Grace upon any Condition to be performed without it Give me leave to ask you Hath not God made a Generall invitation to all the unregenerate within the pale of the Church to come unto him with a gracious promise to receive them and doth not this promise imply a readinesse to grant what ever may fit them for his communion without which that promise cannot be made good to them Dare you affirm that God will deny saving Grace to some who make the best use they can of the Gifts of nature and his common Grace to stirre up themselves to lay hold upon him If you dare do this you dare contradict the Apostle S. Peter Act. 10.34 35. and say though not as he doth Of a truth I perceive that God is a respecter of Persons for in every nation there be some that feare God and work righteousnesse which are not accepted with him You complain * Vbi supra pag. 40. you have people in your Parish that are harping on this string and yet this is Ipsissima Fides DORDRACENA †Chap. 3. 4. Râ—ject 485. a string of that very Instrument which you have provoked Tilenus to play upon We cannot give Grace to our selves nor be saved without it nor can we have it till God give it us which if he will doe we shall be saved if he will not all that we can doe will not help it I pray do not you twist another string for them to harp upon by telling them Doe what they can to dispose themselves for it God hath made no promise to bestow saving Grace upon them For this will make as foul a jarring in their minds and as unpleasant Musick in Gods Church as the Denyall of works Preparatory and Dispositive to saving Grace But to give you your due you Govern your discourse sometimes with more moderation and Caution when you addresse your self unto your Congregation For though in heat of Disputation you determine That God hath Cull'd out some certain persons for himself by his Decree of Election wherein he had no praevision of or respect unto either faith or obedience or any other good quality as wrought in them by his Gospell accompanied with his Spirit But he therein made provision for it that in due time it might be irresistibly wrought in them not with but without them by His own Omnipotent strength And for the rest not comprehended within that Decree there is another Decree past against them withholding from them all internall Grace sufficient and necessary for their salvation which though offered them in the Gospel yet 't is suspended upon the Condition of Faith and Repentance which Condition is impossible because God did not Purpose to Cause it in them This is your Disputation-wise Doctrine when you are combating with an Adversary But when you are consulting the advantage of Souls then you are zealous as best becomes you in another strain In your Sermon on Mat. 22.5 you say It is true that Grace is free Making light of Christ p. 21 22. and the offer is universall according to the extent of the Preaching of the Gospel and it is true that men may have Christ when they will that is when they are willing to have him on his terms but he that hath promised thee Christ if thou be willing hath not promised to make thee willing and if thou art not willing now how canst thou think thou shalt be willing hereafter But soon after Oh Sinners you might do much though you are not able to your selves to come in if you would now subject your selves to the working of the Spirit and set in while the gales of grace continue And in your Directions for Peace of Conscience Direct 9. p. 65. Edit 2. you affirm If wicked unbelievers would but do what they can in daily serious deep considering of these things viz. the vanity of the world and certainty of damnation the excellency of Holinesse with the certainty of everlasting Happinesse and the like they would have no cause to despair of obtaining Faith and Sanctification This is your Sermon wise Doctrine And you have written Directions to prevent Miscarrying in Conversion Sure you do not fear a miscarriage of the work on God's part the danger is not from his falling but our own Therefore something is required on our Part and possible to be performed by us which being performed our Conversion is ascertained but being neglected it miscarries and we our selves onely are guilty of it If this be not true Master Baxter the Title of that Book is improper and your whole Discourse impertinent And now you have so many blocks in your way and some of your own sawing out I hope your course will be stopt and your Dispute not run out in infinitum I return to your Vindication of the Synod you say 2. But contrary to this Accuser This is another Cast of your displeasure A Civill Title To be an Accuser is a piece of the Devils character but such bolts are soon shot when Faction hath bent her Bowe and Pride hath a mind to make a quarrell But if Tilenus be the Accuser the Synod or Master Baxter is the Adversary For he saith Contrary to this Accuser the Synod declareth Art 2. Sect. 3. This death of the Son of God is the onely and most perfect Sacrifice and satisfaction for sins of infinite value and price abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world and that it is therefore sufficient because this death was joyned with the sense of Gods wrath and curse which we by our sins had merited that is that the sinnes of all the world were c. But how is this contrary to this Accuser Indeed it is besides him if you will and as much besides the purpose There is in the Chamber of London as much Treasure perhaps as will pay the Debts of all the Prisoners about the City and 't is so much the more currant because it is of excellent old Gold But what is this to the poore Prisoners redemption as long as the Major and Aldermen in whose sole power it is to dispose of that Treasure will not disburse it to that purpose The superabundant sufficiency that is proclaimed to be in the Exchequer doth not relieve the distressed for whose benefit 't is not imployed but rather upbraid the want of Liberality in him who is Master of it and hath the Power but wants the Will to lay it out in such charitable and pious uses But you say the sinnes of all the world were charged on Christ and he bore their penalty as Paraeus in his writings to the Synod and there conteined expresseth it Answ Laid on Christ To what end to Load him or ease them But you joyne with Paraus Pag. 14. in your first Assize Sermon where you say Doubtlesse Christ died not for all alike nor with equall intentions of saving them and yet he hath born the sinnes of all men on
without consulting it that you were like to make no impression with such blunt weapons as you manage against him You must therefore be content till you can come better arm'd to leave the Field and the victory behinde you which your Confidence no doubt at your Marching forth promised you the Glory of in this attempt But this Ghost must follow you into the next Field where he is to try your strength and skill a little further which is That God to save his elect from the corrupt Masse doth beget faith in them by a power equall to that whereby he created the world and raised up the dead insomuch that such unto whom he gives that Grace cannot reject it and the rest being Reprobate cannot accept of it though it be offered unto both by the same Preaching and Ministery That the work of Regeneration or Conversion for mightinesse is not inferiour to the creation of the world or raising up of the dead * Cap. 3. 4. Arb. 12. suffrag Gamvens de 2 〈◊〉 4 cap. Th. 10 et 13. is the expresse Affirmation of the Synod in terminis What is it then that Master Baxter hath to object against the Article 1. Where did the Synod say that this was to save his Elect from the corrupt Masse excluding all others salvation Tilenus hath not the words excluding all others salvation but the Synod hath the Thing sure enough for they conclude that the Election of some implye †Electio quam de Jacobo intelligit absque reprobatione quam vi oppositionis intelligit de Esavo ne cogitari quidem potest Piscat Respon ad Syllog 1. Taufreri Contra absol Reprob Decret the Rejection of others and that is exclusion in Zanchy's sense as was shewed above and in any mans sense I think but M. Baxters Do they not say many of them and 't is the judgement of them all that the number of the Elect can neither be diminished nor increased and are not the rest excluded then by that Doctrine And although you say God invites them to salvation upon Faith and Repentance yet this Condition is impossible and made so by his own Antecedent Decree which first ordained their fall * Oportuit ergo Deum quoque hanc unicam viam sibi aperire id est Adami Lapsum ordinare sed ad eum quem dixi finem Beza in resp ad S. Castel de Praedest in refutat secundae Calum p. 361. as many Calvinists do teach and then the deniall of Sufficient and Necessary Grace unto Faith and Repentance as the whole Synod hath declared and thereby they exclude all others Salvation Master Baxter goes on And if you quarrell not with a supposed exclusion but an inclusion then he that denyeth a necessity of salvation from the corrupted Masse may tell God he will not be beholding for such a mercy and stand to the venture Here you are really guilty of a perverse insinuation to render Tilenus and his Doctrine odious to the world whereof you falsly charge him in other parts of your Preface Sect. 6. 16. Why else should you hold forth such a supposition if it were not to impose upon your Reader that Tilenus or the Remonstrants deny a necessity of salvation from the corrupt Masse Where do they say this or what temptation have you to suspect they think so if you had no such intent your Inclusion might have been excluded and so might the other branch of your distinction which follows in these words But if you mean it Exclusively they professe that Faith is the means of our Salvation not onely from the corrupted Masse but from Infidelity and the Curse of the Law and from damnation and all the sin that would procure it Before Master Baxter spake of an Exclusion of Persons but now he comes to resume this Exclusion as the second branch of his distinction he speaks of an Exclusion of Things which is not very Artificiall in the way of discourse But why do you professe Faith is the means of our salvation not onely from the corrupt Masse but c. Who said onely from the corrupt Masse And surely the corrupt Masse is the Terminus à quo and if you be a Sublapsarian you must conclude that as Mans Misery so Gods Mercy and Salvation must begin there otherwise if men be lest in the corrupt Masse till they arrive at finall damnation Faith will come too late then to save them 2. Here you separate Infidelity from the corrupt Masse and hereby you implyedly acknowledge that we are not made guilty of Infidelity by Adams sin and consequently that men being Reprobated upon the account of this sinne were Reprobated without any respect to their Infidelity as Tilenus chargeth the Synod to hold in his first Article But why do you separate the curse of the Law and Damnation from the corrupt Masse as if this alone were not sufficient to procure both as your words insinuate though I presume as much contrary to your own sense as it is most certainly †Cap. 1. Reject 8. to the doctrine of the Synod Master Baxter runs on in perverse Insinuations still saying 2. If you think that God doth not cause Faith in us you will not then pray for it nor be beholden for it I am so well assured that it is God that causeth Faith in us in the sense of Holy Scripture that I account my self obliged not onely to pray for the working and increase of it but most humbly and heartily to thank and blesse him also for the Possession and benefit But then saith Master Baxter If you yield that he causeth it but not by such a power as you mention you either think that God causeth it without power which is an opinion that needs no censure or that he hath many Powers and causeth one thing by one power and another thing by another which is as unbeseeming a Divine or Christian to assert Answ 'T is acknowledged that God causeth Faith and that by his Power which Power of his is one and the same Omnipotencie essentially but exerted and put forth to the production of severall effects not like the Powers of Naturall Agents which Act Ad Ultimum sui Posse to their utmost strength but in such a Proportion and Measure as seems meet to his All-wise Good pleasure to allow every Agent in order to its operation For it is a certain Rule Licet non possimus Deo tribuere virtutem agendi Lmitatam nil tamen vetat quod influxus extrinsecus ab eo ortus non contineat omnem perfectionem possibilem in ratione influxus Though God be omnipotent yet every influx of God is not omnipotent for what is Omnipotent is Infinite and what is Infinite can neither be increased nor diminished If therefore every influx of God unto Second Causes were Omnipotent or Infinite no one Influx of the Divine Power could be more strong or forcible than another But let us hear Master
