to come are taken away by Christ Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect c. and so Rom. 4. 23. Isa 35. 8. The Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity of us all and 1 Pet. 2. 24. himself bore our Sins on his Body c. and what I said I will say that tho the Elect may sin as well as others yet their God in Christ will never un-son them nor yet touching their Justification and eternal Salvation will he love them ever a whit the less yea tho they commit never so many and great Sins For this is a certain Truth that as no Good in them or done by them did move him to elect and justify them and to give them eternal Life so no Evil in them or done by them can move him to take that away when once given Philad This is like that which is in the Mouth of some Be in Christ and sin if thou canst what pity is it that Men pretending to Wisdom and Sobriety and Professors of Godliness should fall into such Raptures as are next to Madness What a bundle of Errors are here wrapt up together and that under Scripture-guize but surely you do not read the Scripture in that Spirit in which it was wrote or else you might see notwithstanding the Apostle's triumphing that till Persons repent of their Sins and turn to God they stand charged with many things as I have told you from Eph. 2. and from Paul who was before his Conversion a Persecutor a Blasphemer and confess'd himself the chief of Sinners yea before the Apostle comes to this Triumphing he was long exercised with Frights Terrors within and Frightnings without and tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 2. 3. that his Preaching among them was in great fear and trembling so that we must Fight before we Triumph and Mourn before the Lord Comfort us And how clearly doth 1 Pet. 2. 24. shew that the proper intention of Redemption is Dominion eternal Redemption is an eternal Obligation to Service Ye are bought with a price ye are not your own your Bodies and Spirits are the Lord's 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Rom. 14. 9. You may see that one end of Christ's being a Redeemer was that he might be a Sovereign Lord over his Purchase yea this is one great end of the Lord 's entering into Covenant with his People promising to do great things for them Ezek. 11. 19 20. I say the end of all is that they might serve him Hockins on God's Decree p. 93. Can we entertain so ignoble a belief that the eternal Son of God should suffer for any less end than to advance our Human Nature to the greatest height of Piety and Purity of Life and to raise our Souls to the most refined and sublimate goodness What did Christ take our Nature upon him and become Surety for us and pay such an infinite price for us that we might spend more freely and daringly on the Stock of our Surety's Satiffaction Ah! Who can with-hold their Eyes from Tears to think that any should make use of Mercy to damn them For many had not been guilty of so many Sins nor persisted in them without Repentance had it not been for their false hope in Christ not considering Christ came to redeem from all Iniquity as well as from all Wrath. Philet But Christ dying for the Elect hath thereby fulfilled all Righteousness satisfied Divine Justice and purchased Heaven for them Philad And what then Philet Why then there 's no doubt but they shall be saved for in the very moment of Election they were pardoned of all Sins past present and to come Philad What as if now nothing could endanger their Souls they have enough for Heaven Pray what should hinder them from bidding all Sin welcom Why may they not kill whore c. and commit all Abomination and if impleaded for it bring in this as an Evidence that they were in the very moment of Election pardoned of all Sins past present and to come they have a Gracious God that will forgive them and a Surety who hath paid for all Philet I perceive what you are driving at You hold that Faith and Obedience in us to be the cause of God's Electing or Chusing us to Life and Salvation Doth not the Scripture prove that Election is not according to foreseen Faith not because Men do or will believe but because they should believe Rom. 9. 11. 1 Pet. 1. 2 3 4. 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 1. Now if Faith and Obedience be the cause of God's loving us then here is Merit this eclipses the Glory of God's free Love and renders Salvation of Debt and not of Grace Mar. This is down-right Popery nay I affirm that Faith and Repentance are no more a means to go to Heaven by than prophane Cursing and Swearing Philad That Faith in Christ and Obedience to the Lord is a cause without which God chuseth none to Life and Salvation is a Truth unless you can prove that God hath designed his Son to die to save such as will neither repent of their Sins believe nor obey him but live and die in open Rebellion against God and do despight to the Spirit of Grace and trample under foot the Blood of the Son of God c. but that it is the cause for which God chuseth any I disown as well as you For the Love of God the Father to the Sons of Men as they were Sinners and Enemies to him was the essential cause of our Salvation John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 6 8 10. 1 Pet. 3. 18. and Jesus Christ the meritorious and procuring cause of Man's Salvation and should we admit of any thing else but Christ to be the matter of our Justification or the meritorious Cause of Eternal Life this would be injurious to the Perfection of Christ's Righteousness and overthrow the freeness of Divine Grace and Love But you and all Men ought rightly to divide and distinguish between the Cause and Condition of our Salvation that Christ may be owned as the Cause and Author of it and Faith and Obedience as the way and means to attain to it for as God Almighty hath prepared a Heaven for Men so he hath appointed the way and means to fit and prepare them for it as Christ is the Way so if I should say that Faith and Obedience is a way to come to enjoy it I might say it was advancing Nature above Grace or setting up our own Righteousness in the room of Christ's Righteousness and so robbing him of his Honour or asserting Merits surely Eternal Happiness hereafter hath some dependance upon Holiness here Mod. I like this well and do believe that God that hath appointed the end hath also appointed the means as in the Case of Paul Acts 27. 22. though God had promised to save Paul and all that were in the Ship yet they were to use the means otherwise they could not be safe I would have
Men Psal 139. Let us then here learn to become Fools that we may be wise and leave prying into those things which are beyond our human Reason to conceive and let us keep close to God's revealed Will which is our Duty for the want of this hath filled Professors Heads with Fancies and so they have been smiting one another and weakning the Hands of each others in the Lords Work while Piety Virtue the Love and Fear of God the true Spiritual Substance of all Religion is too too much neglected So that what if God did foreknow all the wicked Actions of Men before they came to pass yet might not God as well foreknow that if they had but improved those Means which he through his Grace had afforded them they might not have come to pass for the fore-knowledg in God of what Men will do doth not imply any absolute necessity of their doing of it neither have they any less Power to refrain doing of it because of God's fore-knowing that they will do it Whilst it remained saith Peter to Ananias touching his Possession was it not thy own i.e. wert thou not at full liberty to have kept it for thy own private use and when it was sold was it not in thy Power viz. whether thou wouldst part with thy Money or not Doubtless God foreknew what Ananias would do yet this did not take away the Liberty or Freedom of his Will to dispose of it as he pleased otherwise God's Foreknowledg should necessitate him to sell the Possession and to keep back part of the Mony and lie against the Holy Ghost by saying there was all when there was not this Act must be looked upon not the Act of Ananias but of God himself for whatsoever a Man is necessitated to do by an unresistable Power out of himself is the Act of the Necessitator not his As the Apostle saith Rom. 7. 20. If I do that I would not it is no more I that do it but Sin that dwells in me I would not have you admit into your thoughts that God is any ways Author of the wicked Actions of Men or that he decrees any thing that is an Infringement to his Justice or his Mercy in the least Mar. I am against those that hold that God works Sin by an operative Decree as Mr. Perkins in his Commentary upon Heb. 11. 40. who saith that under the large extent of God's Decree we must include the sinful Actions of Men for God doth not barely foresee them but decrees the being of them and so wills them after a sort tho not to be done by himself yet by others And so upon Jude ver 4. that nothing comes to pass without the Decree of God no not the wicked Actions of Men which God not only foreseeth but decreeth Now it is true which you have said if God should be operative in the working of Sin then he would be the Author of Sin yet that all Sin comes to pass by the permissive decree of God is a thing I hope you will not deny Phil. I see you can play fast and loose with your Opinion sometimes you say that God did from Eternity freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass and when by this Doctrine you find that Man is laid under a necessity of sinning and consequently God becomes the Author of all the wicked Actions of Men then you would help your self by saying Though Man sin not by the operative decree of God yet he doth by the permissive decree This is no more indeed than what we find and hear in the Sermons of all those of your way when they preach on this Subject the Doctrinal part of their Sermons countenance one thing and the Applicatory part that which is contrary unto it labouring to beget such a Faith in their Auditors as would destroy the Faith of their Doctrine What wooing and beseeching doth your Ministers make for Sinners to close with Christ to repent believe and obey the Lord and not to withstand the Day of Grace when yet notwithstanding all this they believe there is no Grace nor Mercy but for very few before them and that their strongest Endeavours to repent c. effect just nothing but the over-ruling Decree of God doth all and so they pull down with one hand what they build up with the other And the Truth is this Doctrine of God's eternal decreeing the greatest part of Adam's Offspring to Sin and Damnation includes in it so many Absurdities horrible Blasphemies undermining the very Foundation of all Religion and Piety that my Hopes are that it will shortly fall with the unsupportable weight of its own Evil. Yea were it not for so many Volumes written to uphold it I should hope it would appear so wicked that all good Christians e're long would be ashamed to own it and God's Love to all would be exalted in the Hearts Tongues and Writings of all Men. One thing I perceive is the cause why this Doctrine doth so flourish and lift up its Head in this Day is an over-much confiding in Persons of whose Learning and Piety they have had a high Opinion This draws many ignorant tho well-meaning Hearers to be zealous in what they teach be it right or wrong and to follow Persons reputed Godly and Learned more than the pure unerring Word of God Alas all good and pious Men have Errors and Fits of Distempers thro human Frailty and we ought not to take their Words upon trust but upon trial and in those things that appertain to Salvation bring them to the Law and Testimony and to suspect that for Truth where the Word of God administers much more Ground to doubt and question than believe as this Doctrine of personal and respective Reprobation doth But a word to the permissive Decree of God If by the permissive Decree of God you mean that God permitting or suffering such or such a thing to be done or come to pass supposeth a necessity of the coming of it to pass This I deny for if it be true that a Sparrow falls not to the Ground without his Permission yet hath not he decreed eternally that it shall be at such or such a time or in any cruel way as it often falls out directly contrary to his Will Deut. 22. 6. and though it be a Truth God hath decreed to suffer Sin otherwise there could be none yet it is also a great Truth that this permissive Decree of God is no cause of Sin God doth permit one Man to take away the Life of another but it doth not follow that therefore he did appoint or ordain them to such wicked Actions No Decree of God that is purely and barely permissive either induceth or supposeth any necessity of the coming to pass what is so decreed no more than a Capital Law necessitates to Murder Permission supposeth a Possibility of sinning or not sinning in the Party permitted From whence I conclude there is no damning to Misery
