as in a generall root was so conceived and brought forth by his mother in sin Secondly it is one thing to be conceived and born in sin another thing to be made of sin The former David affirms of himself the latter they vainly impute to us and refute in us with many words That Infants are under condemnation that is naturally guilty thereof hath been formerly proved that actuall faith in Christ is required for their reconciliation to God doth not follow hereupon Actuall I say for the seed of faith they haue and of all graces for but by Gods holy Spirit in them which carries all graces with it they cannot be holy and so not bee glorified if they be not holy first but that hereupon they need actuall faith is their saying without proof Actuall sins indeed require actuall faith but for sin in disposit on called originall why may not faith in disposition suffice through the mercy of God for the applying of it About the Infants of Sodom and Gomorrah they discourse marvellously as first in ranking them in their deaths with unreasonable creatures in theirs secondly in making them not onely innocent but godly also The Scriptures teach that besides the temporary death those Cities suffer the vengeance of eternall fire Let them proue children not to haue been of those Cities If God exempted them or any of them from that vengeance it was not for any condition cōmon to them with bruit beasts as they insinuate but with respect to Christ besides whom the Scriptures acknowledg no other Saviour nor no other salvation but by him ADVERSARIES TO a question moved by themselves What need Infants haue of Christ if they be not under condemnation they answer that through his redemption they liue and moue and haue their being and injoy all other earthly blessings with resurrection from the dead and glorification 1 Cor. 15. 12. DEFENCE THus they make Christ and Infants amends But how proue they that by Christs redemption they liue moue c The Scripture Act. 17 to which they haue reference is meant of the naturall life of all by Gods work of creation and providence which is nothing but continuation of creation and nothing at all to Christ as Redeemer The redemption for which Christ came is from sin and so from the curse due for sin as the Scriptures every where testifie The first Adam was made a living soule the last Adam a quickning spirit We haue therfore our naturall life motion and being common to Heathens with Christians by the first Adam our spirituall and glorious life by the second Lastly the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 15. 22 In Christ shall all be made aliue speaks onely of all beleevers as is evident v. 14. 17. 18. 19 who haue Christ for the first fruits and are Christs v. 20. 23. Are any Christs but Christians Is not the lump and the first fruits one Men should haue risen again though Christ had never come or been promised but to condemnation Our resurrection onely in regard of the glory of it is from Christs glorious resurrection And if Infants haue glorification from Christ then they haue the pardon of sinne from Christ also 1 Cor. 15. 17. 23 and therewith his Spirit dwelling in them for sanctifying and quickning them Rom. 8. 9. 10. 11. These men divide Chrst making him a King to some for glorification to whom hee is not a Priest for redemption by his bloud Next to a question by themselvs moved How wee must haue the Son they answer by keeping his commandements forgetting faith by which alone we receiv Christ from which followeth loue purity of heart and obedience Which faith hath more properly the consideration of a condition as a hand to receiv a promise then of an act of obedience to a commandment It is true being rightly understood which they add that repentance is of all sin to wit particularly of all sins known and generally of sins unknown For Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret faults said he that observed and knew his wayes better then either these men or I. Doe they think nothing amisse slips from them in thought word or deed or ever hath done whereof they doe not or haue not repented particularly Is their knowledge so perfect as they need not pray for further enlightning as Eph. 1. 17. 18 Are they certain they are ignorant of and erre in nothing in the Scriptures written for their bearning This their book sufficiently reproues their Pharisaicall dream of perfection Where speaking of Idolatry they affirm that God cannot bee worshipped after a false manner they expresly contradict the Scripture saying The people did sacrifice still in the high places yet unto the Lord their God onely Here was worshipping the true God and him onely and yet after a false manner in a respect The same the Apostle teacheth the Athenians The God whom you ignorantly worship declare I unto you When Papists direct their prayers to God the maker of the world and father of Iesus Christ hoping the rather to be heard by means of the Virgin Maries intercession who doubts but they worship the true God but in a false manner Neither doth Deut. 18. 20 proue the sin one of speaking in the name of a false God and speaking falsehood in the name of a true God but divers though both deserving death Next they in their wilde order come to treat of Faith where they affirm that no man can haue faith to justification before he haue repented If they had sayd that no man hath the grace or habit of faith before the grace of repentance it had been true God by the spirit of regeneration infusing the habits of all graces at once But that the act and exercise of faith in beleeving is before our repenting appears both by Scripture and common sense We liue the life of Christ wherof our repenting is a part by the faith of the Sonne of God God purifieth the heart by faith and justifies the ungodly by his faith In all which it is plain that faith hath the preheminence and first work So 2 Cor. 7. 10 Godly sorrow workes repentance Repentance then presupposeth godly sorrow Godly sorrow or whatsoever is truely godly must needs please God which without faith no man can doe but even every thing is sin Faith working that which worketh repentance must goe before it Secondly godly sorrow is not onely for the fear of punishment for so the devils are sorrie but for the offence of God specially Now none can be sorrie for his offending God except he loue God nor loue him except he know first that he bee loved of him in Christ in which faith consisteth We beleev therefore before we repent in the truth of the thing and order of causes though we can hardly discern this order in our own sense CHAP. VI. Of Baptisme IN the next place they come to
and that the Scriptures fore-told that Christ must thus be killed and crucified by the hands of wicked men then was it necessary and could not otherwise be in regard of Gods decree that Christ should die as he did and not without sinne in them that killed him To conclude this place These men granting that God decreed the death of his sonne but denying that he decreed the meanes and manner thereof make the most wise God like weak man who often resolues of a thing to bee done but takes time to consider of the manner of doing it Neither yet doe we by all this make God the appointer of evill in their meaning that is either the commander or worker or approver thereof but onely the supreme governour of the whole world and of all persons and actions therein how sinfull soever using and ordering the covetousnesse of Iudas the envy of the Priests and injustice of Pilate to this event of Christs death in regard of them most wicked but of God most gracious and to us most profitable Take we one other instance for this purpose from Godâ— threatning of David by the Prophet for his sinne against Vriah Now therfore the sword shall never depart from thy house c. Behold I will raise up evill against thee out of thine own house and I will take thy wiues before thine eyes and giue them unto thy neighbour and he shall ly with thy wiues in the sight of the Sunne c. Whence it appeares that Absoloms practises against his father as necessarily followed by the work of Gods providence as Gods threatnings going before were