and so gotten the temptation into his bosome this was to make provision for his Lust not for his Repentance and while we find him unrelenting at the crime we ought to conclude his design was to perpetuate the pleasure under a colour of legitimating the use of his Adultery and therefore 't is observable 2 Sam. 2. last cap. 12.9.10 God was angry at the after marriage as well as at the former murder and uncleannesse And this may in some sense be urged against Peter but of him more anon 2. You say You cannot imagine that the Faith of David and Peter were Habitually extirpated and they were turned unbelievers And I cannot think what ever the Papists have yet said to the contrary that a sound Christian faith is separable from Charity though a superficiall opinionative belief may Answer To the first branch of your imagination I shall say but this foâ— the present we are told by the divine Revelationâ— that we must be judged by the wâ—â—k 〈…〉 own performing and not by the 〈…〉 â—ods infusing 2. Misbelievers as well as Unbelievers may be in an unjustified state and if Faith without good works be dead and cannot justifie then Faith with dead works is dead and damning also 3. As to your second branch if by a sound Christian Faith you understand such a faith as you have defined a saving faith to be in some of your writings I think you will have no Papists much lesse Protestants your Adversaries but then I hope you cannot think such a Faith any more separable from chastity brotherly kindnesse or loyalty to Christ then from charity Aut yet we see these separated from the faith of David and Peter respectively Therefore the faith that they had now was not that sound Christian saving Faith 3. You ask a question and then resolve it your self thus Do you think that if David or Peter had after this sin been upon sober deliberation put to it they would not have chosen the love of God before the world or sinfull pleasure I think they would Answer 1. Doubtlesse Judas would have done so too Esau did so concerning his fathers blessing But what matters it what men would have done when woulding is too late their will having undone them 2. The neglect of sober deliberation many times betrayes men to destruction The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters Crib Isa 1.3 but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Jer. 8.6 No man repented him of his wickednesse saying what have I done Every one turneth to his course as the horse rusheth into the battell 3. Peter had an hours respite after one temptation Luk. 22.59 and so long a time is sufficient to make the killing of a man be adjudged a prepensed and willfull murder by our common Law and whose fault was it that he wanted such a sober deliberation as you speak of Why did he not put himself to it to chose the love of God He had a naturall power to do it to use your own distinction and why he had not and did not exercise a morall Power you must fetch the reason from his own or to excuse that from the will of God For Davids part he had a pritty considerable time to deliberate in Sure it was the love of pleasure not the love of God that kept him from it 4. You demand Is it likely that this one Act should turn their hearts into as Gracelesse a frame as the ungodly themselves that never were sanctified It is not likely Yet so it must be if they excussed all the Love of God Answ If they excussed all the love of God Why all the love of God I told you not long since out of your own writings that every degree of the love of God will not serve the turn but onely that which doth preponderate and prevaile And therefore though all the love of God be not excussed if that prevailing degree be excussed they remain unjustified whether or no their hearts be turned into as Gracelesse a frame as the ungodly themselves that were never sanctified But this doth follow you say and it is not likely that it should be so I answer 2. That a Gracelesse frame of heart may be so denominated either from the totall absence and privation of grace onely or else it may imply also a contracted vicious habite in opposition to Grace In the first sense I grant their hearts may be said to be turned into as Gracelesse a frame but not in the later because though their hearts may have as little grace for the present yet are they not through custome of sinning reduced to such an indisposition to receive the impressions of Grace as are the hearts of the notorious ungodly who were never sanctified And yet I must tell you 3. That as it is observed of water that hath been heat it will be congealed and freez the sooner so such as have felt the heat of that Divine fire and been inlightned and melted and warmed and refreshed by the sweet and efficacious beams and influences of that Grace they are in danger for their great ingratitude Hebr. 6. and 10. to be permitted to fall into a state more miserable and hopelesse then such as were never sanctified But 4. you alleage Is it likely that this one Act Answ 1. There are some single Acts of sin so heinous that their enormitie doth equalize the Habites of many sins and of some they do manifestly preponderate and surpasse them And such Acts though they proceed not from a habite but are onely once committed they do exclude a man from the kingdome of heaven One Act of unmercifull severity to his fellow servant brought an implacable wrath and endlesse torments upon him who had not long before received his Lords Acquittance though he had not passed a very fair Accompt to him Mat. 18.34 What more then a single Act deprived Esau of the blessing Heb. 12.16 and that sinne unto death mentioned by Saint John 1 Joh. 5.16 seems to be no more Mark 10.21 And what followed Christs unum tibi deest to the young man in the Gospel yet that was but an Omission neither But 2. why do you call it but one Act when it was so accumulatively and exceeding sinfull There was a complication of many sinnefull Acts as well in the fall of Peter as of David To that Objection Account of Persever p. 13. that Adam by one act did lose his habituall state of Grace and Relation to God becoming unholy and unjustified therefore so may we you deny the Antecedent For you say it was not by one Act but by many that Adam so far fell But sure here was no lesse if not a much greater combination of sinfull Acts in the fall of David and Peter then in that of Adam therefore neither of them ought to be contracted or extenuated into one single Act. 5. Your discourse runs on in these words