none think that God will do all our Works for us while we sit still and do nothing For as God must blow upon the Spark of Grace by his Spirit so we should be storing up Holy Endeavours God will not bring his People to Heaven sleeping but praying in the use of Means and Holy Ordinances yet may Means and Duties be greatly abused if we be not careful Philad Yea they are abused when we do not look through them all to Jesus or when we make them as Mediators set them in the room of Christ or when Christ is not eyed sought to admired and trusted in Alas What can poor Sinners do without a Jesus There is no Salvation in any other the highest measure of Believing Doing or Suffering cannot turn away God's Wrath for the least Sin All our Prayers Tears Alms Duties do not pacifie God no we must with Holy Paul count all as nothing to win Christ so that had not Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law and have been made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. the exactest Christian could have no grounded hopes of Heaven there is no escaping the Curse but by Christ so that all that do or have escap'd the Curse have cause to say that not their own Graces nor their own Works but Christ hath delivered them from Wrath to come 'T is Christ's precious undertaking that gives us a right to Heaven but yet our walking in the Holy Commands of God fits us for it For without holiness none shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Rev. 21. 27. Philet If Christ be our Righteousness and Sanctification as 1 Cor. 1. what need we have any Righteousness of our own Nay there is no Qualification or Condition in the New Covenant required on our part 't is all free 't was free Love in God to send his Son to die for his People and free Love in Christ to lay down his Life for the Elect neither is it the Elect but Christ that stands engaged to God by the New Covenant free Grace wholly excludes Self or any thing we can do as a Cause procuring or as a Condition qualifying us for the receiving of it Here 's a comfortable difference between the New Covenant and the Old the Old was such that in case Man did fail to perform his Condition the Covenant was broke and God was free from giving Life but in the New Covenant Man is tied to no Condition that he must perform which if he doth not it will make the Covenant void to him and those that teach otherwise detract and lessen the free Grace of God and attribute something to the Creature Philad Tho' the Love Grace and Mercy of God in our Redemption be wholly free no one sought out to him for a Saviour but he alone was moved by his own Love to a poor lost Creature and first sought after him when he was fallen God was not bound to bring forth a Saviour for any he was not laid under any necessity to cast an Eye of Pity upon Man it was an Act of free Grace to save Sinners by the Obedience and Suffering of Jesus Yet is nothing to be accounted free Grace without the Lord for the sake of Christ pardon the Sins of the most Impure and Impenitent and bring them to Heaven whether they will or no Was not God at liberty to pardon Sinners in what way and upon what terms he pleased such as he in his Wisdom should judg most meet and most consistent with his Justice Mercy Truth and Holiness God hath no where promised to save Men by Jesus Christ that I know of but by Repentance Faith and Obedience as the means as you may see John 3. 16 36. Mark 16. 16. Luke 13. 3 5. Mat. 4. 17. Acts 3. 19. Rev. 22. 14. Rom. 2. 7 8 9 10. and in Heb. 5. 9. Christ is there said to be the Author of Eternal Salvation To whom To those that continue in their Rebellion and Impenitency No but to such as obey him 't is true Christ came into the World that the Sentence of Eternal Death might not be executed upon us yet 't is ungrateful wickedness and no better than to tread under foot the infinite price of Forgiveness to think because his Blood hath purchased a Pardon therefore we are freed from our Duty to him And whereas you say that in the New Covenant Man is tied to no Condition that he must perform c. and that not Man but Christ stands engaged to God c. methinks 't is a very sine way to acquit your self of all Sins and consequently of all punishment for Sin but if Christ stands ingaged to repent believe and obey the Gospel how comes it to pass that Persons are exhorted to them and charged with Sin upon the omission of them Surely then all the Sins of the Elect for they sin as well as others must be charged upon Christ and he stands guilty of all the breaches of the New Covenant how an you endure to speak this without abhorrence But is there no Condition no Qualification required on our parts in order to come to partake of the Great and Gracious Promises Then what 's the meaning of all these Scriptures John 15. 10. Prov. 4. 5. Rom. 8. 13. Mic. 7. 21. prov 28. 13. Rom. 2 8 9. and what are all those Blessed and most Gracious Promises in Mat. 5 Do they not include Conditions something to be done on our parts if we would find acceptance with the Lord Pray read Luke 13. 3. John 6. 53. Mat. 18. 3. John 3. 5. Mat. 5. 20. John 15. 20. Nay view those many Expressions which you find in the Word of God in the Commands Exhortations Instructions Threatnings and Promises and then see whether we come to injoy the great Blessings of the Gospel without conditions Mar. Doth not the Scripture say Isa 64. 6. That all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags yea as a menstruous Cloth Philad I am satisfied that this Scripture is greatly abused for want of a right understanding and rightly distinguishing between that Righteousness which doth justisie us at the Bar of God's Justice and that Righteousness which is God's Requirement and so the Creatures Duty now taken in one Sense they are no better than filthy Rags and in the other they are now if we expect to merit Heaven and obtain Eternal Salvation for well doing this is to overthrow the blessed undertaking of Jesus Christ and lessen the free Grace of God as if Persons could go to Heaven without being beholden to Jesus And here it is that they are no better in the sight of God having no worth or value but are rejected of the Lord as filthy Rags but now as they are the Holy Commands and Appointments of the Lord and the Creature 's Duty who dare say that they are in the sight of God as filthy Rags or as stinking Carrion What hath God required his Creatures to perform such and such Duties and hath promised
if Men by means of the Gospel and the Grace offered to them therein be not brought to repentance and forsaking of Sin those Sins which they commit under the Gospel will turn to a more dreadful account to them so that it is clear that in case Men be not through Grace inabled to repent and believe the Gospel they are in a worse condition under the Covenant of Grace than they could have been were there no such Covenant made or tendered to them nay and by this Persons sin by necessity this is to make God the Author of all the Unbelief and Sin in the World Mar. All we say is that he never purposed to bestow that Grace upon them who perish which of his good pleasure he purposed to bestow upon others but to leave them to their Sins and to Condemnation for them Philet God is not the Author of Sin in any for tho Sin will infallibly follow this Preterition or non-Election with a sufpension of assisting Grace it follows not as an Effect from its true Cause but as a Consequence upon its Antecedent Hence he is no more the Author of Sin than the Sun is of the Darkness which follows after its departure for this Preterition respects Man lying in the corrupt Mass and God ows nothing to him but Justice Grace comes down from Heaven but Sin and Iniquity grows at home in the Sinner's own Heart neither was God any ways obliged to give restituent Grace to fallen Man God may do what he will with his own may not the Supreme Lord deny a free Benefit without being the Author of Sin God indeed permitteth it but he doth not work it Philad I shall not trouble my self about the distinction of God's Will into Antecedent and Consequent being made use of more to shew Scholarship than to Edification yet it is likely it may be found in sundry places of Holy writ for Grace and the means of Salvation are always in the first place vouchsafed unto Men before Salvation or Condemnation is actually conferred or inflicted upon any God's Antecedent Will is that every Man should repent that they may not perish it is his consequent Will that every one shall perish that will not repent yet is the Antecedent and consequent Will or Intention of the Lord both equally Eternal equally Honourable and worthy of him But now what you hold in this case is not so it being contrary to right Reason and the tenour of God's Word and notwithstanding your distinction God must become the proper and direct cause of Sin for Sin and Disobedience must unavoidably follow God's detaining Grace necessary for the avoiding of Sin as the Effect doth its Cause Now if God withhold Grace needful for the avoiding of Sin and knowing infallibly what will follow upon it must needs be the true moral Cause of Sin for the withdrawing of Divine Grace you hold is the Antecedent then Sin and Impiety must needs be the Consequent as the Sun by withdrawing its Light Darkness consequently follows so if God be the chief Cause of that which is the Cause of the Reprobates Sin which you do not deny he thereby becomes the true and proper cause of their Sin as you have it in God's Love to Mankind p. 115 116. That which withholdeth a thing which being present would hinder an Event is the Cause of that Event As for Example He that cutteth a string in which a Stone hangs is the cause of the falling of that Stone and he that withdraweth a Pillar which being put to would uphold a House is the true cause in Mens account of the falling of that House and so if God withholdeth from Reprobates that Power which being granted them might keep them from falling into Sin he doth thereby become a true moral cause of their Sins in whose Power it is that a thing be not done to him it is imputed when it is done saith Tertullian Yea and by this Sin if it was Sin could not become worthy of Eternal Punishment for certainly God will not inflict Punishment upon Man for that which he himself was Author of and which Man could not possibly avoid being necessitated thereunto by a fatal Decree I do grant you God owes nothing to any Man I also grant you that Grace comes down from Heaven Jam. 1. 17. and that Sin and Iniquity grows at home in the Sinners own Heart yea the best of Men are exceeding prone to Sin by the pravity of their Natures yet none are compelled to Sin from any withdrawings of Divine Grace unless first abused neither doth the Lord deny his Grace to any but to those who too often and presumptuously abuse it neither can you prove in God's Revealed Will that he hath either antecedently or consequently passed any Decree upon any Man personally considered there by excluding him from Salvation before he voluntarily excludes himself by such sinful miscarriages which render him utterly uncapable thereof But to return to what we were upon And 5. If Persons be not by Grace put in a capacity to believe and obey the Lord they thereby become excusable if they do not obey because the Plea of insufficiency or want of Power to believe is an excuse possible but surely the Means and Power which through Grace the Lord hath vouchsafed to Men will leave them without excuse if they prove wicked and unbelievers they will have nothing to plead for themselves when they come to stand before the Tribunal Seat of Christ but will be as speechless as the Guest was without a Wedding Garment for if the Heathens be without excuse in that they did not glorify the Lord by the means vouchsafed to them how inexcusable shall all those be that under greater Mens and Light shall prove wicked and ungodly which could not be if the Lord had not granted a power to do better And I desire you to consider whether you believe any Man shall be condemned for not doing of that which was unpossible for him to do 6. If such as die in their Sins through unbelief have not through Grace a sufficient power to repent and believe in order to their Salvation then doth God in his most earnest inviting them to believe rather insult over them in their weakness and misery than intend any real benefit to them which to conceive is most unworthy of him and not far from blasphemy for doth not this your Opinion represent God full of guile 1. In his passionate Wishes Deut. 5. 29. Psal 81. 11. Isa 48. 18. Jer. 44. 4. 2. In his mournful Expostulations Isa 5. 3. Jer. 2. Ezek. 33. 11. 3. In his commiseration of poor Sinners Hos 11. 18. and O Jerusalem c. Mat. 23. Now thus to profess Love to Man and be earnest with him to do that for his safety which he knows to be impossible for him to do looks too much like Guile disguised under a Mask of Candor and Goodness which is far from him to be guilty of
Fate which I could not withstand and if I have done amiss I deserve pity from you rather than blame tho I know if your Doctrine be true neither your Pity nor Prayers will do me any good unless they were able to make a change in God's absolute Decree for there cannot one Soul be saved which is ordained to Hell nor one Soul be cast away which is appointed to Heaven and so your Pity and Prayers may as well be spared as spent to no puroose And Reader if thou beest one that art learned 't is likely thou wilt think this Discourse is a home-spun Piece Why truly I am just of your mind I think the same and so there is no danger we should fall out and by this let thee know it was designed for them that love to have it so and written for the use of those that neither could nor did expect any Rhetorical Flourishes or School-Distinctions from me but only plain Truths They knew that as I was ignorant of School Phrases so I was clogged with worldly Business and had neither learning nor time to dress up my Lines with Wit and Eloquence neither doth Truth stand in need of gingling Flourishes or outward Bedaubing to make it more renowned in the World it being best seen in its naked plainness And Reader if thou art a Critick as this is a peevish and critical Age or so highly conceited that thou disdainest to look any farther all that I shall say to thee is this It will not hurt you if you can but let it alone I never commanded you neither do I care whether you read it or not and if you read it and think your time and pains ill bestowed blame your self for meddling with that you had nothing to do with I know that all courteous and impartial Readers and especially those that have desired this will esteem it as much as I desire they should Reader I will keep thee out no longer pray walk in and if you like your poor entertainment you are heartily welcome fall to and much good may it do you Vale. June 30. 