necessarily true Will they say that God onely suffred this and so gainsay God himselfe saying I will doe this v. 12. Is to do to suffer with these men Tell me you poore seduced soules doth not the Lord here threaten a judgement from him to come upon David for his sin Are not all Gods judgements good and righteous Doth the Iudge onely suffer the punishment of the malefactors and not inflict or procure it The scriptures teach and these men acknowledge that whatsoever is good commeth from the father of lights Are not Gods judgements wherof this is one good in truth though both evill to mans sence as this was to Davids and worse sometimes in the instruments both intention and action as it was in Absoloms It is therefore evident that the same thing in divers respects was both the horrible sin of Absolom and the severe punishment of David and the just judgment of God Take a familiar similitude for the explaining of this matter The water is of it selfe apt and prone to flow to and fro The husbandman by hâ—s artificiall ditches and trenches brings it to this or that place in this or that measure at this or that time and so for other circumstances yet doth not he at all work the disposition of flowing in the water but finding it there makes use of it for his purpose and by his skill leads the water whither seems good unto him So neither did the Lord infuse at all corrupt on into Absolom but finding it there by the Divels and his owne work ordered it to that his holy end the glory of his justice in punishing the heynous sins of David of which punishment he was the authour These men grant that God foreseeth all evill to come This foresight of God they will not deny to bee certain and that wherein God cannot be deceived Whereupon it followes that such evils so foreseen necessarily and unavoydably come to passe If any object that Gods foresight is not the cause of the evill I answer no more is his decree or work of provividence about it It sufficeth for the purpose in hand if it follow by way of event or consequence upon the antecedent though not of effect upon the cause Let us yet a little further open this poynt This knowledge or fore-knowledge of God is two-fold naturall and indefinite by which God knowes all possible things and whatsoever in any respect or upon any supposition can possibly be or definitâ— and determinate by which of things possible he knowes what shall and what shall not be Now howsoever this fore-knowledge as all other things in God be one and that infinite and eternall yet in our conception the former of those acts of Gods fore-knowledge goes before the decree the latter presupposeth it For therefore God certainly and infallibly forsees a thing shall be because he unchangeably decrees it shall be in and according to its kind if good by his working it if evill by his suffering it and governing the creature in working it But you will answer that God from eternity certainly and infallibly fore-saw Absoloms incest because Absolom would certainly and undoubtedly practise it in time But I would further know whence this certainty and undoubtednesse of Absoloms such practise should arise so as it could not possibly but be nor God be deceived in that his prescience or foreknowledge It was not of any absolute necessitie of it self that Absolom should be born or being born that he should be preserved and surviue to that time or being till then preserved that he should haue naturall ability and opportunitie therewith to practise that sin seeing it was not impossible but that David might haue taken his wiues with him or they haue fled els whither and haue hid themselues In all these things God was not a meere sufferer but a powerful worker by his providence But suppose the being of all these things as they were and withall Absoloms heart by the Divels work and his owne fraught with lust and impiety this way yet was Absalom a changeable creature haveing in himself freedom or libertie of will to haue forborn that act at that time or to haue exercised his lust upon some other object How then could that particular event follow unchangeably from his changeable will How necessarily and inavoydably from his choyce of will which was free in it self either to that act or to another of that kinde or to neither Either therefore Gods decree from eternitie and so his work in time must be acknowledged for the disposing and ordering of all events unavoydably or his knowledge be denied in foreseeing them infallibly Lastly to affirme that any thing great or small good or evill comes to passe in the world without Gods providence ordering and governing it and them that doe it is to set the creature from under the Creators rule and dominion therein and to shut God out of the earth whilst men doe what they list in it he letting them alone and not medling with them How Adam had power from the creation of God not to sin which they urge in the nextplace we shal shew hereafter In the mean while their addition that Gods coÌ„manding him not to sin and yet his decreeing that he should sin are contrary as light and darknes is faulty both in regard of our assertion and their own
a necessity which takes away freedom and voluntarinesse from men but then they rather suffer then doe For example the striking or thrusting of a man with such violence as that he is compelled thereby to stagger or fall this necessity of compulsion depriues me of all freedom to this bodily motion so as I stagger or fall unwillingly but this comes from an externall principle or beginning working violently and from without me But this is nothing to that other necessity in regard of God causing and effecting the good in and by the creature according to its kinde and suffering and ordering the evill person and thing according to its kind with which mans freedom may well stand And first whatsoever God doth he doth it both most freely and most necessarily well So the elect Angels doe the will of God most voluntarily and yet most necessarily So did Christ as man the will of his Father so freely as none can doe any thing more and yet as necessarily as it was necessary for God not to sinne On the contrary the devils doe evill both most necessarily being by these mens own grant unchangeably evill and yet most willingly as carryed thereunto withall their power Christ saith it must needs be that offences come and the Apostle that there must be heresies in the Church If then freedom of will can stand with no manner of necessity the authours of these heresies and offences sinne not therin for all sinnes specially of this kinde are voluntary I add in the last place that the better any man or Angell is he doth good the more both necessarily and willingly and the worse any evill both waies Neither will it seem strange unto us that one and the same action comes under so divers considerations as in one regard to be voluntary contingent and casuall and in another necessary if we consider how divers agents concur and meet together in producing it No work of man is so mans alone as that God hath not some hand in it in sustaining and ordering the person and work yea in effecting that which is good in it as all that is which hath in it any created being or order What hinders then but that the same thing may in regard of man as the particular and immediate cause be voluntary and contingent and yet in regard of God the highest and generall cause necessary We daily see the truth of this in proportion amongst men the meeting of Ahab and Eliah was in respect of Ahab casuall but in respect of Eliah of destinate counsell These things thus cleered we will come to the exposition of the words of Ezechiel so oft and vehemently urged by these men and others which are that God takes not pleasure in the death of a sinner but that he turn from his way and liue I answer first that the Lord takes no delight in the death of a sinner that repents and turns from his wicked way but otherwise if the sinner repent not the Lord takes delight in his death not for the misery of the creature but for the glory of his justice shining therin Of such the Lord testifies that he wil laugh at their calamity mock when their