will in the Orthodox Notion Art 18. and that the will of the wicked is the cause of their wickednesse Art 19. and that they who are not righteous who commit mortal sins because God requires that we resist our vile affections Art 20. and which condemns them that say That men being once justified can never lose the Holy Ghost Ib. editionis Grotianae 34. 13. It is no less than Ranck Blasphemy to make God the Author of sin Psal. 5. 4. Our sin is our own and the wages of sin is Death He that doth the work earns the wages so then the righteous God is cleared both of the sin and our death only his Iustice payes what we will needs deserve we ought to give the Divel his due it is possible for us to wrong that Malignant Spirit in casting upon him those evils which are not properly His. There are carnal Temptations that are raised out of our own corrupt Nnture which needs not Satans immediate hand being once depraved we can act evil of our selves and if Sathan be the Father of sin our will is the Mother and sin is the cursed Issue of both The Divel could not take unless we gave our will berayes us to his Tyranny and before p. 102. how unjustly hath the presumption of Blasphemous Cavillers been wont to cast the envy of their Condemnation meerly upon the absolute will of an unrespective power as if the Damnation of the Creature were only a supreme will not of a just merit c. How very heavily this falls in several respects upon all my Accusers any Reader who is awake cannot chuse but see without a Candle or a Comment These few examples few I mean in comparison of what I am able to produce are enough to make it appear hovv very mildly I spake in the Correct Copy of my Notes and through how great an in advertency I have been blamed I hope he vvill not now say that Imputations of such a strain as are found in the vvritings of antient Fathers and Councels and modern Divines of the Protestant Church might have been left by Men professing Modesty unto Bolsec and others of their complexiou But what will he say if I said no more against the Teachers of such Doctrine than themselves by sits have many times said against themselves I will shew in one paragraph the great severity of their Censures and
in another I will manifest how very patly those Censures do hit themselves § 6. Sixthly therefore Is it not so that Mr. Calvin disputing against the Libertines is fain to say in plain terms that from this one Article God worketh all things three things do follow extremely frightful of which the first is that there will be no difference between God and the Devil c. nay further in the next Chapter that God must be renouuced by himself and be transmuted into the Devil And doth not Beza himself incur that censure whilst he so interprets that Text God worketh all things Ep. 1. 11. As to say to that that unversal particle all could not be restrained by any the least exception that sins themselves cannot be excepted And doth not Calvin say again the direct contrary to Beza that S. Paul there speaks only of the graces of the Holy Ghost and yet doth not Beza cite Calvins own judgement for his exposition which is so contrary to Calvins as when he saith that in the judgement of Calvin those things which are wickedly done by Men are the righteous works of God And again doth not Calvin incur his own censure by what he saith in my greater and lesser Catalogue and in many other places which I can name if challenged to it or if he had not thus spoken against himself yet is it sufficient for my plea against my Assailant that he hath spoken such bitter things as have lighted so heavily upon his own Party He saith expresly elsewhere that it is a monstrous prodigious Blasphemy to say that God is the Author of Sin and consents that any thing be said against it Now it having been evidenced as it shall be also farther that the chief men of his Party have affirmed that horrible proposition both in equivalent and down-right Terms and in Terms of a more fulsom and blacker strain it being worse to compel men to sin than to be simpliciter an Author of it I was permitted by his leave to have spoken as sharply as any Bolsec of those expressions which I mentioned and I had thanks due to me for having been no sharper 2. Doctor Whitaker himself hath these words following If Calvin or Martyr or any of our Men affirm God to be the Author and cause of sin I do not deny our being guilty all of us of detestable Blasphemy and wickednesse Here the Reader may observe a very remarkable Concession in 3. respects First if any of their Party shall so affirm not only Calvin and Martyr Secondly if any shall so affirm they are all of them guilty without exception of which the reason must needs be this because they do all without exception hold the very same principles of irrespective Decrees of Reprobation c. and the absolute necessity of all events from whence any of them do draw such detestable conclusions Thirdly that they are all of them guilty of horrible blasphemy and wickednes if there is any Truth in that supposition From which three things I do in charity conclude that if Doctor Whitaker had observed such affirmations of his party as have been observed by Melancthon learned Moulin my insignificant self and many others without number he would have been frighted out of their Tenents of unconditional reprobation as Melancthon and Moulin are known to have been For Zuinglius Martin Borrhaeus and others have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in plain Terms that God is the Author of the evil of sin and that sin is the work of God and particulariz'd in Adultery and Murther Zanchy hath said that Men were prae-ordained by God to sin as sin Piscator hath assirmed that Reprobates are predestin'd to the very Causes of Damnation that is to sins and that Incredulity by name doth depend upon God's Predestination as the Cause upon the effect Triglandius saith God willeth and effectheth that ungodly Men do live in their concupiscences Musculus avoweth that God's Reprobation is the hidden Cause of final despair no peccadillo These are some of that party and of the chief Come now to those Men which he particularly nameth viz. Calvin and Martyr Calvin saith That there is no other cause of the Angels Defection which was the first and greatest sin that ever was but God's rejection or Reprobation Nay farther that Men do sin by God's Impulse And Peter Martyr speaks as broadly as ever Man did which though I have publickly shewed already yet because he is the Man whom Doctor Whitaker thought fit to Name I shall set down a passage which I have since observed in reading his Comment upon the Book of Samuel The vulgar sort saith he are of opinion that when God is said to blind to harden to deliver up to send delusions and to deceive nothing else is signified but that he permitteth that those things be done And to that same purpose very many of the Fathers he should have said all do interpret those expressions And doubtless they were induced so to do because they thought it impious and blasphemous that God should be accounted the Author of sin and because they were unwilling that Men should lay the causes of their sins upon God himself But he would have them all to know that God doth not only permit but also Will Sin Here we have a Taste of this valiant Florentine who contemns the cowardize of the vulgar such as Melancthon and Hemmingius and the squeamishnesse of the Primitive Fathers because they were startled at such Buggs as God's being the Author or cause of sin So again in his Comment upon the Epistle to the Romans he confesseth that all the Fathers at least almost all do teach that to deliver up to sin doth signify no more than to suffer or permit or forsake because they have an abhorence to the saying that God is the cause of sin But he rejects their opinion and pretends to refel it by striving to dissipate their Reasons p. 79 80. and so he finally concludes against them and to confirm what he hath done without the least fear of the Fathers Scar-Crowes he makes Austin to be for him whom he confesseth to be against him and whose words against him he first of all citeth before those others which he will have to make for him From all which it followes that I had the favourable allowance of Mr. Calvin and Dr. Whitaker to accuse those writers of horrid Blasphemy and wickedness who are commended by my Adversary for their deep acquaintance with the mind of God But I have not yet shewed him the last degree of his misfortune in that Assault which he made upon my Cause and Reputation For § 7. Seventhly I have the suffrage and Vote almost of all and of such whom I am sure he will not dare to contradict that the men of that party which he defendeth are guilty of all and