1700. ZACH. STANTON NB. Pray correct the following Fault with thy Pen before thou goest on Page 35. line 12. Philadelphus is to begin with these words What God foresees c. The last line but one of the same page blot out Phil. The Love of God to all Mankind Asserted and Vindicated By way of Dialogue between Martha and Philadelphus c. Martha WEll met Philadelphus you are walking and viewing the Fields Philadelphus Yes and the more I view the more my heart is drawn forth to bless and admire our good and gracious God who hath not left himself without witness filling our hearts with joy and gladness and though we have almost spent the Fruits of the last year yet is the Lord preparing for us against another how doth the Hills and Vallies abound with Corn and Grass burdned Ears with plenty They rejoyce and clap their hands and loudly proclaim that the Lord is good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his Works Mar. Why is your heart so affected with the Creature or any goodness that is in them Phil. No not so much as with the good God that sends them yet I cannot but admire that the glorious Majesty of Heaven and Earth should have any regard to us worthless Worms thus to mind us with the Eyes of his Providence when we are unmindful of him Mar. Why doubtless it is for the sake of his Elect People that the Nation injoys such Mercies otherwise the Lord would quickly turn this fruitful Land into barrenness yea overthrow it as once he did Sodom and Gomorrah Phil. Although I do not question but next unto Jesus who is said to bear up the Pillars of the Earth the Godly are the Pillars of a Nation they stay just deserved Judgments God Almighty would make short work in the World bring all to its first Nothing if it was not for the Godly which as you say are as so many Lots in Sodom that preserve from such an overthrow yet surely God hath some gracious ends and design in giving such Temporal Mercies to the worst of Men even that his Goodness and Mercy might lead them to Repentance Mar. Truly all these outward and temporal Mercies and Blessings which the worst of Men injoy are but like Crumbs which the Master of a Family throws to the Dogs or given with no other intent than Men give good Pasture to their Cattel to fit them the sooner for Slaughter The prosperity of fools destroy them says Solomon that is it shall be the means of heightning their Lusts and thereby fitting them for Destruction Phil. As is your Name so are you Martha is your Name and bitter are your words Come sit you down here by me under this Shade and let us spend one hour in Discourse together if your occasion will permit Mar. I am content Phil. Truly I did not think till I heard it out of your own Mouth that any could entertain such harsh and unworthy suspicions of the God of Love as if his Mercies to any were designed on purpose to multiply their guilt or to heighten their eternal Damnation No Martha God hath more noble and worthy Ends and Designs than such you spake of God is Love and he hath no pleasure in the ruin of his Creatures If their Prosperity destroy them if his Mercies which should lead them to Repentance and have been a powerful means to ingage their hearts to love the Lord any ways heighten their guilt and thereby fit them for Destruction 't is not the effect of God's goodness but rather of their obstinate wickedness their abusing his Goodness and turning his Grace into Wantonness and not into Thankfulness this is that which kindles the wrath of God as 2 Chron. 32. 25. But Hezekiah rendred not again according to the Mercies c therefore wrath was upon him c. and for this cause was it that the Heathens were given up to vile affections But pray tell me do not all Men in the World stand bound to be thankful to God for outward Mercies Mar. Yes doubtless they do Phil. But how can any Man look upon himself any ways obliged to be thankful to God for good things given with such hard intentions even to make his Condemnation so much the greater Had Amasa any cause to thank Joab for taking him friendly by the Beard to kiss him when his intent was to stab him to the heart And as little cause have any to be thankful to God for Temporal Injoyments when all is made as a Gin and a Trap for their Souls and God intends nothing but evil to them and a fuller Cup of wrath to come If this be a truth how can the bountifulness and long-suffering of God be said to lead Men to Repentance which is the Apostle's Doctrine Rom. 2. 4 Nothing can properly be said to lead Men any ways but that which
not heard of Pharaoh's Rebellion as we now do 1st Thus God was concern'd in hardening Pharaoh's heart as he crost his will by declaring his own 2dly God accidentally hardened Pharaoh's heart by declaring himself above him in Power this must needs provoke him to hear of a Jehovah 3dly By deferring the full Revenging Power so long as he did Eccl. 8. 11. 4thly God hardened his heart accidentally by his condescending to remove his Judgments so soon at his request and that this Act of God hardened his heart you have declared in the History when God had removed this or that Plague it is said that Pharaoh hardened his heart So that after Pharaoh had hardened his heart and dealt deceitfully six times Exod. 8. 29. then the Lord threatned to pour out all his Plagues upon his heart he would punish his acquired hardness with judicial hardness and would withdraw those Influences of his Spirit that should soften him leave him to the perverseness of his own heart and to follow his own Counsel to his destruction Now though I might largely shew you the invalidity of your Opinion as it crosseth some principal Attributes of God God doth not make Decrees contrary to his own Nature nor simply according to his own Will but works all things according to the Counsel of his own Will So that in whatsoever God doth we are not only to look for Will but Counsel Wisdom and such things as tend to Ends worthy of him God's Will always follows his Nature The Apostle saith 2 Tim. 2. 13. God cannot deny himself yet give me leave to give you two Reasons why I cannot assent to your Opinion that God of his meer Pleasure did from all Eternity decree to glorify his Soveraignty in the Eternal Rejection and Damnation of the greatest part of Mankind I will be short because I would willingly put an end to this Discourse at this time Mar. Pray do for the time is far spent the Sun grows low and my Occasions call me away at this time Phil. Then my first Reason is this because no Man had a Being from Eternity nothing having been from Eternity but God and therefore in true Propriety of Speech Men cannot be said to be Reprobated but in time 't is true the Law or Decree of God whereby Men come in time to be reprobated was from Eternity God from Eternity did decree that all those that live and die in a State of Impenitency should perish but this Decree takes hold of Persons in time when they come to be actually disobedient to the Lord As the Lord said to Moses he which sinneth against me him will I blot out of my Book Therefore if nothing be Eternal but God and if that be a truth that whatsoever is in God is God himself then if God condemned or reprobated any from Eternity it must be himself or else we must say that Man was Co-eternal with God and so give the Glory and Honour which is due to God alone to a poor contemptible Creature Mar. But had not Man some kind of Being in God from Eternity as he was the common Root or producent Cause of all Men Phil. Yea and as all Men were singly one in him they were all alike holy innocent and free from blame and so all alike beloved of him all being yet nothing but himself Nay if we consider all Mens State in Adam while he was standing Just and Righteous in that State none of Mankind could be the Object of God's Hatred but of his Love and I hope you will not deny but we were in him while he stood in a State of Righteousness as well as when in a State of Sin and therefore none reprobated when they never had sinned nor were capable of sinning for they could not sin before they had a Being in the Flesh and man had no being in the Flesh from Eternity Therefore c. So that if God proposed from Eternity to appoint to Everlasting Misery Millions of Men it must be whilst they were nothing but himself My second Reason is if God from all Eternity of his meer Pleasure did decree to glorify his Soveraignty in the Eternal Rejection and Damnation of the greatest part of Mankind and that when they were innocent and harmless as above he must of necessity destinate them unto Sin also for where there is no Sin there Punishment cannot justly take place For if a Man be fore-determined to Damnation he must unavoidably sin else he could not be damn'd by this you make God the Author of Sin Mar. I do not say God is the Author of Sin in any yet this I say God did from Enity freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass and if a hair of our Heads falls not to the Ground or a Sparrow to the Earth without the Will of God how can you think that any Action of Men can come to pass or be performed but by the fore-determinate Will of God for all things come to pass according as his Hand and Council had before determined Phil. No 't is likely you will not be so blunt as to say directly that God is the cause of Sin that would spoil all when stated in its proper Terms but I know it is usual with such as you are to put it in a more disguised and specious Phrase that so you may impose with the more Art upon those that are ready to receive as Gospel what you say yet when you say that God hath appointed and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass it followeth by necessary consequence that he is the Author of it so that there is no Murder nor Whoredom Robberies Blasphemies or any Rogueries whatsoever that fall out in any time or place but they are all the effect of God Almighty's Decrees What Dishonour is done to the God of Love by such Doctrines as these that he should appoint ordain and unavoidably decree to make the greatest part of the World eternally miserable and that he might accomplish his ends did necessitate them to do Evil drawing them on from Sin to Sin till they had filled up the Measure of their Iniquitys that so he might inflict upon them that Vengeance which he had provided for them this is contrary to his revealed Will David saith Psal 5. 4. Thou art a God that hath no Pleasure in Wickedness and James 1. 13 14. Let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God tempts no Man and John tells us that the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but of the World Surely God doth not use to necessitate that which his Soul abhors and which he not only forbids in his Word but also is the Condemner of it Saith one of the Antients to wit Prosper vid. God's Love to Mankind p. 50. 'T is against Reason to say that he that is the Damner of the Devil would have any to be his Servants what
do you think that God Almighty doth so delight in the Blood and Ruin of Men that rather than not destroy them Soul and Body he will have them live and die in Sin that he may destroy them This is like that which Suetonius reports of Tyberius in God's Love to Mankind Page 59. who being minded to put certain Virgins to death because it was against the Roman Laws to strangle Virgins caused them all to be defloured by the Hangman that so they might be strangled but far be any such thing from the God of Truth and Father of Mercy that he should appoint that the Devil should lead Men into Sin that afterward he might take occasion to damn them for it Mar. But you ought to distinguish between the Actions of Men and the Sin of the Action tho God is the Author of the Actions of Men yet not of the Evil of their Actions Phil. This is a nice Distinction you would seem to split a Hair God you say is the Author of the Fact but not of the Fault of their Disobedience not of their Sin but is this any part of God's revealed Will Mar. You read Acts 4. 27 28. Of a Truth Lord against thy Child Jesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the People of Israel were gathered together for to do what soever thy Hand and Counsel determined before to be done Here you see that it was the determinate Counsel of God that his Son should not only suffer but also that Herod Pontius Pilate Jews and Gentiles should betray and murder him Now had they done this in Obedience to the Will of God they had not sinned but they doing of it to make him a Sacrifice to their Revenge and Malice that was their Sin here God decreed the Fact but not the Fault Phil. This is no good Distinction How much better had it been for the World and what Peace might the Church of God have enjoyed had People contented themselves with what was spoken to them from the Lord and had not given their Imagination such unbounded Scope as to pester the World with such abundance of Scriptureless Distinctions and frivolous Niceties Now I readily grant that it was the determinate Will of God to redeem lost Man by the delivering up of his Son unto Death that is by leaving him in the Hands and to the Will of those who were his Enemies and whom the Lord did foreknow would put him to Death unless he did interpose by his Power to prevent their Rage and Malice Now for the effecting of this great and blessed Work the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind it was sufficient for God to decree that in case these or any other should attempt his Death he would not hinder them from effecting it but neither this Scripture nor any other saith that the Hand and Counsel of God had determined that the Jews and Gentiles should betray and murder Christ but only that these were gathered together to effect that which God in his Counsel had determined before to be done to wit the Redemption of the World Compare this Text with Act. 2. 23. where the Apostle plainly lays this Sin upon their own Heads in that they took and by wicked Hands crucified and slew the Lord of Life and Glory Du-Veil commenting upon this place saith That this Jesus by the Decree of the Father to whom he in all things voluntarily obeyed being surrendred into your Hands with incredible Importunity you forced the Romans to nail to a Cross Therefore Christ by the determinate Decree of God was given up into the power and disposal of his Enemies whose hostile and inhuman Rage God did not predestinate but only foreknew Now tho God did decree to leave his Son in the Hands of wicked Men that so he might die for Sin yet it is no less than Wickedness and horrid Blasphemy to say that God decreed that such and such Men by Name should betray and murder him Now to kill a holy and innocent Person is a sinful Act which is not from God but of the Devil who is the Author of it John 8. 40 43 44. and therefore it is said John 13. 2. that the devil put it in Judas's Heart to betray Christ and that Judas fell by Transgression Act. 1. 25. Now if God who hath by his Word prohibited the shedding of Blood or taking of any Man's Life away unjustly should any way incline or compel Men to it so as to lay them under a Necessity of being wicked he must needs be the Author of it Bishop Vsher in his History of Gotteschalk p 138. as quoted by the Author of God's Love to Mankind hath these Words Whosoever saith that God hath laid a Constraint or a Necessity of sinning upon any Man he doth manifestly and fearfully blaspheme God inasmuch as he makes him by that the Author of Sin and therefore I look upon your Distinction no better than meer Delusion to deceive the simple and inconsiderate ones First Because in wicked Actions the Acts themselves are simply Sin as Adam's eating the forbidden Fruit was simply Sin and is not Murder Drunkenness profane Swearing Stealing Whoring in themselves Sin Is it not because of such things that the Wrath of God comes upon the Children of Disobedience Eph. 5. 5 6. The Wrath of God doth not take hold upon Men for such Actions as bare Actions but as sinful Actions as they are the Transgression of the Righteous Law of God 1 John 3. 4. How shall God be just in rendering to every Man according to the things done in the Body if Men sin by the Determination of God Secondly Because if God by his divine Decree lays Man under a necessity of sinning he is truly the cause of Sin and Man by thiâ— comes to have some Cloak for his Wickedness because he cannot justly be blamed nor punished for doing of that which he had no power to withstand but was forced on by an irresistable Necessity It was a grave and true Saying saith Goodman upon the Parable of the Prodigal Son of Seneca Necessity is the great Sanctuary of human Infirmity which whosoever can lay claim to obtains Protection for it perfectly excuseth all the Faults it commits No Punishment either Temporal or Eternal can in Justice be inflicted for any bad Action where there is no power in the Party to avoid it Why doth our Law condemn Men to suffer Death for wicked Actions if they were unavoidable and that when they murder steal plot Treason or practise any other Villanies they do them by Necessity of God's unalterable Decree Pray see what we have Deut. 22. 25. where we may see the Law of God awards no Punishment to the Damsel because what she did was by Compulsion being over-born by force which she was not able to withstand Nay farther if God hath decreed all the Actions of Men and bound them under the Dominion of absolute Necessity to commit them why then should we be