fear cometh And considering that the death and destruction of the wicked is Gods own just and holy work for their sins who will deny that God delights in it Secondly for sinne who was ever so wicked as to imagine that God takes pleasure in it It pleaseth him for his holy ends to suffer sin and to order the creature sinning by his own freewill election of evil as hath been formerly proved Thirdly it must be noted that the Prophet speaks there of such sinners onely as to whom the word comes saying Turn yee turn yee from your evill waies for why will yee die ô house of Israel Whence we doe gather evidently these two particulars First that the Prophet doth not here speak of all men universally as they conceiu but onely of the house of Israel or of such as to whom he◠sends his Prophets to call them to repentance secondly that he speaks not of that decree of the Lord willing which is accompanied with the powerfull work of his grace by which hee will giue repentance to wicked men instructed in the truth by his servants but onely of that degree of his will which stands in commanding that which is good and in approving of it if it be performed And so we grant it to be the Lords pleasure and will that all repent to whom the Word is preached It is true which they add that Adam and others sinned against the will of God but not that any ever sinned against the secret will of God as they affirm The will of God is no law to man till it be revealed and where there is no law there is no transgression It is also truely sayd that the Iewes unwillingnesse to be gathered to Christ was against Gods and Christs will that is his commanding will for he would that is commanded and they would not but disobeyed but that it was against that decree of Gods willing which sets his almightie power awor◠that I deny For God could if thus he would haue giuen them repentance and drawn them to his son Whatsoever he thus wills he can do That which they add as an eye-salue to cure our blindnes namely that we haue nothing to do with Gods secret wil not revealed in his word is true in regard of our obedience to God expectation from him but not absolutely as they conceiue The particular events of things in the world though not so much as insinuated in the scriptures concern us when they come to passe so as we may and ought to say it was the will of God they should so be either his will to work them if good or to suffer and order them and their doers if evill ADVERSARIES NExt comes into consideration a speciall distinction of ours which is that God is the author of the action or fact but not of the sin of the fact or crime Over which they insult and in it over all learned men though they mention Calvin onely with high contempt and great triumph before the victory calling it a merely fabulous ridle and marvellous sophistication telling us that a spade is a spade c. but in truth shewing themselues sitter to medle with a spade and a mattock then with those high mysteries Let us see their reasons In the first whereof they make us say that God is the author of the very fact and deed of Adams sin yea of adultery theft murder c. DEFENCE WE deny their charge and answer by distinction that Adams taking and eating the forbidden fruit Davids adultery Ioahs murther and the like are to be considered two waies First naturally and as they are motions in nature performed by mans natural created faculties and powers of soul and body secondly morally as
person in the world and so might haue been an effectuall price for all if it had pleased the Father and him so to haue ordained But that it was the Fathers purpose in giving his Son or his in giving himself to the death to pay the price of the sins of the whole world and of every particular person therin and to satisfy Gods justice for the same we deny and they in vaine go about to prov That Christ dyed for sinners and the ungodly and such as were dead Rom. 5. 6. 8 we grant as being the Apostles assertion but that he dyed for all such is their bold addition and which is worse plainly against the drift of the place The Apostle having before treated at large of justification by faith shews in this chapter the singular benefit acrewing therby to the faithfull as peace with God accesse into grace rejoycing in hope of the glory of God and that also in tribulation that their tribulation working patience their patience experience of Gods power and grace in sustaining them that experience hope that they should never be confounded as having such assurance of the loue of God in their hearts by the Holy Ghost given of God unto them The ground of all which hee layeth v. 6. 8 for that Christ dyed for them being ungodly and sinners and thereby appropriates this dying of Christ unto these sinners who are in their time thus justified by faith haue peace with God c. which limitation the Apostle most plainely makes where he saiâ—h For when we were yet without strength God commendeth his loue towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us He speaks of them and them alone in this plaee as dyed for by Christ who were justified by him And let me here turn into the very bowels of these mens errour the sword of the spirit which the Apostle in this place puts into mine hand and proue briefly but evidently that Christ dyed not for all and every person as is said but onely for them and for all them who in the end are saved and obtain eternall life by him These men and rightly in this very place make it all one for Christ to die for sinners and to be their reconciliation as the Apostle makes them all one who are justified by faith and for whom Christ dyed Shall we then make doubt to conclude with the Apostle that they which are justified by Christ bloud which are the sinners for whom hee dyed v. 9 shall be saved from wrath through him v. 9 or that they which are reconciled to God by the death of his Son that is say they for whom he dyed shall much more be saved by his life For which purpose also hee after enters into comparison of the first and second Adam shewing that as by the offence of one all were dead so by the righteousnesse of one the gift of grace should abound to many or to all by which gift afterwards he shews himselfe to mean both justification and reigning in life He puts the two Adams as two common roots the former as a naturall root and the latter as a spirituall and affirms that all that were and are in the former and naturally growing of him dyed by his sin and proportionably that all in the latter liue by his righteousnes I say that were in the first Adam for Eve though she were of mankind yet dyed not by Adams sin because she was not in him when he sinned neither yet Christ as man not coming of him by naturall generation but by miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost So on the contrary they and onely they who by faith are planted in Christ and justified by his bloud shall be saved from wrath through him and receiving of the gift of righteousness shall raign in life by him The Apostles meaning therefore is not that Christ died for all particulars but that all for whom he dyed shall be saved by him which seeing all are not it followeth that he dyed not for all as they mean For the right interpretation of 2. Cor. 5. 14. 15. For the loue of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselues but unto him which dyed for them and râ—se again and of many the like places the common and true rule must haue place that note of universalitie as all whatsoever and the like must be restrained to the matter in hand as Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that I will doe that is whatsoever according to my will So whatsoever they the Pharisees bid you doe that doe to wit accordâ—ng to Moses So they that beleeved had all things common that is all things lawfull and for necâ—ssitie Likewise Luk. 4. 