us in all this * Vid. Episcop Instit Theo. li. 4. sect 5. cap. 7. pag 415. col 1. 4. But as to presumption hereupon I answer you 1. That there is no mercy which Satan will not tempt men to abuse even Christ and the hopes of Heaven it self 2. As long as wickedness is that evil which Election decreeth to deliver us from he that is wicked may be sure that he hath not the benefit nor mark of Election and cannot have the least assurance that he is elect 3. And while he that is truly godly knoweth that he is no further elected to Salvation than he is elected to persevere in godliness this is no rational inducement to him to forsake godliness any more than to renounce Heaven but rather to conclude I am decreed to persevere in holiness therefore I must so do 4. And to pass by the Controversie of perseverance till we come to it it is as all confess so few of the Elect that are certain of their own Election that this Objection can extend but to a few 5. Lastly None are certain of their Election but such as have strong clear active Grace and evidence that believe firmly and love God much and obey him carefully And such as these are fit to improve assurance and to live in the fruits of love and gratitude Did you ever know what love and thankfulness and delight in God and holiness are and yet can you think that they are the way to sin You know nothing in Religion if you know not that they are the life and soul of true Religion and the most powerful principles of Obedience and Perseverance Nor do you understand the Gospel-design if you know not that the greatest manifestation of the love of God is the greatest means of love and thankfulness and desire and delight in God and goodness unto man The ninth Crimination A. At least thus * Suetonius saith Tiberius was a neglecter of Religion because he thought that all things were ruled by fate Fate is set up in the World and all things are under necessity and unavoidable B. You had this Objection about necessity before and to the answer of it I refer you further 1. Immutable Election doth set up but a consolatory quietting certainty in the World without which mans mind must still be in troublesome unquiet if not tormenting terrours Is it a wrong to you if you can be sure to be saved Had you rather live and die under these apprehensions I know not whether I shall be in Heaven Kipping Philonatur l. 9. c. 11. p 431. voluntas ista absoluta hominem cum effectis suis ineluctabiliter necessitat hoc est ad unum oppositorum necessario constringit determinat omnia ejus acta eventa ut non aliter evenire queant quam eveniant where he confuteth Piscators Arguments for such necessitating Decrees p. 432 c. or Hell for ever If you have not certainty or a hope that is somewhat near it I think this conclusion if you be awake and in your wits must needs make your life a constant bondage and the fear of death your constant misery and must blast all the pleasures of your fulest Prosperity Thank God that his Foundation standeth sure and the Lord knoweth who are his and see that you keep his mark upon you professing Christ and departing from iniquity And do not cry out as if you were fatally carried to Heaven against your wills 2. As for the word Fate it is ambiguous Some by fate mean but the certainty that God's Predictions shall be fulfilled Quod fatur eveniet Some mean only the certain connexion of Causes and Effects under Gods sapiential Government of the World As Campanella maketh Necessity Fate and Harmony to be the result of Power Wisdom and Love but not accurately enough And some say but how truly I know not That the Stoicks took Fate for some primary necessitating Cause which did necessitate all Acts of the Gods and Men. It is a word that we have no need of they that will play them with it may 3. But as to Necessity again I say 1. Election maketh no mans sin or misery necessary nor tendeth to it 2. It maketh no mans Salvation Thus Fewrbornius in Fascicul Disser de termino vitae useth 17 Arguments contra sententiam Calvinianam de fatali simpliciter necessario termino vitae quasi Deus ex absoluto simplici decreto absque ullo ad causas secundas physicas voluntarias respectu câ—ique hominum genus horam mortis praesixerat And all upon the encouragement of some ill and unsound words of Piscator who is most extream in this whereas this is none of the Calvinists sense commonly who hold that sin is only fore-seen and not decreed but all true means are decreed with the end in one Decree therefore respected as decreed necessary against his will in sensu composito 3. The more it maketh our Salvation necessary that is certain and insuperable the greater is Gods mercy the greater our happiness and cause of gratitude and Joy The Saints in Heaven are not offended at the certainty of their persevering blessedness If you shall Object That it necessitateth the perishing of all others because none can be saved who are not Elect. Remember that this was your third Crimination and is answered before I say again 1. Necessity and Impossibility are either Logical in ordine probandi or Physical in ordine causandi The first sort followeth upon your own Doctrine He that God fore-knoweth shall sin and perish it necessarily followeth Necessitate consequentiae and it is impossible but it should follow that he will sin and perish but not by Gods fore-knowledge Causal necessitating either taketh away the true power of escaping or depriveth of such power by prevention But so doth not the Election or Decree of God 2. Though we hold such absolute Election as hath been opened to you and that God decreeth to cause men to believe before he fore-seeth that they will believe in order of Nature according to humane Conception yet we hold as you do that Reprobation doth not so proceed but that God decreeth men to Hell only on fore-sight of final wickedness which he never caused or willed And if in this we agree with you you must accuse your selves as much as us 3. God doth both Decree to give and actually give men power to do more than they do And his decreeing that another man shall well use that power which he hath doth sure take away no power from you 4. Yea Gods not decreeing to cause you to use your own power well doth take none of it from you But includeth that such power you have much less his Decree to do more for others 5. All the World acknowledgeth that a Benefactor as such is free to give his own benefits as he pleases unequally And giving more to one taketh nothing from another Suppose that
Slothfulness in Students in seeking truth 3. Hastiness in Judging before digested conceptions and proof II. Nearly Want of 1. Humility and self-acquaintance Pride 2. Knowledge Ignorance and Error 3. Love to others Envy Malice and Bitterness III. Instruments or Engines 1. In General Corrupt departing from Christian Simplicity 2. Particularly 1. From Simplicity of Doctrine by DOGMATISTS Words Notions 2. From Simplicity of Practice by SUPERSTITIOUS additions 3. From Simplicity of Discipline by CHURCH-TYRANNY II. CONSTITUTIVE Causes viz. DISCORD 1. In JUDGMENT of things necessary ALIENATION 2. In WILL and AFFECTION viz. 1. Privative by denying due Communion 2. Positive 1. By Contention 2. Malice 3. Hurtfulness to each other DIVISION 3. In Necessary PRACTICE III. The EFFECTS viz. I. On THINGS viz. on Church 1. Doctrine Preaching and Writing turning it into vain and hurtful wrangling 2. Worship Prayer Sacraments corrupting them by faction partiality and wrath 3. Discipline corrupting it into Secular or factious Tyranny or a dead Image II. On PERSONS viz. I. Particular 1. Themselves 2. Their followers 1. The Guilt and Deceit of false-Religious zeal 2. The Death of true Holiness and Heavenly Conversation 3. The Death of Love and Life of Wrath and injuries 3. Rulers viz. 1. Corrupting them by factious clamours against their Subjects 2. Tempting them unto persecuting Laws and Executions 3. Engaging them in bloody Wars abroad 4. The Innocent viz. Injuries to 1. Private persons 1. By censures slanders backbitings making them hated 2. Denying them due Love Communion and help 3. Persecution silencing and other mischiefs 2. Princes 1. Weakning and grieving them by the Subjects discords 2. Dishonouring them by defaming Excommunications 3. Urging them to be the Clergies Lictors or Executioners 5. Enemies and Strangers scandalizing and hardning them in Infidelity sin II. Societies I. Churches 1. Corrupting them in Doctrine Worship and Order 2. Weakning them by discord and division 3. Shaming them before the World 4. Making them less fit for Gods Love and Communion II. Kingdoms Weakning them dishonouring them and drawing them into the Guilt of Feuds Wars and Persecutions IV. The REMEDIES I. Persons 1. Christ the Prince of Peace and the Churches Head and Center 2. Wise Princes who understand the Interest of 1. Christ 2. Their people 3. Themselves 3. Able Wise Holy and Peaceable Pastors 4. The Mature Experienced Mellow Peaceable sort of the people II. Qualities 1. Diligent Study under wise Teachers 2. Sincere Holiness A dying life 1. Humility 2. Knowledge 3. Love to others as our selves 3. Deliberate Judging upon tryal III. Means 1. Returning to Christian Simplicity 1. In Doctrine The antient Creed c. 2. In Worship 3. In Discipline 2. Magistrates forcing the Clergie to keep the peace and forbear strife 3. Subjects obedience in all lawful things required by Authority V. HEALTH or Cure 1. Rulers Pastors and people of one MIND 2. One HEART in Love 3. One MOUTH and practice in things Necessary in Communion and mutual help And mutual loving forbearance in Infirmities and things unnecessary edified in Love VI. The EFFECTS hereof I. GLORY to God 1. In the Hallowing of his Name and Honour of Religion 2. In the increase of his Kingdom and Conversion of the World 3. In the Doing of his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven II. Peace on Earth 1. Increase of Holiness Heavenliness and Love 2. Mutual Delight herein The Joy of Health and Concord 3. The Churches Strength and Glory III. Gods WELLPLEASEDNESS in MEN His Church will be meet for his Love Delight and Communion and be liker to Heaven and enjoy its foretastes