17. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Answ That God doth put forth acts of Grace of free and undeserved love unto his worthless creatures we have willingly acknowledged we further say that that love of God is no passion not proper affection in God who is not capable of such but onely a purpose in God of willing well and doing well unto the creature and that out of the wel-spring of that love did slow that good pleasure of his of the sending of his Son into the world But that either it was the purpose of God in sending or the intention of Christ in coming into the world to be a Redeemer of all and every particular person or to offer himself a sacrifice for all this text doth not evinâ—e Yet I say that this love here spoken of may be said to be universal in respect of the Elect and of believing persons answerable to that Rom. 3.22 Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God which is of faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe and yet withall particular in respect of the whole mass and lump of mankind according to that Rom. 9.13 Rom. 9.13 Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated and ver 18. he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Neither doth Christ intend any other universality here then this mentioned first because that those for whom Christ came into the world are also saved for what shall be able to hinder his purpose or resist his will Secondly because believers onely are saved Rom. 8.19 Phil. 1.2 Mat. 13.11 and shall not be condemned onely to the Elect it is given that they shall believe Phil. 1.29 Matth. 13.11 And thirdly to what purpose was this pretended love and affection in God if it never did nor can take any gracious effect in saving any reprobate That which takes the fourth place is Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Answ That by All men unto whom did slow the benefit purchased by Christ is not meant of all and singular men absolutely but all men that did appertain unto him who were given him of the Father i. e. the elect and believers For the Apostle here makes a comparison between the first Adam and the second Adam as being two roots either of whom do communicate unto their several branches i. e. unto a certain company descending from them what they have do or shall enjoy and therefore saith that as the first Adam by his carnal generation did communicate two pestilent evils Sin and Death unto all descending from him So Christ the second Adam by his spiritual generation did communicate two contrary blessings viz. Righteousness and Life to all that did believe in him The truth of this interpretation is clear from the scope of the Apostle which is to compare Christ the Authour of Righteousness and Life with Adam the Authour of Sin and Death from ver 12. to the end of the Chapter and therefore hereupon ver 19. repeating the same matter which in probability should be more clear the word all is interpreted by many For had it been otherwise the Apostle would have pulled down what before he had built up and clearly contradicted himself in that doctrine which he had before delivered in the third and fourth Chapters therein asserting the justification onely of believers and therefore here is but little advantage to be gotten from this Antithesis But you will say if more perished in Adam then are saved in Christ his Grace then should be weaker then Adams sin where is then the much more abounding grace spoken of ver 17. To which I answer that the greatness and power of grace above â—n ought not to be esteemed according to the multitude of those that are condemned in Adam and of those that are justified and glorified in Christ for so Grace should be equal onely and nothing at all stronger then sin if every of these should be made righteous in Christ as many as were born sinners in Adam But herein consists the extensiveness of Grace beyond what sin did First in that whereas sin brought forth death and grace righteousness and life now it s well known t is easier to destroy and condemn an innumerable company then to quicken and save one single person all the world compacted together could not save one but Adams single sin could make obnoxious the whole world Secondly In Adam all the whole world are involved and made liable to condemnation by his one only offence but Christ doth emancipate his little flock not onely from that one original sin contracted by stain and imputation but likewise from all actual sins wherein they themselves are personally culpable neither is there any Righteousness besides Christ as there be some sins besides the sin of Adam And how mighty is this gift which innumerable sinners cannot withstand and this is that which the Apostle hinteth ver 17. and not as c. And so I proceed to your fifth Text prest to give in evidence which is 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again True it is Christ is said here that he died for all but for what all therein lies the doubt truly then the resolve must be that Christ died first for those all to whom his death is imputed viz. such who through the virtue and efficacy of the death of Christ which he underwent for them are accounted as dead and secondly Rom. 13.14 for such as do repent i. e. whereas before they did indulge their pleasures and lived to the satisfying of the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof now they live no longer to themselves but do endeavour to live conformably to the will and honour of him that died for them Now whether this can be extended to any but believers let my adversary judge for it were blasphemy to think that Christ could not obtain the end of his death had it been intended by him for any else besides believers yea even those to whom he had purposed to give them power to believe and to become sons of God The sixth Text forced by you to give its vote is 1 Tim. 2.1 c. I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and
Ioh. 10.26 Ioh. 12.39 40. Rom. 9.18 33. Rom. 11.7 8. 1 Pet. 2.8 Whereunto you say To which I answer first by distingushing upon his Major proposition and to enquire into his meaning therein now if he mean by Reprobation the decree of God before time distinct from Reprobation in time or Rom. 1.28 Gods giving them over to a reprobate mind which is the execution of the decree then I deny that sin and unbelief is the effect of it for God is so far from decreeing and appointing men to commit sin or that sin is an effect that cometh to pass by his decree and appointment that he doth not so much as tempt any man to sin as we may see Iam. 1.13 yea the Apostle Iames is so far from laying sin upon Gods decree as if that should be the cause that should produce such an effect as sin and unbelief that he saith v. 14. that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed and then v. 15. he saith when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death By which we may see that the Apostle doth not make Gods decree the cause of sin but that indeed which is the cause which bringeth it forth is even lust Quem recitas meus est Sed male dum recitas incipit esse tuus Answ Here were matter for you to work upon indeed if I would own the Argument as it is by you thus mistated and truly I do not well know how this error crept in as you have thus translated my second Argument whether you lookt upon it with a squint eye or a wry neck and so had a mind to pervert both the words and sense of it but I am sure in mine own written paper which one alone and no more I ever had which is now in my custody where as your pamphlet hath it That which is the effect and consequent of Reprobation is and so should be That which is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation which one word of effect for efflux doth much vary the case and overthrows at least silenceth a great part if not all what you have said against it for I utterly disown the word effect I know sin followes negative Reprobation or non-election not as an effect the cause but as the