of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counsellour To which I answer first that had I not been acquainted with the blindness of these men that love to be called of men Rabbi or Master I should have been taken up with admiration that one boasting so much of schollarship should make a parcel of Arguments directly against the truth and yet should appear no better the one with the other In this first Argument in answer to this Position he giveth out as if the will of God were solely and singly the cause of reprobation and that no other cause can be assigned for it either of sin unbelief or rejecting the means but the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy and righteous will as in the preamble to his Argument and in the minor proposition of the Argument it self he saith the Scripture assignes Reprobation solely to Gods will and yet in this third Argument he strongly calleth in question the truth of all this in giving out as if the true and undoubted cause cannot be assigned or as if that which solely singly was the cause of Reprobation were not the true and undoubted cause of it what a piece of confused stuff is this let them that have understanding judge Answ Truly I do not malice but rather pity this simple sophister who doth Nodum in scripo querere peeps about for contradictions in my Arguments whereas if a man be not blinded through prejudice he shall find a most harmonious concord Sir I willingly pass by your scandalous Ironies of blindness Rabbi Master boasting of scholarship as unworthy of a return but I now tell you t is very true that in my first Argument and so indeed al along I do ascribe non-election or Reprobation solely and singly to the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy and righteous will But I pray Sir make it to appear how in this third Argument I do trip up the heels of my former Argument calling into question the truth of all this as though the true and undoubted cause could not be assigned or that the will of God were not solely and singly the cause of Reprobation Curious Sir learn this from me that he that doth exclude all outward causes as to Reprobation which are transient and in time are acted in and by the creature doth not thereby exclude all inward causes which are immanent immutable and eternal resting in the bosome and breast of God himself which we call his will and good pleasure now the first we deny this later we affirm to be the alone cause of Reprobation That which makes the decree of non-election or Reprobation to be mysterious and unsearchable is not because there is no cause of it at all for I have affirmed the will of God to be the inward and eternal cause thereof but this is that for which the Apostle calls it mysterious because that no external cause can be assigned but that the further that men out of curiosity or rather desperate boldness have attempted to find out an external cause the more they have entangled themselves and the more have they intrencht upon the holy majesty of God And therefo e where in all the holy Scripture the Spirit of God hath not a tongue to speak of any such external cause or causes of eternal reprobation there must not Gods people have an ear to hear but in defect of an external cause to ascribe all to the internal viz. the good will and pleasure of God himself 2 Thes 1.7 1 Cor. 13.12 Phil. 3.15 who hath no otherwise been pleased in his revealed word to give any other account unto us of such his actings besides his own will But when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed and that we do behold him face to face this which now is unto us a mystery and unsearchable by reason of humane frailty God shall then reveal even this unto us and in the mean time let us lay our hands upon our mouthes Rom. 11.33 and with admiration say O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out And now my good friend let those that have understanding judge whether this of mine be a piece of confused stuff or that it rather be not simplicity in grain in you to suppose a contradiction in that which doth most strongly confirm what is most destructive to your Position but such crude stuff as you have here vented is as ordinary with you as your meat and drink But you proceed further 3. Again why doth he say If sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are the onely causes why God reprobates any what need he put in that expression onely since the position doth not say expresly that it is any cause at all but that God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation c. and these he reprobated and if that sort or kind of people that continue in sin and unbelief and reject the means of salvation be not those that God doth reprobate then let him shew us by plain Scripture-proof who or what sort of people they be that so they may be known But the truth of it is that he can find no expression in the position that he can except against and therefore he putteth expressions into his Arguments which be of his own making and them he quarrels at and shews what great absurdities follow when there is no such thing in the position But I have followed him a litle in owning his expressions as far as they will stand with the truth viz. that rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief are in some measure the cause of Reprobation and through the good hand of my God upon me have proved it by Scripture And notwithstanding this man hath so strongly opposed it in his two first Arguments in answer to this position yet one would think by what he saith in this third Argument that he were a little inclinable to be of my mind or otherwise why doth he use those words the onely cause if he do not in some measure grant these things to be a cause of Reprobation Answ Sir if the word onely disgust your palate let it be expunged and yet the Argument will hold well enough without it and when so I will never stand quarrelling upon the punctilio of a word And whereas you say that the position doth not say expresly that sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are causes of Reprobation I yield you for surely every one of your positions are as so many gins and snares and that generation of men that are of your judgement ordinarily your positions are so intricate and involved so full of Amphibologies equivocations and mental reservations that you onely stand at the catch
to say such a thing was not exprest in the position those who are acquainted not onely with the Anabaptists but likewise with the Arminians and Socinians of both which you have a tange know so much You say it is not expresly which doth admit that it is comprehended in it implicitly which is as much as I look for if it may be deduced thence Howsoever the best of it is that I have reum confitentem that rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief are in some measure the cause of Reprobation but where you have proved these to be the causes he that hath eyes to see let him see I am sure I cannot find it You conclude what you have to say against this Argument thus 3. To the Scripture which he quoteth out of Rom. 9.14 I have spoken to it already and to that in Rom. 11.33 34. it speaketh not at all to that particular business of Reprobation but of that great love and tender respect that God yet hath to Israel for their fathers sake as doth appear from ver 25. and so forward and of the great things which shall be done for them in the latter dayes when their deliverer shall come out of Sion and shall turn away ungodliness from Iacob which great work of God in respect of the manner of it is much mysterious inasmuch as there is so much of the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God that his judgements to us are unsearchable and his waies therein past finding out until the fulness of time shall come that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Isa 11.9 the Lord shal set again his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shiner and from Hamath and from the Islands of the sea c. ver 11. to the end But here I must break off from saying any more of these things at present for my leisure will not serve and it is likely this man will call this Millenarianism as he calleth the other Pelagianism Answ T is very right Sir you have spoken to that place of Rom. 9.14 but at so pitiful a rate and to so little purpose that the Reader will find it would have stood more with your credit if you had holden your peace And for that place of Rom. 11.33 34. howsoever it mentioneth not Reprobation yet it is a solemn conclusion of the things before delivered in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapter For the Apostle having spoken of many difficult points as Election Reprobation rejection of the Jews calling of the Gentiles recalling of the Jews and having answered many questions prevented many cavils satisfied many doubts he now sets a period to this discourse with a sad exclamation O the depth c. whereby he signifies that he was driven into a wonderful admiration of the wisdom and knowledge of God in the administration of his love to the elect and displeasure to the Reprobate As a man wading into a deep river that is not fordable when he comes up to the neck and feels the water begins to heave him up and his feet to fail him cries out O the depth c. and goes back so the Apostle having waded so far as he could by the leading of the Spirit in those unfordable mysteries and being almost swallowed up with admiration at Gods administrations unable to pass any further into that bottomless gulf he silenceth himself because the Spirit ceaseth to give him further discoveries and resolves to enter upon no more questions but to admire the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God whose mind i. e. his will and pleasure is no waies to be known of us but by the effects and consequents And I pray learned Sir did I alledge this place to any other purpose then that whereas you and other bold baiards will desperately undertake to assign reasons and external causes for those immanent actings of God we do with fear and reverence ascribe all to the good will and pleasure of God because by that and no way else hath he discovered himself in his word We do plainly see by the effect of it that it was his will so to be else had it not been and therefore we say it was appointed and ordained to be so by his good will and pleasure as for other reasons or causes we see and know none and surely Sir you limit this too narrowly straitning it to the recalling of the Jews which would the scope and purpose of the Apostle beare it yet would it serve sufficiently for my purpose neither should I make any scruple thereby of your turning Millenary for to that and a hundred more of other unstable doctrines are such men of your temper inclined unto being constant onely in inconstancy persisting in nothing but change But whereas you seem to put Millenarianism into the scales as to poise against Pelagianism Sir herein thâ—s far I shall discover my judgement upon them both that a man may be a Millenary I mean in so much as the reign of Christ upon the earth for a thousand years and yet with a charitable interpretation hold all the Articles of the Christian faith and so be eternally saved I know many learned good and gracious men have been of that judgement but for Pelagianism their doctrine is so gross in the whole lump yea so destructive to and inconsistent with the fundamentals of Christian Religion that to be a Pelagian in all their known profest tenets and to live and die so I do much doubt whether any one of them can be saved But what have I to do to judge another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Rom. 14.4 I have enough to do to attend my own calling but in the mean time to wait what great matters will flow from your wisdom in the rear of all I mean what you have to say to my fourth and last Argument which is as followeth Arg. 4. If the foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation then these absurdities will follow 1. That no child dying in infancy can possibly be Reprobated 2. Neither such Gentiles or Turks Indians and Savages that never head of Christ who never enjoyed the Gospel nor ever had the means tendred unto them for how can they believe in him of whom they never heard Rom. 10. and how can they reject that which was never tendred unto them as many nations in the world who are strangers from the life of God Ephes 2.12 3. If the foresight of sin should be the cause of Reprobation then the Elect should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation as the Reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams Transgression Rom.