1. All the world should be taxed that is aâ—l under Caesar which a great part of the world was not So All things are lawful for me and I become all to all that is not all absolutely but all things in themselves indifferent and of that kinde of which the Apostle speakes I then answer that by all in this place he means all of that sort of whom he speakes all whom the loue of Christ constrained all that so judge of Christs death all that were dead that is were dead but are aliue by grace and so should not henceforth live to themselues but unto him which died for them Christ that one Mediator died for all them To 1. Tim. 2. 6. Christ gave himselfe a ransom for all We answer that by all is not meant all particulars in the world but all sorts of people as well Kings which many Christians considering their cruell hatred of Christ and other enormities thought rather to be prayed against then for as others The Apostle here informes them better and that Christ dyed for all and would haue all that is men of all sorts saved even Kings as well as others It is not possible for any Christian to pray for every particular person in the world nor lawfull to pray that God would saue all in generall seeing we know by the Scriptures that all shall not be saved and are also forbidden to pray for some in particular The Apostle 1 Tim. 4. 10. speaks not of Christs dying for all men but of Gods saving of all men specially them that beleev If he speak of salvation by Christs death God should save unbeleevers so living and dying for he sayth not that God would be but that God is the saviour of all men He speaks apparantly of Gods providence over all preserving good and bad yea saving man and beast specially them who suffer reproch because they trust in the living God To conclude Those for whom Christ died he died alike for and therefore not specially for any aboue others but alike for all for whom he dyed To 1. Ioh. 2. 2. I answer that
he speakes not onely of Christ as dying for us but also as he is our Advocate in heaven with the Father propitiating or pacifying his anger towards us in procuring actually the forgivenesse of our sinnes and acceptance with him By the whole world therefore he understands such as confess their sins such as whose sins God forgivs cleansing them from all unrighteousness such as have Christ their Advocate with the father for whose sins he is a propitiation c. which are onely the faithfull and that not onely of the Iewes intended in these words and not for ours onely but of the Gentiles also as the whole world here and els where by Christ and the Apostles opposed to the Iewes Mark 16. 15. Iohn 3. 16. specially Rom. 11. 12. where as here by the world is meant the beleeving Gentiles obtaining salvation opposed to the Iewes And this our limitation in just proportion the very next place cited by our adversariâ—s confirmeth The whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1. Ioh. 5. 19. that is all such Iewes and Gentiles as are not born of God v. 20. not Iohn or other beleevers one or other The Apostle Peter 2. Epist. 3. 9. speaks not at all of Christs death but of Gods patience that none might perish but all repent By which all he means all the elect which were in their time to repent and so to be saved for whose sakes and not in slackness as the mockers accounted he deferred his judgments Reve. 6. 11. we haue this poynt notably exemplified And it was sayd unto them that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fuâ—filled For which purpose it must be minded that Peter sayth The Lord is long suffering towards us not willing that any should perish opposing us as the elect to the reprobate Scoffers at God both in his word and works The last place being 2. Chron. 36. 16. is impertinent as neither meant of Christs death of which the question is nor of mans salvation by it but of a bodily and visible judgement in which kind of works God tieth himself to no certain form of proceeding Against their error of universall redemption by Christs death I thus argue Them whom God and Christ love to wit with that speciall loue of mercy they love unto the end and therefore never come to hate them as they do the wicked and damned But for whomsoever Christ dyed God in giving his Sonne and he in giving himselfe to the death for them love with the most speciall love of mercy that can be Therefore they for whom Christ died never perish but in time haue wrought in them faith and repentance and are kept in the same by the power of God to life Christ therefore dyed effectually and in his and his fathers intention of love for them onely that are saved and perish not This is also more manifest Ioh. 17. whence may be drawn many arguments to prove that all for whom Christ died are saved seeing all that are given to Christ of the Father keep the word of God and haue eternall life given them by him Now it cannot be denyed but that all for whom Christ dyed are given him of the Father that he might redeem and save them by his death Furthermore the death and bloodshed of Christ is every where called the price of our redemption and a ransome for sinners Vpon this holy foundation most clearly layd in the Scriptures these men and others would build a more hatefull Babell then that of old in the East by which they would as it were scale heaven and depriue God of divers his most glorious Attributes by name his Wisdom his Power and his Iustice. His wisdom they â—mpeach in affirming that he would buy with so rich precious a price as the bloud and death of his onely begotten Son that and them whom he certainly knew before he should never possesse by it for that end for which he bought them their justification sanctification and salvation Secondly it impeacheth Gods power and makes him unable doe he what he can to save any more then he doth save though he desire it never so much For look for whom he would do the greatest thing that possibly he could which was the giving of his onely begotten and beloved Sonne to the cursed death of the crosse for them and their salvation without all doubt hee he will doe whatseever other good as lesse that possibly he can Whereupon it should follow that God cannot possibly give the Gospell to more then he doth and by it convert and confirm them to and in his grace which are lesse things then the former it being the foundation they but the building upon it it being the meritorious and deserving causeâ— and they effects thereof Thirdly this conceit makes God unjust in taking a full price and ransom for mens sins at the hands of their surety Christ as was his death and obedience and yet not resting satisfied with it but exacting the debt of their sinnes at their hands by eternall punishment which is the condition of many thousands in the world ADVERSARIES OTher things follow tending to prove Gods purpose to save all even such as slew Christ blasphemed and resisted the spirit of God to their condemnation c. Act. 3. 25. 26. 5. 30. 31. 7. 51. 13. 46. 15. 6. DEFENCE I Answer that the persons of whom those Scriptures speak were the peculiar people of God and not yet wholly cast off by him The argument therefore from Gods will and work for the saving of them is stretched beyond its reach to prove such purpose will or work of God to save all which are not his people as they were Secondly I grant that where the Gospell is preached there the Lord truely wills that is commands the conversion of sinners and their turning from iniquity as the text hath â—t approving and rewarding the same with salvation in them in whom it is found as it is ordinarily in some of them to whom the Gospell is preached and so was in some of the persons to whom the men of God spake in those places who before were elect of God and redeemed of Christ and were in their time effectually called to that grace whatsoever before they had done or been Now the Apostles not knowing which in particular were elect and redeemed in the secret purpose of God and Christ were to sow the seed of grace upon all grounds and to preach to all indifferently as they had occasion hoping in charity that this and that and any one particular might be of the elect vessels and good ground in Gods destination by whose preaching such as were preordained to life beleeved actually The Lord tels Paul abiding in Corinth that he had much people in that Citie and that therefore he should speak the word there and not hold