And also 2. Per impossibilitatem Causae First because God hath not onely Decreed the Perseverance of the Sanctified but also the Holy Ghost hath undertaken it as his speciall charge Secondly And the Faithfulnesse of God as far as I can yet understand is by his promise ingaged for the Perseverance of all the truely Justified and Sanctified Believers It is not therefore such a Logicall Impossibility of Apostasie that the Synod and you contend for But of this Question we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter In the mean time let us consider your Interrogatory in the next words wherein you demand Will not any Jesuite confesse this that All that suppose on foreknowledge God electeth to salvation must necessitate consequentiae infallibly be saved No doubt they will and some of them much more We have told you already which you know well enough that that Necessity Consequentiall upon Gods foreknowledge doth suppose the operation of mans will as determined freely of it self not as begotten or effected of another And this as it implies no inconvenience so it breeds no controversie But you love not to be tied to the true state of the Question lest you should lose your licence of Sophistry and dawbing which is here very palpable In your Account of Perseverance now mentioned Pag. 14. you deliver it as the opinion of the Antients Jesuites Arminians and Lutherans that they deny an absolute personall Election of men to Faith and Perseverance and so maintain indefinitely a totall and finall falling from a state of Justification without excepting such Elect themselves But a little after you adde Yet note that the Jesuits themselves may confesse that the Elect shall none of them finally fall away but shall all persevere But that is because they hold that Election is upon foresight of Perseverance and so that these Propositions This man is Elected and This man shall not Persevere are inconsistent as to their trueth But they do not make Election or differencing grace the cause of Faith and Perseverance This being most undoubtedly true the Reader must needs conclude that their Authority is very impertinently alleaged for the justification of yours and the Synods Doctrine In your XVII Section you tell Tilenus Your addition is a perverse insinuation notwithstanding the most enormous sins they can commit How readily ill language flowes from this supercilious froward man A perverse insinuation Why The Synod doth professe it as was evidenced above out of their very Canons and your selfe acknowledge as much assoon as ever you had evaporated your Bilious passion Is it a perfect truth in your mouthes and a perverse insinuation when it falls from the pen of Tilenus Doth his quill stain it more then yours Why a perverse insinuation It seems you say to intimate If it doth but seem to intimate haply it may not really intimate But what That they may commit as enormous sins as others this were a very perverse insinuation indeed especially if we take in what follows and yet not fall away But why have you changed Tilenus his bare assertive notwithstanding the most enormous sins they can commit into a comparative expression that they may commit as enormous sins as others Comparisons you know are odious especially such as are made betwixt your selves and such others as some of your Party are too apt to account Reprobates for no other Reason than that they cannot digest your rigid doctrine of Reprobation But cannot the once Faithfull commit as enormous sins as others What think you of Adultery and Murder or if they be not enormous enough Of Idolatry c. then what think you of * execrations of a mans self and Perjury and these repeated over and over to gain belief in the denyall of the Son of God Such sins the Regenerate may fall into But yet the Synod saith they cannot fall into so enormous sins as others Cup. 5. Art 6. for they cannot commit the sin unto death or against the Holy Ghost so as to be altogether forsaken of God and throw themselves headlong into everlasting destruction and therefore they cannot fall away But is not M. Baxter himselfe guilty of a perverse insinuation here Do not his words intimate that at least if they commit as enormous sins as others they do fall away This must be the meaning of his words if there be good sense in them But then his next words containe such a poor ordinary piece of Sophistry as every Freshman that hath but looked upon Burgerdicius's Logick would discover 'T is the Fallacy called Ignoratio Elenchi a mistaking of the Question Observe how his discourse runs It seems saith he to intimate that they may commit as enormous sins as others and yet not fall away when the Synod holds that in committing grosse sins they fall into a present incapacity of Salvation Tilenus Asserts the denyall of a finall and totall falling away to be the doctrine of the Synod Master Baxter seems to conclude against it but omits the Condition that should make his conclusion a Contradiction to the Assertion for he tells us upon their commission of grosse sinnes they fall into a present incapacity of Salvation but this doth not contradict the thing in Question their finall and totall falling which the Synod peremptorily denies just as Tilenus hath charged them in this Article and so Master Baxter professeth in the very next words which tells us though the Synod holds that in committing grosse sins they fall into a present incapacity of Salvation yet there follows a But which yields the Question as to matter of Fact and the proof of this is all that the Ghost of Tilenus pretends here to aim at That God will keep them from such sins as are inconsistent with Habituall Grace For the truth of which Doctrine we may take a convenient time to examine it It shall suffice here to take notice of the opinion of the Synod That such as are Habitually Gracious may be uncapable of salvation And yet such is the superabundant favour extended to them more than others They are 1. Elected Irrespectively 2. Converted Irresistibly and 3. Conducted insuperably and infallibly to their eternall Salvation Hereupon They do affirm concerning these Elect 1. That it implyes a Contradiction that they should live after the flesh M. Norton's Orthodox Evangelist p. 79 80. and 83. and so M. Baxter in his Call c. in the Pref. Gods Decrees separate not the end and means but tie them together Lit. c. 3. Because the Decree consists not of the end without the means nor of the means without the end but of both together Both end and means are contained in one Decree Yea so far is the Decree from admitting such an inference as that the contrary infallibly followeth thereupon and in point of Election is not onely necessarily concluded but irresistibly caused Faith Repentance New-obedience and Perseverance being the effects of Election Thus Master Norton But because
the Decree doth tie the End and Means together and what is the Means of Damnation but Infidelity and Impenitency c. as he tells us from the Synod in the seventh Section of his Preface There is a necessity therefore of these sins in the Reprobate †Loquimur de adultis vocatis else he should not perish as such an infidel and impepenitent Whence is this necessity not from the nature or will of the creature therefore from some Act of God and what is this Act of God but that Reprobation whereby he denies unto the Reprobate Grace sufficient and necessary unto Faith and Repentance and then his Law whereby he requires the performance of those duties which without that Grace are not performable But saith the Synod Reprobation is not the cause of Infidelity and impiety in the same manner as Election is the fountain and cause of Faith and piety But whatever fallacy there be in those words in the same manner certainly according to their Doctrine Infidelity and Impiety do flow by as inevitable a necessity from the one Decree as Faith and Piety doth from the other Vid. Antidotum p. 47 c. so that it is no lesse impossible †Quod aliqui in tempore fide à Deo donentur aliqui non donantur id ab aeterno ipsius decreto provenit Syn. Dor. cap. 1. Art 6. for those who are Reprobated to believe and repent than it is for those who are Elected to remain impenitent and unbelievers Contrariorum eadem ratio eadem scientia est say the Divines of the Palatinate * De Repro prepos 1. p. 19. par 2. Ex iis igitur quae de Electione supra dicta sunt de opposita Reprobatione ejusque descriptione quid statuendum videatur haud difficile est pronunciare Reprobation then is no lesse the fountain of Infidelity and Impiety than Election is the fountain of Faith and Piety If we list to cavill about the word Cause which is here made use of to impose upon the unwary Reader we could tell them that 't is an improper and inept expression to say Election is the Cause of Faith For Election in an immanent Act in the minde of God not an Egression out of him that produceth any effect in man though Faith doth infallibly follow that Act by the emanation of another power which God according to the Decree of Election will exercise to the irresistible production of Faith And thus it is acknowledged by Piscator that although the Decree of Reprobation be not effective in respect of infidelity in the Reprobate because it doth not properly effect or produce that infidelity yet it is efficax efficacious Antidot p. 48. because that Decree being made infidelity follows of necessity For example Suppose a man blind by nature or made blinde by the infliction of punishment upon him for some crime He that commands such a man upon pain of death to read a Proclamation though to speak properly he cannot be said to be the cause that that man reades not the Proclamation for his blindnesse is the next and proper cause hereof yet in sense of Law and to speak Morally he may be said to be the Cause that by not reading that blinde man becomes defective as it were in a duty injoyn'd him and so guilty of death not by way of efficiencie as producing the defect of reading in him but by commanding that Reading to