without relation to Sin for it is Sin as Sin and in no other Consideration is the Cause of Punishment and surely God being most pure perfect and Goodness it self cannot be a Cause either Moral or Physical of that which is nothing but Deficiency If any of us miss Happiness let us not foolishly and sawcily charge God with our Ruin who delights not in it but rather upon our selves And I pray take heed while you dislike Mr. Perkins's Phrase you hold not to his Opinion for then would you make God worse than the Devil because the Devil doth only tempt and perswade to Sin and his Motions may be resisted for it is granted on all Hands the Devil can but allure not compel to Sin But by this Opinion God doth not only will Sin but procure it by a powerful and effectual Decree This is not only contrary to God's revealed Will but also fighteth against all the Attributes of God which I might largely shew Surely 't is Mens wilful sinning which renders every Cast-away liable to Reprobation and no fore-determination of God necessitates him thereunto as you may see Psal 81. 11 12. Ezek. 18. 39. Rom. 1. 21 24. Rev. 22. 11. Those that are here left to themselves are the obstinate and wilful Sinners which hate Instruction and scorn Mercy Prov. 1. 24. And saith Hockins on God's Decree p. 44. All Men do by their Sins and Iniquities truly reprobate themselves so that eternal Destruction becomes Mens choice not their unhappy Destiny and our Misery derive its Original not from God but our own Wills so that we need not seek for any hidden Cause but our own secret and open Impieties And indeed for my part I cannot find that God hath necessitated any to be wicked and thereby justly miserable but hath graciously provided Means whereby both Sin and Misery might be prevented or removed if timely imbraced But I shall say no more at this time for I see it grows late but I could heartily wish we might have a little farther Discourse together so it may be in Love Mar. Well I agree to it and if you please appoint the Time and Place and if the Lord will I 'll meet you and if we cannot agree in our Judgments yet I desire we may maintain the bond of Love which will make part of amends for our Failings But I do not question but you will be of my mind before you die and renounce this your Error Phil. My Friend I stand ready to revoke any Error that I shall be made sensible of and be convinced by the written Word of God the Touchstone of all Mens sayings and doings and if I err I err with a good Intention as in Charity I hope you do tho in my Apprehension what you hold tends more to the dishonour of God than his honour And I heartily pray and hope you will be ashamed and sorry for it upon further Consideration and I rest hopeful that all those that have been led into this Error by Ignorance or too much trusting in Human Wisdom if they be not ashamed to revoke their Judgment before Men of their own Parties will better consider what they ought to believe in relation to these things And seeing you are so kind to accept my Motion if you please let it be to Morrow about Noon and let this shady Grove be the place Mar. Let it be so till then farewel Phil. A good Night to you A Second Conference Philad WEll met Martha now I see you are as good as your Word Mar. Nay I think I am better than my Word for I am not only come my self but I have brought one or two with me Philetus This is a very pleasant Walk and a curious Shade indeed Moderatus It is so Philad Why here I love to retire my self sometimes and to get out of the Noise and Hurry of the World which too much interrupts us in our Contemplation on Divine Things yea here all alone I can take a view of the Corruption of my Heart and the Errors of my Life and see the Vanity and Uncertainty of all created Things And here in my Walkings and Musings methinks all the Herbs in the Field the Beasts on the Earth the Birds of the Air preach forth the wonderful Love Wisdom and Providence of God and many other things are represented to my Thoughts in this my Solitary Walking but I will not prevent our Discourse for which we met this Day c. Mar. I have imparted to these two Friends of mine the Substance of our Discourse Yesterday and they are desirous to spend this Afternoon with you I hope in true Love and Compassion as Friends and Lovers of the Truth of God and your Souls good knowing that if you should remain settled upon the Dregs of any rotten Opinion contrary to the Truth of the everliving God that Sorrow Shame and Confusion of Face will be your Portion for there are damning Principles as well as damning Practices Philad I do with a Cordial Affection readily imbrace you all and also believe that there are Principles which are of a Grace-destroying Heart-hardning Nature that tend to banish the true Fear and Love of God and to nourish Carnal Security and beget Strife but if all those ingaged in Religious Contests would leave off advancing Parties and Opinions and aim with a single Eye and sincere Heart to advance Truth and Piety with Sobriety and Christian Prudence this would renew that brotherly Love and Peace which is now almost universally destroyed by imprudent Zeal to the hazarding of all true Piety and indeed Morality and all Mod. You say true 't is a great deal of pity that Persons that own one God and one Lord Jesus Christ and expect one Heaven should be so injurious to each other as to put off that Spirit of Gentleness and Meekness which doth so highly become the Saints of Jesus Christ Philet It would be well if all sorts of Christians would endeavour patiently to bear or mildly instruct those that lye under Errors and Failings this would maintain and cherish Peace and Concord in all the Churches of Christ Mod. Well then in this Days Discourse let it be accompanied with love to Truth and in love to Peace and the good of each others Souls and let all things be tryed by the true Standard the Word of God and wherein you find each other mistaken take heed of passing heady or hasty Censures upon each other as because I am not of your Mind nor you of mine that therefore we are excluded out of the Kingdom of Heaven this will make us out of love with one another Philad I have found it too true that many that can speak fair yet carry Wrath in their Hearts neither can they bear the least Opposition that may be but presently they carry it so as if God himself was opposed when their Dictates are not admitted for Divine Oracles and because I cannot see that to be a Truth which I
and not as Believers or as their being in Christ by Faith then for God to love a Person to Day and hate him to Morrow would evidently shew a change in his Affection according to the change made in the Creature And I must needs tell you I like this plain dealing the best you are herein truer to your Principles than many of your Brethren that hold this Point of personal Election But for my part I believe that God loveth and accepts more of Actions that are good than of mere Persons and contrary to what you say that such and such Actions do therefore please him because the Person pleaseth him but rather because their Actions please him therefore their Persons please him tho God hates all the Workers of Iniquity Psal 5. 5. yet said he to Cain Gen. 4. 7. If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and Heb. 11. 5 6. Before his Transgression he had this Testimony that he pleased God but without Faith he could not Read John 14. 23. and 15. 14. and 16. 27. These are those that he will love yet may those that were once beloved of God by reason of Sin come to be the object of his hatred Isa 63. 9 10. But they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their Enemy and fought against them Now you that say that where once God loves he must never cease to love Pray you what think you of the Angels that fell Do you think God did not love them while they stood in that pure and holy State in which they were created and if he did do you think that he loves them now in their Apostacy So God is said to love Jacob and Israel yet at another time he is said to hate Israel Jer. 12. 7 8. Amos 6. 8. yet is this taken off again Isa 60. 15. whereas they were hated God loved them again So that God may love at one time and hate at another without the least change in him in respect of Love or Hatred because no Person of Man is supposed to be the Object of elective Love but only as Righteous nor any Person the Object of Reprobation but only as Wicked so that the Love of God being set upon such kind of Persons as are true Believers those who have Christ formed in them whose Souls are regenerated and formed into the Image of Jesus and Partakers of the heavenly and divine Nature having received that heavenly and divine Anointing by virtue of which they become Christians 1 Cor. 6. 17. John 15. being wrought into a Conformity to Jesus this is that State in which the true Election stands Christ being the elected Root and Believers the elected Branches These are those whom God doth justify and will glorify these are those whom the Lord hath set apart for himself Psal 4. 3. These are those whom the Lord hath chosen from the rest of the World to be his own peculiar Favourites upon whom he intends to bestow an heavenly Inheritance and as Persons decline from Christ living in a State of Unbelief and Impenitency being Strangers to the Life of God disobedient and to every good Work reprobate they remaining such are in that state in which Reprobation stands not being brought over to Christ in whom the Father is well pleased So that I conceive that Unchangeableness which the Scripture asserts of God is to be considered with respect to his Essence Attributes and Decrees and not in his constant loving the same Persons how wicked soever they prove For suppose God should dearly love a Person while he is faithful to him and in case this Person should apostatize and die in a state of Impenitency and he should destroy him with eternal Death this doth not shew the least Alteration in any of the Lord's Attributes either of Love Goodness Mercy Justice c. And suppose a Man passeth from a State of Sin wherein he lived to the Displeasure of the Lord to a State of Faith and Holiness and in this Condition comes to injoy the Love and Favour of God yet his Love and Hatred cannot be said to be changed tho the Persons of Men change never so often from Good to Evil or from Evil to Good This shews indeed a change in Man but no change at all in the Lord he still loves and hates but what he loved and hated before Pray consider Ezek. 18. at what Instant I spake c. if it doth Evil I will repent Here you see God is said to repent so he is said to repent that he made Man upon the Earth Gen. 6. 6. he is said to repent that he made Saul King 1 Sam. 15. 11. And yet the Scriptures cannot be broken which testify that with God is no Repentance or shadow of change 1 Sam. 15. 29. Num. 23. 19. James 1. 17. Mal. 3. 6. Psal 102. 25. yet here is no real Contradiction And as I said before in respect of his Essence Attributes and Decrees God cannot repent yet after the manner of Men he is said to repent in respect of his Works for as Men when they repent alter their Works so when God alters his Work he is said to repent as in Gen. 6. 6. I will saith God destroy Man from the Earth for it repents me c. God made Man to dwell upon the Face of the Earth but now coming to destroy Man from off the Earth seems to repent and so concerning Saul I repent that I have made Saul King that is I have determined to depose him and to prefer another And so concerning Ely c. Delawn Sacr. p. 50. So that no such Conclusion can reasonably be drawn from God's once loving he must for ever love how wicked soever the Person proves afterwards or else be mutable for I do not find in Scripture that God hateth any of the Works of his Hands as they are his Creatures nor any thing but Sin and Sinners for the cause of Sin and there is the same Consideration or the like Reason of his Election being placed upon Faith and obedient Persons or Persons really brought over to Christ Philet The Elect are justified in the Eternal purpose of God and tho the Elect do sin yet the Lord sees it not so as to condemn them for it neither can it do them any hurt or make them less lovely in the sight of God Philad Hold one word before you go any farther you seem to say God was never an Enemy to the Elect Do you not by this make the Fall of Adam in whom the Elect were included a mere Fiction and the whole Story of the Gospel concerning Christ's Suffering a Fable and the Passion of Christ if you grant he suffered for the Elect a mere Vanity more than needs to die to reconcile and bring those into Friendship with God which were never out of his Love nor with whom he was never offended Philet I say all the Sins of the Elect both past present and