wholly be ascribed to the Devil himself yet saith Piscator God made men hoc consilio with this counsel or to this purpose that they really might sin Again Prosper saith that nothing of those affairs was predestin'd by God that it should be done Yet saith Mr. Barlee God wills that sin should fall out p. 78. He is an absolute determiner in a soveraign way of the several acts of obedience and Disobedience in relation to Them p. 88. He did voluntarily decree that sin shall fall out p. 73. nor can Mr. B. mean a conditional but an absolute Decree witness his principles what he saith p. 88. He doth determine that sin shall be done p. 79. and may be said to tempt men unto-sin ibid. and many the like but also may much worse as hath been shewed 7. The late Primate of Armagh hath from the very Patrons of that Cause which I oppose put this confession upon Record That he doth evidently and horribly blaspheme gainst God who saith that he imposeth any necessity of sinning upon his Creatures because he thereby makes him to be the Author of sin by compelling men thereunto yet these men say that God necessitates sin that it cannot possibly but come to pass and that he secretly thrusts men on to those sins which he forbid's and when Mr. Barlee justifies the like expression in Mr. Calvin he adds his own wit to it and illustrates God's stirring up of sinners by a mans setting of Spurs to a Dull Iade p. 61. and whilst he saith that God is not blamable in so doing he skips from the Question which is not whether God doth sin but whether he willeth the sins of his Creatures and impels them to wicked acts so that he saith in effect the same with Piscator who endeavours to blaspheme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be civilly injurious against his maker by saying that God doth holily thrust men on unto wickedness that he may punish sins with sins And this perhaps may be the reason why Mr. B. will not hear of any fall from Grace either final or Total and why he is so indulgent to Davids Adultery and Murder how much soever aggravated by many foul and black circumstances as to say they did not place him in a state of damnation but only robb'd him of the joy of it of which what reason can be rendred except this one that David was a better Adulterer and committed a wilfull premeditated murder more holily and unblameably than other men as if his sins were the lesse damning by being committed against a clearer light and against greater obligations and against more means of Grace than what is afforded to the Reprobates But farther 8. The famous Archbishop of Lions who is reckoned by them a Patron too will be as much in their disfavour as I have been whilst they shall reflect upon what he saith on the same occasion viz. That if God had brought upon any man a necessity of doing wickedly he had been then the Author of sins how much for my opinion and against them whom I oppose my opponents themselves may now Conjecture 9. Bishop Cutbert Tunstal having pronounced it to be more than a hellish Blasphemy to say that God is the Author of sin as appears by the place already cited proceeds to discover the very Grounds of so great Impiety and those he judgeth to be Three viz. the Doctrines or Tenents 1. That every will of God is a Decree and unreversible 2. That Predestination is instead of Fate 3. That the foreknowledge of God doth imprint a necessity on what is future Which he therefore thinks needfull to be confuted as the original of the evil and accordingly sets about it in three distinct Chapters These things being spoken of our Adversaries Doctrins even by them who are wont to be reckoned upon as Patrons they may receive their confirmation from other Protestant writers But I will first mention one who is too old to be a Protestant although an Orthodox member of the very same Church 10. The Anonymous Author of the book intitled Praedestinatorum Haeresiis one of St. Austin's Contemporaries set out by learned Sirmondus doth reckon the opinion of unconditional Degrees to be none of the least of all those Heresies of which his Book is composed and accordingly give 's it this solemn Title The ninetieth Heresy which asserteth that sins are committed by the Predestination of God 11. Certainly Grotius if ever any man did understood the Importance of words and phrases he knew when an Inference was right or wrong and out of what things what things do follow But he affirmeth that those men do make God to be the Author of all the Villanies in the world who say that men are predestinated to sin as sin that Reprobates are predestin'd to this condition that they are constrained with a necessity of sinning and that without repentance that God doth act the wicked to sin that he may punish him justly that men were made to this purpose that they might fall that God doth justly when he necessitates men to sin because he hath the power to govern as he will that God worketh all things in all yea even in the wicked that it is God who seduceth draweth commandeth hardeneth inciteth to wicked actions and that they also are called outwardly to Salvation upon whom God purposed not to bestow it by an immutable Decree This is that that makes God to be the Author of sin in the unparalleled judgement of that Great man and although he doth not name the Authors of those several expressions yet the Authors of them are so obvious that I am very well able to name the Books and pages where they are written and shall do it as readily as any Adversary will have me 12. He adds another sort of the same mens Aphorismes whereby they speak God to be the cherisher of sins as when they teach that the faithful can fall into Adulteries Murders Treasons but yet they can never fall from Grace but do still remain men after Gods own heart nor are their sins any hinderance or disadvantage to them because all their sins are remitted both past and future That the faithfull cannot fall from the Grace of God by any grievous sins no not so much as for a time and that the contrary opinion savours of hellish Incredulity and proceedeth from the Devil and many more maxims of this kind may be collected saith Grotius from this kind of men And because the Augustan confession which is unpassionately purely and discreetly protestant doth condemn those Doctrins which are taught by those men who call themselves Protestants as well as we and Reformers forsooth of our very Reformation I did therefore in my Notes prefer the Augustan confession to any other of the Protestants except our own and thence Mr. B. was so unhappy as to tell the world that out of pure love to the Augustan confession
I am extreamly addicted to the Mâ—sse of Ceremonies with how profound an Incongruity English Scholars may now judge 11. The most learned Bishop Mountague with whom for knowledge of Antiquity perhaps there have not been many who will compare hath left these words upon Record in his very Appeal to King Iames whom my Assailant hath quoted as an utter Enemy to Arminius unlesse from damned Hereticks or stoical Philosophers I never yet read in Antiquity of any prime previous determining Decree by which men were irrespectively denyed grace excluded from Glory or enforced to Salvation Should I set down the censures of as many writers as I am able wherewith my Adversaries Doctrins have been condemned I should hardly make an end before the Greek Calends I hope that these are sufficient to convince my Reverend Antagonist that I was not the first much less the only Person who hath spoken severely of those opinions in opposition to which my Notes were written and that few have ever spoken of them with greater Patience and moderation then I there did and that He by consequence hath misplaced his reprehensions and under pretense of beating me hath struck at those Authors whose words I have alleaged in this long Section and whether purposely or through Incogitancy I cannot tell he hath scourged them all upon my Back Not only Grotius and such as hee but Irenaeus nay Polycarp St. Austin and Prosper nay the Arausican Councel Bishop Abbot and Bishop Hall nay Remigius himself and the whole Church of Lyons Peter Moulin and Melancthon nay Doctor Whitaker himself His own Brethren of the upper and lower way nay Doctor Twisse and Mr. Calvin have not escaped him These are not all whom I have cited in vindication of my severity against those Doctrines which are severe against God Amongst them all there is not a Bellarmine or a Bolsec though in such a point as this is they are as fit to be heard as any others because the points debated are neither Protestant nor Popish or if they are either they are both And when the queâ—tion is whether black or white is the lighter Colour or least fit for mourning I suppose a Papists Iudgment upon that matter may be allow'd They having sense and reason and erudition as well as we Besides The Papists do cast no more upon Protestants than upon those other Papists who jump with the Calvinists in these opinions Nor do the Protestants cast more upon the Papists than upon those other Protestants who jump with the Papists in these opinions Nor do the Papists say worse of the Protestants than some Protestants do of Papists And if my Assailant knew this before I told him I wish he had considered as well as known it But not to speak of their suffrages if those unquestionable Authors whom I have cited have only beaten the precious spices as so many Confectioners merely to draw out the fragrant sent I do not envie their being beaten but am very well content that they smel as sweetly as they are able § 8. Eighthly Now I have shewed what it was upon which I fastned the charge of Blasphemy and that I could not in charity or in conscience have spoken less than I did I cannot but mark in the next place the tranâ—cendent partiality of Dâ— Reynolds