a Noon-day Devil was I think no part no not so much as of humane wisdom But 2. If a great deal of Rhetorick were a fault either as being Rhetorick or as being a great deal Mr. B. might accuse the Epistles of S. Paul and Psalms of David And if the fault lyes in the humanity of the Rhetorick as that is opposed to divine Mr. B. is more guilty then any Man I ever read He is as rhetorical as he is able as appears by the pleasure he takes in clinches Such as Notes of no good Note Courted at Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Face Fulgent and Fulgentius Prefaces faces and outfaces Classes and clashing Tropicks and Tropical Polite and Politick Stick and stickle Prosperous and prosper With other such elegancies rhetâ—rications which some little children of six yeers old have not been able to endure But 3. It is worthier a Readers patience to consider the crackt Syllogisme of four Termes which he saith I pin on the Apostle in my 19 Page How far from truth and ingenuity or but tolerable skil in the Art of Reasoning how much to the injuring of S. Paul and to the pitiful betraying of his own Cause will be as worthy our observation as any one misdemeanour in all his Book The whole case lyes thus I did in the 19 Page of my Notes prove the universality of Christs death from those words of the Apostle If one died for all then were all dead 2 Cor. 5. 14. Where That all were dead is the thing to be proved and that one died for all is the Argument or Medium whereby to prove it And that this later being the Antecedent as that former the sequel of the major proposition of a Hypothetical Syllogisme the former could not but make the minor and the later the conclusion and both of necessity without my help as every child must needs know who hath but dipt into any Logical System And if Mr. B. will but try to make such a Syllogisme he shall finde by experience that let him do what he can to the contrary the Antecedent of the major will make the minor and the sequel of the major will become the conclusion Therefore said I very truly what Mr. B. doth not gainsay with any the least pretense of reason that the Apostle in that Text doth argue thus If one dyed for all then were all dead But one dyed for all that must be the Assumption Therefore all were dead So that had there been the Fallacy of four Termes in that crack't syllogisme as Mr. B. hath been unskilful enough to call it it must have been objected against S. Paul whose way of arguing that was and not against me who was but his Eâ—hâ— Which because Mr. B. may be unwilling to understand it may perhaps be worth while 4. To make him understand it against his will For although it doth lie in any mans power to dissemble and to persist in a denial of what he inwardly doth acknowledge yet there are very many cases wherein he cannot be ignorant although he would E. G. Mr. B. cannot be ignorant what is commonly meant by If and Then when in the same proposition the first is conditional and the second illative Next he cannot be ignorant that they are both used as such in our Apostles proposition If one dyed for all then were all dead Again he cannot be ignorant that in case it were false that one died for all it might also be false that all were dead Because the later is inferred by our Apostle upon the strength and presupposal of the former And so unlesse Mr. B. will turn Pelagian and deny that all were dead without the exception of any one he must confesse that all were died for in the same notion of the word all or if to escape Pelagianisme he shall seek to creep out at another Crevice by saying that all in the sequel is more universal then in the Antecedent he will accuse St. Paul of deceipt or ignorance of a grosse equivocation or a want of skill to speak good sense which no Pelagian was ever so wicked as to attempt For the evidencing of which to such as are of his size let us 5. Behold St. Pauls words as they make an Enthymeme which is as sound a form of Argumentation as any disputant can use One died for all Therefore all were dead If the word all in this Enthymeme is not univocal as Mr. B. saith it is not the Apostles meaning must needs be one of these two One died for some onely therefore some onely were dead or one died for some onely therefore all were dead without exception If Mr. B. will have the former he makes St. Paul a Pelagian before that Heresy had a Being And if the latter he makes that mighty spiritual Logician as he hath called him p. 43. to infer an universal from a particular Which how illogical it is I need not say But 6. Mr. B. hath one shift more in his p. 106. whereby he hopes to evade or evacuat the conquering force of that Text. The poor sum of it is this that when the Apostle saith all were dead he means not dead in trespasses and sins but on the contrary dead unto sin But this is to flownder and not escape such an endeavour of evasion as doth but intangle him so much the more For 1. It shews him against his will a notable Friend to the Pelagians whil'st he labours to rob me of the force of that Text which as I understand it is most expressly against them Next it shews him to be careless what becomes of the Context if that Text by any means may be but wrested to his uses For the obligation lying upon us from the constraining love of Christ which the Apostle there speaks of is seen in this more especially that Christ died for us even then when we were all dead in trespasses and sins when we stood in perfect need of his vivification 3. I ask him how Christs Death can presuppose or conclude our being dead to sin when it is said in the same place to be in order to that end that we should not henceforth live unto our selves that is to say that we should die unto sin 4. If Christ died for them onely who are dead to sin then the object of Gods decree and so of Gods giving Christ is not man as man nor lapsed man as lapsed but the mortified Regenerate man in as much as he is regenerate which is directly against the Doctrine of Mr. Barlees own Masters the Sublapsarians 5. If the word all in this place then were all dead doth onely signifie a few for the Elect are very few in respect of the Reprobates what place of Scripture can Mr. B. alleage affirming all to be dead in Adam which may not thus be avoided and for how much a lesser reason then this indeed for no reason at all hath the stupendous
Agamemnon have set their witts against Ajax for having cruelly insulted over a couple of dead Sows was it not punishment enough that he lost the Armour of Achilles and after ran out of his witts mistook a Herd for an Army and a Sow for an Enemy Nay when he came out of his Reverie and found the grossenesse of his mistake his vexation and his shame made him Impatient of his Life For having drawn his Sword at his Fancy he put it up into his Bowels To apply this story were long and needless and I must now take care that my Gate be not bigg enough for my City to run out at Lest Mr. Barlee tell me once more who yet had surely less reason then any man living that I am terrible long ere I can get into my Trappings or Geers I have perhaps already worne out your patience and presum'd too much upon your leisure The usual freedom which you allow me must be attended with respect as well as kindeness for although you are not either a Lord or a Lady as the shrewd Hariolator doth seem to think yet you are certainly a Person as well of Honour as of Integrity And since I have been so observant of all your strict precepts That I should never reveal your Name I may say without danger of interessing your modesty how much soever to the displeasure of our Correptory Corrector that I honour your vertues and Erudition more then your Fortune and your Blood And that I am equally obliged to speak my selfe Sir Your very Affectionate and Humble Servant T. Pierce An Advertisement to the READER WHen I found a Volume of about thirty sheets addressing it selfe in particular to Mr. T. P. in the very expresse Forme of a Declamatory Epistle and almost totally composed of the most bitter railings or the most groundlesse inventions that in all my life I ever heard of interlarded with but a few and those few very unskilful and unscholarlike Reasonings against the subject of my Notes concerning God's Decrees I awhile debated within my selfe which would be the most prudent and Christian course Whether to suffer in deep silence under his personal abuses and imputations or to discover to the World what an Incomparable Adversary I have to deale with If I should venture on a discovery I thought I might give some distast to the lesse considering sort of Readers by my bare discovering of his commissions as well as He by committing such hainous things And yet if I should not discover them the severall men of his Combination might make advantage of my silence and urge it as an Argument of my Consent I stood ballancing for a time somewhat like Buridan's Asse knowing not which of the two I should prefer To shew him a very grosse Christian and a very Thinn Scholar were to reflect upon the Credit of those aged Praefacers who have publikely commended his undertaking and yet to indulge him an escape were to suffer the common people to stumble and fall down into some foule Errors of Judgement first and then of practice by the reverence which they beare to the Learned Author of the first Epistle whom as I seriously respect for his Gravity Learning and comparative Moderation so I design to make it appear by conferring with him in a peculiar season For His Name and Mr. Barlees bound up together are like the Couples of Mezentius whose Cruelty it was to yoke the living with the dead nor will I be so severe or disobliging unto him as I find in this matter he hath been unto himself But I had not yet determin'd what course to take with Mr. Barlee For to denudate his misdemeanours might seem severity to a Neighbour and yet not to do it would be a cruelty to my selfe Once I thought that Mr. B. had very sufficiently bewrayed himselfe and that the first of his Patrons could not preserve him from Contempt much lesse the Second much lesse the Third But yet it came into my minde that it is as true now as it was at the time when Saint Hierome wrote it that There is not any Writer so very unworthy to be READ who doth not meeet with some Readers just like himself One while I considered the noble meeknesse of a Saviour who endured even with silence such contradiction of Sinners against himself But again I lai'd in the other Scale of the Ballance his great Severity and Sharpnesse at other times I remembred that Charity endureth all things and is not easily provoked But yet I could not be forgetfull that it is also allow'd to begin at home and that my knee is nearer to me then my