17. John 15. 19. but if by the World be meant the Elect only then it will follow that God gave his Son to dye for those that stood in no need of him for God by Virtue of his Absolute Prerogative might pardon Sinners without the Death of his Son Now for you that hold there was an absolute Election and an absolute Reprobation consider'd under the Fall and that without respect to Faith in Christ on the one hand or disobedience on the other what do you do but overthrow the Truth and real Expiation of their Sins by the Death of Christ for them For if God in his Elective Love did in the very Act of Election freely and of his meer good Will and Pleasure irrevocably assign and give to his Elect Justification and Salvation then Christ could not die to purchase these things for them because they were theirs truly and of right before and so he needed not die to bring those into Covenant with God and to make them near by his Blood and to make them dear Children to God who were all this before for those that were Elected unto Life upon the account of their being absolutely Elected to Salvation they are likewise upon the same account in actual favour with God and already beloved of him with the highest Love and such as is peculiar to those that are the Sons of God But again if by the word World be understood the Elect only then this word whosoever must needs imply that some of the Elect might possibly not believe and so Christ must be supposed to speak at no better a rate of Wisdom and Sense than thus God so loved the world of Believers that whosoever of the world of Believers believe on him shall not perish Nay further if there be Salvation in Christ for none but the Elect in your sense then it is not true that whosoever believes in him shall be saved But that it cannot be meant of the Elect only read the two preceding Verses 14 15. with this whole Verse and the words following for as Moses lifted up the Serpent c. and Ver. 17. for God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World If then we must understand the Elect here by the World then we may read the words thus God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the Elect but that the Elect should be saved this was to affirm that which none was likely to deny or ever trouble themselves or the World about But again if by the World we must needs understand the Elect only then will the Parallel between Moses's lifting up the Serpent in the Wilderness and Christ's being lifted up upon the Cross run very lame for Moses did not lift up the Serpent with an intent that none should look upon it and receive healing by it save a small parcel but that whosoever was stung might look upon it and that whosoever did look upon it should receive healing thereby Numb 21. 8. Now you will hold that all without exception are stung with Sin will you not Philet Yea I do Philad Very well then unless Christ be lifted up with an intent that every Man might believe on him and every one that should believe on him should be saved by him he could not be said to be lifted up for the universal benefit of all those that were stung with Sin as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness for the benefit of all that were stung with the fiery Serpent Thus you may see that by the World must needs be meant the whole Lump of Mankind and those that take it otherwise do greatly eclipse the Mercy Love and Goodness of God to all his Creatures Very well Musculus upon this place John 3. 15 16. by World understands the Universe of Mankind so that here his love of the World and his love of Man is the same After the same manner it is in this Redemption of Mankind whereof we spake that Reprobates and desperately wicked Men partake not of it 'T is not through any defect of the Grace of God nor is it meet for the sake of the Sons of Perdition it should lose the Glory and Title of a Universal Redemption since it is prepared for all and all are called to it De Redemption Gen. humani Yea Calvin himself upon this place with other more antient and modern Expositors take this word World in a universal sense But take another Scripture 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself Philet Well pray read out the whole Verse and you may see cause to believe that by the World is there meant the Elect because he says not imputing their Trespasses Now it is plain he doth impute the Sins of all Men to them but the Elect only but unto them he doth not impute Sin therefore he reconciles unto himself none other but those he doth not impute Sin to which are the Elect. Besides the word World signifieth only some part of Men in the World and not the intire Universality of Men as Luke 2. 1. Acts 19. 27. Rev. 13. 3. Yea World is put sometimes for those that believe and are converted The Bread of God is he that cometh down from Heaven and giveth Life to the World that is to the Elect to Believers of all ranks throughout the whole World and no more is intended in any such-like Expressions Again John 14. 31. That the World may know that I love the Father And John 17. 21. That the World may believe that thou hast sent me By the World here we are to understand such as shall be saved Philad I know the word World signifies only some part of the World but where do you find the Elect called the World in opposition to those that are Enemies and Strangers unto God but it is rather put for the Wicked who are the greatest part of the World as John 1. 10. and 7. 7. 14. 17. 15. 19. 16. 20. 17. 9 14. 1 Cor. 11. 32. 1 John 3. 1. 4. 5. 5. 4 5. Hence the Devil is called the Prince of the World John 12. 31. 14. 30. 16. 11. But that this 2 Cor. 5. 19. cannot be meant only of the Elect may be proved from the word reconciling Reconciliation signifieth a making those Friends that were before at variance Now how can it be said That God was in Christ reconciling to himself those with whom he is not nor ever was offended Nay he was so far from being offended with them that he loved them with such a Love that he did absolutely purpose from the Fall which was long before the coming of Christ in the Flesh to confer Eternal Life upon them Besides the Apostle is not there speaking of any inward Act of God upon the Souls of Persons whereby they are brought to believe in Christ whereby they come to witness their Peace with God Being justified by Faith we have Peace with
matter 3. In their Obligation to believe and the aggravation of their Misery by not believing The Devils because they must be damned are not commanded to believe in Christ nor is their punishment heightned by their not believing but miserable Men who by this Decree have no more liberty to escape Hell than the Devil must yet be tied to believe in Christ and have their Torments increased if they believe not May we not say Where was the sounding of the Lord's Bowels and his Mercy Were they not restrained Isa 63. 15. Now tho I grant you that God's Mercy is his own and he might give it to whom he please I do also grant that when Man had sinned God was not obliged but was absolutely free and at perfect liberty whether he would shew Mercy to any or not The Love of God in Christ was undeserved undesired and every way free indeed neither had it been unmerciful if God had made no provision for fallen Man But now seeing he was pleased to enter into a Covenant of Peace with Man tho under no constraint or Obligation and to give his Son a Ransom not for a few but all as a means whereby his poor Creatures might be saved and hath promised Mercy without exception should be vouchsafed to all that believe in his Son and hath bound it with an Oath that he desireth not the death of a Sinner that no cruelty is in him but that he is a God gracious and merciful thereby to beget in us such amiable thoughts of himself as might incline us to love him with all our heart and strength and without the least scruple resign up our selves to his Will Now I say since God who was absolutely free hath made such Promises of Mercy to all that believe in his Son this his Promise binds him to perform it he cannot deny himself he 's not like unto frail Man he will not eat his own words so that now he is not at liberty to deny Mercy to those to whom he in his Word hath promised to shew Mercy neither can he do it for we may modestly affirm there are some things God cannot do God cannot lie he cannot deny himself neither can he deal unfaithfully and unjustly in his Promises nor go contrary to his Will revealed in his Word so till you prove by the Word of God that he hath made no provision for the Salvation of all Men by the death of Christ all you say proves nothing neither do you yet shew me where the great Attribute of God's Mercy takes place upon those for whom Christ did not die Philet Doth not the Mercy of God wonderfully appear in this that when Man had sinned and thereby run himself so far in debt beyond any possibility to pay but was liable to have been eternally a Prisoner without any redemption from thence till he had paid the utmost Farthing neither Men nor Angels being able to make God amends for the wrong Man had done him Psal 49. 7 8. And whereas God being the most Soveraign Lord and no ways a Debter to any of his Creatures being not constrained by any inward Necessity or outward Force to shew mercy to any being wholly at his own choice whether he would shew Mercy to any having cause enough to cast off Man for his disobedience as he did the fallen Angels doth it not argue and prove more abundantly the rich Grace and Goodness of God in providing for the Salvation of a few than in making no provision for any but leaving them to perish in their Sins Philad 'T is true 't is an act of Grace and Mercy for God to make provision for the Salvation of any by Christ and to cast his Love upon any of the degenerate Sons of Adam when he passed by the Apostate Angels being invested with a power to shew Mercy to whom he please But certainly if to shew Mercy to a few amongst the many millions of millions of poor perishing Creatures renders God gracious and merciful how prevailing must that Love be which hath made such rich and full provision for the Salvation of all Men who unless they wilfully neglect so great Salvation shall most certainly be saved for if the providing for the Salvation of a few out of many renders him most gracious and lovely then if he had refused to make provision for any certainly the greater the number for whom this provision was made is the more lovely and gracious doth God appear Pray take heed you do not bring your Soul under guilt by denying Christ's Death for all which is the greatest illustration of his Love and Mercy to Sinners for in my understanding 't is a great injury done to the Goodness and Mercy of God to affirm that he hath eternally decreed the reprobation of all mankind except a very few in comparison of the rest Mar. None can be damned but those whose damnation God wills to glorify his Justice for God wills the Salvation of all that are saved and he wills the Damnation of all that are damned and tho it is certain that the Lord is gracious and full of compassion and of great mercy yet he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9. 18. It 's true there is such infinite Mercy in God that he could have pardoned all the Angels that sinned and could have saved all Adam's Posterity if he had pleased there might have been no Hell no place of Torment for Devils or Men if he had pleased there might have been no place but Heaven for all the Angels and all the Children of Men to sing Hallelujahs to Eternity but we must not order what God shall do how he shall exert and put forth his Mercy but let his Grace and Mercy be adored for ever in that he saves any that have sinned and his holy Justice ador'd in punishing so many with Eternal Damnation for Sin And God hath his Glory not only from them that are saved but also from them that perish in the one the Glory of his Grace in the other the Glory of his Justice Philad Who questions these things but you still avoid the Question so often urged viz. Wherein the great Attribute of God's Mercy takes place upon those for whom Christ did not die Philet You asked me if I thought one Attribute of God eat up another And I may ask you this Question whether you think God is made up of Mercy without any Justice Philad No I do not think so I believe that Justice and Mercy were essentially in God before all time and both beloved and favoured by him and to maintain the favour and love God bore to Justice he hath caused whole Nations to drink of the Cup of his Wrath in this he threw the sinful down from Heaven drowned the old World rained Fire and Brimstone out of Heaven upon Sodom c. yea such love doth God bear to Justice that not only Men and Angels Citys