An Appendix to this Premonition SInce the Printing of this the World hath seen a specimen of such contention as I lament in a contest between a young insulting Assailant and a jocular contemptuous Defendant in my judgment both running into extreams whether verbal or real their own explications must further tell us The extreams of the former are reprehended by many By the later a person of great wit and piety I perceive that some men have such conceptions of the Covenants of God as will give occasion to some Readers to think that by mis-describing them I have erred and misled men through this and many other Writings And men that are not able to conquer the obscuring and tempting notions of their Authors are still calling for Answers to every inconsiderable objection or contradicting word that is suggested to them and little things puzzle and stop such Readers though otherwise pious and worthy persons who have not by long and accurate studies methodized and digested the matter that is disputed of Not therefore to offend any man by opposition or to defend other mens extreams but to prevent the frustration of some of these Writings and the scandal or trouble of my Reader I must take notice I. That some think that the Covenant of Grace must be considered 1. in its Constitution and 2. in its Execution The Constitution of the Covenant is God's firm and unchangeable purpose of saving his Elect to the praise of his glorious Grace For the word signifieth a disposition appointment or ordering of matters whether there be a restipulation or no the English word Covenant seduceth our understandings The fixed purpose and determinate counsel of God in Scripture is called a Covenant Jer. 33. 20. II. The execution of this fixed Constitution is God's wise and gracious managing of all things for the accomplishment of that glorious design which he had in the prospect of his eternal counsel which he steadily and regularly pursueth through all the vicissitudes that his mutable creatures are obnoxious to c. pag. 718 719. 1. On God's part whatever grace and mercy was in his eternal purpose that is given out to us by Christ c. III. 1. Christ cannot be the foundation of the Covenant because Christ himself is promised in the Covenant as the great comprehensive blessing Isa 49. 8 9. 2. Free Grace is given as the true reason of the Covenant Heb. 8. 8. IV. The Constitution of the Covenant in God's purpose and counsel hath no condition at all nor is that the Condition of the Covenant required of us on our part which God promiseth to work in us on his part nor that which God in Covenant bestoweth nor that which presupposeth other Covenant mercies antecedent c. V. A promise of pardon and life on condition of believing and obeying is no Covenant of Grace at all and neither better nor worse than a threatning of condemnation c. It 's no more a Covenant of Grace than a Covenant of Wrath. It 's no great matter where it is founded p. 584 586. VI. God hath not dispensed with one jot or title of the moral Law but Do this and live is as strictly exacted as ever so that unless a Surety be admitted and the righteousness of another owned the case of all the sons of Adam is deplorable and desperate To deny the righteousness wherein
Head and of Pardon and Salvation 8. It is Christ's stated Constitution that he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and be that believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16. 16. That if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth Christ's resurrection unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation Rom 10. That except you repent you shall all perish Luke 13. 3 5. That men must repent and be baptized for the remission of sins Acts 2. 38. And repent and be converted that their sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. So Rev. 22. 14. Matt. 6. 14 15. Ezek. 33. 14 16. 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come Call these Laws or Covenants or what you will we are agreed that all this is the word of God 9. These terms of life and death are the rule of our practices and our expectations by which we must live and by which we shall be judged and therefore we may truly say that they are Christ's Law And they are God's signified determination of the conditions of life and death and his donation of our right to Christ Pardon and Life is contained herein and therefore this may truly be called Christ's Testament and Covenant in several respects 10. Though all duties be prescribed by God's Law and so each Precept is a material part yet formally or specifically the Laws to which these material parts belong must be distinguished by the distinct conditions of life and death 11. God hath made more Promises Donations and Covenants than one or two which must not be confounded 1. His Law and Covenant made to and with man in innocency is one 2. And his Law and Covenant made to and with Christ as Mediator is another 3. And his absolute promise of a Saviour to the World with the conditional promise or Law of Grace conjunct was the first edition of another And the Gospel as after the incarnation promulgate was a more perfect edition of it to pass by Abraham's Covenant of Peculiarity and the Mosaical Law as such 12. Though Christ be promised in one of these and be God's antecedent gift he may nevertheless be the Author of another and so far the foundation as well as the meritorious cause 13. That may be of free Grace which is merited by Christ yea and that which is annexed to the Evangelical worthiness of a believer 14. That may be a condition required of us to be done by the help of Grace which yet is the effect of that Grace and given us by God 15. It is a true Covenant between God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and man which is solemnly entred into in Baptism And this is a Covenant of Grace even that proceedeth purely from Grace and of Grace as given by God and by us accepted He that will confound these various Covenants Promises and Laws on pretence of their unity though there is doubtless a wonderful unity of all the parts both of God's moral signal means and his physical works shall confound much of Theology 16. The Law made to Adam never said either thou or another for thee shall obey but it bound man to perfect perpetual personal obedience 17. Therefore that Law as it obliged us is not fulfilled by the obedience of Christ but only as far as it obliged him nor can any man be justified by it as a fulfiller of it by himself or by another nor did Christ fulfil it in any other mans person though in his stead so far as is aforesaid 18. The Law doth not command any man since Adam perfect personal obedience as the means or condition of life nor promise any life on such a condition as is now naturally impossible but though it be not repealed by God is so far ceased by the cessation of the subjects capacity to be so obliged 19. The Laws obligation of us to punishment is dispenced with and dissolved by a pardon purchased by our Mediator 20. Christ's righteousness is nevertheless the meritorious cause of our righteousness or justification though he justify us by the instrumentality of his donative Covenant as giving us right to our Union and Justification and Life and though our Faith and Repentance be the condition of our Title 21. We accept two Concessions as containing that truth which sheweth that we do not much differ de re could we more happily order our organical conceptions 1. That Christ's righteousness is not the formal cause of our Justification 2. p. 596. Seeing the satisfaction was not made IN THE PERSON of the offender but his substitute it was necessary that THE BENEFIT of ANOTHERS satisfaction should be communicated in such a way as might best please that God whose Grace was the only motive to his acceptation of a substitute It is the undoubted priviledge of the Giver to dispose of his own gifts in his own way And it was absolutely and indispensibly necessary that the sinner should be duly qualified to receive such transcendent favours purchased at so dear a rate and fitted to return the glory to a Redeemer which an unhumbled unbelieving unconverted and unsanctified sinner could not possibly be He that writeth this cannot sure much differ from me hereabouts But he is charitably uncharitable when he saith Never any man in his wits affirmed it so that the righteousness of Christ is the formal cause of our Justification It 's too charitable to hide that which cannot be hid of so great a number whom it seems he never read for all his Commission from all the Systematical Divines of Germany c. p. 696. And it 's too uncharitable to judge so many excellent men out of their wits The truth is so many speak so that I have been doubtful I should be smartly censured for saying otherwise Forma qua justificamur est misericordia Patris perfecta Justitia filii saith Ant. Fayus in his Accurate Theses Th. 60. p. 280. And by misericordia Patris being the form you may see how he understood Imputation The number that thus speak are too great here to be recited so that even the most judicious Davenant lest he should go out of the road was fain to make this the Theses to be proved by him Imputatam Christi obedientiam esse causam formalem justificationis nostrae probatur Cap. 28. p. 362. c. de Instit habit But let none turn this to our reproach nor take all these for mad for it is but an unapt name and by him and many others soundly meant for the greater part of these Divines say but that Imputatio Justitiae Christi Remissio peccatorum are the form not of Justification as in us but as it is Actus Justificantis as Altingius Maresius Sharpius Bucanus Spanhemius Nigrinus Sohnius
