will by an Omnipotent Grace as †Contra. remonstrants they say it is cannot be So that by this Doctrine if it should be granted say the Remonstrants the Ministery of the Word would be made void and altogether unprofitable This inconvenience Master Baxter could discover well enough as to the Infusion of Habits Of saving Faith pag. 21. And therefore he follows the stream of those Divines who take Vocation which taken Passively conteineth the Acts of Faith and Repentance to be Antecedent unto Sanctification which comprehends the Habit of them Placing the Act before the Habit he saith This makes the Word the Instrument of that work whereas which moves me very much saith he according to the contrary opinion the Word cannot possibly be the Instrument or means of our Regeneration as to the Habit nor as to the Act neither if that Act be irresistibly infused or imprinted but onely a subsequent means to elicite †Whose Act not Gods that were too grosse then it must be man's and then by this means Man worketh the will and the Deed. or educe the Act which seems against the stream of Scripture and Divines of All Ages A faire Confession The Remonstrants then do not onely grant an Illumination of the minde which upon the matter is made the All-sufficient Grace by Camero but also a Collation of Supernaturall power which yet they cannot allow to commit such a Rape upon the Will as to force it in its manner of working or deprive it of its naturall Liberty to Will or Nill They reserve to her as her undoubted Prerogative that freedome still as entire as ever to Act or suspend her action without which power man is able to do no more Duty properly so called then the Brute Beast which hath a Spontaneity as well as Man but no Rationall Election But Master Baxter will here step in with his objection and tell us This is but to bring the matter to mans choice and so they do But I must acquaint the Reader with a vast difference in the Portage whether you consider the matter or the manner of it For 1. Your Doctrine doth not bring the same Thing to mans choice It brings Christ as you say and remission of sins and eternall life to his choice upon condition If he will Repent and Believe But doth your Sufficient Grace by an irresistible Collation of power upon the will bring Faith it self and Repentance it self to the choice of them that perish It doth not it cannot For by the conduct of an Immutable Antecedent Decree Grace sufficient to bring it to their choice in this sense is denyed them and their choice otherwise determined and that Infallibly unlesse you equivocate in the use of the word choice and put it for Spontaneitie whereby the wretched Reprobate for all the influences of that sufficient Grace is unavoidably led as an Oxe to the slaughter 2. And as your Doctrine brings not the same Thing to their choice so neither doth it bring the same assistance You bring Remission and eternall life but as a covered dish with a Noli me tangere upon it They must not touch it with unwasht hands and shutting up the Living fountain and sealing it by an immutable Decree you afford them neither towell nor water that is sufficient or of force to clense them What you bring to their choice and lay at their doore you leave as a burden too heavy for their strength to take up and their feeble shoulders to carry in to their quiet possession and comfort But with us Faith and Repentance are as well brought to choice as Christ Pardon or eternall Life but not laid down and left there God continues to illuminate the mind and inspire the will and thus he knocks at the doore of the heart till man freely opens to him Revel 3.20 or gives him such rude and shamelesse Repulses as provoke him to withdraw himself in a sore displeasure Gen. 6.3 Here then being such a free preventing irresistible efficiency of a supernaturall power and a no lesse Gracious concomitant Assistance both of outward meanes and inward motions towards the carrying on and accomplishment of our Faith and Repentance our Conversion and Salvation The Glory of this Work ought in all Reason to be ascribed to the Divine Grace as the principall Cause or Author of it †Itaque nec illi debent sibi tribuere qui venerant quia vocati veneruÌ„t nec illi qui noluerunt venire debent alteri tribuere sed tantum sibi quoniam ut venirent vocati erat in eorum libera voluntate August lib. 83. qq q. 68. Agenâ— de invitatis ad coenam But if under the conduct of such no lesse sweet then powerfull Dispensations there proves to be a miscarriage to what can we in justice impute this unhappy event or what can we charge the fault upon but mans own willfull and execrable Rebellion For we must consider though the understanding be inlightned with the knowledge of Supernaturall excellencies yet it apprehends still the whole variety of sensuall or carnall Goods the will †Adde hereunto that which the British Divines do averre de Art 3 4. pa. 133. pr. Per versitatem sive resistendi potentiam remoâ—am in acta primo positam in suà amarà radice etiam in Renotorum coluntate deliâ—escere unde pronitas ad resistendum motibus spiritus S. v. locum though impowered to do better hath a liberty to embrace them and both the understanding and the will have a naturall Inclination tending also to their own ease and Preservation to gratifie the Infirmities of their neighbouring Appetites whose objects being at hand to affect and tickle the senses with the soft insinuations and relishes of their immediate presence have a great advantage over spiritual objects which are remote at a huge distance and out of sight to flesh and bloud yea and over the chief Good upon a like Account whom being enjoyed would transcendently fill satisfie and swallow up all our most insatiable