said and so finish with this Text. 1. Inform. This may serve to inform and convince all Persons concerning the absolute Soveraignty of God He may save Man if he please and not Angels or may send a Saviour for some of the lost Sons of Adam and not for all Who shall say to him What dost thou If he had vouchsafed a Saviour for none of Adam's Posterity had he been unjust any more than he is in casting off for ever all the fallen Angels He called Abraham out of his own Country and revealed himself to him and let others remain then under the Power of Sin Ignorance and Idolatry calling them not He revealed himself to Isaac and rejected Ishmael he chose Jacob and refused Esau he afterwards chose the Children of Israel to be a peculiar People for himself and let all other Nations of the Earth abide in Darkness And in the Gospel-Days Christ chose a few poor Fisher-Men and refused the Learned and Wise Men after the Flesh nay and hid the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven from the Wise and Prudent and all this as an Act alone of his Soveraignty And in these days what Reason can be alledged why we and a few Nations more have the Knowledg of the Gospel when the greatest part of the Earth lie in Popish Mahometan and Pagan Darkness but that it is his good pleasure so to do He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth 2. Praise God for the Knowledg you have of the Mysteries of Christ and the Gospel of Free-Grace Brethren next unto the Grace of God in my Conversion I have often said I do look upon my self bound to admire the Riches of God's Love and Goodness to me in opening my Eyes to see those Arminian Errors which when I was Young I had from some Men of corrupt Principles sucked in nay and when I was about 23 Years Old I wrote a little Book for Children in which some of those Errors were vindicated which after my Eyes were inlightned and the Book with Alterations being again Reprinted I left out and now do declare my dislike of the first Impressions and do disown what I there asserted When I was a Child I thought as a Child I understood as a Child as the Apostle speaks And let me intreat you to study the Nature of the Covenant of Grace for until I had that opened unto me I was ignorant of the Mysteries of the Gospel 3. O do not forget that the Design of God in contriving our Salvation in his Eternal Wisdom by Jesus Christ was wholly to advance his own Glory and the Freeness and Riches of his Grace and to abase and humble Man unto the Dust therefore be sure never err on that Hand And I think it is not easy for Men well to err on the other I mean in exalting God alone Christ alone though I deny not but that some good Men who in seeking to advance Free-Grace perhaps have erred and taken up some unsound Notions as that of Actual or Personal Justification before Faith and Actual Union with Jesus Christ O what need have we to ponder well the Paths of our Feet and not with Pride to magnify our selves or strive to promote any corrupt Notion under any Pretence whatsoever Our Days are Evil many dangerous Errors abound and it is cause of greatest Grief to see what a Generation of Men are risen up of late who strive to mix God's pure Gold with their Dross and his Wine with their Water Though on the other Hand let us bless and praise the Lord for raising up so many brave Champions in the mean time of our Brethren of the Congregational Way to defend the Gospel of God's Grace and the Truth as it is in Jesus Yet I could wish there was not so much Gall in some of them against us their Brethren who in all the great Truths of Christianity are of one Mind and Judgment and yet are exposed to Reproach for witnessing to a Truth of Christ that lies as plain in the Gospel as any one Truth or positive Precept of Christ whatsoever I mean that of Believers Baptism Why should we be censured for maintaining that Truth which the Holy Ghost so fully bears witness unto I long to see more of the Spirit of Love and Charity would to God that Chapter 1 Cor. 13. was more read and considered 4. This may also serve to reprehend such who strive to cast Reproach upon this Holy Doctrine and such that maintain it as if it tended to incourage People in Sin or open a Door to Licentiousness Let all for ever forbear such Reflections Is not this the Purport of that Doctrine which we vindicate 1. That there is wrought and preserved in the Minds and Souls of all Believers by the Holy Spirit a Supernatural Principle of Grace and Holiness whereby they are made meet and enabled to live unto God and discharge all Duties of Obedience which he requireth of them and accepteth through Christ which Principle or Habit of Grace is essentiaily distinct from all Natural Habits Intellectual and Moral however and by what Means so ever acquired or improved 2. That the Holy Spirit by his effectual Operations doth enable us according as we are required by his immediate Influences in all Acts of Obedience whether internal only in Faith and Love c. or External also even so that all the Powers of our Souls and Members of our Bodies are or ought to be in a spiritual manner governed and influenced thereby and unto all