Chap. 17. entitled Of the Voyage by Night and Chap. 18. called the Chapter of the Cave 27 28 29 30 lines To the second that all the misery and death and condemnation of the World brought in by the fall of the first Adam is but temporal corporeal and only as to this life is a Lye against Scripture Reason and the Authority of good and approved Authors This Opinion was held by Jacobus Faber and many other Papists but not by Bellarmine Gen. 2. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death is a Hebrew phrase signifying eternal and temporal death moriendo morieris Eph. 2.23 Rom. 8.6 7 8. Rom. 5.6.8 Rom. 6.23 Rom. 7.14.17.20.23 Rom. 5 14. to 21. Ezek. 16.3 to 9 10. Mat. 25.41 Gal. 3.1 the wages of all sin is death in that kind that the gift of God is life But the gift of God is life eternal to all Abraham's Seed ergo the wages of all sin is eternal death by the Rule of compar contrar My Authorities are Calvin Instit lib. 2. cap. 1 2 3. the Assemblies Catechism Quest 19. and Answer to it Dr. Willet against Papists in his eighteenth general Controversie read at large besides Luther Zuinglius Melancthon and more Ancient Augustine Hierom Chrysostom Ambrose Tertul. Justin Martyr The third Article professes General Redemption that the Father gave Christ out of his love to the whole world and a Ransom for all universally wherein 1. The Fathers gift is diminished and 2. The Sons Ransom belied for the Father gave him to be a Propitiation for the sins of the world of the Elect and none else that is to all the Elect of Jew and Gentile so is all taken 2 Cor. 5. definitely and John 17.6 7. and 10. he gave him to the Sheep only whose sins he laid on him Isai 53.6.11.1 Pet. 2.24 25. 2. Cor. 5.21 and to whom only he gave and imputed his Righteousness 2 Tim. 1.9 10. Gal. 1.15 16. The Elect Jews were his Sheep and other Sheep I have that is the Elect of the Gentiles and the Reprobates he called Dogs Wolves Lyons c. which he ransomed not neither was given to ransom so he did more for his Elect than you acknowledge viz. transacted and bore their sins on his own body 2. He did it not for all but only for them whom the Father gave to him and him to them Joh. 17.2.6.8.9.11.29 Joh. 6.44.39.37 Joh. 10.3.11.15 16 26 27 28 29. These only by his Blood hath he cleansed in his sight not by Water-Baptism but by his Blood 1 Joh. 1.7.9 and Chap. 5. and of this is the Water of Baptism a Figure and by his Blood hath satisfied Justice for all their sins past to come and present and redeemed them and of this is the Supper a Symbol or Sign 1 Cor. 11. c. The fourth Article sings the same Song wresting the word All to a false sense that God is willing that all should come to repentance and none should perish and that the pardon of sins should be preached to every Creature that none might suffer in Hell The Word of God is belied making it speak what it intends not and the Gospel sophisticated For first the Gospel is ministerlally offered to all Mark 16.15 but by recommunication of the Spirit only to the Elect Rom. 9.11 12 13 18 19 20. with 1 Pet. 3.17 Mat. 13.11 To the Elect it is given to know the Gospel but not to the Reprobate Joh. 12.40 Rom. 11.7 8 9 10. And Piscator a Protestant Divine saith Gratia affertur à deo animo communicandi eam folis Electis hand quaque singulis To the fifth I say degrees of Christianity abstractively adapt not to the Ministry beside I deny you to be a Church of Christ Ergo have no power to give your approbation in Ordination Beside the Church alone though true cannot by Divine Authority ordain Ministers or Commissionate them to go forth to Preach The sixth Article is ambiguous as most of your Preachments are to deceive the simple and obtain Proselites Rom. 16.17 18 19. Submelli Hybleo venenum latet Faith don't justifie as an Act nor is it the Root of Justification as Papists say it is Christ and his Personal Righteousness that justifies the ungodly being Elected Rom. 4 Rom. 8.33 Psal 32.1 2 3. and they by Faith when God gives it them Ephes 2. apprehend and receive this Righteousness of Christ wrote in his Person for their justification Rom. 8.2.3 Joh. 1.12 where you say Believers commit themselves to his Grace I boldly assirm you Arminians Grotians and Pelagians don't mean by Grace to the imputation of his Righteousness wrought in his Individual Person for all his Sheep and given to them for their justification and received by Faith of them Thus all true Protestants but you with Bellarmine and all the Papists mean that the Act of Faith in this your Opinion and new-fangled Gospel and Christ with repentance and obedience to your holy Baptism this is your justification and the Papists for which you will be ashamed in the day of the Lord Jesus when the Thrones of the Kingdoms of the World shall bow before him Phil. 2. and all that own and receive not his imputed Righteousness shall be slain and cast in the Lake Rev. 21.8 and 22.15 The seventh Article tells a loud Lye like his Fellows for God gives his Spirit to his Elect Sons before you do believe or can believe repent or obey for all these are done by the Spirit or some Power else but no Power else but the Spirit can work these Ergo the Spirit is given first not before their Redemption Reconciliation and Justification but before the Application of this Grace by the Office of the holy Spirit this Grace is revealed received and applied to the Elect only Gal. 4.6 Col. 2.10 11 12. Joh. 14.15 16. Chap. 1 Cor. 2.10 11 12. Rom. 8.15 16. Ephes 1.13.18 19 20. The eighth Article is swoln big with the poyson of Sophistication and Contradiction and that because you hide your Errours under a disguise like a hitter Pill wrapt up in a little Sugar or Wormwoodseeds in Plumbs to deceive the simple and Children for you would make us believe you own the Decrees of God while indeed you deny them 2. Acontradiction because if they be Elected for foreseen Faith works or repentance then it is not of meer mercy and good will and nothing in the Creature but sin So that the second part of your Article contradicts the first and the first is sophisticated You say God Elects from the Foundation of the world such as believe that is when they believe he Elects them that is he hath decreed to Elect all that believe but he Elects them as meer sinners and because he Elects them they believe and not that he Elects them because they believe The ninth is like his Fellows full of falshood for they were ordained to Condemnation before they were ungodly men and because of their Reprobation
