and impenitence and would not elect them to salvation or have his Son die for them or give them power sufficient for their conversion even then when he invites intreats beseeches and beggs of them to answer his Calling them to salvation under the promise of the said salvation and the penalty of eternal damnation but will have them all born into the world to eternall and never-to-be-ended torments and pains of hell-fire and at length throw them headlong thereinto for no other cause but because it was his pleasure so to do II. That God would that Iesus Christ should suffer the most bitter and the most shamefull death not for all men but onely for the elect that for them alone by the shedding of his own precious blood he might purchase faith and all other saving gifts of the Holy Ghost that by his blood he might clense them from all their sins both Originall and Actuall committed as well after as before their faith might keep them to their last breath and at last bestow on them eternall life But on the Contrary That God would not that Christ should die for other Mortals that he should or might obtaine for them any saving gifts of the Holy Ghost but would that they should be left in Originall sin and should by consequent fall or rush headlong into other sins which necessarily flow therefrom that they should continue destitute or devoid not onely of power whereby they might turn and repent but also of all hope of grace and salvation till at length beeing inwrapped in an unavoidable necessity of sinning they should be thrust down with the damned Divels to eternall and infinite torments both of soul and body III and IV. That God doth communicate inspire and infuse into his Elect children not onely a power to believe but also the will to believe yea the very act of believing or faith by such a supernaturall most powerfull and at once most sweet wonderfull secret and unspeakable operation or working as in its power is no lesse or inferiour then that whereby the world was made or the dead are raised so that it remains not in mans power to will to believe or be converted but will they nill they they cannot but be converted and believe On the other side That God doth earnestly indeed call and invite to faith and repentance infinite Myriads or ten thousands of men with threatnings of eternall death and damnation yet so still as he wills not to communicate to them either faith or the power to believe and repent so that though they be called of God to faith yet they cannot but remain unbelievers And that yet notwithstanding all this he will punish and doth punish eternally with the most grievous and horrible torments of hell those very persons for that unbelief of theirs that was unavoidable V. God will preserve in the faith all those who are absolutely elected from eternity and are in time brought to faith by an Almighty and irresistible operation or working so that although they fall into foul and detestable wickednesses and villanies and continue in them some space of time against their Conscience yet the said wicked villanies do not hinder so much as a straw amounts to their Election or Salvation neither do they or can they by means of or because of these fall from the Grace of Adoption and from the state of Iustification or lose their faith but all their sins how great soever they be both which heretofore they have committed and those which hereafter they will or shall commit are surer than assuredly forgiven them yea and moreover they themselves at last though it be at their last gasp shall be recalled to repentance and brought over into possession of salvation That this is the perfect sense of the Synods Doctrine the Remonstrants have notably evinced in their ANTIDOTUM Continens Pressiorem Declarationem Propria Genuinae Sententiae Quae in Synodo Nationali Dordracenâ asserta est et stabilita For Daniel Tilenus it seemes he took the like course for whereas the Synod delivered their Iudgement about the First Head Divine Predestination in the 18 Articles and 9. Rejections He abridged the sense thereof into seven short lines and the Second Head about Christs Death comprised in nine Articles and seven Rejections into foure or five lines and the three and foure Heads concerning Mans corruption and conversion conteining seventeen Articles and nine Rejections into fourteen lines and the fifth Head of Perseverance dilated in the fifteen Articles with nine Rejections into lesse than foure lines And besides in Compiling his Articles Tilenus had respect to the Doctrine as it is asserted or held forth by the Synod of Alez which is not now in my power to give any account of But my Present task is to make it good that these Articles of Tilenus are consonant to the sense of the Calvinists Doctrine whether delivered in or out of the Synod The first whereof is drawn up and presented in these words That God by an Absolute Decree hath Elected to salvation a very little number of men without any regard to their faith or obedience whatsoever and secluded from saving Grace all the rest of Mankind and appointed them by the same Decree to eternall damnation without any regard to their Infidelity or impenitencie Here Master Baxter takes exceptions 1. Where talke they of a very little number For your satisfaction heare Martinius one of the most moderate of the Synod of Dort who saith that (a) In praefat excussioris placidae Citante Smoutio Eendrachts fol. 109. God according to his good pleasure hath reprobated the greatest part of men was it for sin Christ doth not teach so Mat. 11. nor the Apostle Rom. 9. Here we have the greatest part of Mankind under the Decree of Reprobation and that not for sin neither The lesse part therefore is Elected But we have another Synodist speaks more fully to the Article (b) Antonius Thysius ad Summam Baronis p. 10. 