too great integrity to impose upon his Adversary or his Reader so is he known to be of too great learning and judgement to encounter with shadows and Chimaera's of his own imagination How this Doctrine of Predestination is held forth by the other sort of Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians he that desires to be fully satisfied may procure his satisfaction at an easie expense both of time and money if he will consult that small Treatise translated and lately set forth by Master Tobias Conyers Page 91. 92. 94. 95. 96. under the Title of The Just Mans Defence But amongst other Reasons inducing these men to deliver the Doctrine of Predestination in a different manner and method from the former Arminius observes Ibid. page 97. this was not the meanest their willingnesse to prevent lest God with the same probabilitie should be concluded the Author of sinne from this their Doctrine as some of them have judged it concludable from the first But really saith He if with diligent inspection we well examine these Opinions of a later Edition compared with the Judgement of the same Authors in other points of Religion we shall finde the fall of Adam not possibly otherwaies considerable Page 98. according to the Tenents of these men then as a necessary executive means of the preceding Decree of Predestination Page 100. and a little after The third Opinion scapes this Rock better then the other had not the Patrons thereof delivered something for the Declaration of Predestination and Providence from whence the necessity of the Pall may be inferred which cannot have any other rise then Predestinatory Ordination Thus Jac. Arminius Our next inquiry that we may come to the certaine knowledge of the truth of this Matter of Fact for which you have with no little confidence to disgrace him questioned the integrity of our Tilenus shall be how the Articles charged upon the Calvinists were drawn up by the Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague Pet. Bert. Coll. Hag. p. 7. 8. The first head of Doctrine which They charge the Contra-Remonstrants or Calvinists whom they style their Brethren to account ORTHODOX is thus expressed word for word I. THat God as some speak by an eternall and unchangeable Decree from among men Supra-lapsarians whom he considered as not-created much lesse as faln ordained certain to eternall life certain to eternall death without any regard had to their righteousnesse or sinne to their obedience or disobedience onely because so was his pleasure or so it seemed good to him to the praise of his Justice and Mercy or as others like better to declare his saving Grace Wisdome and free Authority or Jurisdiction Means being also fore-ordained by his eternall and unchangeable Decree fit for the execution of the same by the power or force whereof it is necessary that they be saved after a necessary and unavoidable manner who are ordained to salvation so that 't is not possible that they should perish but they who are destin'd to destruction who are the farre greater number must be damned necessarily and inevitably so that t is not possible for them to be saved II. Sub-lapsarians That God as others would rather willing from eternity with himself to make a Decree concerning the Election of some certain men but the rejection of others considered mankinde not onely as created but also as faln and corrupted in Adam and Eve our first Parents and thereby deserving the curse And that he decreed out of that fall and damnation to deliver and save some certain ones of his Grace to declare his mercy But to leave others both young and old yea truly even certain Infants of men in Covenant and those Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy by his just judgement in the curse to declare his Justice and that without all consideration of repentance and faith in the former or of impenitence or unbelief in the later For the execution of which Decree God useth also such means whereby the Elect are necessarily and unavoidably saved but reprobates necessarily and unavoidably perish III. And therefore that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World died not for all men but for those onely who are Elected either after the former or this later manner he being the mean and ordained Mediator to save those onely and not a man besides IV. Consequently That the Spirit of God and of Christ doth worke in those who are Elected that way or this with such a force of Grace that they cannot resist it and so that it cannot be but that they must turn believe and thereupon necessarily be saved But that this irresistible Grace and force belongs onely to those so Elected but not to Reprobates to whom not onely that irresistible Grace is denyed but also Grace necessary and sufficient for Conversion for faith and for salvation is not afforded To which Conversion and faith indeed they are called invited and fairely solicited outwardly by the revealed will of God though notwithstanding the inward force necessary to faith and conversion is not bestowed on them according