became ungodly men because they were afore ordained to destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before decreed or afore written for destruction and therefore became ungodly The tenth lies like the father the second Article For Adam's fall brought in Eternal deaths as well as Temporal I said afore and if all are under that Condemation Rom. 5.16 17 18 19. Ex. 16. Rom. 6.21 then Infants for Infants are part of all Beside all that are fallen into Condemation which all are cannot be saved till they are born again of Water and the Spirit or baptized with Fire and the Holy Ghost Mat. 4. Jo. 3.3 5. 1 Jo. 5. Heb. 10. Ez. 36. Water in all which places is not your Baptism but the cleansing of Christ's Blood applied by the Spirit to the Elect in their Conversion and Regeneration of which Baptism is but a meer figure to Abraham and his believing Seed as Circumcision was before the actual payment of the Debts of the Elect by Christ on the Cross at Jerusalem Heb. 13.11 12 13. Heb. 9.26 Heb. 1.3 Heb. 10.54.10 14. see 18 Q. of the Assemblies Catechism and Answer Four things issue to all Adam's posterity by his fall First The guilt of Adam's first sin Secondly The privation of Original Righteousness Thirdly A depravation of the whole nature of Body and Soul by Hereditary descent And fourthly All actual Sins flowing from it Ro. 5.12 19. and 10. Ephes 1.1 2 3. James 1.14 15. Mark 15.29 Ro. 7. See Doctor Willet's 81 Gen. Controversie against Papists the Elect have their Sins transacted on Christ and his imputed Righteousness covering them and the Spirit of Christ in his time converting them to it and the rest great and small are blinded and damned Ro. 11. The whole Law broken by Adam and his Posterity in him comprehends both Faith and perfect and sinless obedience which Covenant being broke he brought both himself and posterity under Condemnation Rom. 5.18 19. temporal and Eternal for such is the Wages of Sin Ro. 6.21 and lying under the breach of the whole Law of God are eternally condemn'd except they be elected called justified and sanctified freely by his Grace Rom. 8.29 30 31. Christ did not come into the World to save men if they would Ephes 2.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. for then none would be saved but he came positively and absolutely to save them that were eternally given to him to save Jo. 17. and Jo. 10.26 to 29. Christ's death and passions were not Temporal and Bodily only Mat. 27.46 and Chap. 26.36 37 38 42. Mark 14.3 4. Luke 22.42 44. Joh. 18.11 but Spiritual and Infernal passions Acts 2.31 Ps 16.10 Lament 1.12 And if Christ's Sufferings were such then Adaw's fall must procure such But this Hellish Doctrine denyeth both By this Doctrine the Covenant of Grace was made since the fall of Adam and not from Eternity as the Scripture inculcates Titus 1.1 2 3. Ps 89. and Zach. 6.13 2 Sam. 23.5 and then the Covenant of Grace is but a new Covenant of Works viz. Faith and Obedience as if Faith was not included in the Covenant of Innocency and fulfilling the conditions of the pardon of Sin in the Gospel upon pain of Eternal Damnation so that by this Doctrine the new Covenant of Grace is a thousand times more bondaged servile and legal than the Covenant of Innocency For the forfeitures of that say they was but bodily and temporal and so was Christ's death that satisfied for it But the forfeitures of this new Covenant of Grace according to their Doctrine is Spiritual and Eternal Damnation and no help or satisfaction neither in the Covenant of Innocency Christ made up the breaches but the breaches of this Covenant of Grace we our selves must make up by our Free-will Faith Repentance and Obedience or else perish eternally And from the Pelagion Arminian Papistical new Covenant of Grace wherein Christ is only or chiefly an example only by his Kingly and Prophetical Offices in Heaven he prays for me my Faith Victory and Repentance but if I do it not or cannot his Prayer is in vain And as for his Priestly Office as Dr. Hammand saith it dyed with him For it was only to remove the Covenant of Works which was by a temporal death easily removed its forfeitures being but a temporal death from such a New Covenant Lord deliver me and his Elect and from the Promulgators of it Another Juggle they have is that Election is not in the Covenant of Works or from Eternity but in Christ since that is they that do believe the Doctrine they preach believe repent obey and be baptized are Elected and this God foresaw and knew and willed And to uphold this Babel and Whores Doctrine of Babylon they turn upside-down the very Heart and Entrails of the whole Scriptures to the last of the tenth Article I say the Jews were under a Covenant of Grace and by the sign thereof Gen. 17. brought by Divine Command their Children into the visible Church We are under the same Covenant of Grace and the matter and manner of the sign was changed under the New Testament or Administration of Grace but not the Subjects for then it had been necessary that Christ should have forbidden