perversly said that originall sinne makes a man guilty of death Of any death it should seeme temporall eternall or that annihillation they dreame of and he said true enough Arminius doth affirme it adding this reason because it is onely the punishment of Adams actuall sinne now what kinde of punishment they make this to be I shewed you before But truely I wonder seeing they are every where so peremptorie that the same thing cannot be a sin and a punishment why they doe so often nick-name this infirmity of nature and call it a sinne which they suppose to be as farre different from it as fire from water is it because they are unwilling by new naming it to contradict St. Paul in expresse termes never proposing it under any other denomination or if they can get a sophisticall elusion for him is it least by so doing Christians should the more plainely discerne their heresie or what ever other cause it be in this I am sure they contradict themselves notwithstanding in this they agree full well That God reiecteth none for originall sinne onely as Episcopius speakes and here if you tell them that the question is not de facto what God doth but de iure what such sinne deservers they tell us plainly That God will not destinate any infants to eternall punishment for originall sinne without their owne proper actuall sinnes neither can he doe so by right or in iustice so that the children of Turkes Pagans and the like Infidels strangers from the covenant of grace departing in their infancie are farre happier then any Christian men who must under-goe a hard warfare against sinne and Satan in danger to fall finally away at the last houre and through many difficulties entering the kingdome of heaven when they without further trouble are presently assumed thither for their innocency Yea although they are neither elected of God for as they affirme he chooseth none but for their faith which they have not nor redeemed by Christ for he died onely for sinners he saved his people from their sinnes which they are not guiltie of nor sanctified by the holy Ghost all whose operations they restraine to a morall swasion whereof infants are not a capable subject Which is not much to the honour of the blessed Trinitie that heaven should be replenished with them whom the Father never elected the Sonne never redeemed nor the holy Ghost sanctified And thus you see what they make of this originall pravitie of our nature at most an infirmitie or languor thereof neither a sinne nor the punishment of sinne properly so called nor yet a thing that deserves punishment as a sinne Which last assertion whether it be agreeable to holy Scripture or no these two following observations will declare First there is no confusion no disorder no vanitie in the whole world in any of Gods creatures that is not a punishment of our sinne in Adam That great and almost universall ruine of Nature proceeding from the curse of God overgrowing the earth and the wrath of God revealing it selfe from heaven is the proper issue of his transgression It was of the great mercy of God that the whole frame of Nature was not presently rolled up in darkenesse and reduced to its primitive confusion Had we our selves beene deprived of those remaining sparkes of Gods Image in our soules which vindicates us from the number of the Beasts that perish had we beene all borne fooles and voyd of reason by dealing so with some in particular he sheweth us it had beene but justice to have wrapped us in the same miserie all in generall all things when God first created them were exceeding good and thought so by the wisedome of God himselfe but our sinne even compelled that good and wise Creator to hate and curse the worke of his owne hands Cursed is the ground saith he to Adam for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eate of it all the dayes of thy life thornes also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee Gen. 3. 17 18. hence was that heavie burden of vanitie that bondage of corruption under which to this day the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in paine untill it be delivered Rom. 8. 21 22. Now if our sinne had such a strange malignant influence upon those things which have no relation unto us but onely as they were created for our use surely it is of the great mercy of God that we our selves are not quite confounded which doth not yet so interpose it self but that we are all compassed with divers sad effects of this iniquitie lying actually under divers pressing miseries and deservedly obnoxious to everlasting destruction so that Secondly death temporall with all its antecedents and attendants all infirmities miseries sicknesses wasting destroying passions casualties that are poenall all evill conducing thereunto or waiting on it is a punishment of originall sinne and this not onely because the first actuall sinne of Adam is imputed to us but most of them are the proper issues of that native corruption and pollution of sinne which is stirring and operative within us for the production of such sad effects our whole nature being by it throughly defiled hence are all the distortures and distemperatures of the soule by lusts concupiscence passions blindnesse of minde perversenesse of will inordinatenesse of affections wherewith we are pressed and turmoiled even proper issues of that inherent sinne which possesseth our whole soules Vpon the body also it hath such an influence in disposing it to corruption and mortality as it the originall of all those infirmities sicknesses and diseases which make us nothing but a shop of such miseries for death it selfe as these and the like degrees are the steps which leade us on apace in the road that tends unto it so they are the direct internall efficient cause thereof in subordination to the justice of Almighty God by such meanes inflicting it as a punishment of our sinnes in Adam Man before his fall though not in regard of the matter whereof he was made nor yet meerely in respect of his quickning forme yet in regard of Gods ordination was immortall a keeper of his owne everlastingnesse Death to which before he was not obnoxious was threatned as a punishment of his sinne In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die the exposition of which words given by God at the time of his inflicting this punishment and pronouncing man subject to mortalitie cleerely sheweth that it comprehendeth temporall death also dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt returne our returne to dust is nothing but the soules leaving the body whereby before it was preserved from corruption Further Saint Paul opposeth that death we had by the sinne of Adam to the resurrection of the body by the power of Christ for since by man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15. 21. 22.
the life which all shall receive by the power of Christ at the last day is essentially a re-union of soule and body and therefore their separation is a thing we incurred by the sinne of Adam the same Apostle also Rom. 5. describeth an universall reigne of death over all by reason of the first transgression even diseases also in the Scripture are attributed unto sinne as their meritorious cause Iohn 5. 14. 1 Cor. 11. 30. Revel 2. 22. and in respect of all these the mercy of God doth not so interpose it selfe but that all the sonnes of men are in some sort partakers of them Thirdly the finall desert of originall sinne as our article speaketh is damnation the wrath of God to be poured on us in eternall torments of body and soule To this end also many praevious judgements of God are subservient as the privation of originall righteousnesse which he tooke and withheld upon Adams throwing it away spirituall desertion permission of sinne with all other destroying depravations of our nature as farre as they are meerely paenall some of which are immediate consequents of Adams singular actuall transgression as privation of originall righteousnesse others as damnation it selfe the proper effects of that derived sinne and pollution that is in us there is none damned but for their owne sinne when Divines affirme that by Adams sinne we are guilty of damnation they doe not meane that any are actually damned for his particular fact but that by his sinne and our sinning in him by Gods most just ordination we have contracted that exceeding pravitie and sinfulnesse of nature which deserveth the curse of God and eternall damnation it must be an inherent uncleanesse that actually excludes out of the kingdome of heaven Revel 21. 27. which uncleannesse the Apostle shewes to be in infants not sanctified by an interest in the Covenant in briefe we are baptized unto the remission of sinne that we may be saved Act. 2. 38. that then which is taken away by Baptisme is that which hinders our salvation which is not the first sinne of Adam imputed but our owne inherent lust and pollution we cannot be washed and cleansed and purged from an imputed sinne which is done by the layer of regeneration from that which lies upon us onely by an externall denomination we have no need of cleansing we may be said to be freed from it or justified but not purged the soule then that is guilty of sinne shall die and that for its owne guilt if God should condemne us for originall sinne onely it were not by reason of the imputation of Adams fault but of the iniquitie of that portion of nature in which we are proprietaries Now here to shut up all observe that in this inquiry of the desert of originall sinne the Question is not What shall be the certaine lot of those that depart this life under the guilt of this sin only but what this haereditary and and native corruption doth desrve in all those in whom it is for as Saint Paul saith we iudge not them that are without especially infants 1 Cor. 5. 13. but for the demerit of it in the justice of God our Saviour expresly affirmeth that unlesse a man be borne againe he cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven Iohn 3. and let them that can distinguish betweene a not going to heaven and a going to hell a third receptacle of soules in the Scripture we finde not Saint Paul also tels us that by nature we are children of wrath Ephes 2. 3. even originally and actually we are guilty of and obnoxious unto that wrath which is accompanied with fiery indignation that shall consume the adversaries againe we are assured that no uncleane thing shall enter into heaven Revel 21. with which hell-deserving uncleanesse children are polluted and therefore unlesse it be purged with the bloud of Christ they have no interest in everlasting happinesse by this meanes sinne is come upon all to condemnation and yet doe we not peremptorily censure to hell all infants departing this world without the layer of regeneration the ordinary means of waveing the punishment due to this pollution that is the Question de facto which we before rejected yea and two wayes there are whereby God saveth such infants snatching them like brands out of the fire First by interesting them into the Covenant if their immediate or remote parents have beene beleevers he is a God of them and of their seed extending his mercy unto a thousand generations of them that feare him Secondly by his grace of election which is most free and not tied to any conditions by which I make no doubt but God taketh many unto him in Christ whose parents never knew or had beene despisers of the Gospel and this is the doctrine of our Church agreeable to the Scripture affirming the desert of originall sinne to be Gods wrath and damnation to both which how opposite is the Arminian doctrine may thus appeare S. S. By the offence of one man iudgement came upon all to condemnation Rom. 5. 