Duties of Holiness in our daily walking with God and that all this is the Effect of God's Free-Grace to us in Jesus Christ who hath communicated of the Spirit without measure to our Blessed Head and Mediator that he may give it forth to all his Saints that have Union with him and believe in him Brethren God hath circumcised the Hearts of his People to love him with all their Souls and with all their Strength He writes his Law in our Hearts as he promised I will put my Law in their inward Parts and write it in their Hearts This gracious Habit or Principle in the Soul is nothing but a Transcript of the Holy Law of God implanted and abiding in our Hearts whereby we are enabled with Chearfulness and ready Inclination of our Spirits to act in the Duties of Obedience and Holiness unto God as he requireth of us and also our Likeness and Conformity unto God doth consist herein I say it doth consist in this Divine and Sacred Principle or Spiritual Habit that is infused into the Soul it is our Spiritual Life whereby we live unto God it is the Foundation and Sum of all Internal Excellencies no Works no Duties are accepted where this Principle is not It is a Vital Principle of Holiness and it makes Religion co-natural to us Moreover it is a certain a permanent and an abiding Principle it is that Seed
asked whether he did believe that Doctrine to be true for which he was accused before the Legate he aswered I did believe it when I denyed it but now I neither can believe that nor the Doctrine of the Roman Church I believe nothing I have no Faith no Trust no Hope I am a Reprobate like Cain or Judas who casting away all hope of mercy fell under despair and my Friends do me wrong that they suffer me not to go to the place of Vnbelievers as I justly deserve The mercy of God said he is exceeding large and extends to all the Elect but not to me or any like me who are sealed to Wrath I tell you I deserve it my own Conscience condemns me what needeth any other Judge if Peter grieved and repented it was because Christ beheld him with a merciful Eye and in that he was pardoned it was not because he wept but because God was gracious to him but God respects not me and therefore I am a Reprobate I feel no Comfort can enter into my Heart there 's place only for Torments and Vexings of Spirit I tell you my Case is properly mine own no Man was ever in the like plight and therefore my Estate is fearful And then roaring out in bitterness of Spirit he said It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Some said with a whispering Voice that he was possessed he over-hearing it said Do ye doubt it I have a whole Legion of Devils that take up their dwelling in me and possess me as their own and justly too for I have denyed Christ Christ will not be denyed no not in a word and therefore it is enough in Heart I never denied him He said when asked that he knew there were worse far worse pains than those that he then suffered for the wicked shall rise to their Judgment but they shall not stand in Judgment this I tremble to think of yet I desire nothing more than that I might come to that place where I may be sure to feel the worst and to be freed from fear of worse to come Being bid to believe the Truths he had denied he replied I cannot God will not suffer me to believe them nor to trust in his mercy what would you have me to do I would but I cannot tho' I presently be burnt for it I find I can neither believe the Gospel nor trust in Gods Mercy I have sinned against the Holy Ghost and God by his immutable Decree hath bound me over to perpetual Punishment God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth God hath taken away from me all power of Repentance and brings all my sins to remembrance and guilty of one guilty of all fore it is no matter whether my sins be great or small few or many they are such that Christs Blood nor the Mercy of God belongs not to me he hath hardened me I find that he daily more and more doth harden me and therefore I am without hope I feel it therefore cannot but despair I tell you there was never such a Monster as I am never was any man alive a spectacle of such exceeding Misery I know that Justification is to be expected by Christ and I have denyed and abjured it to the end I might keep my frail Life from Adversity and my Children from Poverty and now behold how bitter my Life is to me and God only knows what will become of this my Family but sure no good is likely to betide it but worse and worse and such at length as one stone shall not be left upon another Said he The Spirit of God often admonished me when at Cittadella I did as it were set my Seal the Spirit of God often suggested to me Do not write Spira do not Seal yet I resisted the Holy Ghost and did both and at that very time I did evidently feel a wound inflicted my very will c. David was Elected and dearly Beloved and tho' he fell yet God took not utterly away his holy Spirit and therefore was heard when he prayed ' Lord take not thy holy Spirit from me ' But I am in another Case being for ever accursed from the presence of God neither can I pray as he did because the Holy Spirit is quite gone and