Infants Baptism or John Baptist his Messenger for Christ knew it was once commanded as the New Covenant sign but he never repealed the Subject nor his Messenger that came before him or the Ministers that followed after him Ergo what is not repealed by Divine Institution abides stedfast as a Nail fastened by the Masters of the Assembly given by one Shepherd Christ Jesus Therefore till the Catabaptists prove by Scripture that Christ or his Predecessor John Bapt. or his Successors the Apostles forbid the Subjects in Gen. 17. licensed till then you do all of you shamefully beg the Question and you shall be with your Antichristian Spirit famished for me before you shall have a Morsel from me to feed your Heresie wherefore leave that unlawful Trade of Begging and work for your livings that is prove out of the New Testament by Gods Word that Infants are commanded not to be Baptized or that Circumcision was not a Sign and Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Or that Baptism did not come in the room of Circumcision do one of these or be silent before the Lord for ever For because you have rent the Seal of his Covenant God will rend you and your Sect into a thousand pieces This will be the end of you to perish in your own Dung Phil. 3. Except the Elect among you and true Converts they only shall be preserved and in due time come out of your Babylon as well as Rome's or England's Babylon The Eleventh Article builds up your Idol Baptism and sets it on your sandy Foundation for there is not one word of Teach before Baptise but contrary after Baptism to Teach Mat. 28. latter end For the first word rendered to Teach is in the Greek Matheteusate that
Article proclaims loudly falling away from Grace and so speakes perfectly the Language of Rome See Dr. Willet against Papists in his Fifth Absurdity of General Redemption and Universal Grace pag. 912 of his Sinopsis This Errour was detested by the Fathers of the Primitive Times as first Dionysius the Areopagita in his Eleventh Epistle to Apollophanus who as he says of himself was 25 years of Age at Christ's death Next Justin Martyr 163 years after Christ in his Explic. Quest a Gentibus Christ positaram Quest 23. and Quest 98. he declares against it That the Saints cannot fall away being once in Christ Then Ireneus about 182 years post Christ lib. 5. Cont. Heres pag. 550. to 558. and pag. 564. accordingto the Edition at Basil 571. And Clemens Alexandrinus a learned man Anno Christi 200 Then Tertullian about the same time in his Book Adversus Hereticos cap. 2. Editio Beati Rhenati Parisus 1566. Tom. 1. par 161.162 Nemo sapiens nemo fidelis nemo major est nisi Christianus Nemo autem Christianus nisi qui ad finem usque perseveraverit And Origen And Cyprian Anno 270. post Christum Arnobius Hilarie and Basil 370. Ambrose 400 Epiphanius and Chrysostom Anno Christi 230. and Angustine in cent 5. Cyril prosper and Gregory the Great 600. and Bede 700. Anselme 1093. since the Conquest and Bernard Anno 1140. As in a Sermon on Can. 7.9 and Can. 3.4 I held him and would not let him go untill I had brought him into my Mothers house He descants thus Venerunt flumina flaverunt venti impegerunt in eam non cccidit co quod fundata esset supra petram petra autem est Christus Anno Christi 1616. And Luther and Calvin Melancthon Zuinglius and Zanchy and all the Councils as Milivitan Can. 3.4 Jo. Hus and all the Protestants beyond the Seas have wrote against the Papists and defended the impossibility of a Believers falling finally And to shut up all take Christs own words Joh. 10.26 27 28 29. And lastly take August once more lib. de cor rep grat Chap. 7. Eorum qui Electi sunt si quispiam perit fallitur Deus sed nemo eorum perit quia non fallitur Deus 2 Tim. 2.19 Rev. 3.3 Heb. 6.4.5 are with other such places spoken of Hypocrites as Mat. 13.5 6 7. which were never elected or truly converted and called Where are you now can you subvert Christs words Joh. 10.26 Ye believe not because ye are not my Sheep And Rom. 8. latter end My Sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and they shall never perish and none shall pluck them out of my hand And then for that Text Joh. 15. you pervert it as you do other Texts to your own destruction 2 Pet. 3. For every Plant or Branch in Christ the Vine by external profession that brings not forth the fruit of true Faith for Faith is the fruit of the Spirit shall be taken away from that profession to some damnable Heresie or Atheisme And that Scripture is verified in you and hundreds more of you Baptists who since you have forsaken your Baptism and the Covenant of the Grace of God are given up to damnable Heresies to Arminianism Pelagianism a Popish Principle and some to Quakerism and flat Atheism And therefore this day is that Doctrine of Christ fulfilled upon you O! that God would grant you repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 it is God that gives repentance and it is to be feared because you have stoln that Prerogative from God and placed it in your selves that God will harden your hearts as he did Pharaoh's Rom. 9. and give you up to believe a lye that you may be damned 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. and Joh. 12.40 blind your eyes and harden your hearts lest you should be converted For to him is all Power and Glory and Freedom to do what he will in Heaven and Earth for ever and ever Rom. 11. last The nineteenth Article makes provision for the poor and belongs to the Church-wardens and Overseers of the Poor and to the Kings Justices of the Peace at the Quarter Sessions and Monthly Meetings Nevertheless I desire to give of my Morsel to every one that wants and a Cup of Water to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple This is the Mode of all Sects and