God through faith to salvation and that being born of God they doe not sin nor can to wit as the children of the devill doe because his seed remaineth in them Their objections following that by our doctrine men need not fear falling into condemnation though they fall into notorious sin nor repent having committed such sins are of no weight seeing God though he promise salvation to the truely called certainly yet he neither promiseth it neither are they to beleev it immediately but by means of fearing to sin and of repentance when sin is committed which hee also promiseth to work and put in their heart that they shall not depart from him The Lord promâ—sed by the Prophet Ieremy that after 70 years of the Iews captivity accomplished at Babylon he would visit them and cause them to return to Ierusalem And whereas it might be objected against the certainty of this promise and event What Shall they return though they repent not nor seek the Lord but remain rebellious as they haue been and their fore-fathers before them He answers that then they shall call upon God and pray unto him and seek unto him and he will hearken unto them be found of them and return their captivity He promiseth both the end and the means and hee that promiseth is faithfull in performing and providing for both temporall and eternall deliverance and the meanes thereof Their Argument taken from exhortations and admonitions in the Scriptures that we receiv not the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1 and the like hath formerly been fully answered They are not in vain either in respect of elect or reprobate neither yet will we own their absurd answer here fathered upon us that the whole Scriptures are given to keep both elect and reprobate from falling into grosse sins yet that neither the elect can be damned by transgressing them nor the reprobate saved by observing them The Scriptures haue divers ends and amongst others are given to keep all not onely from grosse but from all sins Neither doe we affirm that the elect cannot be damned by transgressing them or that the reprobate cannot be saved by observing them as they like deceitfull proctors plead for us or rather for their own advantage But this we say that the elect and truely sanctified are so kept by the power of God in his feare that they never transgresse as the wicked do nor can because his seed remaineth in them that they continually renue their repentance particular for sins known into which through infirmity they fall and generall for sinns unknown as David did and that even by means of those exhortations and admonitions which God opens their hearts to attend unto and giues increase accordingly And the contrary the reprobates being left to themselvs of God haue by their own and satans malice their eyes so blinded and hearts hardened as though those means of exhortation come unto them they either understand them not or beleev them not or despise them but never observ or obey them aright Their curses of the doctrine in this point received in all Reformed Churches as Atheisticall and damnable and their blessing themselvs from it is here as every where the fruit of that wilde zeale wherewith their ignorant hearts are possessed Their answers follow to the Scriptures brought against them The first is Math. 24. 24. If it were possible they the false Teachers should deceiv the very elect Whence we conclude as they say that it is not possible the elect should perish And here first they shew who are the elect of God noting indeed the persons but perverting the order of grace If in saying as they doe that the elect of God are those that receiv and obey the truth of Christ and abide in him unto the death they meant that such as are chosen of God in his decree before the world and actually and effectually chosen and called in time by the Word and Spirit to beleev and obey did so abide to the death it were but the truth which the Scriptures teach and we professe But intending as they doe that men haue onely the promise of actuall and particular election till then but are not absolutely elected and that absolute election follows this abiding in Christ till death they are like the foolish builder which would lay the foundation upon the roofe of the house By their comment upon Christs words men should be in danger to be seduced by false Prophets when they haue abiden in Christ unto death for till then they will haue none elect and the elect are here said to be in danger to be seduced That which they gather from the manifold warnings in the Scriptures to the elect that none deceiv them c. is true namely that the elect may fall from their election or rather from the grace received if they take not heed But they should withall proue that God doth ever so far leav and forsake any truely justified and sanctified in Christ as that they take no heed at all as they ought It is certain that if the very elect Angels in heaven or Christ Iesus upon earth had taken no heed to Gods commandements they could not haue observed them That which is added that many fall away not by being deceived but willingly forsaking the truth and again that many fall away willingly not being deceived is neither pertinent seeing the place in question speaks onely of such as are deceived nor true seeing a man cannot will any evill but under a shew and appearance of good so presented to the will by a deceived and eâ—â—ing understanding And so the Scriptures every where ascribe all manner of defection from God and his holy commandements to errour either in the generall ground or particular case The next place is Ioh. 10. 27. 28 My sheep hear my voyce and they know me and follow me and I giue unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any take them out of mine hand My Father which hath given them me is greater then all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand They here conceiv the purpose of Christ to be to confirm his sheep so long as they continue his sheep c. But herein they draw violently Christs purpose to their own For Christ as may be seen by comparing herewith v. 16. 26. 27 is to shew how it came to passe that some of his hearers beleeved and obeyed his voyce and some not Many of the Iews beleeved not because they were not his sheep some did being his sheep to wit by destination of God Christ saith not that they are not his sheep because they beleev not but that they beleev not because they are not his sheep that is not being of the elect of God they are left to their own impenitent and unbeleeving heart which they also willingly harden against Christs voyce Where v. 16 he saith Other
God hath predestinated some persons to salvation and some to damnation without any condition and that these persons the elect making never so great shew of wickedness and walking in the wayes of Belial are still elect and can by no means fall out of their election the other persons having never so many testimonies of godlâ—nesse and walking in the Church of Christ yet can never but be reprobates and if ever they fall away from the Church or truth that they were never truely of it We affirm that God predestinates none to salvation but with condition of the death of Christ and the persons coming to years of discretion faith and repentance and continuance therin to the end to goe before that their salvation nor to damnation but with condition of sin and impenitency therein to goe before that their damnation But our Adversaries being bold and presumptuous speak evill of the things which they neither know nor are walling to understand Onely these two things we further hold in this case First that the former conditions Christ and faith in him are Gods free gifts also infallibly and effectually obtained by the former persons the latter condition impenitency in sin the certain effect of Satans malice and their own corruption being left of God thereunto The second is that other reason why God hath of two alike corrupt in themselvs preordained the former to salvation by the former means and the latter to condemnation by the latter the Scriptures doe not acquaint us with then the meer pleasure of him who hath mercy on whom he will haue mercy and whom he