positivas causas To which what I have said is a sufficient answer And 1. Sometimes they have not but only the cessation of a causation 2. They never have a positive efficient of themselves for nothing is not made but only a positive remover of the cause of that which the subject is deprived of or an interposer or hinderer of the causation of it e. g. of Light or life And death hath no cause but that which ceaseth the causes of life Reprobation is commonly looked at in the two most notable parts as called 1. Gods Reprobating men to unbelief and impenitency 2. His Reprobating men to final damnation The last of these also is considered in the execution 1. As Privative 2. As Positive called Poena damni sensus And both especially the Privative part are considerable 1. As executed by man himself on himself freely 2. Or as executed by God Concerning each of these observe 512. 1. Not to Believe and Repent is no real entity And not to Give faith and Repentance as is said is no real entity And to Permit Infedelity and Impenitency is no real entity as is proved And not to Decree the Giving of saith and the hindering of unbelief is nothing And most clearly besides these four nothings nothing can be proved either existent or needful All that cometh to pass will come to pass without any more ado Therefore 513. As far as any mortal man can prove God hath no such Act of Reprobation at all as is 1. Either a Decree that a man shall not eventually Repent 2. Or a Decree not to give him Repentance 3. Or a Decree to Permit his Impenitence 4. Nor can we prove an after Volition of his own former non Volition which is asserted by Scotus But the three first we have great reason to lay by and so not only to say as Davenant that this part of Reprobation is an Act negative quoad objectum but that it is no Act and there is no other Reprobation as to this part save 1. Gods not decreeing to give faith 2. And his not giving it 514. 2. And as to Damnation so much of it as consisteth in sin it self God no otherwise causeth than as he doth all sin which is properly not at all It being but the Act as an act which he causeth as the Cause of Nature and not as sinfully qualified and so no more decreeth this than other sin 515. And most men little think how much of damnation lyeth in sin it self and the privative consequents which need no other cause 1. To be ignorant of God and Goodness 2. To be void of the Love of God and Holiness and Holy persons and all the Holy employment of Heaven 3. To be thereby void of all the Delights of Holy ones which consist in such Knowledge Love and Employment Praise Obedience and holy Communion 4. To be uncapable of the Reception of Divine complacency as he that maketh himself blind is uncapable of the light or he that maketh himself unlovely is uncapable of immediate Love 5. To be defiled and diseased with all kind of sinful lusts and malignity and made like the Devil 6. To have all sorts of Lusts in violence when they can have no fewel or satisfaction and so to be tormented with these lusts To have extream selfishness and Pride when they have cast themselves into the utmost shame and misery 7. To see that no Creature can deliver them and to despair of ever being better as having no hope from God or any other 8. To see or know that others enjoy the Glory and everlasting felicity which they have lost 9. To think how easily once they might have attained it and how it was offered freely to their choice 10. To think of all the solicitations of mercy that importuned them and all the time and means they had 11. To think for how base a vanity they lost it and that misery was their wilful choice 12. To be tormented with envy and malice against God that forsaketh them and against his Saints And to feel conscience awakened setting home all their former folly All this is nothing but sin and its own effects which hath no Causation at all from God but to continue the nature which he gave them and is not bound to destroy And how great a part of hell is this 516. Nay we know not how much sensible Pain may be the consequent of their own sin without any other Act of God than his common continuation of nature it self As a man that eateth Arsnick or unwholsome meat is tormented by it without any other act of God than as the universal Cause of Nature 517. All this much of Damnation then being meerly the work of the sinner himself so far as there is no Act of God in the execution so far no man can prove any Positive Act of Volition or Decree 518. But 1. As God in these is the universal cause of Nature and so of natural acts 2. And as in other instances he actually further punisheth them 3. And as he actually made that Law which made these penalties the sinners due so far God hath a Positive Decree and Volition that these persons shall be damned And moreover as improperly or morally his not sanctifying them and not saving them is called his Act and is really their penalty even so may his not-willing to save or glorifie them be called his Decree and will to damn them if you will 519. By this time we are ready to answer our first question What are the objects of these several acta of God so far as connotatively we must call them several And 1. * * * Besides all before cited against Volitions de nihilo see Ruiz de Vol. Dei disp 6. §. 1. p. 36. Antiquorum gravissimi sentiunt Deum non omnia Velle sed ea duntarat bona quae in aliqua differentia temporis existunt proinde possibilia que nunquam futura sunt non amari à Deo â—â—â—â— Mala inde Deum not esse omni-volentem nâ—llam creaturam à Deo amari necessario Ita Albertus Alexand. Boâ—â—vent Richard Gaby Bannez Zumel Molina Valentia Scotus Against which he bringeth frivolous reasons and asserteth that God willeth as a material object the Goodness which the Creature would have if it were made and this as to all Creatures which never will be What putid contradictions are here to will Goodness which is no Goodness of all Creatures which are no Creatures as material objects which are nothings God willeth his own Power whence man calleth that Possible which is nothing But was there from Eternity any Possibles not-future to be willed What was there from Eternity but God And are all theâ—e Nothings God himself Gods not giving the Gospel to any persons is no Act and so hath no object But reductively or improperly the object is Man sinning against the grace of the first edition of the Law of Grace that is These are the
no warning take what thou gettest by it Can you prove that it is his Will that this man eat the poyson prohibited 608. Next he citeth Augustines thred-bare sayings and blameth Aquinas and Arminius for denying his Authority and commendeth the greater reverence of Bellarmine And so Anselm Hugo c. Answ 1. We stick not on one mans Authority God holdeth not his Holiness and the Church its Religion on Augustines authority 2. Augustine hath ten times more plain enough for what I hold See the places cited in Paul Eiren. Triad Patrum 3. He knew it's like that Estius and many more expound Augustines words as terminating Gods Volition on his own permission and not on the sin or fieri 4. I think plainly that Augustine there spake not of inward Volitions but outward Acts and that not as Agentis but in passo or the effects And so it is true that no murder theft treason or other effect is produced in the world but what God positively decreeth shall be produced either by doing some effects himself as drowning the world or permitting sinners to do them while he causeth not their act but the Receptivity of the Passum and so the effect c. 609. Pag. 194. Retorting on Aquin. he thus argueth Because God doth will his own Goodness therefore it is necessary that God will that sin be done he permitting it For it is not to will his essential Goodness which needeth no acquisition but he willeth to manifest his Goodness But the evil of sin is not opposite to the manifesting of Gods Goodness Yea nothing is more * * * So Twiss contr Armin. pro Junio pag. 91. dissenteth from Jâ—niuâ— that saith peceatum ad rationem universi facere per accidens and saith Mibi vero dicendum videtur Peceatum conducibile esse per se ad bonum universi quatenus conducit ad illustrandos tales divinae majestatis radios And if so it must per se be Loved of God as Good Yet contr Corvin he saith that No sober man saith that sin is a medium of the execution of Reprobation but only the Permission of sin Reconcile them that can conducible to it than this I say to the manifesting of Gods Goodness by way of mercy in sparing or by way of Justice in punishing Answ Horresco recitans 1. Gods Volition of his Essential Goodness is his Necessary Volition 2. God hath no End to acquire but alwayes hath his end and is never without it 3. If God had necessarily willed the particular way of manifesting his Goodness then he doth all things necessarily and could do no otherwise and it seems by you could not manifest it without sin 4. Doth he not manifest his Goodness as much to the Innumerable Glorious Angels who never sinned And would it not have been as much manifested to us if we had been as they 5. The very indetermination of the will and its mediate Liberty is not the highest excellency of his Creatures It is better than the sensitive Necessity of Bruits and lower than the confirmed Necessity of the blessed It is our defectibility And the excellentest or Best of his works most honour Gods Goodness 6. Is it not the strongest temptation that men have in this world to doubt of or dishonour the Goodness of God to think how he permitteth the world to be drowned in wickedness and be so like to hell 7. Doth not Christ turn the Prayers of all Christians against your doctrine viz. that Gods name may be hallowed his Kingdom come and his will done on earth as it is in Heaven which is not by any sin 8. Do not your words tempt men to be indifferent to sin if not to love it if nothing be more conducible to honour Gods Goodness 9. Is not that conclusion a great wrong to Christ Scripture Ministry and Holiness as being no more conducible to manifest Gods Goodness than sin is 10. It is not true that sin is any Cause or true Means at all of glorifying God or doing any good It is but a presupposed Evil by delivering us from which God is glorified As your eating poyson may occasion the honour of an Antidote and Physicion It is no Cause or proper medium of it but only an occasion and mischief sine quo non But if God had not saved us from sin committed he could have glorified himself in saving us from committing it God loveth and is glorified most in that which is most like him as his Image which