Heresies this day in the World to call all their own Brood Saints so do the Papists Arrians Arminians Socinians Quakers and Baptists This is that Christ prophesied of Mat. 2.11 Loe here is Christ loe there is Christ but you are all deceived for Christ is not confined to your secret Chambers to your Societies or to your Wilderness he is where-ever the Faith of Christ is which you deny having brought another Gospel Gal. 1. and are therefore accursed The twentieth Article professes the Resurrection from the Dead which the Quakers do seem to deny that is that the Bodies of the Saints that died shall rise again and together with Christ their Head be glorified and the Bodies of the Unbelievers be raised and their Spirits and Souls be re-conjoyned and suffer together with the Devils to all Eternity But some of you Baptistical Arminians do hold that the Soul is mortal and dies with the Body till the Resurrection contrary to the true Churches confession in all Ages and to the Scriptures Phil. 1.21 22 23. ver If Paul's Soul had died with his Body till the Resurrection it had been no gain to him to die for then there had been more gain to have lived though in a wicked World because here he by Faith enjoyed Christ and his Soul lived with his Body but when dead his Soul also slept at least and then he could enjoy no Communion of Christ till the time of the Resurrection But to die is gain Ergo his Soul did live and enjoy Christ immediately after his dissolution as vers 23. Again Heb. 9. after Death comes Judgment yea a particular Judgment of the particular Soul but if the Soul die with the body though but for a time then no particular Judgment which the Scripture allows if the Soul dies with the Body till the Resurrection what need then is there that Christ should intercede Heb. 9.24 and appear there before God for the Saints Heb. 6.20 What does he appear for the dead then he need not intercede till they live that is till the Resurrection Beside Christs Argument to the Sadduces your half Brethren may serve to confute you God is not the God of the dead but of the living Ergo the Souls of Abraham Isaac Jacob and all do live though their Bodies be dead and Christ in respect of his Body is the Fore-runner because the Bodies of the Saints shall also their Souls being reconjoyned enter with him Joh. 17.24 1 Joh. 3.2 Phil. 3.21 and the Souls of the damned are now in Hell Jude Epist vers 7.2 Pet. 2.7 Ergo the Souls of Saints are now in glory with
Christ the Lord. And lastly the old Whores Purgatory is better than your mortality for a live Dog is better than a dead Lyon Eccles 9.4 The one and twentieth Article acknowledgeth a general Judgment but tacitly denieth the particular Judgment because the Authors of the Article deny the Immortality of the Soul from the time of the death of the Body to the general Resurrection as I said before It is saith Paul appointed once for every man to die and after that death to Judgment that is every particular man for the Premises is particular therefore the Assumption must be particular the death he speaks of is a particular death Ergo the Judgment that follows is a particular Judgment which I say these good Gentlemen tacitly deny It is absurd that the Soul should not live a moment for if the Soul be immortal à parte post that is from the instant of its infusion into the Body it may not desist from life a moment for then it would lose its Immortality If we grant you Mortality of the Soul for a time they may as well beg its Mortality for ever for to unreasonable persons that have not the true Faith of Christ grant an Inch and they will crave an Ell. But I pass to the two and twentieth Article which is like a Jewel in a Swines Snout What the Kingdom of Christ set upon the Foundation of the Whore of Babylon and Antichrist it loaths my Soul to see it The Reign of Christ in the Kingdoms of the World in his Saints in a restorative Apostolical manner before the final dissolution of the World is and ever was the Judgment and Faith of Saints and not only so but at the general Judgment when Christ shall again the second time appear Acts 1. in that glorified body of his and descend from the Throne in that flesh he did ascend with the innumerable Societies of Saints and Angels the then living Saints being changed 1 Thes 4. ult Phil. 3. ult to meet the Lord in the Clouds of Heaven and together with him to return to take the Kingdoms of the World into his possession Dan. 7. Rev. 11. and so to judge the Earth and give his beheaded and suffering Sons Rev. 20. quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the new Heavens and new Earth Isai 63. and 2 Pet. 3. till the second and last Trumpet 1 Cor. 15. whether numerically for a thousand years or less or more may be disputable by some but for the sum and substance hath been owned from the very Apostles days by the Fathers as Papias Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and almost if not all except August and Jerom who yet spake very favourably fo the Chyleasts or fifth Monarchical Judgment Licet non sequamur tamen damnare non possumus quia mult◠Ecclesiasticorum virorum ista dixerunt Jer. 23. Ep. de regnand secundo Christi But to set up this glorious Truth and Kingdom of Jesus Christ upon a rotten Papistical Pelagian Arminian Heretical Antichristian Foundation you will receive the reward of the Pharisees Mat. 7. Lord we have prophesied in thy Name and cast out Devils but saith Christ depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for unbelievers The three and twentieth Article pleads for the holy Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Life it is one thing to take the Letter of the Scripture with the Doctrine and sense of the Holy Ghost included and another thing to accept for our Rule the