consequent flowing from and following its antecedent and therefore I protest against the word as spurious and illegitimate and no brood of my brain But yet if cause may be lookt upon in the latitude it is many times used and taken for I see not but that in a large sense Reprobation may be said to be a cause of sin viz. causa sine qua non for had there not been such a negative reprobation or non-election as the mother sin at least actual sin had never been born nor brought into the world as the daughter Had God elected all at least had not God decreed to permit the sin of Adam and of his posterity he had not permitted it at all for whatsoever he purposed to do or permitted to be done in time the same he did decree before all time so to do or to permit to be done and if he had not permitted sin at all and so decreed to permit it sin would never have been but it must have been hindred But I insist not upon this but apply my self to that member of your distinction of Reprobation viz. that which is before all time Wherein for so much as is contended for by you in this paragraph if I may gratifie you in it I will sâ—bscribe unto it abating me but this that whereas you say lust is the cause of sin I say the devil combining with the corruption of mans nature which is originally and totally depraved and hath little of other proper and innate quality but to sin and so I come to the other member of your distinction which is worded thus Secondly if by Reprobation he meaneth the act or execution of Gods decree in time which is Gods giving up of people to their own hearts lust and to a Reprobate mind as aforesaid then also we find that Gods act in the first place is not the cause of mans sin but mans disobedience in the first place is the cause why God doth execute the same as his just and righteous judgement upon them for their continuance in sin c. as it is expressed in this Position as appeareth Psal 81.11 12. Rom. 1.22 23 24 25 26 27 28. and yet I do not deny but sin and unbelief may be the effect and consequence of Reprobation in this sense as mens delaying and not coming in while the door is open is the cause of the door being shut against them and the door being shut against them is the cause of their abiding still without Wherefore strive to enter in at the straite gate before the good man of the house be risen up and hath shut to the door Luke 13.24 25. While it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 Answ I wonder why you should think I meant it of Reprobation in time which is not in the decree about which our controversie is but onely the execution of the decree though this be your practise yet I use no such extravagancies as to run from the question which is onely about Reprobation before all time and therefore this requiring no other answer I proceed to that where you hit the nail on the head for thus you write But I do partly believe that his meaning by reprobation in his argument is that which is generally held amongst them That Gods will and decree before any thing was brought forth in order or before man had any being is the onely and alone cause of Reprobation and so consequently of sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation and that no other fruits at any time can be brought forth by them notwithstanding all that they can do but that these things must unavoydably follow they being bound up thereunto by the decree of God and that which doth make me inclinable to believe that his meaning is so is because I find his Arguments tend much to the maintaining of such a thing Answ All this I stedfastly believe saving an ill-favoured expression that is interwoven viz. That being bound up thereunto by the decree of God which in my subsequent discourse shall be clearly refused But as though that in thus affirming I had maintained some formidable doctrine abhorrent to the Churches of the Saints he seems to bless himself from it thus But as I tender the honour and glory of God in the exaltation of his Psal 145.8 9. tender mercies over all his works and the purity of that truth and sincerity that is in himself together with his faithfulness in his upright and sincere dealings towards the sons of men and also when I think upon the excellency of
things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned No Sir it is the peculiar work of the Spirit to regenerate and convert Lydia's heart was opened Acts 16. Mat. 13.3 Rom. 1.16 before she so diligently attended to Pauls words The word of God that brought forth fruit did not make the ground good but it was so before by the special working of that Spirit The word which is the power of God to salvation doth not make believers but God first makes them so by sanctifying of their natures and giving them to believe Phil. 1.29 The word of God in Regeneration hath no greater force or power then the word of the Prophets and Apostles had in raising of the dead which had no other operation then to be tanquam signum as a sign of the thing done or as a moral instrument for there is no lesser power requirable in the recovery of a poor soul from a spiritual death to a spiritual life then there is from a natural death to a natural life And therefore as it is Gods peculiar to raise from death to life natural so it is his alone prerogative to raise from a spiritual death to a spiritual life The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Ioh. 5.25 Yea the same power is exerted in the work of Regeneration or the new creation as was at first in the work of the old creation 1 Cor. 4.6 no less then an hand of omnipotency in them both and therefore not communicable to any creature From all of which I shall hence infer that if it be Gods peculiar work to regenerate and not the word in the hearing of it and that Regeneration is principally necessary to give us ingress into heaven Joh. 3.3 Mat. 5.8 God may then as well regenerate infants by his secret power unsearchable to us though they neither hear nor understand as he doth those that are of riper years by so weak an instrument as the word and Gospel is which hath no such inherent power in and of it self Secondly this your assertion labours of another sickness viz. a false supposition that nothing but actual sins expose men to the danger of being cast into the lake of fire whereas the truth is That original sin or that hereditary pravity we brought with us into the world deriving it from our parents Psal 51.5 who conceived us in sin hath so much of filthiness and uncleanness in it that God may justly cast a new-born infant into the lake of fire for it unless it be washed clean by the blood of Jesus who is the alone way the truth the life Joh. 14.6 and through whose alone merits we have an access into the Holy of Holies into which place are admitted onely these whose names are written in the Lambs book of life Rev. 21.27 Luke 10.20 Rev. 20.15 whose names are written in heaven registred there in the eternal immutable decree of Gods election unto life all the rest whose names are not there recorded infants as well as others are cast into the lake of fire which is the second death But enough of this at present I shall be sure to meet you again more about this when you lay out your strength against original sinne Another thing which you give out in the nature of a reason why infants cannot be damned is viz. for that their not having of faith will never be charged upon them as sin Sir suppose I grant so much and so likewise what you produce out of Rom. 4.15 as a confirmation or rather as a reason of your reason for where no law is there is no transgression both may be very true as set disjunctively but as you have woven them both into one sentence they may not be true nor applicable to your purpose for herein you vary your terms that which you write takes notice of sin the text speaks of transgression wherein I conceive sin and transgression are not terms convertible for though every transgression of the law be a sin yet every sin is not a transgression of the law as in the case now before us for original sin though it be a sin properly and really yet it is not a transgression of the law as personally acted in and by the infants but as imputatively and as a defect of original righteousness So what you further say by way of illustration that there can be no law to infants as such and sin is not imputed where there is no law I grant you as to infants now in existence which law might require the exerting or putting out of any act or duty which their minority is uncapable to receive or to perform But I must withall tell you that as Adam as a publick person as a root and stock received Grace righteousness and holiness for him and his even for those in his loins so he received a law to him and his even the Covenant of works do this and live which law was incumbent not onely on Adam himself but likewise on all those that were in his loins So that infants now are born under a law and their want of original righteousness and that for the defect thereof their being conceived and born in sin and uncleanness shall be a deserving cause of their just condemnation What you bring forth in evidence to what you here aim at viz. Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no law is so far from answering your desire that it cuts the throat of your assertion For the clearing whereof its expedient to search into the mind of the Spirit by the scope of the place The Apostle in this Chapter is prosecuting that grand point of Justification by faith in Christ and ver 11. laies down this that we have received attonement by him whence he makes this corollary ver 12. that as by the first Adam sin and death entred into the world so by Iesus Christ righteousness and life are restored to us But ver 13. he meets with an objection that sin is not imputed where there is no law where he argues after this manner If all have sinned in the loins of Adam then those likewise have sinned who lived before the law was given by Moses but before the law was given there could be no sin because where there is no law there is no transgression as Chap. 4.15 and therefore all have not sinned in Adam Now here the Apostle denies the assumption or minor proposition affirming the contrary that sin was before the law given by Moses constantly affirming that howsoever it was not imputed i. e. reckoned or accounted or reputed to be sin yet indeed and in truth sin was then in the world and this being of sin in the world before the law ver 14. he proves by the effect viz. death was then in the world and that all had sinned because that
a can or a will I mean power or desire that there is neither of them in professed Christians Phil. 2.13 but what is of Gods own working who giveth both to will and to do according to his good pleasure And as for the heathen instead of doing or any desires thereunto as to good there is nothing but backwardness indisposition aversness yea an enmity against any thing that is really good at least in a saving way But alas what persons or cause is there in the world that are so base and degenerate that cannot suborne some luxuriant tongues to plead their case though never so abominable I have now done with this and so proceed to hear what you can speak for your selfe in the defence of the position from the third absurdity which is this The third absurdity If the foresight of sin should be the cause of reprobation then the elect should be equally lyable to the decree of reprobation as the reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams transgression Answ See how he minceth his argument that he may bring forth absurdities from his own expressions and then father them upon us In the front of his argument he putteth in unbelief and the rejecting of the means but leaveth out the word continuing and now he hath thrust out all except it be this one single term Sin that he may bring reprobation to eternal destruction to the narrow scantling of Adams transgression but that shall never be granted by me until I see a better proof for it than he hath yet brought and I can allow him more Scriptures then he hath set down to his argument Iob 14.4 and 15.14 Psal 51.5 all which together with the Scriptures he bringeth do I confess prove that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with Sin and I deny not but that this pollution or corruption is in a measure from Adams transgression but that any ones being reprobated to everlasting destruction in the lake of fire which is the second death is for Adams transgression I deny for although all the fruits and effects of that sin in the first Adam do accompany us untill we come to the dust from whence we were taken which is Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Womens sorrow being multiplyed and their conception and bringing forth children in sorrow together with the curse that is upon the ground for mans sake so as that man must eat of it in sorrow all the dayes of his life eating bread in the sweat of his face being accompanied with pain and sickness which are the companions of death till he return to the ground for out of it was he taken for saith God dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return and this was the sentence of that condemnation that God hath pronounced against the first Adam or 1 Cor. 15.27 earthy man and we being then in him when the sin was committed and the sentence pronounced we have our part with him in these things as our portion in this life for the original sin or first transgression But the holy Spirit in Scripture doth no where declare as I could ever yet find nor as any one could ever yet shew me that mans reprobation to the second death is for being in Adams sin nor for sin in their own persons no nor yet for unbelief simply so considered but for continuing in sin and unbelief For if they do repent confess and forsake their sins they shall find mercy and be saved as hath been already proved and if the elect should continue in sin and unbelief and not repent and believe or imbrace the means of Salvation they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation as the reprobates themselves and there would be no difference but they in repenting believing and embracing the means of salvation fall under the unchangeable decree of Gods election so as they cannot miss of salvation as hath been already shewed Answ Truly Sir before this I did not rightly apprehend where the shooe did wring but now I find that it is Original sin that pinches you so sore that you cannot well endure the name of it which had I foreseen I would not have minced any thing in the Argument no not so much as the continuing in sin for howsoever it is that we affirm that Original sin is an hereditary disease which every soul brings with it into the world yet it leaves not a man suddenly no not when he is regenerate but continues to the end of a mans dayes It is the very last enemy of ours that death destroyes so that in respect of this Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus Now what you have to say against our doctrine of Original sin I find not much in this your discourse for this you grant First that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with sin and which pollution as you say flows from Adams transgression And secondly that all the fruits and effects of that sin do accompany us till death there is onely then your bare denial that eternal death is not the reward or wages of this sinful pollution the contrary whereof is incumbent on me to prove to make my charge good against you with that third absurdity Now to prove that the first sin of Adam was ours not because he is our father by nature though that be a ground of the imputation also but because he is such a father by Covenant and law the law and Covenant of works being laid in pawn in his hand we are to understand that there be three parts in Original sinne 1. First a partaking of the first sin of Adam we all sinned in him Rom. 5.12 14 15. 2. Secondly the want of the Image of God Rom. 3.23 called the glory of God or original righteousness 3. Thirdly Concupiscence or a bentness or proneness of nature unto sin Rom. 7.7 14 17 23 24. As to the first Adams sin is ours really and truly not so much because it is ours as because it is imputed to be ours by God who so contrived the law of works as that it should be made with Adam not as a single father or person but with Adam as a publique person representing all mankind and having our common nature as a father both by nature and law which came from the meer free-will of God He was as the root and stock of all mankind Rom. 5.19 By one mans disobedience many were made sinners i. e. morally and legally but not physically and personally the fruit and effect of which is death and damnation for Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death not onely temporal or natural death but as the Apostles Antithesis necessarily carries it spiritual and eternal death in opposition to eternal life acquired by Jesus Christ the second Adam Yea and the whole series and purport of the Apostles discourse Rom. 5.12 to ver 19. carries this clear that every mouth may be stopped