is the Holiest sinless soul To be a medium to Gods glory is to be good To be as conducible to it as any thing is to be as good as any thing save God and his glory But sin hath no Good much less such good Why else doth not God equally delight in sin and in the death of the wicked as in holiness repentance and our life seeing all things are for himself and that which glorifieth him most is best 11. Here also confusion causeth mischief one distinction might have scattered this mist viz. Between sin indeed and sin in notion Sin indeed or essence and existence never did good nor honoured God Sin in notion or in esse objectivo is no sin but the Matter of Vertue and 80 Joh. Ã Combis compend Theol. l. 3. c. 1. tells us that sin is profitable three wayes 1. Ut bene ordinatur ut fur in patibulo 2. Propter co-actionem amaritudinem 3. Propter mall considerationem And many popular Books say the like But this is but abusive language tending to deceive As if sin did good because punishing sin and repenting of it and hating it do good As if hating sin were sin Thus unhappily is the world troubled by abused words Holiness and doth much good When you say God knoweth sin from eternity you 'l say with Scotus that in esse cognito sin was in God from Eternity But so sin is not sin David saith My sin is ever before me Psal 51. And we daily Repent of it and confess it But this is but to have the Idea or conception of it in the mind and so it is not sin indeed but the notion of it which is in esse objectivo Else it would defile us to think of it and repent of it whereas thus sin objectively is the matter of the grace and duty of Repentance Hatred fear watchfulness prayer confession c. And so sin in esse objectivo as a grace may glorifie God 610. To Aquin. that saith Malum non est appetibile he saith that Malum moris quod opponitur bono est proprium uniuscujusque meum malum bono meo Though the sin of a man willing that which is forbidden him be his sin yet it followeth not that God may not will this Evil of another The Reason is because it is not forbidden to God to will it wherefore though it be evil and dishonest in man to will it to whom it is forbidden yet not to God And seeing
case 661. I intreat the Reader that is inclining to any extreams but to read â—over first those short answers of Prosper ad Capitulâ— Gallorum and ad Objectiones Vincent And most of the Sententiae de Capit. I shall think it worthy my labour to recite to force them on the Readers observation and let him see the highest old Doctrine of Gods Decrees Sent. 1. Whoever saith that by Gods Predestination as by fatal necessity men compelled into sins are constrained to death is not a Catholick For Gods Predestination doth by no means make men bad nor is the cause of any mans sin Sent. sup 2. He that saith that the Grace of Baptism received doth not take away Original sin from them that are not predestinated to life is not a Catholick For the Sacrament of Baptism by which all sins He meaneth that those that sincerely covenanted with God in Baptism were truly pardoned though he thought some of them fell away and perished are blotted out is true even in them who will not remain in the truth and for them that are not predestinated unto life Sent. sup 3. He that saith that they that are not predestinated to life though they were in Christ regenerated by Baptism and have lived piously and justly it profitteth them nothing but they are so long reserved till they fall to ruine and they are not taken out of this life till this happen to them as if the ruine of such men were to be referred to Gods constitution is not a Catholick For God doth not therefore prolong the time of any mans age that by long living he should fall to ruine and in his long living fall from the right â—aith seeing long life is to be numbered with the gifts of God by which a man should be better and not worse Sent. sup 4. He that saith that all are not called to Grace if he speak of such as Christ is not declared to is not to be reprehended Sent. sup 5. He that saith that they that are called are not equally called but some that they might believe and some that they might not believe as if to any man the Vocation were the cause of his not believing saith not right For though faith be not but by Gods Gift and Mans Will yet Infidelity is by mans will alone Sent. 6. He that saith that Pree-will in Man is Nothing but it 's Gods predestination which worketh in men whether it be to good or to evil is not a Catholick For Gods Grace doth not abolish mans choice or free-will but perfecteth it and revoketh and reduceth it into the way from error that that which was bad by its own liberty may by the operation of Gods Spirit be made right And Gods predestination is alwayes in Good which knoweth how either to pardon with the praise of mercy or punish with the praise of Justice the sin which is committed by mans will alone Sent. 7. He that saith that God for this cause giveth not Perseverance to some of his Children whom he regenerated in Christ to whom he gave faith hope and Love because by Gods fore-knowledge and predestination they were not differenced from the mass of perdition If he mean that God endowed these men in Goodness but would not have them remain in it and that he was the cause of their tâ—rning away he judgeth contrary to the Justice of God For though Gods Omnipotence could have given the grace of standing to them that will fall yet his grace doth not first forsake them before they have forsaken it And because he foresaw that they would do this by a Voluntary desertion therefore he had them not in the Election of Predestination Sent. 8. He that saith that God would not have all men saved but a certain number that are predestinate speaketh hardlier of the altitude of Gods unsearchable grace than he should speak Who would have all men to be saved and to come to the acknowledgement of the truth and fulfilleth the purpose of his will on them whom being foreknown he predestinated and being predestinate he called being called he justified and being justified he glorified Losing nothing of the fulness of the Gentiles and of all the seed of Israel for whom the eternal Kingdom was prepared in Christ before the foundation of the World For all the World is chosen out of all the World And out of all men all men are adopted So that they that are saved are therefore saved because God would have them saved and they that perish do perish because they deserve to perish Sent. 9. He that saith that our Saviour was not Crucified for the Redemption of the whole World looketh not to the Virtue of the Sacrament that is Sacrifice but to the part or participation of the unbelievers When as the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Price of the whole World From which Price they are Aliens who being either delighted in their Captivity will not be redeemed or when they are redeemed return again to the same Captivity For the Word of the Lord falleth not nor is the redemption of the World evacuated For though the World in the vessels of wrath knew not God yet the World in the vessels of mercy knew him Which God without their preceding Merits took out of the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of his Love Sent. 10. He that saith that God substracteth from some the preaching of the Gospel lest perceiving the preaching of the Gospel they should be saved may decline the envy of the objection by the paâ—â—onage of our Saviour himself who would not work Miracles with some that he saith would have believed had they seen them And he forbad his Apostles to preach to some people and now suffereth some Nations to live without his Grace Sent. 11. He that saith that God by his Power compelleth men to sin is deservedly reprehended For God who is the Author of Justice and Goodness and all whose Statutes and Commands are against sin is not to be thought to compell any to sin and precipitate them from innocency into crimes But if there be any of so profound impiety as that they are reckoned to be beyond the remedy of correction they receive not an increase of their iniquity from God but are made â—â—â—â— by themselves because they deserved to be left of God and given up to themselves and to deceivers for their former sins that so their sin should be a punishment of their sin Sent. 12. He that saith that obedience is withdrawn from some that are called and live piously and righteously that they may cease to obey doth think ill of Gods Goodness and Justice as seeming to constrain the godly to ungodliness and to take away good mens innocency from them When as He is the Giver and Keeper of godliness and innocency He therefore that adhereth to God is acted by the Spirit of God but he that departeth from God doth fall from his obedience