18. By one mans disobedience many were made sinners vers 19. Behold I was shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did my mother conceive me Psalme 51. 5. else were your chidren unclean but now they are holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. Who can bring a clean thing out of an uncleane not one Iob 14. 4. Except a man be borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God Iohn 3. 3. That which is born of the flesh is flesh Iohn 3. 6. We were by nature the children of wrath even as others Ephes 2. 3. By one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned to wit in him Rom. 5. 12. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. 18. In the day you eate thereof you shall surely die Gen. 2. 17. For as in Adam all die so 1 Cor. 15. 22. By nature children of wrath Ephes 2. 3. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth Revel 21. 27. Lib. Arbit Adam sinned in his owne proper person onely and there is no reason why God should impute that sinne unto infants Borraeus It is absurd that by one mans disobedience many should be made actually disobedient Corvinus Infants are simply in that estate in which Adam was before his fall Venator Neither is it considerable whether they be the children of beleevers or of heathens for all infants have the same innocencie Rem Apol. That which we have by birth can be no evill of sinne because to be borne is plainely involuntarie Idem Originall sinne is neither a sinne properly so called which should make the posteritie of Adam guilty of Gods wrath nor yet a punishment of any sinne on them Rem Apol. It is against equitie that one should be accounted guilty of a sinne that is not his owne that he should be iudged nocent who
die which clearely granteth an impunity to all not tainted with sinne Sinne and punishment though they are sometimes separated by his mercy pardoning the one and so not inflicting the other yet never by his justice inflicting the latter where the former is not sinne imputed by it selfe alone without an inherent guilt was never punished in any but Christ the unsearchablenesse of Gods love and justice in laying the iniquitie of us all upon him who had no sinne is an exception from that generall rule he walketh by in his dealing with the posteritie of Adam so that if punishment bee not due unto us for a solely imputed sinne much lesse when it doth not stand with the justice and equitie of God to impute any iniquity unto us at all can we justly be wrapped in such a curse and punishment as wofull experience teacheth us that we lye under Now in this act of injustice wherewith they charge the Almightie the Arminians place the whole nature of originall sin We account not say they originall sin for a sin properly so called that should make the posteritie of Adam to deserve the wrath of God nor for an evill that may properly be called a punishment but only for an infirmitie of nature Which they interpret to be a kinde of evill that being inflicted on Adam God suffereth to descend upon his posteritie so all the depravation of nature the pollution guilt and concupiscence we derive from our first parents the imputation of Adams actuall transgression is all streightned to a small infirmitie inflicted on poore innocent creatures But let them enjoy their own wisdome which is earthly sensuall and devillish the Scripture is cleare that the sinne of Adam is the sinne of us all not only by propagation and communication whereby not his singular fault but something of the same nature is derived unto us but also by an imputation of his actuall transgression unto us all his singular disobedience being by this means made ours the grounds of this imputation I touched before which may be all reduced to his being a common person and head of all our nature which investeth us with a double interest in his demerits whilest so he was 1. as we were then in him and parts of him 2. as he sustained the place of our whole nature in the Covenant God made with him both which even according to the exigence of Gods justice require that his transgression be also accounted ours and Saint Paul is plaine not only that by one mans offence many were made sinners Rom. 5. 19. by the derivation of a corrupted nature but also that by one mans offence iudgement came upon all vers 18. even for his one sinne all of us are accounted to have deserved judgement and condemnation and therefore vers 12. he affirmeth that by one man sinne and death entred upon all the world and that because we have all sinned in him which we no otherwise doe but that his transgression in Gods estimation is accounted ours and the opposition the Apostle there maketh betweene Christ and his righteousnesse and Adam and his disobedience doth sufficiently evince it as may appeare by this figure Sicut sic ex Adamo Christo in omnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redundavit eis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per unū 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adami 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi the whole similitude chiefly consists in the imputation of Adams sinne and Christs righteousnesse unto the seed of the one by nature and of the other by grace but that we are counted righteous for the righteousnes of Christ is among Protestants though some differ in the manner of their expressions as yet without question and therefore are no lesse undoubtedly accounted sinners by or guilty of the first sinne of Adam I shall not shew their opposition unto the truth in many more particulars concerning this Article of Originall sinne having beene long agoe most excellently prevented even in this very method by the way of Antithesis to the Scripture and the Orthodoxe doctrine of our Church by the famously learned Master Reynolds in his excellent Treatise Of the sinfulnesse of sinne where he hath discovered their errours fully answered their sophisticall objections and invincibly confirmed the truth from the word of God onely as I have shewed already how they make this we call originall sinne no sinne at all neither inherent in us nor imputed unto us nor no punishment truly so called so because our Church saith directly that it meriteth damnation I will briefly shew what they conceive to be the desert thereof First for Adam himselfe they affirme that the death threatued unto him if he transgressed the Covenant and due unto him for it was neither death temporall for that before he was subiect unto by the primarie constitution of his nature nor yet such an eternall death as is accompanied with damnation or everlasting punishment No Why then let us here learne some new Divinitie Christians have hitherto beleeved that whatsoever may be comprised under the name of death together with its antecedents consequents and attendants was threatned to Adam in this commination and Divines untill this day can finde but these two sorts of death in the Scripture as poenall unto men and properly so called and shall we now be perswaded that it was neither of these that was threatned unto Adam in must be so if we will beleeve the Arminians it was neither the one nor the other of the former but whereas he was created mortall and subject to a temporall death the sanction of his obedience was a threatning of the utter dissolution of his soule and body or a reduction to their primative nothing but what if a man will not here take them at their words but beleeve according to Saint Paul that death entred by sinne that if we had never sinned we had never died that man in the state of innocency was by Gods constitution free even from temporall death and all things directly conducing thereunto Secondly that this death threatned to our first parents comprehended damnation also of soule and body for evermore and that of their imaginarie dissolution there is not the least intimation in the word of God why I confesse they have impudence enough in divers places to begge that we would beleeve their assertions but never confidence enough to venture once to prove them true Now they who make so slight of the desert of this sinne in Adam himselfe will surely scarce allow it to have any ill merit at all in his posteritie Whether ever any one were damned for Originall sinne and adiudged to everlasting torments is deservedly doubted of yea we doubt not to affirme that never any was so damned saith Corvinus and that this is not his sole opinion he declares by telling you no lesse of his Master Arminius It is most true saith he that Arminius teacheth that it is
their abettors have troubled the Church about the death of Christ may be reduced to heads First concerning the object of his merit or whom he died for Secondly concerning the efficacie and end of his death or what he deserved procured merited and obtained for them for whom he died in resolution of the first they affirme that he died for all and every one of the second that he died for no one man at all in that sense Christians have hitherto beleeved that he laid downe his life and submitted himselfe to beare the burden of his Fathers wrath for their sakes It seemes to me a strange extenuation of the merit of Christ to teach that no good at all by his death doth redound to divers of them for whom he died what participation in the benefit of his suffering had Pharaoh or Judas doe they not at this houre and shall they not to eternitie feele the waite and burden of their owne sinnes had they either grace in this world or glory in the other that they should be said to have an interest in the death of our Saviour Christians have hitherto beleeved that for whom Christ died for their sinnes he made satisfaction that they themselves should not externally suffer for them is God unist to punish twice for the same fault his owne Sonne once and againe the poore sinners for whom he suffered I cannot conceive an intention in God that Christ should satisfie his justice for the sinne of them that were in hell some thousands of yeeres before and yet be still resolved to continue then punishment on them to all eternitie no doubtlesse Christ giveth life to everyone for whom he gave his life hee looseth not one of them whom he purchased with his blood The first part of this Controversie may be handled under these two questions First whether God giving his Sonne and Christ making his soule a ransome for sinne intended thereby to redeeme all and every one from their sins that all and every one alike from the beginning of the world to the last day should all equally be partakers of the fruits of his death and passion which purpose of theirs is in the most frustrate Secondly whether God had not a certaine infallible intention of gathering unto himselfe a chosen people of collecting a Church of first borne of saving his little flocke of bringing some certainly to happinesse by the death of his onely Sonne which in the event he doth accomplish The second part also may be reduced to these two heads first whether Christ did not make full satisfaction for all their sinnes for whom he died and merited glory or everlasting happinesse to be bestowed on them upon the performance of those conditions God should require Secondly which is the proper Controversie I shall chiefly insist upon whether Christ did not procure for his own people a power to become the Sonnes of God merit and deserve at the hands of God for them grace faith righteousnesse and