the Flesh partake of the real Virtue of his Death as if he had been already slain So also Christ came into the World not to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved John 3. 17. and came to seek and to save that which was lost to shed his Blood to bear unutterable dolours not only for them that were saved but for those also who through their unbelief and impenitency were not saved their unbelieving and rejecting of Gospel-Grace rendred them obnoxious to just punishment for saith the same Apostle the Gospel was preached to them that were dead 1 Pet. 4. 6. tho they had not the Letter of the Gospel preached to them as with us at this day yet they had the spiritual Substance and Effect of the Gospel preached to them and therefore 't is said that Christ went by his Spirit and preached to them and their unbelief and rejection was a Sin against the Covenant of Grace for those before Christ and those since Christ came are for the main under one and the same Covenant yea essentially and for substance the same the same Christ exhibited thro Types and Shadows which we have revealed in the Gospel with open face and the same substantial Duties as Repentance Faith and Obedience with the same spiritual Blessings as pardon of Sin Justification and Eternal Life So that all Persons being under one Covenant of Grace made with all Mankind in the Promised Seed and this Covenant the same for Substance both before and since Christ's coming and all Persons that were saved before Christ being saved by a Covenant of Grace and through believing on him that was to come it necessarily follows that the want of Faith and Obedience to the Lord Jesus according to their measure of knowing him and believing on him was the cause of their condemnation see Heb. 4. 2. compared with Chap. 3. 18 19. So that I cannot see how it should sound more harshly in the Ears of all Christians that Christ should sweat drops of Blood and bear the Curse of the Law for those that were in Hell if you will have it so when he died than that he should sweat drops of Blood c. for those that after his coming in the Flesh shall go to Hell notwithstanding all that Christ hath done for them so that Christ did really intend the Good and Benefit of those that perished through unbelief before his coming in the Flesh as well as after if not so I know not how any could use potent Arguments to perswade them to love and live to him Moderat Come Philadelphus the thing to be proved is this whether Christ died equally for all and every Man this I suppose you will not easily grant for if Christ died equally for every Man they would have equally the means of Salvation granted to them Philad This is but a lame proof that Christ died not for all Men equally c. as if difference of Means vouchsafed to Men should argue different Intentions in God touching their Salvation You may as well prove by this Rule that Christ died not equally for the Elect themselves as the other they do not equally alike injoy the Means of Grace nay by this a Man but meanly read in the Scriptures may prove that God bore more good-will to many that perish than towards many of the Elect for many perish under more excellent and greater means of Salvation than are vouchsafed to many that are saved stretching out his hands all the day long to a disobedient People Isa 65. 2. Mat. 15. 28. 11. 20 21. 8. 10. 1 Pet. 3. 20. And in Mat. 22. 3. our Saviour by that Parable holds forth to us these two things 1. That the Death of Christ signified by the Oxen and Fatlings slain was provided by the King for those that never came to partake of the Feast but were rejected because they made light of the Invitation and went away one to his Farm c. yet Jesus Christ with the Blessing accruing thereby to Mankind was equally intended for those that perish through their unworthiness as well as for those that are saved for they did neglect so great a blessing and when there was a prize put in their Hands they had no heart to use it Pro. 17. 16. yet notwithstanding the neglect on their part God was not wanting one his paâ—… to provide good things for them The 2d Thing observable is this the King's Servants took more pains with those that never came to partake of the Supper than with those that came for those that rejected the Invitation were again and again called whenas the other came at the first Philet but if the Feast had been provided for all and God had called them in good earnest they would have come or been compelled to it as those were that tasted of it Philad If the King had intended that those who were invited should never have tasted of his Supper questionless he would never have invited them for it 's but mockage to use Arguments to perswade Persons to accept of a Feast that was only and wholly provided for another with as intent to exclude those that were invited Thus do you make the God of Truth a meer Deluder of poor miserable Mankind to cause his Ministers to proclaim throughout the World the glad tidings of Grace and Salvation prepared for all Flesh and by the Gospel open the Bosom of his Love to all poor Sinners and by sweet loving and gracious words offer to them forgiveness of Sins Life and Salvation and yet never intend to bestow it upon them what is this but to represent God as hollow-hearted But it is clear that in the ministry of the Word God doth as well perswade the obstinate and many of those that never believe as he doth those that do as it is said 2 Chron. 36. 15 16. That the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them by his Messengers rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his People c. But they mocked the Messengers despised his Word and misused his Prophets till the Wrath of the Lord rose up against them And thus doth the Lord in this Gospel-day being every way as serious in his pressing the Gospel upon those that remain obdurate to the last as upon those that in time come to believe as Paul preached the same Gospel at Athens to those that mocked as to those that clave to him and believed Acts 17. 32 34. so that difference of Means doth not argue different Intention in God touching their Salvation Yet it is not denied but that God doth in his providential Dispensations put a difference between one man's spiritual Opportunities and another's all do not injoy equal Conveniencies and Opportunities nor have Ministers the same efficacy and power for conversion and edification c. Nor are Men equally free from or subject to temptations and occasions of Sin with many such I do not say
4. Neither must we think that Men stumbling at Christ and being disobedient to the Word to which they were appointed to learn their Duty is the Result of fatal Necessity But prethee Philetus tell me whether you be of Moderatus's mind that Christ died so far for all that the Gospel which is glad tidings should be preached to all and whether the Lord by the preaching of the Gospel doth not call all Men to Faith and Repentance promising Salvation to all that do believe Philet I know Faith and Repentance are required of all and God by the Gospel invites all Men to believe in him promising Salvation to all that do so believe yet only those will believe for whom Christ died to purchase these things for them and to purchase their Salvation Ye believe not because you are not of my Sheep John 10. 26. Philad That is I suppose you mean because they were not elected and because Christ did not die for them to purchase a Power to believe and therefore they could not believe because God had decreed their unbelief this is plainly to charge all the unbelief of Men upon the Lord but saith Christ They believe not because they were not of his Sheep And who those are he tells you in the next verse They are such as hearing his Voice follow him Such fallacious reasoning strikes at the Root of the Gospel of Grace and free Love of God and frees the Devil and wicked Men from bringing destruction on themselves for by such Doctrine God Almighty is the sole cause of all the incredulity in the World and tho he offers and invites all Men to partake of Grace yet he doth it not really and in good earnest and while your Ministers call upon Persons to believe and seem to wonder that they do not believe and yet hold that God hath decreed they shall never believe their Sermons are mere dissimulations and nonsense What would they bind Men to believe that which is untrue and charge them to take and receive Christ as tendred to them in the Gospel and to believe there is remission of Sins in Christ's Blood for them when he never shed it for them and so to lay hold upon that which they had no kind of interest in This not only makes your Ministers false Witnesses to offer Salvation to those whose Damnation is absolutely determined but also makes God a mere deluder of miserable Man whom he calleth by the preaching of the Gospel to partake of Salvation by his Son and yet fully before intended their ruin Is not this as much as in you lyeth to make God a lier as 1 Joh. 5. 10. for they that believe not God make him a lier because they believe not the Record God gave of his Son and what is that namely That whosoever believe on him should not perish but have Everlasting Life not that any Man can possibly make God a Lier no let God be True and all Men Liers but Men by their not believing on Christ do represent God as untrue in his Word because they reject that as a Fable which hath been spoken by the Lord himself for a Truth and those that preach the glad-tidings of Grace and Peace to all Men and every Creature sin in preaching in that they preach Lies to most Men yea and require Men to believe Lies May we not easily see that all your Exhortations Chidings your whining and seemingly bemoaning the state of poor Sinners is but a dissembling Art Mar. O what pangs are faithful Ministers in lest poor Souls should perish Philad Yea true Gospel-Ministers may but what Pangs your Ministers are in that hold Reprobation without respect to actual Sins part of their Creed I know not is commiseration in you a Virtue and is not all Good originally in God and can I take your Ministers to be filled with more compassion than the God of Love or to be better than they represent God to be For do they not hold that notwithstanding all the passionate wishes of the Lord his Exhortations and Perswasions Reprovings Expostulations mourning over the perishing state of poor Sinners yea tho he useth Promises to allure them and Threatnings to deter them and calls all Men by the Gospel to believe on his Son that they may live through him and swears that he wills not their Death yet hath he by an eternal and uncontrolable Decree shut up the greatest part of those to whom these Tenders are made under Sin and Misery that they shall never repent and be saved Christ never died intentionally nor really to save them they have thereby no more interest in him than the fallen Angels and therefore there is no more reason why the Gospel should be preached to the one more than the other whereby it must needs follow that many Men by the Gospel are bound in Conscience to believe that which is untrue and by your Ministers pressed and charged to receive that which they have nothing to do with by this you make the Lord guilty of the deepest dissimulation in his Promises and tenders of Grace to all And pray what are your Ministers but false Witnesses if they promise Salvation for all Men when they believe there is no Salvation for far the greatest part of Men whom Christ never purchased by his Blood If they exhort Sinners to turn from their Sins to the Lord and promise them that if they do so they shall live and tell all Men that God would not have one of them die in their Sins but rather turn and live is not this according to your Notion Lying And do not they promise and undertake more in the behalf of God than God himself is willing to perform What a bustle do your Ministers keep and to what purpose unless to get Money seeing the most powerful Ministers and Sermons cannot in the least alter the Intention of the Lord about the Salvation or Damnation of one Soul Man's final and eternal State being fixed in Heaven And thus do you give the Truth of God the lie and highly impeach the glorious Gospel and make your Ministers teach nothing but absurdities nay more than this it overthrows not only his Goodness and Mercy but also his Justice that Men before they partake of the Breath of Life or are any ways guilty of actual Sins should be so rigidly condemned to perpetual Misery yea appointed to receive the Wages of Sin before they committed any this is inconsistent with common Justice and Equity amongst Men and Shall not the Judg of all the World do right said good Abraham to God Gen. 18. 25. And saith Job shall mortal Man be more just than God and so our Apostle Is there unrighteousness with God how then shall God judg the World Doth it not wrong the pure Justice of God to hold that he will judg and condemn Men for ever to lie under his Wrath for doing that which he himself decreed them to do or that God Almighty should behold
which God's Spirit had upon many others as Job Melchizedeck c. And how did the Lord secretly teach and instruct Abimclech Nebuchadnezzar Cyrus Darius in the Old Testament And the Heathens have at this day and before Christ's coming in the flesh had some glimpse of his coming into the World as may be seen in the Sibyls Verses and many others nay they came to injoy in some measure the Doctrine of Christ's coming and hath not the Gospel-sound gone thro the World and Paul saith that the Gentiles who did by Nature the things contained in the Law Rom. 2. were counted the Circumcision yea the Law should judg those that are circumcised in the Flesh if they broke it and so tho many boast of the Word and Sacrament of the Gospel amongst them and despise others tho the Means of Grace be abused the Gospel-Call neglected the Grace of God turned into wantonness and seek Gain by pretending Godliness yet those that have less means and yet have obeyed them shall be received and others rejected for many are called but few chosen And I beseech you all that set light by them take heed lest you become guilty of as great a Sin as the Heathen Nations are in worshiping false Gods by imputing that to the true God which is proper only to the Devil for it was the saying of a very Learned Man Mr. Withers in his Paraphrase upon the Lord's Prayer page 94. speaking something of the Doctrine of Reprobation without respect to Sin That whatsoever opinion others may have of it I conceive that all the Idolatries of the Heathens heretofore in communicating to Men Beasts or Devils the Honour and Attributes which are due to God only yea and the crucifying of Christ added thereunto amount not to so hainous an Offence as their Crimes who are knowingly guilty of this Sin because it seems to me more pardonable to ascribe to a base Creature part of that Honour which is due to God than to impute that unto him which is proper to none but the Devil And in his Parallello-Grammaton p. 61. he saith That it is an extraordinary high affront put upon God and more heinous than Murder Adultery and all other mere carnal Sins whatsoever yea more heinous than those the Jews committed by their Idolatries killing the Prophets and crucifying Christ in the Elesh for the last was but a Sin against his Humanity and their Idolatries but the ascribing some part of that Honour to the Creature which is due to God only whereas the limiting God's Universal Grace in Christ with the concomitant Doctrine and the Consequences thence arising and the imputing to God an eternal Reprobation of the greatest part of Mankind before they had done good or evil for those Sins which they blasphemously say he necessitates them to commit to shew his Justice and manifest his hatred to Sin is a despoiling him of his Divine Nature and ascribing unto him that which belongs only to the Devil Mar. That which the Gentiles receive is but common Grace and the improvement of any common Gift will not save any and should the Gospel be preached to them it would be of no saving use to them unless there be special Grace in the Soul Philet That 's true the Gospel may be preached a thousand times over and yet without the mighty Power of God none can receive it 't is not the Power of God to Salvation 't is but the external Offers of Grace or the external Dispensation of Grace by the Word Philad Here 's off and one sometimes Christ died for all that the Gospel might be preached to all and those that the Gospel is not sent to you look upon them Castaways and yet at last whether it be sent or not 't is all one there 's nothing in it but a dead Letter but pray tell me is not the Gospel called the Ministry of the Spirit Philet Yea in opposition to the Law Philad Well then I must tell you that there is such a power of the Spirit accompanying of it where it is faithfully preached as is sufficient for the conversion of Sinners or to leave them without excuse if they believe it not yea to judg them at the last day tho 't is true 't is but the instrumental Means to beget Souls to God for the original cause of our conversion is the Love of God the Father John 3. 