by a comparison of our righteousness and life received by Jesus Christ with sin and death contracted from Adam that as by the disobedience of Adam we were made sinners viz. sinners by imputation his sin being laid upon our account as much as if we our selves had eaten of the forbidden fruit So by the obedience of Christ we are made righteous i. e. righteous by imputation God being so pleased to accept of Christ his righteousness as though we in our own persons had fulfilled all righteousness either in doing or in suffering See for further satisfaction 1. Cor. 1.30 and 15.22 and 2 Cor. 5.15 The second thing considerable in original sin is a privation of the Image of God the glory of God or original righteousness of this see Rom. 3.23 Eccles 7.29 Ephes 4.24 which uprightness had been hereditary had man kept his first station but he failing in the breach of the holy law of God he lost that righteousness both to himself and all his posterity So that there unavoidably succeeding a defect of conformity to the law of God which sinless nature did enjoy necessarily must it draw with it the sin of that nature which it voluntarily had contracted viz. Original unrighteousness Whence I reason thus Every transgression of the law of God takes along with it the true and proper name and nature of sin and to have eternal death as the reward thereof 1 Ioh. 3.4 Rom. 3.23 But every defect of conformity with the law of God is such a transgression Therefore c. The Minor is proved from those places 1 Cor. 2.14 and 2 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 3.10 and Rom. 7.18 cum multis aliis The third thing considerable is a proneness aptitude and bentness to sin not by imputation but by inclination As the young Lion and the young Serpent have not the bloudy and stinging nature of the old Lion and the old Serpent by imputation but by natural and intrinsecal inherencie so it is with men from the womb they are sinners from the birth bringing into the world a body of sin and death Whence I argue thus Every evill concupiscence or proneness in man to sin or rebellion to the law of God or enmity to God carries with it the name and nature of sin But original sin Synecdochically taken for the habit of original unrighteousness is that evil Concupiscence or proneness to sin c. Therefore For the Major I presume none dare question it and for the Minor that is confirmed abundantly and that in a special manner in the greatest part of Rom. 7. where the nature of original sin is most lively represented and the Apostle not onely for himself but for all others bemoanes their sad estate in respect of the natural inherency of that depravation of our nature And whereas you Sir were pleased to supply me with places to prove what I intended as to original sin I must tell you it was not for want of stock that I had then in store but onely because I would not then in so short an epitome be tedious and troublesome to such dissatisfied persons for whose alone satisfaction I composed that breviary but never intending it should have been exposed to publick view it was onely your pleasure to bring it into the sun light naked and bare as it was And therefore that you may see that the subject is not any wayes lame or defective for want of sufficient authority to support it take these texts of Scripture ex abundanti for the confirmation of it Gen. 6.5 and 8.21 Iob 14.5 Psal 57.7 Isa 64.10 Ier. 17.9 Matth. 15.12 Ioh. 3.6 Rom. 5.12 c. and 6.16 c. and 8.6 7. c. Eph. 2.3 and 4.22 Col. 3.9 11. Tit. 3.3 Heb. 12.1 Iam. 1.14 15 c. For what you conclude this paragraph with that if sinners should repent confess and forsake their sins they should find mercy And if the elect should continue in sin and not repent c. they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation I say Sir though to affirm this doth utterly interfere with your first position where you affirm that the elect cannot become reprobates neither can reprobates become elect And yet there is some truth in it according to the Gospel manner of expressions but this hath been fully spoken to already Your next encounter is to answer a place by me quoted where you write thus But yet lest it should be thought that there is some weight in that Scripture which he quoteth out of Ephes 2.1 2 3. Children of wrath even as others to prove that reprobation to the second death is for that sin in Adam or that infants dying in infancy should be cast into the lake of fire for the same I doubt not but by the help of my God I shall make it appear that there is no such thing in it for first consider that these words in ver 1. you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins cannot relate to their being in the corrupt mass or lump of Adams transgression for that is but one being in the singular number but that which is there spoken of is in the plural number or more than one to wit trespases and sins Secondly it doth appear that it doth not relate to that sin they had as they were new born infants because it relateth to their conversation or course of life as they had a being in this world ver 2.3 wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world amongst whom we all had our conversation in times past c. By which it doth appear that he doth not speak to the Ephesians of what they were as they first came into the world as Infants for they could not upon that account be said to walk according to the course of this world neither can new born Infants as such be said to have their conversation in times past in the lust of the flesh of the mind and therefore they were not children of wrath upon that account but the Apostle there speaketh of that course of life or conversation in which they lived in time past as they were grown persons in the lusts of the flesh and the mind fulfilling the desires thereof and being by nature the children of wrath even as others Answ What man are you so confident of this first fruits of your brain as to think that you have answered all things of weight in what I have formerly written to your positions Truly Sir if I have any judgement at all there is not one parcel of all that I have delivered that you have given the least colour of satisfaction to But let us examine the reasons you give in why those words were the children of wrath even as others cannot prove reprobation to the second death or expose infants to a desert of the lake of fire Your first reason is because those words ver 1. you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins cannot