sanctification whereby they may be enabled infallibly to performe the conditions of the new Covenant upon the which they shall be admitted to glory To the first Question of the first part of the Controversie the Arminians answer affirmatively to wit that Christ died for all alike the benefit of his Passion belongs equally to all the posteritie of Adam and to the second negatively that God had no such intention of bringing many chosen sonnes unto salvation by the death of Christ but determined of grace and glory no more precisely to one then to another to Iohn then Iudas Abraham then Pharaoh both which as the learned Moulin observed seeme to be invented to make Christianitie ridiculous and expose our Religion to the derision of all knowing men for who can possibly conceive that one by the appointment of God should die for another and yet that other by the same justice be allotted unto death himselfe when ones death onely was due that Christ hath made a full satisfaction for their sinnes who shall everlastingly feele the waight of them themselves that he should merit and obtaine reconciliation with God for them who live and die his enemies grace and glory for them who are gracelesse in this life and damned in that which is to come that he should get remission of sinnes for them whose sinnes were never pardoned in briefe if this sentence be true either Christ by his death did not reconcile us unto God make satisfaction to his justice for our iniquities redeeme us from our sinnes purchase a kingdome an everlasting inheritance for us which I hope no Christian will say or else all the former absurdities must necessarily follow which no rationall man will ever admit Neither may we be charged as straitners of the merit of Christ for we advance the true value and worth thereof as hereafter will appeare farre beyond all that the Arminians ascribe unto it we confesse that that blood of God Acts 20. 28. of the Lambe without spot or blemish 1. Pet. 1. 19. was so exceedingly precious of that infinite worth and value that it might have saved a thousand beleeving worlds Iohn 3. 16. Rom. 3. 22. his death was of sufficient dignitie to have beene made a ransome for all the sinnes of every one in the world and on this internall sufficiencie of his death and passion is grounded the universalitie of Evangelicall promises which have no such restriction in their own nature as that they should not be made to all and every one though the promulgation and knowledge of them is tied onely to the good pleasure of Gods speciall providence Matth. 16. 17. as also that Oeconomie and dispensation of the new Covenant whereby the partition wall being broken downe there remaines no more difference betweene Iew and Gentile the utmost borders of the Earth being given in for Christs inheritance so that in some sense Christ may be said to die for all and the whole world first in as much as the worth and value of his death was very sufficient to have beene made a price for all their sinnes secondly in as much as this word All is taken for some of all sorts not for every one of every sort as it is frequently used in the holy Scripture so Christ being lifted up drew all unto him Iohn 12. 32. that is beleevers out of all sorts of men the Apostles cured all diseases or some of all sorts they did not cure every particular disease but there was no kinde of disease that was exempted from their power of healing so that where it is said that Christ died for all it is meant either first all the faithfull or secondly some of all sorts thirdly not onely Iewes but Gentiles For Secondly the proper counsell and intention of God in sending his Sonne into the world to die was that thereby he might confirme and ratifie the new Covenant to his elect and purchase for them all the good things which are contained in the tenure of that
Christ for us is of the same extent with that grace whereby he calleth us to faith or bestoweth faith on us for he hath called us with an holy calling according to his owne purpose and grace which was given us in Iesus Christ 2 Tim. 2. 9. which doubtlesse is not universall and common unto all Innumerable other reasons there are to prove that seeing God hath given his elect onely whom onely he loved to Christ to be redeemed and seeing that the Sonne loveth onely those who are given him of his Father and redeemeth onely whom he loveth seeing also that the holy Spirit the love of the Father and the Sonne sanctifieth all and onely them that are elected and redeemed it is not our part with a preposterous liberality against the witnesse of Christ himselfe to assigne the salvation attained by him as due to them that are with out the Congregation of them whom the Father hath loved and chosen without that Church which the Sonne loved and gave his life for it nor none of the members of that sanctified body whereof Christ is the Head and Saviour I urge no more because this is not that part of the Controversie that I desire to lay open I come now to consider the maine Question of this difference though sparingly handled by our Divines concerning what our Saviour merited and purchased for them for whom he died and here you shall finde the old Idol playing his prankes and quite devesting the merit of Christ from the least ability or power of doing us any good for though the Arminians pretend very speciously that Christ died for all men yet in effect they make him die for no one man at all and that by denying the effectuall operation of his death and ascribing the proper issues of his passion to the brave indevours of their owne Pelagian Deitie We according to the Scriptures plainly beleeve that Christ hath by his righteousnesse merited for us grace and glory that we are blessed with all spirituall blessings in though and for him that he is made unto us righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that he hath procured for us and that God for his sake bestoweth on us every grace in this life that maketh us differ from others and all that glory we hope for in that which is to come he procured for us remission of all our sinnes an actuall reconciliation with God faith and obedience yea but this is such a desperate doctrine as stabs at the very heart of the Idol and would make him as altogether uselesse as if he were but a figgetree logge what remaineth for him to doe if all things in this great worke of our salvation must be thus ascribed unto Christ and the merit of his death Wherefore the worshippers of this great God Lib. Arbit oppose their engines against the whole fabricke and cry downe the title of Christs merits to these spirituall blessings in the behalfe of their imaginarie Deity Now because they are things of a two-fold denomination about which we contend before the king of heaven each part producing their evidence the first springing from the favour of God towards us the second from the working of his grace actually within us I shall handle them severally and apart especially because to things of this latter sort gifts as we call them enabling us to fulfill the condition required for the attaining of glory we lay a double claime on Gods behalfe First as the death of Christ is the meritorious cause procuring them of him Secondly as his free grace is their efficient cause working them in us they also producing a double title whereby they would invest their beloved darling with a sole proprietie in causing these effects First in regard that they are our owne acts performed in us and by us secondly as they are parts of our dutie which we are enjoyned to doe so that the quarrell is directly betweene Christs Merits and our owne free-will about procuring the favour of God and obtaining grace and righteousnesse let us see what they say to the first They affirme that the immediate and proper effect or end of the death and passion of Christ is not an actuall oblation of sinne from men not an actuall remission of iniquities iustification and redemption of any soule that is Christ his death is not the meritorious cause of the remission of our sins of redemption and justification the meritorious cause I say for of some of them as of justification as it is terminated in us we confesse there are causes of other kindes as faith is the instrument and the holy Spirit the efficient thereof But for the sole meritorious procuring cause of these spirituall blessings we alwaies took it to be the righteousnesse and death of Christ beleeving plainely that the end why Christ died and the fruit of his sufferings was our reconciliation with God redemption from our sinnes freedome from the curse deliverance from the wrath of God and power of hell though we be not actuall partakers of these things to the pacification of our owne consciences without the intervening operation of the holy Spirit and faith by him wrought in us But if this be not Pray what is obtained by the death of Christ Why a potentiall conditionate reconciliation not actuall and absolute saith Corvinus But yet this potentiall reconciliation being a new expression never intimated in the Scripture and scarce of it selfe intelligible we want a further explanation of their minde to know what it is that directly they assigne to the merits of Christ wherefore they tell us that the fruit of his death was such an impetration or obtaining of reconciliation with God and redemption for us that God thereby hath a power his iustice being satisfied and so not compelling him to the contrary to grant remission of sinnes to sinnefull men on what condition he would or as another speaketh it There was by the effusion of Christs blood a right obtained unto and settled in God of reconciling the world and of opening unto all a gate of repentance and faith in Christ But now whereas the Scripture every where affirmeth that Christ died for our good to obtaine blessings for us to purchase our peace to acquire and merit for us the good things contained in the promise of the Covenant this opinion seemes to restraine the end and fruit thereof to the obtaining of a power and libertie unto God of prescribing us a condition whereby we may be saved but yet it may be thus much at least Christ obtained of God in our behalfe that he should assigne faith in him to be this condition and to bestow it upon us also No neither the one nor the other after all this had it so seemed good unto his wisedome God might have chosen the Iewes and others following the righteousnesse of the law as well as beleevers because he might have assigned any other condition of salvation besides faith in Christ saith