cannot be recalled ' O that I might feel but the least sense of the Love of God to me tho' but for one small moment as I now feel his heavy Wrath that burns like Torments of Hell within me and afflicts my Conscience with pangs unutterable Very Desperation is Hell it self you perswade me to believe how fain would I do it but I cannot ' Then violently grasping his Hands together and raising himself ' Behold said he I am strong yet by little and little I decay and consume and my Servants would fain preserve this weary Life but at length the Will of God must be done and I shall perish miserably ' ' I see said he my Damnation and I know my remedy is only in Christ yet I cannot set my self to take hold of him Such are the Punishments of the Damned they repent of their loss of Heaven they cannot amend their ways ' ' Now also Belzebub comes to his Banquet you shall see my End and in me an Example to many of the Justice and Judgment of God ' ' What Hell can be worse than Desparation or what greater Punishment than the gnawing worm and unquenchable Fire Horror Confusion and which is worse than all Desparation it self continually tortures me and now I count my present-Estate worse than if my Soul were separated from my Body and were with Judas and the rest of the damned therefore I desire to be there rather than alive in the Body ' ' God hath taken Faith from me and left me other common Gifts for my deeper Condemnation by how much the more I remember what I had and hear others discourse of what they have by so much the more is my Torment in that I know what I want and there is no way to be relieved Thus spake he the Tears trickling down professing that his Pangs were such as that the Damned in Hell endure not the like Misery That his Estate was worse than that of Cain or Judas and therefore he desired to dye yet Behold said he the Scriptures are accomplished in me They shall desire to dye and Death shall fly from them ' SOME PASSAGES Of the Fearful Estate of John Child MR. John Child was a Preacher and when he was young a very zealous Asserter of the Doctrine of Gods Free-Grace Namely of Personal Electrion and of the Saints final Perseverance and was a man of considerable Natural Parts and Ability being much followed where-ever he preached both in the City and Countrey yet seemed to be of a haughty Spirit loving Applause and Popularity which it may be feared was the Cause of his Fall and may be
likeness as Mediator and taking our Nature not to Christ barely considered as God for as Christ is God he is no where saith to be the First-born among many Brethren Now this Conformity being absolutely designed in Election Christ in the Contrivance and Intention of the Father was the first Exemplar and Copy of it or the main Center to which all must be brought that were given unto him the Father setting him up and electing him as Head of all that should be saved or as the glorious Bridegroom and therefore it was requisite he should be consulted about those who were to be the Members of his Body and his own blessed Spouse for ever And since Christ was also to suffer and undergo such Pain and Sorrow in the purchasing and redeeming of them it was necessary he should not only freely assent and consent in the Choice of them but also be certain of the obtaining and securing them all to and for himself for ever and not run the Hazard of injoying or not injoying of them which must follow he did if the Doctrine of some Men of dark Minds were true To proceed it may not be amiss to consider what is contained in the Bowels of my first Argument viz. that there is a peculiar People or some certain Persons as personally considered of the lost Children of the first Adam who are Elected or Chosen of God in Christ from all Eternity of his own Sovereign Grace and good Pleasure ordained unto Everlasting Life and that this Decree of Election doth prevent their final falling or make it impossible that any of them should ever so apostatize as eternally to perish The Argument being thus fairly stated it calls upon me to do two things First To prove that there is such a particular and personal Election of a peculiar People of the lost Sons of Adam Secondly To shew how this prevents their final falling and makes it impossible that any of them should ever so apostatize as eternally to perish A little to open the first of these 1. I say of peculiar Persons which denotes it belonging to them only and to none else others are passed by or not afforded by any such Divine Act of Grace the like Privilege they are God's Jewels or his peculiar Treasure though until called and cleansed or their inward Filth and Pollution purged away they cannot be delighted in by him or be beloved with a Love of Complacency though from Eternity God did love all his with a Love of good Will purpose of Grace and of Benevolence I say personally Elected that is the Objects of this Grace or of this Election were singled out and pitched upon by Name not with respect had to such or such Qualifications foreseen in them they being repenting believing and holy Persons but chosen in Christ the Head of Election that they should believe should repent and