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A74862 Confidence dismounted. Or a letter to Mr Richard Resburie of Oundle in North-Hamptonshire, upon occasion, partly of a title page prefixed before a small treatise of his concerning election & reprobation, conflicting of six sermons preached by him about three years since, and lately published; the said title page bearing in front these words, some stop to the gangrene of Arminianism, lately promoted by Mr John Goodwin, in his book intituled Redemption Redeemed; partly also, a short preface or epistle prefixed by the said Mr Resbury to that his treatise. / By the said John Goodvvin, Minister of the Gospel. Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665. 1651 (1651) Wing G1160; Thomason E643_18; ESTC R206012 16,262 21

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that which you call though you miscall it the Arminian mode so frequently as you do in spreading a table of Imperial Dictates in stead of Arguments before your Reader This is more like to be the mode of those who deny the lawfulness of the interposure or use of reason in matters of Religion then theirs who profess to hold nothing to believe nothing in such things but only what they see or apprehend sufficient reason to evince the truth in But I fear Mr Resbury was conscious of this nakedness in himself and fellows I mean of dictating like Emperors in stead of arguing like Teachers and hoped to cover it with a covering made of a bold imputation of it to his adversaries For what Argument or proof or colour of either doth he bring or can he bring to evince Truth in that charge against me that in calling the Treatise he speaks of Redemption Redeemed I miscall it Your subtile insinuation to have your self notioned like unto Michael the Arch-angel and me unto the Devil in this imprecatory prayer against me The Lord rebuke him I perfectly resent But Sir you should have done well to have considered whether in case the Arch-angel had had to do with a man as you have though as vile and sinful as you apprehend the man of your contest to be and not with the Devil whether I say it be not probable that he would have prayed for him The Lord forgive thee and not the Lord rebuke thee until his obstinacy had appeared However if I have so deeply finned as you deem and doom me to have done in judging me worthy to drink of the Devils cup after him I shall joyn issue with you in the words of your prayer against me and pray with you The Lord rebuke me only with Davids addition not in his anger Mr Resbury I fear is impatient of all rebuke for his Errors either from God or man though administred with never so much love and sweetness by the one and the other The ground of my fear in this kind is because I find that the bare pleading of the Truth which contradicteth his Error though without any reflexion in the least upon him as holding any Error becomes matter of very high and haynous provocation to him And Sir give me leave to doubt whether you had the consent of your Conscience or no in drawing up this charge against me that for the present I so seriously despise and so boldly bid defiance unto the peculiar Grace of God Michael the Archangel durst not bring any railing much less any forged or false accusation against Satan himself when he contended with him If he had done this he had fought against him with no better weapons then those which Satan himself useth in his battels he had plainly diabolized It is a thing of most deplorable consideration unto me that those who call themselves Ministers of the Gospel and are so reputed by others should so far harden themselves from the fear of the Lord as to speak and spread abroad at pleasure words of an infamous and disparaging import against their Brethren who never gave them the least cause of offence whatsoever was taken by them and this without so much as any colourable pretence of truth in them For Sir I beseech you what sentence clause word sillable letter tittle can you or any other for you find either in my Book of Redemption or any other of my Writings wherein I make the least semblance or give the lightest intimation that can be imagined that I at all much less so seriously as your charge advanceth despise the peculiar Grace of God And yet the unchristian rage of your pen riseth much higher and proclaims that I also boldly bid defiance to it Well might the Apostle James complain that the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity I especially in my Treatise of Redemption am so far from despising the peculiar Grace of God or from any bold bidding defiance to it that I magnifie it upon all occasions with all my might and demonstrate the peculiarity i. e. the signal excellency and glory of it to consist in this that it encompasseth the whole world about and particularly visiteth and addresseth it self to every creature of mankind until it be rejected and this in order to their Salvation So that I make the Grace of God which is saving in the nature and tendency of it never the less but rather the more peculiar by commending the rich diffusiveness of it to particular men As for that Grace of God or rather that degree or that operation of this Grace which is actually and eventually saving unto men I peculiarize it every whit as much and for ought I yet know to the contrary upon the same terms which Mr Resbury himself and men of his Judgment generally do For my sence and Judgment clearly is that no person is actually saved but by such an assistance or operation of the Grace of God which no other person whatsoever partaketh of or which is vouchsafed unto no other person but only unto those who are actually saved also Only herein I may I conceive possibly dissent from them They hold that this peculiar actually-saving grace of God is upon such terms decreed by God or intended to be given by God unto those that come to be saved by it that there was or is an absolute necessity for them to embrace it and so to be saved by it whereas my sence is that such grace is no otherwise decreed by God unto those who in time come to receive it and in fine to be actually saved by it then it is unto others who never come to receive it and that these might have received it or come to be partakers of it in the same way and by the same means by which those others who are in conclusion saved by it came to have part and fellowship in it But this difference between Mr Resbury and me about the peculiar Grace of God doth no whit more prove me to be a serious despiser of it or a bold bidder of defiance to it then himself Therefore his charge against me in this point is meerly clamorous and aspersive and such as a tender Conscience would have trembled so much as to demur upon and how much more to have published Of a like staring and broad-fac'd untruth is that charge also that I challenge an whole Vniversity His ingenuous and modest words are these Neither hath he for ought I can and without partiality discern I know not how you should in case you never read my Book whereof I have more grounds then one to be jealous at all repaired their loss which is none at all that either I or you know of only concealing it from vulgar eyes it seems you honor your own as super-vulgar he treads with confidence in their steps if all be true that you say and that nothing may want to set IT off bravely It What what Noun