repugnancie to the Law of God they will maintaine that it was also in Adam when he was first created and so comes from God himselfe Chapter the eighth Fourthly they denie the efficacie of the merit of the death of Christ both that God intended by his death to redeeme his Church or to acquire unto himselfe an holy people as also that Christ by his death hath merited and procured for us grace faith or righteousnesse and power to obey God in fulfilling the condition of the new covenant nay this were plainely to set up an Arke to breake their Dagons necke for what praise say they can be due to our selves for beleeving if the blood of Christ hath procured God to bestow faith upon us increpet te Deus ô Satan see Chapter nine and ten Fiftly if Christ will claime such a share in saving of his people of them that beleeve in him they will grant some to have salvation quite without him that never heard so much as a report of a Saviour and indeed in nothing doe they advance their Idol neerer the throne of God then in this blasphemie Chapter 11. Sixthly having thus robbed God Christ and his grace they adorne their Idol Free-will with many glorious properties no way due unto it discussed Chapter 12. where you shall finde how movet cornicula risum furtivis undata coloribus Seventhly they doe not onely claime to their new made Deitie a saving power but also affirme that he is very active and operative in the great worke of saving our soules First in fitly preparing us for the grace of God and so disposing of our selves that it becomes due unto us Chapter 13. Secondly in the effectuall working of our conversion together with it Chapter 14. And so at length with much toyle and labour they have placed an Altar for their Idol in the holy temple on the right hand of the Altar of God and on it offer sacrifice to their owne net and dragge at least nec Deo nec libero Arbitrie sed dividatur not all to God nor all to Free-will but let the Sacrifice of praise for all good things be divided betweene them CHAP. II. Of the eternitie and immutabilitie of the decrees of Almightie God denied and overthrown by the Arminians IT hath been alwayes beleeved among Christians and that upon infallible grounds as I shall shew hereafter that all the decrees of God as they are internall so they are eternall acts of his will and therefore unchangeable and irrevocable mutable decrees and occasionall resolutions are most contrary to the pure nature of Almightie God such principles as these evident and cleere by their own light were never questioned by any before the Arminians began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to professe themselves to delight in opposing common notions of reason concerning God and his essence that they might exalt themselves into his throne to ascribe the least mutabilitie to the divine essence with which all the attributes and internall free acts of God are one and the same was ever accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transcendent Atheisme in the highest degree now be this crime of what nature it will it is no unjust imputation to charge it on the Arminians because they confesse themselves guiltie and glory in the crime 1. They undermine and overthrow the eternitie of Gods purposes by affirming that in the order of the divine decrees there are some which precede every act of the creature and some againe that follow them so Corvinus the most famous of that sect now all the acts of every creature being but of yesterday temporary like themselves surely those decrees of God cannot be eternall which follow them in order of time and yet they presse this especially in respect of humane actions as a certaine unquestionable veritie it is certaine that God willeth or determineth many things which he would not did not some act of mans will goe before it saith their greater Master Arminius the like affirmeth with a little addition as such men do alwayes proficere in peius his genuine scholler Nic. Grevinchovius I suppose saith he that God willeth many things which he neither would nor iustly could will and purpose did not some action of the creature precede and here observe that in these places they speak not of Gods externall works of those actions which out wardly are of him as inflicting of punishments bestowing of rewards and other such outward acts of his providence whose administration we confesse to be various and diversly applyed to severall occasions but of the internall purposes of Gods will his decrees and intentions which have no present influence upon or respect unto any action of the creature yea they deny that concerning many things God hath any determinate resolution at all or any purpose further then a naturall affection towards them God doth or omitteth that towards which in his owne nature and his proper inclination he is affected as he findes man to comply or not to comply with that order which he hath appointed saith Corvinus surely these men care not what indignities they cast upon the God of heaven so they may maintaine the pretended endowments of their own wils for such an absolute power do they here ascribe unto them that God himself cannot determine of a thing whereunto as they strangely phrase it he is well affected before by an actuall coucurrence he is sure of their complyance now this imputation that they are temporary which they cast upon the decrees of God in generall they presse home upon that particular which lies most in their way the decree of election concerning this they tell us roundly that it is false that election is confirmed from eternitie so the Remonstrants in their Apologie not withstanding that Saint Paul tels us that it is the purpose of God Rom. 9. 11. and that we were chosen before the foundation of the world Ephes 1. 4. neither is it any thing materiall what the Arminians there grant viz that there is a decree preceding this which may be said to be from everlasting for seeing that Saint Paul teacheth us that election is nothing but Gods purpose of saving us to affirme that God eternally decreed that he would elect us is all one as to say that God purposed that in time he would purpose to save us such resolutions may be fit for their own wild heads but must not be ascribed to God only wise Secondly as they affirme them to be temporary and to have had a beginning so also to expire and have an ending to be subject to change and variablenesse some acts of Gods will doe cease at a certaine time saith Episcopius what doth any thing come into his minde that changeth his will yes saith Arminius he would have all men to be saved but compelled with the stubborne and incorrigible malice of some he will have them to misse it however this is some recompence denying God a power
in regard of his owne will is truly innocent God neither doth nor can in iustice appoint any to hell for originall sinne Rem Apol. It is perversly spoken that originall sinne makes any one guiltie of death Armin. We no way doubt to affirme that never any one was damned for originall sinne Corvinus CHAP. VIII Of the state of Adam before the fall or of originall Righteousnesse IN the last Chapter we discovered the Arminian attempt of readvancing the corrupted nature of man into that state of innocency and holinesse wherein it was at first by God created in which designe because they cannot but discerne that the successe is not answerable to their desires and not being able to deny but that for so much good as we want having cast it away or evill of sinne that we are subject unto more then we were at our first creation we must be responsable for to the justice of God they labour to draw down our first parents even from the instant of their forming into the same condition wherein we are ingaged by reason of corrupted nature but truly I feare they will scarse obtaine so prosperous an issue of their endeavour as Mahomet had when he promised the people he would call a mountaine unto him which miracle when they assembled to behold but the mountaine would not stirre for all his calling he replyed if the mountaine will not come to Mahomet Mahomet will goe to the mountaine and away he packed towards it but we shall finde that our Arminians can neither themselves climbe the high mountaine of innocency nor yet call it down into the valley of sinne and corruption wherein they are lodged we have seene already how vaine and frustrate was their former attempt let us now take a view of their aspiring insolence in making the pure creatures of God holy and undefiled with any sinne to be invested with the same wretchednesse and perversenesse of nature with our selves It is not my intention to enter into any curious discourse concerning the state and grace of Adam before his fall but only to give a faithfull assent to what God himselfe affirmed of all the works of his hands they were exceeding good no evill no deformitie or any thing tending thereunto did immediately issue from that fountaine of goodnesse and wisdome and therefore doubtlesse man the most excellent worke of his hands the greatest glory of his Creator was then without spot or blemish endued with all those perfections his nature and state of obedience was capable of and carefull we must be of casting any aspersions of defect on him that we will not with equall boldnesse ascribe to the image of God Nothing doth more manifest the deviation of our nature from its first institution and declare the corruption wherewith we are polluted then that propensitie which is in us to every thing that is evill that inclination of the flesh which lusteth alwayes against the spirit that lust and concupiscence which fomenteth conceiveth hatcheth bringeth forth and nourisheth sinne that perpetuall pronenesse that is in unregenerate nature to every thing that is contrary to the pure and holy Law of God now because neither Scripture nor experience will suffer Christians quite to deny this pravitie of our nature this aversenesse from all good and propensitie to sinne the Arminians extenuate it as much as they are able affirming that it is no great matter no more then Adam was subject unto in the state of innocency but what did God create in Adam a pronenesse unto evill was that a part of his glorious image in whose likenesse he was framed yea saith Corvinus By reason of his creation man had an affection to what was forbidden by the Law but yet this seemes injustice that God should give a man a law to keepe and put upon his nature a repugnancy to that law as one of them affirmed at the Synod of Dort No saith the former Author Man had not been fit to have had a law given unto him had he not been endued with a propension and naturall inclination to that which is forbidden by the law but why is this so necessary in men rather then Angels no doubt there was a law a rule for their obedience given unto them at their first creation which some transgressed when others kept it inviolate had they also a propensitie to sinne concreated with their nature had they a naturall affection put upon them by God to that which was forbidden by the law let them only who will be wise beyond the word of God affixe such injustice on the righteous Iudge of all the earth but so it seemes it must be There was an inclination in man to sin before the fall though not altogether so vehement and inordinate as it is now saith Arminius hitherto we have thought that the originall righteousnesse wherein Adam was created had comprehended the integritie and perfection of the whole man not only that whereby the body was obedient unto the soule and all the affections subservient to the rule of reason for the performance of all naturall actions but also a light uprightnesse and holinesse of grace in the minde and will whereby he was enabled to yeeld obedience unto God for the attaining of that supernatural end whereunto he was created No but originall righteousnesse say our new Doctors was nothing but a bridle to helpe keepe mans inordinate concupiscence within bounds so that the faculties of our souls were never indued with any proper innate holinesse of their owne In the spirituall death of sinne there are no spirituall gifts properly wanting in the will because they were never there say the sixe Collocutors at the Hague The summe is man was created with a nature not only weak and imperfect unable by its native strength and endowments to attaine that supernaturall end for which he was made and which he was commanded to seeke but depraved also with a love and desire of things repugnant to the will of God by reason of an inbred inclination to sinning It doth not properly belong to this place to shew how they extenuate those gifts also with which they cannot deny but that he was indued and also deny those which he had as a power to beleeve in Christ or to assent unto any truth that God should reveale unto him and yet they grant this priviledge to every one of his posterity in that depraved condition of nature whereinto by sinne he cast himselfe and us we have all now a power of beleeving in Christ that is Adam by his fall obtained a supernaturall endowment farre more excellent then any he had before and let them not here pretend the universalitie of the new covenant untill they can prove it and I am certaine it will be long enough but this I say belongs not to this place only let us see how from the word of God we may overthrow the former odious heresie God in the beginning created man
