our consent to Christ is the effect of his consent to us I must leave it to my Reader to judge Or the Substance of this Question is this whether the Soul is first Active or Passive They that affirm that the Soul comes to Christ in its Sins unrenewed make the Soul first Active they who say the Soul acts as a renewed Soul make it first Passive which is such an undoubted Truth that I dare venture my Salvation on it and I hope I have clear Scripture on my side John 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you the Hour is coming and now is when the Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall Live Which cannot be meant only of the Resurrection of the Body because it is said the Hour now is but it hath respect to the quickening of the Soul from the Death in Sin And it clearly proves that Christ finds the Soul Dead when he comes to put forth this Quickening Voice for look as with Lazarus Christ calls him while Dead Lazarus come forth and by this Call infuses Life into him and so enables him to come forth Had another called he might have wasted his Lungs in calling before he would have stirred So Christ calls us when Dead in Sin and with the call puts Life into us and so enables us to hear and obey his Voice Ephes 2.1 You hath he quickened c. Then it seems Christ quickened them and indeed if he do not we cannot and as Gahazi could only lay the Staff on the Face of the Child but could not put Life into him till the Prophet came 2 Kings 4.31,32,33 so till Christ the great Prophet bring home the Word to the Heart we call and cry in vain we can but Prophecy over dry Bones but that Breath that quickens them is from the Lord Ezek. 37.5 Hence Christ the Second Adam is called a quickening Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 And to prove yet further that the Soul is first Passive before it is Active We have another most clear Text Eph. 2.10 For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus c. Mind we are created Now you know that in Creation we were Passive as the Clay in the Hand of the Potter Man cannot be supposed to have any Hand in Creating of himself so that as Man was first purely Passive in the Hand of God and must receive a Natural Life before he could perform a Natural Action so is the Soul as purely passive while God infuses the first Grace whereby the Soul is enabled to put forth that vital Act of coming to Christ so Rom. 10.20 I was found of them that sought me not I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me I cannot but pity such deluded Souls as receive the Doctrine I am confuting for a Doctrine of Free-Grace who are ever Learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth It 's a sore Judgment to be given over to believe a Lie and to be left to feed on a Stone instead of Bread and not to be able to discern between a Fish to nourish us and a Scorpion to sting us I have observed one great difference in Doctrine among some Dissenters whereby Meeting is set up against Meeting in the same Town to the great dishonour of God and hindrance to Religion lyes in this Some affirm what I have proved and are therefore termed Dark Legal Muddy Preachers the others look upon themselves to be the only Gospel Preachers because they cry down all Qualifications in the Soul when it comes to Christ Gracious ones not excepted But who will be best able to defend their Doctrine at the Great Day I hope by what hath been spoken you will be able to Judge if they mean what they say or indeed know what they say The difference between us is this they own Christ to be the Purchaser of all our Benefits so do I but here we differ they say we must go to him in all our Sins for them I say he that purchased them doth enable us to come to him and so I attribute the Application to him also and now judge who Preaches Free Grace most clearly I make Christ the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End they make him only the Beginning and affirm that if Sinners do not come as they are they must be Damned If Christ saves none but such as come to him thus in their Sins that is by their own power for if Sinners are acted by the Power of God then they do not come as they are what a Remnant will be saved A Remnant did I say Nay I dare affirm if that be true not one Soul shall be saved Man is naturally unwilling to come to Christ John 5.40 And ye will not come to me that ye might have Life Which Text only proves there is a Will in Man not to come to Christ though it be for Life they will Die rather and how hard a thing do Ministers find it to perswade Souls to come to Christ Now if this is the Nature of all then those whose Wills are not changed will never come and if their Wills are changed by a Divine Power and they so enabled to come then they do not come in their Sins in an unchanged State only God can change the Will as in Psal 110.3 They shall be a willing People in the Day of thy Power How little is Christ beholden to such who would frustrate his design in Dying He expected a Seed for to serve him as the effect of his Sufferings But at this rate he must have none unless they come to him upon the weak Legs of their own Free-Will They will give Christ the Honour to lay down his Life for the Sheep but deny that it is he which goes into the Wilderness to seek them or that it is he that brings the Lost Sheep home upon his Shoulders No say they the lost Sheep must come home of it self or Perish The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost Luke 19.10 And they who own him to be a Saviour and deny him to be a Seeker do virtually deny him to be a Saviour For as it is observed of Sheep when once they stray from the Fold they never return again of themselves so now we are gone astray from God if he will Save us he must Seek us hence Jeremiah 2.24 Man is compared to the Wild Ass to denote I conceive thus much that as that Creature will never come to Hand till such time as she is in Pain to bring forth so Man will never return from his Wilderness State till he feel the Pangs of the New Birth in his Soul Now though I cannot but hope many that differ from me in this Point are dear to God holding this Notion out of Ignorance or Blind Zeal and that they are upon a good Foundation yet I am verily perswaded this Doctrine they defend will