preach another Gospel in effect and not that of Christ Jesus promise honor name and applause unto any man that shal but offer to smite either my person or writing with his tongue or pen though they speak or write neither truth nor any thing to purpose against either And Mr Resbury it seems hath harkened unto the encouragement of this Spirit and by his Title-page hath tempted the World to beleeve that he hath done some worthy thing against me in my Book of Redemption whereas it cannot reasonably be thought by any thing in his Book that ever he look'd any argument or line of mine in the face So far is he from answering any thing argued or asserted by me either {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Yet not content with the sound of his own Trumpet in the Frontispiece of his Book by which he would give the world to hope that he was preparing to battel against me he or some factor of his about the City have purchased the lowder blasts of two Trumpets more to make the same sound and have bought of two of our common Diurnalists their respective Out-cries or Proclamarees to call the world together to be Spectators of his learned valour against me and my Book Indeed in his Preface he supplies in most untrue and unchristian revilings of my person that which in his Discourse is wanting in weight and substance of matter for answer to my Book But the Spirit I spake of suggested it seems this unto him If thou beest not able to grapple with his Writings lay on load of reproach upon his person thou shalt have a good reward for thy labor as well in the one kind as in the other they shall prosper both alike in thy hand But Sir I beseech you by the love you either bear or pretend to bear unto the Lord Christ with what goodness of Conscience or face of ingenuity can you say that the main Truths of God concerning his Electing and Redeeming Grace asserted as you say by you in your Sermons have been by the daring hand of that unhappy man Mr John Goodwin in his wretched Treatise by him called but miscalled Redemption Redeemed been so highly assaulted when as you neither have shewed much less proved nor I have very sufficient ground to believe are able to prove that so much as any one no not the least of these Truths have been in the lightest manner assaulted by me in this Treatise Sir I trust you will suffer this word of Christian Admonition from him who God knoweth and your own Conscience may know is no enemy unto you nor to your peace nor to your honour or reputation that such causless groundless and wretched aspersions and reproaches cast upon your Christian Brethren as these will never make your face to shine with any true or permament lustre nor abound to your account in the great day In terming me an unhappy man you speak truth enough in one sence and little enough in another It is my unhappiness in point of honour and respects with men not to be believed when I speak the truth and much more that my speaking the truth should prove a stumbling stone unto so many and occasion their falling into the great and dangerous sins of hard speaking reviling persecuting with the tongue hating opposing calumniating the Truth manifested unto them In all this I am I confess an unhappy man But the Lord Jesus Christ himself was in all such respects as these an unhappy man also being set as well for the falling as for the rising of many in Israel But that he was a sweet savour unto God as well in those who perish as in those that are saved by him as well in those who fall by occasion of him as in those who rise he was a person thrice happy and blessed And I should deny the signal grace and goodness of God towards me if I should not judg my self happy in those not a few who have been built up by my hand in the knowledg of God in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in the peace and joy of their Souls yea and in the reproaches hard sayings and evil entreaties which I meet with from Mr Resbury and others in as much as these also work for me so much a better resurrection and a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory In what sence you call my Treatise of Redemption wretched I do not well understand If you mean it wretched in respect of the sad doom that hath befallen it by falling into the hands of such hard-spirited men as you and some others are who by unjust clamours and reviling set your selves to render the condition of it as calamitous and miserable as you can I confess your epithete of wretched may stand I think it is one of the wretchedest Treatises in the world in this sence But if you call it wretched in respect of the matter or native tendency and import of the Doctrine contained therein as if this tended or had any thing in it likely to make any person under Heaven wretched or miserable your Epithete it self is wretched in this sence because it directly tends to make men miserable and wretched by dividing their judgments and affections from such Truths which would make them happy were they received and submitted unto by them Whereas you seem desirous to pick a quarrel against my hand by terming it during I confess my hand and heart too are very daring venturous and bold in assaulting Error how strongly soever fortified by the judgments affections interests preoccupations Authorities credits writings of men That clear satisfying and convincing light of the knowledg of the Truth which God hath graciously shined into my heart teacheth my hand to war and my fingers to fight against all that is lesser and lower then God in the quarrel and cause of the Truth And if you count it a blemish or disparagement unto my hand to be daring in this kind it is a sign that your own hand hath little courage for the Truth nor that it dares lift up it self in the defence of it unless it hath a proud arm of flesh to stand by it and second it in the engagement But I perceive that Mr Resburies hand it self is daring enough whether in the cause of Error or of Truth when he thinks he hath hands enough with him to bring him off with honour though he be foyled Whether in calling my Treatise Redemption Redeemed I miscall it or no will in due time be judged by a streighter Rule then Mr Resburies sence or notion in the case and by a far more competent Judg then He. In the mean time you will give me leave I trust to marvel a little that you professing your self so devoted an enemy to that which you call Arminianism though I have cause in abundance to judg that you little know what Arminianism indeed meaneth should notwithstanding practise