who having timely perused the whole Correptory Correption before it was sent unto the Presse whilest yet it was capable of some Amendment was yet so far from blotting out those vast excesses of Rayling which his eyes beheld in every page against my person and my opinion and against every great Author who seemed to stand in his way that he rather endevour'd to prove it lawful nor only lawfull but even necessary in writings of this nature they are his own words He farther prompted him to a Text to comfort him up in his commissions And so the Correptory Corrector being an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Favourite or white Boy may be allowed to frame a charge of Atheism both Major and Minor against all that agree not to God necessitating of sin His Book may be commended as an elaborate and learned piece for calling slanderous Dragon and nooneday Devil Satanical Blasphemer an exceeder of the Devil himself in Blasphemy worse than Diabolical and a maker of God to be worse than the Devil Whereas when I did but distinguish of modest Blasphemers and such as were for Ligonem Ligonem without the naming of any person that is of such as speak God to be the Author of sin in those very broad and down-right Terms and of such as say the same thing in terms lesse Blunt I was surprised from the Presse with a chiding Preface and modestly accused of immodesty and implicitly affirmed to be of Bolsec's complexion and all this by a Person professing Friendship and Civility But now I hope he will confess that I had great and weighty Reasons to say that the Maâ—ichees and Marcioâ—ites were not so bad in their Assertions as they who teach with contention that God is the Author or cause of sin and for this I have the judgement of Irenaeus who saith that the Hereticks never durst to entertain such an opinion as should but seem to make God the Author of sin He speaks of Hereticks in general of all that were without the Church and no doubt but Carpocrates as well as Marcion was in his memory and his mind because he hath written concerning the Heresies of both Was it not better or lesse ill to make two principles coeternal the one distinctly of good the other distinctly of evil than to ascribe all evil to the God of all goodnesse ' Bate but the word Coeternal and we shall find it good Doctrine that of good and evil there are two distinct principles God of the first and Lucifer of the second Now those Hereticks not believing the liberty of the will and thereupon not understanding that without the liberty of the will of the Creature no imaginable wickedness could ever have come into the world they concluded that God must be its Author But then again considering that the very same fountain cannot yield both killing and healing water and that the best as well as worst fruit doth never grow from one Tree and that uncleannesse as well as purity could not possibly issue from the very same God they found it safer to conclude that there were two distinct Gods to be the contrary principles of good and evil than that the very same God should be the Fountain and source of both so that the Heresie of Marcion may seem to be in this respect a degree of Reformation for though he ran into a mischief extremly great yet it was with an intent to escape a greater And if it were not so as I have said why was it said by Irenaeus that the Hereticks themselves had never the boldnesse to affirm that the God of holinesse and purity was the original Fountain or Cause
of sin So far was Carpocrates from such a boldnesse that being not able to discern how the will of men and Angels was able to choose the things forbidden and to refuse the things commanded aâ—d thereby to be the cause of sin he rather chose to say that there is no sin at all that good and evil are only words and only differ in the fancies and opinions of men than to say that one God is the cause of both For if all things are done by Gods will and decree they must all be good because he will'd and decreed them But Carpocrates thought then what our Adversaries say now that all things are done without exception by Gods will and decree upon which he conluded â—that all things are good without exception and that sin as well as conscience is nothing else but a political or Ecclesiastical word So that his foul Heresie of making no sin at all in comparison of the other which feigneth God to be its Author may also seem a pretender to some Degree of Reformation From both these cases it doth appear that the very worst of the worst opinions must be that which makes God to be the Author of sin and when men are frighted by such a Fiend to fly for sanctuary to any thing that lyeth next let every rational man judge how smooth a passage lay open for such as Carpocrates and Marcion to enter and lye down and nuzzle themselves in an opinion that there is no God at all and that Atheisme it self is a comparative Reformation that is a flying out of the greatest into somewhat a lesser evil All which mischiefs would be avoided if men were so humble as to acknowledge that they themselves are the Authors of sin and misery 2 That their Wills are free and not necessitated to sin 3 That being free they can choose either to shun or to embrace it 4 That God's witholding of grace is no mans guilt but mans abusing of grace which God afforded 5 That God expecteth to receive after the measure that he hath given 6 That no man living can be condemned for never having had a Talent but for having been an ill seruant in wilfully squandring it away or in the wilful neglect of its Improvement And now I hope it is evident from all that hath hitherto been spoken that there was reason and modesty in all I said concerning modest and immodest Blasphemers who say directly or indirectly That God is the Author and cause of sin And therefore § 9. Ninthly My Reverend Assailant is least of all to be excused for that which he adds in the last part of this Paragraph viz. that their Lord and Brethren before them have met with the same measure Mar. 2. 7. Mat. 26. 65. Act. 6. 13. But here I ask him and let him answer if he is able and if he is not let him confesse his error Did Christ ever let fall such expressions as those which I have proved to be blasphemous Did our Lord and Master ever say that men do break God's Law by God's own Impulse or Compulsion or by his precept and command That God can will that man shall not fall by his revealed will and in the mean while ordain by his seâ—ret will that the same man shall infallibly and efficaciously fall Did our Saviour ever say so much as in appearance That God doth make men Transgressors That Adultery is the work of him the Author mover and Impeller That God's Decree is no less efficacious in the permission of evil than in the production of good That God doth not only prostitute men to sins and administer the occasions of sinning but doth also so move and urge them that they may smite the sinners minde and really affect his imagination Was He called Blasphemer for such things as these and were not These the very things upon which in My Notes I laid my charge Things confessed to be Blasphemie by the very Authors and Patrons of them when in their sober fits or lucid Intervals they look upon them as spoken by other men See the matchless absurdity of the comparison by consulting those Texts to which my Adversary refers us Iesus said to the sick of the palsie Son thy sins be forgiven thee upon which said the Scribes within their hearts why doth this man thus speak blasphemies Mark 2. 7. Iesus toâ—ilate â—ilate that he was the Christ the son of God whereupon the High Priest rent his cloaths saying He hath spoken blasphemie what farther need have we of witnesses Behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy Mat. 26. 65. St. Stephen did miracles among the people and disputed against the Iews and therefore they suborned men to say that they heard him speak blasphemous words Acts 6. 11 13. Let these sayings of Christ and of St. Stephen be well compared with the sayings of Mr. Calvin and his Disciples and we shall find the difference to be as great as betwixt Christ and Calvin betwixt the followers of Christ and the followers of Calvin betwixt St. Stephen and Dr. Twisse or betwixt me and those Iews in our several Churches And here I challenge his answer to this Dilemma Did our Lord and St. Stephen meet with the very same measure from the Iews which the men whom I cited received from me or did they not If he shall answer that they did then must he prove that the sayings of those men whom I cited were as far from blasphemy as the saying of Christ and St. Stephen or that the sayings of Christ and St. Stephen had as much of blasphemie in them as those which I cited for making God to be the Author of sin But if he shall answer that they did not he must not only eat his words in a Corner but make publick satisfaction not only to me but to every one of those Authors whom I have quoted in this chapter speaking much more sharply than I have done He alone is to be blamed that this Dilemma doth fall so very heavily upon him It was no fault of mine that he would needs utter that which reflecteth upon him with so much sharpnesse but on the contrary I wish aâ—d I wish it heartily that he had either brought me an harder argument or at least that he had given me a softer word CHAP. V. E. R. There have been men of great Learning and not wholly devoted to the Iudgment of Calvin who have taught even Dissenters thus to say of him Calvino illustri viro nec unquam sine summi honoris praefatione nominando non assentior T. P. § 1. BEhold the utmost that I can gather from this third way of arguing Men of great learning have spoken honourably of Calvin therefore I have done ill to call that blasphemie whereby God is concluded to be the Author of sin It might suffice me to say that I deny his Sequel but I have something to say besides for first there is not a Page in all my Notes
