himself or how the Grace of God which came by Christ did abound and was made more efficacious then sin For if the sin of Adam destroyed and slew more than the Death and Passion of the Lord Christ made alive then were Sin of a larger extent and more potent than Grace 〈◊〉 v. and the Apostle could not truly affirm That where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound CHAP. IV. A fourth Argument against the Doctrine of Inconditionate Reprobation taken from the Evangelical Dispensation wherein is shown the purport and design of the Gospel which is to reinstate all men into the Participation of the Divine Nature and that that Rigid Doctrine is destructive of so high and glorious an end THere is no Man that knows himself and discerns the true frame of his own Being what sublime and noble perfections the soul is capable of and withal reflects upon the weak and imperfect state of the Sons of men how uncertain and fluctuating their judgments are at the best and how frequently obscured with prejudice how impotently stubborn their wills to the election of substantial good and how broken and disordered the faculties of their whole man but will assuredly conclude that all Mankind however it comes to pass are extremely alienated and apostatiz'd from that innate purity and excellent state in which they were created for no Man that believes himself made by an Alwise and infinitely perfect Author can imagine that he came thus lame and maimed out of his hands and sunk as low as the capacities of their Nature will permit being only vivacious and active to trifling low and bodily interests and concernments carrying on such poor and momentary designs as are unworthy the native generosity of their minds in a word so devoid of that life in the possession of which consists their true felicity that they are past hopes of recovering by their own solitary endeavours their pristine and ancient glory But although Man by that venturous and bold revolt from the blessed Kingdom of Light dispossessed himself of Gods favour and forfeited all right and title to his ordinary care and Providence yet that ever-to-be-magnified Goodness which made him at first Lapsable beheld him as a calamitous object of compassion and designed the erecting and reedifying that glorious Temple which sin and unrighteousness had miserably defaced and ruined and the repossessing his own life of it's rightful Government and Dominion in the Souls of Men which however they come into the World the subjects of bruitish lusts and passions are yet capable of Angelical accomplishments and a Vital Union with the Creator of all things God therefore being the highest and most perfect life and feeling and knowing his Nature to be the most pretious thing in all the World and the utmost perfection of every Rational Being could not but intend graciously to his lapsed Creatures and seek the extension and dispreading of his goodly Attributes over all capable subjects of the World of life For he that shall look upon the diligence and activity of the dark Powers in enlarging the bounds of their usurped Kingdom and consider the contagious and disseminating Nature of every pitiful and degenerate lust how every crazie and sickly vice attempts and offers at a further explication of it self and every small Exarchat of that Hellish Principality endeavours dayly to make new additions and take in fresh supplies to maintain the general cause of unrighteousness and augment their petty Royalties can never think that God will sit as a disinteressed spectator but promote and advance his own good life to the command of the whole Creation and brake down the power of that great Arimanus who captivates the sons of Men in the fetters and shackles of Mortality and Death The life of God is a strong and powerful principle and hath alwayes the arme of Heaven to aid and assist it but all sin and unrighteousness is a meer poverty and deficiency not able to exist in the World did not the self-wills of men uphold it and can never stand against the potent assaults of the Heavenly Nature Which holy life that God might reestablish in the World he hath delivered the Gospel the last and most perfect dispensation that ever was or shall be communicated to Men which consists not in an external and dead form of words nor is it a meer systeme and compendium of such precepts that like the Mosaical Law sanctifie only to the purifying of the flesh but cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perfect him that doth the service as pertaining to the Conscience that is Purge and cleanse his mind from dead Works and make way for the consummation of the life of God within him whereby he shall no longer be in bondage and servility to every caitive lust but act spontaneously under a free and generous principle and become a law to himself but such a Method of perfect Righteousness and Virtue as shall purifie refine and exalt the spirits of Men from all feculent concretions and subdue every irregular motion and unruly desire that would tempt and sollicit their choice of corporeal joyes and beget in them so true a relish of unblameable Goodness and Holiness as should at the end of their mortal life instal them in the full possession of everlasting Tranquility and Peace Of which glorious contrivance though we have a Scheme and Model drawn out in the Holy Gospels yet there is a life and spirit in Christianity that cannot be blotted on paper but lives and acts in such hearts as are framed and squared according to those Rules contained in the Sacred Writings And this he who is the Author of our Faith and Blessedness testified when he said that his Words were Spirit and Life such as were able and designed to revive the dead and sensless minds of Men and propagate a vital heat and motion through the torpid and benummed World and accordingly the Apostle St. Paul tels us that Christianity is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Law of the Spirit of life Rom. viii 2. 