RICHARD BAXTER'S Catholick Theologie PLAIN PURE PEACEABLE FOR PACIFICATION Of the DOGMATICAL WORD-WARRIOURS Who 1. By contending about things unrevealed or not understood 2. And by taking VERBAL differences for REAL and their arbitrary Notions for necessary Sacred Truths deceived and deceiving by Ambiguous unexplained WORDS have long been the Shame of the Christian Religion a Scandal and hardning to unbelievers the Incendiaries Dividers and Distracters of the Church the occasion of State Discords and Wars the Corrupters of the Christian Faith and the Subverters of their own Souls and their followers calling them to a blind Zeal and Wrathful Warfare against true Piety Love and Peace and teaching them to censure backbite slander and prate against each other for things which they never understood In Three BOOKS I. PACIFYING PRINCIPLES about Gods Decrees Fore-Knowledge Providence Operations Redemption Grace Mans Power Free-will Justification Merits Certainty of Salvation Perseverance c. II. A PACIFYING PRAXIS or Dialogue about the Five Articles Justification c. Proving that men here contend almost only about Ambiguous words and unrevealed things III. PACIFYING DISPUTATIONS against some Real Errors which hinder Reconciliation viz. About Physical Predetermination Original Sin the extent of Redemption Sufficient Grace Imputation of Righteousness c. Written chiefly for Posterity when sad Experience hath taught men to hate Theological Logical Wars and to love and seek and call for Peace Ex Bello Pax. LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Princes Arms in S t. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXV I intreat the WRATHFUL CONTENTIOUS ZEALOUS DOGMATISTS conscientiously to study these Texts of Scripture MATTH 28. 19 20. Go Teach all Nations Baptizing them into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Mar. 16. 16. He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Acts 11. 26. The Disciples were called Christians 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 4. I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you which also you have received and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached to you unless ye have believed in vain That Christ dyed for our sins and that he was buryed and that he rose again the third day 2 Tim. 1. 13. Hold fast the FORM of sound words which thou hast heard of me in FAITH and LOVE which is in Christ Jesus 1 John 4. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God Rom. 10. 9 10. If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy Heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the Mouth confession is made to salvation Acts 8. 37. If thou believest with all thy heart thou maist be baptized And he said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Rom. 14. 1. 17 18 19. Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful disputations For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another Rom. 15. 5 6 7. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another or mind the same thing one with another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Wherefore Receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God 1 Tim. 1. 3 4 5. Charge some that they teach NO OTHER doctrine nor give heed to fables and endless Genealogies which minister Questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith Now the End of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned From which some having swerved have turned aside to vain janglings 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5 6. If any man teach OTHERWISE and consent not to wholsome words the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness he is PROUD KNOWING NOTHING but DOTING about Questions and STRIFES of WORDS whereof cometh envy strife railings evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness or thinking that godliness is advantage from such turn away 2 Tim. 2. 22 23 24. Follow righteousness saith charity peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart But foolish and unlearned Questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes and the servant of the Lord must not strive V. 15 16 17. Study to shew thy self approved unto God a workman that needeth not be ashamed RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of truth But shun profane and vain bablings for they will increase to more ungodliness and their word will eat as doth a canker 2 Tim. 2. 14. Charging them before the Lord that they STRIVE not about WORDS to no profit to the subverting of the hearers 1 Cor. 8. 2 3. If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing as he ought to know But if any man LOVE GOD the same is KNOWN OF HIM Jam. 3. 1 13 c. My Brethren Be not Many Masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation Who is a wise man and indued with knowledge among you Let him shew out of a good conversation his WORKS with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter zeal or envying and strife in your hearts Glory not and Lye not against the truth This WISDOM descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace Acts 15. 28. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us But not to Church-Tyrants Dogmatists or superstitious ones to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things Phil. 3. 15 16 17. Let us as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise or diversly or contrarily minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 2. 1 2 3 4. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same Love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
getteth a right to any benefit by his fault What then Why the Precept to that man is past into a Virtual Judiciary Sentence condemning him as disobedient even as it is with those in Hell 239. Therefore since the fall the Law of Innocency in it self is the same which once said Thou shalt continue perfectly Innocent but it doth not properly oblige us as a Law to that Innocency or perfection which we were born without because we are become uncapable subjects Much less is that Innocency now the Condition of any Promise or Covenant of God as if he still said Be personally and perpetually Innocent and thou shalt live and that thou maist live But the Law being still the same we that are uncapable of the duty are not uncapable of the guilt and condemnation Vid. Bellarmin de Grat. lib. aâ—b li. 5. per totum c. 30. de dist necessitates And therefore the Law and Covenant are now become a Virtual Sentence of Condemnation for not obeying personally perfectly and perpetually to the death For he that hath once made Innocency Naturally Impossible to him is Virtually in the case of one that hath persevered to the death in sin 240. But if the contracted Impossibility be not Physical but Moral the case is quite different For then the thing is a threefold sin in it self as aforesaid 1. The disabling sin 2. The vicious Disability or Malignity of the Will 3. And the after sin thereby committed and omission of duty More of Physical and Moral Impotency 241. 1. No righteous Law forbiddeth Physical Impotency as such nor commandeth men Physical Impossibilities as is said But Gods Laws primarily forbid the malignity of the Will which is its Moral Impotency Bradwaâ—dine plainly saith li. 3. c. 9. p. 675. that Nullus actus noster est simpliciter in nostra potestate we grant not absolutely and independently sed tantum secâ—ndum quid respectu Caâ—sarum secundarum Nihil est in nostra potestate nisi subactiva subexecâ—tiva subservienâ—e necessariâ— necessitate naturalitâ—r praecedente respectu â—oluntatis divinae Quod ideo in nostra dicitur potestate quia cum volumus iliud facimus voluntarie non inâ—iti So that by him no creature was ever able to do more or less than it doth except you call him able to do it that can do it when God makes him do it but that is not to be able before or when he is not caused to do it 242. 2. Rulers use not to make Punishments for Physical Impotency But for the Wills Malignity God doth 243. 3. Rulers use not to propound Rewards for Physical Impossibilities But for the fruits of Moral Sanctity or Habits and for themselves God doth 244. 4. No just Judge condemneth men for Physical Impotency But for Moral God and man do 245. 5. No Good man hateth another for Physical Impotency But for Moral malignity God and man do 246. 