to the secret will of God V. But that so many as have once obtained a true and justifying faith by such a kinde of irresistible force can never totally nor finally lose it no not although they fall into the very-most-enormous sins but are so led and kept by that same irresistible force that 't is not possible for them or they cannot either totally or finally fail and perish Every branch of these five Articles you may see sufficiently proved in Appendice Pressioris Declarationis and by the severall Syllabi Testimoniorum inter Scripta Synodalia Remonstrantium After the Synod at Dort had declared their judgement upon those five Heads of Doctrine the Remonstrants abridged the same into these Compendious Articles I. Almighty God out of all mankinde considered in the same state or condition chose a few certaine men to eternall salvation without any respect of their faith repentance conversion or of any good quality but that he might bring those elect ones to the appointed salvation he decreed that his Son should suffer death for onely them yea even when they as well as others were faln into Originall sinne and eternall perdition by Adam's transgression that he might reconcile unto God them onely that he might in them onely work faith by a most powerfull working and force no lesse then that put forth in the Creation of the World or raising the dead that he might preserve in that saving faith unto their lives end those very men although faln into the foulest and filthiest wickednesses and sticking some while therein and at last might bring them into the possession of eternall life for no other cause but because so was his good pleasure But on the Contrary I. Almighty God would passe by the farre greatest part of mankind without any consideration of their own proper and avoidable fault that is to say of their own unbelief
Fayo in Schol. Genev. disp de dig effect Sacrif J. C. 5. Maccovius can you say any thing to clear the Plaintiffe from the charge that Master Baxter brings against him For that distinction of Christs dying for All sufficiently but not effectually I say 't is most vain and foolish For if you say Christ died sufficiently because his death would have sufficed to redeem all if God had so pleased then by a like reason it might be said that Christ hath justified All and glorified All sufficiently but none effectually Mac. distinct c. 11. disp 18. p. 110. Colleg. Disp 12. 6. Vogelius what say you to the second Article of the Remonstrants Concerning the Universality of the merit of Christs Death They that subscribe to it are to be suspected of Pelagianisme Socinianisme and other filthy Heresies Contra Ministros Campens pag. 125. This evidence already given in might suffice for the whole Article But because there is another branch perhaps M. Baxter will expect some pregnant proof for that too viz. That Christ neither had any intent nor Commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world To evince this take here the depositions of 1. Triglandius a Synodist who saith The passion of Christ in it self is sufficient to redeem all men yea many more but according to the Counsil of the Father He died onely for the Elect and truly faithfull with that intent that through faith he might make all them and onely them partakers of the efficacy of his passion to their salvation Christian Moderation pag. 25. 2. Zanchy who saith Christ according to the purpose of the Father was born prayed suffered dyed rose again and sitteth at the right hand of the Father interceding onely for the Elect h. e. for those who were to believe according to the eternall Election Miscel pag. 345. in quarto 3. Beza I say again and professe before the whole Church of God that it is false blasphemous and wicked to say Christ suffered was crucified died and satisfied no lesse for the sinnes of the Damned then for the sins of Peter Paul and all the Saints whether in respect of Gods Counsil or in regard of the effect Resp ad Coll. Mempelg p. 221. 4. Rippertus To say Christ died for them that perish is false and accuseth God of injustice Contra Domin Sapma p. 764. 5. Vogelius If Christ tasted death for unbelievers He drank that bitter cup in vain or else unbelievers must taste eternall death twice contrary to Gods justice to the dignity of Christs death and to possibility ubi supra p. 133. 6. Maccovius If Christ died for all then he was a surety and ransome for all even for those that perish everlastingly And this will brand God with injustice for taking a twofold punishment for the same offences when the first satisfaction might have sufficed Ubi supra pag. 35. 7. D. Damman Scribe to the Synod speaks to the same purpose It is repugnant to Gods justice that he should constitute Christ to bear the sins of all men and make full satisfaction for them and yet ordain some men to bear their own sins in their own persons and so make satisfaction for them themselves then he should punish one sin twice that is to say both in his Son and in them that perish Consens p. 63. Piscator shall shut up this Scene The Reprobate are plainly excluded from the merit of Christs death and yet they are bound to believe in him In Resp ad Duplic Vorstii c. 7. pag. 66. The third Article of Tilenus That by Adams fall his Posterity lost their free-will being put to an unavoidable Necessity to do or not to do whatsoever they do or do not whether it be good or evill being thereunto Predestinate by the eternall and effectuall secret Decree of God What saith M. Baxter to this Article Unworthy falsification still I see it will be a hard matter for Tilenus to gain M. Baxter's favour when he cannot escape his censure but the best on 't is rather then his reputation shall stand branded with those markes of Infamy which M. Baxters blackest inke