2 Cor. 3. and in another place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The ministration of the Spirit and the ministration of Righteousness in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The dispensation of Death and Condemnation intimating that under the Gospel men shall not have a Mechanical and Artificial Religion but such as frames the life and spirit of God in their hearts and becomes a Vital forme tuning their souls into an Universal consent with Gods own Will whereby they send forth most harmonious and Divine accents not only when they are stricken and beaten upon by an external hand like Memnon's statue whose Musical notes ceased so soon as the Sun-beams were withdrawn from it but from an internal Power incorporated and made one with their own spirits It is true when God at first made Man and sent him into this lower World he left him to be governed by those innate prescriptions and rules of Righteousness
with them for not creating the World or raising the dead 3. The Gospel in propriety of speech cannot be said to be offered at all to Reprobates without the greatest Hypocrisie and Dissimulation imaginable much less that by it they should be fairly rendred without excuse For by the Gospel we understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the New Covenant which God hath made with the world in the Lord Christ to which both God and Man have set their Seals God hath promised for his part that he will give a free pardon and indulgence for all their sins upon their true Repentance and will assist them in the performance of his Commands with his Divine Spirit and Benediction and at last upon their perseverance in Holiness bestow upon them Immortality and Life And Man engages that he will faithfully perform the conditions according to the utmost of his power and ability which on his part he is obliged to which are expressed to be Faith and Repentance a putting off the Old man and putting on the New a being buryed with Christ in his Death and rising again with him to Newness of life And this Notion seems to be intimated by the Apostle 2 Tim. ii 19. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our translation renders foundation signifies here the Compact or Covenant of God the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stability or firmness whereof there enforced assures us that there is no salvation to be expected but according to the contents of that Great Indenture once for all sealed in the blood of Christ of which as that indeed is one part which is inscribed on one side of the Seal the Lord knoweth who are his that is he will never fail to own those who continue faithful to him so on the other side is most Emphatical let every man that nameth the name of Christ depart form iniquity which if he do not he hath forfeited all the priviledges of Christianity And it may further be observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is sometimes rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isay 30.1 as a Learned Critick notes This being then the Nature of the Gospel it cannot without deceit and fraud be offered to Reprobates for God cannot in his Word command them to believe in Christ as their Saviour and Redeemer without injoyning them to believe a lie nor can he exhort them to Repentance without Hypocrisie having by a peremptory Decree secluded them from a participation of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free and gracious donations whereby they should be impowered to forsake their sins and which he hath obliged himself to extend to all the World on his part of the Covenant If God therefore intended not to own them for his nor give them his Grace and assistance to conquer and subdue their rebellious Natures they are not included within the terms of it And how can any man be convinced of Contumacy and so left inexcusable for rejecting a Doctrine not at all belonging to him for conviction supposes a man to have done otherwise then he might have done and to have left undone something which was in his power to perform which cannot be affirmed of Reprobates To conclude this Argument if this Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation may be admitted as true and genuine the whole Ministery of the word is but a more solemn kind of Pageantry and flattery and Gods Ambassadors by whom he beseeches mankind to be reconciled unto him treat with the greatest part of them upon false grounds and beside Gods will and intentions bearing them in hand that God desires their welfare and happiness tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant till they have brought them to the