wherein I give Mr. Calvin the least dishonourable Term. I fairly name him and cite his words and consider the matter of which he speaks and shew the reason of my dislike and so I am sure did Bishop Andrews and therefore this paragraph is nothing at all to the purpose unless it would intimate to the Reader that I had said of Mr. Calvin what its Author knows I never did if I have forgot and he remembers let him do me the justice to name the time or the place § 2. He confesseth that Bishop Andrews had his dislikes to Calvin and that himself doth not jurare in verba either of Calvin or any other amongst whom Dr. Twisse must needs be one and why might not I dissent from either And offer my arguments or reasons against their Doctrine whilst he knows I meddl'd with nothing else I spake indeed of Blasphemers without applying the word to any person in particular yet I meant it of all in general who have any way affirmed God to be the Author of sin But my Adversary applyed it to Mr. Calvin and Dr. Twisse which why should he have done unless he thought he had reason for it by verily believing that they were guilty Yet he compares me to the Iews imputing Blasphemy to Christ. How much better had he applyed it unto the Correptory Correptor who suborn'd false witnesse a Revâ—rend Minister he call'd him but no man living can tell where he dwells to make me a Ranter and a what-not Fictions as remote from all probability as well as truth as the wit of Calumny could have removed them whereas I spake not a word of Mr. Calvin or Dr. Twisse which was so much as uncivil much less untrue I had no such word as Calvino-Turcismus nor did I call him an Enemy to the three persons in the Trinity for calling them Tres proprietates nor did I call him an enemy to the Nicene Creed for not approving of Christs being God of God nor did I say with Hunnius Calvinus Iudaizans or that the fault of Impertinence and falshood was laid by Calvin to the charge of three Evangelists St. Matthew Mark and Iohn nor did I call Mr. Calvin as Mr. Calvin called others viz. Serpent Pest Fool Hangman Knave Devil Impudent Impostor and filthy Dog These and others without number are Mr. Calvins own Terms which he frequently heapeth upon great and good Men yet every Reader is my witness that I did not fasten on Mr. Calvin any one uncomely or unfriendly Epithete though Bucer himself had called him Fratricide so I can say of Dr. Twisse that I did not call him Antinomian as he is said to have been called in the Assembly of Divines but whether truely or falsely I cannot tell I can name a worthy person who professeth to have read it in Mr. Baxter Nor did I use him as others use me nor as he himself was wont to use others I had to do with his Doctrine but not with his person § 3. To conclude If my Assailant is so zealous of other Mens good Names as to complain of me in publick for meerly seeming to be injurious In how tragical a manner must he needs protest against that great number of Ministers all I think of his party who have reckon'd the Reverend Doctor Hammond a person never to be mention'd without a preface of Honour and Veneration amongst the Cursed Blasphemers the abominable erroneous and the Damnable Hereticks of the Times alleaging no better reason than this which follows That in his practical Catechism he had used these words Christ was given to undergo a shameful Death voluntarily upon the Crosse to satisfie for the sin of Adam and for all the sins of Mankind Whosoever shall compare these few plain words both with the Articles of the Church of England and with the whole Tenor of the Scriptures he will think it somewhat more than wonderful that Men should be so unlucky in their Devices as to rank the greatest Maxime of Christian Religion amongst the greatest Abominations that they were able to describe Aud which if it had been a Blasphemy they themselves had been guilty of the thing which they condemned by having said it in effect in the very same Book p. 32. line 14 15 16 17. Or if he will not be severely sensible of this irreverence to Dr. H. yet what damnatory sentence will he pronounce on Mr. Baxter who hath laid to the charge of Mr. Pemble aud Dr. Twisse That their own mistake of Iustification's being an immanent Act of God did lead them to that error and Pillar of Antinomianism viz. Iustification from Eternity adding further in the same Book That they sought against Iesuits and Arminians with the Antimonian Weapons and so they ran into the far worse Extreme and immediately after undertakes to demonstrate that The Doctrine of Christ's immediate actual Delivering us from guilt wrath and condemnation is the very Pillar and Foundation of the whole Frame and Fabrick of Antinomianism And what his Thoughts are of the Antinomian Faith he hath expressed elsewhere by A believing the Devil the Father of Lyes and not God yea against God A resting on the deceivng Promise of the Devil for justification and are not such like to be well justified by their Accuser nay it is a making the Devil their God c. Not many Pages before this He had laid it to the charge of the same Dr. Twisse that The physical active Determination of Mans Will to sin or the act which is sinful by Gods effectual Influx is asserted by him professing also just before that He detested their Doctrine and way of preaching who teach Men to lay the chief cause of their sin and Damnation from themselves on God and would have wicked men believe that none but the Elect do sin against the Price that was paid for them and so would quiet their Consciences in Hell as if they were not guilty of any such sin Now if Dr. Twisse was so eminent a servant of Christ and so deeply acquainted with the mind of God as my Assailant is pleas'd to dictate his next Assault I suppose ought to be made on Mr. Baxter of whom it hath also been elsewhere shewed that he hath spoken not a little to the Discredit of Mr. Calvin CHAP. VI. E. R. But it is no new thing to draw invidious consequences from such opinions as we have a mind to render odious unto the world A Fate which hath ever followed these controversies from the beginning of them Nine or ten Pelagian Calumnies Austin that renowned Champion of Grace is put to remove in his second and third Books contra duas Episto las Pelagianorum In the Epistles of Prosper and Hilary unto him we find many heavy consequents charged by the Massilians upon his Doctrine de vocatione secundum proposituÌ„ de Praedestinatione that it giveth occasion of sinning makes men careless of
opinion of Reprobation for which the Synod at Dort thought fit to thank him I say they thank'd him for all his Letter without exception of any period although they could not but know that he was perfectly Arminian in what he said of Reprobation It seems Du-Moulin was a Favourite and for his other opinions sake to be commended even for that for which a Remonstrant had had their Correptory Correption § 3. How inexcusable the Doctrins of many Calvinists have been and how little to be owned by the more ingenuous of their own party the Reader may easily pass a judgement by these following observations First the Remonstrants were submonished by the President of the Synod who must be remembred to be Bogerman not to exagitate the pâ—int of Reprobation but rather to insist on the pleasant Doctrin of election thereby discovering where his shooes did most pinch him Secondly the Remonstrants repeating that submonition affirm it to have been that they should rather meddle with Election than with the odious matter of Reprobation And had they added the word odious or put it iâ— stead of odiosè they had been certainly reprehended by them that had them in subjection Thirdly from the beginning to the ending of that affair the Synod would not indure to hear what the Remonstrants could object against the Calvinists Doctrins of Reprobation but commanded them to answer to all such Questions as Mr. Bogerman should please to ask them Fourthly there were some in the Synod of more moderate dispositions and fearing God who did plead for a Rejection of such expressions as appeared to make God the Author of sin which is a Token of their dislike although they could not prevail against the Number of their Opponents nor indeed is it a wonder when such men as Triglandius must have the composing of their Canons Fifthly when they find such expressions in the Dominicans writings or the Iesuits they are forward enough to fling a stone at them although they cannot look inward and see themselves sure he that spies a Mote in his Adversaries Eye commends not the Beam that is in his own If Ocham