should be Holy and without blame before him in Love They are chosen that they may be Holy not because they were Holy or God foresaw they would be Holy I say they were ordained to Everlasting Life Now to predestinate decree or ordain denotes the same thing and signifies the absolute Purpose of God to bring them into a State of Grace here through Jesus Christ and to Eternal Glory and Happiness here-after Hence it is said As many as were ordained to Eternal Life believed or appointed and he that ordered or ordained the End ordained the Means also and so prepared them for Everlasting Life They were chosen in Christ in the Mediator in their Blessed Head that their standing might be secured through their Union with him and his Righteousness being imputed to them according to God's Eternal Purpose 2. And further to make good the first Part of what I have laid down viz. That there is such a particular Election what lies more clear in the Word of God and the Election of Jacob I shall here first mention as a full Proof of what I say For the Children being not yet Born neither having done Good or Evil that the Purpose of God according to Election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth Here the Apostle designedly or on purpose confirms not only the Doctrine of Personal Election but also that of Preterition of a passing by or rejection of the other and all resulting from the Eternal Purpose and Good Pleasure of God's Will As it is written Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated The main scope of Paul in this place is to shew that God hath not cast off all Israel that is those who are the true Israel or such who are the Children of the Promise or that do belong to Christ according to the Election of Grace see 5 6 7 8 Verses therefore they that run the Love of God and Election here spoken of to the Posterity of Jacob and Reprobation to the Posterity of Esau and will not have it to be understood of their particular Persons do palpably abuse the sacred Text and Drift of the Holy Ghost Now that all Men may know that Election doth run to or take hold of particular Persons and that not for any foreseen Faith or Holiness in them Paul saith The Children being not yet born neither having done Good or Evil. And therefore adds not of Works that is of foreseen Worthiness or Desert in Jacob but that the Purpose of God according to Election might stand that is stand firm as an Act of God's Sovereign Love and Grace only and abide a blessed Truth against all the Opposition and Cavils of cloudy Minds I might have mention'd Abraham Isaac Moses David and others also Jeremiah of whom God says Before I formed thee in the Belly I knew thee that is I knew thee to be one of them that I had chosen and given to my Son or one of mine Elect Ones and I sanctified and ordained thee a Prophet Moreover in the New Testament we find that our Saviour calls his Disciples by Name and tells them That he knew whom he had chosen excluding Judas he must therefore intend their Eternal Election for as I said before Judas was chosen to the Apostleship also Paul by Name Jesus Christ declares to Ananias was a chosen Vessel not only as an Apostle but one also comprehended in the Election of Grace Do but observe the Nature of his Conversion and what he was before and when called by the special Grace of God Moreover of this number and sort were those that the Lord speaks of in Elias's Time which Paul mentions I have reserved to my self seven thousand Men who have not bowed the Knee to Baal Though it is a certain Number put for an uncertain as to us yet all their particular Persons were chosen and known to God Even so at this present Time also there is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace God had some particular Persons then whom he had from everlasting elected and
is in his Heart none of his Steps shall slide it is written in the Hearts of all New-Covenant-Children that so it might remain in them for ever Observe that Passage of our Saviour Except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of God This our Lord spoke to his Disciples who were converted no doubt but they had pass'd through the New Birth before that time yet by reason of Pride that budded forth afresh in them they must be humbled again repent again or find as it were a second Conversion or they could not be saved No Person that yields to Sin unless he repents and turns from it can enter into God's Kingdom But doth the Words of our Saviour signify a Possibility that they might or might not repent and so might or might not be saved No such matter but rather the absolute Necessity of Humility and leaving off every Sin in all that shall be eternally saved Object 10. But did not some make Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience Answ 1. The Apostle speaks not there of the Grace of Faith but of the Doctrine of Faith particuiarly that part of it concerning the Resurrection of the Dead in saying that it was past already by which they overthrew the Faith of some 2. As to a good Conscience that may refer to a Conscience that doth not accuse as Paul before his Conversion had a good Conscience Men