will hee hardneth and who hath loved Iakob and hated Esau to wit in decree the children not bing yet born neither having done either good or evill Secondly we say not that the elect so remain though walking in the wayes of Belial but deny that ever they so walk after their effectual calling though through the remainders of corruption in some more strong then in others they haue not onely their common slidings but often their greater fals from which they recover themselvs by repentance the spirit alwaies lusting against the flesh and they in regard of the Law of their minde and spirituall man not allowing but hating the evill which through the sin dwelling in them they doe Neither on the other side doe the Reprobates ever shew any one much lesse many true testimonies of godlinesse though many seeming such oftentimes both in their own judgments of themselvs and other mens of them He that should challenge a man for affirming that it could not but be light at mid-day nor but be dark at midnight in comparison that he affirmed that it could not but be light at noon though the Sun should not be up nor but be dark at midnight though the Sun were not set should but use slaunderous cavillation even such and no better is their collection upon our assertion Where they add that as all mens estates are one by creation and one by transgression all being dead in sins and that as all are shut up in unbeliefe so he hath mercy on all to wit every particular person alike they mis-interpret the Scripture as hath been formerly shewed mistake the proportion of nature whether by creation or corruption with that of meer grace and are most impious against Gods mercy which they make all one towards Pharaoh and Moses Herod and Paul Besides it should follow hereupon that God hath mercy actually on all and every person in the world in taking away their sinnes and saving them for the Apostle whose words they cite speaks expresly of such an all as obtain mercy that way With like truth do they after affirm from Math. 13 that the sower soweth the seed of salvation upon all It cannot with modesty be denyed but there are and haue been many millions unto whom the Gospell the onely seed of salvation was never preached And as they begin so goe they on with this parable as being of them in whose mouth a parable is like the legs of the lame that are lifted up and like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard As first where by the good seed they understand the seed of salvation or Gospell and by tares false doctrines as if they know the minde of our Saviour better then he himselfe who expresly teacheth that the good seed are the children of the Kingdom so called because they are the heyres of their Fathers Kingdom in which the righteous are to shine forth as the Sun v. 43 and the tares the children of the wicked one which doe iniquity are to be gathered by the Angels in the end of the world and cast into the furnace of fire c. And if the good seed were the Gospell and the tares false doctrines as they transforming persons into things would make them yet is it untruely affirmed by them that the persons of them who receiv the good seed were no better then the other nor the persons of them who receiv the tares any worse then the other That both are alike to wit dead in sin when God offereth the Gospel we willingly grant and are glad to hear them confess but to say they are both alike when the one receivs the Gospell and the other refuseth it and receivs the tares contrary unto it is to say that the good ground and the bad are both alike For what makes them that are alike when the Gospel comes alike unto them not to remain alike stil And what is the reason why the one receivs it and not the other They say because the goodnesse of the Sower first sowed it and therfore he hath cause to praise him onely But say I this goodnesse is alike to both the two in sowing or offering the Gospels seed Whereupon it must follow that he who receivs this good seed hath no more cause to praise God the Sower then he that receivs it not for it is sowen alike on both in regard of outward offer but for the ones receiving of it rather then the other he hath cause to thank himselfe alone and his own freewill And indeed this is the mark at which all those Adversaries arrows are shot But the Scriptures teach us a further thing then these ungratefull persons will acknowledge which is that besides and aboue the offer common to both God giues the encrease to some without which all preaching is nothing even by opening of the heart to attend unto it as he did the heart of Lydia And as persons receiv the word of God into their hearts by his opening them first so in that his gracious work in them hee makes them which were before alike in spirituall consideration to become unlike and better then other and so more beloved then others for the godly qualities as they call them which he hath wrought in them Neither doth the Lord hate onely the works of wicked men as they say but
at all to shew to whom the Law was given or not but onely that the Christian Church at Rome specially many of them being Iewes as appears chap. 16 to which he wrote was not ignorant of the Law whether generall or particular to which he had reference in that place To Deut. 11. 2 besides things answered by Mr. Ainsworth I adde that Moses there excludes not onely infants but many grown men as appears v. 3. 4. The other two places Matth. 13. 9 and 1 Cor. 10. 15 exclude too many mens of years also considering how few haue ears to hear or understanding to judg aright of spirituall things For the third head and that all sinned in Adam it is so plain from Rom. 5 as they haue nothing at all to answer though they object the place onely they bring certain other Scriptures in such a manner as if they would disproue one Scripture by another And indeed what exposition can be given or evasion found considering the expressenes of the words As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death passed upon all men for that or as the originall hath it in whom all men haue sinned So v. 19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners c. If they say as some doe that all are made sinners by imitation onely they are clearly confuted first by daily experience in which it is plain that children comming to some discerning will lie filch and revenge themselvs though they never heard lie told c. It is alas too evident that they bring this corruption into the world with them Secondly by the Apostles words v. 19 For as by ones mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If wee bee made unrighteous onely by imitation of Adams sin and not by his performing it as our root naturally then we are made righteous onely by imitation of Christs righteousnesse and not by his performing righteousnesse and fulfilling the Law for us as our spirituall root in which wee are grafted by faith Lastly these Adversaries grant that by Adams sin all his posterity haue weak natures by which when the commandement comes they cannot obey and liue but sin and so die Rom. 8. 3. Can they which are accustomed to doe evill doe well Or will these men never leav their godlesse custom of corrupting the words of the text for advantaging of an evill cause For flesh which the Text hath they put nature wheras it is without all question that by flesh the Apostle there understands properly sin and sinfull flesh as he expresly calleth it and as is plain in the whole context v. 1. 2. 4. 5. 6. 7 c. In all which hee opposeth the flesh to the spirit and the sinfull life of the one to the righteous life of the other And I would know of these deep Divines what but sin could possibly make Adams posterity unable to keep the Law This flesh or nature as they will haue it must be contrary to this good and holy Law and resist it And is not that properly sinfull and unholy which resists and is contrary to that which is good and holy Lastly this enemy to the Law of God in a man must be in his soule And what else can it be then a disposition in the understanding to ignorance and errour touching God and heavenly things and an inclination in the will and affections to evill Which is as properly sinne as their acts and effects are properly sinfull Infants therefore bring sin properly into the world with them Two things they here object First that Christ often accounts children innocents as Math. 18. 