6. An inlightned Conscience accuseth and tormenteth no man for meer Physical Impotency and Impossibilities But for the Wills Malignity Conscience will torment men So that it is evident that one sort of Impotency maketh an act no sin in its degree and the other maketh it a greater sin For Nature and common notices teach men to judge that the More Willingness the more culpability But he that hath Actual and Habitual Wilfulness and is as some Adulterers drunkards revengeful persons proud covetous c. who are so bad that they say I cannot choose are the worst of all the sorts of sinners by such disability 247. It is most probable that God overcometh Moral Impotency and giveth Moral Power by Moral Means and Operations For though God can give it by a proper Creation without Moral Means and we cannot say that he never doth so nor how oft he doth or doth not yet it is most probable that his special Grace doth by his Trine Influx of Power Wisdom and Goodness Life Light and Love suscitate the natural faculties of the soul to the first special Act and by it cause a holy Habit which he radicateth by degrees And this is Metaphorically a Creation 248. This is certain that since the sall we have the same essential faculties that Original sin is not as Illyricus so long and obstinately maintained though an excellently good and Learned man a Substance though it be the Pravity of a substance And that sin changed not the humane species Nor doth Grace change our species It is certain that the Acts of these same natural faculties are commanded to all men even the unregenerate under the names of Faith and Repentance And so these are their duties And it is certain that a Course of Moral means preaching reading meditating conference threatnings promises mercies afflictions are appointed and used to the procuring the said faculties to perform these commanded acts It is certain that these Means have an Aptitude to their end And that God worketh by his own means And appointeth not man to use them in vain And that in working Grace God preserveth and reformeth Nature and worketh on Man as Man and according to the Nature of his means 249. And I think none dare deny but that God is Able by his Spirits powerful operation without any Antecedent new Habit or disposition to set home these same means so effectually on the Natural powers of the soul as shall excite them to the first Acts of Faith and Repentance And by them imprint a Habit as is said and shall be said again in Part 3. And if he Can do so and Can do otherwise which then is likest to be his ordinary way I leave to the observers of Scripture and Experience 450. This is the Common sense of Divines who place Vocation exciting the first act of Faith and Repentance before Union with Christ and before Sanctification which giveth the habit till Mr. Pemble Vind. Grat. taught otherwise whom Bishop G. Downame confuted in the Appendix to his Treatise of Perseverance 251. As to the question How this Grace is called Infused and not Natural I answer It is called Infused and Supernatural because 1. It is not wrought by any Natural-moral means only but by Supernatural-moral means viz. Revelation in and by the Gospel of Christ 2. And this supernatural Revelation cannot work it without the special extraordinary operation and impression by the Holy Ghost above the common concurse of God with all his Creatures as he is fons naturae This the Schools have Metaphorically called Infusion 252. But it may be called Natural 1. In that mans Natural faculties receive Gods Influx 2. And perform the act 3. And are perfected by it as the Natural body is by Health 253. And what the difference is ex parte Dei agentis ex parte effectus between Gods Natural and Gracious operations I shall after open in the third Part. 254. The Schoolmen especially the Scotists and Ockam and many Franciscans Benedictines and other Fryers yea such Oratorians as Gibieuf
528. 3. Others say as Camero that the Intellect necessitateth the will and the Objects and temptations necessitate the Intellect and God causeth the Objects and Laws and permitteth the Tempter 529. 4. Others say that God only as the Cause of Nature 1. By Support and Concurse necessary to all agents causeth the Act as an Act in general 2. And giveth Power also to act or not act freely 3. And as Governour of the World doth that which he knew men would make an occasion of their sin 4. And also by his Providence causeth many effects of which mens sins are also a cause 5. And after bringeth good out of their evil 6. But as to the sin it self he is no cause of it either as sin or punishment either of the form or of the Act as morally specified that is as it is about this Forbidden object or End rather than another And this opinion I take to be the undoubted truth 530. Let it here be noted 1. That the five things here granted are all certain truths 2. And that they are as much as is necessary on Gods part in respect to the events which we see And unnecessaries are not to be asserted 3. That they fully shew God to be the perfect Governour of the World and all therein 4. And yet to be no Author of sin Let us consider of the particulars 531. I. It is certain that God as Creator hath made man a Vital Agent and therefore a self-actor under him and an Intellectual Agent and therefore is not tyed to follow the perceptions of sense alone And a Free-willing Agent and therefore hath a Power to Act or not Act hic nunc or to choose or refuse or to choose this rather than that as far as consisteth with his Necessary Volitions which I acknowledged and enumerated before which is part of Gibieufs and Guil. Camerarius Scot. meaning by their servato ordine finis Though I think that Annatus doth not unjustly accuse Gibieuf of confusion and unskilfulness in the managing of that matter 532. II. It is certain that as Motus vel Actio is quid Naturale it is of God as the first Cause of Nature * * * Vid. Gregor Arim. in 2. d. 28. q. 1. a. 3. ad arg 8. 12. whose judgement many Schoolmen follow Vasquez thus abbreviateth and reporteth him in 1 Tho. q. 23. d. 99. c. 4. Mâ—tionem Dei ordine causae priorem esse co-operatione determinatione nostra in operibus bonis at in operibus peccati etiam secundum substantiam seclusa malitia priorem esse nostram determinationâ—m codem ordine baec inter se comparari in aeternitaâ—â— Ex quo inserunt Deum praefinisse opera bona ante detâ—rminatiâ—nâ—m nostram ullo modo praevisam sed mala secundum substantiam nequaquam nisi praecognita determinatione nostrae voluntatis Vid. Marsil in 1. q. 45. ar 2. post 4. conclus And so when a sinner acteth it is not without this Universal first Cause Whether God do it only as Durandus thought by the meer continuation of the nature of all things Active and Mobile or by any superadded concurse besides is nothing to our present business which only sheweth that God is the Cause 533. III. It is certain that Governing Providence by doing good doth set before men that which they make an occasion of all their evil Every thing is turned into sin by sinners †††Titus 1. 15 16. and to the unclean all things are unclean through the uncleanness of their own minds and consciences As to the pure and holy all things are pure and sanctified Bad stomachs corrupt the wholsomest food All Gods mercies are abused to sin 534. It is certain that God fore-knew this And yet that he is no way obliged to deny men life or take it away lest they abuse it or deny men all those mercies or remove them which he foreseeth that they will turn to sin 535. IV. It is certain that God often concurreth to the causing of the very same effect which sin also causeth and so is as a concause of it with sin And this effect is so near to the Act of sin as that the sin it self is ost called by its name as if it were its nearest matter which it is not And this is the occasion of the Great mistake of men in this case that cannoâ— distinguish Of which more anon in the instances 536. V. And it is certain that God as the Governour of the World doth do much good by the occasion of mens sin But this is not to turn the sin it self into good 537. VI. And to these five operations of God I add as to his Volitions that all this which he doth he willeth or decreeth to do And he hath no contrary will at all 538. But that which we deny is that He is any proper cause of the sin it self efficient or deficient culpable or not culpable Physical or Moral For the opening of which we must enquire what sin is and what goeth to its being or constitution 539. All grant that God is our Ruler by a Law and also our ultimate End as he is Optimus Amabilissimus and that he is our absolute Owner And that as rational free agents we that are his own are also his Subjects and Beneficiaries and made capable of Loving him as our ultimate end and of obeying his Laws And that sin is our Disobedience to these Laws with our denying God our selves as his Own and withholding or perverting the Love which we owe him as our End 540. As Logick hath confounded us in most other cases by arbitrary unsuitable second notions making us a Shoo not meet for the Foot so that it 's easier to know Things without those unfit notions than with them so hath it done here Men may more easily know what sin is and what it is to disobey a Law and that either by doing what we should not or by not doing what we are commanded than they can know by what Logical or Metaphysical name it should be called Whether a privation or a relation an act or no act c. But it is not only for Logicians that God made his Laws nor is it only a Metaphysical Conscience that will accuse men or condemn them and torment them for their sin 541. No Act meerly as an Act in genere is forbidden of God For the soul is an Active nature and can no more cease all action than to be though it can forbear a particular act as to this object and at this time And God is the Cause of Acts as such 542. I have shewed before that as Action it self is no substance but the mode or motion of a substance so to choose this object rather than that hath no more of Action in it than to have chosen the other or than Ex to verb quod Dâ—us concâ—â— at nobiscum ad actum peccati prout facultas liberi