humane glosses of mens natural or deluded spirits the latter of which is equal with their Errour that deny the regular Authority of the Scriptures The Letter of the Scriptures and the Spirit of Jesus are both in Commission from Christ our Prophet to teach his people they that exclude the Spirit and pretend the Letter are as unfortunate as Arminians Socinians Pelagians and other Carnal Hereticks but they that reject the Letter and pretend the Spirit are swallowed up of Enthusiastical Delusions as Quakers and such like For whom God hath joyned together we must not dare to separate asunder without incurring the Curse of adding or diminishing The twenty fourth Article pleads for Liberty of Conscience in spiritual matters It is not to be doubtted but that the Saints of God ought to have their liberty to worship God and to hinder them is the greatest sin next to the sin against the Holy Ghost but the question is who are the Saints 2. Whether false worshippers may have liberty from godly Magistrates 1. Saints are either called to the Faith of Christ and so to the profession of it and such are visible though they may differ among themselves in some circumstances 2. Saints that are Elect but uncalled may be among them that are false worshippers till called the first only worship God truly because none can worship God truly but such as truly believe in the Son of God according to the Declaration of God and that Record he hath given in the Word of his Son viz. that Christ was made Sin and a Curse that he laid their sins on Christ and so freed them and their Curse and so that Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in his Person as God-man is imputed to them for their whole Righteousness which they by Faith alone receiving are visible Saints and do worship God truly they that have not this Faith though Angels in appearance are but false worshippers because the Law of Faith in Christ is the fulfilling of the whole Law directly the first Table towards God Exod. 20. containing first four Commandments that is fulfilled compleatly in a true Believer and forasmuch as Love flows from Faith so is the second Table fulfilled in a true believer but this fulfilling the Law by Faith in a Believer is not his Justification or Righteousness before God for that is Christs fulfilling it in his Person Rom. 8.2 3 4. and Gods imputing it to the sinner Rom. 4.5 6 7. and Faith as an Instrument receives it and applies it to its self So then the Act of Faith in us doth not justifie for then our Works and the Law would justifie but it is still Christ alone that justifies Rom. 8. To the second question the Magistrate may restrain false worshippers See Rev. 2.20 and 2 Cor. 10.5 the Instruments of the Church for this purpose are spiritual 1 Cor. 5. delivering the proud and contemptible to Satan and the godly Magistrate is but a Ruling Elder whether in a Congregation or Nation Let the Tares grow with the Wheat some say is meant of secret Hypocrites but I suppose that blood-shed consiscation or any corporal persecution in this day is not to be in any wise inflicted on deluded Consciences The twenty fifth and last Article seems to contradict his Predecessor for he allows the Magistrate to punish evil doers and incourage the good but his Predecessor flatly denies the Magistrate to have any thing to do with matters of Divine Worship Now among the Pretenders to Spiritual Worship three
parts for one may be supposed to be erronious Now what is more cruel than false worship Ergo the Magistrate is to punish false Worshippers or else he must not punish all evil doers forasmuch as such are the greatest evil doers in quality if not in quantity or number But here lies a Falacy occult to most mens judgments false worship say they consists in mode or manner of worship not considering that the greatest evil in worship lies in the substance not in the mode For false worship consists either in the substance as in a false Faith and false Principle or else in false mode or manner of worship the last is bad but the former worst of all because it is the ground of the latter the latter though true is but a form of godliness if the former be wanting Hence all Arrians Socinians and the greatest part of Rattabaptists Arminians Free-willers General Redemptionists Conditional Decretists and Quakers err in the former though some of them may not in the latter therefore at best have but a form of godliness and from such we are commanded to turn away for the Power consists in true Faith and true Principles and true love to God and Man both arising from the diphthongued Union between the Soul and the Man Christ Jesus by the Spirit of the Lord and then mode order and disciplinal method will be soon rectified if the Premises be truly grounded or else not The Doctrine of Quakers Pelagians Arminians Grotians Pharisees Assidians Papists and Justitiaries ABsurdities from your Errours arising That God gave his Son for all Universally upon condition that they believe repent and obey him and so Election upon condition of something in the Creature either naturally as restored by Christ at once as the Pelagians or else wrought in them by the Spirit upon the assent of their free will as the Papists and Council of Trent only by Gods fore-knowledge ab Eterno but not determination and free act and without considering any thing in the Creature and particular free Personal Election from Eternity meerly of good pleasure without any thing in the Creature but to be wrought in the Elected as the purchase of Christs Blood after Election 1. You make Christ the Minister of sin Gal. 2.17 for you make man's act of Faith Repentance and Obedience the formal cause of their Justification not only without which sine quâ non but by which they are justified before God and