in his owne image Gen. 1. 26. that is upright Eccles 7. 29. indued with a nature composed to obedience and holinesse that habituall grace and originall righteousnesse wherewith he was invested was in a manner due unto him for the obtaining of that supernaturall end whereunto he was created an universall rectitude of all the faculties of his soule advanced by supernaturall graces enabling him to the performance of those duties whereunto they were required is that which we call the innocency of our first parents our nature was then enclined to good only and adorned with all those qualifications that were necessary to make it acceptable unto God and able to doe what was required of us by the law under the condition of everlasting happinesse Nature and grace or originall righteousnesse before the fall ought not to be so distinguished as if the one were a thing prone to evill resisted and quelled by the other for both complyed in a sweet union and harmony to carry us along in the way of obedience to eternall blessednesse no contention betweene the flesh and the spirit but as all other things at theirs so the whole man joyntly aymed at his own chiefest good having all means of attaining it in his power that there was then no inclination to sinne no concupiscence of that which is evill no repugnancy to the Law of God in the pure nature of man is proved because First The Scripture describing the condition of our nature at the first creation thereof intimates no such propensitie to evill but rather an holy perfection quite excluding it we are created in the image of God Gen. 1. 27. in such a perfect uprightnesse as is opposite to all evill inventions Eccles 7. 29. to which image when we are againe in some measure renewed by the grace of Christ Colos 3. 10. We see by the first fruits that it consisted in righteousnesse and holinesse in truth and perfect holinesse Ephes 4. 24. Secondly An inclination to evill and a lusting after that which is forbidden is that inordinate concupiscence wherewith our nature is now infected which is every where in the Scripture condemned as a sinne Saint Paul in the seventh to the Romans affirming expressely that it is a sinne and forbidden by the Law vers 1. producing all manner of evill and hindering all that is good a body of death vers 24 and Saint Iames maketh it even the wombe of all iniquitie Iames 1. 14 15. surely our nature was not at first yoked with such a troublesome inmate where is the uprightnesse and innocency we have hitherto conceived our first parents to have enjoyed before the fall a repugnancy to the law must needs be a thing sinfull an inclination to evill to a thing forbidden is an anomie a deviation and discrepancy from the pure and holy law of God we must speake no more then of the state of innocency but only of a short space wherein no outward actuall sins were committed their proper root if this be true was concreated with our nature is this that obedientiall harmony to all the commandements of God which is necessary for a pure and innocent creature that hath a law prescribed unto him by which of the ten precepts is this inclination to evill required is it by the last thou shalt not covet or by that summe of them all thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. is this all the happinesse of Paradise to be turmoyled with a nature swelling with aboundance of vaine desires and with a maine streame carried headlong to all iniquitie if its violent appetite be not powerfully kept in by the bit and bridle of originall righteousnesse So it is we see with children now and so it should have been with them in Paradise if they were subject to this rebellious inclination to sinne Thirdly and principally whence had our primitive nature this affections to those things that were forbidden it this rebellion repugnancy to the law which must needs be an anomie and so a thing sinfull there was as yet no demerit to deserve it as a punishment what fault is it to be created The operation of any thing which hath its original with the being of the thing it self must needs proceed from the same cause as doth the essence or being it self as the fires tending upwards relates to the same original with the fire and therefore this inclination or affection can have no other Author but God by which means he is entitled not only to the first sinne as the efficient cause but to all the sins in the world arising from thence plainly and without any strained consequencies he is made the author of sinne for even those positive properties which can have no other fountaine but the authour of Nature being set on evill are directly sinfull And here the Idoll of free-will may triumph in this victory over the God of heaven heretofore all the blame of sinne lay upon his shoulders but now he begins to complaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God and the fate of our creation that hath placed us in this condition of naturally affecting that which is evill backe with all your charges against the ill government of this new Deitie within his imaginary dominion what hurt doth he doe but incline men unto evill and God himselfe did no lesse at the first but let them that will rejoyce in these blasphemies it sufficeth us to know that God created man upright though he hath sought out many inventions so that in this following dissonancy we cleave to the better part S. S. So God created man in his own image in the likenesse of God created he him male and female created he them Gen 1. 27. Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that made him Colos 3. 10. which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Ephes 4. 24. Loe this onely have I found that God hath made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions Eccles 7. â—9 By one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne Rom. 5. 12. Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God tempteth no man but every one is tempted when he is drawne away of his own lust Iam. 1. 13. 14. Lib. Arbit There was in man before the fall an inclination to sinning though not so vehement and inordinate as now it is Armin. God put upon man a repugnancy to his law Gesteranus in the Synod Man by reason of his creation had an affection to those things that are forbidden by the Law Corvinus The will of man had never any spirituall endowments Rem Apol. It was not fit that man should have a law given him unlesse he had an naturall inclination to what was forbidden by the Law Corvinus CHAP. IX Of the death of Christ and of the efficacie of his merits THe summe of those Controversies wherewith the Arminians and
Covenant to wit grace and glory that by his death he might bring many yet some certaine children to glorie obtaining for them that were given unto him by his Father that is his whole Church reconciliation with God remission of sinnes faith righteousnesse sanctification and life eternall that is the end to which they are to be brought and the meanes whereby God will have them attaine it he died that he might gather the dispersed children of God and make them partakers of everlasting glory to give eternall life to all that God gave unto him Iohn 17. 2. And on this purpose of himselfe and his Father is founded the intercession of Christ for his elect and chosen people performed partly on the earth Iohn 17. partly in heaven before the Throne of grace which is nothing but a presentation of himselfe and his merits accompanied with the prayers of his Mediatour-ship before God that he would be pleased to grant and effectually to apply the good things he hath by them obtained to all for whom he hath obtained them his intercession in heaven is nothing but a continued oblation of himselfe So that whatsoever Christ impetrated merited or obtained by his death and passion must be infallibly applied unto and bestowed upon them for whom he intended to obtaine it or else his intercession is vaine he is not heard in the prayers of his mediatourship an actuall reconciliation with God and communication of grace and glory must needs betide all them that have any such interest in the righteousnesse of Christ as to have it accepted for their good the sole end why Christ would so dearely purchase those good things is an actuall application of them unto his chosen God set forth the propitiation of his blood for the remission of sinnes that he might be the iustifier of him that beleeveth on Jesus Rom 3. 25 26. But this part of the Controversie is not that which I principally intend onely I will give you a briefe summe of those reasons which overthrow their heresie in this particular branch thereof First the death of Christ is in divers places of the Scripture restrained to his people and elect his Church and sheepe Matth. 1. 21. Iohn 10. 11 12 13. Acts 20. 28. Ephes 5. 25. Iohn 11. 52. Rom. 8. 32 33. Heb 2. 10. 13. Revel 5. 9. Dan. 9. 27. and therefore the good purchased thereby ought not to be extended to dogges reprobates and those that are without Secondly for whom Christ died he died as their sponsor in their roome and turne that he might free them from the guilt and desert of death which is cleerely expressed Rom. 5. 6 7 8. He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed Isa 53. 5 6 c. He hath redeemed us from the curse being made a curse for us Galat. 3. 13. He made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne 1 Cor. 5. 21. Evidently he changeth turnes with us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him yea in other things it is plaine in the Scripture that to die for another is to take his place and roome with an intention that he should live 2 Sam 18. 33. Rom. 5. So that Christ dying for men made satisfaction for their sins that they should not die now for what sins he made satisfaction for them the justice of God is satisfied which surely is not done for the sinnes of the reprobates because he justly punisheth them to eternitie upon themselves Matth. 5. 26. Thirdly for whom Christ died for them also he rose againe to make intercession for them for whose offences he was delivered for their iustification he was raised Rom. 4. 25. and Chap. 5. 10. He is a high Priest to make intercession for them in the holiest of holies for whom by his bloud he obtained everlasting redemption Heb. 9. 11. 12. Those two acts of his Priesthood are not to be separated it belongs to the same Mediator for sinne to sacrifice and pray our assurance that he is our Advocate is grounded on his being a propitiation for our sinnes he is an Advocate for every one for whose sinnes his blood was a propitiation 1 Iohn 2 1 2. But Christ doth not intercede and pray for all as himselfe often witnesseth Iohn 17. He maketh intercession onely for them who come unto God by him Heb. 7. 