but so far yield to as they can have a tendency to thâ—â—â— recovery All these twenty sorts of means and mercies Christ giveth to all or to more than the Elect. 96. It being certain de re that Christ so far died for all as to procure them all such Benefits as he giveth them the question remaining iâ— de nomine whether it be a fit phrase to say that Christ died for all And this is put out of question by the Scripture which frequently useth it as is proved by the fore-cited Texts We may well speak as God ordinarily there speaketh 97. There are certain fruits of Christ's death which are proper to the Elect or those that are in a state of Salvation As 1. Grace eventually Rom. 8. 30 31. Act. 26. 18. 1 Joh. 5. 11 12. Joh. 15. 1 2 6. Eph. 1. 22 23. Col. 1. 19. Eph. 3. 17. Act. 5. 31. 13. 38 39. Col. 1. 13 14. Rom. 5. 1 c. Tit. 3. 5 6 7. 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Psal 50. 15. 46. 1. Rev. 22. 9. Heb. 1. 14. effectual working them to true Faith Repentance and Converâ—â—on 2. Union with Christ the Head as his true living members 3. The actual forgiveness of sin as to the grand spiritual and the eternal punishment Rom. 4. 1. 7. 8. 1. 33 34. 4. Our actual Reconciliation with God so as to be beloved as his peculiar people 5. Our Adoption and Right to the heavenly Inheritance Psal 4. 6. 8. 16 17 18. 6. The Spirit of Christ to dwell in us and sanctifie us by a habit of Divine Love Rom. 8. 9 13. Gal. 4. 6. Col. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 16. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Joh. 4. 15. Joh. 3. 5 6. 1 Cor. 6. 19. Gal. 5. 17 18 22. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 7. Imployment in sincere holy acceptable Service where they and their duties are pleasing to God Heb. 11. 5 6. 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. 8. Access in prayer with a promise of being heard in all that 's good for us in Gods measure time and way through Christ Joh. 14. 13 14. Heb. 10. 19 20 22. 9. Well-grounded hopes of Salvation and peace of Conscience thereupon Rom. 5. 1 2 3 4 c. 10. Spiritual communion with the Church-mystical in Heaven and Earth Heb. 12. 22 23 24. Eph. 2. 19 20 21 22. 1 Cor. 3. 22. 11. A special interest in Christ's Intercession with the Father Rom. 8. 32 33 c. 12. Resurâ—ection unto Life and Justification in Judgment Glorification of the Soul at Death and of the Body at the Resurrection Phil. 3. 20 21. â— Cor. 5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Rom. 8. 17 18 30 32 35 36 37 c. All these Benefits Christ hath made a conditional Deed of Gift to all the world But only the Elect accept them and possess them From whence we certainly infer that Christ never absolutely intended or decreed that his death should eventually put all men in possession of these Benefits And yet that he did intend and deâ—ree that by his death all men should have a conditional Gift of them As Dr. Twisse doth frequently assert 98. Christ therefore died for all but not for all equally or with the same intent design or purpose So that the case of difference in the matter of Redemption is resolved into that of Predestination and is but Gods different Decrees about the effects of Redemption 99. The particle For when we question whether Christ died For All is ambiguous 1. It may mean In the strict representation of the â—ersons of all as several so that they may be said to have died or satisfied â—n and by him as civilly in their own persons though not naturally And thus Christ died not for all or for any man which yet is in some mens conceits who thence say that Christ died not for all because he did not so personate all 2. It may signifie to die by the procurement of all â—ens sins as the assumed promeritorious cause And thus Parâ—â—â— himself in his Irenicon saith That the sins of all men lay on Christ and so he died for all that is for all mens sins as the cause of his death And you may tell any wiâ—ked man Thy sins killed Christ what-ever the deniers say to excuse them 3. Or it meaneth that Christ died finâ—lly for the good of all men And that is true as afore explained He died for the good of all but not equally that is not with the same absolute Will Decree or Intention of attaining their Salvation 100. But the conditional New Covenant without any difference in the tenor of it doth equally give Christ Pardon and Life to all Mankind antecedently to mens rejecting the offer on condition of acceptance And Christ equally satisfied Gods Justice for all the lapsed Race of Adam so far as to procure them this Gift or Covenant and the other foresaid common mercies But not equally as to his Decree of the success For there Election differenceth 101. It is a thing so contrary to the nature of Christianity and the Spirit of Christ in his Saints to extenuate Christ's Merits Purchase Interest or Honour or rob him of his due that doubtless so many sincere Christians would never be guilty of such injurious extenuations and narrowing of Christ's successes but that they cannot reconcile special Grace with universal and mistakingly judge them inconsistent Nor durst opprobriously reproach his universal Grace as they do by calling it vain lame imperfect a mockery c. if the conceit of their defending some truth by it did not quiet and deceive their Consciences Whereas indeed universal Grace and special do as perfectly and harmoniously consist as Nature and Grace do and as the foundation and the building and as any generical and specifick Natures And so doth a general Decree that All who will believe shall be saved and that this Promise shall be made to the world with a special Decree that Paul shall believe and be saved But on two accounts I pass by all the rest about the extent of Redemption 1. Because I must give you a special Disputation or Tractate on that subject 2. Because the most Judicious of English Divines so far as I can know them by their works Bishop Davenant hath said so much in his two Posthumous Dissertation de Redempt Praedestinat Published out of the hands of Bishop Usher as might suffice to reconcile contenders on these two points were not men slothful in studying them or partial or incapable in judging of these matters SECT VII The Antecedent and consequent Will of God c. 102. The distinction of Gods Antecedent and Consequent Will used by Damascene is by many applyed to this controversie but by none that I have read sufficiently explained which is the cause that so many good men reject it because they misunderstand it It 's truly said that by his Antecedent Will God would have all men to believe repent and be saved but by his Consequent Will
him or that iâ— any part of righteousness but it is all out of us in Christ and therefore they are as justifiable as any But Conscience will not let them believe it as they desire 185. It is arrogant folly to divide the praise of any good act between God and Man and to say God is to have so many parts and Man so many For the whole is due to God and yet some is due to Man For man holdeth his honour only in subordination to God and not dividedly in co-ordination And therefore all is due to God For that which is Mans is Gods because we have nothing but what we have received But he that arrogateth any of the honour due to God or Christ offendeth 186. If all had been taken from Gods honour which had been given to the Creature God would have made nothing or made nothing Good Heaven and Earth and all the World would derrogate from his honour and none of his Works should be praised And the better any man is the more he would dishonour God and the wickeder the lesâ— But he made all Good and is Glorious in the Glory and honourable in the honour of all And to justifie the holiness of his Servants is to justifie him 187. If these Teachers mean that no man hath any power freely to specifie the Acts of his own will by any other help of God besides necessitating predetermining premotion and so that every man doth all that he can do and no man can do more than he doth They dishonour God by denying him to be the Creator of that Free-power which is essential to man and which God himself accounteth it his honour to create And they feign God to damn and blame all that are damned and blamed for as great Impossibilities as if they were damned and blamed for not making a world or for not being Angels 188. Thus also such men teach that Christ strippeth a Christian of two things His Sins and his Righteousness Or that Two things must be That all that are saved have inherent Righteousness or Holiness none of us all deny nor yet that in tantum we are Righteous by it Nor that a man accused as being an Infidel Atheist Impenitent ungodly an Hypocrite c. must be justified by pleading all the contraries in himself or else perish And all agree that this inherent Righteousness