hath indeavoured to imprint upon it many of M. Baxter's Reverend and in his opinion Orthodox friends are ready to be his compurgators I was about to summon M. Calvin in the head of these but I find him stumbling at the threshold and taking exceptions at the very Preface of the Article which chargeth his Adherents and followers to hold That by Adams fall his Posterity lost their freewill For he will not acknowledge such a Freewill in Adam himself whereby he might have stood witnesse these words of his to Castellio Thou saist Adam fell by his free will I except against it That he might not fall he stood in need of that strength and constancy wherewith God armeth the Elect while he will keep them blamelesse Whom God hath elected he props up with an invincible power unto perseverance Why did he not afford this to Adam if he would have had him stood in his integrity Ad Calum Nebul Ad Artic. 2. And Maccovius However Adam fell Necessarily in regard of the immutability of the Divine Decree yet he fell not by compulsion but of his own accord Non coactè sed sponté Coll. Disp disp 16. pag. 54. If the Calvinist's put Adam himself under such an unavoidable Necessity to do or not to do as an immutable Decree had determined him 'T is strange any of them should give Tilenus the Lie for affirming it to be their opinion concerning all men else And yet Tilenus stands accused by M. Baxter of an Vnworthy falsification for affirming that they hold That the Posterity of Adam having lost their free will in his fall are put under an avoidable Necessity to do good or evill And therefore to clear Tilenus that He may still carry the Reputation of a True man I 'le offer the Certificates of his Compurgators and First they shall certifie to the unavoidable Necessity of doing good as 1. Sturmius whose Certificate on the behalf of Tilenus runs thus The Elect are not onely Predestinated to the end but also to the means that lead to that end and therefore as they are necessarily saved at last in regard of the immutability of Election So in regard of the stability thereof they do necessarily also embrace the means by which they are conducted to that end De Praedest Th. 10. 2. Zanchy Whosoever are predestinated to the end they are also predestinated to those means without which that end is not to be attained And therefore as the Elect do necessarily arrive at the end at last in regard of the stedfastnesse of Election so in regard of the same stedfastnesse it is necessary they should be led and walk by the means ordained to that end De Nat. Dei lib. De Praedest -Sanct quaest 5. lib. 5. c. 2. q. 4. So it comes to passe that our Will cannot
Lordship not of his justice If the Assembly of Divines came any lower yet not so low as the Sublapsarian way For they say Confess of Faith ch 3. th 3. By the Decree of God for the manifestation of his Glory some men and Angels are Predestinated unto everlasting life and others fore-ordained to everlasting death By ranking Men and Angels in the same Decree it is evident they conclude men to be Elected and Reprobate antecedently to the fall of Adam which appears more fully by comparing the 6. and 7. Theses of that Chapter with this third The Calvinists that speak most warily doe yet maintain an Absolute and irrespective Decree not as to the end but as to the means Dr Kendal De Doct. Neopel oratio habita in Comit. Oxonii p. 36. Asserimus Decretum Absolutum quod nullum Motivum ut loquuntur admittat ex parte Dei We assert an absolute Decree because it admits of no Motive on Gods part Non negamus fidem conditionem esse salutis Asserimus vero fidem dari absque omni conditione Similiter de damnatione philosophari solemus Non negamus impoenitentiam finalem esse conditionem damnationis Asserimus vero Deum absolutè decrevisse reprobos omnes impoenitentiae suae permittendos fidem verò in Electis omnipotenti Gratia suo tempore creandam We do not deny faith to be the condition of salvation But we affirme that faith is given without any condition In like manner also we are wont to speak concerning damnation we do not deny finall impenitency to be the condition of damnation But we affirm God absolutely decreed to permit all Reprobates to their own impenitency but to create faith in his own time in the Elect by his omnipotent Grace And a little after Decretum illud irrespectivum non est de salute sed side nec de instigendis poenis sed non concedendâ Poenitentiâ That irrespective Decree 〈◊〉 not such as to salvation but as to faith nor as to the infliction of punishment but as to the non-concession of repentance As well Sublapsarians as Supralapsarians of both forts though they frame a Decree that suspends the benefit of salvation upon a condition yet it makes that condition absolutely irrepudiable and irresistible as to some persons and absolutely impossible unto others and so takes away the proper nature of sin and duty and by consequence saves and damns respectively without them 2. If we consider the Article of Redemption by Christ however M. Baxter finds an Universality of it in the decisions of that Synod yet Doctor Thomas Hill Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and able sure to understand a piece of Latin as well as Master Baxter could find no such matter For to signifie his esteem of that Assembly he calls it a happy remedy against Arminianisme in his Epistle to the Christian Reader before Master Fenners Willfull Impenitency a. 3. yet two pages after he breaks out into this Lamentation But alas Arminius now appears amongst us not so much in the Schools and Pulpits as in popular meetings For as Zanchius complained with much regret of the Sulteran I suppose it should be Lutheran Ubiquitaries that he found them ubique every where to vex and molest him so may we grieve O that