shin I look't with one eye upon the happinesse and bliss of being reviled and persecuted and having all manner of evill falsely spoken against me for his Names sake for whom I pleaded But I looked also with the other eye upon the very great Misery of suffering Truth to fall in the midst of the Streets without so much as indeavouring to hold her up I gave an eare to that of Solomon strive not with an angry man And thought the very repetition of his Reproaches might be look'd upon by the unwary as a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I would not be deafe to that saying of the Apostle that he who converteth a Sinner from the Error of his way shall save a Soule from death and shall hide a multitude of sinnes Whilst I was standing thus in Bivio suspended by an indifference which way I went I was determin'd to this course which I have now waded through by the distinction which I made betwixt a Greater and Lesser evill I thought it dangerous to speak but more dangerous to be silent and though of two Morall Evils I may not choose either yet of two evils not Moral I may and ought to choose the least As rather to suffer some Envy by making this vindication Then the sadder events of making none It hath been matter of trouble to me that being tyed up to such subjects as my Correptory Corrector hath laid before me I have been under a necessity of spending whole Sections upon things extrinsecall to God's Decrees And therefore I have attempted to requite my Reader and my self by making a Table of those things which are most material and pertinent to the severall Questions in Debate betwixt my innocent Notes and my angry Neighbours that if any man shall desire without the expense of much time to examine how matters do stand betwixt us as to any particular under debate he may be able to find it out with very great ease and expedition and so be freed from the danger of losing his paines and his Leisure upon that which he thinks doth least concern him Concerning the Praefacers or Encomiasts who have bewrayed their Affections if not their Judgments by way of prolusion to Mr. Barlee and his incomparable attempts and so
est pars And then have inquired after the species by these Dichotomies Causa alia per se agit alia per Accidens Causa efficiens per se est vel totalis vel partialis Causa Totalis vel sufficiens vel adaequata Causae partiales quae sociae dicuntur sunt vel ejusdem vel diversi ordinis And again these latter must be considered secundum latitudinem vel secundum vim agendi Quoad Latitudinem alia est universalis alia particularis Secundùm vim agendi alia est Principalis alia instrumentalis Again the Causa principalis as 't is considered in 4. manners so is either magis or minus principalis And the later is motiva primae And this being of two sorts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin will be found to be exactly the later of these two For the will of man in strict speaking is the immediate efficient cause of his sin that is to say of determining it self to this or that thing which is forbidden by God Almighty and is so the immediate efficient of that which is the motive to or meritorious efficient Cause of punishment that is the efficient of the efficient But for fear Mr. B. should not be able to understand what is Metaphysicall and I may very well feare it whilst I finde him so unintelligent in these affaires as to say that a Cause is not efficient because it is meritorious which is as if he should have said it is not efficient because it is efficient I will open my selfe to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the grossest and most familiar and plainest manner that he can wish And I will doe it so much the rather because he complains in several places of his book that he hath plumbâ—ous Cerebrosities to use his own Bumbast to be indoctrinated He knowes the Parent is the efficient Cause of the Childe And he knowes the relation betwixt the sinner and the sin the sin and the punishment is expressed in Scripture by that of a Father to a Childe Joh. 8. 4. the Divel is a liar and the Father of it And by that of a Mother to a Childe Jam. 1. 15. lust conceaving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bringeth forth sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sin being finished bringeth forth Death From such Texts as those O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe Hos 13. 6. And they shall bring upon themselves swift destruction 2 Pet. 2. 1. Man is concluded suppliciorum suorum Faber He is the parent of his sin his sin of his punishment which is not the less its ofspring because it is its wages too Rom. 6. 23. on the contrary the sinner is therefore the efficient because the meritorions Cause for he could not make to himselfe a punishment unlesse by sin he did deserve it By one man saith the Apostle Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin Romans 5. 