is imperfect and in us found with sin and therefore that no man can be justified by it without pardon of sin nor at all against the charge of being a sinner and condemnable by the Law of Innocency And what remaineth then but to trouble the world with contending de nomine whether this imperfect Righteousness shall be called Righteousness and the giving of it called Justifying or making us righteous so far cast away for Christ Sins and Righteousness But they should speak better if they would not deceive nothing is to be cast away as evil but Sin Righteousness truly such is Good and never to be cast away If it be no Righteousness why do they falsly say that we must cast away our Righteousness To cast away a false conceit of Righteousness is not to cast away Righteousness but Sin only Indeed besides Sin we are said justly to cast away that which would be the Object and Matter of Sin And the phrase is fitlyer applyed to a thing Indifferent than to a thing necessary least it seduce There is nothing so Good which may not be made the object of Sin not Christ or his Righteousness or God himself excepted But we must not therefore say that we must cast away God or Christ because we must not thus objectively abuse them So Holiness and true Righteousness Inherent or imputed may be objects of sinful pride and boasting But it is not edifying Doctrine therefore to say that we must cast away Inherent and Imputed Righteousness But yet true self-denyal requireth that we deny our Righteousness Inherent or Imputed to be that which indeed it is not And so when men accounted the Jewish observations to be a Justifying Righteousness in competition with and in opposition to Christ Paul counteth it as loss and dung and nothing in that respect when yet elsewhere he saith I have lived in all good Conscience to this day And Christ himself fulfilled that Law and Righteousness So if a man will conceit that his common Grace will justifie him without Holiness or his Holiness without Pardon and the Righteousness of Christ he must deny this Righteousness that is he must deny it to be what it is not and must cast away not it but the false conceits of it And so if any Libertine will say that Christs Righteousness imputed to him will justifie him without faith or be instead of Holiness to him he must deny Imputed Righteousness thus to be what indeed it is not 189. When we tell them that If we had fulfilled all the Law reputatively More against the wrong sence of Imputation confuting many Sophisms by Christ as our Legal person we could not be bound to further obedience to it They answer that we are not bound to obey to the same ends as Chhist that is for Righteousness or Justification or merit but in Gratitude But this is but to give us the cause and ignorantly to destroy At quis unquam e nostris nos per justitiam Christi imputatam formaliter justificari asseruit Prideaux Lect. 5 de Just cap. 4. their own For 1. This is but to say that when a man is reputed to have fulfilled all the Law yet it is to be reputed unfulfilled as to certain ends As if he fulfilled all the Law that fulfilled it not to all due ends 2. Or as if the Law obliged one man to fulfill it twice over for the same lifes time once simply and in all its obligations and another time for other ends 3. Or as if the Law required any more than absolute perfection 4. Or that absolute perfection had not been in Christ's holy The Papists concur with them that feign a middle state between Just and privatively unjust viz. not just negatively so Brianson in 4. q. 8. Cor. 3. fol. 145. at large But they can give us no instance but in a stone or other incapable creature that is not obliged And we confess that if a man can be found that is not obliged to be Just he is neither just nor Privatively but Negatively unjust But what 's this to our case And the Papists commonly joyn with them that say that God remitteth not only the Reatum vel Obligationem ad poenam but also the Reatum culpae in se But when they come to open it they mean but that God is not displeased with or hath not a punishing Will against the Sinner As if they knew not that as Gods Love is our chief reward so his displeasure is our chief punishment And that Remission doth make no change in God but by taking away Guilt of Gods
10. And 1. It is evident that the Reatus culpae is either the sin it self or its inseparable effect He that hath once sinned is Related to God as a sinner And an infamous Relation such as of a Rebel a Rogue a Murderer c. is no small evil in all sound mens esteem § 11. 2. Sin is the Deformity disorder and disease of the soul and its Habits are a kind of Vicious Nature It is the Nature of Devils to be exceeding malignant rebellious and at enmity with God and spiritual Goodness To have a Nature or Disposition which is averse to that which should be its own end delight and happiness And a wise man would rather be annihilated than turned into a Toad a Snake or Adder though their nature be not offensive to themselves How much more would he rather be annihilated than become a Devil Wicked men are liker to Devils than they are aware of They Love not God and Holiness nay they have a malignant enmity to him which maketh them so averse to all that is Holy in their lives and to be such persecutors and haters of good men So that the Scripture calleth their wisdom Devilish yea and themselves flat Devils in plain words and the Children of the Devil Jam. 3. 15. Joh. 8. 44. Joh. 6. 70. One of you is a Devil And 13. 2. Act. 13. 10. Thou Child of the Devil and enemy of all righteousness 1 Joh. 3. 8 10. He that commits sin is of the Devil Therefore they are adjudged to suffer with the Devil and his Angels as the Saints shall be equal with the Angels of God For the truth is a Saint and an Angel and a wicked man and a Devil do differ less than is commonly thought on Now what sober man would not rather be Nothing than be a Devil To have a venemous malignant malicious restless rebellious nature at enmity to Good and in love with evil And who is it that maketh men to be such Not God but themselves 1. Is it not a great calamity to be mad Wicked men are far worse and they made themselves such 2. Were it not a great misery to have a nature that had no Love to or delight in health cleanliness dwelling food friends c. but hated all of them and set against them How much more to have such an enmity to God and holiness and our own salvation 3. Were it not a misery to have a nature distrustful of all our truest I eg Bradwardine l. 1. c. 1. cor 31. contra effraenes dlcentes omnia bonis malis aequaliter evâ—nire malum aliquod impunitum vel bonum aliquod irremuneratum manere fingentes quoque divinae pietati misericordiae infinitae nusquam congruere punire quodcunque delictum sed totum semper dimittere misericorditer impunitum Nonne inquit omnis peccans to ipso fit malus culpabilis vel pejor c. amittitque pristinam libertatem innocentiam fit Dâ—o dissimilior remotior ab â—o nonne hoc est poena poena quam magna unde hoc nisi à prima justitia à primo retributore omnium qui est Deâ—s See also his Corol. 38 39. Lege Jansen August de stat pur nat l. 3. c. 2. p. 358. Quod peccatum non potest non puniri à Deo c. 3. Quaenam sint illae poenae quae tam arctè cum peccato cohaerent Et c. 4. Quod peccator in peccato manens non potest beatus fieri Ubi itiam Augustini sensum de hisce videre est friends afraid of poison in all that we eat and drink and still thinking that our own parents seek our death How much more to have a distrustfulness of God 4. Were it not a misery to be deceived with a thousand errours and to take evil for good and good for evil and to spend ones dayes in bewildring perplexities or falâ—e conceits How much more to be mistaken about God and things of greatest excellency and consequence 5. Were it not a misery to have a Will that is perversely set against the wills of all our Governours and dearest friends That must needs have and do whatsoever is forbidden us by the greatest wisest and best of men How much more to have a Will that is thus set against the will of God 6. It is a misery to have a violent Appetite after that which cannot be had or cannot satisfie To have vehement hunger and thirst without meat or drink c. Wicked men have such a diseased appetite after things that God told them would neither be satisfactory nor continuing All this and more is in sin it self in the Habits or Nature which God never made § 12. The exercise of this diseased vitiated Inclination is an actual torment As it is more Joyful to use Grace than meerly to Have it so is it as to sin more calamitous And 1. Mens wilful blindness and neglect of God depriveth them of all the excellency and delights of holy knowledge 2. Their Disaffection and malignity depriveth them of all that holy Joy and unvaluable sweetness which cometh in by the exercise of the Love of God And of all the pleasures of a holy life As a sick stomach doth loath a feast and a malicious man hath not the pleasures of friendship so how can that soul delight in God that Loveth him not 3. Unbelief and distrust deprive the soul of all that quietness