we could with brokennesse of heart bewaile it that our Universalists are almost universally spread amongst us It is gotten into our Netherlands much into the Fennish and Moorish parts of this Kingdome yea amongst many people that love Jesus Christ and therefore entertain it as conceiving it most for his Honour the more are they to be pitied c. Thus Doctor Hill who certainly did not think his happy Remedy to be infected with that he accounts disease and so much bewailes as if it were as mortall as he conceived it Epidemicall Good God! That mans eye should be so evil because God is so good and gracious That he should think it a matter of humiliation and that with brokennesse of heart that the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Merits of his Death and the emanations of his Grace should be so much magnified And yet we finde the whole Assembly of Divines if we may collect their Judgement out of their Publick Confession rather then take it from what a single member it seems hath whispered into M. Baxter's eare had so narrow a Faith they could not admit this Point to be an Article of their Belief For they speak restrictively of Christs Sacrifice Chap. 8. th 5. that it hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father and purchased not onely reconciliation but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdome of Heaven for all those whom the Father hath given unto him And more fully thes 8. To all those for whom Christ hath purchased Redemption He doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same making intercession for them c. And this is very probably collected out of the third Chapter too comparing the 6. and 7. Theses together They who are Elected being fallen in Adam are redeemed by Christ The rest of mankinde God was pleased according to the unsearchable counsil of his own will whereby he extendeth or with-holdeth mercy as he pleaseth for the glory of his not Justice but NB. Soveraign Power over his creatures to passe by and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin to the praise of his glorious justice ˙ ˙ Besides Master Baxter hath had some contest as I remember with Adversaries who make the remission of sins the immediate effect of Christs death and maintain that it is granted unto the elect before they do Actually believe I suppose Master Baxter will not say these men are for universall Redemption though perhaps as great Admirers of the Synod as himself and I doubt these are not a very few 3. As touching the unavoidable necessity of all humane Actions in regard of the effectuall Decree that the Calvinists do commonly maintain it is evident That I may not tire the Reader with a multitude of testimonies I shall satisfie my self with one or two The first cause so concurreth as it determineth the second cause in its operation saith M. Norton This is readily granted in naturall Agents in free-rationall Agents it is proved thus If the futurition of the operation of the second Cause is determined by the Decree of God then the operation is self is determined by the efficiency of God The Orthodox Evangelist p. 110. m. And a little after If as often as the will doth not will it therefore doth not will because God hath not determined that it should will then as often as it willeth any thing it therefore willeth because God hath determined that it should will But as often as the Will doth not will it therefore doth not will because God hath not determined that it should will Therefore p. 126. f. Notwithstanding sin is wholly of man and subordinate efficiency in sinfull actions belongs formally unto the
to the Elect ONEly and that according to the counsil will and intention of the Father and this Master Baxter had under his view when he exprest so much wrath against Tilenus and therefore he confutes himself with this Confession They do indeed assert Art 2. Sect. 8. That it was onely the Elect that God the Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to faith justification and salvation which is the same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Who ought Master Baxter this shame to betray him to this incogitancy The same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Why was not that Election of some certain culled out Persons as the Synod declares So we see what Master Baxters Universall Redemption comes to His Redeemed All are no more then his Elected All 't is an All in respect of kindes not of Persons But Christ is theirs to be sute according to the most Free Counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father So saith the Synod and this Master Baxter will subscribe to when he is Disputing against Tilenus though when he gets into the Pulpit he declares this to be a Doctrine of an ill influence for he saith Christ and salvation are made light of because of this disjunctive Presumption either that he is sure enough theirs already Making light of Christ pag. 21. and God that is so mercifull and Christ that hath suffered so much for them is surely resolved to save them or else it may easily be obtained at any time if it be not yet so Is it not the expresse Doctrine of the Synod and Master Baxter that Christ is sure enough the Elects and that God and Christ are resolved to save them and that this will most infallibly be obtained at God's time if it be not so yet This disjunctive presumption which he preacheth down in his Church he disputes up in his Closet And though when he is conversing with his papers inter Adversaria and drawing Diagrams concerning the Divine Decrees his good wits jump with the Synod and tells us The Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to Faith justification and salvation none but the Elect yet when he hath his Crown which is his crowd of Auditors about him