and Brethren I have lived in all good Conscience before God until this Day I have acted according to my Light and my Heart doth not reproach me A Man may have a Moral good Conscience that never had an Evangelical good Conscience I mean not have his Heart sprinkled with the Blood of Christ For that which may in one respect be said to be good may in another be said to be evil Those Persons Paul speaks of might once have Moral Sincerity in owning and maintaining of that Truth which now they destroyed and also might not live in any gross Immoralities 3. But should it be an Evangelical good Conscience and they be sincere Christians What of this May not a true Believer make a Breach upon a good Conscience by falling into Temptation As concerning making Shipwrack that says the Text was concerning Faith and those Persons being delivered to Satan by Excommunication it was that they might not learn to blaspheme and might therefore be restored again and nothing to the contrary doth appear it is evident from the Text therefore in vain it is brought to prove a final falling away Object 11. But a Righteous Man may turn from his Righteousness and die in his Sin And if so then Believers may fall away finally Answ There is a twofold Righteousness spoken of in the Scriptures 1 st A Moral and Legal Righteousness 2 dly A Gospel or Evangelical Righteousness 1 st There is a Righteousness that is a Man 's own such as Paul had when a Pharisee a Righteousness which ariseth from a Man 's own Reason Will and natural Improvements or by common Grace Godly Education awed by Fear and legal Terror and maintained by some failing Spring which as our Annotators observe may easily be dried up these Righteous Ones may totally and finally fall away Pray read Ezek. 33. 13. When I say to the Righteous that he shall surely live if he trust to his own Righteousness and commits Iniquity all his Righteousness shall not be remembred but for his Iniquity that he hath committed he shall die for it Pray observe that here are two things expressed for which he must die First If he trust to his own Righteousness and secondly If he turn from his Moral Righteousness and committed Iniquity the first is damning as well as the second But if he hath a Moral Righteousness and yet after all doth not trust to it but flies to the Righteousness of Christ he shall live but if he be Righteous and trusteth to it he must die in his Sin as the Righteous Jews and Pharisees did who being ignorant of the Righteousness of God went about to establish their own Righteousness Now from hence it appears contrary to what our Opponents say That that Righteousness which these Men turn from could not save them though it is true it is said If the wicked Man turneth from his Wickedness he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his Soul alive A doing that which is right is to renounce all his own Righteousness in point of Justification and by Faith to throw himself upon Jesus Christ and he that doth thus shall save his Soul alive Therefore let all Men know that this Text only shews that a Man that has attained to no more than to a Moral and Legal Righteousness must perish as well as he that turns from it and committeth Wickedness 2 dly Those that have attained to true Gospel or Evangelical Righteousness have an Everlasting Righteousness and if it lasteth for ever they that have it cannot lose it so as eternally to perish Object 12. It is said that some were twice dead Jude 12. Answ What of this They were originally dead dead by Nature and dead by their own Actual Sins and also dead after they seemed to be made alive There is a common quicking as well as special they had the common Life of Grace or that mutual Life that flows from common Quicknings Others thought them once alive and they professed themselves to be alive but now they became as bad nay worse than ever and so are for ever lost and undone they falling from that Grace and Life they once had their Apostacy rendred them miserable and no hopes of renewing them for ever Object 13. But is it not said God would have all Men saved 1 Tim. 2. 4. Answ 1. God will have all Men saved that believe and accept of Christ all that repent And they that say God would have any others saved than Believers or renewed Persons contradict the Word of God he will not have impenitent Persons be saved such who live in Sin and die in Sin but all that turn to him through Christ Of all sorts and degrees of Men God would have be saved this Doctrine we preach and they themselves acknowledg that God would have none but these be saved therefore to what End is this Text urged But though I have spoken to this Objection already yet consider 2. If they will take all Men here for the Universality of Individuals then I ask them 1. What Act it is of God wherein this his Willingness doth consist Is it in the Eternal Purpose of his Will that all should be saved why then is it not accomplished Who hath resisted his Will 2. Or is it an Antecedent Desire that it should be so though he fails in the End Then is the Blessed God miserable he being not able to accomplish his Just and Holy Desires Or as Reverend Owen notes 3.