and content which followeth faith and confidence in God 4. A Rebellious will doth lose all that Rest which the obedient find in pleasing God and in his blessed will 5. Luxury and carnality and all sin deprive the soul of the pleasures of temperance chastity innocency and a good and quiet conscience 6. Wickedness and sloth deprive the soul of the pleasure of doing good to others by works of charity which is very great Abundance such privations are in sin § 13. And sin it self brings the contrary torments 1. Sinful malignity against God and Good men maketh the wicked eat their flesh as it were with envy and vex themselves with persecution and revenge 2. Sinful anger is a sinners rage and pain And though he have pleasure in revenge it is a painful pleasure like a troublesome itch 3. Self-willedness maketh a man continual vexation and disappointment while he must needs have that which he cannot have or which will torment him when he hath it 4. Carnal Love is the root of misery while it Tantalizeth the soul or longeth for its own vexation 5. Sinful fear is a tormenting distraction 6. Sinful grief is a continual sickness and self-vexation 7. Sinful Desires engage men in self-afflicting labours 8. Sinful cares are as thorns in a mans heart 9. Sinful Impatience and discontent is torment it self 10. Sinful confused unruly thoughts are the annoyance and the shame of the soul And all these are mens own sins not Caused by God but by themselves § 14. Next Sin it self there
proponuntur dum simplicium animis injicâ—untur varii sâ—rupuli quos disputaâ—ionum ars eloquentia satis postea discuterâ— non potest And he mentioneth the things which he would have us take up with which we are agreed in viz. Quicquid boni â—obis â—nest a nobis fit Diviâ—ae graâ—iae deberi Deunâ— esse qui omne bonum in nobis operatur sine Christo spiritus illius aâ—xiâ—io in â—â—s quae aeternam salutem promovent nâ—bil nos quiâ—quam posse c. Dâ—um â—amen siâ— per gratâ—am suam in nobis operari â—t libertati nostrae niâ—â—l decedat â—mp o qâ—i male agunt nullâ—m occasionem habere aâ— Deo quaeâ—endi c. But these Reconcilers do but halâ— between two Opinions and while they will be of neither side they are likeâ— and loved by neither B. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children oâ— God We will seek to please all men for their good to edification anâ— yet seek to please no man before God nor in sin nor place any of ouâ— happiness in their favour nor think much to bear their displeasure oâ— contempt For if we so seek to please men we are no longer the Servants of Christ If Gods favour were not enough for us he were not our God C. I am afraid your study of Syncretism or Concord will tempt you to warâ— and turn half an Arminian and forsake the Truth B. I thank you for your care of me and I wonder not at your fearsâ— as long as you mistake one another as you do As all persecution oâ— Gods Servants is raised by mis-reports and misapprehending them to be very bad and dangerous persons and as all sinful Schisms and separations in Churches arise from mens thinking one another to be very bad and unfit for communion Even so these factions and Church-dividing Contentions come from a false conceit that each side is so dangerously erroneous as that all good men must stir up their zeal and with all their disputing-skill and contending-fervency must arm to defend the Truth against them and to save the Church and the Souls of men from the infection of their Errour Since I saw the nature of these present Controversies it filleth me with shame and pity to think what fierce and fiery workâ— there hath long been what hatred slanders scorns persecutions what volumnious Contentions what Snares laid for young Students what factious Oppositions to each other among Pastors and People throughout much of the learnedst part of the Christian World and all in a dream for the most part about meer names and words or things that none of them at all understood nor ever will do in this World O subtile Tempter O foolish men even wise and learned men O lamentable Churches O miserable World C. I pray you tell me what good you look for by this attempt Do you noâ— know how many such have come to nothing B. I 'le tell you what good I expect I expect that here and there an impartial sober Divine should search into and find pacificatory truth And that divers Students not yet engaged in any Faction should discern it And that most of the idle ignorant and factious who find it most for their interest ease and honour to be servent for the Opinion which that party holdeth with whom they do embody will reproach my self and these attempts and call me a Calvinist or an Arminian or one that holdeth dangerous Opinions and self-conceitedly over-valuing my own apprehensions do trouble the Church and strengthen the Adversaries by pretended Reconciliation But I look that those that receive the Truth should themselves be saved from the guilt of all that uncharitableness faction and injury to others which is caused by mens mistakes And also that they should be a seed of Peace-makers to propagate Truth to Posterity till the Age come when God will heal the Churches and banish contentious Error from among them And in the mean time I look for peace of Conscience in the Service of God and in his approbation And it will be reward enough to live out of the fire of Contention my self and to escape the Feaver of that zealous Wisdom which is earthly sensual and devilish and with envy and strife doth bring in confusion and every evil work And to feel the sweetness of some of the Wisdom from above which is first pure then peaceable c. Jâ—â— 3. 14 15 16 17. And I am the more resolved not to omit my Duty through dispair for the experience which I have already had I remember the time when in the Country where I lived Sacraments and Discipline were neglected through the distances of the Episcopal Presbyterians and Iâ—dependants about the way of Administration and we looked strangely at each other I thought it our Duty to joyn in love and practice so far as we agreed and pass by the rest till we could better see our way But many years I thought I should be but scorned if I attempted it and so for bore it in dispair But at last attempting it almost all consented with whom I did endeavour this way of Concord and I found no conderable opposition and many other Countries began to follow our example After this I saw that whilst Ministers only preached publickly and spake but now and then occasionally with the people personally they were ignorant of their own Flocks and edified them but little and occasioned Disputes about examining them before a Sacrament and many other inconveniences And I earnestly wisht that they would set up the course of Catechizing and familiar Conference with all from Family to Family in order through each Parish And I thought that if a few Ministers should attempt this without the consent and concurrence of the rest they would but be contemned by the people But if all the Ministers of Reputation would consent it might happily go on But to motion such a thing I thought as vain as to attempt that which seemed next to an impossibility But when I did attempt it at last I found little or no opposition but the Ministers readily consented and other Countries began the like In so much that some Ministers of Helvetia sent to me their desires of setting on foot the same course there These instances confute dispair the great Enemy of all good and make me resolve to do my part in any good Work and leave the issue to God I confess and it s too well known that some attempts since these for concord between Church contenders in England were without success But they have afforded my Conscience that peace which doth abundantly compensate all my sufferings When I pray Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven I mean Let us with the most holy alacrity perform thy preceptive Will and do our Duty and then with confidence expect and with complacence rest in thy disposing Will what ever be the event C. I have read your Undertaking and what you