any preparation or disposition thereunto but solely in the bosome of the God of heaven who according to the counsel of his own will from all eternity differenceth one person from another Iacob from Esau decreeing and destinating both unto glory as the end and likewise unto saving grace as the means conducing to that end For if besides the act of God thus specifying or distinguishing man should have any stroke as that through his own strength or acting at all Ephes 2.9 Hab. 1.16 1 Cor. 4.7 as to his own being decreed to salvation then a man had whereof to boast then might he sacrifice to his own net and burn incense to his own drag then man had made himself to differ and he had that which he never had received And if those former Scriptures by me alledged seem not to you of full weight Luk. 6.38 take these following to the bargain which doutbtless will make it good measure pressed down shaken together and running over First as to the exclusion of all creature-interests besides the alone will of God which is his decree of election Mat. 11.25 Luke 12.31 Secondly as to the confirming of this grant ad numerum numeratum as to a set definite and known number The Lord knoweth who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 he knows whom he hath chosen Ioh. 13.18 he knows his sheep Ioh. 10.27 yea he knows them by name Ioh. 10.3 their names are written in heaven Luk. 10.20 yea in the spirits book Rev. 13.8 even in the book of life Phil. 4.3 Rev. 21.12 So that having discharged this Argument likewise from the burden you cast upon it by your crude exceptions I am now at liberty to come to the relief of My fourth Argument which is this If faith and works be the fruits and effects of election then they are no waies causes of it for which God should elect But they are fruits and effects Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained to life believed Eph. 2.4 7 8 9 16. To which you answer First See here what ado the man makes with works and causes as the position never mentioneth Answ Sir that I inserted works into any of my Arguments I have given the reason thereof in my defence of my second Argument to wit for the avoiding of vain Tautologies I must refer the Reader and as to causes to my first Argument and though it be true that totidem verbis causes are not exprest in the position yet by an unavoydable consequence they are implied and therefore if the man had holden fast the forme of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 1 Tim. 6.3 and consented to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness much of this contest would have been spared The holy Scriptures and this mans learned writings were not calculated for the same meridian they will not easily suite for one hemisphere where find you in all the holy writings such a style as this especially as to matter of election God saw some men embracing the means and those he elected I have not found the like in Scripture whatsoever this man hath done in his rarer observations but sure I believe he laid it purposely as a gin to catch woodcocks no Sir when you set forth any doctrinal truth by way of a position you ought to keep as close to a Scripture-phrase as possibly the subject matter will bear Secondly you answer by way of a demand what ground he hath to say that faith and works be the fruits and effects of election except it be this that because election goeth before and faith and works follow after and by that way of reasoning he may as well say that Abels death was the effect of Cains birth and that may be accounted the cause of it but yet Cains being born had not effected it if he had not afterwards rose up against him and slew him and so he came to his death it being effected by that means so likewise notwithstanding the Decree of election was before man had any being yet faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10.17 as a means appointed by God for the effecting of it that so men might fall under the decree of salvation that is appointed by God to be the portion of believers from before the foundation of the world Answ I shall return upon you in our Saviours language Luk. 19.22 Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee thou wicked servant But even now did you consent Promises did flow from the decree of election and yet though we had not reum confitentem we are not so barren and empty of solid grounds for what we say or do affirm Ephes 1.3 that all those spiritual blessings in heavenly places thâ—â— a believer from first to last is made partaker of they all flow unto us and are conferred on us as fruits and effects of election Rom. 11.7 election hath obtained it that Christ was given of the Father that he was incarnate crucified dead raised from death to life that he ascended up on high and that now he sits on Gods right hand and acteth now daily as an intercessor all these flow from election Gal. 4.4 1 Pet. 1.20 Luk. 24.26 Phil. 2.6 c. That any are effectually called according to purpose t is the effect of election Rom. 8.28 and ver 23.24 c. Justification is from election 8.30 c. Sanctification from election Rom. 6.22 Your fruit unto holiness Ephes 1.4 Chosen that we should be holy All which Graces and priviledges as they are fruits and effects of election so are they all of them in their several stations and relations causes of salvation and every antecedent grace is a cause of its consequent grace and the salvation of the elect which is their consummate Glorification is the common effect both of the first cause as of all the intermediate and secondary causes At last you bid defiance to this Argument by having a fling at that Classical text of Scripture Acts 13.48 retorting it upon me thus To his Greek that he writeth in the margin of his paper from Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained c. I do desire him to look once more into his Greek Testament and then let him as he will be willing to answer it before the Judge of the world the Lord Iesus at his appearing when he shall come in his glory and let him speak according to his conscience upon that account whether he cannot read the same words in the Greek from which the word ordained is translated to be the same with that in 1 Cor. 16.15 from which the word addicted is translated and also I shall appeal to the consciences of reasonable people whether it be not a suitable and an agreeable kinde of reading it being directly contrary to what the Jews did v. 45. they spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul contradicting and blaspheming and so
infallibility is that whereby God doth certainly and infallibly foresee the futurition of all things for whereas the foreknowledge of God cannot be deceived as resting on an immutable decree therefore whatsoever he necessarily foreknoweth the same must necessarily come to pass Act. 15.18 known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Thirdly necessity of coaction or compulsion is that wherein any patient by violence is compelled by an external agent to do this or that which otherwise he is unwilling to do so Matth. 27.32 they compelled Simon to bear the cross of Christ so Luk. 14.23 at the great supper the guests are compelled to go in that the house might be filled so Acts 26.11 Paul compelled some to blaspheme These things thus premised I do hence infer that if the decree of God did produce such an effect as from a proper cause thereof as the continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation by way of coaction or compulsion so that though they would they could not do otherwise then well might you fall into that admiration Where is the tender mercy of our God! But the decree of God leaves not men under such necessity of continuance in sin c. as though it either compelled men or sollicited any unto sinning but those that sin sin as voluntarily and sin is acted as freely by them according to their own perverse wills and desires as though there were no such decree or foresight of God at all And yet it is very true that sins do come to pass according to the decree of God by a necessity first of immutability in as much as they are permitted determined directed and limited by the eternal decree of God which is as himself immutable Secondly by a necessity of infallibility in as much as the foreknowledge of God concerning such future things cannot be deceived But they do by no means