3. 4 19. 14. I answer first not as they mean that is such as haue in them nothing vertuous or vitious good or evill but as being humble and without pride and such as unto whom the Kingdom of God and his blessing did appertain Secondly He speaks not of all children but of those of and in the Church Their second objection is that our soules being the subjects of sin are created of God imediately But to this objection they that referrs the soules originall imediately to Gods supernaturall and indeed miraculous work do giue divers answers which these Adversaries should haue refuted Amongst others Mr. Ainsworths answer is worthy the consideration But let us consider their proofs for the soules immediate creation The first is Act. 17. 26 Of one bloud God made all mankind c. But this place makes rather against them seeing the body alone makes not mankind but the soule with it by which specially the man is The next place is Heb. 12. 9 whence they gather that Adam is the Father of our bodies and God the Father of our Spirits But first the Text neither mentions Adam nor can agree to him in the state of creation seeing in that estate there was no use of correction Secondly it saith not the fathers of our bodies but of our flesh nor the father of our Spirits but of Spirits And the meaning seems unto me with due respect had to other mens different judgment onely to be this that if we giue honour to men our carnall or fleshly fathers chastening us as they think good how much more owe honour to our spirituall father chastening us for our eternall good And surely God in his kinde is the father of the whole man not of the soule onely So is man in his kinde the father of the whole man and not of the body onely Lastly seeing the drift of the place is to shew that God as a father chasteneth his sons which he loveth and on the contrary that they that are not chastened are not sons and so haue not God for their Father I see not how the Apostle can speak of the creation of soules seeing in that respect wicked and godly children and bastards haue God alike their father The Preacher ch 12. 7 speaks of the manner of the creation of the first man Adam onely but no more proues that our soules or spirits are created by God imediately then that our bodies are made of dust immediately That ch 8. 8 hath no colour of proof in it Against our fourth and last assertion that all by Adams sin are guilty of death Rom. 5. 12 they cavill that we were not in Adam to bring any soule to hell for the breach of that commandemant Thou shalt not eat Where first to passe by their incongruity of speech they free Adam himselfe from the guilt of condemnation of which our question is as well as his posterity by that his sin seeing it brought not him himself to hell But secondly for the thing it selfe They grant acording to the Scriptures that death as a part of the curse came over all Adams posterity for his sin And will they then deny that eternall death was also due by the same law of justice Is
in theirs through Christ Iesus in whom it was confirmed In adding that the Old taught that Christ was not come in the flesh nor into their hearts at their Circumcision They make the Lords Covenant negatiue as teaching what is not and not what is A Covenant is a promise upon condition and a Testament or Will that in which Legacies are given But by this doctrine here should be nothing either given or promised It is besides very ungodlily said that Abraham in whom principally we are to consider both of the Covenant and seal thereof Circumcision had not Christ in his heart when he was circumcised Both Moses in Abrahams historie and the Apostles who well understood it affirm the contrary and that he was justified in uncircumcision by beleeving in Christ In which respect he is called the father of them that beleev not onely circumcised but uncircumcised also Haue his children that which he for substance had not even in that wherein he was their father This thing they grant in the very next page and that Abraham had the covenant of grace promised him by which promise he had salvation in the Messiah to come and therein that the Covenant made with Abraham whereof Circumcision was a seal was the Covenant of the Gospell and the same with ours now It is strange that these men who so magnifie Baptism as they will haue men made Christians by it should so vilifie Circumcision as to make it of right to appertain to godlesse and wicked men for such were and are all at all times since Adam sinned that had and and haue not Christ in their hearts Was it not an holy Ordinance of God and therfore not to be prostituted to the unholy and unpure as all unbeleevers that is all into whose hearts Christ is not come are and unto whom nothing is pure or holy Could it be to any a sign that God was their God a seal of the righteousnesse of faith a pledg of Gods protection and note of distinction between Gods people and others And yet belong to such as were wholly without Christ and so without God in the world When any of the Heathens became Proselytes they chose God to be their God came to trust under the wings of the Lord God of Israel and separated themselvs from Idolaters to the Law of God and of all this they made solemn profession by Circumcision which they must either do without faith and so not please God therein which is absurd to say they did which did it lawfully or else with faith by which Christ though not come in the flesh was come into their hearts Of the Ceremonies of Moses and so of Circumcision which Moses took of the fathers into the body of the Ceremoniall Law and of their divers considerations I haue elsewhere written at large and doe refer the Reader thither for satisfaction in that point That none of the Church of Israel called by them affectedly Abrahams seed in the flesh had the Ordinances of the new Covenant is not true They had Iohns Baptism which even now these men avowed as the Baptism of the new Testament and Christs also who baptized more Disciples then Iohn and with them the twelv had the Lords Supper also and all these whilst the Iewish Church and Ordinances stood in their full strength It is true that Iohns was not in the Kingdom of God as Christ speaks Math. 11 that in the state of the Church and Ordinances dispensed under Christ glorified Otherwise the Iews had the Kingdom of heaven which else could noâ— haue been taken from them and given to others neither could Christ haue been as he was the King of Sion So the Patriarks received not the promise that is Christ come in the flesh to which purpose the Apostle saith Before faith came c. Shall we therfore say that before Christs comming in the flesh none had true faith to salvation or that true beleevers received not Christ though to come as we now receiv Christ come in the flesh They Christ promised and prefigured by the Word and Ordinances then we Christ manifested and remembred by the Word and Ordinances now properly called the New Testament as founded in the actuall death of the Testator ADVERSARIES HEre follows an exception against me in particular which is that by the old Covenant mentioned Ier. 31 Hebr. S is not meant as I affirm that which was made on mount Sinai Exod. 19 but the Covenant mentioned Exod. 3. v. 6 c. Their reason is for that God made that Covenant with them when hee took them by the hand to bring them out of Aegipt which is mentioned Exod. 3 and not Exod. 19. For then say they did God appear to Moses and commanded him to take them by the hand and lead them out of Aegipt where the Covenant is mentioned I am the God of thy fathers Abraham c. DEFENCE FIrst to let passe that though they bid mark the words yet they cite them not I answer that these words in that day as the Text hath it cannot be restrained to that particular day when God appeared to Moses seeing the Lord did not that particular day take them by the hand to bring them out but divers daies after as is expresly affirmed ch 12. 