not by Christs Merits only But man's act of Faith repentance and obedience is sin and filthy rags Isay 64.6 Phil. 3. Ergo that which is sin you make to justifie and consequently Christ must be then the Minister of sin if his Righteousness alone be not sufficient to justifie being imputed by God and received by Faith for something that is sinful and of man's must help to justifie and Christs Merits only make it passable and acceptable so then Christs Merits makes sin passable and acceptable for all our righteousness is but filthy rags Is 64.6 Phil. 3. dung and dross yea loss which is worse than sin for man hath no righteousness except it be wrought in him by the assistance of the Spirit therefore it must be that righteousness wrought in man that the Prophet means and the Apostles for in him we live move and have our being Acts 17. Now the major is proved by all the Testimonies and Writings of Arminians Baptists of that Sect and Pelagians and Papists and is notoriously known The minor is made good from Isay 64.6 and Phil. 3. Ergo the COnclusion is true That they make Christ the Minister of sin The second Absurdity is That those of this Errour do make the Souls of Men before Christ's coming mortal and to dye with the Body which is contrary to the Apostle Phil. 1.23 24. worse than the Papists their Purgatory For a live Dog is better than a dead Lyon and agreeable to Atheists Stoicks and Heathens Besides it makes all Christ's Sufferings on the Cross as they say to remove the first Covenant of perfect works and to bring in a Lex remediens a milder Law to be only Temporal Punishment For such as was our Deliverance such was his Passion 1 Thes 1. ult to deliver us from the Wrath to come did he die Ergo our first death is both Eternal and Temporal Again such was Gods promise to Adam had he stood such was his punishment if he fell But if he had stood he had life Eternal Ergo falling Eternal death besides The wages of Sin is Death Rom. 5. and Rom. 6. ult and James 1.13 14 15. But all man's Sin entered with his first fall Rom. 5.12 Ergo the first fall is the ground of Eternal Death And that Unbelief only is the cause of Damnation is a Lye against the Scriptures For 't is true Unbelief is the cause of all sins efficiently And Sodom and Gomorrah were damned instrumentally for Adultery and Fornication Ep. Jude 2. Pet. 2. and not instrumentally and directly for Unbelief in the Son of God Yea Originally because they were reprobated from Faith effectual Calling and Glory 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. and because he did not taste death for them nor deliver them because they were not elected ab eterno 2 Thes 2.13 1 Thes 5.9 John 22.40 Heb 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That by the Grace of God he might taste Death for every Son The third Absurdity is 2 Tim. 2.19 then by these mens Doctrine the Foundation of God is not sure if the acceptance of Christ and his Merits depend on mans Free-will for conditional is not certain for Faith is no condition on mans part but a Necessary Qualification wrought in the Elect to apply his Grace and purchased by his Blood too and wholly wrought by his Spirit in them as effectual Calling Rom. 9. Fph. 2. Cratia non offertur Deo singulis animo communicandi eam sed solis Electis Piscator against Papists The fourth Absurdity is That God's Grace is not free which is by his word declared to be most free Rom. 7. and Rom. 4. not at all of our works wrought in us for then it is not free Now Election is the top of his free Grace from whence flows all the other Justification and effectual Calling and Glory Rom. 8.29 30 31 c. for if it be upon any condition in us then it is not free but it is most free Ergo upon no condition in or by us at all Acts 13.48 None can believe but who are pre-ordained to live Ephes 2.8 9 10. The Elect are created unto good works according to his good pleasure Phil. 2. Huberus and Hemingius the great Jesuits and Patrons of this Sophistry say non absolué statuit sed defixit in Christo ut credant in eo salvi fiant but predestination is de scientia Dei voluntate ejus and Act of his Will Ephes 1.4 7. as well as of
his prescience Rom. 8. Whom he knew he did predestinate there is his Knowledge act of Will and determinate Counsel and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prius denifinivit prepositus signifies an act of his will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pono 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terminus by his determinate Counsel and it was 500 years before this Errour was seen or heard in the Horrizon of the World till in the fifth Century Pelagius preached it at Rome and all the Fathers then especially St. Augustine opposed it Now saith Tertullian id est verius quod est prius id est prius quod est ab initiis ab Apostolis Then in latter times about six hundred years ago when Popery and the Babylonian Whore brought forth her great Bastard Antichrist she laid him on the Foundation of this Metropolitane Errour And then in Germany Arminius and Grotius lick'd up the Dust of the crooked Serpent and King James tollerating it in England then it began to spread and infect with its poysonous Breath the Universities and Doctors of our Island and then since our Vineyard hath been rifled and undertrod by the croaking Jesuits they have filled every Puddle and Lake not only Fountains anf Rivers with their Horrible Spawn The fifth Absurdity that Man hath power and free will of himself to believe and to convert or help to convert himself he would have all say they to believe then all have power to do it or else God mocks them All in that Text is not Universal but Definitive all the Elect of Jew and Gentile as in 2 Cor. 5. it is used and so is All taken for the whole World