come to pass by any decree of God necessarily inforcing infusing perswading or soliciting to sin But Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum all of your complexion are not equally capacitated to digest such notions and therefore Qui potest capere capiat he that is able to receive it let him receive it If these speculations be too sublime for your thick noddle blame not me for it And for that portion of Scripture by you cited it hath come under consideration already and hath received a full answer pag. 17. to which I must refer the Reader onely I shall adde this That non-election or negative Reprobation doth not contract the mercy of God into such strait terms but that every man in the world hath some share in it though not an equal share And if Gods mercy and love may be understood secundum effectum and not secundum affectum I would have you find out any creature in the world which hath conferred so many and so great effects of mercy and love upon his young ones as God did upon Cain Iudas or any other Reprobate and then I le give you leave to say that our Doctrine of Reprobation is destructive to the tender mercies of God No Sir the decree of Reprobation as it relates to the permission of sin in those non-elected argues no want at all of mercy in God though it import a denegation of some mercies even the top and height and bowels of his tender mercies which God had he been so pleased might have bestowed on them but Ratinabiliter negatur quod nulla ratione debetur and with this I shall relax my shoulders from the burden of this gravamen and so proceed to the next which is but the second part to the same tune For thus you write Secondly If God hath brought forth such an effect as a continuance in sin and unbelief c. by his decree before man had any being so as that the greatest part of men must be eternally damned for doing but what they must do and cannot neither ever could do otherwise Then where is the truth of God who hath said Ezek. 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that he should turn from his waies and live Now if this man should undertake to resolve this question and be true to his own principles he must say there can be no other reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelief and the rejecting of the means but meerly the good will and pleasure of God But God himself whose word I shall believe before this mans arguments hath said Ezek. 18.32 I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth And if this be not sufficient yet lest men should distrust him he confirmeth it in Ezek. 33.11 say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye why will ye dye Oh house of Israel Answ Let there be a transposition of the words mercy for truth in these two gravamens and then see whether the subject matter be not the very same I must therefore desire the Reader to receive satisfaction unto this from that before written which howsoever calculated for the meridian of mercy yet may generally serve as an Antidote against all his Gravamens There remains therefore little else to be done as to this onely to examine his texts of Scripture wherein he insists much upon such expressions that the Lord hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth or in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live c. Now the mind of the Prophet in this place is to stir up such as had declined from God to returne unto him by true repentance and because their iniquities were so many and their offences so great that justly they might have despaired of remission mercy and grace therefore doth the Prophet for the better assuring of those that should repent affirm that God delighteth not in nor willeth the death of the wicked but of what wicked doth the Prophet speak this Doubtless of such wicked that truly should repent and in the death of such wicked God doth not nor never will delight But he delighteth to be known a God that sheweth mercy grace and favour to such as unfeignedly call for and desire the same how grievous soever their former offences have been But such as continue obstinate in their impiety have no part nor portion in these precious promises for them will God destroy and them will he thrust by the power of his word into that fire that never shall be quenched Secondly suppose I say that the death spoken of here is to be extended no further then a temporal death and I am sure it is more then you are ever able to prove that properly and directly it can be applied to eternal death and what will that avail you then as to matter of damnation Thirdly t is true
person of another Next what think you of those infants that were drowned in the flood Gen. 19. Num. 16.17 or those infants which suffered in the destruction of Sodom or those infants in the conspiracy of Corah where the little children are said to be swallowed into the pit Now all of these infants were not born within the compass of the Covenant and out of that there is no salvation and actual sin they had committed none in their own persons and therefore their suffering must needs be for the sins acted by another But to come more close to the text The scope of that Chapter is this The Jews in Babylon meeting with much hardship in their captivity instead of being humbled for their sins took up an unjust complaint against God and charged him that he dealt unjustly with them taking up this Proverb amongst them that The fathers had eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth were set on edge i. e. that their fathers had sinned and they who were their children suffered for their sin implicitly pleading their own innocency but in a downright way accusing God for afflicting them for their fathers iniquities Now this false charge God vindicates and clears himself from in this Chapter ver 4. and so ver 20. The soul that sinneth it shall dye By soul here is meant the person the principal part being put for the whole by a Synecdoche as Lev. 7.18 20 21. By dying here more properly is understood a metaphorical death viz. afflictions wars judgements plague famine captivity loss of comforts formerly enjoyed So it is taken Exod. 10.17 2 Cor. 1.10 and 2 Cor. 11.23 Else by dying is meant suffering of punishment putting to death so the words to dye do signifie Deut. 17.12 and 18.20 and 24.7 and 1 Sam. 14.39 and 2 Sam. 12.5 Take it of whether of these two you will The words import thus much that the man which sinneth what ever he be he shall suffer and be cut off for his sin himself and not any other shall bear the burden of it and beyond this to extend the words to eternal or second death or to be cast into the lake is not with any right reason to be forced from this place For the words are to be understood as a direct answer unto the Jews charge and crimination now we do not find that any one of them did complain that they suffered this second death or that they were cast into the lake you speak of but onely their complaint and charge was for a bodily personal suffering here in this life as some of those by me formerly mentioned the utmost was a death of the body by what violence soever inflicted beyond which they had no present experience to know or judg for how could they know which of their Fathers went into that lake or suffered the second death And therefore if we may as we ought to do suppose the answer of God to be ad idem and not impertinent to their cavil and charge then the construction of these words must necessarily be confined to temporal afflictions as war famine c. or at worst to death temporal or natural And then what becomes of all this waste stuff of yours by your quibling with the words all must dye i. e. go to the dust whether righteous or unrighteous c. T is true all the righteous dye as well as the unrighteous but there is a vast difference in the circumstances of their deaths It is to the righteous a thing desired a bridge whereby they pass from Egypt to Canaan Christ hath by his death sanctified it and sweetned it so to them that they desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 Mat. 24.8 But to the wicked it is the beginning of sorrows This might be enlarged but to him whose eyes are not blinded through prejudice t is very intelligible that the utmost of the Prophets scope can be extended no further then this temporal death if it be marked what the people laid to the charge of God and supposing God likewise to have made a direct answer unto their charge without any equivocation or mental reservation And so I leave all this that you have said in the dirt and proceed to what you further say And again if this man be of the same mind with some of his brethren as he doth in some measure discover himself so to be by his words which seem to imply that Infant children have faith although not the use of faith which conceit of theirs is usually grounded upon Matth. 