20 literis gg collatis God hath by his absolute and irresistible will reprobated the greatest part of Mankind by far and created them to destruction saith Ant. Thysius And what is the number of the elect then If it be not small enough yet Master Calvin expresseth it to a tittle The Election is of a very small Number of the Godly Electionem exigui piorum numeri Instit lib. 3. cap. 21. § 7. mihi pag. 592. 2. Master Baxter excepts It 's not true that they say he doth it without any regard to their faith or obedience whatever Witnesse to the contrary 1. Donteclock How can it be true that God did from all eternity consider us in Christ as faithfull On the contrary he chose from all eternity some certain persons without respect to faith or any other quality onely for his will and good pleasure Respons ad Anonym Quatern E. 2. Bucan What manner of persons are Elected Such as are unclean and wicked in
the sight of God Loc. com de Praedest q. 20. 8. The Contra-Remonstrants We do professe that God in his Election had no respect to faith foreseen perseverance or any other good quality Collat. Hag. pag. 126. 4. Damman Scribe to the Synode The Election was made without any consideration of faith foreseen In suo consens To whom I may adde Lubbertus a Synodist too who saith 'T is a humane invention that God decreed Salvation to us upon this condition if we would repent In Declar. Respons pag. 50. 3. Master Baxter excepts He unworthily feigneth them to say that God appointeth them to eternall damnation without any regard to their impenitency or infidelity The truth of this shall be tried by the Suffrages of 1. Calvin Predestination is Gods eternall decree whereby he appointed what he would have done concerning every man All are created in a like condition But eternall life is preordained for some eternall damnation for others And therefore as every man is created for either end so we say he is predestinated either to eternall life or eternall death Instit l. 3. c. 21. § 5. Therefore that frivilous shift of the Schoolemen concerning prescience is overthrown For Paul doth not say the ruine of the wicked is foreseen of the Lord but ordained by his counsell and will Idem ad Rom. 9.18 2. P. Martyr That any should be created of God that they might perish seems absurd at first sight But the Scripture speaks it In app loc com in loc de Praedest 3. Polanus Whom God predestinated to eternall destruction those he created to eternal destruction In Hoseam 13.9 4. Beza God destin'd to destruction not for corruption or the fruits of it but because so it seemed good to him de Praedest contra Castol pag. 416. in Notia min. N. T. ad Rom. 9.21 Seeing therefore that the shame of death eternall is signified by the name of dishonour they speak like Paul who say some are created of God to just destruction and they that are offended with this forme of speech do betray their ignorance 5. Perkins Every man is to God as a masse of clay in the hand of the Potter a◠Paul affirms and therefore God by his absolute soveraignty doth make vessels of wrath and not find them But he should not make them but finde them made of themselves if we should say that in his eternall counsil he passed them by onely as sinners and not as men De Praedest Gratia Dei pag. 16. 6. Ant. Thysius a Synodist Reprobation is decreed without any regard had to sin Ad Summ. Baronis ex Piscat Let not Master Baxter except against this and say that Reprobation is not the same with Damnation for it doth inevitably draw damnation after it as is acknowledged by Festus Hommius Scribe to the Synod in these words The fruits that follow Rejection are 1. The creation of the Reprobate 2. Desertion or withdrawing of Gods grace and means 3. Blinding and hardening 4. Perseverance in sin Thesaur Catech. fol. 216. Lastly all the Supra-lapsarians must give their votes for this opinion who make the object of Predestination Man considered either as created and not faln or as yet not created but possible to be created Thus Amesius 'T is neither necessary nor consonant to Scripture to assign any pre-required quality in man as the formall object of Predestination or any certain state of man so as to exclude the rest for it is sufficient to understand that man is the object of this Decree so that the difference which is found in men may follow from the Decree In Medull Theol. l. 1. c. 25. th 10. And Gomarus a Synodist Predestination is twofold One to Supernaturall ends which though at once in the accounts of eternity yet in order of nature goes before because the end for which a thing is is first in the intention of the wise The other unto Creation in Originall righteousnesse and other meanes Thes de Praedest disput 1604. Thes 12. Thes 13. The object of Predestination are Rationall Creatures not as really to be saved or damned created about to fall or about to stand about to be repaired but as in a remote and indefinite power are saveable damnable creable fallable repairable c. And upon these very grounds of Gomarus Maccovius disputes the point stifly for the Affirmative Theol. Disput 17. mihi pag. 59. From hence ariseth that bitter dissension betwixt the Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians wherewith Grevinchovius so worthily upbraideth Smoutius in these words Gomarus Festus and other Supralapsarians and thy self also if I be not deceived do contend bitterly against Donteclock Acronius c. That nothing more foolish ot more sottish can be fastened upon God then that He should have created Man not having first appointed his end that is to say the salvation or damnation of every one or rather the shewing forth of his wrath and power in the perdition of the Reprobates On the other side Acronius and the rest of the Sublapsarians exclaime as much against the Supralapsarians That nothing can be conceived more unjust than that Man should be reprobated and created to destruction whilest considered as not yet corrupted by sin Absters Calum Smout p. 51. And this I hope is sufficient for the proof of the first Article as to the matter of Fact The II. Article runs thus That Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world What saith M. Baxter to this Article Why A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends We must Impannell an honest Jury to try this too and 1. That Christ is said to have suffered onely for the Elect. Call in the Witnesses under written 1. Geselius what say you to the matter in question They do greatly erre that teach Christ died for all and every man Specim c. 9. fol. 36. 2. M. Perkins 't is expected you should give in a full testimonie for the Plaintiffe what say you The Ransome was designed by the Decree of the Father and by the intercession and oblation of the Son for the Elect onely De Praedest p. 20. 3. Piscator a knowing man he will speak the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth That Christ died sufficiently for every one is a false Proposition For he died onely for the Elect paying a most sufficient price of redemption for them namely his own precious blood the blood of the Son of God the blood of God himself But for the Reprobate he dyed in no wise whether sufficiently or effectually Contr. Schaff Th. 209. 4. Beza what can you say to this point for the acquitting of Tilenus I say Whether you consider the counsil of God or the effect of the Passion or both Christ died no way for the wicked In Thes cum D.
Fayo in Schol. Genev. disp de dig effect Sacrif J. C. 5. Maccovius can you say any thing to clear the Plaintiffe from the charge that Master Baxter brings against him For that distinction of Christs dying for All sufficiently but not effectually I say 't is most vain and foolish For if you say Christ died sufficiently because his death would have sufficed to redeem all if God had so pleased then by a like reason it might be said that Christ hath justified All and glorified All sufficiently but none effectually Mac. distinct c. 11. disp 18. p. 110. Colleg. Disp 12. 6. Vogelius what say you to the second Article of the Remonstrants Concerning the Universality of the merit of Christs Death They that subscribe to it are to be suspected of Pelagianisme Socinianisme and other filthy Heresies Contra Ministros Campens pag. 125. This evidence already given in might suffice for the whole Article But because there is another branch perhaps M. Baxter will expect some pregnant proof for that too viz. That Christ neither had any intent nor Commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world To evince this take here the depositions of 1. Triglandius a Synodist who saith The passion of Christ in it self is sufficient to redeem all men yea many more but according to the Counsil of the Father He died onely for the Elect and truly faithfull with that intent that through faith he might make all them and onely them partakers of the efficacy of his passion to their salvation Christian Moderation pag. 25. 2. Zanchy who saith Christ according to the purpose of the Father was born prayed suffered dyed rose again and sitteth at the right hand of the Father interceding onely for the Elect h. e. for those who were to believe according to the eternall Election Miscel pag. 345. in quarto 3. Beza I say again and professe before the whole Church of God that it is false blasphemous and wicked to say Christ suffered was crucified died and satisfied no lesse for the sinnes of the Damned then for the sins of Peter Paul and all the Saints whether in respect of Gods Counsil or in regard of the effect Resp ad Coll. Mempelg p. 221. 4. Rippertus To say Christ died for them that perish is false and accuseth God of injustice Contra Domin Sapma p. 764. 5. Vogelius If Christ tasted death for unbelievers He drank that bitter cup in vain or else unbelievers must taste eternall death twice contrary to Gods justice to the dignity of Christs death and to possibility ubi supra p. 133. 6. Maccovius If Christ died for all then he was a surety and ransome for all even for those that perish everlastingly And this will brand God with injustice for taking a twofold punishment for the same offences when the first satisfaction might have sufficed Ubi supra pag. 35. 