he forgets himself and if not his love to truth his zeale to souls transports him into other language much more patheticall then this Doctrine will allow of For thus he addresseth his exhortation to them Ibid. pag. 29.30 Beloved hearers the office that God hath call'd us to is by declaring the glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of mens souls I hope you think not that I come hither to day of any other Errand The Lord knowes I had not set a foot out of doores but in hope to succeed in this work for your soules I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousand should perish Now the man is in a rapture and hath quite forgotten his Decree of Reprobation when God hath done so much for their salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text Mat. 22.5 But they made light of it is the cause It is one of the wonders of the world that when God hath so loved the world as to send his Son and Christ hath made a satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the benefits thereof so freely to them even without money or price that yet the most of the world should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his word Is it one of the wonders of the world that Gods eternall and immutable Decrees concerning them should be executed Why here is the reason saith Master Baxter when Christ hath done all this men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling but your Synod hath shewed otherwise and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that men should be restored to Gods favour and be saved but men are actually unwilling themselves God takes no pleasure in the death of sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33.11 How came he then to reject them upon Adam's sin and deny them Grace sufficient unto salvation as you teach But men take such pleasure in sinne that they will die before they will returne The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physitian and hath provided them a sufficient plaister of his own blood but such as his Father intended should not be effectuall by your doctrine but if men make light of it and will not apply it which your Party confess they are not inabled to do what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition It is a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care their time their pains for known vanities while God and Glory are cast aside and a little after Oh how should we marvell at their madnesse and lament their self-delusion who preach such contradictions Oh poore distracted world â— what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another world or what Decrees had past to shut them up under sin and deny them the Grace of Faith and Repentance according to your Disputations then they had been excufable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it This is Master Baxters preaching vein by which his vulgar flock would be ready to flatter themselves that they had their Teachers warrant to be confident that God doth earnestly intend the salvation of them all But when this pang of soul-saving zeal is over that he gets into his Polemicall strain then he disputes them out of all their hopes again for thus he proceeds If this Tilenus think that God intended the justification and Salvation of all by Christ it 's absolutely or conditionally Here I wish Master Baxter had positively spake out what it is that God intends them whom he calls the Reprobate or Non-elect if not their Justification and salvation then I know nothing else it can be but their greater condemnation and then sure he is unwilling they should be restored to his favour which is opposite point blank against Master Baxters popular exhortations But if God intended their justification and salvation absolutely they shall be saved saith Master Baxter which no Christian that I know believeth Tilenus as little Christian as you make him is of This Faith too and therefore he saith God intended this but Conditionally But then Master Baxter tells us The rigidest Anti-Arminians even Doctor Twisse doth over and over grant it you and I thank him for nothing of Justification and salvation that Christ died to procure this Common Grace that men shall be justified and saved if they will believe The Reader perhaps may be amused
not make use of no not so much as to exempt and free themselves from that servitude of sin which is superadded to sin Originall As for Doctor Jeremy Taylor you should do well to stop his mouth first not by impotent and unworthy insinuations but by solid and convincing Arguments before you invite or provoke others of his minde to open theirs But why disown the Pelagians no more would you not persuade your Reader that Doctor Taylor is a perfect Pelagian and is not this suggestion as odious and uncharitable as the self-devised tale with which you charged Tilenus even now how then comes it to passe that so honest a man as Master Baxter is found guilty of it not against the poorest neighbour but against a very learned and worthy person though haply his enemy for telling him some truths that go against the grain of his interest Popularity or Ambition M. Baxter may remember a little Pamphlet intituled A Testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ c. subscribed by 52. Ministers his Brethren within the Province of London Pag. 4. with the 9. wherein amongst other abominable errours damnable heresies and horrid blasphemies they reckon this for one That Christ was given to undergo a shamefull death voluntarily upon the crosse to satisfie for the sin of Adam and for all the sins of all Mankind Now seeing the Pelagians are charged by the Ancients with this Doctrine that Christ did not die for all as appears by Saint Austin contra 2. Epist Pelag. l. 2. c. 2. Pelagiani