16. Rom. 5. 6 8 10. 1 Pet. 3. 18. The Blood of Christ is the meritorious Cause the efficient or working Cause is the Power of God's Grace or Spirit the Ministerial Cause is the preaching of the Gospel Rom. 10. so tho God alone decrees it Christ alone meriteth it the Spirit sealeth it yet the Gospel revealeth it Faith apprehendeth it and so persons come to be justified and saved So tho God Christ and the Spirit are the efficient Cause of Righteousness and Salvation yet the instrumental Means of Salvation is not to be cast away Philet But there must be special Grace in the Soul before God calls any by the Gospel or else they could not give consent to his Call No there must be a Principle of Grace infused into the Souls of Men or they could not consent To say the stony Heart dead Man old Nature gives consent is very incongruous the Tree must first be good before it can produce good Fruit there must be first a Sun then a Beam first a Fountain then a Stream Philad It seems by what you say a Man must be a spiritual Man before the Lord calls him and before he hears or receives the Word which is a mistake for there is no Man but is carnal before he receiveth the teaching of the Almighty and by receiving the teachingof the Lord becomes spiritual for Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Mr. Brown in his Scripture Redemption saith James 1. 18. Of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth 't is a Life-Creating Word John 6. 63. and therefore called the Word of Life Phil. 2. 16. because through and by the word Life is wrought in us John 5. 25. and Faith wrought in us Rom. 10. and is a glorious Instrument of God's saving Power Rom. 1. 16. and called the Grace of God Acts 13. 47. that comes to us by his Grace Heb. 12. 1. 1 Pet. 5. 12. and this way are we to expect Grace from him and where the Word of Life is preached there and then God seeks and sues to us to receive his Grace yea and through the Spirit bestows so much Grace upon all Men when the Word of Faith is preached as is sufficient to beget Faith in them and to carry on their saving Conversion gradually unto the end Mat. 11. 21. Titus 3. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 23. 2. 9. James 1. 18. 2 Cor. 3. 6. Heb. 4. 12. observe Acts 26. 18. Dr. Holmes upon the Golden Chain of Salvation page 158. upon the Question How shall I come by the gift
Men may be saved if they will which is so gross an Error that they must be very blind that cannot see it for if it was so Men might have Heaven for willing and none would go to Hell but it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth Mercy Rom. 9. 16. Philad That 's true if Men might have Heaven for wishing or willing few would be so fool-hardy as to go to Hell Who would but with Balaam die the Death of the Righteous Who would but have all Tears wiped away from their Eyes and live in Bliss and Glory if God would save Persons for their good Wishes and Desires and give them Heaven tho they never minded it all their days so as to please God they deserve to go to Hell that would not have Heaven upon this account that think Heaven not worth a Wish And as to your Scriptures the Apostle sheweth that the Jews had a Will to be saved and the reason why they fell short of Justification was not for want of willing or running but for not willing and running in a right way they sought it not by Faith but by the Works of the Law They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own Rom. 10. 3. so mist of Justification But surely this is not that Free-will you so much cry out of for where can you find such Free-willers that hold Heaven may be had for wishing for Philet But however you hold that you have naturally such a power and freedom of Will that when you would do good you can Philad 'T is a mistake we do not say we have it from Nature but from Grace for as we are in our depraved Nature we can neither do nor will ought that is acceptable and good but as in Grace we may for then to will is present with us yea and ever since the Promise was made that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head the Lord doth first or last enlighten every Man that cometh into the World vouchsasing such renewing of his Will and such a perpetual co-assistance to perform what shall be accepted if persons do not wilfully maliciously and finally resist his Grace so that none of our Sins can justly be charged upon any deficiency in him Our blessed Saviour tells them the Word was near them and in them and that he was the Light that enlightens every Man Yet if by Free-will you mean a single Power in the Creature to convert it self I know none this day in England that hold such an Opinion however I utterly renounce such an Opinion as vile it being to ascribe too much to humane Nature It must needs be a pernicious Principle for any to believe that a Man by the sole power of regulating of his own Will and Reason can obtain Eternal Salvation this would make the suffering of Christ altogether fruitless and I believe also that none hath any will or power of himself without God to do any thing that 's good or to attain to a supernatural End but by the Assistance of Divine Grace and therefore there is an absolute necessity of seeking and imploring the saving supernatural aid and help of the Spirit of that God from whom all our Abilities are derived to us And as to what you say we hold that when we would do good we can I say that through the Grace of God we may avoid many more Sins than we daily do avoid and do more good than we do tell me are any of us laid under a necessity of sinning cannot we forbear many Sins which we daily run into and do we really do what God by his Grace hath impowred us to do in our Duty to God and Man and in avoiding Sin If you say we can do no otherwise then is all your preaching vain yea ridiculous for if an irresistible Cause overpower us that we can do no otherwise no Man that is truly master of his own Reason will ever spend his time and strength to exhort any to repent of doing that which they could not but do or omitting of that which was never in their power to effect If you say that by the Grace of God we may do the one or the other you own Free-will as much as I. For this is the Free-will if we may call it so that I hold viz. That God Almighty hath of his Free Love and Grace imparted a measure of himself or endowed Mankind with those Abilities to perform whatsoever he requires of them and injoins them to God never gives a Command but he gives a Power or else their Disobedience shall not be their Condemnation if this be a vile Opinion then I confess I am vile for if God requires us to believe and yet administers not sufficient Grace and Strength to believe all our endeavours are vain and fruitless Men cannot make Brick till Srraw be given them for the Lord to prescribe Dutys to us and annex Penaltys upon the non-performance of them as to punish with Eternal Death all those that are disobedient to his Will and yet to deny his Grace and Assistance without which it is impossible to keep them this is to represent the Lord as I once said before too much like cruel Pharaoh that made the Lives of his People bitter to them by laying heavy Burdens in requiring the tale of Brick and yet denying Straw the fit Materials or as the evil Servant in the Parable stiled him a hard Master reaping where he hath not sowed Philet I tell you we are altogether passive in the Work of Conversion we are like Saws or Axes that cannot move any otherwise than the Hand guides or forces them Philad Your comparing Persons to Saws and Axes being altogether passive in comparison is a thing I do not understand for we are not Saws or Axes without Sense or Reason but by God's free Gift and his free Grace we have received Liberty and Ability to accept of his Love and to accept of his Mercy when tendred to us and to perform those things which God requires of us in order to our Salvation yea through the Lord 's assisting Grace which is never wanting to any but those that are wanting to themselves we have received such a Power as to inable us to perform the Will of God when the choice of Good and Evil is set before us Deut. 30. 19. Mar. No more than the Stones in the street Philad Why then Man can have no more Sin nor Righteousness in him than a Stone if Man in the Work of Conversion be like a Stock or Stone merely passive doing nothing then in Conversion Persons neither hear nor repent nor turn from Sin to the Lord nor believe in Christ and how any are truly regenerated without those I know not and if these are to be done in Conversion pray who is active in this Work if the Party regenerated be not And if by God's Free Grace Man
before wholly to be ascribed to the Grace of God in Christ as the principal and primary Cause Now as to Faith and Repentance being the Gift of God this is a truth God is said to give Faith and Repentance yea to intend the Salvation of all Men when he vouchsafeth a sufficiency of means Now Faith is taken many ways sometimes and very frequently 't is taken for the Gospel Acts 6. 7. Gal. 1. 23. So it is the Gift of God and he is said to give Faith and Repentance when he gives the Gospel which is the Word of Faith and so Faith is the Gift of God and when any Soul is by the goodness of God led to repentance God is said to give Repentance Also God gives the power or ability to repent and believe or else Man could do neither yet doth not God's Grace destroy our Duty tho God gives not only Grace necessary but also sufficient for yielding Faith and Obedience yet the Act or Duty of believing is not God's Work but Man's Heb. 11. Rom. 10. 17. James 3. 2. And the Person that is regenerate must be so far active in the Work that the Work it self may be as truly and properly ascribed unto Man and called his as it is ascribed to God and called his Gift now this you must believe unless you have so far forsaken your Reason as to say that Christ acts the Creature 's Actions and so Jesus Christ repents and Jesus Christ believes and Man doth nothing But surely we stand bound to believe repent and obey the Lord if we expect Salvation these are our own acts and 't is impossible they should be the acts of Christ for he that is said to act any action is said to do it Now if when we are exhorted to do these Duties Christ should do them for us while we sit still what sense must we make of Scripture must Jesus Christ break off his Sins by Repentance and amend his evil ways and doings or must Christ believe in Christ or walk in the steps of Christ And from hence it will infallibly follow that Persons shall be damned because God did not only make them Believers by an irresistible Power but also act their Work too Saith Paul Rom. 8. If ye through the Spirit not the Spirit without you nor ye without the Spirit intimating that Man must be an Agent in the Work it must be his own act and therefore he is not wholly passive neither have we ground to believe God will work these in such a way as shall be impossible to be frustrated Philet But if God works Conversion in a resistible way still Free-Grace loseth the triumph and Free will takes the Crown but when God works he works irresistibly Men cannot resist his Will if he works none can hinder it Philad I believe that God hath and still works and none can be able to hinder such are the Works of Creation and Redemption c. When Man was fallen none could hinder the Lord from setting his Love upon him nor hinder him from shewing Mercy to him in sending his only Son to die for them nor hinder the planting of his Will and Light in their Hearts convincing them of Sin Nor could the Jews of old or any in our days hinder or prevent God from rising early and sending his Prophets and Ministers to call Persons to Repentance nor hinder him from administring Grace and Mercy to them nor is it in the power of Man to frustrate God in raising up Persons from the dead in the Resurrection and setting the Godly with Christ in Glory and all the Rejecters of his Grace and Love in endless Misery Neither do I deny but God hath and may still if he please convert some by an irresistible Power we must not care to limit the Holy One of Israel in any of his ways yet it is not God's usual way of working to force Persons against their Wills to be Holy and to accept of Life but he is pressing by his Holy Spirit and by his Word and Ministers which is the ordinary way that the Lord takes to beget Faith c. and therefore Gospel-Ministers are said 2 Cor. 6. 1. to be workers together with God that is Ministers do co-operate with God in order to one and the same effect not that Ministers in their pressing and preaching should so work with God as to be able to do as much as God himself doth in perswading Men but rather they work after one and the same way Ministers in their preaching incline and move the Heart of Men to accept of Christ and this he doth perswadingly without forcing or necessitating their Wills to such or such Election this is God's usual way of working in the dispensation of his Divine Will Philet But I tell you 't is effected by the irresistible act of free Grace Persons are altogether passive in the work of Conversion yea have no more power to stir than Lazarus had when he had lain four days in the Grave Persons are dead in Sins and Trespasses and what less than the almighty Power of God can cause them to live a spiritual Life I do not know You ought not to believe there is any annext Power in the act of Conversion doth not the Apostle Ephes 1. 19 20. speak of the exceeding greatness of the Lord's Power wrought in them that believe according to his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Philad As for your urging Christ and Lazarus being both dead to prove Persons as unable to act in Conversion it is impertinent for tho the Lord in raising up Christ did the work wholly of himself by his mighty Power neither was Lazarus able to act any thing in the Grave towards restoring his Life yet in the Work of conversion the Lord comes to a Creature which he hath by free Grace furnished with Abilities to do what he requires of him And Lazarus after he heard the Voice of the Lord and received Life was active and came forth and so when Persons hear the Voice of the Lord and are thereby raised from a death in Sin or a deadly custom of Sinning to live soberly justly and godly this is said to be a raising from the Dead and a new Creation begotten again and by Faith and Repentance making new Creatures tho the Lord bestoweth Grace sufficient for the yielding to the Voice of the Lord when he calleth them by the Gospel yet through the alone proper fault of Man it becomes unfruitful for the Lord doth not usually come to Persons in such a mighty Whirlwind as 1 Kings 19. 11. to force their consent and carry them headlong to their duty and irresistibly compel them to embrace eternal Happiness and shew such a Miracle of his mighty Power as he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead or upon Lazarus when he had lain four days dead in the Grave Now it is true the Power by