18.16 These little ones that believe in me from which words some of them do infer that because Christ called a little child unto him to set before his disciples as a pattern of humility to them therefore he speaketh of such little children in respect of nonage in ver 6. and if that be so then they must needs conclude that little children as such cannot be reprobated for saith Christ ver 14. It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish But this I do to see how the opinions of those men will hang together for I do believe that the little ones he speaketh of ver 6. and ver 14. are his disciples which are born from above converted and in conversation in respect of innocency and humility become as little children whose qualifications in respect of these things are such as the Lord Christ requireth the best of his people to be but such Answ Sir to what you say that I discover my self to imply that Infants may have faith although not the use of faith T is very true I do so and shall be at all times ready not onely to speak it implicitly but explicitly and to justifie such an assertion faith they may have in actu primo but not in actu secundo as the Schools distinguish they may have it in the root habit and seed but not in the second acts of knowledge assent and application but of this I have enlarged my self sufficiently before pag. 127. whereto I shall refer the Reader for further satisfaction But for what you write that this opinion is grounded on Math. 18.6 and thereupon infer a strange exposition framed by some as you say I pray Sir find out those men that create such an interpretation as you speak of and when you have found them indite such another learned polemical pamphlet against their opinion as you have here done against me and if they can let them defend themselves and their private glosses and I will promise you that for my part I will not interpose between you nor have I any thoughts to vindicate it as conceiving it probable that you your self have forged this construction out of the anvile of your simple brain and now that you endeavour to refute it You make your close to this absurdiry thus And thus we owne the later of the two which he calleth absurdities
relate to their being in the corrupt lump for that is but one in the singular number but that spoken of here is in the plural more than one viz. trespasses and sins A good Critick I assure you but to this I answer First that though the Scripture when it speaks of original sin may speak of it in the singular number yet oftentimes it is described by words of the plural number So Psal 51.5 the original carries it Behold I was shapen in iniquities and in sins did my mother conceive me and Joh. 9.34 thou wast altogether born in sins and Col. 2.13 you being dead in your sins And so here Secondly you must know that every particular person is the subject of that sin and in every member and part of that particular person is that sin inherent there is an infective that hath spread over both body and soul and even all the faculties of them both having contracted that defilement by an hereditary propagation and why may not the Holy Ghost for the exaggerating of the greatness of our natural corruption make use of words in the plural number in setting forth of this sin as usually it doth without the censure of a Thomas Tazwel Thirdly I do willingly acknowledge that ver 1. Actual sins committed by men when full grown are here spoken of and meant but not exclusively to original sin that is understood as well as actual and both of these will necessarily require a word of the plural number Actual sins as the streams running in all their veins and their whole conversation in the time of their pilgrimage here but original sin as the fomes and fountain whence those actuall sins had their first conception birth and nursery being deep rooted and fast rivited in the head and heart Fourthly you might easily perceive what I chiefly insisted on in the quoting of that Scripture having set it down in words at length and not in figures by nature children of wrath So that this your first reason will stand you in little stead as to acquit you from this third absurdity Neither will your second perform any greater exploits than his fellow that went before him for where you beat the ayr with your walking and conversation ver 2 3. I must tell you I insist not on it neither am I such an innocent as to make that applicable to infants No Sir it is the close of the 3. ver which I mainly intend and which the Holy Ghost applies singly to the hereditary and original depravation of our sinful nature lineally descending from our primogenitor Adam Gen. 5.3 who howsoever he was created in the image of God yet he begat children in his own likeness after his own image i. e. deprived of the image of God and sinful like himself and by nature children of wrath To which words you would fain say somewhat and so you do but to little purpose and that which you do say is this But now the question is how they were by nature children of wrath say some because nature led them to the doing of these things and to the living in such a filthy conversation But I have better thoughts of nature and yet I desire to think no better of it than the Scripture speaketh of it and my judgement of it is this that nature is so far from leading men into sin that the teaching of it are against sins which I prove by these reasons being grounded upon Scripture Answ Here Sir you propose a question and make your own skul the anvil whereon to forge and fashion an answer which I utterly disclaim as none of ours because of its shortness and insufficiency And whereas you say you have better thoughts of Nature Sir you need not tell me so I know you have seeing by you and those of your party the bond-woman is advanced equal to the free-woman the servant set up in honour to the disgrace and contumely of the mistress Nature I mean being placed by you in the chair of state instead of Grace Joh. 7.51 But doth our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth I will therefore bring your reasons to the touchstone whereby you endeavour to confirm this assertion viz. that nature is so far from leading men into sin that the teachings of it are against sin and your first reason is this Because the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law of God Rom. 2.14 Answ But I hope you will then limit this law of God to the law of the second table and therein likewise to the external acts of civil righteousness and that not as acted from any internal principle of a desire of glorifying of God therein and then what is all this doing worth Besides I believe you have not the front to affirme that the Gentiles did by nature worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity or that they did abstain from falling down before or worshipping the creature more then the Creator Rom. 1.25 or that they observed a seventh day Sabbath Nature I am sure never directed them to such principles Search all the records of the chiefest of the heathens even those that have aspired to the highest pitch of all humane and natural knowledge yet in those their loftiest