diabolo voluntate se dedit a quo judicium voluntatis depravatum est non ablatum Non enim homo voluntate sed voluntatis sanitate privatus est cum a diabolo spoliaretur cum igitur homo ad pietatem redit non alia in co creatur substantia sed eadem quae fuerat labefactata reparâ—tur The answer to the former might serve to this But still I see that Names must be our quarrel Is the question of the Thing or of the Name whether it be to be called Good 1. As to the thing they deny not that there are first notices and common principles of morality in all mens understandings 2. Nor that the Intellect is inclined to truth as truth 3. Nor that the Will is inclined to good as good 4. Nor that natural Conscience doth somewhat for God and Duty and against Sin in bad men 5. Nor that a Heathen may have as much good as experience proveth some of them to have had as Antonine Alexander Severus Cato Cicero Seneca Epictetus Plutarch Socrates Plato c. 6. Nor that common Grace when the Gospel cometh may prepare them for special Grace and make them almost sanctified Believers In a word almost all agree that 1. Nature as now upheld by Mercy may have all the good aforesaid 2. That common Grace with the Gospel may go further 3. And that it prepareth for special saving Grace If you deny this you accuse them contrary to the fullest evidence that you could expect whilst our British Divines at Dort tell you so largely how far universal or common Grace goeth in this preparing work and when there are such a multitude of Treatises written by the strictest English Antiarminians on two Subjects 1. Of preparation to Conversion 2. How far an Hypocrite or unregenerate Person may go in Christianity the Title of one of Perkins's Books 2. But if it be de nomine whether this may be called good it is a question unfit to trouble the Church with All are agreed that is materially something commanded by God partly conformable to the Law of Nature or Scripture and that it tendeth towards the well-fare of him that hath it and of others and is better than its contrary But if we mâ—st set up a metaphysical Theater to dispute de ratione Boni by that time on as good reason we have prosecuted our disputes de ratione entis uniâ—s veri also we may fall out with all that agree not in Suarez his Metaphysicks or at least in Aquinas or Buridanes's Ethicks I pray you begin your self and tell me what is bonum goodness in your question A. You shall not tempt me into so difficult a metaphysical or moral dispute which I know the learned are so little agreed in For you would but make use of it to insult over me B. And yet is this one of your Accusations of your Brethren that they agree not with you in the sense of such a word as you dare not definitively tell your own sense of Moral good in man is his conformity to the holy regulating Will of God by resignation of our selves to him as our Owner subjection to him as our Ruler and love to him as our End or perfect Good with all the exercise of these Now 1. In the strictest sense men say Bonâ—mest ex causis integris and so where there is any sin there is not good in that sense that is unmixed perfect good And in that with a more transcendent sense Christ saith That none is good save God only I hope you will not quarrel with him for it And yet the Papists commonly reproach the Protestants as teaching that all that we do is sin and no good because we say that all is mixt with sin and imperfectly good I profess for my self that I never loved trusted feared obeyed God in all my life without imperfection And I take that imperfection of my love to God c. to be the great and grievous sin of my Soul so that I groan out all my days the last dying-words of Arch-bishop Usher Lord forgive my Sins of Omission And if the School-men almost agree that moral evil is privatio boni me-thinks a Papist should hardly dream that his greatest Faith and Love have no degree of such privation 2. But as the word Good signifieth that which is sincerely so though imperfectly being more predominant in heart and life than the contrary evil and proveth the persons acceptation with God and right to Salvation and is the imperfect Image of Gods holiness repaired so all and only the sanctified are good 3. But in the third sense as goodness signifieth such Inclinations and Actions as are good but in a low degree and bad predominantly so none deny but bad men have some good Inclinations and Actions And de nomine here Divines agree not either Protestants or Papists some and most commonly call all such Actions good in their degree Others say That quia finis deest none of it is to be called properly good It may end all to say that it is good analogically as accidens is ens or secundum quid though not simpliciter The fourth Crimination A. * So do the Jesuites as you may see in Vasqu in 1. Tho. q. 23. passive They damn multitudes of Infants for Original Sin which they could not avoid yea and the Adult too as necessitated by it to sin for the prevention or cure of which they have no remedy especially all the Heathen World in comparison of which from Adam's days till now the rest are very few so that they make the World to be made or born purposely for unavoidable damnation in Hell fire B. Here are several things which must be distinctly spoken to I. Of Infants II. Of the state of the Heathen World III. Of the necessity of sinning IV. Of the necessity of punishment for sin Of these in order 1. For the case of Infants there are three questions to be handled 1. Whether they have Original Sin 2. Whether they are worthy of punishment for it 3. Whether they are punished for it and how many and how 1. For the first I have proved in a peculiar Disputation that Infants have Original Sin that is moral Pravity in disposition with their participation in the guilt of Adam's sin as being seminally and virtually in him And I find you not yet denying it 2. For the second no Christian doubteth I think but that all sin deserveth punishment But the desert of Actual Sin and of Original Sin are as different as the nature of the sin Habitual or Dispositive Pravity is a Dispositive preparation or worthiness of punishment And actual Sin is an actual preparation for it but all deserve it that is are Subjects morally fit for it to demonstrate holy Justice 3. For the third Scripture and experience put it past controversie that Infants suffer For 1. They are deprived of the Spirit of Holiness as quickly appeareth by their early practice
nearer Salvation and do better than they do though not immediately to do all that is necessary to Salvation And he that can do it if he will and also hath power to will it is said to have sufficient Grace which if he use not the fault lieth in his wilfulness 2. The Act nor the just Disposition or Habit they have not But that is their own fault who had those Means those Objects and that Power by which they could and might have attained them C. Is any one ever converted by this sufficient Grace or not If not frustra fit potentia c. If yea then it is effectual Grace B. Now you have brought the Controversie to the parting point where the two Parties use to part As you may see in Dr. Sanderson and Dr. Hamond's Letters I will first answer your Consequences 1. Non frustra fit talis potentia though it never act For 1. It attaineth other good ends though it attain not their Salvation 2. If one of a thousand should not use their power or if a thousand to one do use it that varieth not the case For it is still as much vain to that one man as if no one used it But 2. So far as it is vain that is to their own Salvation they make it vain themselves and must blame themselves 3. I ask you whether you think not your self that 1. All wicked men by common Grace 2. And all godly men by special Grace have power to do more good and forbear more evil than they do If so Do you hold that all that power which they never use to any of those omitted acts is vain If not why should this in question be accounted vain But to the great difficulty it self I answer 1. You must not forestall the Truth by any of these false suppositions 1. That there is any man to whom God giveth a meer Power neither disposed nor provoked to the Act. For 1. Mans natural faculty it self besides natural power hath all these aptitudes to the Act. 1. Man hath self-love and a desire of felicity and an unwillingness and fear of Hell and Misery and of all that he knoweth doth tend to it as such He can seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Rom. 2. And therefore God thus argueth with men Ezek. 33. Turn ye why will ye die And 1 Pet. 3. 10. He that loveth life and would see good days c. as making use of a common principle 2. Man hath reason to understand what is told him of Good and Evil in some sort and Nature containeth a Law written in the heart Rom. 3. by which the Heathens did much of that which was written in the Scripture 3. Man hath a Conscience to accuse and excuse 4. He hath misery and necessity to move him which may be known to him by common light and experience 5. Sin as sin is in common disgrace in the World And Nature teacheth Mankind to distinguish moral Good and Evil so that the worst do not love and own sin as sin And did not Satan hide it with some vail of goodness he could not draw them to it Even those that murdered Christ did it on a false pretence that he was a Sinner 6. Mans nature hath an enmity to Devils and a fear of them And therefore will fly from evil so far as they perceive the Devil in it for the most part For he is their known Enemy 7. Lastly All do known that they must die and that this World will serve them but a little while And they have great experience of its vanity and vexation And Nature teacheth most and the Gospel much more that mans Soul is immortal and therefore that there is a Reward for the Good and Punishment for the Bad hereafter 2. And as depraved Nature it self hath certainly all these advantages for good so God addeth by his Works and Word many vehement Motives Perswasions and urgent Exhortations Examples Mercies and Corrections And all these may give the Soul much more than a bare power to many good acts For many such