those that walk after their detestable things may bring ruin upon themselves Philet John 10. 29. there you have the Omnipotent God ingaging himself to preserve the Saints or sheep of Christ from either total or final Apostacy Philad John 10. 27 28. My Sheep hear my Voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish c. Now I believe that those that are the Sheep of Christ which hearing his Voice follow him perseveringly to the end he will give unto them Eternal Life there 's no danger of perishing so long as they remain the Sheep of Christ Philet This cavil is cut off in the next Words neither shall any pluck them out of my hands therefore neither Sin the Devil the World nor Flesh can by any Temptation draw the Sheep of Christ from their Faith Philad How who told you so I give them Eterual Life neither shall may be able to pluck them out of Christ's hands when once they are landed upon the Celestial Canaan they may then say Now Sin Satan and wicked World do your worst But if you would have it respect the Saints as to this Life yet here is not the least shew of the great power of God ingaged for the compelling or necessitating of them to continue such to the end of their days and that they cannot cease from following him or any promise made to those that for the present hear his Voice and follow him yet if they shall quit the Faith and draw back from him they shall never perish how sinful and wicked soever they be Neither is it to be conceived as if Sin Wickedness Looseness and Profaneness could not unsaint Persons or pluck them from under the Lord's protection or separate them from the Love of God but that Sin will separate between Men and their God is evident from Isa 49. 2. But this rather shews That those that continue following of Christ shall be safe under the protection and safeguard of the Lord so as no Creature whatsoever shall be able to separate them from God Martha As God the Father looks for nothing from Man to partake of Christ so it is not Sin nor Evil that can debar any true Believer from a part in Christ It is a desperate thing in any so much as to serve a Writ of Damnation upon a Believer for in doing so they injure the Lord Jesus overthrowing the fulness of his Grace Philad That God hath made an assurance to any of injoying his Love and Favour but upon condition of their Love and Loyalty to him I suppose the Scripture is wholly silent nay such assurance is not honourable for God to make nor meet for a Creature to expect or desire for who can imagine that an infinitely wise and righteous God should ever ingage himself to any People to be their God unless they be also willing to be his People to love and live to him or what ingenuous Soul that truly loves God doth desire to be pardoned and protected and delivered from eternal Misery and injoy all the Blessings of his Child and yet pay nothing of that love and reverence that is due to him for such Mercys And whereas you speak as if it were not Sin and Evil that can make him that was once a Believer less beloved of God the Lord having once loved him he cannot cease to love him this I have answered before But such Expressions as these cannot be short of Blasphemy to put such a Saying as this in the Mouth of the Lord Tho thou addest Drunkenness to Thirst tho thou committest Whoredom Adultery Incest Murder and every ways cast my Commandments behind thy back yet shalt thou be precious in my Eyes and my heart shall be towards thee in the greatest Love and dearest Affection for ever And tho this may seem harsh yet your opinion leads directly to such horrid conceits of God For if Christ be not given Covenant-wise but the Promise of Life is made absolutely without any condition or proviso at all of Persons Love and Loyalty to him then it follows that the obstinate and resolved Sinners the loosest and most debauched Persons may as well lay claim to the Promise of Eternal Life as the most faithful and virtuous in the World and if you say 't is not Absolute it follows that it is Conditional for the wit of Man cannot shew a Medium between these two Philet We do not say that no Believers can fall into Sin fall they may fearfully but not totally and finally Philad Who ever said that the Elect such that believe and persevere to the end ever fell away finally I know none that say any such thing the Question is Whether the Grace of God may not be so resisted Isa 5. 4. Acts 7. 51. Mat. 23. 37. as to cause the Lord to take away his Holy Spirit from them and to suffer them to fall into a state of Perdition I would know why our Saviour hath told us that from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have if it be not for this reason because he hath lavished out his Talent and hath rejected the Power of doing well which was offered him surely there is no better arguing than that Man can resist the Grace of God because he doth and 't is a wonder that such as you are are not confuted by your own experience that Grace is resistible unless you will deny your self to be of the number of the Elect. Surely David had Grace to have done better than he did in the matter of Vriah but he resisted it and lay in his Sin a long time which shews that the precious Vessels of Election may fall away from Grace whether we take it for a gracious Life or for the Love and Favour of God for had he been taken away in his Sin without Repentance he might have perished Philet Ay but David being an elected Person tho he did fall into Sin God almighty decreed that David should repent and return neither could he die until he had repented Philad By these words you seem to hold that had David died before he had repented he had perished which he could not have done if he had not fallen from Grace Mar. The Apostle John 1 John 3. 9. saith Whosoever is born of God cannot commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God he that cannot sin cannot fall either totally or finally Philad What cannot sin at all what then saith the same Apostle That if we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves Chap. 1. 8. And so James 3. 2. In many things we offend all we Apostles that are born of God which are regenerate and have the Seed of God abiding in us as much as any yet in many things all of us offend Mar. I do not say commit no act of sin but they sin not as wicked Men
hath not the least power of his Will but is merely passive in all why then should the Lord so passionately complain of Mens obstinacy and why did Christ wonder at the unbelief of many Mark 6. 6. Here was not the least cause for Christ to marvel at the unbelief of any when it never was in their power to believe unless Christ should wonder that Man should act and do more than he had power to do or more than all the Creatures in Heaven or Earth could enable him to do Nay if Men be wholly as passive as Stones and can neither repent nor believe by means of those Abilities vouchsafed to them by the Lord then can no reward nor punishment be justly awarded to any Man for believing or not believing for if Faith and Repentance be wrought in Man only by the Omnipotent and Irresistible Power of God without Man then cannot that Obedience be a free Obedience and in vain is it required of Man when it is to be wrought by such a Force as cannot be resisted neither can any Man be rewarded as one truly and really obedient And in this case we may safely affirm that the Lord rewards himself and not the Man who is truly passive doing nothing or if any thing 't is purely effected by the Force of another for what things are produced in us by God's irresistible Omnipotency without us cannot of right come under the name of Obedience and therefore cannot justly be rewarded or judged worthy of any commendation Remonstrants Confession pag. 148. Also Eternal Punishment is unjustly and cruelly inflicted on him that doth not repent and believe when he had no power to do either but the want of it was through the alone defect of irresistible Grace and should the Lord punish Men for not repenting and believing he should punish them for not attempting to make themselves equal in Power with himself and then pray to what purpose are all the inviting Promises of Life and Glory and all the Dangers that Souls expose themselves to expressed in the Scripture and pressed so much by your Preachers if we through Grace have not power to obtain the one or escape the other Very well saith S. Jerom as quoted by Dr. Goodman in his Parable of the Prodigal Son p. 100. God bound not Man under the rigid Bonds of Necessity whereby he should be forcibly over-ruled and determined to one thing but put him 〈◊〉 a capacity of making his own choice to the end that being thereby distinguished from Beasts and more like his Maker he might be capable of Virtue and Reward and that as nothing should make him miserable without his own act and consent so he might have the comfort and delight of co-operating freely towards his own Good and Felicity Philet If God works Conversion not in an insuperable or irresistible way then he works it in a dependent way putting Man's Will in an Aequilibrium or even Ballance That this is not God's way appears because he works Conversion in such a way as is most depressive of the Creature and exaltive of himself But now by what you say Grace only sets the Will in an Aequilibrium and that 's all and Free-will must do the business this is a robbing God of his Glory and ascribing to our selves more than belongs to us Philad It 's rather an honouring of him by laying all the blame of our Misdoings upon our selves and acknowledging his free Grace in giving us not only time but abilities and means to know the Lord and to cleave to him and to work with God when he is pleased to be moving upon our Hearts Wills and Consciences by his Divine Grace that so we might be curbed and restrained from being carried headlong into destruction by the sway of our unruly Lusts Yea that which I affirm is as depressive of the Creature and as exaltive of God's Glory as what you hold nay more as I shall make appear by and by Where have I said that we are able to do any thing that 's good to repent believe or obey the Lord and serve him acceptably by our own natural strength without the effectual assistance of Divine Grace I say this is not possible now for Man in his lapsed state tho it be generally held that Man had at the first a perfect liberty to stand or fall in an equal possibility of sinning or not sinning If this were so then his condition was in Aequilibrio and it was in the Creatures choice to turn the Scales but long he did not stand in this equal State for being tempted to aspire above his place at the very first onset at the first temptation he lost his Innocency and fell into a depraved State and so his Will became infirm relation to its acting for Virtue and Goodness But now God having pity on fallen Man in his infinite Goodness and Wisdom found out a way to restore him to a more noble and excellent State than Adam injoyed which was by the promised Seed and what perfection the Will had in the state of perfect Nature is restored by the Spirit of Grace So that a good and real Christian may be said to injoy as free a Will by Grace since the Fall as Adam had by Nature before the Fall John 8. 36. If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed Philet 'T is Christ's work to act Faith and God is said to give Faith and Repentance which are called his Gift Philad I acknowledg that we are all of us from first to last indebted to Divine Grace for all we do all good and pious Actions are begun carried on and perfected by the Lord 't is God that gives Power and Ability 't is he that enables People to repent and believe yea makes Persons willing actually to repent yea and supports them in the act of repenting and believing and so the whole of all Good in us is of free Love and not of Nature The Lord is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith If I be better â—…n any Man it is God that makes me â—…er and therefore he that will glory let him glory in the Lord saying with the Psalmist Psal 115. 1. Not unto us not unto us but unto thy Name be the praise and therefore we stand bound to make that humble acknowledgment as Paul did 1 Cor. 15. 10. that by the Grace of God I am what I am c. What good we do 't is not by our own natural Abilities or the power of natural Reason but by the powerful influence of Divine Grace James 1. 17. John 15. 5. 1 Pet. 5. 10. And we may all say as Holy David did 1 Chron. 29. 11 to 17. So that you may see that I am none of those that hold that we are converted by the power of our own Free-will Neither have we any saving Faith of our selves Mat. 11. 17. 13. 11. 16. 17. 7. 7. John 3. 5. But it is as I said