Appetites Hence it comes to passe that many times Sense finds too great an indulgence with the more noble Faculties and being preferrd above it's rank the Objects thereof are entertained with too inordinate a complacency So that we observe how men though irresistibly convinced of the truth and excellency of things Spirituall yet once bewitched with the charmes and pleasures of these for want of Mortification and a Main Guard they pursue the enjoyments of them so eagerly that they can brook no check Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor When men are not able to resist the Spirit speaking to their understanding by way of Conviction Act. 6.10 they will Rebell against the light thereof Job 24.13 and abuse the Liberty of their will to resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7.51 And having grieved this Good Spirit so long till they have made him even weary of striving with them no
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
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
judged too But how can the Creature bring in a verdict to cleare Him if he hath not a Competent capacitie in some measure to judge of the Equitie of his Proceedings I need adde no more for the force of those sacred Engines is abundantly sufficient to overthrow his Hypothesis though it had farre stronger props than such Arguments as he produceth to support it But these being so feeble I shall not give you or my self the trouble to handle them Onely I shall vindicate the Sacred Text from his misconstruction and take my leave of this part of his Discourse Nay but O man Quis tu who art Thou He interprets this of Man In whatever capacity considered When 't is as clear as the Sunne by the foregoing verses that he speaks it of Man made obnoxious to the Sword of Divine justice by having filled up the Measure of his sinne in despising Gods Gracious Methods and Dispensations for his Conversion For of whom speaketh the Apostle this Is it not spoken of the stubborn Jews who would not have Christ to reign over them who would not be gathered by his Gospell but abused Gods Patience Christs intercession and the Miracles of the Holy Ghost as Pharaoh had done those vouchsafed by the Lord and his servant Moses What then if God deals by these Jews now stubborn and Rebellious as they are as he dealt then by Pharaoh whom though he highly deserved it and had been swept away by that Plague according to Gods ordinary course of Justice yet †Exod. 9.16 He made him to stand or kept him alive still to serve other ends of his Divine Providence 'T is none but such clay as this that vessels of wrath are made a Seâ— Jer. 18. throughout of And it is such a man whose insolency the Apostle checks with his Homo Quis tu Nay but O man who art thou If the Malefactor comes to dispute the just sentence of his upright Judge 't is time to take him up as the Lord doth Jer. 2.29 Wherefore will ye plead with me ye all have transgressed against me saith the Lord. Such persons therefore when God enters into Judgement with them must lay their hands upon their mouthes †Job 40.4 But this doth not debarre men the Priviledge to examine the Equity and Justice of those Decrees and Laws by which they are Governed and upon which their Eternall Weal or Woe dependeth In this case Abraham thinks it no undutifulnesse to be inquisitive into Gods Counsels and Proceedings Gen. 18.23 25. and to expostulate about them Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked That be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee shall not the judge of all the earth do right But whether your Discourser be of Abraham's Judgement I leave you to collect from his own words Pag. 2. Pag. 3. He layes down this sense That God acts all things according to the Dictates of his Absolute Soveraign and unaccountable will And hereby the greatest part of mankind are left in an hopelesse and irrecoverable condition Then he brings in and presseth an objection Rom. 9. out of vers 19. Thou wilt then say unto me if our wills are tyed up so close to the will of God that like lesser wheels they move onely as that great Mover doth guide them then why is God so Angry with sin and sinners why doth he forbid dehort and threaten by his Prophets To what end serve all those examples of vengeance which we â—remble to read of for if it be so with us we may be miserable but we cannot be sinfull if our spirits be put into an unsuitable frame so as that we walk contrary to God it is our sad necessity and not our fault since none can alter much less resist the will of God which alone hath made us so This is the objection How doth your Discourser answer it Doth he vindicate the Goodnesse and Justice of God from the blasphemy of this imputation No. In stead of a Solution to that purpose here follows a clear Concession as if the Objection were a perfect Truth For thus he proceeds And now the 0bjection being pressed to such a degree of impiety that it doth tacitely lay the guilt of all mens Transgressions upon God the Apostle thinks it high time to cut off all further arguing which he doth in these words Nay but what art thou O Man who replyest against God As if he had said Dost thou know who thou art thou bold inquisitive Creature or who it is thou dealest with Consider that thou art but a Man and wilt thou question thy Makers Justice Forbear vain presumptuous man stand off and lay thy hand upon thy mouth for God is in the Bush God is at the bottome of this dispute and therefore admire with reverence what thou canst not comprehend with reason What the Objector in the Apostle did but tacitely he doth most expresly viz. lay All mens Transgressions and Misery upon the Absolute and unaccountable will of God and no man may