confines of Hell where they shall feel those acute pains to never-dying ages which were their destin'd portion from before the foundation of the World And now let any rational man judge whether this Doctrine as it is here represented all along and 't is no otherwise then may easily be proved out of the writings of the favourers of it do not infinitely obstruct the progress of real and unfeigned Righteousness in the World and scatter a malignant influence upon mens practice in order to Holiness and a good life while some as if they had been of Heavens counsel and seen their Names enrolled above cannot look upon themselves under any other position but that of Gods peculiar and selected ones and for that very reason believe themselves out of the reach of Apostacy and miscarriage than which there can be no greater allay to a diligent search after the true and living Nature of God for while their endeavors after it cool like the air by intervening showers and they swallow every bait and neglect to excite their powers and faculties by a timely care and industry upon the stock of a secure confidence of heaven the enemy forrages and spoils and makes dayly inrodes upon their hearts and they are upon the margins of destruction ere they are aware Others despairing of life and believing every thing adverse to their felicity have no heart to go forward and either wear out their lives in a sottish senselessness and stupidity or spend them in jollity and crown their heads with rosebuds and forget God resolving to make as good use of the present time as they can knowing that when this fleeting and perishing life is ended they shall be plunged into everlasting misery CHAP. V. A fift and last Argument wherein is shewn that the Doctrine of Irrespective Reprobation takes away the liberty of Mans Will and consequently leaves no place for reward of Virtue or punishment of Vice THat there is a free principle in Man a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a self-moving power and life which is able to segregate Truth from Falshood Good from Evil Hence the Stoicks say the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Greek Fathers add to those Epithetes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly elect as the Arguments shall appear more or less convictive is not only the judgment of Reason but the sense of the most Orthodox Antiquity whether Theology or Philosophy although the Truth is in this diseased and distempered condition all men lie under the manner of the Wills election shews that it is in the greatest measure inclinable to evil as will appear further hereafter And that I may not seem barely to assert what others so strenuously oppugn I shall alledge some plain and perspicuous testimonies out of the ancient Fathers and Philosophers who have manumitted the will of man and left it free to chuse Good or Evill though when it is determined to one it may be drawn by weightier grounds and reasons to the election of
not deliver him in the day of his transgression as for the wickedness of the wicked he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness Ezek. xxxiii 12 13 14 15. The result of these places is this That particular men or the persons of men from time to time come under the Eternal Decrees of Love or Hatred according to their actual and present state of righteousness or unrighteousness For if God decreed life and death upon the consideration of future sin and holiness he may as well decree a reward and punishment respectively for that which men would have been engaged in had they lived in this World to all eternity which directly contradicts that Scripture wherein we are said to give an account for the things which we have already done not which we should have done had we continued longer in the body And hence it is that the righteous man who is now in the love and favour of God being hardned again through his own negligence and the deceitfulness of sin may relapse into that state which the Decree of death takes hold of and of such a man is that of St. Peter to be understood 2 Peter ii 21. It had been better for such a man not to have known the way of righteousness then after he hath known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to him And when the righteous man degenerates from his former faith and the enemy takes advantage and oppresses the Divine life through his carelessness and folly God charges all his past sins upon him and recals his justification whereby he was before esteemed as righteous in his sight which is intimated in the Parable Matth. xviii where he that had the debt forgiven him because he dealt so harshly and ungently with his Fellow-servant was again called in question and the whole summe charged upon him and Christ applies it to our present purpose verse 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his Brother their trespasses For we must know that God pardons our iniquities by parts and as we grow in Virtue and Holiness so his displeasure decreases and is taken off and he that is justified becomes yet more justified and walks in the light and the breath of God enkindles the heavenly fire and fans it into flames and ardors and so long the man is safe but if he return to folly the anger of God is renewed as at the beginning and the last state of that man