whom it is impossible to read in whom therefore after that command the defect of Reading cannot but follow After the same manner according to their Doctrine God deals by the Reprobates first for the transgression of Adam they are punished with blindenesse of minde in things spirituall so that 't is no lesse impossible for them to believe when God commands it than for a blind man to read a proclamation And yet notwithstanding they are thus punished with spirituall blindnesse God commands them to believe under pain of eternall death Which when God doth he doth not indeed by way of efficiency produce infidelity and impenitency in them but by his command God is the Cause or brings it to passe that they become as it were unbelievers and impenitent because it is impossible on the one part that they should become unbelievers unlesse the command of Faith doth intervene and on the other part the command of Faith being given they cannot in regard of that innate pravitie and blindnesse but be and remain unbelievers And this is the means which for all their Profest detestation is tied to the End by the Decree of Reprobation in order to the execution of the said Decree by the Damnation of the Reprobates Another Doctrine which saith M. Baxter the Synod doth purposely disown and publickly professe to detest is That many harmlesse Infants of Believers are snatch't from the mothers breasts and tyrannically cast into Hell so that neither Baptisme nor the Churches prayers in Baptisme can profit them That many Infants of Believers are cast into Hell notwithstanding the Prayers of the Church and the Sacrament of Baptism administred according to Christs institution and command for their Salvation is the expresse Doctrine of Calvin Beza Zuinglius Martyr Zanchy Piscator Paraeus Perkins c. For the Infants of unbelievers it is the Doctrine of Gomarus and the Divines of Drent expresly that they are Reprobates Act. Synod Dor. par 3. pag. 24. pag. 83. Gomar de Reprob th 7. Judic Drent circa 1. Art thes 18. For the Infants of Believers dying in their Infancy whether the Decree of Reprobation layeth hold on them and makes them liable to damnation the Divines of South-Hollands judgement is Ibid. pag. 36 pr. Non esse curiosè inquirendum we ought not to be curious in inquiring after it and the British Divines say De primo Articulo ubi supra par 2. p. 10. thes 7. Ad rationem electionis divinae sive ponendam sive tollendam circumstantia atatis est quiddam impertinens nihil prorsus operatur The circumstance of age is a thing altogether impertinent and works nothing touching the Decree of Election or Reprobation Their meaning is plain enough and 't is consonant no doubt to the sense of the whole Synod We may therefore observe a twofold Fallacy in the Proposition which they publickly professe to detest 1. In the word Innoxios harmelesse Infants See the Antidonum cap. 4 5. pag. 52. c. For the truth is they acknowledge none such every Infant of a span long from its first Conception being guilty of Adams sin for which it is justly liable to condemnation and for that sin many are damned * Act. Synod Dor. as is delivered in Reject 8. Cap. 1. Another Fallacy is in the word Tyrannicè tyrannically cast into Hell For when God doth Reprobate such Infants and cast them into Hell he doth not do it they say after the manner of a Tyrant who is bound by some
consideration If in any part of the Christian world these opinions be established as their Doctrine you will easily grant it is likelyest to be in the Belgick Churches for the settling of whose distractions about these points that Synod of Dort was Assembled But do you think these are propounded as Articles of their Creed there or accounted currant Pulpit-Doctrine among them You must not believe it For now adayes how many are there that dare tell them out of that Place God will not have All men to be saved and the greater part of mankind are Reprobated by Gods absolute Decree or that Christ did not die for all men or that God calls those whom he would not in any wise should come to him or that the Elect as they are called cannot by any no not the most grievous sins be removed from their Election Insanire credas eum qui jam haec dogmata pro concione ausit defendere saith a Learned person * Arnold Poelenb ubi supra in Ep. dedicat imployed amongst them you may very well conclude the man is not sound in his brain not well in his wits that takes the boldnesse to maintain these Points in his Sermon And if any person lesse discreet and provident hath exposed the Arcana or Secrets of that his Doctrine naked to the understanding of the people illico magna animorum perturbatio existit there follows presently such a great Commotion and disturbance in their minds as looks like the Praeface to a new Schisme which thing saith that Reverend Person Ibid. we remember to have fall'n out in this very town of Horn where we now exercise our Sacred Ministeriall Function This Sir I hope will be sufficient Antidote to allay and cure the Palpitation of your heart though it had beaten a great deal thicker upon M. Hickmans suggestion that his Quinquarticular opinions were the Doctrine of the Church of England And for the other branch of his discourse you may acquiesce in a confidence that Master P. never intended to assert a positivity of every sin not of sins of omission to be sure But he is of age to answer for himself Yet since you presse me for my sense of Master H. Metaphysicall Divinity you shall have something towards it I am not satisfied that his distinctions to avoid the Possibility of sin are sufficient to avoid the making God the Author of it For thus he saith †Edit the first pag. 91. Because it belongs to the Universality of the first cause to produce not onely every reall being but also the reall positive Modifications of beings therefore we say that in good works both the works themselves and their rectitude are positive and are from God in evill works there are also two things considerable the works themselves and their pravitie the works themselves we doubt not are positive and from God as all other positive things are but their pravities adde no new entities to them but consist in a mere privation Thus Master Hickman In reference to sinfull Actions others deliver the distinction in these termes telling us The sinfull Act is to be considered either Materialiter as to the matter of it and so it is from God and of his production or else Formaliter as to the Form of it and so it is from man But we should remember that many times the Materiall Act as we may say cannot be disjoyned from the formall and in that case why he that is the Cause of the one should not be adjudged the Cause of the other is a Question that requires a solid determination If God produced the Act of eating the forbidden fruit materially why not formally too seeing that sin consisted wholly in the eating of that fruit for Adam could not eat thereof without sin And if God by an Omnipotent concurse determined Davids lying with Bathsheba will that distinction mend the matter Will the matter of that foul Act tend to the praise of Gods efficiency when he tells us †See 2 Sam. 12.12 with Num. 15.30 the Form of it conduced so signally to his dishonour If the Act which is evill ex genere objecto be materially of Gods production why should we invest man with the formality of it which is the sin Is it because the Act is repugnant to the Law of God to which man stands obliged 1 Joh. 3.4 and the transgression of this law is sinne This seems to be Master Hickmans sense pag. 91. In those things which are to be done according to a Rule good consists in a conformity to and convenience with the Rule but evill in a difformitie or discrepance from the Rule But I say that Act of Adultery cannot be materially committed but it must unavoidably be discrepant to the Law of God so that if God produceth this Act materially it is impossible man should give it any formality but what is sinfull especially seeing this formality or sinfulnesse doth of necessity result from the materiall Act. Indeed were there no Law in force about it it were possible to conceive how he that produceth that which we now call the Act of sin materially should not for all that be the formall cause of it But the law being now made and that by God himself too what Subterfuge can be invented to avoid it but that God who is affirmed to produce the Act should be accounted the Author of the sinne But God made the Law you will say not to bind himself but to regulate his Creature Though this be true yet it doth not take away the objection for how can it stand with the justice of God first to make a Law to regulate his creature and then to impell and Act that creature contrary to that Law and at last to punish the same Creature for being so Acted and impeld Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right Gen. 18.26 God will be justified when he judgeth a Psal 51.4 and therefore when he comes to execute judgement upon all b Epist Jud. vers 15. he will convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed not which himself hath Acted them unto or Acted in them But Master Hickman perhaps will stick still to his Metaphysicall formality and say here is in the supposed Act a discrepance or opposition to the Rule which is the Law of God To this the answer is very easie that man seldome or never entertains sin or consent to it with a design or minde to oppose himself to the divine Law but for the most part to enjoy his pleasure and satisfie his Appetites Besides if he should consent to sin with such a set purpose to oppose Gods Law yet we must grant according to Master Hickmans Doctrine that that Consent and that purpose being reall positive Entities Acts of the Humane Soul are from God and of his production whence it follows still either that man doth not sin when he