is like to be lost that hath no better Witness than an ignorant Nicodemus and we may suppose the Anabaptists at a Loss when the ablest and most learned among them are forced to summons in Nicodemus as a Witness for tho' they must own him to be a poor Evidence if they will believe Christ Verse 10. Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things and they that do not know things are unmeet to prove them But either this Person put more Confidence in Nicodemus than Christ or else knowing his Cause was almost gone would rather cite Nicodemus concerning which he knew neither what he said nor whereof he affirmed rather than have no Witness but 't is no wonder to see the most Learned of the Anabaptists run into such gross Absurdities and to be at such a Loss in such Mysteries for if Learning could teach a Man the Mysteries of the Gospel Nicodemus had not been so grosly ignorant of Christ's meaning and I leave it to any Judicious Person to determine whether we have not as good Ground and better to judge that this Objecter was of the same Mind of Nicodemus in understanding it to be a natural Birth then to conclude that because he understood it as spoken of Adult only therefore it must be so for we may suppose had not this Doctor had great Confidence in the Infallibility of Nicodemus he would never have ventured that Cause which was as dear to him as his Life upon his single Evidence and especially in such a Cause wherein he had so many Hundreds opposed him and sure had he judged him in a gross Mistake as to the Nature of that new Birth he would never have put such Confidence in what he said with the same Breath as to the Subject and as we have infallible Ground to conclude from his own Words that this Objecter is far from believing any Necessity or Possibility for Infants to be regenerated so I think I do him no Wrong if I suppose 't is his Judgment that there is no more Necessity for grown Persons to be regenerated for of this Judgment was his trusty and well-beloved Friend Nicodemus for had Nicodemus once supposed that grown Persons any more than Infants must be born again Spiritually he would never have mentioned such a gross Absurdity as to be born again Carnally but taking it for granted that Adult to give the Objecter his Sence could not be born again Spiritually absurdly supposes it to be meant a Carnal Birth and why we may not suppose the Objecter to be of his Judgment in the one as well as the other especially since he puts such Confidence in him I see not and now I leave it to my understanding Reader to judge whether we have not better Ground to believe that under the Word Men Children are comprehended because the Word signifies both than to conclude Christ only meant grown Men because Nicodemus understood him so since it is past all dispute the Word signifies so but whether Nicodemus did rightly understand Christ's meaning may justly admit of a Debate nay it seems almost past all Dispute he did not by his gross Mistake about other Passages relating hereunto Thus I have I hope sufficiently proved a Necessity for Infants to have Faith if they get to Heaven from God's Appointment and what can be more cogent to confirm any Point than the express Mind of God And I am certain had the Anabaptists such-clear Proof that no Infants ought to be Baptized as I have given to prove that all Infants that get to Heaven must have Faith they would soon cry Victory nor should I ever hold up my Weapons against them was it so lest haply by so doing I was found fighting against God himself Secondly There is a Necessity for Faith in Infants if they get to Heaven arising from the Corruption of their Natures Which tho' the Anabaptist may probably deny yet I doubt not but to confirm this also from Scripture When Adam had sinned by eating the Forbidden Fruit he was immediately seized with a Spiritual Death according to the Commination in the Day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die And Adam being a publick Head and Representative of all Mankind this Spiritual Death is intailed on all his Posterity Hence we are said to bear the Image of the Earthly nor is this true of Adult only but of all his Posterity 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adam all die Mind all die Infants as well as grown Persons and this I shall further prove from most express Scripture Eph. 2.3 And were by Nature the Children of Wrath even as others Gen. 8.21 For the Imagination of Man's Heart is evil from his Youth The Evil in our Hearts is the Cause of all the Evil in our Lives Hence Foolishness is said to be bound up in the Heart of a Child Prov. 22.15 It is so bound up that for a while it may not discover it self yet is in his Heart See Psal 58.3 The Wicked are estranged from the Womb they go astray as soon as they be born speaking Lies That is they have a straying Principle as soon as born Once more Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me So that by Nature we not only want a Title to Heaven but a Meetness also Col. 1.12 Giving Thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be Partakers of that Inheritance of the Saints in Light Implying that by Nature they were unmeet and if Children are not thus corrupt by Nature how came they to die since the Wages of Sin is Death Now if Death reigned as the Apostle saith from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the Similitude of Adam's Transgression that is Infants that had not sinned actually then it must be because they were Sinners in Adam and had the Seed of Sin in themselves habitually for the Guilt of Adam's Act is not transferred to any of the meer Sons of Men but such as partake of his Image also and I dare be bold to say and can abundantly from Scripture prove that the Seed and Spawn of all our Actual Sins are in our Hearts before we commit one of them for as in Grace there must first be the Habit and then the Act so in Sin the Heart is first Wicked then the Life The Tree is first evil before the Fruit is so Mat. 12.33,35 Now if the Nature of all is so corrupt as I have proved then 't is impossible for any thus corrupt to get to Heaven without an inward Change for what would Heaven be to an unregenerate Soul What would the Works of praising God be to one that hates God Or what would Holy Company be to such as are dead in Trespasses and Sins and to every good Word and Work reprobate But least this should not suffice I shall prove from Scripture that such cannot get to Heaven in an unchanged State 1 Cor. 15.50 Now this I