are really done by bad men And to others they are almost perswaded when they disobey 2. You must not suppose that just the same degree of means or help is necessary to one man as to another or to the same man ever at several times For one mans Soul may be more undisposed and ill disposed than anothers And the same mans more at one time than at another And temptations and impediments may be greater at one time and to one man than another Experience assureth us that less teaching will inform one mans understanding than anothers C. Have not all men the same degree of Original Sin What can be said more of any than is said of all that they are dead in sin B. 1. The same word Dead may be used of all if it were words only that you plead for But that word proveth not that all are equally either guilty or corrupted For though Adam's sin be the same to all yet I have before told you and shewed you besides Scripture Augustine's judgment for it that there is also a participation of Guilt of nearer Parents sins by Infants And consequently of Pravity Were it but the ill temper of body which many Drunkards and Adulterers convey to their Children experience telleth us that it doth much in hindering the Soul And all are not equal in this derivation of Original Sin 2. And Adam's sin with all other being pardoned to faithful Parents is in them pardoned to their Infants dedicated to God And we have reason to think that where the Guilt is pardoned the Vice is not equally transmitted as to others that are not pardoned in their infancy 3. And it is not only Original Sin but much additional Pravity and particular habits of sin contracted by practice which is the impediment of Conversion 4. Yea and actual sin it self which temptations stir up as well as those habits 5. And also the great guilt which all those acts and habits do contract by which Gods Grace is yet more forfeited All these are a great disparity and shew that more Grace is necessary to some than others C. Well! Go on with your Answer to the main Question B. My Answer is that if you will not turn Vorstians but will receive the common metaphysical School Divinity about God to deny which is commonly called Blasphemy by all Parties I do not yet see any place for a disagreement For the Question Whether the same measure of Grace which we call meerly sufficient is ever effectual is meant either 1. Of Gods Agency or Influx as it is Agentis 2. Or of the Means 3. Or of the Objects 4. Or of Effects in the Soul * Malderus in 1. 2. q. 111. a. 3. d. 8. Omnis gratia excitans est efficax rata respectu sui effectus formalis quo homo excitatur quem sine consensu libero in homine ponit non enim potest gratia
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most properly signifieth wages which sounds as more than praemium a Reward yet we wholly grant you that this is figuratively used and that no man deserveth wages or any thing commutatively of God But every Scripture Metaphor hath its reason And the reason of this is evident Though God cannot be Profited he can be Pleased And his Will or Pleasure is the End of all his Government and Works And he is Pleased most in that which doth the World the Church and our selves the most good for in that he is most glorified Now he so maketh his Laws and Promises as if our own and other mens good were his and his Reward for our Pleasing by Order Justice and Goodness he calleth wages metaphorically being instead of profiting him XV. By all which it is most obvious that we are not at all the less but the more beholden to God for the Merit or Rewardableness of our actions For as all the Benefit is free Gift so it is of his Grace that we do any thing that is good and that he accepteth it as Rewardable And if it be any honour to a man to be good rather than bad and the Righteous be more excellent than his neighbour it is an addition of mercy that God will honour those that honour him and commandeth others so to do Psal 15. 4. XVI And now the case is very plain both that Reward and Rewardableness called Merit there is and why it is and must be so 1. How can God be a Governour and have a Law and be a Judge and Righteous in all this if faith and godliness be not Rewardable It is the second Article in our faith and next believing that There is a God that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. And when you would extirpate all faith and godliness on pretence of crying down Merit you may see what over-doing tends to 2. The very nature of all Gods Laws and Promises evidently inferr a Reward Without it there were no such thing as Faith Hope Desire Joy Content forsaking all Psal 19. 11. In keeping them there is great reward 58. 11. Verily there is a Reward for the righteous 3. There is notoriously a Reward even in this life Matth. 19. 29. Who would change the profit and pleasure of a holy life here for that of the unholy 4. Reward and Rewardableness are found in the very Law of Nature it self In that we are made for God as our end and it is God himself who is our Reward And holiness hath a natural tendency to happiness yea is the beginning of it it self And as God is said in Nature to make sin punishable in that he hath so formed Nature that sin shall bring suffering in and with it as poyson brings pain and death so in Nature he hath made our duty and holiness Rewardable in forming man so that health peace and happiness shall be in and after it Prov. 9. 12. If thou be wise thou art wise for thy self 5. The Light of Nature teacheth Parents Masters Princes and all Governours to take Goodness to be Rewardable and Crimes to be punishable And nothing is more universally approved by the common notices of humane nature than Justice or abhorred than Injustice Nature saith as 2 Sam. 23. 31. He that ruleth over men must be just And as Isa 10. 1. Wo to them that decree unrighteous decrees And as Prov. 17. 13. Whoso rewardeth evil for good evil shall not depart from his house Conscience will rebuke him that rewardeth evil to him that deserved it not Psal 7. 4. The better any man is the more he is for Justice and abhorreth the unjust and Alexander Severus and Antonine and such Just Princes and Judges are honoured by all Subjects and Historians And as all Power is of God and Rulers are but his Officers Rom. 13. 4 5 6. so their Righteous Government is but the inferiour part of Gods own Government as the King governeth by his Judges and Justices And therefore it is God that Rewardeth and Punisheth by them And indeed by the same reason that men deny a Reward to duty the faultiness being pardoned through Christ they would inferr that there is no Punishment for sin But God saith Isa 3. 10 11. Say to the Righteous It shall be well with him and say to the wicked It shall be ill with him He will plentifully reward the proud doers Psal 31. 23. Yea they reward evil to themselves Isa 3. 9. 6. Holiness is Gods Image and the product of the Holy Ghost and the Devil and Malignants labour to dishonour it And contrarily God honoureth it and by his Rewards will honour it openly before the world Matth. 6. 4 6. And Christ will come in glory to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe even because they have believed 2 Thess 1. 6 7 8 9 10 11. 7. God will Govern man according to mans nature and capacity else what need of Scripture Ministry c. And man is naturally a Lover of himself and God will make him know that he hath no need of him but it is himself that shall be the gainer if he obey and the loser if he sin even to Cain after his first sin God saith If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted but if thou do evil sin lyeth at the door Man is an Intellectual and free agent and therefore God will set before him life and death good and evil Deut. 30. 15. and whether they will hear or not hear he will send his word Ezek. 2. 5. and they shall be told of such Motives as should suffice to prevail with men of reason 8. Man hath many and great Temptations to overcome And as they work morally toward his deceit and ruine so God will suitably give him such Moral motives as are fittest to move him to resist them And therefore he will offer man so full and sure and glorious a Reward as is fit to disgrace all the offers of the Devil and will make men know that his Rewards are such as no pleasure or profit of sin should stand in any competition with Yea he himself who is God Allsufficient will be our exceeding great Reward Gen. 15. 1. No wonder if Moses like other believers despised the honours of Pharaoh's Court and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season because he had respect to the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 25 26. And Paul went towards death rejoycing in these hopes that having fought a good fight and finished his course henceforth a Crown of Righteousness was laid up for him by God the Righteous Judge 2 Tim. 4. 8. who is not unrighteous to forget his servants work and labour of Love And all believers are therefore stedfast and unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord as knowing that their labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor.