and Existentialists p 412 The Syn. Canonicall Description of Election p 413 The Apostles Doctrine inverted by M. Perkins order of Causes p 414 The Elect beloved most flagrantly and unchangeably out of Christ which evacuates his satisfaction and merits p 415 That Christ died to procure salvation for them to whom it was as sure before as Gods Love and Decree could make it ib. That no sin can hinder the effectuall calling of the Elect not put them out of the road to Glory p 416 That the sins of the Elect are of a better rank then those of the Reprob p 417 The Creabilitarians hold that the greatest part of mankind are Reprobates before Creatures in Gods purpose 418. That they have no interest at all in Christ ibid. Being under Gods implacable hatred at least as the most modest Calvinists hold upon the Fall of Adam ibid Though they improve their calling to the uttermost yet by the sway of the Fatall Decree they shall be brought into a Relapse and finally perish p 419 The Glory which God aimes to reap from his creature according to the Calvinists consists chiefly in the execution of his decrees of Election and Reprobation contrary to the Scriptures p 420 421 M.B. will have a parting blow at his dissenting Brother p 427 That the Justified cannot fall from their justification no fundamentall point with M.B. p 428 Good Christians are not made per saltum ordinarily 428. The elect have such a Magazine provided they need consult and take care for nothing p 429 430 But the Scripture teacheth another Doctrine 431 And many that warp to the other opinions are convinced of it ibid. p 432 Christianity a matter of choise p 433 Confirmation of such as are eminently faithfull in a state of indefectibility very probable p 434 435 Every single act of every grosse sin doth not cancell the state of Justification probable 436 What will cancell it p 437. The danger of backsliding 438. That the Regenerate may fall totally and finally 439 440. and that David did so p 440 c. 444 445 Hardning goes along with presumptuous sins p 442 David a servant of sin 443 444. though he had not served out a Apprentiship to the trade of sinning ibid. Adoption not absolutely granted but upon condition of Persever p 446 447 Regeneration and Sanctification may be repeated 448 449. so may conversion the new creation repentance words of the same importance 451 452 453 454. proved from the Discipline of Penance 455 456 457 458. Heb. 6.10 cleared p 459 460 The good ground Objection from thence answered 461 462 463. Objection from Davids prayer Psal 50. answered p 464 Every degree of love will not secure the state of justification p 465 c. Not safe to rely upon Gods mercy beyond the measures reveal'd to us p 467 No depending upon an habituall estimation of God in our Actuall disobedience p 468 A saving Faith no more separable from chastity c. than from charity p 470 Men may perish for want of consideration p 471 How the hearts of the regenerate relapsing are turned into as gracelesse a frame as theirs who were never sanctified p 472 Some single Acts of sin may exclude a man out of heaven p 473 The sin of David and Peter were not single Acts onely p 473 474 479 Habits infused may be lost p 475 476 477 478 Some single Acts of sin do surmount some Habits p 479 Peters sin mounted up by very many and great Aggravations p 479 480 Men may lie in a state of sin and yet pursue a course of Religion p 481 c. Christs prayer did not secure Peter from a totall falling away but from a finall onely p 484 Peter did not constantly build upon the Rock p 487 M.B. expounds the sacred text by Satans Comment 488. M.B. insnared in a Fallacy p 489 The House built upon a rock may be blown up though it be not blown down 489. a caution to prevent it p 490 The Doctrine of the Synnod touching Election and Perseverance not acording to Godlinesse 491. By it the vilest sinners may be certain of their Salvation without the renewing of Repentance 492 to 500. They hold every man ought to be certain of his Election 492 493. He that is once certain of his Election may fall into grosse sins 495. yet they cannot fall quite away 496 497. Therefore once certain and for ever certain 449 This Doctrine takes away from some gross sinners the fear of Gods displeasure of hell fire and of judgement to come which are the preservatives against sin 501 And is the foundation of the Antinomians Doctrine which M. B. accounts so grosse and absurd p 500 501 M. B. holds that no man hath such a certainty of his own sincerity c. as to exclude all doubting p 503 514 The Doctrine of Perseverance in M. Baxters judgement gives advantage to security p 504 M. B. interfering ib. 505 And incongruity of expression p 506 The word Grace one of the three that makes so many controversies c. p 506 The opinion of the Remonstrants and Lutherans touching falling from Grace not against Grace 506 507. Nor against Gods Fidelity 507. Ibid. Not. Marg 3. r. adde 1 Pet. p 4.19 Gods Fidelity is not impeached by mans Apostasie p 507 c. The Holy Ghosts Custody doth not secure the Faithful without their own vigilancy p 508 509 The falling away of the Regen not against Gods wisdome or power p 509 510 M. B. opinion against the Grace and wisdom of God 511. God by M.B. doctrines invites the Reprobate to ingage themselves in covenant with him yet he keeps himself disingaged to them p 511 512 M.B. contradiâ—ts himself in saying the opinions of the Arminians are against the peace of the Saints p 513 The certainty of perseverance serves onely the interest of the flesh p 514 No Cordials are to be provided for men in their wickednesses p 515 The opinion of the Remonst a better foundation of comfort for the lapsed than that of Calv. p 115 516 M. B. provides as ill for the peace of the Saints as do the Remonstrants p 516 That Men are to be judged godly according to the Predominant estimation and operation of their soul understood with restrictions p 517 A continued Sedition and Rebellion must not go for single Acts No more must the sins of David and Peter p 517 A relapse in the last stage of life very dangerous p 518 One Act of sin sets a man more backward than one Act of vertue can set him forward p 518 That the Habituated cannot change how to be understood p 518 519 M B. a supercilious Censor rather then a charitable Monitor of M. P. and why p 519 520. M. B. chooseth to die in the state of an Adulterer and Murderer and of one that hath denyed his Saviour with execrations whom he confesseth in an incapacity of salvation than in the state of a person by whom he knows no
Baxter's bare word for such a Test he that would not be deceived must learn to distrust Indeed it appears that there was a great deale of wash and Fucus c Deus bone Vidimus atque experiundo didicimus quanta illi arte quanto studio sententiam suam incrustare tegere ac caelare semper conati fuerint bodieque adhuc conentur Vix credo humanam industriam comminisci plura posse quam commenti sunt isti mortales ut sententiae ipsorum à sententiae Supralapsariorum differre non videretur ibid. of daubing and paintry used at the drawing up the Canons touching the severall Articles to make them look of the same complexion but if we examine the Doctors as Daniel did his Elders apart we shall finde their opinions to stand at push o'pike one against another For instance If you would inquire Whether the Election be necessarily made out of the Corrupt Masse some of those Divines will tell you it is and some as positively affirm it is not That the Decree of Election is of certain men out of mankind fallen into sin and lost is collected out of Rom. 9.15 16. I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and verse 23. The vessels of mercy prepared unto glory and verse 22. the Reprobates are called vessels of wrath But the wrath of God towards men doth presuppose their sin Rom. 1.18 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men Also Eph. 1. we are said to be elected in Christ that we might be holy Also we are said to be predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ which cannot be said but with respect to sin The Belgick Professors Act. Synod Dort Part. 3. Pag. 4. And the Divines of Zeeland ibid. pag. 43. That Election is made out of mankind fallen is proved out of Rom. 9.15 16. where the purpose of Election is called Having mercy and vers 23. the Elect are called vessels of Mercy Now mercy supposeth misery Rom. 11.32 God hath shut up all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all and 2 Tim. 1.9 He hath called us according to his purpose and grace c. That mercy given to us in Christ doth presuppose sin and shew us the remedy of it But the Deputies of the Synod of South-Holland are of another judgement ibid. pag. 34. f. Whether in his election God considered man as faln or not faln they think it not necessary to determine so that it be concluded that God considered all men in a like state in his election that the Elect were no better then the Non-elect whether in themselves or in Gods gracious estimation And Gomarus is most positive in this opinion and therefore he profest in the open Synod that he could not approve of the judgement of the foure Belgick Professors concerning the object of Predestination because he thought God did consider man as not faln in his predestination of him Vt supra in Sess 107. part 1. Whereupon he set down his own judgement apart by it self wherein he makes mankind simply considered the object of the Decree part 3. pag. 21. II. If you inquire whether Christ be the foundation of Election you will finde them divided in their judgement here too The Drent Divines say that Christ is the foundation of Election not as he is God nor as he is man but as he is God-man our head and eternall Redeemer by whom we are saved because he by his merit hath procured the grace of God for us and by his spirit he effecteth faith in us Eph. 1.4 5 6. Art Syn. Dord part 3. pag. 80. f. Thes 8. And the Hassien Divines to the same purpose ibid. part 2. pag. 25. But Pet. Molin saith otherwise ibid. part 1. pag. 290. m. Christ as he is man and the mediator he is head of the elect but not the cause of election seeing he himself as he is man is elect He is the meritorious cause of our salvation and our Ransome But of two alike sinfull he is not the cause why the one is preferred before the other The Cause is to be sought in Gods beneplaciture and free love which in order goes before the intercession of the Son For the Father sent the Son and gave him to be the Redeemer This is his Answer to that Question whether Christ be the Foundation of Election which is negative III. If you inquire whether the elect be beloved out of Christ they are at odds here too for some of them say When we affirme that the love of the Father whereby he chose us goes in order before the intercession of the Son our meaning is not that the elect are beloved of God out of Christ For though the love of the Father went before the sending of his Son yet he never loved us but in consideration of his Son neither would he ever confer any benefit upon the elect but in and through his Son Pet. Molin ubi supra Yet the Synod rejects it as an errour in them who teach that Christ neither could nor ought to die for those whom God dearly loved and chose unto eternall life seeing such stood in no need of Christs death Cap. 2. Reject 7. pag. 253. part 1. Act. Syn. Dord IV. If you inquire whether Reprobation hath respect onely or not at all to the fall of Mankinde They run division likewise upon this Article for some of them say it hath and others as confidently averre that it hath not Sibrandus Lubbertus saith We do not teach that God by his absolute will and decree without any respect to sin hath ordained any to damnation But we say God would declare his iustice in the damnation of the Reprobate and therefore he would not appoint any to damnation but for sin Act. Syn. Dord part 3. pag. 14. And the Divines of Great Britaine say Reprobation or Non-election is Gods eternall decree whereby for his own most free good pleasure he determined not to have mercy upon some persons faln in Adam so farre forth as to deliver them effectually from the state of misery by Christ and bring them infallibly unto blessednesse De Reprob Thes 1 pag. 11 part 2. But Gomarus saith God had no respect at all to sin as going before it in the Decree of Reprobation For saith He Peremptory Reprobation is the Decree of God whereby for his own most free pleasure to the declaration of his avenging justice he determined to give neither grace nor glory to certain men out of universall mankind but to suffer them freely to fall into sin and to leave them in their sins and at last justly to condemn them for their sinnes ibid. part 3. pag. 24. Thes 2. And their Deputies of the Synod of South-Holland to the same sense making mankind in generall not considered as fallen and in the corrupt masse the object of the Decree of Election and Reprobation ibid. pag. 35. p. V. If you inquire concerning the