9.21 22 23. Ioh. 15.19 Ephes 2.1 23. Children of wrath as well as others Rom. 3.10 and ver 20. None righteous no not one 4. Then Paul was mistaken Rom. 9.11 in not assigning sin to be the cause of Reprobation 5. The same Apostle then answered very unsoundly to those objections Rom. 9.13 19. The first is If God Reprobated Esau because he hated him he was unjust The second ver 9. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will for he might in one word have answered to both objections and said that sin was the cause of reprobating both Esau and Pharaoh but he saith the contrary ver 11. When they had done neither good no evil Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated 6. Thereby we confine Gods infinite soveraignty over the creatures to the narrow scantling of our subordinate power as though he might not do with his own what he list without our controll and not make a vessel either to honour or dishonour unless he were accountable to us for a reason of his so doing Answ 1. I cannot but take notice of his evil dealing in the making of his Arguments that he should make no less then ten Arguments against two Positions and not one in all the ten that answers to either of them now as I have said before I must be constrained to say yet once more that the Position doth not say that foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejection of the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation but the Position saith God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation to wit free tenders of Christ in the Gospel continuing in sin and unbelief c. which word continuing is forgotten and not mentioned in all the Arguments but I must not abate him that expression Continuing lest I should be guilty of letting the truth suffer through my negligence for if he had put in that expression into his Argument and framed his Argument accordingly to have answered the Position as it lyeth there could not one absurdity have followed but yet I shall examine your absurdities particularly to see whether they follow from the Position or any thing that we hold or whether they will all prove to be absurdities yea or no. Answ There are a sort of beggers that give them what you will to yield to their craving natures yet they are never satisfied Some of our children are of such pettish and peevish dispositions that answer what you will to their wanton fancies yet they are never contented Sir take it not amiss that I must rate you with one of these two though I have given you ten to two the least of which might have been satisfactory to a rational man yet nothing will convince you but that you are stil grumbling that my answers and Arguments hit not your positions because I bring not every several word of your Positions into my Arguments severally therefore you say they are not framed against what you do hold Sir before this I did not conceive that the rules of arguing limited men to such punctilioes of words but if that any thing might be necessarily deduced from the Positions besides the bare letters and words of the Position it might have been a warrantable way of argumentation let the word continuing be put into any or every of the Arguments and you will get nothing by it nor will it abate any of those absurdities I have already marked out to flow from your doctrine If the subtilty of any of your party have drawn out and stated your Positions so as to lye at the catch for a starting-hole when you feel your selves pincht by an Argument it will prove but a jadish trick to shift your necks out of the collar by saying such expressions are not in the position or this contains not all that is in the position Howsoever it is these your concessions and owned by you as they are stated by me will convince you that though your position be God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation c. and those he reprobates c. yet your reserved meaning is that the foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejection of the means of salvation be the cause of Reprobation and indeed what can be less collected thence God saw some men rejecting of the means of salvation those he reprobates and why did he reprobate those that did reject the means rather then those that did embrace the means of salvation but onely for this because they did reject the means so that the rejecting of the means according to you must be the cause of their Reprobation and hence it is that p. 33. of your Pamphlet you set down these words in a great and distinct character because they receive not the love of the truth and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions But I will quarrel no more about words but see how you will shake off those absurdities laid at the door of your position But hereby the way let it be taken notice of that you have not swept the door of your former position clean from those absurdities which cleave fast unto it but you have skipt them all over because in deed they were too hot for your fingers onely you make an adventure to have a fling at the sixth absurdity flowing from that former position by comparing it with the first that flowes from this concerning which thus you write Absurdities answered And I shall compare the first absurdity as he calleth it with that sixth or last absurdity which he putteth to his sixth Argument in answer to the second position viz. God saw some men embracing the means of salvation those he elected in Christ c. and there he giveth out as if such an absurdity must needs follow that no children dying in infancy could be saved saying what then would become of children dying in infancy before they had the use of faith or works or any embracing of the means which never had being to act and to this he saith that such an absurdity as this must needs follow that no child dying in infancy can possibly be reprobated Now whether two such different things can follow these two positions I shall leave to the judgement of others that have understanding Answ Sir if any Lyncean eyes can spy out the least inconsistency or contradiction between those two absurdities laid to your charge to say they clash one against another according to your principles ce do quemvis arbitrum I appeal to any that hath understanding to judge And yet you have not so much confidence as to make out this your supposed enterfering you onely speak to the absurdities apart thus To the first of these he seemeth to make their election to eternal life very doubtful if at all possible and the ground or reason is because that children dying in infancy have not the use of faith or works Answ T is true Sir I do so according to
though the ill digesting and composing of them will not deserve a Schollars eye much less answer yet because if it be possible that the Authour may not further befool himself or further delude his over credulous proselytes and lead captive 2 Tim. 3.6 silly women laden with sin I will draw a line of confutation over his more remarkable Errors and willingly pass by his smaller faults of incongruous or improper expressions First I do consent that the most holy and high God from all not in Eternity by one sole and single act did see all whatsoever he purposed to do or permitted to be done by any of the creatures he intended to create for else he could not be Omniscient Omnipresent Infinite and Eternal But whereas it is said That God saw some men embracing the means of salvation and those he elected in Christ from the foundation of the world to everlasting life this is so far from soundness that it is flat Pelagianism an old Heresie exploded forth of the Church for many ages since by which it must be concluded that the eternal decree of Gods unchangeable election must be dependent on the intervention of mans liberty of willing and working but no proof from Scripture brought to evidence it nor appearance of any colour of reason Whereas the Scripture when it speaks of election makes it to be altogether independent on the creature or from ought at all wrought by or in the creature but wholly resting for the ground thereof in the bosome and holy will of God himself and therefore it is called Ephes 1.5 the good pleasure of his will and Ephes 1.11 the purpose and counsel of his will Nay so absolute and irrelative is this decree of election from any thing out of God besides his good pleasure as to be any motive or incentive for which God elects as a meritorius or a procuring ground or cause of it that even Christ himself is excluded as for whose merit man should be elected and therefore we are said to be elected in Christ not for Christ But because Socratical discourses are not so convincing I shall produce some irrefragable Arguments to which if the adverse party shall give any the least colour of answer to satisfaction then I shall say as they believe that learning is good for nothing but to puffe men up and gull the world but till that be done which I am certain will never be I shall bless the God of my salvation who Ephes 4.8 11. hath given such gifts unto men 1. Arg. If the rise of our election be grounded in the free grace of God then it is not upon Gods foresight of mans embracing of the means of salvation but it is founded on the meer mercy and free grace of God therefore not upon the foresight of the embracing of the means The first proposition or major is unquestionable for that there is but one cause to produce the effect The second proposition or minor viz. that our election is founded on the meer mercy and free grace of God see for proof hereof Deut. 7.7 8. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself the Lord did not set his love upon or choose you because you were more in number c. but because the Lord loved you where the single love of God is pitcht upon as the cause of their election exclusively from any other outward causes See further Deut. 10.15 Matth. 20.15.21 Luk. 12.22 Rom. 9.11 18 21. Ephes 1.5 11. 2 Tim. 1.9 2. Arg. If the Patriarch Iacob was elected meerly out of grace without any respect had to any of his faith works or use of means then all others are likewise so elected for there is the one alike motive for the election of all as of one But Iacob was elected meerly out of the good will of God without any respect to faith works or the use of means at least for the moving of God to elect him Therefore all others are so likewise elected The minor proposition is confirmed out of Rom. 9.11 for the children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said the elder shall serve the younger 3. Arg. If the decree of election be absolute without any respect had to faith works or means Then God did not elect upon a foresight of the embracing of the means but the decree of election is absolute c. Therefore See for proof Rom. 9.11 Rom. 11.5 6 7. Ephes 1.4 5 11. Matth. 20.16 and 22.14 4. Arg. If faith and works be the fruits and effects of election then they are no wayes causes of it for which God should elect but they are fruits and effects Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained unto life believed Ephes 2.4 7 8 9 13. 5. Arg. If our foreseen faith works or embracing of the means were the cause of our election they should be likewise the cause of our vocation and justification but the later is false therefore the first The major is proved by that undeniable axiome Quicquid est causa causae est causa etiam causati That which is the cause of a cause is also a cause of the thing caused i. e. of the effect The minor is proved 2 Tim. 1.9 and Ephes 2.8 Rom. 3.24 justified freely by his grace 6. Arg. If our election were dependent on mans embracing of the means then these absurdities would follow 1. Then the will of God should be moved and determined by an external cause i. e. the first cause should be ordered and guided by the second and thereby the first is made the second cause and e contra which is against the rules of all Philosophy and Divinity 2. God hereby is supposed to be capable of passion i.e. when thus moved but God is altogether immutable and impassible 3. Then there should be somewhat in the creature out of God before greater and better then God because that every cause is before and better then the effect 4. If there might be imagined to be any thing in the creature which might move God to the decreeing or appointing of this or that then it would follow that the actings or issues of things have not a dependence upon the decree of God contrary to Iam. 3.37 5. Then man might have just cause of boasting in himself 6. What then would become of children dying in infancy before they had the use of faith or works or any embracing of the means and which never were to have a being to act therefore they were never to be foreseen For the third Position That God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief those he reprobated to everlasting destruction But this hath the like unsoundness in it as the former of election there being no other ground or reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelief or rejecting of the means
embracing of the means then these absurdities would follow then 1. The will of God should be moved and determined by an external cause i. e. the first cause should be ordered and guided by the second and thereby be made the second cause e contra which is against the rules of all Philosophy and Divinity 2. God hereby is supposed to be capable of passion i. e. when thus moved but God is altogether immutable and impassible 3. Then there should be somewhat in the creature out of God before greater and better then God because that every cause is before and better then the effect 4. If there might be imagined to be any thing in the creature which might move God to the decreeing or appointing of this 〈◊〉 that then it would follow that the actings and issues of things hâ—â— not a dependence on the decree of God contrary to Iam. 3 3â— 5. Then man might have just cause of boasting in himself 6. What then would become of children dying in infancy bâ—fore they had the use of faith or works or any embracing of thâ— means and which never were to have a being to act thereforâ— they were never to be foreseen To which you frame this answeâ— If our election were so much dependent on mans embracing 〈◊〉 the means as that there might be imagined to be any thing in thâ— creature which might move God to the decreeing or appointinâ— of men and women to eternal life then I deny not many absurdities would follow and this Argument may do something where it hits but as it happeneth it hits not us for we hold no such thing neither is there any thing asserted in this Position as that our election is dependent on mans embracing the means 〈◊〉 as that God should be thereby moved to elect Answ This is no more nor other then what was said against the former Argument onely the baby is swadled in other clouts Nor is that ere a jot the better which follows But any rational man that shall read these Arguments with a single eye and with an honest and upright heart and with a single mind compare them with the Position they are brought to answer cannot certainly but judge that either the man did not well mind what was in the Position or else had forgotten what was in it when he writ his Arguments or otherwise it must be his folly for all the expressions he seemeth to quarrel at be of his own making for not one of the expressions be found in the Position as that anything wrought in or by the creature is any motive or incentive for which God elects as a meritorious or procuring ground or cause of it but the whole substance of it is that God saw some men embracing the means of Salvation and those he elected in Christ c. Answ Whereto I say that I did seriously weigh the fraud of your Position before ever I put pen to paper and was now again very considerate of what I had undertaken and though in terminis motives and incentives causes are not therein exprest yet in that you say that God saw some men embracing the means those he elected it is necessarily implyed that those must be singular and numerical persons who must be elected for or because of their embracing of the means for why God did chuse those that he did foresee would embrace the means rather then those rhat he did foresee would reject the means and whether in this is not embracing of the means according to you a cause of election I leave it to any unbyassed man to Judge Besides I do demand whether in this your supposed foresight that you ascribe to God did he foresee that which he himself would work in them viz. this embracing of the means or did he onely foresee that which they themselves that were so foreseen would woâ—k by their own power viz. that they would of themselves embrace the means If you ascribe it to God then I demand why he works that power in one rather then another 1 Cor. 4.7 wherein at last you must ascend to the good pleasure of his will But if you ascribe this power to man himself then man hath made himself to differ and hath that in himself which he hath not received and hath cause whereof to boast But upon this account besides the absurdities before mentioned the whole doctrin of predestination would be quite overturned for 1. So it might come to pass that notwithstanding any decree with you yet possible it were that no one might be saved viz. if no one would embrace the means which was in their own power to resist 2 So might there be an election unto life and yet no one elected to life 3 Those onely should be the persons designed to salvation who were objectively and antecedently believers and embracers of the means before their election not considered as such who by vertue of their election should consequentively and effectively be made to be believers thereupon the effects of election to be taken for antecedent conditions necessarily prerequired in the object 4 So should the whole fabrick of divine predestination be dependent on the free will of man which is abhorrent to all religion 5 So there would not be such a considerable difference between Iacob and Esau those to be saved and those to be damned as to a meer performance of the condition under which men are to be saved and damned 6 Upon this account predestination and election of men is to be adjourned even to the moment of death it being suspended not onely on the embracing of the means but continuance therein I could burden you with many more absurdities and evil consequences flowing from your opinion but these are enough for you to beare That of yours which follows is a chip of the same block But if he do or shall at anytime say in plaine words that which he seemeth to intimate in his Arguments that we hold that our faith works or embracing of the means is a motive incentive or procuring ground or cause for which God elects or that there is any such thing held forth in this position that God elects men in Christ for these things then let him receive the words of Solomon for an answer in Prov. 10.18 he that hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth slander is a fool Answ Prov. 24.7 Sir I shall onely return upon you in Solomons language that wisdom is to high for a fool these absurdities and many more do unavoydably follow upon the position though your eies be so blinded that you cannot see it Prov. 26.3 and therefore a whip for a horse a bridle for the asse and a rod for the fools back that when he is told of it yet will not see his own error Answ For that which follows for we know and are sure that the Lord hath set apart or chosen to himself Psal 4.3 a godly man which godly