dicunt Deum non esse omnium aetatum in hominibus mundatorem salvatorem liberatorem c. Suppose a man should return Master Baxters language upon his Party Those of you that are of the 52. Ministers mind in this speak out and disown the Pelagians no more How would they take it or how would Master Baxter interpret it This would be called a shamelesse calumny at least a perverse insinuation in Tilenus though it must passe currant for a piece of ingenuity and candor in himself But doth not Doctor Taylor in stating the Question that there may be no clamours against the person interested in either persuasion nor any offence taken by errour or misprision tell you It is not intended nor affirmed that there is no such thing as Originall sin for it is certain Further explicat p. 452 and affirmed by all Antiquity upon many grounds of Scripture That Adam sinned and his sin was Personally his but Derivatively ours that is it did great hurt to us to our bodies directly to our souls indirectly and accidentally So great hurt that the Doctor saith Pag. 431. in his Vnum necessarium That our Spirit when it is at the best it is but willing but can do nothing without the miracle of Grace He doth not stick in his Answer to the L. Bishops second Letter Pag. 101. to call it the Pelagian Heresie and saith it did serve it self by saying too little in this Article And in his Vindication to the Countesse of Devonshire Pag. 101. he saith I desire to be observed in opposition to the Pelagian Heresie who did suppose Nature to be so perfect that the Grace of God was not necessary and that by Nature alone they could go to heaven which because I affirm to be impossible and that Baptism is therefore necessary because Nature is insufficient and Baptism is the great channell of grace there ought to be no envious and ignorant lâ—â—d laid upon my Doctrine as if it complied with the Pelagian against which it is so essentially and so mainly opposed in the main difference of his Doctrine I do not insert this as if I had a minde to vindicate the Doctors opinion or espouse his quarrell he is of age to answer for himself but to give the Reader notice of the disingenuous practises used by this great pretender unto truth and Godlinesse in his unworthy defamation of some no lesse than in his undue vindication of others But for the Doctors honour and comfort M. Baxter puts him amongst very good company Saints Rest par 1. pag. 154. m. under this accusation viz. All the Fathers of the first two hundred or three hundred years and the plain truth is saith he till Pelagius daies all spoke like Pelagians And yet how this opinion can be true I understand not seeing S. Austin maintains his Doctrine against the Pelagians by the Authority of all the Fathers that wrote before him and condemneth that of Pelagius as a recent errour or novel Presumption However M. Baxter should do well to consider that the Manichees are at least as ill as the Pelagians and therefore he should take heed he runne not into the extreams of very many Calvinists who think they are never safe from the danger of this Charybdis till they fall into that Scylla And if I should say the Synod of Dort did so he would not spare to tell me as he doth Tilenus here that he speaks bitterly of them Why bitterly Some men are so tender of their very errours that they are ready to complain Truth bites them when she doth but imploy her tongue to lick their soars in order to their healing All other mens Gall and Copperas it seems doth corrode and fret but Master Baxters is purely Balsamical But is it all Gospel that was said by Saint Austin or the Synod of Dort Harae saith Augustinum tam varium fuisse in fervore disputationis hujus ut passim nec secum nec cum Scriptura conciliari possit De grat lib. arb lib. 2. cap. 14. You dissent from the first as much as Tilenus and the Canons of the later are no Authentick Text with you unlesse you may be allowed to make your own exposition So you professe in your Confession of Faith concerning Artic. 1. Sect. 12 Art 3. Sect. 12. 15. Art 5. Sect. 9 Pag. 25. 10 11 13. And having cleared your self of the imputation of Arminianismâ— you proceed in these words So I shall think that those who go as much on the other hand and differ from the Synod one way as much as the Arminians did the other way remain censurable as well as they and soon after Yet let me adde this Pag. 27. lest my seeking to satisfie the offended may draw me into guilt Though I have voluntarily my self professed my consent to those severall Canons and Confessions of Faith but this is upon liberty taken to explain what Phrases you dislike in them and putting your own sense upon them and therefore you might very well subjoyne what followes Yet for the Synod of Dort the Confession of the Assembly yea or the Larger Catechisme without some correction I do hereby protest my dissent against the so imposing them to a word upon all Ministers that no man that cannot subscribe to them shall be permitted in the Church whether our confession were intended for such a necessary Test I know not well But that the