and Gabriel are confessed by Medina to have said that God is the Cause of sin and that in the rigour or propriety of speech Mr. B. will tell us that we shall not find that expression in any Calvinist of Note as if the men in my larger Catalogue had been obscure if it is added by the Dominicans that God determins the will of the Creature to every act of sin it self Dr. Twisse will say that the Calvinists have not discovered their judgement in terms so plain as if peccatum qua peccatum and adultery in particular had been concealments of their opinion Sixthly Let them say what it is to be the Author of sin and how many wayes an Agent is said to be an Author and by how many expressions it may be spoken or made out and I will parallel it all from some or other of their writers § 4. If there were any possibility of excusing the words and expressions of my Assailant's Party why should he make it his last refuge to judge of their words by their Intentions when all that are Mortals have thought it fitter to judge of mens Intentions by the signification of their words God alone we all grant is the searcher of the heart and the infallible discerner of mens Intentions Yet as my Correptory Correptor did make it his ordinary practice to confute my heart and report my thoughts and quarrel with my Intentions when he found my words were true and candid and so cross to his ends as not to be liable in the least to his exceptions so here my Reverend Antagonist on the contrary extreme which is indeed much the better will needs be sure that his Brethren intended no more than Austin before them did say And again that they intended no more than by multitudes of places of Scripture they were led unto Suppose it were possible that he being but a man should know their Intentions however different from their words yet he cannot but remember that I accused their words not their Intentions And I judged of their words by what they signifyed not by what they did conceale If we may judge of their Intentions by such Interpreters as Maccovius Piscator Zuinglius Peter Martyr and the like and if such men may be allowed to judge of intentions by words such as I have mentioned Chap. 4. § 6. 7. then I have made it appear that I have hit their intentions too § 5. But let us look a little more neerly into his words sure we are that protestant Divines have intended no more than Austin before them did say c. 1. Protestant Divines is very equiuocally spoken For those that are of the Remonstrant's opinions are known to be Protestants as well as others of whom notwithstanding he will not aver that they intend no more than Austin said 2. The Papists as he confesseth of Baronius and must confess of many more dislike receding from S. Austin as much as any of their kinsmen the Prebyterians which proves the notreceding from Austin to be not the least character of a Protestant Divine 3. Hath Austin any where said what I cited out of those men If my Opponent will produce either the same expressions or others equal to them then will He not I be the accuser of S. Austin But as he hath not done it so I have reasons to believe he is not able 4. Suppose there had been such profanenesse in any part of Austins writings this would only have inferred he was not then Saint Austin Nor would falshood have been the better for having proceeded out of his mouth He that shall say the child is damn'd that is not baptized before he dyes or that hath not received the other Sacrament of Eucharist may say he means no more than Austin said but yet he must be taught to mend his meaning and his words too The truth ' on t is Austin was not only a Learned but a well-natur'd man and desired nothing more than that he might not be followed in any one of his Infirmities For neither ought I to deny they are Austins own words that there are many things as in my very manners so in my works also which may not only without rashnesse but very justly and judiciously be blamed Thus we see that Father had more humility than his Admirers and took a care not to be able to authorize their Errors Nor will I here conceal the publick confession of Mr. Calvin because confession is one step to Repentance and to be thought to have repented is the greatest Honour in the world His confession was this That of at any time his works should be reprinted he would moderate mitigate those things wherein he feared the danger of scandal or offense Indeed these words do help to
wipe off the stains which his unwary Admirers are wont to fasten upon his Name whil'st instead of contending that he was sorry for his failings and intended to publish his Recantation they indeavour to justifie what he condemn'd and so the Calvinists in effect do write the most against Calvin So vast a difference there is betwixt them that are but the Followers of that Learned man and us who are his real Friends Who do not follow him where he erred through thick and thin but just as far as he follow'd Truth and as far as we hope he did intend his Retractations § 6. Whereas my Assailant is pleas'd to add that they intended no more than by multitudes of places of Scripture they were led unto referring by figures to many Texts but in words at length not naming One I have several things in answer to him First who told him that they intended no more or that places of Scripture did lead them to the speaking of what they speak 2. What Errors or Heresies have there been within Christendome which have not pretended the very same thing that multitudes of Scripture did lead them to their assertions 3. Why did he not compare one of the frightfullest speeches which I accused with any one Text of Scripture by him producible 4. Let him name for the future one place of Scripture whereby Zuinglius was led to say That God makes a man Transgressor that Adultery or Murder is the work of God the Author Mover and Impeller what places of Scripture led Smoutius Vermilius Beza Triglondius Musculus Sturmius Piscator Borrhaeus not to mention the Doctrines of Mr. Calvin Dr. Twisse Mr. Hobs and a multitude the like to say that God is the Author of evil whether of punishment or of sin that wicked men sin by the force of Gods will that God effecteth those things that are sins that his Reprobation is the cause of incurable despair that both the Elect and the Reprobates were ordained to sin Quatenns Sin that he is the cause not only of the actions but of the very defects and privations that is of the obliquities irregularities and sinfulnesses themselves Thus we see who they are whose Doctrines of irrespective and unconditional Reprobation not places of Scripture have led them to charge God with sinfull actions sins sinfulnesse metaphysically abstracted beyond which no language no tongue can speak above which no fancy no wit can reach 5. Though the wonder already is very great yet will it still be much greater if we compare one of the Texts by which they are said to be led to their Intentions of speaking thus The first Text he refers to is Gen. 45. 5 6 7 8. from which place it is evident that God is affirmed by Ioseph to be the Author of much good which his guilty Brethren never thought of but not at all of the evil which they thought against him And it will seem to me somewhat more than strange if Dr. Reynolds cannot distinguish betwixt God's permitting or suffering evil to fall out by the wills of wicked men which are free to evil and by which they are said not to be unavoidably fatally or necessarily wicked but to be voluntarily and wilfully wicked I say it is somewhat more than strange if he cannot distinguish betwixt Gods permitting that evil that he might draw good out of it and his being the Author or Cause of that Evill upon occasion of which the good is wrought Before he had resolved to give an instance from that Text he should have compared it with what went before chap. 37. where because Iacob loved Ioseph more than all his Brethren v. 4. and therefore made him a finer Coat v. 3. they hated Ioseph and could not speak peaceably unto him v. 4. but they did not hate him by the Impulse of God as Mr. Calvin at first spake nor did God urge them or smite their mindes as Dr. Twisse For the Devil and their own Flesh one or both did intice and tempt though they could not force them to hate their Brother Well Joseph dreamed a Dream which was also a Prophecy that his Brethrens sheaves should make obeisance to his v. 6 7. which dream was from God and accordingly both good and true But his brethren hated him the mor◠v. 8. which greater hatred was from the Flesh and the Devil Joseph kind to his brethren as well as obedient to his Father went to seek out his brethren from the vale of Hebron to Sichem and thence to Dothan v. 14 17. This was from God But before he came to them they conspired against him to slay him v. 18. This from the flesh and the Devil Reuben said let us not kill him shed no bloud and would fain have rid him out of their hands to deliver him again unto his Father v. 21 22. This was from God the wise and holy disposer of all that happens to his Glory But they plunder'd Ioseph of his Coat and sold his Body to the Ishmalites for 20. pieces of silver v. 23 28. This was meerly from the flesh and the Devil being not hindered but permitted by the long-suffering God to execute their wills against his own And this he suffered the rather that he might order and dispose their wicked Fact of cruelty to their innocent Brother which was also their Rebellion against the commandement and will of their patient God to many great aud good ends which never could enter into their thoughts For by the wise and holy providence of God whose excellency it is to draw good out of evil not evil out of Good Joseph was sold by the Midianites into Egypt v. 36. and aduanced in Potiphar's House c. 39. 