Ioh. 10.26 Ioh. 12.39 40. Rom. 9.18 33. Rom. 11.7 8. 1 Pet. 2.8 Whereunto you say To which I answer first by distingushing upon his Major proposition and to enquire into his meaning therein now if he mean by Reprobation the decree of God before time distinct from Reprobation in time or Rom. 1.28 Gods giving them over to a reprobate mind which is the execution of the decree then I deny that sin and unbelief is the effect of it for God is so far from decreeing and appointing men to commit sin or that sin is an effect that cometh to pass by his decree and appointment that he doth not so much as tempt any man to sin as we may see Iam. 1.13 yea the Apostle Iames is so far from laying sin upon Gods decree as if that should be the cause that should produce such an effect as sin and unbelief that he saith v. 14. that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed and then v. 15. he saith when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death By which we may see that the Apostle doth not make Gods decree the cause of sin but that indeed which is the cause which bringeth it forth is even lust Quem recitas meus est Sed male dum recitas incipit esse tuus Answ Here were matter for you to work upon indeed if I would own the Argument as it is by you thus mistated and truly I do not well know how this error crept in as you have thus translated my second Argument whether you lookt upon it with a squint eye or a wry neck and so had a mind to pervert both the words and sense of it but I am sure in mine own written paper which one alone and no more I ever had which is now in my custody where as your pamphlet hath it That which is the effect and consequent of Reprobation is and so should be That which is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation which one word of effect for efflux doth much vary the case and overthrows at least silenceth a great part if not all what you have said against it for I utterly disown the word effect I know sin followes negative Reprobation or non-election not as an effect the cause but as the consequent flowing from and following its antecedent and therefore I protest against the word as spurious and illegitimate and no brood of my brain But yet if cause may be lookt upon in the latitude it is many times used and taken for I see not but that in a large sense Reprobation may be said to be a cause of sin viz. causa sine qua non for had there not been such a negative reprobation or non-election as the mother sin at least actual sin had never been born nor brought into the world as the daughter Had God elected all at least had not God decreed to permit the sin of Adam and of his posterity he had not permitted it at all for whatsoever he purposed to do or permitted to be done in time the same he did decree before all time so to do or to permit to be done and if he had not permitted sin at all and so decreed to permit it sin would never have been but it must have been hindred But I insist not upon this but apply my self to that member of your distinction of Reprobation viz. that which is before all time Wherein for so much as is contended for by you in this paragraph if I may gratifie you in it I will sâ—bscribe unto it abating me but this that whereas you say lust is the cause of sin I say the devil combining with the corruption of mans nature which is originally and totally depraved and hath little of other proper and innate quality but to sin and so I come to the other member of your distinction which is worded thus Secondly if by Reprobation he meaneth the act or execution of Gods decree in time which is Gods giving up of people to their own hearts lust and to a Reprobate mind as aforesaid then also we find that Gods act in the first place is not the cause of mans sin but mans disobedience in the first place is the cause why God doth execute the same as his just and righteous judgement upon them for their continuance in sin c. as it is expressed in this Position as appeareth Psal 81.11 12. Rom. 1.22 23 24 25 26 27 28. and yet I do not deny but sin and unbelief may be the effect and consequence of Reprobation in this sense as mens delaying and not coming in while the door is open is the cause of the door being shut against them and the door being shut against them is the cause of their abiding still without Wherefore strive to enter in at the straite gate before the good man of the house be risen up and hath shut to the door Luke 13.24 25. While it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 Answ I wonder why you should think I meant it of Reprobation in time which is not in the decree about which our controversie is but onely the execution of the decree though this be your practise yet I use no such extravagancies as to run from the question which is onely about Reprobation before all time and therefore this requiring no other answer I proceed to that where you hit the nail on the head for thus you write But I do partly believe that his meaning by reprobation in his argument is that which is generally held amongst them That Gods will and decree before any thing was brought forth in order or before man had any being is the onely and alone cause of Reprobation and so consequently of sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation and that no other fruits at any time can be brought forth by them notwithstanding all that they can do but that these things must unavoydably follow they being bound up thereunto by the decree of God and that which doth make me inclinable to believe that his meaning is so is because I find his Arguments tend much to the maintaining of such a thing Answ All this I stedfastly believe saving an ill-favoured expression that is interwoven viz. That being bound up thereunto by the decree of God which in my subsequent discourse shall be clearly refused But as though that in thus affirming I had maintained some formidable doctrine abhorrent to the Churches of the Saints he seems to bless himself from it thus But as I tender the honour and glory of God in the exaltation of his Psal 145.8 9. tender mercies over all his works and the purity of that truth and sincerity that is in himself together with his faithfulness in his upright and sincere dealings towards the sons of men and also when I think upon the excellency of
his wisdome I cannot but stand up in detestation of such a doctrine which striketh at the very being of these attributes in God Answ Alas Reverend Sir have I incurred crimen laesae majestatis that you seem so passionate or is it onely an affected garbe of one of your Hypocritical raptures No Sir I doubt not evidently to make it so appear that our doctrine dorh not in the least degree intrench upon any of the Divine attributes but that it gives to the most High God the honour due unto his name by exalting him infinitely beyond all the creation shewing their necessary dependance on him in all they have do or hope to enjoy Whereas your Doctrine whatsoever offers and fair pretences it makes yet t is no better then Iaels bottle of milk to Sisera Judg. 4.19 when ready to perish with thirst she administers withal a nayle and with a hammer beats it into his temples for howsoever you make a fair flourish of vindicating the free grace of God yet the issue of all tends to this namely to usher in that mincing minion free-wil so to set her cheek by jowle by God himself neither are you contented with this alone but that in those grand determinations of mans salvation or damnation you plainly give the casting voyce to her so that the result of all must be as she will please to accept or refuse grace offered so that all the while you will make God as an Idle spectator till she hath been pleased to interpose her umpirage and yet all of which must be suspended untill the moment of death for according unto your principles which unto me is a paradox Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus What prejudices you muster up as in defiance and detestation of our Doctrine you do reduce unto three heads as striking at as you vainly imagine first the mercy secondly the truth thirdly the wisdome of God but all of these are built on one and the same false and rotten foundation and therfore the labour is not so great as to lay it all even with the ground and for the original of it to return it to hell where it was first forged I shall then in your own order wait upon you in your march and so examine what you have to say for your self and cause which begins thus First if God hath by an absolute decree brought forth such an effect as a continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means of salvation so as the greatest part of men must be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death for doing nothing but what they must do by the decree of God and cannot do otherwise then where is the tender mercy of our God which is over all his works Answ My good friend I must tell you that we utterly abjure that which you infer as a sequel of our doctrine and for answer unto yours say that this which his companions the other two seeming gravamens are all alike grounded on a false hypothesis wherein you discover a gross mistake conceiving that non-election or negative Reprobation draws along with it an invincible necessity of committing of sin or that it doth determine mans will to sin either by compulsion or necessity for which such so reprobated are afterwards condemned but no such inferences can be drawn from our opinions We say the negative will of God is no cause at all of mans sin or misery but his own positive will is the cause both of his wickedness and of his wretchedness He is the true and principal cause of any effect or event who imployeth his faculties and endeavours to bring it into being and not he who onely resolveth not to hinder such evill effects though he foresee they will come into being if he prevent them not The infallible prevision of God seeth from all eternity the actions of men and their ends and yet this maketh not the modus agendi to be necessary or compulsory but leaveth the agent most free as if he had never foreseen it so that the absolute decree of not giving faith final perseverance and eternal life unto the non-elect which he is no waies bound to do howsoever it deny them that grace which would effectually and infallibly make them bring forth fruits meet for repentance Mat. 3.8 yet it depriveth them not of their own natural freedome and liberty neither doth it necessitate compel or constrain them unto any their unbelief or committing or continuing in sin T is he and he alone or chiefly may well be said to be invincibly drawn into sin and plunged into and cast into the like of fire who fights against sin with all his strength and striveth to avoid damnation And yet by the overmastring power of another is thrust into the one and hurld into the other which the consciences of the most wicked in the world can tell them that there is no such forcing power in non-election or reprobation Yea the non-elect Angels which are now Devils in hell cannot upon their non-election charge God that either their transgression or damnation was invincibly inforced upon them they indeavouring to escape it Take a view of any of the men of the world whom you much conceive may be ranked among the number of such castawaies and therein see whether the decree of reprobation had any such influence upon their outward wiâ—ked actions that they might say for excuse they were necessitated thereunto The decree of reprobation did not compel or necessitate Cain to the murtherous act of the killing of his brother neither was there any obligation upon Absalom incestuously to defile his fathers Concubines Neither did it unavoydably inforce Iudas to the selling and betraying of his Master all these sinful actions and all the like committed by other the like reprobates proceed meerly out of their own election having a power whereby they might have abstained from the committing of them And therefore my kind neighbour to help you one of this mire that you sink not into grosser absurdities as it is too incident to those of your Tribe who open every casement to entertain all your new lights though many of them prove but ignes fatui It will be expedient to take notice of a threefold necessity which may have a dependency upon a subject person and by means whereof a man may be said that he must do so and that he cannot do otherwise There is a necessity of immutability a necessity of infallibility and a necessity of coaction or compulsion I shall explain the terms I call that a necessity of immutability which doth befal all such things as are appointed by the eternal and immutable decree of God for God cannot change his counsel but it must of necessity come to pass Psal 33.11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Secondly necessity of