37. Sect. IV. Of the Law of Grace or New Covenant in the last Edition The Nature Conditions and yet free Donations of it pag. 42. Sect. V. Of the giving of the Holy Ghost His common and special Works The extent of the New Covenant Of the state of those that have not the Gospel And what Law they are under pag. 45. Sect. VI. How far Christ died for all and how far not pag. 51. Sect. VII The antecedent and consequent Will of God explained Of Justification by Faith What faith it is and what it doth pag. 54. Sect. VIII Of Justification by Christ's Righteousness imputed The false sense of Imputation opened and fully confuted The true sense asserted Whether Christ paid our Idem or Tantundem Whether he made his Satisfaction to God only as to a Rector or as Dominus vel pars laesa or how pag. 59. Sect. IX Of the sorts of Justification And first of constitutive Justification Of Righteousness How far it is or is not in our own habits or acts What Right the Covenant giveth the baptized to following helps and degrees of Grace Further what must be in our selves Mans holiness is no dishonour to Gods Grace How far Christ strippeth us of our own Righteousness More against the false sense of Imputation Objections answered pag. 69. Sect. X. Of Merit The case plainly and briefly decided The Gospel-Condition or Merit is but the accepting a free Gift according to its nature Whether we may trust to our own Faith Repentance Holiness The last Argument for the false sense of Imputation answered pag. 79. Sect. XI How Faith justifieth whether as an Instrument pag. 82. Sect. XII How far Repentance is a Condition of the Covenant And what it is Whether Faith or it be first How Faith and Love differ pag. 83. Sect. XIII Of the degrees of Pardon and Justification Whether losable And whether future sins be pardoned pag. 85. Sect. XIV Of Justification by Sentence of the Judge What it is ibid. Sect. XV. Of initial executive Pardon or Justification in Sanctificatiâ— How far necessary yet imperfect pag. 86. Sect. XVI Of assurance of Pardon Of doubting Whether it be Dâ—â—â— Faith to believe ones own Justification or Salvation The Spâ—â— Testimony pag. 88. Sect. XVII Of love to God as the end of Faith and foretast of Heâ—â—â— pag. 91. Sect. XVIII Of Perseverance and its certainty in order to the comfortâ—â— certainty of Salvation Few certain of Justification and â—â—â—â— of Perseverance The words of the Synod of Dort The â—â— ther 's Judgment about certainty of perseverance pag. 93 Sect. XIX Of mortal Sin or such as will not stand with the love of Gâ—â— and a state of Justification pag. 103. Sect. XX. What Repentance for particular sins is necessary to parâ—â— pag. 106. Sect. XXI Some solution of all the former difficulties in twenty Propâ—â—ons 108. Sect. XXII Few certain of Salvation The reconciling consequents of â—â—â— pag. 112. Sect. XXIII The case of Perseverance further opened and applied pag. 113. Sect. XXIV The sum and scope of this Discourse of Certainty pag. 116. Sect. XXV Degrees of falling and danger pag. 118. Sect. XXVI Of final Justification at Judgment More of the Agreemâ—â—â— Paul and James about Justification by Works pag. 119. Sect. XXVII Of the number of the glorified and the damned pag. 123. A PREMONITION MY work at present is but to lay down so much of the Christian Doctrine briefly as is necessary to be understood for the reconciling of the Controversies about Predestination Providence Grace and Free-will And therefore pass over â—any other weighty Points and must not stand largely to prove all â—s I go which carrieth its own evidence The true nature of the first â—aw or Covenant deserveth a more accurate discussion than I can here â—ake and much passeth as certain with some which hath but little â—roof And here I meet with these different Opinions 1. Some say that the â—ondition of the first Covenant was not Innocency but sincerity And â—at Innocency was only a Duty necessary necessitate praecepti but not â—edii or that it was ut medium necessary ad melius esse or to some cerâ—â—in degrees of felicity whereof it was a condition but not to felicity it â—â—lf And that the Covenant of Grace doth herein agree with it both â—f them damning man only for mortal sin and punishing them tempoâ—â—lly only for venial sin And he seemeth to be of this mind who saith â—â—at Do this and live or Innocency or Works was the Condition only â—f Moses Law but that Adhere and Vanquish was the Condition of the â—rst Covenant But these are ambiguous unsatisfactory terms If the â—eaning be Adhere to God and his Law by perfect Innocency and vanâ—uish all temptations to Sin this is the same with that Innocency which â—e say was the Condition But if he mean only Adhere to me sinâ—erely by love as thy Ultimate End and vanquish all temptations which â—ould draw thee from me to another Ultimate End or God this is â—he same with the first opinion which many Papists seem to hold 2. But the more common Opinion is that which I assert That Innoâ—ency was the Condition not only of Life eternal but of all the beâ—efits of Gods Covenant and the least sin the forfeiture of all They that are for the first Opinion think that if Adam had committed â—ut a small or venial sin as a sinful thought or desire after the forbidden â—ruit without the act or full consent it had been against Gods natural Goodness and Justice to have condemned him to Hell for it And conâ—quently that Christ died not to pardon the pains of Hell as due for such â—â—ttle sins but only temporal smaller punishments But God best knoweth his own Nature And nature telleth us That â—ll sin deserveth punishment And he that sinneth so far removeth his â—eart from God and forfeiteth his Spirit or Grace And he that hath â—nce so turned from God in the least degree cannot of himself return â—or heal himself and had no promise of Gods Grace to do it And â—herefore it is not to be supposed that he should sin no more but such a â—inute sin for greater will come in presently at that breach unless God â—ecover him which he was not in Justice bound to do And no one knowâ—th so well as God how much malignity is in the smallest sin And it was as â—asie for sinless Adam to have continued sinless as for carnal men now â—o forbear gross sin And he that sinneth deserveth not Heaven or Life â—nd there are divers degrees of punishment in Hell according to the degrees of Sin And Christ died for all our sins therefore they dâ— every one deserve death which consisted not with a right to Life therefore not with a right to Heaven And an immortal Soul was not naturally to be annihilated therefore to live in some punishment as separated And Rom. 3. 9. all were under Sin yet all had not gross Sâ—â—
Rom. 6. 23. The wages of Sin is Death Rom. 5. 12. Death passed on alâ— for that all have sinned Rom. 2. 12. As many as have sinned withâ—â—â— Law shall perish without Law And we must pray for the pardon of aâ—â— Sin And unpardoned Sin will damn men These are the reasons â—â— this side They of the other Opinion say That the Gospel-Covenant sheweâ—â— Gods Nature as well as the first Law That God had not been unjust iâ—deed if he had permitted him to fall into great Sin and so to periâ—â— who committed the least for he so permitted Adam to commit the first that was before innocent But the Justice of God bound him not so it do nor would have damned a Lover of God for a small Sin no more than now That we must not feign a Law which we cannot prove That God changeth not his holy Nature and therefore not that Law which is the expression of it That Christ died for all Sin and all needs pardon but that proveth not that the least deserved death much less Hell but that by Christ's Death the deserved punishment must be remitted that all even Infants are guilty of mortal Sin in Adam The Death is the wages of that Sin which brought it but not of the least That Adam's Law was not severer than that by Moses which saith Dâ— this and live and yet condemned not men for smaller sins That God proclaimeth pardon of some Sin in the very Law of Nature as from his Nature Exod. 34. and the Second Commandment That Nature teacheth all the World to believe it That God said not to Adam â—â— the day that thou thinkest a vain thought but That thou eatest c. That mortal Sin is pardonable by Christ which else could not by the first Law but God could otherwise have pardoned a vain thought if he would That no Text of Scripture saith that every Sin deserveth Hell nor is threatned with Death And as the condition of the Penalty so the condition of the Promise to Adam is here also controverted by Divines 1. Some say that the condition of Life was personal perfect perpetual Obedience till â—â—â— change which God would make as he did by Henoch when it pleased him which seemeth to me the probablest Opinion 2. Others think that Adam was to have continued in Eden for ever under that same conditional Law which is less probable 3. Others think that had he over-come the first temptation but so far as to adhere and vanquish that is to continue the love of God and not to eat that Fruit or commit any other mortal Sin which of its nature killeth Love he had been confirmed as the promised Reward 4. I have lately met with an exceeding ingenious M. S. written partly against my self after others which asserteth 1. That the Glory of Justice is the end of Gods Government 2. That Do this perfectly and live or Sin at all and die are the constant terms of Justice under every Covenant 3. That if Adam had performed but one â—â— of Obedience by that Law he should have been rewarded with confirmation or the Holy Ghost as the Angels and with everlasting life 4. That now all our Reward is only the Act of Gods Justice giving â—â— life as merited by us in Christ on the terms of the Law that saith Do this and live Sin and die in whom we are perfectly innocent and rewardable and we have no rewardable Righteousness nor any to justifie us but perfect Innocency imputed because as not to be a Sinner is no merit of a Reward so pardon of Sin is no Title to a Reward c. It is not my present task to clear up all these Difficulties having done more towards it in my Methodus Theologiae but only so much as our present conciliatory work requireth But yet because I and the matter in hand are nearly concerned in the M. S. I shall briefly animadvert on all the substance of it having first said of the condition of the penalty but a few words I. I am loth to confound the certainties with the uncertainties in this matter 1. It is certain that Gods Law of Nature was mans first and principal Law to which the supernatural Revelations were added and comparatively few 2. It is certain that Gods Law was perfect and that both as the impress and expression of Gods perfect Wisdom and Holiness and as the Rule of Perfection to Adam And therefore that it obliged him to perfection 3. But this Perfection to which he was obliged was not at first all that his nature would be capable of at last It was not his duty the first hour of his life to Know or Do as much as after the longest time and experience and as much as in heavenly perfection But he was bound to Know and Love and Do at first as much as at that time his nature was capable of supposing necessary Concauses and Objects 4. This is summed up in Loving God with all the Heart Mind and Might But the All in maturity and after full experience and in Glory is more than the All in unexperienced juniority To know love and obey God to the utmost intention of his present natural Power supposing due Objects