7. D. Damman Scribe to the Synod speaks to the same purpose It is repugnant to Gods justice that he should constitute Christ to bear the sins of all men and make full satisfaction for them and yet ordain some men to bear their own sins in their own persons and so make satisfaction for them themselves then he should punish one sin twice that is to say both in his Son and in them that perish Consens p. 63. Piscator shall shut up this Scene The Reprobate are plainly excluded from the merit of Christs death and yet they are bound to believe in him In Resp ad Duplic Vorstii c. 7. pag. 66. The third Article of Tilenus That by Adams fall his Posterity lost their free-will being put to an unavoidable Necessity to do or not to do whatsoever they do or do not whether it be good or evill being thereunto Predestinate by the eternall and effectuall secret Decree of God What saith M. Baxter to this Article Unworthy falsification still I see it will be a hard matter for Tilenus to gain M. Baxter's favour when he cannot escape his censure but the best on 't is rather then his reputation shall stand branded with those markes of Infamy which M. Baxters blackest inke hath indeavoured to imprint upon it many of M. Baxter's Reverend and in his opinion Orthodox friends are ready to be his compurgators I was about to summon M. Calvin in the head of these but I find him stumbling at the threshold and taking exceptions at the very Preface of the Article which chargeth his Adherents and followers to hold That by Adams fall his Posterity lost their freewill For he will not acknowledge such a Freewill in Adam himself whereby he might have stood witnesse these words of his to Castellio Thou saist Adam fell by his free will I except against it That he might not fall he stood in need of that strength and constancy wherewith God armeth the Elect while he will keep them blamelesse Whom God hath elected he props up with an invincible power unto perseverance Why did he not afford this to Adam if he would have had him stood in his integrity Ad Calum Nebul Ad Artic. 2. And Maccovius However Adam fell Necessarily in regard of the immutability of the Divine Decree yet he fell not by compulsion but of his own accord Non coactè sed sponté Coll. Disp disp 16. pag. 54. If the Calvinist's put Adam himself under such an unavoidable Necessity to do or not to do as an immutable Decree had determined him 'T is strange any of them should give Tilenus the Lie for affirming it to be their opinion concerning all men else And yet Tilenus stands accused by M. Baxter of an Vnworthy falsification for affirming that they hold That the Posterity of Adam having lost their free will in his fall are put under an avoidable Necessity to do good or evill And therefore to clear Tilenus that He may still carry the Reputation of a True man I 'le offer the Certificates of his Compurgators and First they shall certifie to the unavoidable Necessity of doing good as 1. Sturmius whose Certificate on the behalf of Tilenus runs thus The Elect are not onely Predestinated to the end but also to the means that lead to that end and therefore as they are necessarily saved at last in regard of the immutability of Election So in regard of the stability thereof they do necessarily also embrace the means by which they are conducted to that end De Praedest Th. 10. 2. Zanchy Whosoever are predestinated to the end they are also predestinated to those means without which that end is not to be attained And therefore as the Elect do necessarily arrive at the end at last in regard of the stedfastnesse of Election so in regard of the same stedfastnesse it is necessary they should be led and walk by the means ordained to that end De Nat. Dei lib. De Praedest -Sanct quaest 5. lib. 5. c. 2. q. 4. So it comes to passe that our Will cannot
damnation necessarily follows Molin knew well enough that to Reprobate is as it were a putting the fatall rope about the mans neck and tying his hands behind him and whatever follows whether exhortations or prayers is but in order to a preparation for turning the Ladder Hereupon he concluded that no man is Reprobated but for sin ibid. parag 3. But M. Baxter would make us believe in his next words that the Synod and himself too are of this opinion for he goes on and saith They do not onely respect Infidelity and other sins as the cause of damnation but as the state in which God findeth many when he denyeth them the grace of Faith You speak not a word of Impenitency 't is clearly granted by you all that that was not looked upon in the Act of Preterition But for its companion as Tilenus had linked them together though you divorce them for your advantage remembring the old Rule Divide Impera I mean Infidelity God had respect to that as the state wherein he found many c. I pray how many are they and which Infants or Adult onely 2. Is there not a Fallacy in those words When he denyeth them the grace of Faith He denyeth it to the Reprobates for ever and therefore if you understand it of his deniall of This grace in the last stage of their lives He must needs find them then in a state of Infidelity Or 3. do you mean the Heathens by these Many What state can they possibly be found in else when God denyeth them the Grace of Faith But if this be your meaning you have placed that Infidelity amongst very unfit Associates For this can be but a Negative not a Positive Infidelity and so whether it can be reckoned amongst their other sins as being a sin it selfe is another question †That men cannot see or believe without a certain Medium or object this is no more their fault then it is that they see not non-existents c. M. Baxter of saving faith pag. 53. f. But 4. did God find any really in the state of Infidelity when he denyed them the Grace of Faith according to the Doctrine of the Synod Do not they and you conclude that Preterition is the denyall of this Grace 'T is proved sufficiently already that they do so And you know some of them are of opinion and that opinion not rejected by the rest that in his Preterition God considered mankinde onely as having a possibility of being in regard of the sufficiency of his divine power Did God finde any then in a state of Infidelity They that bring the Decree of Reprobation down lowest amongst the Synodists do affirme that it was passed in consideration of the Fall of Adam To this purpose I might produce a cloud of witnesses Act. Synod Dord 2. part pag. 77. q. 5. 