upright but he hath sought out many inventions Eccles 7.29 Answ Grave Seignior to what you say that I deduce from the Scripture that God doth elect men in Jesus Christ to eternal life without any respect had to faith or the use of means I pray point out the place where either I or any man else have vented such stuffe if you cannot blame me not to charge you for bearing of false witness against your neighbour yet this both my self and others constantly do affirm that in the decree of election God hath no respect at all to faith or use of means as a motive incentive or cause why he should elect one rather then another but yet in that decree those whom he sets his love upon to appoint them to salvation those he doth decree that they shall be saved by faith in his Son and by exercising of such means as he hath or will appoint in his word To what you do insert by way of concession although they do exclude the works of the law wholly in that thing Sir this is your mistake as I have told you of it before For I would have you to learn this from me if your pride be not too great that where works of the law are excluded and faith required that is onely meant in the business of Justification and not to be meant about the matter of election for in the cause of election both faith and use of means are as much excluded from having any casting voice at all as well as the works of the law yet this to be understood excluded as antecedently to election but not as consequently excluded as from being a means cause or motive of the decree but yet excluded as from being of a consequent means for the execution of the decree for as so works are as necessary to salvation as faith it self for Heb. 12.14 without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Nor is there any more truth in that which follows that we should collect from that portion of Scripture that the Reprobation of persons to everlasting destruction proceeds solely and singly from the will of God but this is that we do affirm that God did not elect some but past by them and left them in their lost condition and this was simply and singly from the same will whereby he elected the rest and that for the sin whereinto they had irrecoverably cast themselves which would unavoydably fetter them and make them obnoxious to all other sort of sins for those same sins I say at the last to condeme them and who can in this expostulate against the justice of God For Ismael Esau Pharaoh whom the Spirit of God makes instances of non-election or reprobation they were by the decree of God which is his will or good pleasure left in or past by in that corrupt mass of perdition out of which the Lord determined not to deliver them nor to supply them with grace sufficient for their salvation and this was from all eternity before they were in existence concerning which our dispute is which as yet you do not meddle withal but onely about reprobation in time concerning which I have no cause to contend but shall readily acknowledge that when these men came to be in being they in their several generations were led away by their own lusts which as they did flow from that principle of their non-election so one sin in Gods justice might be the cause of another sin You make your progress thus But it is found in Scripture that Gods way in making vessels of dishonour is in respect of what he doth by men in time when they come to have a being and so it appeareth from that similitude of the potter Ier. 18.3 4. Then went I down to the potters house and behold he wrought a work on the wheels and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it and we do find that God doth not apply the parable or similitude to any work that he did in the first creation or before man had a being but he doth apply it to his dealing with men in time when they have a being for saith the Lord by the Prophet ver 5 6. O house of Israel note the house of Israel was a people then in being and yet were not at that time made vessels of dishonour or given over of God to their own destruction but God pleadeth from that similitude that he had power and also wo ld do it if they did walk stubbornly against him which accordingly came to pass for saith the Lord by the Prophet ver 11. Behold I frame evil against you and devise a device against you return ye now every one from his evil way and make your wayes and your doings good and they say there is no hope but we will walk after our own devices c. ver 12. and more for the clearing of this you may find if you read chap. 19. and especially mind the 15. ver the words are these Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel Behold I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it because they hardened their necks that they might not hear my words Answ My friend why this of the Apostle Rom. 9. must necessarily be relative to any other place but immediately from that inspiration of the Holy Ghost I am assured you can bring no cogent reason for it T is true the margin of the Bible gives a hint of some such parallel places of the like import but it doth nor thence follow that the interpretation of the one must be concluded to be the sense of the other But if any man in this list to be contentions to make it relative then surely it must rather be to that in Isa 45.9 as I could evidently make it to appear if it were necessary and then all what this Gentleman hath said to that of Ier. 18.3 4. must needs fall to the ground where I have nothing to say either to him or it the strength of my Argument being nothing at all concerned in it What is in this paragraph spoken as to vessels of dishonour I shal by and by meet with that in the Analysing of this 9. to the Rom. and in the mean time proceed to attend to what you farther say And this is that which is pleaded for in Rom. 9. that God hath power and also it is his will to harden the hearts and blind the eyes or darken the understandings of those that will not obey the truth in their day of grace when light is held forth unto them as it came to pass upon the Jews as the just and righteous judgement of God upon them Luk. 19.44 Because they knew not the time of their visitation Rom. 9.32 Because they sought it not by saith and Rom. 11.20 Because of
run out as leaking vessels and 2 Tim. 2.21 purge themselves from error sin and uncleanness shall be vessels unto honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work And we do find in the Scripture that all those actings of God in a way of mercy in order to the everlasting good of his creature come from him with abundance of willingness freeness and delight for he is a God that delighteth in mercy Mich. 7.18 Answ Sir you onely speak here of Gods not consining himself to any subordinate power but you prosecute not the point as it is laid to your charge We with the Sctiptures do affirm Gods absolute purpose or the good pleasure of his most holy will is the alone cause of non-election or Reprobation and not the rejecting of the means to wit the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel and the continuing in sin and unbelief are not the causes as you assert pretending that if these be not assigned causes then God would be unjust or unmerciful to the creature hereupon we say that if God may not do with his creature what seems best to him in his own eyes without rendring a reason of his actings but that his attributes must be called into question this is to limit and confine the infinite soveraignty that God hath over all the creation and to suffer worms and dust to controll majesty But to this Sir hitherto you have said nothing To what you say of that place 2 Tim. 2.21 that it is the good will and pleasure of our God whosoever they be that delight to embrace the means of salvation and purge themselves from error sin and uncleaneness shall be vessels unto honour is very true and good in that sense it was intended by the Spirit of God but neither true nor good in that sense it is by you applied and made use of For first of all you suppose that it is in their own power to purge themselves from error sin and uncleanness whereas this is Gods peculiar work to purge us from our sins and purely to purge away our dross and to wash us with clean water and to turn us to himself and then we shall be sure to be turned all our strength to performe such a taske is else altogether insufficient Your second couchant error here is that you conceive this purging of themselves will hereby make them vessels of honour but I say this their purging was no cause at all of their being vessels of honour but it was onely a means of the discovery of it wherein they might have comfort and consolation Before even from all eternity by that decree of election they were out of that lump of perdition made vessels unto honour or vessels of mercy which God had afore prepared unto glory but when the times of refreshing come Rom. 9.21.23 Gal. 1.16 Heb. 9.14 and that the Lord is pleased to reveal his son in them and that such his secret decree comes to be put in execution in time by God his giving of faith and repentance and purging their consciences from dead dead works to serve the living God then they shall be vessels unto honour unto their own comfort and to the good example of others Such a manner of speech there is Ioh. 5.8 Herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples Now they were his Disciples before but the meaning is that by bearing of fruit they should approve themselves both to their own consciences and to the world besides that they were the Disciples of Christ Neither is that which follows altogether so sound where you write But on the other hand in respect of what he doth in the making forth of his justice in the punishment of his creature for sin and impenitency he doth it not until he is provoked thereunto even 2 Chron. 36.16 untill there is no remedy for the Lord is Psal 19.1 and 145.8 slow to anger and of great mercy and hath Ezek. 33.11 no pleasure in the death of the wicked And therefore although that the embracing of the means repenting and believing in Jesus Christ be no procuring ground or cause of any the least mercies we do enjoy yet the continuing in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation is a procuring of punishment see Ier. 2.17 Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way also ch 4.18 thy way and thy doings hath procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it reacheth unto thine heart Answ Sir though it be very true that the continuing in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation be the procuring cause of punishment in time but not the cause of the decree of negative reprobation before time Yet where you say that God doth not make forth his justice in punishing until he be provoked Sir I cannot allow you so much to take this universally For tell me if you can how those infants had provoked God in the general deluge Gen. 7. when they were swept away with the rest of the wicked world or those infants in the combustion of Sodom Gen. 19. how had they communicated in pride fulness of bread and idleness with the rest of the citizens or what confederacy was there in those infants in the rebellion of Corah Numb 16. that they descended likewise with their fathers into the pit or how had those women been a provocation whose wombes were shut in the case of Abimelech Gen. 20. 2 Sam. 24.17 or those sheep the people of Israel what had they done when they suffered that havock by the pestilence when seventy thousand men were destroyed No Sir in many cases there is no visible provocation besides the original depravation of corrupt nature which through the want of original righteousness doth justly deserve wrath and punishment In some it is not for any sin either in them or their Parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in them Joh. 9.3 But for other cases take the rest and make the most of them And now to fill up your pamphlet and for want of better stuffe you obtrude upon us a leathern tale of your own observation and this it is And I can yet remember when I have been a hearer of these men which have taken unto themselves the title of Clergy as if they onely were the heritage of the Lord and none besides them speak much to this purpose that God was abundantly more prone to shew mercy than to execute wrath and have earnestly prest their hearers to the use of means calling upon them to be careful to come to Church as they call it and to heare sermons saying thou dost not know when Gods time is therefore give attendance to the means If thou art careless in coming and wilt come but now and then thou mayest be
but the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy and righteous Will who will do with his creature what he will do neither can any expostulate why hast thou done thus Esa 45.9 It is true that sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but yet not the causes of their reprobation that is solely and singly in the good pleasure of his Will Ephes 1.5 which I prove by these Arguments 1. Arg. That which the holy Ghost in the Scripture ascribes unto the sole will and good pleasure of God that we are not to assign other causes to But the Scripture assigns reprobation solely to Gods will Therefore For proof of the minor proposition see these texts Rom. 7.18 whom he will he hardeneth ver 20 21. Nay but O man who art thou that replyest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour ver 22. What if God willing to shew his wrath and make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted or made up for destruction Matth. 11.26 Even so O Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Matth. 10.15 Is it not lawful to do what I will with mine own ver 16. Many called few chosen Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil Rom. 9.11 12 13. for the children being not yet born ver 17. for this same purpose have I raised thee 2. Arg. That which is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation cannot be the cause of it But sin unbelief and rejecting the means is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation Therefore The major is as clear as the sun The minor proposition is proved from these texts Math. 11.25 26. I thank thee father c. for so it seemed good in thy sight He hid those things not outwardly but inwardly Ioh. 6.36 37. Christ to the Capernaites I said unto you that ye also have seen me believed not all that the father giveth me shall come to me signifying that they are not given to him of the father and therefore reprobated Ioh. 8.46 47. Christ to the Pharisees If I say the truth why do ye not believe me he that is of God heareth Gods word ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God i.e. ye are reprobates Ioh. 10.26 Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep i. e. not of the number of my elect Ioh. 12.39 40. Of the whole company of the Jews Therefore they could not believe because Esaias said he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts viz. God according to his decree Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardens and ver 33. Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence Rom. 11.7 8. the election hath obtained it the rest are hardened for God hath given them the spirit of slumber c. 1 Pet. 2.8 which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed 3. Arg. If sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means of salvation are the onely causes why God reprobates any then there is no such mystery in the decree of reprobation neither are Gods waies herein so unsearchable and past finding out but that the true and undoubted cause may be assigned But yet they are mysterious and unsearchable See Rom. 9.14 What shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Rom. 1.33 34. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellour 4. Arg. If the foresight of sin and unbelief and rejecting the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation then these absurdities will unavoidably follow 1. That no child dying in infancy can possibly be reprobated 2. Neither such Gentiles or Turks Indians or Salvages that never heard of Christ who never enjoyed the Gospel nor ever had the means tendred to them for how can they believe in him on whom they have not heard Rom. 10. and how can they reject that which was never tendred unto them as many nations in the world who are strangers from the life of God Ephe. 1.12 3. If the foresight of sin should be the cause of Reprobation then the elect should be equally lyable to the decree of reprobation as the Reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams transgression Rom. 9.21 22 23 24. Iohn 15.19 20. If ye were of the world c. Ephes 2.1 2 3. children of wrath as well as others Rom. 3.10 and there is none righteous no not one 4. Then Paul was mistaken Rom. 9.11 in not assigning sin to be the cause of Reprobation 5. The same Apostle then answered very unsoundly to those objections Rom. 9.13 14. The first is if God reprobated Esau because he hated him then he was unjust The second ver 19. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will For he might in one word have answered to both the objections and said that sin was the cause of reprobating both of Esau and Pharaoh but he saith the contrary ver 11. When they had done neither good nor evil Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated Mal. 1.2 6. Hereby we confine Gods infinite soveraignty over his creatures to the narrow scantling of our subordinate power as though he might not do with his own what he lists without our controll and not make a vessel either of honour or of dishonour unless he were accountable to us for the reason of his so doing For the fourth and fifth Positions These may pass with a grain of Salt bating some impropriety in the expressions and I am not so at leisure to teach such men to express themselves after a Theological manner either in their teaching or writing For the sixth Thesis I must ingenuously confess it is such a Mystery or Paradox and so involved with seeming contradictions that I want an Oedipus to unriddle the meaning of it I have been a little acquainted with the opinions of the Pelagians Semipelagians Papists Arminians Socinians and Anabaptists and amongst them all can observe none of them jumping in with this mans judgement for thus he writes All men are sometimes convinced of sin and the state of nature What his meaning is by the state of nature I cannot divine If his sense be that every man is at one time or other convinced that by nature he is a child of wrath and disobedience and dead in trespasses and sins and so t is false for most men have not such convictions Next And are made alive by the works of the spirit by this all men should be