lies in wickedness but we are of God there all the World is taken for a part and Christ healed all Diseases and John Baptist baptized all yet Herod and many more were not by him baptized all put for many Isai 53.11 and Joh. 12.40 it is apparent that God doth harden and soften whom he will and it is no derogation to his Justice or Mercy for Rom. 9. he may do with his Clay what he will and he only offers Grace universally by the external Ministry but by the Spirit internally only to the Elect and none else Acts 13.48 The sixth Absurdity Man may resist his Effectual Calling if he will and the Jusuit Hemingius brings in Mat. 23.33 but that Bone will not be so picked for Christ speaks that in reference to his external Ministry and Manhood as an external Minister only in that place and so in other places too you may find him acting the part of an external Minister though he was God blessed for evermore The seventh Absurdity is falling away from Election and Faith and Unbelief the only cause of Damnation This last I have elsewhere answered to but to the first part of the Absurdity there are a Cloud of Witnesses against Saints falling away for Hypocrites falling away we admit readily according to which acceptation Heb. 6. and such like places are to be understood Tertul. Ireneus Justin Martyr and Jerom yea all the Fathers of the first five Centuaries yea and all the Orthodox since and Bernard though living in corrupt times in the twelfth or thirteenth Cent. on Cant. 3.4 v. Venerunt flumina venti slaverunt impegerunt in eam non recidit eò quòd fundata supra Petram ea est Christus And Tertul Nemo sapiens nemo fidelis nisi Christianus nemo Christianus nisi qui ad finem usque perseveravit And S. Aug. on Joh. 10.26 Eorum qui Electi sunt si quispiam perit fallitur Deus sed nemo eorum perit quia non fallitur Deus And Bernard on Rom. 5. Seoumdum tempus pro peccatoribus inimicis sed seoundum praedestinatinem pro amicis And August Cent. 5. Electi sunt ad regnandum cum Christo And Ambrose Cent. 4. Omnibus qui sunt ex ejus corpore vitam acquisivit And August Illi Christo intelliguntur dari qui praeordinati sunt And John 10.26 27 28 29. Joh. 17.2.6.9 10. and Jon. 6.29.37.44 cum multis aliis quae nunc longum est praescribendum The eighth Absurdity is general and universal Redemption contrary to the Scriptures and to Joh. the 6.37.44 and Joh. 10.26 27 29. and the whole Chapter and Ephes 1.4.7 and to Acts 13.48 he only Heb. 2. 9 10. tasted death for every Son whom Joh. 17. the Father gave him from Eternity If Christ died for all he either died effectually or sufficiently effectually he did not because all are not saved sufficiently he did not because his death only extends to them the Father gave him who are beloved in the Womb Rom. 9. before they have done good or evil If he died for all and all are not saved then is his Death and Grace in vain but that is against both the Honour of God and Dignity of Christ Compare Isai 49. to Isai 42. The ninth Absurdity that Unbelief is the only cause of Condemnation I have said something to this before but this is contrary to Rom. 2.12 to Heb. 6. to Rom. 5.12.16 Then all the Gentiles before Christ and Faith was preached were freed from condemnation and all the Jews too for ought I know for Faith was not publickly preached to them till Christ came Gal. 3. ult Acts. 17.30 and 14.16.17 Then Infants of Unbelievers cannot be damned contrary to Ezek. 9. for they were slain that belonged to the Parents that did not mourn for sin and if you say that was only but a temporal death I answer God did not even under that temporal conditional Covenant destroy his own People that were saved by Christ so rashly they were certainly the Reprobates The tenth Absurdity Why did the Apostle cry Rom. 11.33 Oh the depths of God c. his Counsels c. if your Doctrine be the truth there is no mystery no depth in that for it s built on Reason and every Creature that hath but common Reason may fathom it easily that God gave Christ for all 1. To put them into a condition of peace and re-instate them in Innocency as before the Fall that they have naturally free will in part or whole to convert themselves and to believe that Christ abolished the Covenant of perfect obedience and purchased a milder Law that it they obey the Command of Christ in the Gospel and repent and be sorry for sins committed which they all have power to do if they will and that but sincerely in your sense for in the sense of Truth sincerely is to do the Will of God without any flaw as the word and the use of it truly imports Sincerè id est sine cerâ all Honey without any drege of wax 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first word is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendòr solis and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secerno to do ones works in the light of the Sun A Metap taken from the Eagles that try their young by holding