second Cause yet the infallible futurition and execution of all effects the infallible futurition and ordering the execution of all events is as fully ascribed unto God as if man had no hand therein I know Master Baxter hath declared himself against this Philosophy in his Treatise of Judgement Answer to 23. excuse But whether the Assembly of Divines have not at least insinuated this to be their judgement I leave the Reader to consider by a view of some of their expressions Chap. 3. th 1. of their Confess They say God from all Eternity did by the most wise and holy Counsil of his own will freely and unchangeably ORDAIN whatsoever comes to passe and Chap. 5. thes 4. The Almighty power unsearchable wisdome and infinite Goodnesse of God so far manifest themselves in his providence that it extendeth even to the first fall and all other sins of Angels and men and that not by a BARE PERMISSION but such as hath joyned with it a most wise and powerfull bounding and NB. OTHERWISE ordering and governing of them in a manifold dispensation to his own holy end and thes 2. In relation to the foreknowledge and DECREE of God the first Cause All things come to passe IMMUTABLY and infallibly Indeed all they who ground God's certaine Foreknowledge of all things future upon his infrustrable and ineluctable Decree for their futurition must grant that all humane Actions whatsoever are immutably necessary otherwise God should not foreknow them And what is it that hath begotten a new definition of Liberty and many distinctions to free Almighty God and convince man of the guilt of sin but the common opinion of the Necessity of all humane Actions by reason of the secret effectuall decree of God The liberty of the second cause saith Master Norton doth not consist in a power of indifferency Vbi supra p. 74. to act or not to act as it was wont to be defined Liberty consists in a spontaneitie quam ratio praecedit saith Maccovius †Colleâ— dis 16. pag. 53. A spontaneitie such as Beasts are carried by ushered in by Reason Therefore whatsoever a man doth reason going before that he doth freely though he cannot but do it This is the Liberty of the Leviathan and by this Philosophy man is yoaked in the same name with brute Animals his reason having the honour to be the fore-horse in every expedition Again upon this opinion that mens evill Actions are of an unavoidable necessity by God's immutable Decree and irresistible determination that God may not be concluded the Author of sin and that man may be properly accounted guilty certain distinctions are invented Vbi supra pag. 63. p. 8. f. as First We must distinguish saith Master Norton betwixt the Action and the evil of the Action Notwithstanding God is no way the Author of the evil of the Action yet God ascribeth unto himself the doing of these Actions that are sinfull 1. Because he is the Author of the Act wholly 2. Because he is the Fore-determiner Orderer and Governour of the sinfulnesse of the action to his own glorious and blessed end The action is ascribed to him absolutely the sin cleaving to the action not absolutely but onely in such sort and respects 2. That man may be accounted properly guilty notwithstanding this inevitable necessity that lies upon him according to this Doctrin they use distinctions to reconcile Liberty with Necessity To which purpose they say 1. 'T is but a necessity of immutability not of compulsion and 2. though the sinfull Action be inevitable in senfu composite that is in respect of God's Decree and divine determination yet in sensu diviso suppose man left to his own liberty and divided from this conduct of Gods providence which is impossible then 't is avoidable These distinctions will serve to play withall in a Sophisters Problem But in a matter of so high concernment as life and death eternall they will serve as little to magnifie Gods justice as to abate the pains of hell fire in such as shall be damned upon this Account 4. For the fourth Article touching the Grace of conversion that those who are Elected cannot reject those who were Reprobates caâ—not accept it you may find the Judgement of the Calvinists and I think of most if not all that are of that denomination at this day bound up in those expressions of Master Norton Vbi supra pag. 126. Notwithstanding the creature in regard of his formall Free-efficiency is somewhat distinguished from a meer Instrument yet even those effects wherein God useth the second Cause as a subordinate Free-Agent depend upon and are determined by the first Cause as much as where the second Cause is a meer passive Instrument because the Free-efficiency of the second Cause is the effect of the first Cause Can the Axe not cut when the Carpenter will have it cut or can it cut when he will not have it cut I speak not here of Gods direction of Free-Agents to others ends and objects but with reference to sin and the work of their Conversion respectively This Doctrine distinguisheth men from stocks and stones in the work of Gods Regenerating Grace upon them as little as the Synod †3 and 4. ch of Convers Artic. 16. p. 259. part 1. can possibly admit of and here is very little room for the Free-Agents Can and cannot For the Elect's cannot reject it if Master Baxter doth not think it an absurd opinion why doth he alleage any thing to colour over the matter but if he thinks it absurd and a distinction needfull to cleare the Doctrine I shall shew anon that he doth little lesse then reproach them with it even by what he cites from them to excuse it That the Reprobate cannot accept that Grace or be converted is the distinct affirmation of Master Fonner more then once or twice Pag. 8. 16. c. in his Treatise before mentioned where he saith The Reason why the wicked do not repent nor come out of their sins is not because they cannot though they cannot but because they will not For the last Article of Tilenus That the Regeneraâ—e cannot fall away how ever Master Baxter makes an offer to except against the Indietment which Tilenus prefer's against them for it I suppose no Calvinist will deny it But what shall the Elect be saved then however they live By no means That Diabolicall Sarcasme saith Master Norton †Vbi supra pag. 83. bitter scoffe invented to the abuse and derision of the Doctrine of the Decree is not onely an untruth but implyeth a Contradiction viz. If I be elected howsoever I live I shall be saved Satan in this Sophisme divides the end and the meanes asunder which God hath joyned together The Decree consists not of the end without the means nor of the means without the end but of both together Both end and means are conteined in one Decree Yea so farre is the
you do not sit down with satisfaction herein I shall conclude in your own words to Master Warner of Justification pag. 314. It is not replying that will serve the turne but either prejudice will hold them to the side that they have taken or else they will think him in the right that hath the last word but usually they will go with the Party that is in greatest credit or hath most interest in them or advantage on them But 3. you upbraid them with unconscionable dealings unworthy falsification perverse insinuation and upon this threefold Cord it is that you suspend your belief towards them But can you discover such moats in the Remonstrants eyes which how many soever your Multiplying Glasse or indisposed Medium presented to you are by this time washed out of Tilenus's and can you not see the Beams that are lodged in the eyes of your own Party Do they stand at too near a distance for you to behold them If you will promise to suspend your faith here too upon the discovery of such beams I will be so charitably officious as to direct you to a Prospect whence you may take a full view of them If you have seen Festus Hommius who was one of the Scribes of the Synod his Specimen Controversiarum Belgicarum you might have seen enough of such dealings as you unjustly charge Tilenus with as is sufficiently discovered in two little Pamphlets the one bearing this Title Joan. Wtenbogardi Responsio ad ea quae illi speciatim impegit Festus Hommius the other this Optima Fides Festi Hommii c. Of this Man and his Brother Scribe Doctor Damman the Author of that Antidotum Pag. 11. writeth thus To whom is the falshood of these men unknown Festi sc Hommii in edendis pro arbitrio suo truncandis atque interpretandis Trelcatiorum Scriptis non sine magnorum virorum gravissima indignatione Similiter in propolandis pessimâ fide Episcopii Disputationibus privatis c. And of Bogerman President of the Synod He saith thus An non ille est cui ô justa Nemesis ◠artes fraudes mendacia sua quibus titulis ille innoxios insontes Remonstrantes in Synodo Ib. pag. 10. suopte arbitratu injussus praeter omnem rationem oneratos ac gravatos tantâ cum acerbitate amarulentia dimittebat ut poenitentia tactus veniam sibi posteà petendam indicaret adeoque ambitio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 palam publicéque exprobrata in os objecta sunt quòd vid. c. But alas these are Peccadillo's not worthy Master Baxter's taking notice of we will therefore bring him to a Mount which will afford him a notable Prospect indeed whence he shall descry the Reputation of the Innocent Remonstrants bleeding under the stroaks of such objected forgeries and Calumnies Hactenus Remonstrantibus saith the same Author Pag. 23. ferè crimini datumtest quod malâ fide sententiam contra Remonstrantium proponerent atque exprimerent dici vix potest quot convitia dirae ac probra propterea passim contra Remonstrantes in foris pulpitis circulis conviviis scaphis rhedis curribus triviisque hominum dicta ac projecta fuerint tanquam in falsi manifestos fide omni indignos Mortales Ipsa Synodus Arnhemiensis O rem foedam ac detestandam quis credidisset ausa est sententiam illam quam Remonstrantes ipsissimam ac genuinam Contra-Remonstrantium sententiam esse asserebant tanquam foedam atque impiam sub vocabulorum quorundam homonymiâ aequivocatione communibus calculis damnare eâ tantum de causa ut falsum dixisse Remonstrantes crederetur atque ita publici odii victimae fierent But to bring the Prospect a little nearer to Master Baxters ken Was there no such Artifice used in the Synod of Dort What say they in their fourth Rejection upon the First Chapter of Divine Predestination They reject the errour of those who teach that in the Election unto faith this Condition is formerly required viz. That a man use the light of Reason aright that he be honest lowly humble and disposed unto life eternall as though in some sort Election depended on these things Is not here an insinuation as if the Remonstrants held this Doctrine the designe of the Synod being to declare against them yet say the Remonstrants this is falsly and by way of Calumny thrown upon them for the Contrary appears as clear in their writings as the light at noon day a Ibid. p. 72. In the sixth Rejection they reject those who teach that not all election unto salvation is unchangeable but that some which are elected the Decree of God notwithstanding may perish and for ever do perish The Synod herein doth adulterate pervert and traduce the Doctrine of the Remonstrants by odious expressions Ibid. p. 76. That last branch that the elect may perish eternally the Decree of God notwithstanding is without cause thrown upon them and against their judgements For the first they ever professe Election and the will of God to be immutable Indeed when they say so they make the subject about which Election is exercised to be the faithfull man as such Hence it comes to passe when that man who believes to day turnes Infidell to morrow there is no change in Gods Election but in the man onely The Reason is because God will not chuse the unfaithfull but the faithfull And therefore when the faithfull man becomes unfaithfull the will of God concerning the Election of faithfull men remains uniform and the same But the truth is if the will of God or the Divine Election concerning that man now become unfaithfull should persevere then the will of God should properly be changed because he should will to elect unto salvation not onely the faithfull men but the unfaithfull also In the Seventh Rejection the Remonstrants complain that they of the Synod have cloathed a most certain truth with some rough invented Phrases to make it odious and look ugly Ibid. p. 77. The Errour rejected is That in this life there is no fruit no sense no certainty of immutable election unto glory but upon condition contingent and mutable But the Remonstrants professe they have not these words in all their writings They know no fruit more sweet to a pious man then what grows upon the consideration of Gods unchangeable love whereby he will most assuredly conferre eternall life upon believers As for that opinion which some place so much of their comfort in that he who doth once truly believe may be alwaies certain of his being in the faith and Grace of God however he pollutes or behaves himselfe this is a fruit which indeed they cannot relish growing onely upon that tree of Election which by whomsoever it was planted hath no sound root in Scripture In their Ninth Rejection the Synod doth covertly insinuate to make them odious that the Remonstrants teach That the cause why God sends the Gospel