not put my self to the trouble to fight against your vain shadows and so exit your own Position Et valeat ut valere potest Your next advance is to the rescue of your second Position viz. Position 2. That God saw persons embracing the means of salvation and those he elected in Christ from the foundation of the world to everlasting life c. This is so far from soundness you say that it is flat Pelagianism an old heresie exploded out of the Church for many ages since by which you say that it must be concluded that the eternal decree of Gods unchangeable election must be dependent on the intervention of mans liberty of willing and working c. To which you frame this answer What it was that Pelagius the Monk held you may see in the Ecclesiastical Chronography of Eusebius Pamphilus pag. 595. also it makes no matter to me in these things it is possible he might hold a truth as well as Calvin But the Fathers of whom we have learned these things are those that have not erred in their doctrine which are those before mentioned to wit Jesus Christ himself the holy Prophets and Apostles but the Scripture when it speaketh of election makes it to be altogether independent on the creature so as that nothing acted or done by the creature is to be accounted of as a motive incentive meritorious or procuring ground or cause as this man doth endevour to cast upon me I freely grant to be a truth according to the Scriptures by him brought in Ephes 1.5 11. Answ Sir there was no need to have informed me but to evidence your reading where I might have an account of the abominable paradoxes of blasphemous Pelagius cried down by all antiquity as well as by all our modernâ— for his detracting from the free grace of God and exalting of the liberty of the will and placing it in Gods stead at least putting them cheek by jowl together For though by other several Chronographers the grosseness of his heresie be more copiously painted out yet in the tripartite History according to you cited there is to be found so much as to abominate even the name of the man by reason of his cursed opinion being there ranked out in the columne of Hereticks and therefore it seems a wonder to me that any one that is but a pretender to Religion should have so much impudence and be so Galliolized Act. 18.17 as not to care for these things But to put him into the scales with reverend Calvin Psal 112.6 whose good name shall be had in an everlasting remembrance and whose lustre will dazle all your new lights I know none besides your self would have had the face of brass to have done it For the latter part of this paraphrase in your confession of Gods independency on outward things and that he hath not from thence any motive or incentive c. for his election of any I heartily thank you especially if I could imagine that this did not proceed ex labiis dolosis but that it were done in reality and truth but when I find that this acknowledgement of yours doth so much interfere with your often dictates I shall onely judge of you as of that clown in the fable who blowes both hot and cold with one breath here you seem to ascribe all to the good pleasure of Gods will in the business of election but otherwhere as I shall hereafter manifest a mans free will according to you in working and believing must be joynt-parceners with God so that the vote shall be as was the Harlots which came before Solomon to determine of the dead child 1 King 4.26 nec mihi nec tibi sed dividatur let it be neither mine nor thine but divide it You go one with your discourse neither is there any thing in this Position tending to the exaltation of the creature to be any motive or incentive cause for which God elects as a meritorious or procuring ground or cause of it for to say God saw some men embracing the means of salvation or that the embracing the means of salvation is a meritorious or procuring ground or cause of our election any more then the words of the holy Spirit spoken by David Psal 4.3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself should be a meritorious cause of the godly mans being set apart or chosen to the Lord neither is there any more ground or cause to call the words of this Position flat Pelugianism or an old heresie then there is to call the words of David so Answ It was heretofore generally observed that when anyone came to consult the Delphian Oracle whether out of curiosity or necessity it matters not that the responses of the Flamens were so abstruse and equivocall that which way soever the success did fall yet they might have a starting hole to preserve the credit of their Oracle As for instance in one of their answers Ibis redibis nunquam per bella peribis the issue thereof being contrary to expectation they made another sense of the words onely by pointing of them thus Ibis peribis nunquam per bella peribis and truly howsoever all those Oracles ceased at the coming of Christ in the flesh yet methinks I see the same spirit of delusion now working in these children of darkness for look upon this man as to his Positions here so by others his complices the Arminians and Socinians when they find themselves pincht by any Argument that they can finde no subterf ge for evasion then they betake themselves to shifts of Amphibology and fall to denying of the proper sense and scope of their own tenets because perhaps not comprehended in express syllables and words of their Positions for this man with whom I have to deal though he wants not that face of brass to deny that there is nothing couched under the Position to exalt the creature as in whom there should be somewhat which God should look upon as a motive or procuring ground or cause for God to elect such so qualified Yet by the assistance of my God I shall clearly make it to appear in my defence of my first Argument that according to these men believing or faith and perseverance therein is such a condition prerequisite and so lookt upon by God in the Act of election as without which he elects not and for which he doth elect and so becomes a moving or procuring cause why he doth elect any one as is generally by them maintained For that Scripture alledged Psal 4.3 is nihil ad Rhombum being quite alien from the case depending we are now treating of the eternal and Immanent act of God in electing before all time and the place quoted is to be understood of Gods effectual vocation a transient act of God in time where he actually sets apart him i. e. him that is in existence and being him that is Godly i. e. such
his own will and accountable to none it is lawful for him to do what he will with his own c. Mat. 29.15 Rom. 11.35 As a just Judge and so he punisheth none but for sinne Rom. 1 32. 2 Thess 1.6 And thus having drawn you a fair copy of election and Predestination I am now at leisure to see what you will say to my first Argument which in forme is this If the rise of our election be sounded on the meer mercy and free grace of God then it is not upon Gods foresight of mans embracing the means of salvation But it is founded in the meer mercy and free grace of God therefore not upon the foresight of the embracing the means To which you frame this answer The first proposition or Major he saith is unquestionable and that is all the proof that we have from him for it saying there is but one cause to produce the effect The Minor he bringeth Scripture for the proof of it the truth of which I do not question the Scriptures are Deut. 7.7 8. and 10.15 Matth. 20.15 Luk. 12.32 Rom. 9.11 18 21. Eph. 1.5 11. 2 Tim. 1.9 The Minor it appears you give fair quarter to and let it pass upon its paroll T is the major you quarrel at as having nothing to second it but this saying that there is but one cause to produce the effect and truly Sir I believe that might have been unquestionable to any but you and your comrades who do nodum in scirpo quaerere I had thought it might have past for unquestionable divinity that God is so jealous a God that he will not communicate his glory to any other and that if any act of Grace pass singly and solely from himself that then no other creature could have been a copartner with him and that if of grace then not of works which is nothing else but the embracing of the means And to that foundation which was laid before all time other foundation can no man lay then that is laid especially in time And that as to the foreknowledge of God or his foresight God doth not foresee any thing which he hath not decreed either efficaciously to do or permit to be done So that his foreknowledge should rest upon the decree and at no hand to depend on the things to be done but that all things depend upon that and that God did see nothing in their causes which he did not before see in his decree these I thought had been unquestionable truths till Thomas Faswel calls them into question pretending that though grace may be of free and meer mercy yet there may be a concurrence of mans actings in the embracing of the means And whence doth all this arise but from an embasing of the Majesty of God by measuring his corn by your bushel Isa 55.8 9. making his waies like our waies and his thoughts like our thoughts No Sir I would have you go to school and learn the vast difference between humane and divine knowledge humane knowledge doth depend upon the existence of things and things are the measure thereof but for divine knowledge that is the measure of things and things depend upon that not that on them And certainly unless this be granted the foundation of divine providence must needs come to wrack God could not hold his prerogative royal of being the first cause of all things yea second causes would be made independent in many acts yea consequently in all for how the second cause could work or be appointed to work without the concourse of the first cause it looks like contradictio in objecto Or how else could God certainly foresee such things to come to pass which are supposed onely to be foreseen and not withal to be provided for and preordained For as the things are so is the knowledge of the things and that which hath not certain causes of futurition cannot certainly be foreknown for certainly to foreknow what is not certainly to come to pass is to have a knowledge of a thing not as what it is but as what it is not and what will then become of Gods foreknowledge But whereto tends the designe of the adversary surely that an in let may be made and beds of roses troden out to introduce that great Diana the liberty of the will to choose or refuse what shall be presented to it notwithstanding all prescience or decree and to make that a â—oynt-share with God nay if not to have the greatest predominan y in the whole work of mans salvation so placing nature in the stead and room of grace but let God bâ— true and all men lyars For mine own sake yea even for mine own sake will I do it and I will not give my glory unto another Isa 48.12 You double your alarm against my Major thus But notwithstanding he setteth such a strong guard upon his Major saying it is unquestionable yet I must needs question the the mans meaning in the sequel or consequence of it Then it is not upon Gods foresight of mans embracing the means of salvation Non veniunt e pharetris istae sagittae tuis Answ These notions were not darted out of a weavers shuttle Sir you are too well known then that any man can believe you that you can spit out Greek and speak in a dream of propositions Categorical Hypothetical antecedent consequent Major Minor sequel c. It was not the Serpent that spoke but the Devil in the Serpent Judg. 14.18 Doubtless you plough with another mans heifer Not that I atttribute any such excellency to the piece for as it will appear it is full gorged with abundance of falsities incongruities inconsistencies that no profest Scholler might own it and therefore what Davus soever it was that was your confederate he thought it best to lie coucht under the shadow of your wing and so make you his Bellerophon his packhorse to bear all his absurdities shame and scorn and so you must for I know none else that will proceed as you do Now if his meaning be that God doth not at all respect the embracing of the means of salvation then it is by me denyed for although mans believing and obeying the Gospel or embracing the means of salvation be not to be accounted of as a motive incentive or a procuring ground or cause for which God elects men and women to eternal life yet it hath been the good will and pleasure of our God through his loving kindness and freeness of his grace even when he was at liberty and might have left mankind in that lost and perishing condition that mans sinne had brought him into and have been just in so doing but I say it hath been his pleasure when he was at liberty to engage himself by purpose and decree to elect justifie and save all those men and women that did or should in time embrace the means of salvation which from before the foundation of the world he did intend
creatures who had willingly lost themselves and were irrecoverably miserable that so his name might be had in honour all the world over Eph. 1.6 to the praise of the glory of his Grace c. Rom. 9.23 and 11.35 36. 1 Pet. 2.9 But whereas you say God respecteth not persons t is falsely alledged as from those places and you deal in this as the accuser of the Brethren the Devil did with Christ in citing Psal 19.12 Mat. 4.6 He curtails the words and so do you for look on all those Texts by you mentioned and whereas you say he respects not persons the Scripture hath it he is not a respecter of persons or not an accepter of the face of any man for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie the face and t is the usual phrase of the Scripture to accept the face of any one i. e. to do any thing in the favour of another upon a consideration had of the external adjuncts of such which are obvious to the eyes and render him worthy or commendation See Lev. 19.15 Deut. 10.17 1 Sam. 25.35 2 Kings 3.14 Prov. 6.35 and 18.5 The sense of all which is that God takes no account or reckoning of a person in regard of any outward quality whereby he may be moved to do him good before another nor of the unworthiness of any person whereby he may be moved to punish him rather then another And I pray Sir tel me now sadly what you have gotten by you◠own quotations whether your own sword be not thrust into your own bowels and whether I have not beaten you with your own weapons And thus through your own provocation having gored your sides deeper by establishing of the strength of my second Argument I shall put to my hand through Christ that strengthens me to emancipate my third Argument from that captivity yo◠keep it under through the mist of darkness you eclipse it with by your slubbering exceptions My Argument is If the decree of election be absolute without any respect had to faith works or use of means then God did not elect upon the foresight of the embracing of the means But the decree of election is absolute c. Therefore See fo◠proof Rom. 9.11 Rom. 11.5 6 7. Eph. 1.4 to 11. Mat. 10.16 and 22.14 To which you answer that the decree of election is absolute without any respect had to the works of the Law for we shall ground upon Pauls conclusion Rom. 3.28 therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law for he that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly and continueth in that faith shall absolutely be saved and he that is absolutely justified and saved must needs be absolutely elected For that sort or kind of people that are called and accounted believers in his Son and endure to the end or remain faithful unto death shall absolutely be saved Math. 24.13 and have the crown of life Rev. 2.10 For as I have before shewed the promises flow from the decree of election which is absolute like God himself that cannot change and all that sort of people before spoken of are concerned in it and not one of them shall ever be excluded from it but it is not of persons simply considered as distinct from those qualifications before spoken of as hath been already sufficiently proved Answ Here again no man can be ascertaind either what you affirme or do deny for Diruit aedificat mutat quadrata rotundis that which you build with one hand you pul down quickly with another First you grant the decree of election to be absolute without respect had to works and for a reason of such your concession alledge Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude c. And I must tell you Sir we are not acquainted with such sorry waies of proving that which we assert we are upon a business of election and your proof is from matter of justification Sir remember how you are upon the publique stage and by this your Printing you have exposed your self to the censure of all the men in England that have either eyes to see or ears to hear and that you are not now at Cuckolds-pit dictating it there to your Coridons But if you think to mend the matter by saying such are absolutely justified and saved and therefore they are absolutely elected I say the consequence follows on the other hand they are absolutely elected and therefore they are or shall be absolutely justified and saved because that Justification and so salvation transient works of God in time flow from the absoluteness certainty and immutability of Gods immanent and eternal decree of election which was before all time as an effect following its cause as you seem your self to confess saying The promises flow from the decree of election which is absolute as God himself that cannot change and so much for your building up Now for your pulling down But it is not of persons simply considered as Persons distinct from those Qualifications Answ See now whether this doth not quite destroy what before you granted That thing is said to be absolute which is ab alio solutum pure Inconditional not depending on another but if you will have election to be conditional respective and relative to faith or believing and use of means then you utterly hurle down the absoluteness of Gods election it ceases further to be absolute then when it depends singly and solely on the good pleasure of his will which is his decree without respect had to any external motive and where you have proved any such qualifications as essentials to election read it he that can for no such thing is to be found in these your papers You sent up this bundle of exceptions after this manner neither do the Scriptures by him brought prove any such thing for although the Scriptures do exclude the works of the law wholly in that thing as hath been already granted yet they afford us not one word to prove that faith and the use of the means of salvation should be cast out with it for he may as well say That because Ismael was cast out of Abrahams house or family therefore Isaac must be cast out also as to say that because the works of the law or deeds of the law in the business of election justification and salvation of the sons of men is cast out therefore must faith the use of the means of salvation be cast our also Answ Let those Scriptures by me alledged be exactly scand and see whether that with works all other external motives be not alike cast out of doors from having the least stroke either as active or passive in the matter of election and that the disparity and discrimination which is made by electing of me rather then another doth not rest in any prevision or foresight of any condition or qualification to be found in the object either of faith or embracing of the means or of