media and concauses was Adam's duty and all defectiveness herein was culpable or sin 5. All sin of its own nature deserveth punishment Therefore so would the least culpable thought or word in Adam or the least culpable defect in the extent or intention of any holy affection in him 6. It is certain that Adam's eating the forbidden Fruit or any one such sin as consisteth not with the predominancy of his Love to God as God in habit such as is now inconsistent with true Grace and is called mortal was to be punished with death temporal and eternal according to the Justice of that Law 7. They are different questions 1. What God might do 2. What he would do as decreed 3. What he must do as necessary because of Justice or Veracity to the breaker of that Law And it is clear that God might as an Act of Justice punish the least culpable thought or remissness of degree of Love with Annihilation or with any pain-everlasting which to the Sinner were no worse than Annihilation Because 1. Antecedently to his Law he might have done that much as an affliction without sin 2. And after he did no way that I know of oblige himself to the contrary to a Sinner before the Covenant of Grace 3. And having threatned punishment in general he might choose what punishment he saw fit 8. What God would do as decreed the prediction or the event only can tell us 9. That God must by necessity of Justice and Truth punish the least sinful thought or remissness with some degree of punishment according to that Law seemeth to me somewhat clear 1. And yet it is more clear that it is various degrees of punishment which are comprized in the word Death or Filius mortis
which is not likely To perform one act of Love and Obedience is not so hard as to do it to the death though we lose our lives in the expressions of it Object But our first Faith giveth us Right to the Spirit of Confirmation and Immutability though more must be done for Perfection Answ 1. It appeareth then that Perfection and Glory is more than Confirmation 2. It is certain that the Regenerate are mutable as to the degrees of Grace and are far from Perfection at the first 3. The generality of the Fathers and ancient Churches thought that true Justification and Right to Heaven and true Love to God was lost by many And Austin himself and his Followers so thought 4. And they that think otherwise yet know that Glory is still given us quoad jus in the Promise on condition of our perseverance And we should hardly find so many Threatnings against them that fall away if all might so easily know that the first act of Obedience doth so fix us and give us in justice a Right to Immutability § 19. M. S. The Arguments to prove that any one Act had the pròmise of Immutability and Glory are these Argument 1. If God were to declare his rewarding Justice then he must reward one act Thus Bradwardiâ—â— also chideth his Master Lombard as inclining to Pelagius for holding that Adam could have forborn Sin by his Free-will without Gods spâ—dâ—l Grace that is his Will that so it should be which he saith was necessâ—ry before the Fall as well as since and that else Adam by once not sâ—â—ning when tempted had merited Confirmation as he saith the Angels did being tempted by Leviathan lib. 2. c. 10. An. 1. God was not obliged to any Reward but according to the tenor of his Law Prove that his Law promised Glory or Immutability for one act 2. Bonum est ex causis integris one act is but a small paâ—â— of a mans life The Promise was to the whole course only 3. God did reward every act His acceptance and the continuance of all â—he blessings of that Paradise and the comfort of his Love was a greâ—â— Reward § 20. M. S. If one act of Obedience deserved unchangeable Happinesâ— then God must bestow it But c. An. I deny the minor One act deserved it not No act deserved in Commutative Justice And no act deserved it of governing Justice but such as the Law antecedently made it due to § 21. M. S. Merit it is a fuitableness of the work to the wages â—â—â— that please God are under his good pleasure the fruit of which must be â—â—â— enjoying of his Spirits infinite assistance This Adam might have claimed â—â— Justice and gloried for one act deserveth a Reward An. This is sufficiently answered 1. Wages strictly taken is Mâ—â—â—â— given by a Proprietary commutatively It 's blasphemy to say that God can owe any Creature such for he can receive nothing but his own The word when used to us is improperly taken But praemium a Reward we have but no work deserveth that but by the ordinate Justice of the Law Some few Papists talk of a dignity ex proportione operâ—â— but the Scotists and the wisest of them deny any but 1. Ex congruitate 2. Ex pacto Your suitableness may signifie either 1. A congruity ad fines regiminis or else ad praemium qua promissum And thus it 's true But it 's not proved that any one act was such 2. Or it may â—ignifie a suitableness in proportion ex simplici dignitate operis obliging the Governor antecedently to his Law 2. Or obliging God as Proprietor to compensation And so it is untrue that Merit is a suitableness of the work to the wages here 2. It 's unproved that Gods pleasedness must ever be shewed by the Spirits infinite assistance or that one act deserved this It 's unlike that the Angels that kept not their first state did never one act of Obedience nor were never under Gods approbation Prov. 16. 7. When a mans ways please the Lord he maketh his Enemies to be at peace with him God saith This â—is a Reward You say less than eternal life is none 1 King 3. 10. The speech of Solomon pleased the Lord And yet one would think by his filthiness and Idolatry and forsaking God that he was not glorified nor made immutable With the Sacrifice of Alms God is well pleased Heb. 13. 16. Phil. 4. 18. and with Relation-Duties Col. 3. 20. And yet all that did them even sincerely were not glorified then nor absolutely immutable § 22. M. S. Arg. 2. Unchangeable misery would have been the reward of one sin Ergo c. An. I deny the consequenâ—e Misery was threatned to one sin Glory was not promised to one act of Obedience Obedience during life is certainly due from Man to God He that denieth it him in one act denieth him his due But he that giveth it him in one act giveth him but little of his due Your Argument is like these The Souldier that is a Traytor in one act deserveth death Therefore he that watcheth or fighteth but once deserveth all his wages and honour The Son that curseth his Father once deserveth punishment Therefore he that obeyeth him once deserveth the Inheritance He that is bound to pay an hundred pound forfeiteth his Bond if he leave a penny unpaid Therefore he forfeits it not if he pay but a penny The Servant that is hired for a day or year doth forfeit his wages if he be idle or rebel an hour or a day Therefore he deserveth his wages if he do Service but an hour or a day The disease of one part may kill a man Therefore the health of one part only will keep a man alive He that is hired to build a House or a Ship well forfeits his wages for one hole or gross defect Therefore he deserveth his wages if he lay but one Brick or Board But bonum est ex causts integris § 23. M. S. His Sin is more his own than his Obedience Ans The assistance of the Spirit could not take place in the first act because not deserved And his Obedience would have been as much his own as his Sin An. This is quite beyond the Jesuites 1. It 's true that the rewarding gift or help of the Spirit for confirmation was not given Adam to his first act But it 's not true that he had no help of the Spirit If you will not call Gods necessary Grace which you said did sanctifie all his powers by the name of the Spirits help you must say It was the help of God the Father Son and Holy Spirit without which he could have done nothing 2. But can you think that God did as much to his Sin as to his Sanctification and caused it as much as he was ready to cause his first Obedience Should he have been no more beholden to God for his Holiness than for his Sin This is too indifferent
by two sort◠of Doing Principally by the Merit of Christ's perfect Righteousness and subordinately by our fulfilling the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace which Baptism celebrateth 4. Gods Will approveth of all that is good so far as it is good It approveth of habitual Holiness in Adam and would have done in his Infants had he stood and doth so in all Christians now And I will believe that Christ before he actually obeyed was under Gods approving Will. But not as one that had merited by Obedience For God doth not suppose any to do that which they do not nor oblige them to do to-morrows work to-day § 44. M. S. The issue in a word is 1. Suffering for Sin is not doing nor equivalent in point of Justification 2. Nor can God having satisfaction for what was done cross to his Law lay aside that in order to the conveying of Life and substitute believing instead of it Therefore Faith justifieth ratione objecti only Now we Do in another Christ instead of doing in our own persons An. I doubt this is another Gospel than the Apostles delivered us though I hope that practically we meet in one 1. To the first I answer It 's true but you do ill to intimate that we think otherwise Suffering by the Sinner never satisfieth because it must be everlasting Suffering by Christ satisfieth not meerly as suffering but as the voluntary suffering of God-Man aptly glorifying Justice and Love and securing the ends of Government This Satisfaction is not equivalent to doing in Justification For Doing all required would have justified us against this Charge Thou art a Sinner by Omission and Commission and thou hast deserved Death and hast not deserved Life according to the Law of Works Against this Charge I look for no Justification but confess it is all true But Christ's Satisfaction justifieth us against this Charge God must damn thee by paine of loss and sense or else he is not just because thou hast deserved it And Christ's perfect Righteousness also justifieth us against this Charge God must damn thee and deny thee life because thou didst not merit it by perfect