then Obedience yet I doubt many of your rigid Anti-Arminians would not teach so Why not thus By Grace †Eph. 2.8 Chap. 4.32 through Faith for Christ his sake Or if you will Secundum opera but not Propter opera by no means works are via ad Regnum but not Causa regnandi The way unto the kingdome of Heaven but not the Cause of reigning there and therefore let it be according to their workes and not for their works For if your For be Causalis respectu Consequentis and not onely Rationalis respectu Consequentiae it hath Popery in the belly or at least a piece of the Grotian Religion and though Bellarmine makes it a point of his Beliefe yet Amesius cannot digest it Bellarm. Enervat Tom. 4. pag. 208. This obedience as the fruit of Faith you say is not a Meanes or Antacedent to God's Decree but to our Salvation This is ORTHO-DORT indeed But you might have said the same of the sins of the Elect as well as of thei◠Faith and Obedience For they are all alike Ingredients to make up that One full Medium as concerning the Elect They are part of the Means or Antecedent in order to the Execution of that Decree as you have heard before out of Master Perkins and Master Norton And would not this be very wholesome Doctrine to teach your people that God had a regard to the Permission of sinne in them and their severall falls though into most heinous wasting crimes to serve for Fatherly chastisements as well as to their Faith and Obedience to make up the full and intire Means or Antecedent in order to the execution of the Decree of their Election Master Baxter goes on with his exceptions He calls that Secluding all the rest from saving grace which the Synod calls but Praeterition and Non-Election and Reliction What a trabiliary and hypocondriac Passion suggested this exception to him Is saving grace attainable or within the reach of these Non-Elect Relict Gomarus hath Abject Past-Byes If not why do you carp at the word Secluded you have a mind to find a knot in a bull rush if you could tell how But to let you see it was not a word invented or made use of by Tilenus to the Prejudice of your Party you may find it used by some of them before him Et si Deus ab aeterno certos quosdam ad communionem salutis in Christo Elegit alios vero ab ta EXCLUSIT pro suo beneplacito Zanch. in Misel tract de Pradest Sanct. c. 1. in Thesib de Instit. Dei Thes 8. And Calvin Instit lib. 3. c. 23. Sect. 1. in pr. Quos ergo Deus praeterit reprobat neque alia de causa observe that nisi quod ab haereditate quam filiis suis praedestinat illos vult excludere I hope you will allow Exclusit and excludere to be very near of kin to Secluded and so I leave it But Master Baxter hath a severer censure for Tilenus in his following words He unworthily feigneth them to say that God appointeth them to eternall damnation without any regard to their impenitency or Infidelity when they professe that it is propter infidelitatem caetera Peccata that he decrees to damn them as the Causes of damnation though not of the eternall decree Why then Tilenus said true They were appointed without any regard to their Infidelity c. Ay but he regarded their Infidelity and other sins as the Causes of damnation Your meaning is that those sins are the means or Antecedent as your expression was a little before in order to the execution of this Decree And so are their very best works by the Doctrine of your Party who speak consonantly to their principles Statuere possumus bona opera Praedestinationi quandoque quandoque etiam reprobationi inservire Praedestinatio per illa gloriam Dei illustrat quoad reprobationem sunt nonnunquam rationes quare gravior reddatur Lapsus Qui enim à Deo deficiunt cum ab illo fuerint ornati bonis operibus ut gravius peccant ita etiam acerbius puniuntur We may resolve that good works do serve to the furtherance sometimes of Predestination and sometimes of Reprobation Predestination doth set forth the glory of God by them and in respect of Reprobation they are many times the means to aggravate Relapses into sin For they who doe fall from God when he hath adorned them with Good works as they do more grievously sin so are they also more severely punished Loc. Com. De Reprob Pob 1. p. 122. f. saith Steph. Szegedin 2. But doth not your Decree of Reprobation in good earnest make provision for those sins in order to the illustration of Gods justice when he shall condemn them An attentive Reader may remember something alleadged above to this purpose But not to leave it unto conjecture in a matter of so great moment I shall give you Master Nortons words out of his Orthodox Evangelist pag. 56. f. 11. The and of God in the Decree saith he is himself for the manifestation of his glory in a way of Justice upon the Reprobate The creation of man mutable the permission of sin the punishing of him justly for sinne make up one full and perfect medium that is meanes conducing to this end as concerning the Reprobate Remember 't is the constant and unanimous Doctrine of the Calvinists that the Decree includes the means as well as the end And this is the very Doctrine of Gomarus held forth in the Synod not detested nor rejected nor disowned nor silenced for it is inserted amongst their Acts. Part. 3. pag. 24. Thes 2. you had it fully in the former passages Hereupon the Divines from the Correspondence of Widderau doe conclude in the Name of those Churches to this purpose Act. Syn. Dor. part 2. pag. 154. f. Quid ergo an peccata fiunt necessario ita est sane si nempe intelligas necessitatem illam quae pendet à gemina hypothesi decreti scilicet permittentis finis boni What then are sinnes committed necessarily yes so it is if you consider that necessity which depends upon a double hypothesis that is to say the Decree not ineffectually for so they hold of permission Permitting and the Good end intended The case then in short may be thus illustrated A Noble man commits Treason for which his Prince seizeth upon all his estate to the utter undoing of his posterity These being disabled to purchase Armes and other accommodations for the warres according to that equipage that becomes their Noble extraction the Prince makes a Decree of two branches 1. Negative That none should assist or supply their needs 2. Positive That they shall lose their heads but this shall be for neglect of duty or disobedience which that they may be found guilty of they are summon'd to appear in person as becomes their Noble birth and his Eminence to fight his battails These unhappy persons appear with
Formally our Duty but because alone it will not But it is time to feel the pulse of Master Baxters fourth sense which beateth thus 4. Improperly as onely describing the degree of excellency in the effects as related to the Cause As if they said there is so much excellency in this effect of Grace that no Cause below Omnipotency that is below God himself could procure it And he that denieth this let him prove if he can that any Creature without God can Sanctifie A very Profound Argument I will requite you with such another Let Master Baxter prove if he can that any creature can breathe or move one step without God Ergo therefore Omnipotency is required to cause every Creature to fetch every haust of breath and move every step But let us reduce M. Baxters Argument into form and see what will follow from it Whatsoever cannot be wrought without God is wrought by omnipotency or a power not inferiour to that by which God created the world or raiseth up the dead But Grace or Sanctification is not wrought without God Therefore Grace or Sanctification is wrought by Omnipotency or a power not inferiour to that whereby God created the world or raiseth up the dead I deny the Major That whatsoever cannot be wrought without God is wrought by Omnipotency c. For I 'le assume upon that proposition thus Man cannot breathe nor set one step nor perform any one naturall action without God Doth it follow therefore that besides Gods Generall concourse there is required a Speciall omnipotent influx not inferiour to that power whereby he created the world or raiseth up the dead to cause us to breathe and walk Then every breath we fetch and every step we set is irresistible and cannot be suspended or forborn The Fallacy in these Arguings is A Dicto Simpliciter God is Omnipotent doth it follow therefore that the power which he exerteth or putteth forth to cause Grace in us is Omnipotent If it be so then God Acteth in this work to the utmost of his power and can do no more and no Divine Our preaching and persuasion and your hearing and considering are the appointed means c. Call to the Non-Converted Preface Joh. 17.17 Eph. 5.26 that is well in his wits will say so as Master Baxter hath acknowledged 'T is true no creature without God can Sanctifie but God useth the creature as his instrument and means to work Sanctification Now are ye clean through the word and Sanctifie them through thy truth and Christ doth sanctifie and clense his Church by the washing of water through the word yet the word is neither Omnipotent nor irresistible And it is mans duty †2 Tim. 2.21 1 Pet. 1.16.22 1 Joh. 3.3 to sanctifie himself and as 't is possible for him to perform so 't is possible for him also to neglect it Master Baxters fifth sense is given us in these words And if onely the severall effects are compared as if the meaning were the work of Grace doth more clearly demonstrate Omnipotency in the cause then the creation of the world I have met with none that dares pretend to be a Judge in the comparison or competition Then I have been more happy in this than you for I have met with a man that doth more than pretend to it one that hath plaid the part of a Judge in the comparison or competition and I am sorry you are no better acquainted with him but you may read his decision in the next words which tell us In