24. He is not a Mediatour of them that perish no more then and Advocate of them that faile in their suits and therefore the benefit of his death also must be restrained to them who are finally partakers of both we must not so dis-joyne the offices of Christs Mediatorship that one of them may be versated about some towards whom he exerciseth not the other much lesse ought we so to separate the severall acts of the same office For whom Christ is a Priest to offer himselfe a sacrifice for their sinnes he is surely a King to apply the good things purchased by his death unto them asb Arminius himselfe confesseth much more to whom he is a Priest by sacrifice he will be a Priest by intercession and therefore seeing he doth not intercede and pray for every one he did not die for every one Fourthly for whom Christ died he merited grace and glory faith and salvation and reconciliation with God as I shall shew hereafter but this he hath not done for all and every one many doe never beleeve the wrath of God remaineth upon some the wrath of God abideth on them that doe not beleeve 1 Iohn 3. 16. To abide argueth a continued uninterrupted act now to be reconciled to one and yet to lie under his heavie anger seeme to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that will scarce consist together the reasons are many I onely point at the heads of some of them Fifthly Christ died for them whom God gave unto him to be saved Thine they were and thou gavest them unto me Ioh. 17. 6. He layeth downe his life for the sheepe committed to his charge Iohn 10. 11. But all are not the sheepe of Christ all are not given unto him of God to be brought to glory for of those that are so given there is not one that perisheth for he giveth eternall life to as many as God hath given him Iohn 17. 2. No man is able to plucke them out of his Fathers hands Chap. 10. 28 29. Sixthly looke whom and how many that love of God embraced that was the cause of sending his Son to redeeme them for them and so many did Christ according to the counsell of his Father and in himselfe intentionally lay downe his life now this love is not universall being his good pleasure of blessing with spirituall blessings and saving some in Christ Ephes 1. 4 5. which good pleasure of his evidently comprehendeth some when others are excluded Matth. 11. 25 26. yea the love of God in giving
Grevinchovius Notwithstanding then the death of Christ for us we might have beene held to the old rule Doe this and live but if this be true I cannot perceive how it may be said that Chrid died to redeeme us from our sins to save our soules and bring us unto glory neither perhaps doe they thinke this to be any great inconvenience for the same Authour affirmeth that Christ cannot be said properly to die to save any one And a little after he more fully declares himselfe That after Christ had obtained all that he did obtaine by his death the right remained wholly in God to apply it or not to apply it as it should seeme good unto him the application of grace and glory to any man was not the end for which Christ obtained them but to get a right and power unto God of bestowing those things on what sort of men he would which argues no redemption of us from our sinnes but a vindication of God from such a condition wherein he had not power to forgive them not an obtaining of salvation for us but of a libertie unto God of saving us on some condition or other But now after God hath got this power by the death of Christ and out of his gracious good pleasure assigned faith to be the meanes for us to attaine those blessings he hath procured himselfe a libertie to bestow Did Christ obtaine this faith for us of him if it be a thing not in our own power No Faith is not obtained by the death of Christ saith Corvinus so that there is no good thing no spirituall blessing into which any man in the world hath any interest by the death of Christ which is not so great an absurditie but that they are most ready to grant it Arnoldus confesseth that he beleeves that the death of Christ might have enioyed its end or his merit it s full force although never any had beleeved and againe the death and satisfaction of Christ being accomplished it might come to passe that none fulfilling the condition of the new Covenant none should be saved so also saith Grevinchovius Oh Christ that any pretending to professe thy holy Name should thus slight the precious worke of thy death and passion surely never any before who counted it their glory to be called Christians did ever thus extenuate their friends the Socinians onely excepted the dignitie of his merit and satisfaction take but a short view of what benefit they allow to redound to us by the effusion of his precious blood and you may see what a pestilent heresie these men have laboured to bring into the Church neither faith nor salvation grace nor glory hath he purchased for us not any spirituall blessing that by our interest in his death we can claime to be ours it is not such a reconciliation with God as that he thereupon should be contented againe to be called our God it is not justification nor righteousnesse nor actuall redemption from our sinnes it did not make satisfaction for our iniquities and deliver us from the curse onely it was a meanes of obtaining such a possibility of salvation as that God without wronging of his iustice might save us if he would one way or other so that when Christ had done all that he could there was not one man in the world immediately the better for it notwithstanding the utmost of his endeavour every one might have beene damned with Iudas to the pit of hell for he died as well for Simon Magus and Iudas as he did for Peter and Paul say the Arminians Now if no more good redound to us by the death of Christ then to Simon Magus we are not much obliged to him for our salvation Nay he may be rather said to have redeemed God then us for he procured for him immediately a power to redeeme us if he would for us onely by vertue of that power a possibilitie to be redeemed which leaves nothing of the nature of merit annexed to his death for that deserveth that something be done not onely that it may be done the workman deserveth that his wages be given him and not that it may be given him And then what becomes of all the comfort and consolation that is proposed to us in the death of Christ but it is time to see how this stubble is burned and consumed by the word of God and that established which they thought to overthrow First It is cleare that Christ died to procure for us an actuall reconciliation with God and not only a power for us to be reconciled unto him for when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his sonne Rom. 5. 10. we enjoy an actuall reconciliation unto God by his death he is content to be called our God when we are enemies without the intervening of any condition on our part required though the sweetnesse comfort and knowledge of this reconciliation doe not compasse our soules before we beleeve in him Againe we have remission of sinnes by his blood and justification from them not a sole vindication into such an estate wherein if it please God and our selves our sinnes are pardonable for we are justified through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes Rom. 3. 24 25. Yea he obtained for us by his death righteousnesse and holinesse He gave himselfe for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it Ephes 5. 26. That he might present it unto himselfe a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle that we should be holy and without blemish vers 27. Where first we have whom Christ died or gave himselfe for even his Church secondly what he obtained for it holinesse and righteousnesse a freedome from the spots and blemishes of sinne that is the grace of justification and sanctitie he made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne that we might become the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. And lastly he died to purchase for us an everlasting inheritance Heb. 9. 15. So that both grace and glory are bestowed on them for whom he died as the immediate fruits of his death and passion Secondly see what the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly assigneth as the proper end and immediate effect according to the purpose of God and his owne intention of the effusion of the blood of Iesus Christ and you shall finde that he intended by it to take away the sinnes of many to make his soule an offering for sinne that he might see his seed that the counsell of God might prosper in his hand Isaiah 53. to be a ransome for many Matth. 20. 28. to beare the sins of many Heb. 9. 28. he bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we should live unto righteousnesse 1 Pet. 2. 24. that we might become
the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. thereby reconciling us unto God vers 19. he died to reconcile us unto God in the body of his flesh through death that we might be holy and unblameable Colos 1. 21 22. to purge our sins Heb. 1. 3. to obtaine an everlasting redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. so that if Christ by his death obtained what he did intend he hath purchased for us not only a possibilitie of salvation but holinesse righteousnesse reconciliation with God justification freedome from the guilt and condemning power of sin everlasting redemption eternall life and glory in heaven Thirdly I appeale unto the consciences of all Christians First whether they doe not suppose the very foundation of all their consolation to be stricken at when they shall finde those places of Scripture that affirme Christ to have died to take away our sins to reconcile us unto God to put away or abolish our transgressions to wash and regenerate us perfectly to save us and purchase for us an everlasting redemption whereby he is become unto us righteousnesse and redemption and sanctification the Lord our righteousnesse and we become the righteousnesse of God in him to be so wrested as if he should be said only to have done something which these things might happily follow Secondly whither they thinke it not a ready way to impaire their love and to weaken their faith in Christ when they shall be taught that Christ hath done no more for them then for those that are damned in hell that be their assurance never so great that Christ died for them yet there is enough to be laid to their charge to condemne them that though God is said to have reconciled them unto himselfe in Christ Colos 1. 