Obedience The Justifier says No because Christ's Merit in Doing and Suffering hath glorified the Law and Justice of God instead of my Merit and hath procured us Pardon and Life given by the New Covenant 2. To the second I answer 1. God did not lay aside his first Covenant but man by sin did lay it aside by making the Condition impossible 2. You overturn the Gospel too much by thinking that the Law is not laid aside as a Covenant or Promise though I grant that the Precept as a Rule of Life continues To say that the sense of Adam's Law was Thou or another Christ for thee shalt obey And that we are justified by that Law is to confound Law and Gospel and make a Gospel of that Law and make the Covenant of Works not to condemn us or both to condemn and justifie and to feign man to live and be judged by the Covenant that is ceased God saith now to no man living Be innocent and so merit life that thou maist live And God doth not repute us innocent at all 3. To the third I answer It is notoriously untrue that Faith justifieth only ratione objecti unless you mean that efficiently it justifieth not at all which is true For we are justified by it also ratione foederis because that which is materially Faith in Christ a justifying Saviour and so connoteth its Object as the meritorious Cause of the free Gift and Pardon is by reason of this aptitude made the Condition of that New Covenant or Gift which is its nearest interest or reason of our being justified by it And it is the Law of Grace by which we must be judged and justified And at that Bar the question which Life or Death dependeth on will be supposing Christ's Merits whether we are penitent Believers or impenitent Unbelievers and so have part in Christ or not And if Satan accuse us as being impenitent Unbelievers and the question be whether we have true Faith or not my Opinion is that we cannot be herein justified by pleading the Object when the Act is questioned and saying That Christ fulfilled that Law unless you could prove that he justifieth impenitent Infidels and as Saltmarsh said repented and believed for us But the grand Case remaineth Whether we are justified by the Law of Innocency by fulfilling it and meriting in another without any sort of doing of our own by our selves Mr. Wotton Mr. Gataker and abundance more have long ago said much to confute your Error besides Mr. Bradshaw whom you name But I add I. I have before proved that by the deeds or sentence of the Law of Adam or Moses no man can be justified 1. He that hath sinned against it cannot be justified as not having sinned For factum infectum fieri is impossible to God himself 2. The Law that condemneth us doth not justifie us 3. What Paul Rom. 3. 4. frequently saith against Justification by the Law of Moses will hold here a fortiori And Christ keeping Moses Law as far as he was capable of Obligation that also would else have been imputed and so we should have been justified by that Law also which the Scripture copiously denieth He that saith He hath no sin deceiveth himself and is a lyar and the truth is not in him And the Law of Adam justifieth no man that hath sin II. We did not fulfil it and merit in Christ But Christ did in the Person of a Mediator voluntarily undertaking it on his Fathers terms and not as our Instrument or in our Persons I have else-where given abundance of Arguments against that which I must not here repeat This Author took notice of my Objection that he that is reputed perfectly Innocent and Obedient is uncapable of Pardon and needeth no satisfaction or remitting or rewarding Covenant besides that which he kept but answereth it not This subverteth the Gospel and Religion Quer. If there be no Reward nor Life but of Justice and no Reward but for Christ's Merits and all Believers equally merited in Christ as fulfilling all the Law 1. Whence cometh the inequality of Grace and Glory 2. How come any Believers to be left long under sins and weakness of Grace and temporal punishments III. The Merits of Christ have procured us the New Covenant sealed in Baptism by which we have a new Rule offiicii judicii for such is every Law Christ is not the only Subject of God He made us not lawless or Rebels God still ruleth the Church by a Law or Covenant This is the Law or Covenant of Grace Deny this Covenant and you deny the Gospel This Covenant or Law obligeth us to Duty And it promiseth and giveth Pardon and Life in and with Christ This Covenant hath Conditions various conditions of various Benefits Our first true consent which Baptism celebrateth that is
Will or Power as if he could do no more But it is his Delight thus to govern the creature according to the nature and rank which he hath made it in and his non-volitions and non-operations of a higher sort are agreeable to his Perfection Wisdom and Liberty Higher action being used on higher creatures 3. Yet hath God placed and kept these free Agents not only under his Moral Government but also under his Dominion and disposal so that he will do with them as his own what he lift and none shall frustrate his disposing Will. 4. It pleased him first to make man perfect under a Law of Perfection making innocency or perfection the only condition of Life and the contrary of Death 5. When Man had sufficient Grace to have kept this Law not sufficient to ascertain the event but sufficient Power to have stood that is as much Grace as was necessary to his standing sine qua non esse potuit cum qua esse potuit he broke it and sinned against that sufficient Grace before God either denyed him any thing necessary or withdrew any from him 6. From whence it is clear that the Nature of Man's Will is such as that it is made to use a Power which doth not necessitate or determine it self or is determined necessarily but freely And that it is no Deifying of the Will nor extolling it above its Nature to say that it can act or determine it self without Gods pre-determinating premotion or by that same measure of help which at another time doth not determine it Though its Nature and its Act as such be of God yet so is its Liberty too and therefore by the Power and Liberty given by God the Will can act or not act or turn it self to this object or to that without more help than the said natural support and Concurse And this Power and Liberty is its Nature and Gods Image 7. From hence also it is evident that there is such a thing or operation of God as Grace Necessary called sufficient which is not effectual For God took no Grace away from Adam before he sinned nor let out any temptation upon him which he was not able to resist nor did he sin for want of necessary Grace but by that same degree of help might have overcome 8. God passing Sentence on faln Man for sin would not forgive him the temporal death nor common calamities of this life but cursed the creatures which he was to use as part of his penalty 9. But the Great evil which sin brought on man was the loss of Gods approbation and complacency and of his Spirits saving Communion and help and of Gods Image on man's Soul and of Communion with God herein and also his right to life eternal All which man 's own sin cast away and man was both the Deserver and Executioner without any change in God 10. Yet was all this privation penal in that God made Man such a creature as that his own sin should become his punishment or ruine if he committed it so that all Punishment is not determinatively of God though Gods Antecedent Will did make that which by man is made a Cause As in argument God saith antecedently If thou sin thy own sin shall be thy torment and misery and man saith I will sin Therefore it is Man that is the determining Cause of the Conclusion My own sâ—â— shall be my torment and misery So it is in Causation God antecedently to man's sin doth resolve I will make Man such a Creature with such a Mind Conscience and Will as that his Holiness shall be his Health and Joy and his immediate Receptive capacity of my favour and of his Communion with me and of his title to my spirit and Glory And that if he forsake me and his Holiness in the very Nature of the thing he shall lose all this Life Light and Love Joy and Communion and title to my Grace and shall feel the torments of his own Conscience telling him of his sin and loss This is Gods Antecedent Law Nay this is Gods Antecedent Creation to make man such a Creature Now if man sin his owâ— sin doth ipso facto become his misery and yet is not caused at all by Gods But yet that his Nature was made such as sin should prove a misery to was Gods Work And from that Antecedent Creation or Constitution the Relative form of a Punishment resulteth to the Sinner Even as God saith If thou Murder it shall be thy sin or Thou shalt not Murder And man doth Murder Here the Act that is sin is of man but that the Relation of sin belongeth to that act resulteth partly from the Law which forbiddeth it and yet God is not the Cause of sin though he Antecedently decreed Murder shall be sin if thou commit it So is it also with this sort of Punishment which is either sin it self or the effect or result oâ— sin immediately By which we see that when sin and punishment are found in one thing God is the Cause Antecedently of the formal Relation of a Punishment without being a Cause of the sin yea antecedently is some cause of the formal relation of the sin by his Law without causing any of the sin it self as the author of it As if God make man of such a temper as that surfetting drunkenness lust will make him sick and hazard his life Here God did no otherwise punish him than by making him such a man which he turned to his own destruction by his sin If a man make a thorn Hedge about his Garden that men may not steal his fruit and those that will shall â—rick themselves it is they that prick and punish themselves If God say He that will leap into the fire shall be burnt or into the water shall be drown'd it is they that do it that cause the evil and yet some formal relation of penalty may result to it from Gods conditional antecedent Law I say not that God executeth no other kind of punishment But these are the most common 11. Man having thus cast away Gods Image and his Innocency could beget a Child no purer holier or better than himself For he could not communicate that which he had lost So that our Nature is vitiated with Original sin and unhappy in the miserable effects Bradwardine hath a shift which serveth them that say man could do no good in Innocency without supernatural Help viz. Making that Help to be Gods Will that it shall be done But is not Gods Will called our natural Help when it is the foundation of Nature working by natural means It 's true that free will without Gods Will could do nothing 12. The promisory part of the Covenant or Law of Innocency became null or ceased with man's first sin cessante subditorum capacitate and so the Condition which is its modus So that no man ever since was under the Obligation of that Law as a Covenant of life