5. and by his Interpreting of Dreams which was a gift from God and not from Satan he was so advanced from one degree to another that he was made a Father to King Pharaoh Lord of his House aud Ruler over his land ch 45. 8. This was Gods doing but no sin sure for injured Ioseph to be advanced There was a Famine in all lands over the face of the Earth ch 41. 54 56. But that was no sin Iosephs brethren went up to Egypt for a supply c. 42. 43. still no sin Joseph supplyeth them c. 45. which was charitably done and so without sin What said Ioseph of Gods oeconomy to comfort his brethren when they wept aloud and were troubled at his presence v. 2 3. He said no worse things of God than that he sent him before to preserve life aud that I hope is no sin to preserve his brethren a posterity in the Earth and to save their lives by a great deliverance who had delivered him up to be destroyed with vassalage Nor was it his si◠to requite them with so much love for their hatred with so much good for their Evil. Ioseph goes on it was not you that sent me hither but God For they sent him no whither but sold him to
Preterperfect and again the fore-sight in the Preterperfect tense with the Decree in the Preterpluperfect As if he thought that Gods Decree were before his prescience or fore-sight even in order of time and that the portions of that Creature could have place in Eternity if he did not think so he might have satisfied himself with a non aliâ ratione quam and not have added an ideo quia therefore because in the very next Section But let his ablest Followers construe his words how they will or can they must grant his Doctrin to be this That whatsoever comes to pass which God foresaw from all Eternity he did also decree from all Eternity But it was also his Doctrin that God foresaw from Eternity all the sins in the world without exception therefore it was his Doctrin that God did also decree all the sins in the world withot Exception Nor can they possibly pretend that all sins are the punishments of former sins because then they would incur one of these absurdities either that no sins are the first or that there are sins before the first and so that the first are the second and the antecedent the consequent which would imply an unexcusable contradiction They are avowedly of this judgement that there is a necessity of all events and that God doth necessitate the very first obliquity of his creatures and for that very first doth also damn them as appears by what they say of the Damnation of Infants which though sufficient of it self to shew the false application of the 38. Texts yet is it not all I am to say of my Assailant's misfortune in that Attempt For Thirdly If those places by him alleaged were not figupatively spoken that is according to the Hebraisme already mentioned but did intentionally import Gods efficiency of sin in any kind or any thing else which imports him to will it only then would they be so contradictory to all the other places of Scripture wherein no figure can be pretended that we should find it impossible to reconcile them For when God in Scripture expresseth his hatred of sin in the highest terms of Detestation and forbids it by a Law and provides against it by Threats as well as by many other means and clears himself from all aspersions which Carnal Fancies have imagin'd to his dishonour his words are so plain and their literal importance is so rational that every man as he is man doth as naturally believe it as he naturally believes there is a God And such as have learn'd to disbelieve it have not learn'd that lesson as they are men but they have learn'd it so far only as they have learn'd to be inhuman And I appeal to all the world whether when two places of Scripture do seem to clash and contradict we are not obliged to interpret the hard by the easie the euivocal by the nnivocal the harsh by the agreeable and that which according to the letter hath materiam odiosam by that which according to the letter hath materiam favorabilem It follows from all which I have said that those 38. Texts are nothing at all to the purpose for which they were alleaged by my Assailant for they amount at the most to no more than this that God doth punish mens sins by not restraining them from sinning farther which is expressed in Scripture by giving up or hardning or some other word which according to the Hebraism so often mentioned is active only in sound but permissive in signification For when God is said to punish sin with sin it is meant negative As for example because God had purged Israel and Israel was not purged therefore he would not purge them from their filthiness any more that is he would permit them to be filthy still he would not cleanse them against their wills and so we see it is explained by God himself what is meant by his punishing of sin with sin He that will be filthy and is resolved on'c and rejects the means of his purification is left by God or given up or given over to be filthy still so that the writers whom I charged with making God the Author or cause of sin were not led into those mischiefs by multitudes of Texts of holy Scripture as my Assailant hath very dogmatically but very groundlesly pretended but rather they led those Texts of Scripture which way they pleased to serve their Turns The word of God hath been ever used as a Lesbian Rule by all sorts of Hereticks who have been first preengaged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be humble servants to their opinion And when the Scripture is led by them or rather dragg'd and tortur'd to the maintaining of those Errors which they espouse they pretend to say no more than what they are led unto by Scripture And some of the people are so shallow so credulous so unexercised in reasonings or so unwilling to take the pains to consider and examin what they are taught as to swallow so dangerous and so thick a Fallacy But so far is the Scripture from leading any to say that God is the Author or Cause of sin as some much less the Necessitator and Compellor to it as others that it even compels us if we are sober to say the contrary There are indeed some figurative expressions which carnal men have profanely used but the figure in those expressions is so visible a figure that they who cannot indure to see it are fain to wink very hard There being nothing in Scripture so plain as this that as the womans faith is said to have made her whole not because it did heal her but because without it she had not been healed so God is said to have done many things not because he did or could do them but because without him they had not been done foâ— nothing can be or be done with his sufferance CHAP. VIII E. R. For my part I thus Jâ—dge That if men would candidly carry this Controversie to its Native and proper Issue it would amount to this 1. Whether the Graces of Faith Perseverance and the glory following be not God's own 2 Whether being so he may not do what he will with his own 3. If so whether he might not ab aeterno absolutely purpose in himself on whom to bestow them from whom to withold them without any Injury unto any T. P. § 1. NOW Reader observe how he displayes his strength He consideringly begins to handle the matter of main Debate Some weighty thing may here be look't for from one whose Parts and Abilities are so acknowledgedly great He now undertakes to state the Question and that by amassing together some Propositions which are not at all to the Question in hand and which being granted will not do him the least good office for it would never be thence conclusible that I have erred in any one period or that the Correptory Correptor hath justly