19 20. yet indeed he is as angry with them as with any reprobate in the world that God loveth us not first but so long as we continue in a state of enmitie against him before our conversion he continues our enemy also so that the first act of friendship or love must be performed on our part notwithstanding that the Scripture saith we were reconciled unto God being enemies Romanes 5. vers 10. Thirdly Whither they have not hitherto supposed themselves bound to beleeve that Christ died for their sins and rose for their justification do they not thinke it lawfull to pray that God would bestow upon them grace and glory for Christs sake and to beleeve that Iesus Christ was such a Mediatour of the new Covenant as procured for the persons Covenanted withall all the good things comprehended in the promise of that Covenant I will not further presse upon this prevarication against Christian Religion only I would desire all the lovers of Iesus Christ seriously to consider whether these men doe truly ayme at his honour and advancing the dignitie of his merit and not rather at the crying up of their own indeavours seeing the sole cause of their denying these glorious effects of the blood of Christ is to appropriate the praise of them unto themselves as we shall see in the next Chapter These charges are never to be waved by the vanitie of their sophisticall distinctions as of that of impetration and application which though it may be received in an Orthodox meaning yet not in that sense or rather non-sense whereunto they abuse it viz. As though Christ had obtained that for some which shall never be imparted unto them that all the blessings procured by his death are proper to none but pendent in the aire for them that can or will catch them whereupon when we object that by this means all the efficacie of the merit of Christ is in our own power they readily grant it and say it cannot otherwise be let them that can receive these monsters in Christianitie for my part in these following contradictory assertions I will choose rather to adhere to the authoritie of the word of God then of Arminius and his sectaries S. S. He made him to be sinne for us who knew no sinne that we might become the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. He loved his Church and gave himselfe for it that he might present it unto himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such things Ephes 5. 26 27. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe 2 Cor. 5. 19. When thou shalt make his soule an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Isa 53. 10. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie many for he shall beare their iniquities vers 11. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Heb. 9. 28. By his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us vers 12. He hath reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable Colos 1. 22. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins c. that he might be iust and the iustifier of him that beleeveth in Iesus Rom. 3. 25 26. Who his own selfe bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sinne should live unto righteousnesse by whose stripes we are healed 1 Peter 2. 24. Lib. Arbit The immediate effect of the death of Christ is not the remission of sins or the actuall redemption of any Armin. Christ did not properly die to save any one Grevinch A potentiall and conditionate reconciliation not actuall and absolute is obtained by the death of Christ Corvin I beleeve it might have come to passe that the death of Christ might have had its end though never any man had beleeved Corvi The death and satisfaction of Christ being accomplished yet it may so come to passe that none at all fulfilling the condition of the new covenant none might be saved idem The impetration of salvation for all by the death of Christ is nothing but the obtaining of a possibilitie thereof that God without wronging his iustice may open unto them a gate of mercy to be entred on some condition Rem Coll. Hag. Notwithstanding the death of Christ God might have assigned any other condition of salvation as well as faith or have chosen the Iews following the righteousnesse of the law Grevin Why then the efficacie of the death of Christ depends wholly on us true it cannot otherwise be Rem Apol. CHAP. X. Of the cause of faith grace and righteousnesse THE second part of this controversie is in particular concerning grace faith and holinesse sincere obedience to the precepts of the new Covenant all whose praise we appropriate to the most high by reason of a double interest First of the merit of Christ which doth procure them for us Secondly of the holy Spirit which works them in us the death of Christ is their
and that powerfully by the effectuall operation of his holy Spirit to which the Arminians oppose a seeming necessitie that they must needs be our owne acts contradistinct from his gifts because they are in us and commanded by him the head then of this contention betwixt our God and their Idol about the living child of grace is whether he can worke that in us which he requireth of us let us heare them pleading their cause It is most certaine that that ought not to be commanded which is wrought in us and that cannot be wrought in us which is commanded he foolishly commandeth that to be done of others who will worke in them what he commandeth saith their Apologie O foolish Saint Prosper who thought that it was the whole Pelagian heresie to say That there is neither praise nor worth as ours in that which Christ bestoweth upon us foolish Saint Augustine praying Give us O Lord what thou commandest and command what thou wilt foolish Benedict Bishop of Rome who gave such a forme to his prayer as must needs cast an aspersion of folly on the most high O Lord saith he teach us what we should do shew us whither we should goe worke in us what we ought to performe O foolish Fathers of the second Arausican Councel affirming that many good things are done in man which he doth not himselfe but a man doth no good which God doth not so worke that he should doe it And againe as often as we doe good God worketh in us and with us that we may so worke In one word this makes fooles of all the Doctors of the Church who ever opposed the Pelagian heresie in as much as they all unanimously maintained that we are partakers of no good thing in this kinde without the effectuall powerfull operation of the Almightie grace of God and yet our faith and obedience so wrought in us to be most acceptable unto him yea what shall we say to the Lord himselfe in one place commanding us to feare him and in another promising that he will put his feare into our hearts that we shall not depart from him is his command foolish or his promise false the Arminians must affirme the one or renounce their heresie but of this after I have a little farther laid open this monstrous errour from their owne words and writings Can any one say they wisely and seriously prescribe the performance of a condition to another under the promise of a reward and threatning of punishment who will effect it in him to whom it is prescribed this is a ridiculous action scarce worthy of the Stage that is seeing Christ hath affirmed that whosoever beleeveth shall be saved and he that beleeveth not shall be damned Matth. 16. 16. whereby faith is established the condition of salvation and unbeleefe threatned with hell If God should by his holy Spirit ingenerate faith in the hearts of any causing them so to fulfill the condition it were a meere mockery to be exploded from a Theater as an unlikely fiction which what an aspersion it casts upon the whole Gospel of Christ yea on all Gods dealling with the children of men ever since by reason of the fall they became unable of themselves to fulfill his commands I leave to all mens silent judgements well then seeing they must be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things inconsistent that God should be so righteous as to shew us our dutie and yet so good and mercifull as to bestow his graces on us let us heare more of this stuffe faith and conversion cannot be our obedience if they are worught in us by God say they at the Hague and Episcopius That it is a most absurd thing to affirme that God either effects by his power or procureth by his wisedeme that the elect should doe those things that he requireth of them So that where the Scripture cals faith the gift and worke of God they say it is an improper locution in as much as he commands it properly it is an act or worke of our owne And for that renowned saying of Saint Augustine that God crowneth his own gifts in us that it is not to be received without a graine of salt That is some such glosse as wherewith they corrupt the Scripture the summe at which they aime is that to affirme that God bestoweth any grace upon us or effectually worketh them in us contradicteth his word requiring them as our dutie and obedience by which means they have erected their Idol into the throne of Gods free grace and mercy and attribute unto it all the praise due to those many heavenly qualifications the servants of God are endowed withall for they never have more good in them no nor so much as is required all that they have or doe is but their dutie which how derogatorie it is to the merit of Christ themselves seeme to acknowledge when they affirme that he is no otherwise said to be a Saviour then are all they who confirme the way to salvation by preaching miracles martyrdome and example so that having quite overthrowne the merits of Christ they grant us to be our owne Saviours in a very large sense Rem Apol. fol. 96. All which assertions how contrary they are to the expresse word of God I shall now demonstrate There is not one of all those plaine texts of Scripture not one of those innumerable and invincible arguments whereby the effectuall working of Gods grace in the conversion of a sinner his powerfull translating us from death to life from the state of sinne and bondage to the libertie of the sonnes of God which doth not overthrow this prodigious error I will content my selfe with instancing in some few of them which are directly opposite unto it even in termes First Deuter. 10. 16. The Lord commandeth the Israelites to circumcise the fore-skin of their hearts and to be no more stiffe necked so that the circumcising of their hearts was a part of their obedience it was their dutie so to do in obedience to Gods commands and yet in the 30. Chapter vers 6. he affirmeth that he will circumcise their hearts that they might love the Lord their God with all their hearts So that it seemes the same thing in divers respects may be Gods act in us and our dutie towards him and how the Lord will here escape the Arminian censure that if his words be true in the latter place his command in the former is vaine and foolish ipse viderit let him plead his cause and avenge himselfe on those that rise up against him Secondly Ezek. 18. 31. Make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will you die O house of Israel The making of a new heart and a new spirit is here required under a promise of a reward of life and a great threatning of eternall death so that so to doe must needs be a part of their dutie and obedience