some respect the work of Grace demonstrateth Omnipotency more as being against more actuall resistance In other respects the creation demonstrateth it much more Now how can we reckon this Judge amongst the number of those Sober Divines who you say did never intend to make themselves †Hi sunt qui se ultro apud temerarios convenas sine divina dispositione praestciunt qui se Praepositos sine ullâ Ordinationis Lege constituunt qui nomine Episcopatum dante Episcopi sibi nomen assumunt sedentes in pestilentiae Cathedra c. S. Cyprian de unit Eccles pag. 23. Judges I wonder who else made you so of these things or trouble the Church with disputes about them This Assertion will argue want of Sobriety in some body let the Reader judge in whom In the mean while I shall proceed to Master Baxters 13. Section Where I find his Discourse ushered in again with a new Reproach cast upon Tilenus whom he upbraideth in this language You slanderously say c. Now at a venture I submit it to the Impartiall Reader to stamp the brand of Infamy in an indelible Character upon the Forehead of him who is the greater slanderer of the too Tilenus or Master Baxter But what is the slander That the Synod saith The Reprobates cannot accept it viz. saving Faith How dares Master Baxter call this a slander †He doth acknowledge it of them in Sect. 36. of this Preface which is so easily proved to be their Doctrine That which is neither given to them nor designed for them by Almighty God Reprobi credere non possunt Gomarus in Thesibus de Praedest disp 1604. thes◠32. Reprobos nec obedire vocenti Deo nec credere nec resipiscere nec justificari nec salvari posse inquit Musculus in locis Com. Loc. de Reprob that the Reprobates cannot receive or accept Faith and Repentance are neither given to them nor designed for them by Almighty God Therefore they cannot receive or accept it The Major is proved by the words of the Baptist Joh. 3.27 A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above The Minor is the Doctrine of the Synodists For if you examine their Suffrages most of their Definitions or Descriptions of Reprobation do include the Denial of Grace Sufficient and Necessary unto Faith and Repentance But we need not be at that trouble to finde proof for we have it amongst the very Decrees of the Synod Cap. 1. Artic. 15. They say God Decreed to leave the Non-elect in the common Misery and not to bestow saving Faith and the Grace of Conversion upon them And Reject 2. They reject it as an Errour that troubled the Belgick Churches That an Election unto justifying Faith may be without peremptory Election unto Salvation And Cap. 2. Reject 6. Whereas some rather than others are made partakers of forgivenesse of sins and life eternall They reject it as an Errour That this diversitie depends upon their own free-will applying it self to Grace indifferently offered and not upon the singular gift of Mercy effectually working in them rather than others that they may apply this Grace unto themselves By which Doctrine it is evident that this Faith is denyed unto the Reprobate and consequently that they cannot receive it which is all I intended to evince from it By all which and much more that might be alleaged to prove it it appeares that the
Master Fenner The Reprobates are not damned because they cannot though they cannot saith he Cap. 3. 4. Artic. 3. but because they will not And this is the very Doctrine of the Synod They say All men are conceived in sin and born the children of wrath untoward to all good tending to salvation forward to evil dead in sins slaves of sin and neither Will nor Can without the grace of the holy Ghost regenerating them which is denyed to every Reprobate by this Synod set streight their own crooked nature no nor so much as dispose themselves to the amending of it And both this Cannot and this Will not when you have driven the Question to the very Head do flow by an inevitable Necessity from the Divine Decree according to the Doctrine of the Calvinists speaking even by the Synod as was shewed above in the Testimonies alleaged in proof of the last branch of the third Article and as appears by the Decrees of the Synod it self compare Chapter 3 and 4. Artic. 3. with Chap. 1. Artic. 15. In his next which is the 14. Section Master Baxter runs on in his wonted strain of accusation for he tell Tilenus You wrong them also and 't is just so and no otherwise then formerly in feigning them simply to say that those to whom God gives grace cannot reject it It were a strange Fiction I confess to affirm that they say simply when t is so evident they speak so doubly and equivocally upon all occasions But doth Master Baxter think that every Reader will bring the Colliers faith and follow him with a blinde obedience in whatsoever he please to impose upon him if he be ushered in with a valiant Calumny If he understands Latine he will finde the charge Tilenus brings against them acknowledged in the next words which tels us They say indeed that Post Dei operationem quoad ipsum non manet in hominis potestate regenerari vel non regenerari c. What alters the case is it Master Baxters for 't is none of Tilenus's Dictum simplicitèr or the Synod's Secundùm quid or quoad ipsum the first of which is a mere blinde and the other such an insignificant Parenthesis that the English Translator thought fit to leave it quite out in his Translation of those Decrees It is a notable sign men are ashamed of their opinions when they use such figg-leaf distinctions to cover their nakednesse But it seems quoad ipsum would not do it and therefore Master Baxter makes it quoad ipsam in his Descant upon the words or the Reason he renders to excuse them which is this that followeth For saith he when effectuall Grace hath done its work the man is regenerate already or else grace were not effectuall do you give it that denomination ab eventu then Besides saith he by Power here they mean nothing but the proportion of mans corruption and resisting disposition would any man interpret it of mans virtue and cooperation compared with that Grace that shall infallibly prevaile against it What need these trifling circumlocutions you might have told us in one word if you would have used your Christian simplicity that the Masculine Omnipotency and the Feminine Irresistibility of the Synod are so infallibly praevalent in this work that the Elect cannot reject it which is that we contend to be the Synods meaning But by the way let the Reader take notice of the sincerity of this Praevaricator This Article of Tilenus is taken out of that very Decree of the Synod Cap. 3 4. Artic. 12. which he professeth in his Confession of Faith Vbi supra he cannot subscribe unto yet here he quarrels Tilenus about it and undertakes the vindication of it by his sleight Comments and takes the confidence by unworthy suggestions to wrong him under an unjust pretense that he hath wronged them For evidence whereof it will not be amisse to give the Reader a more full view of their sense and meaning The Belgick Professors say that Faith De Art 3 4. Thes 6. p. 155. p. 3 by which we are first converted and from which we are styled Faithfull is not an Act but a Habit infused of God and that so Potent that the will of man cannot resist or hinder it Ibid. p. 157. and those 4. Professors subscribed these Rejections This is subscribed by Polyander Gomarus Thysius and Waleus and approved by Lubbertus which Lubbertus rejects amongst others these two propositions as unsound opinions 1. In hominis irregeniti Potestate esse primam gratiam accipere vel rejicere That it is in the Power of the unregenerate to accept or reject the first grace 2. In hominis irregeniti Potestate esse primâ gratiâ benè vel male uti It is in the power of an unregenerate man to use the first grace well or ill And the Divines of †Part. 2. p. 153. m. Wedderau say that the Grace of the Holy Ghost which effecteth faith whether it be done ordinarily or extraordinarily is irresistible That man neither will nor can resist it his vitiosity being conquered by the insuperable power of God Ita Britanni ad hoc opus regenerationis habet se homo passivè neque est in potestate voluntatis humanae impedire Deum sic immediate regenerantem That the will of man is merely Passive in this work So that God is the solitary Cause of the first Conversion And doth not the whole Synod subscribe to this doctrine They resemble this work to that Powerfull operation of God by which he giveth being to this our naturall life Cap. 3 4. Art 17. A work to the production whereof he imployeth his omnipotent strength Reject 8. A work for the mightinesse thereof not inferiour to the creation of the world or raising up the dead which God worketh in us but not with us but without us an operation so carried on that when God hath done his part it remains not in mans choise to be or not to be regenerate to be or not to be converted Art 12. Reject 8. From whence I argue thus That work wherein man is merely passive which is wrought in him but without him like his first birth creation or resurrection from the dead by Gods Omnipotent strength That work or that Grace that worketh after this manner he cannot reject But such is the operation or Grace that effecteth his Regeneration or Conversion according to the Doctrine of the Synod as was alleaged out of their very words Therefore the Synod are not wronged nor is Tilenus guilty of a Fiction But M. Baxter accountable for them both But saith M. Baxter For the manner of Gods operation they confesse it such as man cannot here comprehend ibid. Sect. 13. They were then very bold men so positively to define it to be insuperable infrustrable omnipotent irresistible And was it done like Worthy Learned Divines to exauctorate persecute and banish †For it is well known