12. Now the Cause of the Cause is the Cause of the effect The Father of the Father is we know the Grandfather but the sinner we finde is more in relation to his punishment not only its immediate but only Parent For sin being an accident cannot exist without the subject of its Inherence It s very being is in concreto It is impossible to fancy or imagine sin without the connotation of some kinde of sinner Sin in the abstract cannot be much less be active without the sinner nor by consequence effective of any thing whatsoever And although we speake catachrestically true when we say that sin is the Cause of Punishment yet our speaking is more exact when instead of sin we say the sinner Wilfull man effects his â—…n and so is causa efficiens and being by sin become a sinner effects his punishment because his sin and so is causa efficiens still Which Mr. B. and his Masters not considering or not conceiving have ruin'd themselves with the distinction of sins not having an efficient but only a deficient Cause which will inferr it not an efficient but only a deficient cause of punishment since it cannot have more of Entity then the cause of its production But the pitifulness of that distinction will soon appear For 1. If man is the cause of sin and not efficient he must then be either the material or Formal or Final Cause for if the deficient Cause be none of these 't is not a cause Nor will any man pretend that it is either of those three And if it is not a Cause then hath sin no real being because no Cause And so it cannot be in any sense the Cause of punishment and so God will be jnferred to punish men without Cause 2. Malum non habere Causam efficientem when said by any in the Metaphysicks is the same thing as to say malum est non ens For as that must be something which is caused by something so out of no-cause we know that no-effect can be produced Efficient and effect are reciprocally converted both in the affirmative and in the negative So that where there is no-efficient there is no-effect that is to say there is nothing But Mr. B. saith expresly that sin hath no-efficient as in other places so in his p. 79 and his reason is because it wholy consists in a deficiency and by consequence is nothing and so according to him men are punished eternally for just nothing in the world 3. If wicked man is no more then the deficient cause of sin he is not so much the cause of it as God himself in their account who say he absolutely wills that sin shall fall out p. 78. and that he doth determine it shall be done p. 79. that he did voluntarily decree it should fall out p. 73. that his permissive will of sin is efficacious p. 196. p. 54. that he* creates and* commands it and by no less then an* impulse excites men to it That Gods will is as a efficacious in relation to sin as in the production of good and so efficacious as to be a irresistible and by consequence to necessitate sin So that their distinctions of a permissive and effective will or of efficient and efficacious cannot stand them in any stead and are made appear to be but figleaves to cover the nakedness and the shame of those frightful expressions as Mr. B. himself calls them by a periphrasis p. 56. For Dr. Twisse saith plainly That the Divine will is no less efficacious to the doing of that which is sin permittendo then to the doing of that which is good efficienâ— do To what purpose doth he distinguish those two members of his period by permittendo efficiendo whilst he ascribeth as great an efficacy to the will of God in the production of sin as in the production of virtue for the word praestandum is used in both and so is the word efficax And a non minus in the one implyes a non
being committed even to final Impenitence should become that Requisite to the production of punishment which being suppos'd must needs be followed with its effect man is the sole efficient Cause of his eternal punishment that is to say he is the Cause of his being punished of deriving upon himselfe a right to punishment not of the Torments of Hell in themselves which others suffer as well as he and which would have been Torments to others though he had not felt them but of his suffering the Torments of Hell or of the appertaining of those Torments to himselfe or of committing those sins of which those Torments are unavoidable effects Thus though God is the Maker and so the Father of mankind yet he having ordained not to make every man as he did Adam out of the Earth nor every woman as he did Eve out of the man's left side but that by the union of man and woman both men and women should be produced we truly say that the Parents are the efficient Causes of their Sons and Daughters It is not as Mr. B. doth inconsiderately suppose either the Law-giver or the Law by whom and which a Felon is ordained to be hanged It is not the Plaintiff the witness the Counsellor or the Judge the Iury the Goaler the Sheriff or the Gibbet it is not the Carpenter who made the Gibbet on which the Felon is to be hanged nor the Hangman by whom nor the Halter with which it is not any nor all of these to which the Death of the Felon or Malefactor can be so imputable as to himself He is therefore the most considerable efficient who by the Malefaction of his Fellonie did call Death to him and pulled destruction upon himselfe with the worke of his hands as the Book of Wisdom speaks of the greatest punishment of all his o conceiving of his sin o brought forth his punishment All the Catalogue of Requisites to the condition of his punishment did no more then give a due connexion of the Cause to its effect His maâ—efaction was the Root from which his punishment did grow and so his sufferings are but the fruit of his guilty doings He sought out death in the error of his life and is but filled with his Devices He hath rewarded evil unto