Saving Faith pag. 40. of that Habit or Dispositition And I conceive the very Question is about this influx and the degree of its Activity in helping the Unregenerate to repent and believe In your Treatise a Pag. 294. of Conversion you say That Habituall willingnesse none hath but he that hath proportionably received that Grace that doth effect it There is then some helpe to supply the defects of that Morall Disposition or rather to work it through want whereof the Reprobate cannot have it Excus 22. And in your Sermon of Judgement you say If we take Power Ethically and who takes it otherwise in this Question but such as love to lurk in Ambiguities none but the effectually called have a power to believe The Elect Drunkard Whoremonger Worldling c. cannot levy forces enough of his own to subdue those Rebel lusts that fight against the soul You confesse God is pleased to send them forrein insuperable aid out of his Omnipotent and irresistible Armies of Auxiliaries And though the Principes and Triarii be kept for a Grand Reserve to fall in to their succour when they are routed and discomfited and we do not envie them that Assistance but blesse God for such Gracious Supplies understanding their great need many times as well as Gods free liberty to shew mercy yet some of the Velites you might allow the Reprobate at least to ballance the force of the enemy And then being upon such equall termes as the first Adam stood upon in Paradise which I do not understand in respect of Innocency or a present and immediate freedome from the servitude of sin and guilt of death but in respect of a measure of Grace proportionable to those temptations and infirmities they are to contest against which is that condition to which the second Adam is said to have restored us if they will not fight it out then Rom. 5.17 and quit themselves like men let them be led into captivity to the Law of sin till they perish in it But it seems 't is but a folly for them to expect such Relief They are required to bring in their tale of Brick but no straw will be allowed them they must make a shift with such stubble as they can rake up upon the Fallows of their own Nature for so M. Baxter intimates in his next words which are these The Synod never doubted but that men have the Naturall Power of willing and what then can be moreover imagined to be in the will besides the Morall Inclination to will 'T is true if by being in the will you mean as being there by the Right or improvement of Nature but you have told us formerly of a Sufficient Grace Praef. Sect. 8. bringing Christ and Salvation to the choice even of the worst that perish What is become of this Grace now without this man hath a Naturall Active Faculty of willing and if that Grace superadded to it cannot inable him to will above Nature that is Graciously or to Believe what is the reall effect purpose and intent of it I pray speak out without any equivocation or Mentall Reservation But your Sufficient Grace as farre as I can perceive is like those men which deceitfull Officers use to take up against a Generall Muster that the cheat of their dead Payes may not be discovered they will serve to make a shew and skirmish a little in a way of Pastime but are never ingaged to fight Thus you furnish out your Common Grace which you are pleased to allow the Non-Elect and if it be handsomely harnessed carrying a bow yet wanting string and arrow like Ephraim it turnes back in the day of battell Never was the body of sin vanquisht nor the soule of any one single Christian crowned under the conduct of it And therefore perhaps you thought you were as good to leave the Reprobate to their Naturall Active Facultie without that Assistance which though they may Accept of yet they cannot improve to their salvation It is of another sort and design'd to another end a means not to save but to harden and render inexcusable for accomplishing the Decree of Reprobation But let us hear Master Baxters appeal which he enters in these following words Now I dare appeal saith he to any Reasonable man whether these vicious persons have holy inclinations to the contrary vertue that is whether a wicked man be Habitually or dispositively a Godly man This is the very Question when you have driven it to the Head about the power of unsanctified men to Repent Believe Love God c. To which what hath been returned already is sufficient to make it appeare that Master Baxter hath not yet hit the nail o' th' head in this Question But there are two things which I have observed to fall frequently from him in his writings to which I must apply an Answer 1. That even the Reprobates may have Christ and life Section 8. or salvation if they will But Antonius Thysius * Ad Sum. Baron p. 38. speaks more ingenuously according to the Doctrine of the Synod whereof he was a member Multi salvi non fiunt saith he non quia ipsi nolunt sed quia Deus non vult Many are not saved not because they are unwilling but because God wills not And †Contra Castel pag 102 Donteclock saith Duo ergo sunt qui nolunt Deus homo There are two that are unwilling God and man And Calvin a Instit. l. 3. c. 24. n. 14. Quòd igitur sibi patefacto Dei verbo non obtemperant reprobi probè id in malitiam pravitatemque cordis eorum rejicietur modo simul adjiciatur ideò in hanc pravitatem addictos quia justo sed inscrutabili Dei judicio suscitati sunt ad gloriam ejus sua damnatione illustrandam That the Reprobates obey not the Gospel of God may very well be imputed to the malice and pravitie of their own heart so this be also added to it that they are therefore addicted to that pravitie or naughtinesse because by the just but unsearchable judgement of God they are raised up to set forth his glory by their Damnation And little lesse then this is implyed though very modestly in Sect. 15. of M. Baxters Preface The second Thing I must take notice of in Master Baxters Doctrine about this Article is That the Reprobates cannot is no more then they will not for thus he saith Sect. 36. of this Preface When the Synod sayes they cannot which he told Tilenus even now he slanderously charged upon them yet now himself findes it in them and expounds it thus When the Synod sayes they cannot they speak but of a Moral Impotency which is nothing else but Habituall unwillingnesse and so the cannot and the will not is the same thing But Beza †In brevi explic tot Christian. c. 5 Aph. 4. doth distinguish them and saith Nec volunt nec etiam possunt So doth