any preparation or disposition thereunto but solely in the bosome of the God of heaven who according to the counsel of his own will from all eternity differenceth one person from another Iacob from Esau decreeing and destinating both unto glory as the end and likewise unto saving grace as the means conducing to that end For if besides the act of God thus specifying or distinguishing man should have any stroke as that through his own strength or acting at all Ephes 2.9 Hab. 1.16 1 Cor. 4.7 as to his own being decreed to salvation then a man had whereof to boast then might he sacrifice to his own net and burn incense to his own drag then man had made himself to differ and he had that which he never had received And if those former Scriptures by me alledged seem not to you of full weight Luk. 6.38 take these following to the bargain which doutbtless will make it good measure pressed down shaken together and running over First as to the exclusion of all creature-interests besides the alone will of God which is his decree of election Mat. 11.25 Luke 12.31 Secondly as to the confirming of this grant ad numerum numeratum as to a set definite and known number The Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 he knows whom he hath chosen Ioh. 13.18 he knows his sheep Ioh. 10.27 yea he knows them by name Ioh. 10.3 their names are written in heaven Luk. 10.20 yea in the spirits book Rev. 13.8 even in the book of life Phil. 4.3 Rev. 21.12 So that having discharged this Argument likewise from the burden you cast upon it by your crude exceptions I am now at liberty to come to the relief of My fourth Argument which is this If faith and works be the fruits and effects of election then they are no waies causes of it for which God should elect But they are fruits and effects Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained to life believed Eph. 2.4 7 8 9 16. To which you answer First See here what ado the man makes with works and causes as the position never mentioneth Answ Sir that I inserted works into any of my Arguments I have given the reason thereof in my defence of my second Argument to wit for the avoiding of vain Tautologies I must refer the Reader and as to causes to my first Argument and though it be true that totidem verbis causes are not exprest in the position yet by an unavoydable consequence they are implied and therefore if the man had holden fast the forme of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 1 Tim. 6.3 and consented to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness much of this contest would have been spared The holy Scriptures and this mans learned writings were not calculated for the same meridian they will not easily suite for one hemisphere where find you in all the holy writings such a style as this especially as to matter of election God saw some men embracing the means and those he elected I have not found the like in Scripture whatsoever this man hath done in his rarer observations but sure I believe he laid it purposely as a gin to catch woodcocks no Sir when you set forth any doctrinal truth by way of a position you ought to keep as close to a Scripture-phrase as possibly the subject matter will bear Secondly you answer by way of a demand what ground he hath to say that faith and works be the fruits and effects of election except it be this that because election goeth before and faith and works follow after and by that way of reasoning he may as well say that Abels death was the effect of Cains birth and that may be accounted the cause of it but yet Cains being born had not effected it if he had not afterwards rose up against him and slew him and so he came to his death it being effected by that means so likewise notwithstanding the Decree of election was before man had any being yet faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10.17 as a means appointed by God for the effecting of it that so men might fall under the decree of salvation that is appointed by God to be the portion of believers from before the foundation of the world Answ I shall return upon you in our Saviours language Luk. 19.22 Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee thou wicked servant But even now did you consent Promises did flow from the decree of election and yet though we had not reum confitentem we are not so barren and empty of solid grounds for what we say or do affirm Ephes 1.3 that all those spiritual blessings in heavenly places thâ—â— a believer from first to last is made partaker of they all flow unto us and are conferred on us as fruits and effects of election Rom. 11.7 election hath obtained it that Christ was given of the Father that he was incarnate crucified dead raised from death to life that he ascended up on high and that now he sits on Gods right hand and acteth now daily as an intercessor all these flow from election Gal. 4.4 1 Pet. 1.20 Luk. 24.26 Phil. 2.6 c. That any are effectually called according to purpose t is the effect of election Rom. 8.28 and ver 23.24 c. Justification is from election 8.30 c. Sanctification from election Rom. 6.22 Your fruit unto holiness Ephes 1.4 Chosen that we should be holy All which Graces and priviledges as they are fruits and effects of election so are they all of them in their several stations and relations causes of salvation and every antecedent grace is a cause of its consequent grace and the salvation of the elect which is their consummate Glorification is the common effect both of the first cause as of all the intermediate and secondary causes At last you bid defiance to this Argument by having a fling at that Classical text of Scripture Acts 13.48 retorting it upon me thus To his Greek that he writeth in the margin of his paper from Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained c. I do desire him to look once more into his Greek Testament and then let him as he will be willing to answer it before the Judge of the world the Lord Iesus at his appearing when he shall come in his glory and let him speak according to his conscience upon that account whether he cannot read the same words in the Greek from which the word ordained is translated to be the same with that in 1 Cor. 16.15 from which the word addicted is translated and also I shall appeal to the consciences of reasonable people whether it be not a suitable and an agreeable kinde of reading it being directly contrary to what the Jews did v. 45. they spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul contradicting and blaspheming and so
torments from both of which it follows that sin and unbelief is the cause of the adjudication to hell and eternal torments and that by the decree of God but is by no means the cause of the decree it self that singly proceeds from his good pleasure And as it is an undoubted truth that God as he never saves any adult person but such as are penitent and studious of good works so he hath not decreed to save any but such so qualified with repentance and good works whence we argue that repentance and good works are truly the causes of salvation 2 Thess 2.13 and that by the decree of God who hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth but it doth not thence follow that repentance and good works are causes of the decree for upon that account election should be dependent not onely upon faith foreseen as you would have it but likewise upon good works as antecedent to it which hitherto for ought I see you have not that impudence to affirme The like must be said of reprobation That as he never damns or decrees to torment and adult person but such as are impenitent unbelievers and rejecters of the means so he hath not decreed to damn any but such so qualified and whence the like Argument may likewise be taken up that impenitent unbelief and rejecting of the means are truly the causes of damnation Heb. 11.6 Heb. 12.14 and that by the decree of God who hath declared that without faith it is impossible to please him and that without holiness no man shall see the Lord But it doth not thence follow that impenitence unbelief and the rejecting of the means are the causes of the decree reprobates were not sinners at least in existence when the decree of non election or reprobation first pâ—â— upon them which was from all eternity as the elect were not penitents at the first instant of their election in the mean time God hath not decreed to adjudge any but sinners and unbelievers unto eternal torments as he hath not decreed to reward any with eternal life but penitents For what God doth or permitteth to be done in time the same and no otherwise hath God decreed to be done or permitted to be done before all time so that the prevision of sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means did no more antecede negative reprobation then the prevision of repentance and good works did antecede the decree of election So that I hope reasonable men will or may now judge that I have reconciled the enmity that your dim deluded sight had imagined and broken down that partition-wall which your Panick fears raised between these two positions and by the good hand of God have so reconciled your supposed difference between them that they go neer like Hippocrates twinnes hard â—n hand together though that the one ordine naturae not temporis have a priority before the other to which the last is subservient So that now I am at liberty to attend to what you will say to my first Argument which is this That which the holy Ghost in Scripture ascribes to the sole will and good pleasure of God that we are not to assigne to other causes But the Scripture assignes reprobation soley to Gods will Therefore To which you answer His Major proposition he bringeth nothing at all to prove for proof of his Minor he alledgeth these Texts Rom. 9.18 20 21 22. Mat. 11.25 Matth. 20.15 16. Rom. 9.11 12 13 17. Answ to which I answer The Scriptures which he quoteth and all that he can find in all the book of God cannot prove his argument for it is false in the Minor proposition therfore the Scripture cannot prove it for 1 Ioh. 2.21 no lye is of the truth although the Scripture doth speake of the will of God as a cause concerned in mans reprobation in having his eyes blinded and his heart hardned and the like yet the Scripture doth not assign it solely and singly to the will of God without assigning it to any other cause but on the contrary it doth assign the continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means of salvation as a cause thereof Answ I pray learned Sir what need I prove the Major that is unquestionable even to you i. e. would you have me beat the ayre and fight against mine own shadow No Sir t is the Minor that sticks in your sides so that you cannot breath out any one thing in a probable way of contradiction to any one of those texts by me alledged Yet with a face as full of impudence as ignorance you adventure to say but do not to which I answer c. This passage of this Doctor-like undertaker calls to my mind a Doctor of Oxford whom I well did know and to this day he is well remembred for it by some who in an University sermon of his falling upon a point of controversie wherein he found Bellarmine his adversary uttered words to this effect I will saith he confute him in two words mentiris Bellarmine and marke I pray whether this Gentleman tread not in the same steps he begs the question by saying it is false therfore the Scripture cannot prove it And what doth he do less than give the lye to the Spirit of truth when by his own confession the Scripture ascribes reprobation to the will of God which though afterwards he palliates by saying that it doth not assigne it solely to the will of God but that sin unbelief are concomitant causes yet he might have shewed some ingenuity in alledging of such places of Scripture which had done as he did say that so there might have been some appearance of an answer and not that Pythagoras-like his ipse dixit should be taken for currant coyne when as I am certaine it is but counterfeit but to give the lye and that to his betters as I am informed is as ordinary a dish with him as his dayly bread Well Sir but to attend your procedure which is thus But whereas he saith that sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but not the causes of Reprobation I do understand that the decree of God which was before time resteth for the ground thereof more peculiarly in the will of God without assigning other causes to it than reprobation it self which is the execution of the same purpose and decree of God in time â—â—en and where the continuance in sin and unbeleif and the rejecting of the means of salvation is found in men Answ Here like a Sorbon Doctor speaking ex cathedra you tender your simple sense of the decrees of God wherein your mistake is supposing that we confound the decrees of God with the execution of those decrees which is not ours which hath been your errour all along For this reprobation which I
infallibility is that whereby God doth certainly and infallibly foresee the futurition of all things for whereas the foreknowledge of God cannot be deceived as resting on an immutable decree therefore whatsoever he necessarily foreknoweth the same must necessarily come to pass Act. 15.18 known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Thirdly necessity of coaction or compulsion is that wherein any patient by violence is compelled by an external agent to do this or that which otherwise he is unwilling to do so Matth. 27.32 they compelled Simon to bear the cross of Christ so Luk. 14.23 at the great supper the guests are compelled to go in that the house might be filled so Acts 26.11 Paul compelled some to blaspheme These things thus premised I do hence infer that if the decree of God did produce such an effect as from a proper cause thereof as the continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation by way of coaction or compulsion so that though they would they could not do otherwise then well might you fall into that admiration Where is the tender mercy of our God! But the decree of God leaves not men under such necessity of continuance in sin c. as though it either compelled men or sollicited any unto sinning but those that sin sin as voluntarily and sin is acted as freely by them according to their own perverse wills and desires as though there were no such decree or foresight of God at all And yet it is very true that sins do come to pass according to the decree of God by a necessity first of immutability in as much as they are permitted determined directed and limited by the eternal decree of God which is as himself immutable Secondly by a necessity of infallibility in as much as the foreknowledge of God concerning such future things cannot be deceived But they do by no means come to pass by any decree of God necessarily inforcing infusing perswading or soliciting to sin But Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum all of your complexion are not equally capacitated to digest such notions and therefore Qui potest capere capiat he that is able to receive it let him receive it If these speculations be too sublime for your thick noddle blame not me for it And for that portion of Scripture by you cited it hath come under consideration already and hath received a full answer pag. 17. to which I must refer the Reader onely I shall adde this That non-election or negative Reprobation doth not contract the mercy of God into such strait terms but that every man in the world hath some share in it though not an equal share And if Gods mercy and love may be understood secundum effectum and not secundum affectum I would have you find out any creature in the world which hath conferred so many and so great effects of mercy and love upon his young ones as God did upon Cain Iudas or any other Reprobate and then I le give you leave to say that our Doctrine of Reprobation is destructive to the tender mercies of God No Sir the decree of Reprobation as it relates to the permission of sin in those non-elected argues no want at all of mercy in God though it import a denegation of some mercies even the top and height and bowels of his tender mercies which God had he been so pleased might have bestowed on them but Ratinabiliter negatur quod nulla ratione debetur and with this I shall relax my shoulders from the burden of this gravamen and so proceed to the next which is but the second part to the same tune For thus you write Secondly If God hath brought forth such an effect as a continuance in sin and unbelief c. by his decree before man had any being so as that the greatest part of men must be eternally damned for doing but what they must do and cannot neither ever could do otherwise Then where is the truth of God who hath said Ezek. 