decree to permit it decree in some in whom he did permit it to pardon it and on them to shew free mercy in others to punish it and in them to shew due and deserved justice the one having nothing to boast of because the Grace which saves them was God's the other nothing to complain of because the sin which ruines them is their own He may by his huge discrimination of persons who were in their lump and mass equal and in themselves indiscriminated shew the absolute soveraignty which he hath over them as the Potter over his clay He may by his most sweet and yet most powerful efficacy work the graces of faith repentance new obedience and perseveraâ—ce in the wills and hearts of those on whom he will shew mercy giving them efficaciously both to will and to do of his own good pleasure and leave others to their own Pride and stubbornness his Grace being his own to do what he will withall And I say once again in all this there is neither modest nor immodest blasphemy T. P. § 1. TO what he saith in the beginning of this long Question concrning God's Councels being secret and unfathomable I have these thiâ—gs to return him First That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is once mention'd Rom. 11. 33. doth not belong to this matter of election of persons absolute or conditional but to the depth of God's goodnesse in patiently bearing the contumacy both of the Gentiles and of the Iewes to the depth of his wisedom in making the desertion of the Iewes a means of calling in the Gentiles to the depth of his knowledge which found a way to work upon the obstinate Iews by those Jews very Envy and Emulation towards the Gentiles c. He would have found that these things had been alluded to in the Text had he compared it with the Context or consulted the Paraphrase of the most Reverend Doctor Hammond whose Volume of Annotations if he doth not admire and profit by it is only because he doth not read them Besides it is to be wondred how he could be so unmindful of the words immediately going before God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all v. 32. and In consideration of that rich mercy the Apostle cryes out O the Depth c. v. 33. So that the purpose is very different for which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used by S. Paul and Dr. Reynolds S. Paul alledging that God may have mercy upon all and D. Reynolds the contrary that God may not have mercy upon upon all But 2. If the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apostle did belong to that business for which he brings it why doth he himself search into those very mysteries which he confesseth to be insearchable God's secret purposes were not secret much less insearchable if a Mortal such as my Assailant could finde it outâ— If I may not affirm that Gods decrees are conditional and respective of 〈◊〉 being either in Christ by Faith or out of Christ by infidelity then my Assailant may not affirm that Gods Decrees are unconditional and without respect of mens being or not being in Christ. For if insearchable to me it is insearchable to him and if revealed in the Scriptures it is not revealed to him alone Nay thirdly rather less then more to the men of his party who deny the Scriptures to be the revealed will of God and say it is but called the will of God and that improperly too wherby they virtually confess 〈…〉 nothing of the will of God but only what men ought or ought not to do which they so distinguish from the signification of Gods will as to say that what men ought to do is often contrary to the will of God and what they ought not to do is many times according to Gods own will This is such strange dogmatizng that the Reader will be in danger to think I charge them falsely if I do not carefully refer him to what I have cited and proved against the Correptory Correptor If my Reverend Assailant will endeavour to disclaim or disprove what I have urged I am able and ready to make good my Accusation but I have really a better opinion of him then to believe he will vindicate those ugly Doctrines Fourthly what ever is secret in the point of Election wherein God may do what he will with his own yet he hath clearly revealed himself in his word as to the point of Reprobation or damnatioÌ„ or preterition as they call it As for Reprobation or damnation he hath sufficiently revealed that he will never deal with man by rules of meer soveraignty but of righteousness and Iustice such as man himself is permitted to judge of and is appealed to by God whether or no it is not thus Then for the later viz. Preterition God hath revealed himself as plainly that the Son shall not die for the iniquity of the Father and that with the pretious blood of Christ he hath bought every one who was lost in Adam And not to insist in this place on the universality of Christs death with his sincere Intentions of extending the benefit of it to all who were included in Adams Loynâ— which doth utterly overthrow the dream of absolute preterition I refer to what I have spoken in 〈◊〉 f defence of Gods Philanthropie Chap. 1. § 2. p. 4 â— 6 besides the other places pointed out in the Margin That which is added by my Assailant concerning the Potter and his clay doth prove nothing in the world but that he misunderstands the ninth Chapter to the Romans for the better interpreting of which I refer him to Castel lio and to Grotius and more especially to Dr. Hammond his Annotatiâ—ns Or if either of those three takes him not off from the ordinary Presbyterian mistake I shall be ready to deal with him when he shall think that fit to be the Apple of Contention § 2. What he saith of Gods permitting sin and his decreeing to permit it is only siding with my Doctrine and saying the same which I said before him and so against me neither strong nor weakâ— argument can be deducible from thence but against himself and his party in two respects for first his party are wont to say that God doth tempt men unto sin as Mr. Barlee that he makes men Transgressors as Zuinglius that men do sin by Gods Impulse as Mr. Calvin that the will of God doth pass into the sin which is permitted as Dr. Twisse that God ordains men to sin quatenus sin as Maccovius and Smoutius that he is the Cause of sin as Piscator the Author of sin as Borrhaeus and six hundred things of this kinde which I will not weary my Reader with All which though my Assailant hath done his endeavour to excuse in the former part of his Preface yet here he tacitly condemns them all and very orthodoxly casts Anchor
Question is not yet at an end For granting him his Dâ—ctrine of Man in Massâ being the object of God's Decree without any regard to his actual sins we shall find him disputing against Himself For doth not he by that doctrine suppose God to fetch a Reason of his Decrees ab extra from without himself whereby to glorifie his justice in the punishing of man I say was not Adam's sin and the corrupted masse in his Loynes every whit as extrinsecal to the Essence of God as the actual corruptions of Cain or Iudas how then doth he dash one part of his arguings against another If my Assailant is willing that God's Decrees of Predestination should have no motive from without himself he must destroy his fourth Thesis and all that lean's on it and in Reverence to his Third if he desires to have it any more then a may be he must presently set up for a Supralapsarian and send a farewell to the Synod of Dort § 2. His fourth position doth declare that he is for the Sublapsarian way notwithstanding what he had said but 2 lines going before And here he shew's his Inconsistence with the greatest Pillars of his own Party in his stating the object of Predestination and affirming it to be Massa Perdita For first herein he sets himself against Beza and all his followers who are for Massa nondum condita Next he disobligeth Franciscus Iunius as able a Card as most are in the Pack who is for Massa condita nec dum corrupta Thirdly He is at variance with honest Piscator as Mr. B. calls him who is for no less then a Threefold Masse 1 nondum condita 2 condita duntaxat 3 condita corrupta Fourthly he affronteth his own Dr. Twisse whom he commended for his Acquaintance with the mind of God and who although he prefers Piscators opinion before the rest yet he condemns Piscators too and sets up in the room who-can-tell-what Fifthly He opposeth the famous Moulin of Sedan who slits the Truth in the midst and as to this particular hath one foot in the Consistorie but another in the Church Touching the object of Election hee holds indeed with the Calvinists but touching the object of Reprobation he runs full speed with the Râ—monstrants Sixthly He differs from Mr. Calvin as Mr. Calvin differs from himself who although in the general for Massa Corrupta yet he is sometimes also for nondum condita Seventhly he despiseth his Reverend Friend Mr. Barlee who professeth to be a good friend to both the upper and lower way though Dr. Twisse hath discovered a very great Gulf fixt betwixt the one and the other and saith that they of the lower way whilst they try to escape the darts of their Enemies are compell'd to fight under their Banner Well therefore said Mr. Barlee that he is for both that is for neither because indeed he is for nothing unless for Correptory Correction To satisfie my Reader for my being thus long I ought to be a little longer that I may tell him the pretty Iest of Dr. Twisse his arguing against all his Friends and Admirers without exception and though he builds upon a Fallacy yet his Friends are so far from having seen where it lyes that they have swallowed it down as a postulatum and because they use it as a medium against the doctrine of the Remonstrants Doctor Twisse hath ruin'd their Cause for ever If Reprobation presupposeth a Masse Corrupted it must needs presuppose mankind created But if the Creation was sooner in God's intention then Damnation then Damnation shall be sooner in Execution then Creation In the same manner If God did sooner intend to permit Original sin then to damn it would follow that man should be damn'd before Original sin is permitted to enter into the world for what is first in Intention must be last in execution all which things are so foolish as not to enter into a man who is in his witts Here we see it is evident that Dr. Twisse doth heap the greatest disgraces upon the Calvinistical opinion in the