51 Psal. 77. 12 105 27. 43. By that day therfore is not meant any particular day but indefinitely the time of their transporting out of Aegipt into Canaan as elsewhere by the day of their birth is meant the whole time of their fore-going misery So many hundred times in the Scriptures by the day or that day is meant indefinitely the time in which a thing happeneth or is done Besides where the Prophet speaks of the day in which God took them by the hand they speak of the day in which God appeared unto Moses and commanded him to take them by the hand which was whilst he was in the land of Midian God indeed then shewed his will to Moses but stretched not out his hand for their deliverance till many daies after They say further that Exod. 3 the Covenant is mentioned I am the God thy father Abraham c. But is every mentioning of a Covenant the making of it And did God make a Covenant with and become the God of Abraham Isaak and Iakob at that time That is when they were now dead divers hundred years before What can be more plain then that the Lord doth not there make a new but remembers the old Covenant made before with Abraham c. of which the bringing his posterity out of Aegipt into the promised land was an appurtenance God promised to be Abrahams God and the God of his Seed that is all-sufficient for the good things not onely of this world but also of the world to come as Christ expounds his fathers words Math. 22. 32. 33 and so gaue them accordingly the land of Canaan as a
sign of Circumcision as a seal of faith if not of that faith of which he treats For wheras it might be objected that if Abraham were justified by beleeving before he was circumcised as is said v. 3. 9. 10 then what needed hee after to haue been circumcised The Apostle answers v. 11 that hee received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousnesse of faith vvhich he had yet being uncircumcised which faith v. 9 vvas reckoned to him for righteousnesse that by it the covenant of grace between God him might be confirmed as covenants among men formerly agreed upon are by the seals thereunto annexed Lastly who endued with common sense and modesty can deny that by the righteousnesse of faith wherof Circumcision was a seal is meant the righteousnes which is by faith as v. 3 Abraham beleeved God and it vvas imputed to him for righteousnesse and v. 9 faith vvas reckoned to Abraham for righteousnesse which righteousnesse of faith in this whole discourse he opposeth to the righteousnesse of works by the Law as is expresly to be seen v. 3. 14. 15. 16. But now what say our Adversaries to these things as men in a maze and not knowing how to finde the way out goe sometimes backward sometimes forward and sometimes leap unorderly from one place to another so doe they in expounding this Scripture In their out-leaps about Abrahams fleshly children I shall not need heere to follow them Where after they say that Circumcision was a seal of Abrahams faith in beleeving God that he should be the father of many Nations and that this was imputed to him for righteousnesse they say as much as we do or desire they should But where they say in the very same place that hee received not circumcision to seal up his faith in the Messiah they goe backward most dangerously to bring in a faith to justification imputed for righteousnesse which yet is not in the Messiah Was righteousnesse ever or is it imputed to any for justification but by faith in Christ then promised now exhibited The reason insinuated by them is a pleasant one namely for that Abraham had faith in the Messiah 24 years before he was circumcised Whereas on the contrary it could not haue been a seal of such faith except hee had had the faith before whether longer or lesser time it matters not but is as it pleaseth him who bestowâ—th both the one and other Signes and Seals are not to be set to blankes neither doe they make things that were not before to be but serv onely to confirm things that are These things thus cleared the Reader must be requested not to measure our arguments from Abraham and Isaaks circumcision to the Baptism of Infants by the crooked line which these men draw between them but by the right rule of sound reason applyed as followeth in three particulars First that the Covenant unto which Circumcision was annexed was the Covenant of the Gospell and not of the Law and old Testement as they take it For then it could not haue been to Abraham the seal of the righteousnesse of faith any way but of unrighteousnesse and condemnation every way for righteousnes is not by the Law which worketh wrath and by which sin revives and becomes exceeding sinfull And surely it is more then strange that any beleeving the Scriptures should beleev that the Lords Covenant made with Abraham and so with Israel in him by which he took them to be his peculiar people from among all other peoples because hee loved their father and them by which they were a blessed Nation having Iehovah for their God in remembring of which covenant with Abraham c. he so often shewed them mercy and did them good and in time gaue his Son Christ to saue them from their enemies and lastly by which Covenant they shall again be called when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written There shall come out of Syon a Deliverer and shall turn away ungodlinesse from Iakob For this is my Covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins As concerning the Gospell they are enemies for the Gentiles sake but as concerning the election they are beloved for the fathers sake for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance that this covenant of loue and mercy making them blessed which are taken into it and procuring the giving of Christ and of salvation should be the covenant of the old Testament and Law Of the Law I say and old Testament which is the ministery of death the letter that killeth which worketh wrath was added for transgression by which sin reviveth and all die and are accursed What is this else but to bring the currant of gracious mercy into a channell of severe justice and to curse where God blesseth as Balaam purposed to haue done Secondly we conclude hence that the Church of the Iews and Church now is one in substance though diversly ordered one Uineyard in which there are both grown trees and yong plants one Kingdom which was taken from them and given to us the branches of one oliue tree holy in the same holy root Abraham from which most of them were broken off for unbelief and we by faith planted in their place one body and therefore having Infants in it now as then and the same therefore to be baptized there being also one Baptism as one body as they were circumcised of old Baptism as elsewhere I haue proved at large to their silencing in that point comming in the place of Circumcision Thirdly that all their disputes against Infants Baptism because they cannot manifest faith and repentance are but the same quarrels which might haue been picked of old against Infants Circumcision That there was something in Abrahams circumcision extraordinary is true for he first received it for his posterity and for the Proselytes with them which joyned themselvs to the Lord so was there also in his faith as he was the father by example to all that should beleev after him Their prophane assertion that faith was required of none to wit men of years for circumcision I haue formerly disproved How can it come into the hearts of reasonable men that the Lord in whose eies the prayers sacrifices and all other services of ungodly men were so abominable should like of their circumcision Lastly for Abrahams children of the flesh according to their misunderstanding of them they were by nature children of wrath as well as others and had thereby no more right to circumsion then the Infants of Sodom It was of grace and not of nature that they were within Gods Covenant Of Gal. 3. and Rom. 9. we haue spoken at large formerly and of their misconstructions of the Apostles meaning Lastly we neither run as they say nor goe to the old Testament Law or Moses for the baptizing of Infants but to