dispute against it For this is his Doctrine Man in whatever Capacity considered is not a Competent Judge of the Equity and Justice of the Proceedings wayes and Counsels of God in the disposing and ordering of his Creatures And what remains then in this case but that Option of the Psalmist Arise O Lord plead thine own cause For his Discourse on Act. 13.48 I need say no more then to evince how palpably he mistakes the sense of the Text. To this purpose I shall not tyre you out to examine a cloud of witnesses that might be produced in favour of the sense which he rejects but satisfie my self in discovering some of those grosse Absurdities which follow upon his interpretation If by Ordained to eternall life we understand Absolutely Elected then it will follow 1. That All the Praedestinated unto life that were in this place believed at once And 2. that those which did believe could not but believe 3. That All they who did now embrace the Faith upon this preaching of the Apostle were Absolutely Elected and that not one of them could forsake the Faith which he had embraced 4. That this was revealed not onely to S. Paul but to S. Luke also concerning the Absolute election of every Individuall of these new Converts How inevitable are these inferences and yet how Absurd how ridiculous On the other side what shall we conclude of the rest who did not believe at this Sermon 1. It followes that they were All absolutely Reprobated and yet 2. that God would have S. Paul command them All to believe in Christ and 3. that S. Paul when he knew them to be Reprobates and so in no capacitie to believe and be saved yet He calls them unto Faith and Salvation and 4. threatens them with eternall destruction for not believing and 5. afterwards upbraids them that they judged themselves unworthy of eternall life and 6. at last when they would not believe that he did for that cause turne to the Gentiles what a heap of foule Absurdities are here And which is none of the least that S. Luke should give notice by this writing That such as now believed were all absolutely elected the rest absolutely Reprobate To what purpose should this be or what influence could it have upon them It could serve no end of Divine providence but might very well serve the interest of Satan as a means to tempt those Believers to security and the unbelievers to desperation and a contempt of those Ordinances which if this exposition of the Text were true they were assured by S. Lukes Testimony could never bring them benefit Having thus bereaved him of His Senses his Reason must needs want that solidity that should make it considerable in the accounts of Dear Sir Your Faithfull Friend For Master B. Errata In the Preface Pag. 3. l. 25. r. As M. B. himself sp 20. l. 10 r. de fato l. 25. blot out had p. 24 l. 3. r. positivity p. 42. l. 8 9. r. Master In the Apologie Pag. 22. l. 21. r. in 18. Art l. 26. r. third and fourth l. 30. r. into fifteen Art p. 31. l. 4. r. not effect p. 37. l. 12. r. Not. 6. p. 39. l. 23. r. and omit p. 45. l. 19. r. costs and dam. p. 62. l. 5. r. adde to p. 6. â— l. 14. r. Hols p. 90. l. 2. r. Supralapsarian neither Existentialist nor Creabilitarian as drosse line 28. read persons pag. 94. lin 24. read Supralapsarian Creabilitarian pag. 99. lin 5. read Existentialists and Creabilitarians as well as Sublapsarians do all p. 118. l. 14. propalandis l. 24. judicaret p. 131. l. 3 r. if I adde in Tilenus his behalf that l. 24. r. ex post factum p. 188. l. 29. r. they tell us pag. 189. in mar l. 2. r. par 2. pag. 79. p. 200. l. 24. r. cast p. 224. in marg l. 5. r. Reject 4 5. p. 231. l. 25. r. effectuall p. 237. l 18. r. Amesius p. 242. l. 27. r. Martinius p. 253. l. 27. r. was one of the Synod p. 259. l. 21. r. elicited p. 272. l. 9. r. imbuing it p. 283. dele marg note 289. dele generosity in marg p. 335. l. 22. r. as wel as p. 345. l. 19. r. if it be p. 361. l. 19. r. impotency p. 366. in marg for 38 and 4. r. 3. and 4. p. 386. l. 10. r Sancti p. 388. l. 28. r. defend d. p. 400. marg r. Digress p. 434. l. 21. r. indefectibilis p. 438. l. 4. 454. l. 15. r. quin. p. 459. l. 9. r. superesse p. 470. l. 15. r. And. p. 480. l 11. r. willfully p. 488. l. 17. but 't is in l. last r. and the winds blew p. 493. l. 28. r. his Election p. 516 l. 13. r. papers The End
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
too great integrity to impose upon his Adversary or his Reader so is he known to be of too great learning and judgement to encounter with shadows and Chimaera's of his own imagination How this Doctrine of Predestination is held forth by the other sort of Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians he that desires to be fully satisfied may procure his satisfaction at an easie expense both of time and money if he will consult that small Treatise translated and lately set forth by Master Tobias Conyers Page 91. 92. 94. 95. 96. under the Title of The Just Mans Defence But amongst other Reasons inducing these men to deliver the Doctrine of Predestination in a different manner and method from the former Arminius observes Ibid. page 97. this was not the meanest their willingnesse to prevent lest God with the same probabilitie should be concluded the Author of sinne from this their Doctrine as some of them have judged it concludable from the first But really saith He if with diligent inspection we well examine these Opinions of a later Edition compared with the Judgement of the same Authors in other points of Religion we shall finde the fall of Adam not possibly otherwaies considerable Page 98. according to the Tenents of these men then as a necessary executive means of the preceding Decree of Predestination Page 100. and a little after The third Opinion scapes this Rock better then the other had not the Patrons thereof delivered something for the Declaration of Predestination and Providence from whence the necessity of the Pall may be inferred which cannot have any other rise then Predestinatory Ordination Thus Jac. Arminius Our next inquiry that we may come to the certaine knowledge of the truth of this Matter of Fact for which you have with no little confidence to disgrace him questioned the integrity of our Tilenus shall be how the Articles charged upon the Calvinists were drawn up by the Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague Pet. Bert. Coll. Hag. p. 7. 