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that he should turn from his waies and live Now if this man should undertake to resolve this question and be true to his own principles he must say there can be no other reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelief and the rejecting of the means but meerly the good will and pleasure of God But God himself whose word I shall believe before this mans arguments hath said Ezek. 18.32 I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth And if this be not sufficient yet lest men should distrust him he confirmeth it in Ezek. 33.11 say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye why will ye dye Oh house of Israel Answ Let there be a transposition of the words mercy for truth in these two gravamens and then see whether the subject matter be not the very same I must therefore desire the Reader to receive satisfaction unto this from that before written which howsoever calculated for the meridian of mercy yet may generally serve as an Antidote against all his Gravamens There remains therefore little else to be done as to this onely to examine his texts of Scripture wherein he insists much upon such expressions that the Lord hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth or in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live c. Now the mind of the Prophet in this place is to stir up such as had declined from God to returne unto him by true repentance and because their iniquities were so many and their offences so great that justly they might have despaired of remission mercy and grace therefore doth the Prophet for the better assuring of those that should repent affirm that God delighteth not in nor willeth the death of the wicked but of what wicked doth the Prophet speak this Doubtless of such wicked that truly should repent and in the death of such wicked God doth not nor never will delight But he delighteth to be known a God that sheweth mercy grace and favour to such as unfeignedly call for and desire the same how grievous soever their former offences have been But such as continue obstinate in their impiety have no part nor portion in these precious promises for them will God destroy and them will he thrust by the power of his word into that fire that never shall be quenched Secondly suppose I say that the death spoken of here is to be extended no further then a temporal death and I am sure it is more then you are ever able to prove that properly and directly it can be applied to eternal death and what will that avail you then as to matter of damnation Thirdly t is true
his end though that be not done which he requireth of us What you write of the means that they were of such a nature and tendency had they not been abused to bring forth those good things that God said he looked for c. I grant it true in respect of the outward means viz. soyle fruitful place fenced stones gathered choycest vine planted tower built and a wine-press in it But all these were but outward graces common to all the Israelites alike for there was that unum necessarium wanting viz. the inward working of his holy spirit in their hearts by changing of their natures and making of them new creatures taking away their stony hearts and instead thereof giving of them hearts of flesh Ezek. 11.19 and 26.26 without which all the other outward means though elevated to the top of Pisgah will prove altogether ineffectual Your progress holds yet further after this manner But that it doth sometimes seem good in the sight of God to hide the things concerning the kingdome of God and the name of Jesus from the wise and prudent men of this world according to the Scripture by him quoted out of Matth. 11.25 26. I freely grant as he did hide these things from the men of Corazin Bethsaida and Capernaum as a great woe unto them or as the just and righteous judgement of God upon them because they repented not for proof thereof read ver 20. and so downwards Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done Because they repented not and it doth appear that as mighty works were done amongst them and great means given forth of God by Jesus Christ unto them the greater is their condemnation because they embraced it not Answ I wonder Sir what your meaning is to take cognisance of a text of Scripttre by me quoted and yet not to give the least colour of answer to it but onely to pervert the scope of the place and the truth of the thing 1. The scope of that portion of Scripture is an expression of a consolation wherein Christ supports himself as in reference to the Incredulity of the Jews The consolation is raised from the good pleasure of Gods will which had so appointed it It seemed so good unto thee which you altogether obscure without taking notice of it 2. The truth of the thing is by you concealed which rests principally in the distinguishing of persons into two ranks and that arising meerly from the will of God it so seemed good unto him 1. Because to some it is said that it is revealad to others not and that not so much by the preaching of the Gospel for that was common to them both alike but by the inward illumination of their minds by the spirit of God 2. Because the discrimination that is made in the rendring of it to some and hiding of it from others is attributed to Gods separating those parties in the decree of election and reprobation 3. The prime and chief cause of that separation is placed in the good pleasure of Gods will which is the alone foundation and cause of election and non-election Eph. 1.4 5. Rom. 2.11 c. And upon this account was it that the place was by me quoted and so by you slubbered over And the like fair dealing I find in that which followes in your English thus And thus I do confess that God giveth to men the spirit of slumber darkeneth and blindeth their eyes not outwardly but inwardly as this man hath said and also hardeneth and maketh fat their heart but not from before the foundation of the world or from eternity as some do vainly imagine but as the just and righteous judgement of God upon them in time when they come to shut their own eyes and harden their own hearts against the truth in their day of grace see the words of Christ Luk. 19.42 saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Also read and consider well for the better clearing of this truth Ps 81.11 to the end Luk. 13.34 35. Rom. 1.24 to the end and mind well the 26. ver for this cause God also gave them them up to vile affections and also ver 28. and even as they did not like to believe God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind And in this sense I do not deny but that sin unbelief may be an effect and consequence of reprobation but this reprobation or being given over of God to a rep obate mind is not solely and singly to be ascribed to the will or decree of God from before the foâ—ndation of the world without any other ground or cause being assigned thereunto by the holy Spirit in the Scripture for there we may see that mans default in not improving what he hath received oâ— may obtain if he be not wanting to himself in good eaâ—nest to seek the grace that God doth so freely tender to the sons of men by Jesus Christ in the Gospel is a cause of it Answ Sir you that have such rare notions who ere did imagine that God from eternity should give men up to a spirit of slumber darkness and blindness of mind that he should harden and make fat hearts T is but one of your slanders which your dull-sighted proselytes will to easily swallow Yet this I do affirm that what you say that God doth all these things in time as a just and righteous judgement So I say all these things did God decree that he would do or permit to be done before all time for there is no new Immanent act in God but all whatsoever he in time doth or that he doth permit others to do those very samethings are so decreed by God to be done and likewise so decreed to be permitted to be done by others Ruminate on this and for the rest I may dismiss without contradiction having not much to say to reprobation in time Your next objection that you make to your self is this Obj. But this tendeth to the exaltation of the creature Ans That indeed is that false report that is cast upon us in these dayes and upon the truth that we profess but I know not what gâ—ound they have for it except it be this because we sometime use the word self in our speaking or writing but upon that acâ—ount they may as well say that Peter was a Free-willer or one that exalted the creature because he said Acts 2.40 save your selves from this untoward generation and also they may as well charge the same upon Paul because he said 1 Tim. 4.16 Take heed unto thy self and to thy doctrine continue in them for in so doing thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee But we are so far from setting up any wisdome strength or power of our own that we do aâ—knowledge that we 1 Cor. 4.7 have
nothing that we have not received neither do we glory as if we had not received it for Iohn 1.16 Of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace or grace to obtain grace yea so far are we from maintaining that we exercise any power of our own in repenting and believing in the name of Jesus that we do hold and believe that we have no power at all to do either good or evil but what we do enjoy through the mercy of God by our Redeemer Who is Col. 1.17 1 Cor. 8.6 our Lord Iesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him Acts 17.28 for in him we live and move and have our being And so wicked men dishonour God not with any thing they have of their own but with those members of the body and faculties of the mind which are in themselves good as they do enjoy them from God through Jesus Christ but are abused by being excercised in the speaking of words and doing of actions that are contrary to the mind of God See Iames 3.9 10. speaking of the tongue and saying Therewith bless we God even the father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing my brethren these things ought not so to be Now those that we read of in Scripture that said with our tongues we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us were wicked men and pâ—oud boasters but we have learned not to glory in these things but in this we delight to glory that we know Jesus Christ to be the Lord which exerciseth loving kindness judgement and truth on the earth Answ Marry Sir this is brave skirmishing indeed But I pray inform me were you so disciplined in the wars to raise sconces your selves and when you had raised them immediately to make an assault and battery upon them This would suddenly crown your victorie and enlarge the number of your triumphs and Trophees But to what you confess that you have no power to do either good or evil but through the mercy of God by our Redeemer as to matter of evil who required such a confession at your hands and therefore by so much it is more then was necessary and to boot more then is truth for who dare affirm that Jesus Christ shed his bloud to purchase power for us to do that which is evil What power any man or creature hath as simply to an external action he hath it as by virtue of God the Creator and not God the Redeemer but onely as to such actions which may have a tendency to goodness heaven c. and so with you I will confess that Ioh. 15. Without him we can do nothing But in good sooth Sir this confession being so inconsistent with your other principles whatsoever it is that you pretend or fair flourishes you make of denyal of your selves and making Jesus Christ all in all yet it is too palpable you do exalt the freewill of man above all that is called God and whatsoever is done or spoken in the advance of that especially in that point of conversion it is done to the dishonour of God and of his Son Jesus Christ Whosoever gives fâ—ee-will any power at all in the choosing or acceptance of any thing that is good as from a principle of any innate quality it hath in it self he doth in so much dethrone Jesus Christ from his kingly power and Priestly office Jesus Christ died that he might purchase a freedom to the will and Psal 110.3 they shall be a willing people in the day of his power and then Ioh. 8. If the Son make you free then are you free indeed For that which followes I was very unwilling to trouble either my self in transcribing of it or the Reader to perplex him with so much of nothing but by reason I have injoyned my self to that method I cannot omit it and thus it begins And to those Scriptures in Rom. 9. which seem to be the ground-work or foundation upon which these Arguments are built they hold forth no such thing as this man doth endeavour to draw from them or wrest out of them by which he would have his Argument seem currant gold but will be found to be but dross for they speak forth no such thing as that God doth elect men in Jesus Christ to eternal life without any respect had to faith or the use of means although they do exclude the works of the law wholly in that thing as hath been already shewed neither do they speak forth any such thing as that God doth assign the Reprobation of persons to everlasting destruction solely and singly to his will without assigning it to any other cause but the contrary is in it as hath been already made to appear in ver 32. and in Chapter 11.20 in which it is plain that unbelief or the not seeking of righteousness by faith in Christ Jesus was the cause why the fleshly seeds or natural branches were broken off from their own Olive-tree were blinded or hardned had the spirit of slumber given unto them eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear and so were Reprobated because they sought not righteousness by faith and because of unbelief and thus neither Ismael nor Esau nor Pharaoh were cast out of Gods presence given over or hardened meerly solely and singly by the will or decree of God without assigning any other thing in Scripture as a cause of it for Ismael was persecuting the son that was born by Promise Gal. 4.29 Esau was a prophane person and for one morsel of meat sold his birthright Heb. 12.16 and his posterity also which is much concerned in what God said to Rebecca Gen. 25.23 For the Lord did not speak to her of two persons but said that two nations were in her womb and two manner of people should be separated from her bowels and the one people should be stronger then the other people c. And those judgements that are to befall the Edomites or the posterity of Esau are not assigned solely and singly to the will of God mentioning nothing beside the will of God as a cause of it as appeareth in that Prophesie of Obadiah ver 10. For thy violence against thy brother Iacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever and Pharaoh likewise we do not find to be hardened or given up of God until he had hardned his own heart first if we mind and consider well his evil dealing towards God and his people in the first place Do but read and consider well Exod. 8.32 and Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also which is a plain intimation that he had hardened his heart several times before and so God maketh vessels of diâ—honour not in the first creation as hath been imagined by some for then he made all things good Gen. 2.31 and God made man