is worse then the first 2. That true and real Believers may relapse and be confined and brought in bondage to the strait and narrow laws of their own self-wills and fall from the life of God and become settled and radicated in a life of self-seeking and guided by the parsimonious principles of Pleasure and Interest is the voice of Scripture and Reason the former of which palpably and undeniably concludes and determines the case Heb. x. 38 39. Now the just shall live by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if he not any man as our Translation improperly supplies it i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the just man who before is said to live by his faith if he draw back Gods soul shall have no pleasure in him and what this drawing back is we may collect from the subsequent words But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition So again Heb. vi 4 5 6. For it is impossible i. e. very difficult and hard for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who were once enlightned i.e. Baptized for Baptism was called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the Powers of the world to come if if they shall fall away to renew them again to repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame And if this were to be understood of Hypocrites what need the expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For unto what should they be renewed and reinstated their former condition being in it self so deep an unregeneracy and from what is it they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fall away when their distempered natures were never recovered by the practice of any real and substantial holiness Wherefore this must necessarily be meant of those who had in a good measure subdued the motions of the inferior life and left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the principles and rudiments of Christianity and were arising 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to perfection For the tasting the heavenly gift and the good word of God and the powers of the world to come are no more to be understood of a slight touch and transient perception then the same phrase when it is used of the Lord Christ that he tasted death for every man Chap. ii 9. But that as he did really feel and experience the effects of death conquering his mortal life so these here spoken of did truly rellish and apprehend the sweetness of Christianity from a clear discriminating sense of it's native excellency and felt the Divine Spirit destroying the irregular appetites of the inferior life and sanctifying their Natures by a blessed inhabitation To these we may add Ezek. xviii 24. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live All his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned What can be more manifest than this if men would clear up their apprehensions and look upon things as things and not content themselves with bare names and shadows For that the righteous man in the Text should signifie an Hypocrite and one seemingly righteous is the most distorted gloss that can be put upon it 1. Because the righteous is here opposed to the wicked person but if it were to be expounded of one seemingly righteous who is so much worse then an open profane person in that he acts impiety under the cover of Religion the words must run thus When the righteous man i. e. the Hypocrite turns away from his Hypocrisie and acts according to the abominations of the wicked man and if by the righteous be meant an Hypocrite what is to be understood by the wicked to which 't is opposed 2. This righteous man is said to live by his righteousness but the Scripture no where sayes That the Hypocrite shall live by his counterfeit holiness but directly the contrary The hope of the Hypocrite shall perish And I must confess I do not at all understand the intent and purpose of God in inserting so many Cautions and Exhortations to Watchfulness and Diligence in the Gospel if there be no possibility of a true Believer's desertion of the Faith which questionless the Illustrious Compilers of the Church of England's Confession of Faith
the case Is it at all consentaneous to that communicative Goodness wherein God takes most delight to glorifie himself to make those souls the desolate Victims of enraged Vengeance who never had any more then a capability of Existence when their first Parent sinned against heaven and could no more prevent their defilement by that diffusive contagion then hinder themselves from being first made Arrian makes a very near cognation and affinity of the souls of Men with God Cap. 14. lib. 1. in Epictet as if they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particles and avulsions from him and when Moses made intercession for the Israelites upon the Rebellion of Korah he uses this Title or Appellation Numb xvi 22. The God of the spirits of all flesh as the most prevalent Argument to induce him not to be wrath with the whole Congregation for one mans sin forasmuch as he was their Creator and therefore could not but pity the works of his own hands And the Author to the Hebrews styles this everblessed Being Chap. xii 9. The Father of Spirits who for that very reason can never cast of that Relation and become unpitiful to his own lovely Off-spring who