them up to Sun-beams which if they can't endure they cast them down as none of their own it is to do all works obedience and repentance quid non in the light of Christs Righteousness and Justification from all sin guilt and wrath by Christ and then 't is freely done and not for any reward for repent believe obey is to be justified but sincerity is to do them because I am freely justified by Christs transaction of my sins and his perfect Righteousness imputed to me This is the mark of Popery and Pharisaicality which in the end will batter you all to pieces The 2d word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Innocence and Simplicity as it were non cornibus feriense ex à privative and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to stick with horns or to be pushed at as only the innocent perfect Keepers of Gods Law as freed from Deut. 27. ult for except all sin be clearly abolished without any spot wrath will break out Now is your Arminian Faith and Repentance and Obedience so spotless else wrath will break out upon you one day or other and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aufero as if all sin must be quite taken away or else the work is not sincere but Faith and Repentance is our work because done in us though by the Spirit And the Apostle in 1 Cor. 2. saith The natural man cannot receive the things of God which it might if yours were the things of God for there is no Mystery in your Arminian Pelagian Papistical and Socinian Doctrines but meerly Reason And that word in 1 Cor. 2. may be well and properly read the rational man or reason it self cannot receive the things of God for they are a mystery Pseuchicos Anthropos the rational man for the Soul is the subject of Reason and before Faith is given is rational but not spiritual 't is Faith in the Blood of Christ wrought by the Spirit of Christ that makes it truly spiritual But Pucksius the Jesuit answers for you to that place in Rom. 4. alledged that the Apostle admired because he knew the depths of Gods Counsels and that it was beneath so great an Apostle not to know the depths of God I leave his foolish Assertion as not worth the answering and refer you and all your Tribe to Doctor Willet against the Papists in his Synopsis of the Controversies between the true Protestants and Papists where all your Doctrine is fully answered and confuted by irrefragable Argumentsl which when you have answered we will prepare new ones for you The tenth Absurdity if this universally be true then all have power to believe if they will contrary to Rom. 3.3 then all have Faith given them and then their unbelief resists Gods gift Consider which is the greatest Mystery the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation of persons freely from Eternity or conditional Election upon fore-sight of works or Faith or the Election of Seed not persons as the Quakers prate Arminians and Papists would be justified by obeying Christ without them Quakers by obeying Christ within them What difference is here but as much as is between an Heretick or Papist without doors in a plain dress and a Papist dressed up in a Mystery or an arrant Whore in honest Womens apparel sic etiam But neither will be justified by the obedience of Christ for them that they scorn that any man should pay their debts for them but give them but leave and let God have patience and they will pay him all their own way Mat. 18. 2. Consider which is most for the glory of Gods Justice Truth Mercy and Love and for exalting of Christ and Gods free grace for that of necessity must be the truth and all men lyars 3. Consider which is most for the security of Gods Children for that is Gods great care either to leave all men to their free will an invention much like the Popes Purgatory of later years congenerated out of the drunken Pates of filthy dreamers Jude Ep. to overthrow the Grace of God and Righteousness of Christ imputed for this Doctrine knows nor owns nothing of that kind of righteousness or to secure them in the hands of Christ without and above themselves and he and his Spirit to do all for and in them freely They object that by Jacob and Esau in Rom. 9. are meant two Nations and Peoples I answer with Calvin they do so But the Apostle doth not bring them in so but as two Persons signifying the Eternal free Personal Election and Reprobation of God either Gods will or mans will are most prevalent God desires not the death of a sinner yet they do die because they will not believe and repent when the Ministry bids them therefore to conclude that mans is more prevalent is blasphemy against God but if Gods Will is then is there eternal free personal Election and Reprobation I demand when did God give this grace to all men when did Christ restore all men if as soon as they fell in Adam then all are conceived and born pure contrary to Psalm 51. to David's experience and contrary to Psalm 58.3 for then the wicked could not err from the Womb and contrary to Prov. 22.15 for then is not iniquity bound up in the heart of a Child Now there are a parcel of Feminine and Womanish Objections drivelling at the unclean mouths of Quaking and Arminian Jezabels all which were they a thousand more and the strongest that their Jesuitical Tribe can bring are anticipated with an Answer by our great Apostle Rom. 9.19 20. in the 19th verse is the protoplot of all Objections and the Answer in the 20th verse Octject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who hath resisted his Will then if it stand in the Free and Personal Election before and without any thing in man or of man Why then doth he find fault Or Why doth he accuse us seeing we cannot help it Or Why doth he expostulate the Case with men As Why will ye dye c. Ans v. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea say you me so O! man But who art thou that replyeth against God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or that judgest from the Truth against God as the Word signifies What will these busie Bodies and Tatlers not stick to meddle with God Shall the Clay oppose the Potter Shall the Ax resist the Hewer O! monstrum horrendum ingens cui lumen ademptum for indeed these Sophisters have but one Eye Object 1. If Christ dyed for all what need preaching Acts 13. ult 48. He that ordained the persons hath ordained the end for them and the means to come as via regnandi to that end Let this suffice for an Answer Object 2. If there be a particular Election then they shall be saved and the rest damned Answer Sape etiam stultus opportunè loquitur Fools may tell truth and so in this do you Object 3. This renders God unjust and unequal