to his people they remaining faithful for he hath confirmed it with an oath which to men is an end of all strife Heb. 6.16 17 18. Wherein God willing the more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lye we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us Fourthly let the express words of Jesus Christ be accepted of as a sweet counsel to all people Ioh. 12.35 36. Yet a litle while is the light with you walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you while you have the light believe in the light that ye may be the children of the light also Heb. 3.13 exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Hearken unto these things ye sons of men seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Answ Sir I shall not have much to say to your uses as containing little of controversie though somewhat might be said to each of them but I shall wink at small faults as being weary with your former doctrine and therefore insâ—eâ—d of answering any one of yours I shall deduce from the doctrine that I have delivered certain consectaries flowing from the breasts of consolation Isa 66.11 and naturally arising from the subsequent words of the Apostle which may conduce much if well applied to the business now in controversie between us First here we may behold as in a glass the hatred of God against sin and for the sake thereof against sinners viz. that whiles we see him by his vindictive justice executing of wrath upon sinners he hereby declares himself to be a God hating sin neither that any iniquity can dwell with him Psal 5.4 And as his anger is extended against sin so it is onely against sin sin is none of Gods creatures no part of the creation for all that he made was good and therefore God is not angry with nor hates the devil intensively and that immediately as to his person and nature for that is good but as he hath contracted sin and so that renders him hateful and abominable How then can God be charged with any iniquity when he is pleased for the manifestation of his justice and therein of his hatred unto sin he is pleased I say not to elect but to reprobate some and fits them makes them up or appoints them to destruction that all the world may ring of his anger and hatred against sin Secondly and as God was willing to shew his wrath so was it needfull there should be such subjects even the Reprobates on whom he might make his power known that whiles we look upon God avenging himself on his enemies the Reprobates Isa 1.24 and therein shews us his wrath against their sin so withal we might take notice of his power Psal 2.9 that he may break them with a rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a potters vessel and that onely because of their sin Psa 2.11 and that we might hence learn to serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Thirdly this may likewise serve as a watch-tower or warning-piece to the elect that when as they see how infinite the anger of God is against sin and how full of power he is to take vengeance for sin Jude 23. they might thence be provoked to hate the garment spotted with the flesh and alwayes stand in awe and reverence of the most mighty God Heb. 12.29 whose wrath is like a consuming fire And therefore it is not said what if God willing to be angry and to put forth his power as though that God were delighted in anger and in the acting of such a power and therefore to this end did not elect or Reprobate such a multitude of men But it is said What if God willing to shew his wrath and make his power known viz. to all the men in the world in all ages and generations to the Reprobate that they thence may be made inexcusable But to the elect that they having in their eye so many examples of Gods wrath and power upon the reprobrates for their sins they might thereby be stirred up to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.28 Phil. 2.12 so working out their salvation with fear and trembling Fourthly this will serve as a Mercuries finger to point unto the honour of the Saints and to set forth the high advancement that from all eternity they have had in the bosome of God viz. that God could be well pleased that a greater part of the sons of men should be passed by as not known of God Pro. 8.31 and so left to the original hardness of their own hearts which Adam voluntarily drew upon himself and all his posterity and for which to be doomed to everlasting torments to this end among the rest that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy Rom. 9.23 contraria juxta se posita mutuo se illustrant But how are the riches of his glory made known to the Saints by the reprobating of some Why herein it is manifested that when as there was an equality of condition in all all alike lookt upon as in one corrupt lump and mass of perdition wherein it was in the free power and holy liberty of God to have reprobated those whom he hath elected and to have elected those whom he hath reprobated from eternity 1 Thes 5.9 Yet he hath not appointed us unto wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Iesus Christ all which doth proceed from the riches of his glory and no foreseen worth or works or faith in us And now worthy Sir by comparing of your Enthusiasms with my Analysis and practical uses thereupon let the impartial Reader judge whether hath more candidly represented the scope sense and mind of the holy Ghost you or I. So that now after this tedious conflict for the defence of my second Argument I must attend your summons to see what you can say against my third Argument which followeth His third Argument is this If sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation are the onely causes why God reprobates any to destruction then there is no such mystery in the decree of reprobation neither are Gods wayes therein so unsearchable but that the true and undoubted cause may be assigned But yet they are mysterious and unsearchable See saith he Rom. 9.14 What shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Rom. 11.33 34. O the depth
universal assurance of their happiness in case there were and that all this that you have said were truth I suppose there were much more cause for believers to beg of God their infants death then with David in prayer to seek their life there being as you say full assurance of their happiness dying and so much fear of their condemnation living to see the temptations to which in their growth they are subject Nay if no child dying in infancy shall ever be cast into the lake of fire what should then deny but that it should be enrolled in the Chronicles as the mercifullest act that Herod ever did in all his life Mat. 2.16 when he commanded that all the male children in Bethlehem from two years old and under should be murthered for had they live to ripe years probably they would have filled up the measure of their fathers Mat. 23.32 and contributed as much and had their hands dipt as deep in the blood of Christ as any other of their brethren and therefore Herod to be as a blessed memorable butcherous murtherer that sent so many poor souls as Martyrs to heaven by the sleight of hand who had been like never to come thither had it not been for his merciful cruelty Yea you your self might be registred as the most indulgent father who for the saving of the souls of your children would expose your own to loss by cutting of your childrens throats as soon as they were born and so posting of them to heaven before their due time whereas perhaps if they had lived so long as with their mothers milk to have suckt in the venome of your principles and positions they might have endangered both body and soul from ever coming thither But what horrible things are these to think of I am amazed to write it and yet consectaries that without any inforcement might very well flow from your positions viz. that no child dying in infancy before they come to have a being to act shall ever be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death Whereas we do affirm that children as well as others being the objective subjects of Predestination and so considered as in the corrupt lump and mass of perdition with the rest of all the posterity and brood of old Adam according to the eternal and immutable decree proceeding from the sole good pleasure of Gods most holy will 1 Sam. 25.29 the souls of some of them are bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord their God and the souls of the rest being past over or not elected they shall be flung out as out of the middle of a sling But yet for confirmation of what you here assert you do endeavour cum ratione insanire to have some reason for this your wild assertion and next you basely prostitute the pure and undefiled word of God to fortifie your first I shall undertake them both in their order and by Gods assistance shall first prescribe you a pill to purge this your melancholy frenzy and next shall rescue those Scriptures by you alledged out of your hands giving them to speak in that peculiar sense they were at first intended by the holy Ghost And first my learned Antagonist had you placed the ground of your hope distributively viz. upon the children of believers you might have had some foundation for it because the promise of the Covenant doth no less appertain to Infants then to those of ripe years Gen. 17.7 I will be a God to thee and to thy seed The promise is to you and to your children Acts 2.39 Acts 2.39 But whereas you take it collectively and universally including therein the children of Turks Jews Pagans Infidels you have neither rule nor word nor promise for any such hope that they shall be saved And now the first reason that you produce for your Infantissimous assertion that no child in infancy shall ever be cast into the lake of fire is Because they not having the use of those faculties as hearing together with the use of reason to understand what is spoken and being not capable of any embracing of the means and which never had a being to act therefore they cannot reject the means of salvation Sir for this time admit it so that children cannot hear nor have not the use of reason Sir neither can those that are born deaf nor Ideots nor madmen in what state or rank will you then place them And for the rejecting of the means of salvation neither can they that never enjoyed the means reject it and in what squadron will you place them And therefore this assertion of yours is grounded on a false supposition that God cannot or at least he will not or doth not regenerate without the word heard understood and embraced but good Sir I must tell you that what expressions are used in Scripture as necessarily requiring the hearing of the word and receiving of the means it speaks of to such as are in a capacity so to hear it and receive it viz. those of ripe years and rationalists and where the Scripture is silent viz. as to children deaf or fools do not you undertake to determine without Gods advice and counsel but leave all the work as I do to Gods secret decree of predestination wherein he may do with his own what his good will and pleasure is either to save or to damn without the control of any And though we in a charitable way may hope the best of all those children that are born within the compass of the Covenant viz. of believing parents yet how God is pleased to bring his purpose to pass in the saving of any one of them is to me and sober-minded men as inscrutable as is the fashioning of their tender bodies in their mothers wombs and it is enough to me that we may hope well of them because God by his promise hath ingaged himself wherein he cannot lye 2 Tim. 2. Tit. 1.2 nor deny himself to be a God in covenant not with us onely but with our children likewise and were it not upon the account of the decree of election which is the foundation of all the promise wherein God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens and that not for any thing of good either done or foreseen but meerly out of his own good pleasure we should have just cause to doubt that all children dying in infancy should unavoidably be damned Besides my good friend have you yet learnt or do you understand what it is that doth regenerate If you ascribe this work to the word heard as it seems you do you are mainly mistaken 2 Cor. 3.6 The word of it self is but a dead Letter at best it is but a moral instrument and therefore it can never operate unless it be understood which can never he by one that is as yet unregenerate 1 Cor. 2.14 for the natural man receiveth not the
a can or a will I mean power or desire that there is neither of them in professed Christians Phil. 2.13 but what is of Gods own working who giveth both to will and to do according to his good pleasure And as for the heathen instead of doing or any desires thereunto as to good there is nothing but backwardness indisposition aversness yea an enmity against any thing that is really good at least in a saving way But alas what persons or cause is there in the world that are so base and degenerate that cannot suborne some luxuriant tongues to plead their case though never so abominable I have now done with this and so proceed to hear what you can speak for your selfe in the defence of the position from the third absurdity which is this The third absurdity If the foresight of sin should be the cause of reprobation then the elect should be equally lyable to the decree of reprobation as the reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams transgression Answ See how he minceth his argument that he may bring forth absurdities from his own expressions and then father them upon us In the front of his argument he putteth in unbelief and the rejecting of the means but leaveth out the word continuing and now he hath thrust out all except it be this one single term Sin that he may bring reprobation to eternal destruction to the narrow scantling of Adams transgression but that shall never be granted by me until I see a better proof for it than he hath yet brought and I can allow him more Scriptures then he hath set down to his argument Iob 14.4 and 15.14 Psal 51.5 all which together with the Scriptures he bringeth do I confess prove that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with Sin and I deny not but that this pollution or corruption is in a measure from Adams transgression but that any ones being reprobated to everlasting destruction in the lake of fire which is the second death is for Adams transgression I deny for although all the fruits and effects of that sin in the first Adam do accompany us untill we come to the dust from whence we were taken which is Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Womens sorrow being multiplyed and their conception and bringing forth children in sorrow together with the curse that is upon the ground for mans sake so as that man must eat of it in sorrow all the dayes of his life eating bread in the sweat of his face being accompanied with pain and sickness which are the companions of death till he return to the ground for out of it was he taken for saith God dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return and this was the sentence of that condemnation that God hath pronounced against the first Adam or 1 Cor. 15.27 earthy man and we being then in him when the sin was committed and the sentence pronounced we have our part with him in these things as our portion in this life for the original sin or first transgression But the holy Spirit in Scripture doth no where declare as I could ever yet find nor as any one could ever yet shew me that mans reprobation to the second death is for being in Adams sin nor for sin in their own persons no nor yet for unbelief simply so considered but for continuing in sin and unbelief For if they do repent confess and forsake their sins they shall find mercy and be saved as hath been already proved and if the elect should continue in sin and unbelief and not repent and believe or imbrace the means of Salvation they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation as the reprobates themselves and there would be no difference but they in repenting believing and embracing the means of salvation fall under the unchangeable decree of Gods election so as they cannot miss of salvation as hath been already shewed Answ Truly Sir before this I did not rightly apprehend where the shooe did wring but now I find that it is Original sin that pinches you so sore that you cannot well endure the name of it which had I foreseen I would not have minced any thing in the Argument no not so much as the continuing in sin for howsoever it is that we affirm that Original sin is an hereditary disease which every soul brings with it into the world yet it leaves not a man suddenly no not when he is regenerate but continues to the end of a mans dayes It is the very last enemy of ours that death destroyes so that in respect of this Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus Now what you have to say against our doctrine of Original sin I find not much in this your discourse for this you grant First that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with sin and which pollution as you say flows from Adams transgression And secondly that all the fruits and effects of that sin do accompany us till death there is onely then your bare denial that eternal death is not the reward or wages of this sinful pollution the contrary whereof is incumbent on me to prove to make my charge good against you with that third absurdity Now to prove that the first sin of Adam was ours not because he is our father by nature though that be a ground of the imputation also but because he is such a father by Covenant and law the law and Covenant of works being laid in pawn in his hand we are to understand that there be three parts in Original sinne 1. First a partaking of the first sin of Adam we all sinned in him Rom. 5.12 14 15. 2. Secondly the want of the Image of God Rom. 3.23 called the glory of God or original righteousness 3. Thirdly Concupiscence or a bentness or proneness of nature unto sin Rom. 7.7 14 17 23 24. As to the first Adams sin is ours really and truly not so much because it is ours as because it is imputed to be ours by God who so contrived the law of works as that it should be made with Adam not as a single father or person but with Adam as a publique person representing all mankind and having our common nature as a father both by nature and law which came from the meer free-will of God He was as the root and stock of all mankind Rom. 5.19 By one mans disobedience many were made sinners i. e. morally and legally but not physically and personally the fruit and effect of which is death and damnation for Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death not onely temporal or natural death but as the Apostles Antithesis necessarily carries it spiritual and eternal death in opposition to eternal life acquired by Jesus Christ the second Adam Yea and the whole series and purport of the Apostles discourse Rom. 5.12 to ver 19. carries this clear that every mouth may be stopped