being superstitious by a great deal of self-made Duty and Sin only theirs and yours are not in the same things They say Touch not taste not handle not some things and you other things while you say that God hath forbidden forms of prayer and many lawful circumstances of Worship and other such like And I now intreat you and all the servants of Christ soberly to consider whether a wild injudicious calling sound Doctrine and Practices Antichristian and using that name as a bugbear for want of solid argument and an injudicious running from Papists into the contrary errors and extreams hath not brought on many the guilt and misery which in all the following particulars I shall open to you 1. Such men have corrupted the Gospel of Christ by bringing in many doctrinal errors and opening a door to the heretical to bring in more Almost all the Libertine Antinomian errors have come in by an injudicious opposition to Popery as if they were the Vindication of Election Free Grace Christs Righteousness Justification by faith Perseverance against mans Works and Merits And it is not to be denyed that the said Libertine Doctrines do more contradict the Doctrine of the Gospel even Christianity it self than the Doctrine of the Papists about the same subjects do I know this to be true who ever is offended at it Aquinas Scotus Gabriel Bellarmine Pererids Tolet yea Vasquez Suarez and Molina are not near so erroneous about Justification Grace Faith and good works as Richardson Randal Sympson Towne Crispe Saltmarsh and many such others are Yet how many Religious people have I known that have gloried in these errors as the sweet discoveries of free grace 2. Such erroneous extreams in opposition to Popery have greatly dishonoured the Reformers and Reformation When it cannot be denyed but such and such errors are found among them it maketh all the Reformation suspected as Illyricus his Doctrine of the substantiality of sin and the non-necessity of Good works to salvation and as Andr. Osianders Doctrine of Justification by Gods essential righteousness did and as many harsh passages in Piscator and Maccovins do to name no more besides those before named What a stir have our later Divines still with the Papists in defending some few harsh sayings of Luther Calvin and Beza about the Cause of sin and some such subjects But downright errors cannot be defended 3. Your injudicious opposition greatly hardneth the Papists and hindereth their conviction When they find some errours in your writings as that all are bound to believe that they are elected and Justified that this is the sense of the Article I believe the forgiveness of sin that this is sides divina that we are Reputed of God to have fulfilled all the Law of Innocency habitually and actually in and by Christ c. and then when they read that such men lay the great stress of the Reformation upon these as the very cause of our rejecting Rome and the artiouli stantisaut cadentis Ecclesiae what can more harden them to a confidence that we are hereticks and that they are in the right As I have known the persons that had been in danger of turning Papists if the errour of Transubstantiation and some few more had not been so palpable as to resolve them These men cannot be in the right even so many Papists were like to have turned Protestants had they not met with some notorious errours in such injudicious adversaries 4. Yea we too very well know that your extremities have occasioned divers Protestants to turn Papists Yea some Learned men and such as have zealously run through many Sects in opposition to Popery themselves And some of my acquaintance that went as far in the profession of Godliness as most that I have known They have been so confounded to find partly palpable errours taken for sound doctrine and sound doctrine railed at as Popery and partly to see the shameful diversity and contentions of all the Sects among themselves that it hath drawn them to think that there is no prosperity of the Church and Godliness to be expected but where there is unity and Concord and no Unity and Concord to be hoped for among Protestants And therefore they must return for it to Rome And Grotius professeth that it was this that moved him to go so far towards them as he did And I must needs say that I believe from my very heart that the shameful divisions contentions backbitings revilings censurings persecutions errours and scandals of Protestants among themselves is a far stronger temptation to turn men to Popery than any thing that is to be found among the Papists to turn men to it and that many are thus driven to it that would not have been drawn 5. And by calling good and lawful if not necessary things Antichristian and Popish you have made Religious people ridiculous and a scorn to many that have more wit than Conscience as if we were all such humorous Novices as would run mad by being frightned with the name of Antichrist And as they deride you for it as Fanatical so they the less fear Popery it self 6. And by these extremities you corrupt the peoples minds with a wrathful and contentious kind of Religion which â—s easily taken up in comparison of a holy and heavenly mind When you should kindle in them a zeal for Love and Good Works the mark of Gods peculiar people you are killing Love and kindling wrath Gunpowder may be set on fire without so much blowing of the coal Long experience assureth us that a siding angry contentious zeal is easily kindled but a lively faith a confirmed hope of Glory a Love to God and man needs more ado S. Stay a little in the midst of your reproofs Would you perswade us to a Union with Antichrist and to live in Love and Concord with the members of the Devil Are not the Papists such Have you no way to reconcile us to Rome but by pleading for Love and peace Must we not contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints and not be Lukewarm to the doctrines of Jezabel that seduceth the people of God to Idolatry P. 1. Were you perswadable I would perswade you not ignorantly to contradict the truth of God and call it Popery nor to set up certain false or incongruous notions and pretend them great and necessary verities nor to make a stir for some odd unsound opinions received upon trust from those that you thought best of and to buzz abroad suspicious of Popery against those that have more understanding and conscience than to imitate you nor to fly in the faces of Gods faithfullest servants much less to use your tongues to backbite them as if they were Antichristian because they are not as shamefully ignorant and deceived as you are And I would perswade you to study and digest well what you take the boldness to speak against and not to talk confidently and furiously against that which you never