in their lowest state and greatest degeneracy were vouchsafed to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sons of God Joh. xi 52. And now what other can these things signifie but that there is a very near alliance and consanguinity between God and the souls of Men and that it is only the corrupt imaginations of men which introduced those horrid Decrees and represented God as a hater of Mankind and desirous of the death of his Creation But to carry on this a little further That God should hang the everlasting interest of millions of souls upon the frail and mutable Will of a single Person whom he foresaw would lapse and by it ruin and undo the greater part of his yet uncreated Posterity is an Oeconomy too harsh and rigid ever to be put in execution by the God of Love and unworthy the Nature of him who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and in him the Father of Mercies and Compassions Let us be wise unto sobriety and act like men who care not for Words and Names but Things Suppose an hundred Persons condemned to die equally culpable equally criminal and it be in the Power of some Good Man to save ten twenty or all if he please will he not rather deliver all than only redeem twenty or a less number especially when he may do it with the same expence and cost and shall we imagine God to be less Good than a charitable and kind-hearted Man Do God and his holy Angels take an infinite complacency and delight and rejoyce at the Conversion of one sinner and can we think they take pleasure in the destruction of Myriads even before they ever actually offended This made Mr. Calvin betake himself to the defence of the Supralapsarian cause because he knew not how the Personal sin of Adam should be derived upon his Posterity and make them formally guilty so as God might Salvâ bonitate justitiâ Reprobate them as sinners and cast them into the lowest hell Wherefore he ascribes all to the Divine Preordination and doubts not to say In Resp ad Calumn Nebul. ad Art 1. Nihil ad nos unius hominis culpa nisi nos coelestis judex aeterno exitio addiceret But let us hear him speak out his mind more fully to this purpose Instit lib. 3. cap. 23. § 7. Disertis verbis hoc extare negant decretum fuisse à Deo ut sua defectione periret Adam Quasi verò idem ille Deus quem Scriptura praedicat facere quaecunque vult ambiguo fine condideret nobilissimum ex suis Creaturis Liberi arbitrii fuisse Dicunt ut fortunam ipse sibi fingeret Deum verò nihil destinasse nisi ut pro merito eum tractaret Tam frigidum commentum si recipitur ubi erit illa Dei Omnipotentia quâ secundum arcanum consilium quod aliunde non pendet omnia moderatur Atqui Praedestinatio velint nolint in posteris se profert Neque enim factum est naturaliter ut à salute exciderent omnes unius parentis culpâ Quid eos prohibet fateri de uno homine quod inviti de toto humano genere concedunt Quid enim tergiversando luderent operam Cunctos mortales in unius hominis personâ morti aeternae mancipatos fuisse Scriptura clamat Hoc cùm naturae ascribi nequeat ab admirabili Dei consilio profectum esse minime obscurum est Bonos istos justitiae Dei Patronos perplexos haerere in festu â altas verò trabes superare nimis absurdum est Iterum quaero Unde factum est ut tot gentes unà cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternae morti involveret lapsus Adae absque remedio nisi quia Deo ita visum est Hic obmutescere oportet alicqui tam dicaces linguas Decretum quidem horrible fateor inficiari tamen nemo poterit quin praesciverit Deus quem exitum esset habiturus homo antequam ipsum conderet ideo praesciverit quia decreto suo sic ordinarat It cannot be denyed then but that the Scripture abundantly testifies and our dayly experience asserts the Lapse and Apostacy of Men from God and that they are really guilty of an Original contagion but that it came by any Ordination and Decree of God neither Scripture not Reason will assent unto And for this Degeneracy God might justly have punished all the World since that every man had made himself obnoxious by departing from him and violating his Sacred Law But God whose Goodness never fails was so far from taking advantage of the deplorable state of Mankind that he had a design of Good towards them and sent the Lord Christ into the World who taking upon him to become a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of men took of all that displeasure which was conceived against them according as the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. v. 19. Col. i. 19 20. God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And again It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell and having made peace through the bloud of his Cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven By which Reconciliation is meant Gods taking into grace and favour lapsed Man and forgiving their foul degeneracy from him and assuring them that their past obliquities shall never ruine them if now they will endeavour to become New-creatures and that now he hath entred upon a Covenant of Peace wherein he promises to them all the assistance that possibly can be given Rational Beings so that now no man is damned for his Original but Actual Transgressions otherwise it cannot be understood how God through Christ should reconcile the World unto