3. Chap. 49. 10. Psal 2. 7 8. and 110. with innumerable other concerning his life office and redeeming of his people for surely they were obliged to beleeve the promises of God Secondly those many cleare expressions of his death passion and suffering for us as Gen. 3. 15. Isaiah 53. 6 7 8 9 10 c. Chap. 63. 2 3. Dan. 9. 26. but what need we reckon any more our Saviour taught his Disciples that all the Prophets from Moses spake concerning him and that the sole reason why they did not so readily embrace the faith of his passion and resurrection was because they beleeved not the Prophets Luk. 24. 25 26. shewing plainly that the Prophets required faith in his death and passion Thirdly by the explicite faith of many Iews as of old Simeon Luke 3. 34. of the Samaritan woman who looked for a Messias not as an earthly King but as one that should tell them all things redeeme them from sinne and tell them all such things as Christ was then discoursing of concerning the worship of God Ioh. 4. vers 25. Fourthly by the expresse testimony of Christ himself Abraham saith he reioyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Ioh. 8. 56. his day his houre in the Scripture principally denote his passion and that which he saw surely he beleeved or else the father of the faithfull was more diffident then Thomas the most incredulous of his children Fifthly By these following and the like places of Scripture Christ is a Lambe slaine from the foundation of the world Revel 13. 8. slaine in promises slaine in Gods estimation and the faith of beleever he is the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. under the law and the Gospel There is none other name under heaven given unto men whereby they must be saved Acts 4. 12. never any then without the knowledge of a Redeemer participation of his passion communication of his merits did ever come to the sight of God no man ever came to the Father but by him hence St. Paul tels the Ephesians that they were without Christ because they were aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel Ephes 2. 12. intimating that Gods Covenant with the Iews included Christ Iesus and his righteousnesse no lesse then it doth now with us on these grounds holy Ignatius called Abel a martyr of Christ he died for his faith in the promised seed and in another place all the Saints were saved by Christ hoping in him and waiting on him they obtained salvation by him So Prosper also We must beleeve that never any man was iustified by any other faith either before the Law or under the Law then by faith in Christ coming to save that which was lost Whence Eusebius contendeth that all the old Patriarchs might properly be called Christians they all eate of the same spirituall meat and all dranke of the same spirituall drinke even of the rocke that followed them which rocke was Christ Secondly if the ancient people of God notwithstanding divers other especiall revelations of his will and heavenly instructions obtained not salvation without faith in Christ much lesse may we grant this happinesse without him to them who were deprived of those other helps also so that though we confesse the poore naturall indeavours of the heathen not to have wanted their reward either positive in this life by outward prosperitie and inward calmnesse of minde in that they were not all perplexed and agitated with furies like Nero and Caligula or negative in the life to come by a diminution of the degrees of their torments they shall not be beaten with so many stripes yet we absolutely deny that there is any saving mercy of God towards them revealed in the Scripture which should give us the least intimation of their attaining everlasting happinesse for not to consider the corruption and universall disability of nature to doe any thing that is good without Christ we can doe nothing Ioh. 15. 5. nor yet the sinfulnesse of their best works and actions the sacrifices of the wicked being an abomination unto the Lord Prov. 15. 8. Evill trees cannot bring forth good fruit men doe not gather grapes of thornes nor figs of thistles Matth. 7. 16. the word of God is plaine that without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. that he who beleeveth not is condemned Mark 16. 16. that no nation or person can be blessed but in the seed of Abraham Gen. 12. and the blessing of Abraham comes upon the Gentiles only by Iesus Christ Gal. 3. 14. He is the way and the truth and the life Ioh. 14. 6. none comes to the Father but by him he is the doore by which those that doe not enter are without with Dogs and Idolaters Revel 22. So that other foundation of blessednesse can none lay but what is already laid even Iesus Christ 1 Corinth 3. 12. in briefe doe but compare those two places of Saint Paul one Rom. 8. 30. where he sheweth that none are glorified but those that are called and Chap. 10. 14 15. where he declares that all calling is instrumentally by the preaching of the Word and Gospel and it will evidently appeare that no salvation can be granted unto them on whom the Lord hath so farre powred out his indignation as to deprive them of the knowledge of the sole means thereof Christ Iesus And to those that are otherwise minded I give only this necessary caution let them take heed lest whilest they indeavour to invent new wayes to heaven for others by so doing they loose not the true way themselves S. S. Oh fooles and slow to beleeve all that the Prophets have written ought not Christ to have suffered these things Luk. 24. 25 26. Abraham reioyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Ioh. 8. 56. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie many for he shall beare their iniquities Isa 53. 11. see the places before cited At the time they were without Christ being aliens from the Common-weath of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. There is no other name under heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved but only by Christ Act. 4. 12. The blessing of Abraham comes on the Gentiles by Iesus Christ Gal. 3. 14. he that beleeveth not is condemned Mark 16. 16. without faith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11. 6. Other foundation can no man lay but what is already laid even Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 12. Lib. Arbit There is no place in the Old Testament whence it may appeare that faith in Christ as a Redeemer was either enioyed or found in any then Rem Apol. Abrahams faith had no reference to Christ Armin. The Gentiles living under the Old Testament though it was not revealed unto them as unto the Iews yet were not excluded from the Covenant of grace and
a vitall act but causaliter only in being a principle moving to such vitall acts within us It is the habit of faith bestowed upon a man that he may be able to elicate and performe the acts thereof giving new light to the understanding new inclinations to the will and new affections unto the heart For the infallible efficacie of which grace it is that we plead against the Arminians and amongst those innumerable places of holy Scripture confirming this truth I shall make use only of a very few reduced to these three heads First Our conversion is wrought by a divine Almighty action which the will of man will not and therefore cannot resist the impotency thereof ought not to be opposed to this omnipotent grace which will certainly effect the worke for which it is ordained being an action not inferiour to the greatnesse of his mightie power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Ephes 1. 19 20. and shall not that power which could overcome hell and loose the bonds of death be effectuall for the raising of a sinner from the death of sinne when by Gods intention it is appointed unto that worke He accomplisheth the worke of faith with power 2 Thess 1. 11. It is his divine power that gives unto us all things that appertaine to life and godlinesse 2 Pet. 1. 3. surely a morall resistible perswasion would not be thus often tearmed the power of God which denoteth an actuall efficacie to which no creature is able to resist Secondly That which consisteth in a reall efficiency and is not at all but when and where it actually worketh what it intendeth cannot without a contradiction be said to be so resisted that it should not worke the whole nature thereof consisting in such a reall operation Now that the very essence of divine grace consisteth in such a formall act may be proved by all those places of Scripture that affirme God by his grace or the grace of God actually to accomplish our conversion as Deut. 30. 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soule that thou mayest live The circumcision of our hearts that we may love the Lord with all our hearts and with all our souls is our conversion which the Lord affirmeth here that he himselfe will doe not only enable us to doe it but he himselfe really and effectually will accomplish it And againe I will put my Law into them and write it in their hearts Ierem. 31. 33. I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Chap. 32. 39. he will not offer his feare unto them but actually put it into them and most clearely Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you a new spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walke in my statutes Are these expressions of a morall perswasion only doth God affirme here he will doe what he intends only to perswade us to and which we may refuse to do if we will is it in the power of a stony heart to remove it self what an active stone is this in mounting upwards what doth it at all differ from that heart of flesh that God promiseth shall a stony heart be said to have a power to change it selfe into such a heart of flesh as shall cause us to walke in Gods Statutes Surely unlesse men were wilfull blind they must needs here perceive such an action of God denoted as effectually solely and infallibly worketh our conversion opening our hearts that we may attend unto the word Acts 16. 14. Granting us on the behalfe of Christ to beleeve in him Philip. 1. 29. Now these and the like places prove both the nature of Gods grace to consist in a reall efficiency and the operation thereof to be certainly effectuall Thirdly our conversion is a new creation a resurrection a new birth Now he that createth a man doth not perswade him to create himselfe neither can he if he should nor hath he any power to resist him that will create him that is as we now take it translate him from some thing that he is to what he is not What arguments doe you thinke were sufficient to perswade a dead man to rise or what great aid can he contribute to his own resurrection neither doth a man beget himselfe a new reall forme was never yet introduced into any matter by subtle arguments These are the tearmes the Scripture is pleased to use concerning our conversion If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. The new man after God is created in righteousnesse and holinesse Ephes 4. 24. it is our new birth Except a man be borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God Ioh. 3. 3. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Iam. 1. 18. and so we become borne againe Not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 23. it is our vivification and resurrection The sonne quickeneth whom he will Ioh. 5. 21. even those dead who heare his voice and live vers 25. When we were dead in sins we are quickned together with Christ by grace Ephes 2. 5. For being buried with him by Baptisme we are also risen with him through the faith of the operation of God Coloss 2. 12. and blessed and holy is he that hath part in that first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be Priests of God and of Christ and shall raigne with him a thousand yeers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sleid. Com. Greg. Naz. Profitentur Remonst hasce ad promotionem causae suae artes adhibere ut apud vulgus non ulterius progrediantur quam de articulis vulgo notis ut pro ingeniorum diversitate quosdam lacte diualant aliis solidiore cibo c. Festus Hom. praestat ad specimen Con. Bel. Hieron Zanch. ad Holderum Res Miscel a Ephes 4. 18. Iohn 1. 5. 1 Cor. 2. 14. b Iohn 6. 42. and 7. 52. Natura sic apparet vitiata ut hoc majoris vitii sit non videre Aug. Pelag Semipelag Scholastico In hac causa non judicant secundum aequitatem sed secundum affectum commodi sui Luth. de erv Arbit Psal 50. Phil lib quod sit Deus immutabilis a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaedam sunt quae omnem actum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaedam quae 〈◊〉 cap. 5. see 1. pag 67. b Certum est Deum quaedam velle quae non velle niâ—i aliqua 〈◊〉 humana antecederet Aâ— min. Antipe kâ—p 211. c Multa tamen arbitror Deum velle quae non vellet adeoque nec justâ— velle posset nisi aliqua actio creatuâ—â—