himselfe 4. One sin sometimes becomes the Punishment of another and the greater of the less In which case say I the former sin is the Cause and efficient Cause of the later Which if Mr. B. shall deny he must according to his reasonings against my second Chapter affirme God the efficient of the greater sin and man only the efficient or rather the Deficient of the lesser because the greater sin which follows is the punishment of the lesser which goes before and he denieth that man is the efficient Cause of his punishment But if he shall not deny it he grants the whole Cause against which he hath taken such exceeding great pains Unless he can give a solid reason why a Man who by Sin is the Cause of one punishment may not also by more sin become the Cause of another From whence it follows 5. That the Scripture speaks very truly and properly when it connecteth punishment with six by a conjunction Causal Such as For. And wherefore and therefore and because Nor was it nonsense or a lye which was said by Solomon that the wicked shall eat of the fruit of their own way and the turning away of the simple shall slay them Prov. 1. 31 32. And therefore 6 It was judiciously spoken of Mr. Hooker who hardly knew to speak otherwise our selves we condemn as the only Causes of our own miscry Let the Reader compare Mr. Hooker's saying and mine and judge which is liable to most exception He saith the Causes of Misery but I of Punishment He saith the only Causes I the only efficient And where Mr. B. doth pretend to wrest the suffrage of so great an Author out of my hand in his p. 86 he spoyles his very pretensions in these few words which confirme the saying of Mr. Hooker and much more mine All that he saith hath been most readily consented unto by men less liked by you After this he adds something in pretence of exposition to Hookers words so perfectly impertinent either to Hookers meaning or his own purpose as sheweth his necessity exceeding great He will only say something that his Reader may not see he hath nothing to say Mr. B. there saith p. 86. that even those very things of which Gods absolute Will is the Cause yet as they stand in relation to each other they have many other causes and lawes besides Gods absolute will And this he saith that Mr. Hooker doth say in effect But first it is as contrary to that saying of Hooker which I produced as any thing can be spoken Secondly I aske are those words true of Sin it selfe in Mr. B. his account and are they less true of punishment 7. The repeated saying of Melancthon in that part of his works in which he used his greatest Care and writ with greatest consideration as appears by his Epistle to our King Henry the eighth will put this matter without all doubt And so much the rather because Mr. B. commendeth him p. 129. for Depth of learning Calmeness Prudence and Moderation yea and as none of my party yet saith he it is certain that the sin of men and their will is the Cause of their Reprobation and to assure us of his meaning he saith a little after The Cause of Rejection and Reprobation Which though the same in effect with the words of my Thesis in my Second Chapter yet are the words of Melancthon much more liable to exception if any such as Mr. B. would quarrell with him and since Mr. B. doth charge me as an Arminian with falsehood and impudence as often as I make Melancthon on my party I will say a few things to shew how little of Truth or of Modesty there is in that expression First in general it is known by all that are tolerably knowing in such things as these that as Melancthon grew older and so more learned and wiser too he grew an enemy to those opinions which he had formerly been of and which Mr. B. doth now assert Next it appears in particular to any man that shall read his common places de Causâ peccati de Praedestinatione wherein he took as great care to speak the Truth with moderation as he ever did in any worke if not much greater that he speaks as precisely against the Doctrines of Mr. Calvin as I have done in my Notes Nor is it likely that he could be a Calvinist who is so much in the favour of learned Grotius and Erasmus But he that was once against Publick Schools might also once have entertained other Errors and yet afterwards retract as well the one
Grotius been called Socinian much more might be said to shew the absurdity of Mr. B's Answer and the force of the Argument from that Text which is yet found to be capable of no other Answer 7. I will now return to his former shift of saying that all doth onely signifie many when Christ is said to die for all The absurdity of which as I have shewed many wayes so may it be shewed many more As 1. From other places of Scripture where the Death of Christ is so universally expressed as to exclude the least exception He died for all that is for the world for the whole world for every man for them that are capable of perishing for them that deny him and are damned Texts so very much prevailing with Junius and Tilenus as to make them acknowledge the Antient Fathers ' distinction which Mr. B. derides so often of Gods Antecedent or conditionate will 1. That no man should perish 2. That all should come to repentance Which doth infer sufficient Grace to every man in the world as Prosper a hundred times confesseth and of â—are even Junius as well as he 2. From the nature of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro For which needs must note either the end or the effect In respect of this later he died effectually for noâ—…â—ut â—ut the elect because they onely do beleeve and obey and syncerely repent and persevere unto the end which are the Conditions of the Covenant betwixt us and Christ and the respective Qualifications in the prescience of which we were Elected But in respect of the former He died intentionally for all and every one even for them that forsake him whom he never forsaketh untill he is forsaken by them As Prosper spake in his answer to one of Vincentius his Objections who yet of all mankinde is the least suspected to be Pelagian by our Correptorie Corrector and all of his way The goodnesse of God would have continued even on them if they had continued in his goodness as St. Paul expresseth the condition upon which the prâ—mises of God are made The Lord is with us whil'st we are with him If we seek him he will be found of us But if we forsake him he will forsake us as Azariah spake by the spirit of God In the former notion of the word for as it noteth the effect of our Saviours death he is said to lay down his life for the sheep and to have given himself for his Church But in the later notion of the word for as it noteth the end and by consequence the intention of our Saviours Death he is said to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and to have tasted Death for every man Thus the double notion of the particle for shews us an easie reconcilement of several Texts which may outwardly seem to disagree And if our Correptorie Corrector can neither prove another use of the particle pro for nor evade those absurdities which have risen from his Doctrine and wayes of proof I do conceive he is obliged to make a publick Recantation § 27. He saith Fulgentius makes it his businesse to confute my Second Chapter where he largely proves that though God do not predestinate men to sin yet he doth to their punishment for sin p. 43. Yet this is pleading for my second Chapter and not against it For sure supplicium punishment supposeth sin and so Gods Predestination of sinful men to punishment must needs be made in intuition of sin which to prove is the businesse of my second and third Chapters but Mr. B. takes his usual liberty of calling things as he pleaseth A respective Decree must be no Decree aâ—… when he has need to begg the Question He will not allow me to say in my second Chapter that the sin which God willeth not is the Cause of the punishment which God willeth onely for sin not for it self And yet he cites a * saying from Dr. Twisse That sin is acknowledged to be the cause of the will of God in reprobation quoad res volitas in respect of the punishment willed thereby If I had said that sin had been the cause of Gods will in any respect whatsoever as D. Twisse hath done Mr. B. would probably have called it blasphemy because Gods will is himself and the cause is ever before the effect but nothing is before the will of God and therefore nothing can be the cause of it But if the meaning of that Doctor was onely this that sin was that thing in respect of which or for whose sake the punishment of the sinner was will'd by God in his eternall Decree of Reprobation there is sense and Truth in what he spake And so he grants the whole Thesis against which he disputeth viz. That Gods Decree of reprobation is respective and conditional So our Correptorie Corrector is â—ain to do when he allows the distinction of Gods Antecedent and consequent will with this proviso that it be quoad res volitas and what Remonstrant did ever think otherwise for they that say that Gods decree of Reprobation is respective must understand something in the object in respect of which it is respective And what can that be but Sin which every punishment doth presuppose so that if Mr. B. or Dr. Twisse himself would not gainsay sometimes out of distaste and Animosity what they sometimes say when driven to it by necessity and pressing urgency of discourse a great part of our difference would be at an end and Mr. B. hence-forward would write no more Volumes against himself § 28. He saith they deny God to be the Author of sin whilst they repeat it at every turn that sin hath no efficient cause p. 55. How many very grosse absurdities do arise from this poor Salvo I have shew'd before and must not here make repetitions I shall only adde That Mr. B. and Dr. Twisse do ascribe to God Almighty an efficacious permission of sin and when they say he willeth and decreeth sin they say that will is efficacious We know that permission although active in sound is passive in signification For to permit is to suffer or not to hinder So that when they say an efficacious permission they say in effect an active passive a positive negative a forcible not-hindering and why should non sense be spoken and studied or the known sense of words be purposely abused and perverted if men were not conscious to themselves of some fowl Doctrine which must thus be cover'd and disguized but the disguise is so grosse that it stands in need of a disguise For Dr. Twisse affirmeth that his efficacious permissive will doth act as irresistibly as when it is effective which I have also shewed before and how are they thank-worthy who deny that blasphemy in one mode of speaking but assert it in another efficacious and efficient