Synod at Dort that can be possibly imagined For he affirmeth it to infer the grossest absurdities in the world as that men are damn'd in Hell before the world is created and actually punished for sin before the entrance of sin into the world things implying contradictions and such as none but mad men can entertain saith Dr. Twisse Yet old Mr. Whitfield is so thankful for having his Doctrine and his Person so implicitly reproached by Dr. Twisse that he swallowes his axiom as a wholsome Bit and upon the strength of its nourishment he fights in his first animadversion against the man in the Moon § 3. In the fifth position of my Rd. Assailant I am glad to find him saying what God hath done ex mero beneplacito no longer now what he may only Only I wish he had given some shew of reason and offered at least at some kind of proof that I might have had an opportunity to answer But since he hath crudely affirmed what he supposeth to be true I will patiently expect untill his leisure will permit him to prove 3. things 1. That God hath absolutely not now that he may but that he hath without any fore-sight or consideration how his talents will be used chosen some to glory left the rest to inherit a Lake of Fire which is unquenchable 2. That his undeserved and free mercy cannot as well be manifested another way to wit in giving his free grace and rewarding with infinite unproportionable Ioyes very weak and imperfect very light short obedience 3ly and especially that he hath passed by others and left them under deserved wrath meerly considered in that state which the First man brought upon them when yet on the contrary Christ was given a propitiation for that whole Masse as the Scripture very expresly and very frequently affirmeth And 'till these three things are proved his sixth proposition will weigh as lightly as his fifth Because it matters not to inquire to what purposes and counsels the electing or rejecting men in Massâ doth belong untill it is proved that there is any such thing as that in Massâ they are elected or rejected Nor is the Question of his soveraignty what he may but of his decree what he will and what is revealed in his word concerning what he will do which if it is not there revealed we cannot know Just as little material are his seventh and eighth propositions which do wholly stand and subsist upon the Credit of the fifth nor must the fifth be granted untill it is proved Yet if care must be taken in the seventh that this matter spoken of be finally apt and disposed for the manifestation of Gods Glory and if 't is confessed in the eighth that this is actually wrought by the corrupt will of the Creature then it seems the Creature as it lies in Massâ without any acts of its own
do not come or if they come they do not stay with him they wilfully reject the counsel of God against themselves And so have received the grace of God in vain § 3. The Fourth proposition in this Section being wholly the same with the seventh and eighth of the former Section may be sent thither for its Answer as having there sufficiently been spoken to yet here my Assailant is to be thank't for saying so plainly and expresly That men do fall into Damnation as they themselves know by their own wills and whereof themselves are the alone Causes and Authors For if this is heartily acknowledged as here it is very plainly Then 1. Farewell to Austin's rigid sentence pronounced upon un baptized Infants for the Infants fall not by their own wills or against the light of their understandings they having no use of either faculty 2. Farewell all consideration of Adams sin in the Damnation of any Creature for they that are damned saith my Assailant are the alone Causes and Authors of their Damnation and if so then was Adam no part of the Cause or Author If I had said thus much how many times had I been called a Semipelagian and of what Correptory Correction had I been thought worthy But now 3. Farewell to all that is said by Mr. Barlee against the second Chapter of my Notes For I had said only that man is the sole efficient Cause and explain'd my self sufficiently by saying that Satan and the Protoplast were Promoters of my Guilt p. 6. But my Assailant saith farther that mans own will is the alone Cause aud the alone Author of his Sin and Damnation Which gives me occasion to admire how M. Barlee could read this passage in his worthiest Friend and raile so vehemently against it as to say it fights against God against Scripture against all Authority antient and later Again I admire how D. Reynolds could read all that bitterness of his Friend against this part of his own Epistle and yet retain this proposition which is there so rai'ld at yea and how he could commend his Reviler's work for an Elaborate and learned Thing Nor is the wonder lessened in that the ill language of all those pages is directed to me by name and not to D. Reynolds since the Doctrine against which the ill language is levell'd is delivered by D. Reynolds as well as by me nay by D. Reynolds after me nay by D. Reynolds in defense of me even in that Epistle which was intended against me in partiality to Mr. Barlee nay by D. Reynolds more obnoxiously and more unwarily then by me nay more like Massilian and Pelagian by D. Reynolds then by me Let both our words be considered and I do seriously believe that he himself will say as much § 4. What is added in the position concerning God's Permission and gubernation c. is gratis dictum as to me and cannot with any the least colour be fitly aimed against my words who said as much in my Notes § 12. But only against his and my Correptory Corrector who besides permission and Gubernation disposing and ordering is for Determination and stirring up as a Man puts spurs to a Dull Iade it is his own simile So that if my Rd. Assailant doth here mean no more then he speaks not conceiving that God's will of permitting sin is efficacious nor that he doth impel men to any thing that is unlawful nor that he did Decree Adam to contract a vitiosity by his Fall as Dr. Twisse speaks then the things which I accused as blasphemous may still be blasphemous by his free leave and I shall once more thank him for having thus joyned with me against the Correptory Corrector And since he professeth to be sorry for having been led so far in another mans proper work I will have so fair an opinion of him as to believe that from this time forward he will express his sorrow by his Amendment CHAP. XII E. R. I was glad to see two orthodox and sound Axioms stand before the book of your Author as the Basis of his Superstructure Two men of quite different judgments in these very Arguments I find to have done so before The one Cassianus the Collator of whom Prosper hath these words Catholicarum tibi aurium judicia conciliare voluisti quibus de praemissae Professionis fronte securis facile sequentia irreperent si prima placuissent Which words of his bring into my mind a saying of the Historian Fraus fidem in parvis sibi praestruit ut cùm operae pretium sit cum magnâ mercede fallat and the censure of Austin upon Pelagius Gratiae vocabulo frangit Invidiam offensionem declinat The other the famous Arch-Bishop Bradwardine whom learned and good men will honour notwithstanding the hard censure passed by Hugo Grotius upon him who premiseth two Hypotheses as the ground of that profound work of his De Causâ Dei I will have so fair and just an opinion of your Author as to believe that he did this in Candor and Integrity following therein rather the learned example of Bradwardin then if Prosper's Censure may be taken the Artifice and cunning of Cassianus yet because this is a course which may by the Credit of true Principles draw the less cautelous and circumspect Readers to consent to deductions not naturally consequent upon them it is requisite as for writers as Pliny adviseth Saepius respicere Titulum so for Readers to follow the Apostles Counsel to prove all things and hold fast that which is good T. P. § 1. THis is somewhat a strange Paragraph in several respects For first 't is apparently unkinde because although he professeth that I had two great patterns for what I did whereof one was most excellent in his own opinion nay though he professeth to have so just an opinion of me as to believe I followed Bradwardin rather then Cassianus and that I did what I did in Candor and integrity he did yet make choise to begin his Descants upon the other not insisting on the good meaâ—ing of Arch-Bishop Bradwardin but on the fraud cunning of the Presbyter Cassianus Yet secondly he makes me some part of requital by confessing my two principles to be a couple of orthodox and sound Axioms and that they were the Basis of my superstructure Now he cannot but confess that where the deductions are duly made nothing but truth can be inferred from truth such good Trees as two orthodox and sound Axioms cannot bring forth such corrupt fruit as my Notes were accused of by the Correptorie Corrector Had not my Deductions been naturally consequent upon my grounds as here it is hinted and meerly hinted but no where held forth that I can find no doubt but some of the grieved party would have endeavoured at least to find it out And had they found any such thing no doubt but I should have heard on 't with both my