3. part pag. 24. thes 7. p. 123. f. were it not needlesse seeing we find so much in confirmation of it amongst the very Decrees and Articles of the Synod to which all those Divines subscribed That God out of his mere just will hath not decreed to leave any man in the fall of Adam and common state of sin and damnation or to passe over any in the communication of grace necessary unto faith and conversion This they reject as one of the troublesome errours Cap. 1. Reject 8. and cap. 2. Re ect 5. That all men are received into the state of reconciliation and grace of the Covenant so that no body shall be condemned for originall sin nor in respect of it be liable unto death or damnation but that all are acquitted and freed from the guilt of that sin This they reject as the same errour too To the like purpose is the first Rejection of the 3. and 4. Chapters Where we have not onely rejection or denyal of grace but damnation also intailed upon Original sin And if the grace of faith was denyed to them upon that account how could God find them before it in the state of Infidelity Sure you will not make it Adams state before his fall for he had no need and therefore it was no part of his duty to believe in the Gospel sense of believing and consequently Originall sin whether as committed by him or derived unto us cannot be Infidelity Therefore that was not the state he left men in and yet the Decree of Reprobation had no other lower Prospect of man as a condition to passe him by upon but that wherein Adam left him as the Synod hath defined And therefore your other sins must disband together with your state of Infidelity unlesse Originall sin be a Noun of Multitude For that is that which the Synod calls the common state of sin and damnation wherein they say God left the Reprobate when he denyed them the grace of Faith But M. Baxter proceeds and tells us of the Synod further that Of all the Non-elect they determine that God leaves them but in that misery into which by their own fault they precipitate themselves and that he leaves them by his just Judgement to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts 'T is most certain when ever God leaves men he doth it by his most just judgement but that He should leave them to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts before this Malice and Hardnesse be found in them were very strange And unlesse Adams sin or Originall sin upon which the Decree of Reprobation passed against them be Malice and Hardnesse of heart I see no truth in that assertion that God leaves them then to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts This is indeed a misery into which men by their own personall faults do precipitate themselves such is not that which you and the Synod speak of neither by omission nor by commission nor by consent How then It is the fault of their Nature which they are made guilty of onely by imputation saith Master Calvin as you may finde him cited in the Preface to Tilenus his Examination To which I will adde that of Lubbertus †A Synodist In Declaratione Respons pag. 105. Our Carnall generation from Adam fal'n and guilty neither is neither can it be the cause of that originall guilt which we derive from him but the imputation of sinne committed by him c. And if it be thus then you cannot say they are but left in that misery into which by their own if you mean proper personall fault they ptecipitate themselves Neither is it true that they are but left in this misery for according to the nature of the means designed by this very Decree and subordinated to the execution of it they are subjected inevitably to a far greater misery 1. of sin and 2. of condemnation and punishment To proceed You say Though they deny Election to proceed upon foreseen saith because God decrees to give that faith before we can be foreseen to have it yet they purposely passe by
suffered Treatise of Convers pag. 2. and for all the Grace that is offered them in the Gospel is What Even because they will not receive this Grace nor entertain Christ and the mercy of God as it is offered to them And what doth this signifie but this because they would not chuse it And upon this account they are condemned and very justly Yet when he is come from his pulpit and undertakes to dispute with Tilenus 't is not sufficient that Gods Mercy and Christs Merits and the Divine Grace be at his choice to receive it this may serve the Non-Elect But be not angry saith he if we thank God for more even for giving us both to Will and Do. If you may be allowed to be your own Carvers no doubt you will be very liberall in the choice of your own portions and if God ratifies it 't is well for you But we find that Gods design in his way of dispensing Grace is to promote and advance duty but your way doth evacuate and cancell it For if he workes the very Act which we call duty by an irresistible operation in nobis sine nobis as the Synod saith of Conversion in us but without us then duty is no more duty but