and who are they that have drawn them name the Persons and produce the Inferences Who denies God a liberty to dispense what undeserved favours he pleaseth and to whom he pleaseth and in what measure or proportion he pleaseth I know no man repines at it or disputes against it Hereby had he pleased so to Reveal and communicate himself he had done great benefit to them and no injury to others The odious inferences are drawn or rather of themselves do follow from that which Master Calvin called an Horrible Decree from your Doctrine of Reprobation wherein you teach That God for the Sin of Adam denies All Grace that is Sufficient and Necessary to salvation to the farre greatest part of mankinde and yet decrees in the very self same Act to torment them for want of it and that notwithstanding he invites them with the greatest shews of seriousnesse and earnestnesse and the highest expressions of Love and indeerement to embrace it These Master Baxter are some of the Inferences that strike so deep into the face of Gods justice and sincerity and that makes them so odious and distastfull and this is the ground of that practise so frequently taken up by your Party in their writings as well as by your self in this place you throw out before your Readers eies the Lure of Effectuall meaning irresistible Grace and infrustrable Perseverance and infallible Assurance the greatest certainty whereof lyeth in the strength not of your Arguments but your Confidence to draw him off from the deep Resentment of those other Inferences which are really abominable if not blasphemous But hark you Master Baxter one word more before we leave this point Are you sure that such odious inferences will fall upon our Doctrine upon the Concession of Gods Foreknowledge as falls upon yours upon the Position of such Decrees Why according to your Doctrine of Decrees things are therefore future because they are decreed but according to ours of Foreknowledge things are therefore foreknown because they are future Zanchy saith as was shewed above that by the immutable Reprobation there is incumbent upon the Reprobate a necessity of sinning and that even unto death without repentance and of suffering eternall punishment for it And Piscator saith the Rebellion of the Reprobate depends upon the Antecedent Absolute and irresistibly Efficacious will of God This Immutable Decree with that irresistible means †Which are inseparably tyed together Hence the Divines of Wodderan say that sin comes to passe of necessity in respect of the Decree and the good end intended De cap. 38. 4. pag. 154. par 2. appointed in order to its executions doth make an Antecedent Causall Necessity But the Foreknowledge of God doth not so and therefore the Liberty of mans will doth very well consist with this Foreknowledge though it cannot with that Decree Nequaquam rectè intelligenti haec repugnarè videntur Praescientia quam sequitur necessitas libertas arbitrii à qua removetur necessitas quoniam necesse est quod Deus Praescit futurum esse Deus Praescit aliud aliquid esse sine omni necessitate saith Anselmus That is In Concordia Foreknowledge which inferrs necessity and Freewill which rejects necessity are no way repugnant because both what God foreknows is necessary to be future and God foreknows the futurition of many things to be without any necessity But you will say whether God foreknows me to sinne or not to sinne it is necessary that I do according to Gods Foreknowledge else his foreknowledge should not be infallible which were absurd to affirm To this Anselm answers You ought not to say God foreknowes that I will sin or not sin but God foreknows that I will sin or not sin without any necessity and so it fellows that whether thou sinnest or sinnest not it will be without necessity because God foreknows it to be future without necessity and so it must be Gods foreknowledge therefore doth not oppose or take away contingency or liberty from second Causes but establish them It doth not presse upon the will a necessity of future Acting but onely extends its notice to all her future motions which are free and it supposeth them to be such And therefore although the futurition of things be necessary upon Gods Foreknowledge yet that Necessity is not effective but onely illative The things foreknown are supposed to have a being before and not to derive their being from that foreknowledge Ideo enim quia ponuntur res esse Ibid. Anselm dicuntur ex necessitate esse aut quia ponuntur non esse affirmantur non esse ex necessitate non quia necessitas cogat aut prohibeat rem esse aut non esse Nam cum dico si erit ex necessitate erit hic sequitur necessitas quae rei positionem non praecedit Idem valet si sic pronuncietur Quod erit ex necessitate erit Non enim aliud significat hic nisi quia quod erit non poterit simul non esse thus Anselm Whereby it appears that Gods Foreknowledge doth suppose the operation of the will as future and therefore the necessity arising from thence is but a Consequent Necessity He saith the same of Predestination upon Foreknowledge Ibid. Quaedam Praescita Praedestinata non eveniunt eâ necessitate quae praecedit rem facit sed eâ quae rem sequitur Some things Foreknown and Predestinated do not come to passe by that Necessity which Praecedes the thing and is the cause of it but by that which doth follow it I referre the Reader for his satisfaction in this Particular to Doctor Hammond Of Fundamentals pag 160 161. but for M. Baxter I 'le commend him to writings that are of more Authority with him In his Treatise of Conversion he saith What if I could foretell from the obstinate wickednesse of such a thief or such a drunkard that he will never be cured Is it long of me because I foreknew it What if the Prophet foretells Hazael what cruelty he shall commit on the children of Israel is the Prophet therefore the cause of it And in his Sermon of Judgement he saith Must God either be ignorant of what you will do Excuse 26. or else be the cause of it If you foreknow that the Sunne will rise to morrow that doth not cause it to rise If you foreknow that one man will murder another you are not the cause of it by foreknowing it So is it here The short is Gods foreknowledge hath no such influence in drawing men on either to Presumption or desperation because it makes no such Provision of insuperable or irresistible means to carry on the work of salvation or damnation respectively as that Decree is supposed to doe And thus much in vindication of Tilenus his fourth Article Reflexions upon Section XVI and Article V. THe fifth feigned Article of Tilenus is saith Master Baxter That such as have once received that Grace by Faith
with a distinction betwixt Reprobation and Praedamnation or Predestination to damnation For they say it is one thing to Predestinate and create to damnation another thing to Praedestinate and create to destruction Damnation being the sentence of a Judge must be past in consideration of sin but Destruction may be the Act of a Soveraign and so inflicted by Right of Dominion as was shewed above To this purpose those Deputies Ibid. pag. 35. m. De Causa Reprobationis do conclude Causam adaequatam cur Deus aliquos non eligendo Praeterierit esse solum divinae voluntatis beneplacitum That the Adaequate cause why God doth passe-by some is the sole beneplaciture of his Divine will Causam verò cur eosdem damnare decreverit esse non tantum actualem oblatae gratiae divinae rejectionem sed etiam alia omnia peccata tam Originalia quam actualia But the cause why he decreed to condemn them is not onely the rejection of the divine grace but also all other sinnes as well the Originall as Actuall Besides the Synod in those their Decrees where they thought it most plausible to fix Predestination upon the fall of Adam they confesse God did not reprobate the most part of the world without all respect of sin because they suppose all mankind infected with that corruption and stain of Originall sin in and with Adam and God cannot but behold it because nothing is concealed from his eye but they never confesse that God had respect to sin as the impulsive or Meritorious cause for which he did reprobate and ordain any to the torments of hell For they say if God had been moved by sin to passe the Act of Reprobation He had reprobated All without exception because All had sinned in Adam Again when they say God did not do this without respect of ANY sinne they confesse it may be granted that he had some respect to some kind of sin to that of Adam committed more then five thousand years agoe without the consent or knowledge of those who are reprobated and to that Originall sin that doth follow from that first sin by unavoidable necessity but they do not say he had respect to any Personall sin or sins committed freely and with a deliberate will of those who are reprobated I say according to their Doctrine God had no respect to any such personall sins Infidelity and Impenitency unlesse it were for the introduction of them by an efficacious permission as means connected with the end in the same Decree for the infrustrable execution of it And therefore the Deputies forementioned Vbi supra do reject it as an Errour in those that hold Causam cur Deus aliquos rejecerit esse infidelitatem impoenitentiam praevisam That impenitencie and unbelief are the cause why God rejects men And the very Decrees of the Synod affirm as much For Cap. 1. Reject 8. they Reject it as an Errour in those who teach that God out of his mere just will hath not decreed to leave any man in the fall of Adam and common state of sin and damnation But suppose the Synod did grant as their very nice and wary distinction absque omni ullius Peccati respectu makes it more than Probable they did not that God in mans Reprobation had some respect to his Actuall Personall sin yet if that sin be such as those Reprobates could not possibly avoid the whole matter will be reduced at last to the respect of that onely sinne of Adam And thus the Synod hath determined Cap. 3 4. Art 3. That All men are conceived in sin and born the children of wrath untoward to all good tending to salvation forward to evil dead in sins slaves to sin and neither Will nor Can without the Grace of the Holy Ghost regenerating them set straight their own crooked nature no nor so much as dispose themselves to the amending of it So that if the Synod had granted a respect of personall sins in the Reprobation of men yet they had understood no other sins than such as had been unavoidable to those Reprobates For they say those Reprobates want the Grace of Gods regenerating Spirit that they may avoid sin and they say also God hath Decreed not to give it them whence it follows that they cannot possibly avoid those sins but through the strength of that first sin and corruption which they lie under when they are commanded by the word of the Gospel to repent and believe will they nill they they shall fall into those foul sins of Infidelity disobedience impenitency and the like as necessarily as a mill-stone falls downward by its own weight for which inevitable sins notwithstanding they should be said to be praeordained to the eternall and horrible torments of hell And then if God ordained the sin of Adam and made that necessary and unavoidable too as Danaeus †Adaâ—um Dei consilio ordinatione necessariò lapsum esse and Piscator and others do positively averre and the Synod hath no where rejected it that I can remember the Reprobation of the most part of the world will be reduced undeniably to the mere will of God * Deum Adamo legem dedisse ut eam transgrederetur c. Sententia Perkinsii nostrorumque Theologorum haec est lapsum illum evenisse Dei voluntate transeunte in rem permissam h. e. Deum voluisse ut Adamus Laberetur D. Twiss in vind Grat. L. 2. p. 1. Sect. 2. c. 12. vigr 3. p. 142. col 2. what ever publick Profession they have made to detest it A fourth Doctrine which the Synod doth purposely disown and publickly professe to detest is That Reprobation is the cause of Infidelity and Impiety in the same manner as Election is the fountain and cause of Faith and Piety That sin follows the Decree of Reprobation by an unavoidable necessity is the expresse affirmation not onely of Piscator Zanchy c. But of many Synodists also Reprobationem tria consequuntur privatio gratiae peccata poenae peccatorum saith Gomarus Disp de Praedest Resp Otten There are three things which follow Reprobation the deniall of Grace Sinne and the Punishment of Sin And that they do follow it as the fruits of it is the affirmation of Festus Hommius †Thesaur Catech. pag. 216. Fructus Reprobationis sunt desertio vel privatio gratiae Dei mediorum induratio c. The fruits of Reprobation are desertion or the deprivation of Gods grace and means sufficient and necessary induration c. And the Divines of Wedderau do confesse that a necessity of sin doth follow from the Decree of Reprobation De 3 4. Art in Corol. p. 134. par 2 And this is the Doctrine of the whole Synod in their Canons for they say man cannot but sin without Gods regenerating Grace which he hath Decreed to deny or deprive them of as was shewed above Even Master Baxter himself doth acknowledge and professe that