speculations concerning the nature of divine things they were miserably blind Aristotle a man of the deepest reach that Antiquity ever bred among so many books that he wrote and are in part yet extant hath not left us any one discourse by which it might appear that he bestowed any paines in searching after the knowledge of God except here and there in some poor pitiful disputes and if it may be said thus of the most eminent of the heathens what then may be concluded of the whole croud and rout of them but as what the Apostle ver 12. having a consideration of them as in their pure naturals before their conversion by the Gospel that they were at that time without Christ Eph. 2.12 being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world that they sate in darkness and in the shadow of death Mat. 4.15 and indeed how could it be otherwise Acts 14.16 Ps 147.19.20 when God favoured them not nor had any purpose to bestow grace upon them for in times past he suffered all the Gentiles to walk in their own waies the word and ordinances of his worship they had not for he sheweth his word unto Iacob his statutes and his judgements unto Israel he hath not dealt so with every nation Ro. 10.14 neither have they known his judgements A preacher they have not and how should they believe in him of whom they have not heard 1 Cor. 2. and how shall they hear without a preacher Natural ability to know the mystery of the kingdome of God Mat. 13.11 they have not for the natural man
being kinds of spiritual death and a degree of eternal death and so Adam was spiritually dead whiles he lived as the damned are said to live in death 1. Whether the scope of the Apostle in 1 Cor. 15. from v. 35. to ver 51. be not onely to shew with what manner of bodies we shall arise viz. incorruptible glorious powerful and spiritual but no mention at all either of natural or spiritual death 2. Whether that in that treatise of the resurrection he doth not prove by an Antithesis that as we have our animal or natural life from the first Adam by a natural generation so we have our spiritual life from the second Adam Jesus Christ by a spiritual regeneration but that the order and manner thereof is this we have and enjoy first our natural life by propagation but our spiritual life afterwards by infusion of the spirit 1. Whether the Almighty power of God is not as much exerted in raising of a sinner from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness as it was either in the bringing of Christ from the dead as Eph. 1.20 or in the raising of the body of dead Lazarus from the grave 2. Whether that in both those resurrections viz. either to a spiritual life or to a natural life such who are so raised are not alike passive in their resurection contributing nothing of themselves as to their resurrection 3. Whether that such as do ascribe a liberty to the will for the choosing of good when it is tendered in the outward proposalls of the Gospel do not attribute too much of power and strength and sufficiency to themselves contrary to these places 2 Cor. 3.5 Phil. 2.13 1. Whether God the Father had any other end or designe in giving of or sending his son into the world but onely that he should give eternal life to as many as were given to him of the Father Ioh. 17.2 who were not every mothers son in the world but a peculiar people Tit. 2.14 and to those he shewed his love being his own Ioh. 13.1 and for those he laid down his life Ioh. 15.13 and unto those did he manifest his fathers name Ioh. 17.6 and for those he prayed Ioh. 17.9 and for their sakes was he stricken Isa 53.1 and for their sakes did he sanctifie himself Ioh. 17.19 1. Whether any other than the elect can in any warrantable construction be understood under the term of this word world in these places following viz. Rom. 11.12 2 Cor. 5.19 1 Ioh. 4.14 Ioh. 1.29 Ioh. 3.16 17. Ioh. 4.42 Ioh. 6.33 51. 2. Whether can be understood any other than the reprobate of the world in these places following viz. Ioh. 14.17 22. Ioh. 15.18 19. and 16.20 23. and 17.9 14 25. 1 Cor. 11.32 2 Pet. 2.2 5. 1 Ioh. 3.11 13. 3. Whether the flesh of Christ when dead or Lazarus in the grave were able to resist the omnipotent power of God when either Christ was quickened by the spirit 1 Pet. 3.11 or when the word of command was spoken Lazarus come forth Ioh. 11.43 1. Whether the Scriptures by way of allusion do not make an alike proportion between the necessity of the putting forth an omnipotent power which cannot be resisted Rom. 9.19 in the converting of a sinner unto God or giving them to believe Phil. 1.29 and the raising of one from a natural death to a natural life See Eph. 1.19 20. Rom. 6.4 13. and 8.11 and 11.15 1. Pet. 1.21 2. Whether cannot Omnipotency which said at first let there be light and there was light and gave a creature being out of nothing say as well let there be a will unto conversion and there shall be such a will and by an invincible perswasion remove all reluctancies and oppositions in the will 3. Whether whatsoever God doth or permitteth to be done in time he did not decree to do or permit to be done in the same manner measure and circumstances of time place and persons as they are done before all time 4. Whether that upon a supposition that Peter Paul Iames Iohn c. are absolutely and actually justified and saved in time did not God decree absolutely and actually to justifie and save them before all time 1. Whether those words in the Gospel He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned was not a secret kept hid from the Angels themselves especially for the clear manifestation of it untill that Christ was manifested in the flesh 2. Whether those words are not held forth onely as a Gospel-declaration how a man may know himself capacitated for salvation viz. by believing and that it is no wayes mentioned as to be the substance of the decrees of God though whatsoever therein comes to pass was in reality decreed by God 3. Whether the foreappointing or determining of men to a certain end be not the substance of Predestination 4. Whether all men be not foreappointed or predestinated to a certain end 5. Whether there be any such decrees to be found in the whole Scripture he that believeth shall be elected or he that believeth not shall be reprobated 6. Whether believing be not the effect or part of the execution of the decree of election from eternity and not a cause or a condition drawing after it the decree of election 7. Whether not believing rejecting of the means of salvation and continuing in sin and unbelief be not faults voluntarily proceeding out of the wicked hearts of men who are reprobated from eternity not foreseen as causes of their negative reprobation but onely as causes of their positive reprobation or judicial condemnation 8. Whether that upon a supposition that there were no other decrees of election and non-election then this He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned might it not so come to pass there intervening no irresistible power of God but man left to the supposed liberty of his own will that either no man might be saved or else that no man might be damned 1. Whether God may not in righteousness judge such to blindness who have put out their own eyes 2. Whether God may not in righteousness expect a return of that talent to him which he at first committed to man and if man hath misimployed it or squandred it away may not God in righteousness judge and condemn man for it 3. Whether man in the state of innocency had not a power to do whatsoever God did require of him 4. Whether that power was not onely given to Adam himself but likewise in him to all his posterity had they continued in obedience to the command of God 5. Whether Adam lost not that power both to himself and all his posterity by eating of the forbidden fruit and therefore it is said that in him we have all sinned Rom. 5.18 19. 6. Whether are not the Saints carried on to believe by the Fathers drawing of them to Jesus Christ Iohn 6.44 yet such a