8. The first head of Doctrine which They charge the Contra-Remonstrants or Calvinists whom they style their Brethren to account ORTHODOX is thus expressed word for word I. THat God as some speak by an eternall and unchangeable Decree from among men Supra-lapsarians whom he considered as not-created much lesse as faln ordained certain to eternall life certain to eternall death without any regard had to their righteousnesse or sinne to their obedience or disobedience onely because so was his pleasure or so it seemed good to him to the praise of his Justice and Mercy or as others like better to declare his saving Grace Wisdome and free Authority or Jurisdiction Means being also fore-ordained by his eternall and unchangeable Decree fit for the execution of the same by the power or force whereof it is necessary that they be saved after a necessary and unavoidable manner who are ordained to salvation so that 't is not possible that they should perish but they who are destin'd to destruction who are the farre greater number must be damned necessarily and inevitably so that t is not possible for them to be saved II. Sub-lapsarians That God as others would rather willing from eternity with himself to make a Decree concerning the Election of some certain men but the rejection of others considered mankinde not onely as created but also as faln and corrupted in Adam and Eve our first Parents and thereby deserving the curse And that he decreed out of that fall and damnation to deliver and save some certain ones of his Grace to declare his mercy But to leave others both young and old yea truly even certain Infants of men in Covenant and those Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy by his just judgement in the curse to declare his Justice and that without all consideration of repentance and faith in the former or of impenitence or unbelief in the later For the execution of which Decree God useth also such means whereby the Elect are necessarily and unavoidably saved but reprobates necessarily and unavoidably perish III. And therefore that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World died not for all men but for those onely who are Elected either after the former or this later manner he being the mean and ordained Mediator to save those onely and not a man besides IV. Consequently That the Spirit of God and of Christ doth worke in those who are Elected that way or this with such a force of Grace that they cannot resist it and so that it cannot be but that they must turn believe and thereupon necessarily be saved But that this irresistible Grace and force belongs onely to those so Elected but not to Reprobates to whom not onely that irresistible Grace is denyed but also Grace necessary and sufficient for Conversion for faith and for salvation is not afforded To which Conversion and faith indeed they are called invited and fairely solicited outwardly by the revealed will of God though notwithstanding the inward force necessary to faith and conversion is not bestowed on them according to the secret will of God V. But that so many as have once obtained a true and justifying faith by such a kinde of irresistible force can never totally nor finally lose it no not although they fall into the very-most-enormous sins but are so led and kept by that same irresistible force that 't is not possible for them or they cannot either totally or finally fail and perish Every branch of these five Articles you may see sufficiently proved in Appendice Pressioris Declarationis and by the severall Syllabi Testimoniorum inter Scripta Synodalia Remonstrantium After the Synod at Dort had declared their judgement upon those five Heads of Doctrine the Remonstrants abridged the same into these Compendious Articles I. Almighty God out of all mankinde considered in the same state or condition chose a few certaine men to eternall salvation without any respect of their faith repentance conversion or of any good quality but that he might bring those elect ones to the appointed salvation he decreed that his Son should suffer death for onely them yea even when they as well as others were faln into Originall sinne and eternall perdition by Adam's transgression that he might reconcile unto God them onely that he might in them onely work faith by a most powerfull working and force no lesse then that put forth in the Creation of the World or raising the dead that he might preserve in that saving faith unto their lives end those very men although faln into the foulest and filthiest wickednesses and sticking some while therein and at last might bring them into the possession of eternall life for no other cause but because so was his good pleasure But on the Contrary I. Almighty God would passe by the farre greatest part of mankind without any consideration of their own proper and avoidable fault that is to say of their own unbelief
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
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
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
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