necessity and Grace is no more Grace but force That God worketh to Will and to Do others acknowledge with no lesse thankfullness then your selves if you mean a power and ability in us to Will and to Do as you implyed your meaning to be a little before when you said He gives both to believe and to suffer that is a power to do it yet so as the will is left more free rather then determined under an irresistible necessitation and consequently man may abuse his liberty Heb. 12.15 2 Cor. 6.1 and be wanting to the Grace of God and make default in his cooperation and so his will may remain undetermined and the work to which he was inabled be left undone But if you think when God works to will and to do 't is not in Mans power to bury his talent and contradict Gods motion I must reject that Comment as a corruption of the Text and a subversion of the Apostles argument to inforce his exhortation With all humility sollicitude fear and diligence Eph. 6.13 lest God be offended and you miscarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perficite conficite interficite superate for the word hath all these significations all difficulties and opposition being subdued work out and make your salvation dead sure for it is God that grants and works ability not of necessity and indesinently but of his mere grace and good pleasure which he may be provoked to suspend and withdraw This sense gives a huge inforcement to the exhortation But according to your interpretation the Apostle should argue thus My beloved it is God that worketh in you to Will and to Do determining your wills to the very Act of duty insuperably and irresistibly so that it is not in your choice to do otherwise and this he doth because it is his Good pleasure therefore work out your salvation with feare and trembling Would such exhortations tend to the quickning of your Audience or rather make them carelesse Or can it consist with the Holy Spirit of Discipline and wisdome to use such a vehement exhortation and then back it with such a Reason as if granted would render that exhortation insignificant and to no purpose for what diligence is to be used out of a feare of miscarriage if the effect be irresistibly determined In the Appendix to your Aphorisme you say Pag. 52. Believing is properly a condition required of the Party if he will enjoy the thing promised And in your Treatise of Conversion pag. 296. you say Salvation is not given barely from the will of God but from the faith and obedience of men for it is an act of rewarding Justice as well as of Paternall love and mercy What is that rewarding Justice terminated upon Man's free duty or God's omnipotent irresistible work in him Resolve this and Tilenus will not be angry that you give God thanks for working in us to Will and to Do. Reflexions upon M. Baxters IX Section and the II. Article WHerein Master Baxter sets up to be baited and worried as his Phantasie pleases the Second Article in these words Saith this new Tilenus They hold that Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having never had any intent nor commandement of his Father to make satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world Here M. Baxter flies out into passion and foule language and the first Case of his indignation he gives us in these modest expressions A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends By the way I cannot sufficiently wonder why a man that hath wrote so many Directions for Peace of Conscience should throw such Birds of prey off his own fist to devour a strangers Reputation but the best on 't is they are so well acquainted with the place of their breeding he may safely venture to fly them without his varvells they will find the way home of themselves and therefore I shall not need to trouble my self to take them up for him But whether Master Baxters fingers ends be not more dexterous at such work then are Tilenus's let the Reader judge by what follows There is not a word of the Decrees of the Synod that hath any such importance saith Master Baxter But you have taught us to distinguish betwixt Name and Thing suppose the word should not be there I hope it will satisfie the Indifferent Reader and save Tilenus his Reputation if the sense be there and if at least this be not there I shall despair of ever understanding the Riddles of this Sphinx without the help of such an Oedipus as Master Baxter The Synod in their 2. Chapter Art 8. decrees and declares their Doctrine in these words For this was the most free counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father that the lively and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Sonne should manifest it selfe in ALL the ELECT for the bestowing upon them ONELY Justifying faith and bringing THEM infallibly by it unto eternall life that is God willed that Christ by the blood of his Crosse whereby he was to establish a new Covenant should effectually redeem out of every people tribe nation and language All THEM and ONELY THEM who from eternity were elected to salvation and given to him of the Father that he should bestow saith on THEM which as also the other saving Gifts of the holy Spirit he purchased for THEM by his death that by his bloud he should cleanse THEM from all sins both Originall and Actuall as well committed after as before they believed and finally should present THEM before him in glory without all spot or blemish Here we see the saving efficacy of Christs Death for their Redemption restrained