in his Gospel to have a Law The case is sad that any in opposition to others should run into such an Antinomian extream They are unlike to be good Preachers of Christ's Law who maintain that he hath no Law And there can be no sin against it nor expectation of being judged by it if he have none And he is no King and Ruler if he have no Law But yet let the Papists forbear iâ—â—â—ing and remember that the true meaning of most of them is no more than to assert what Suarez himself propugneth viz. that besides Revelations and the Duties thence naturally resulting by natural Law and the Sacraments Christ hath no other Laws And both Suarez and they are here to blame for the Papists that are by some accused for calling the Gospel a Law do also give too little honour to Christ's Laws It beseemeth none of them to use such ill Language what-ever they mean If they should say that the King is no Law-Giver and hath no Laws they would wrong him by that Language as denying his Royalty how well soever they should interpret it For the Legislative-Power is the principal essential part of Soveraignty But if any really deny Christ to be a Law-Giver and when he hath done reproacheth the Papists and Arminians for contradicting it it is but as the blind reproaching the purblind for seeing when they that give most to the Laws of Christ among these Contenders do give too little The Baptismal-Covenant is a Law as imposed and as imposing the Covenant-Duties and as determining the conditions of Life and Death according to which men must live and shall be judged yea it is the most famous Law which Conscience hath to do with Though it be a Covenant as consented to in the contract That Sinners have terms of Life and Death and offered Remedies against all their Guilt and greatest Punishments and Means prescribed and Duties commanded in order to their recovery when the Law of Innocency condemneth them especially the obeying of the Ministry and Word and Holy Spirit of Christ prescribing them his way of cure as their Physician all this is a Law of Grace even the Law of Liberty and the Law of the Spirit of Life which freeth us from the Law of Sin and Death Christ's Law consisteth of two parts as is said 1. The Law of Nature called by many moral as commanding the love of God and its attendent Duties not now to an innocent man but to a condemned-recovering Sinner as the health to which his Physician doth restore him 2. And the remedying Law which is more proper to the Redeemer called the Law of Faith which appointeth us the terms and means of our recovery which is 1. Supernatural as to the Revelation of the matter and reasons of it and the foundation of all in Christ's Work of Redemption and his Legislation 2. But as to the obligation or efficiency of mans duty it is both natural and supernatural at once that is when it is presupposed that Christ hath done suffered and offered to our acceptance all that is so asserted of him in the Gospel 1. Nature obligeth us to believe it upon evidence of credibility and to accept it and thankfully improve it 2. Christ as the Fathers Administrator and our King hath positively commanded us the same Were it not for wearying the Reader and my self I would here answer all that Suarez saith de Legib. li. 10. c. 2. to prove that no praeceptum positivum morale is added by Christ And I would easily prove that as some parts of Nature are unalterable and accordingly natural Duty so some things of Nature are mutable and so is that natural Duty which is founded on them And Christ hath by supernatural Performances and Revelations made such changes in the nature of things as inferreth new natural Obligations Were the Devils redeemed and Grace now offered them nature would make it their duty to accept it In sum it is a sufficient confutation of all Suarez's Reasons to say that they run upon this false supposition that Nature and supernatural Precept may not both oblige man to the same duty and that God cannot lay two Obligations on us to the same action For all that he laboureth is to prove that supposing the Revelation Nature bindeth us to believe all the Christian Articles to preach and hear and pray to God by Christ to love our Redeemer and be thankful c. and that the Gospel is thus fitted to lapsed Nature as the first Law was to innocent Nature All which I like very well and take it for a great honour to Christ and the Gospel that it is so suited to the natural necessity and state of fallen and miserable man and may be called the Law of sinful Nature But Suarez himself had before proved that Moses's Decalogue was both a Declaration of what Nature bound men to and yet also the matter of a new Precept of God And why could he not see the same of the Gospel it being so evident that it containeth Christ's Commands And the very sum of our Ministry is 1. To disciple and baptize all Nations c. 2. And then to teach them to observe all that Christ commanded And indeed Suarez confesseth p. 816. That Christ did by new commanding add new Obligations to the duties of Nature though he deny that Christ added any positive Precept as to the moral matter commanded by the Law of Nature And by this instance you may see how near some men agree that seem much to differ But as to them that insist on it that the Gospel and New Covenant are no Laws and that we have none from Christ but the Decalogue and Old Testament were I to write against them to purpose I would plentifully prove them Subverters of Christianity it self and give full evidence against them to any that believe the holy Scriptures And contrarily I would prove that there are no Divine Laws but what are truly the Laws of our Redeemer now in the world and that all Infidels are ruled and shall be judged by a Law of Grace though not of the last evangelical Edition and that he that feareth not breaking the Laws of Christ shall hear at last Those mine Enemies that would not that I should Reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. a a a That Christ is truly a King and so a Law-Giver and hath proper Laws and not only Doctrine and how great an injury some Protestants have doâ—e the Church by denying besides the Antinomians See Suarâ—z de Leg. l. 10. c. 1. whose proofs of the thing are unanswerable And I have long ago proved it in other Writings But Suarâ—z asserting that Christ's Law is only Moral and Ceremonial in the Sacraments and not judicial doth plainly confess that God never instituted the Papacy and their Discipline Yea he saith c. 2. p. 812. Christus in sua lâ—ge nihil de praecâ—ptis judicialibus statuit etiam
as is said were in a state of Salvation when under Christ's own teaching they believed not many great Articles now essential to the Christian Faith So that all set together will tell us that the conclusion of the certain damnation of all without the Jewish and the Christian Church seemeth not very desirable either as to the Glory of the good and gracious God nor as to the good of Mankind And therefore we should not propend that way in a case of doubtful arguing And I desire the Reader impartially to consider though Abraham knew not till God told him how bad Sodom was yet when he asketh of God to spare it if there were but fifty Righteous in it whether he do not imply that he thought most other Cities of that bigness had at least fifty righteous if not more For when God told him that he would destroy it for the cry of their sins he must needs judge it worse than ordinary And was Abraham more ignorant than we the Father of the Faithful a Prophet that saw Christ's day and rejoyâ—ed 93. It is a certain truth that as God the Creator so Christ the Redeemer doth extend his mercy farther than he himself is known And as the Sâ—â— sendeth some light to the world before it riseth and is seen it self so doth Christ send many excellent Gifts of his Grace to those that know him not as Incarnate And when all the world is delivered into his hand we have reason to believe that the mercies which Philosophers and all others in the world had were communicated by him as the second Person or Wisdom and Word undertaking mans Redemption first and as the Word Incarnate after 94. Those ancient Fathers of the Church who lived near the Apostles times as Clem Alex. c. who believed that some without the Church were saved were never condemned for it as Hereticks no not by the busie condemning Ages SECT VI. Of Universal Redemption 95. By what hath been said it appeareth how far Christ may be said to have died for all Certainly de re all that Christ giveth to all which is the fruits of his Death he procured for all by his death whatever we say of conditional Intentions he certainly intended to give all that he giveth But all these following particulars are given by Christ either to all or to more than the Elect. 1. The Humane Nature common to all is advanced and brought nigh to God in Christ's Incarnation 2. Christ's Sacrifice for Sin and his perfect Holiness are so far satisfactory and meritorious for all men as that they render Christ a meet Object for that Faith in him which is commanded men and no man shall be damned for want of the satisfactoriness of Christ's Sacrifice or for want of a Saviour to die for him and fulfil all Righteousness but only for the abusing or refusing of his Mercy 3. Christ's conquest of the Devil and the World hath made man's conquests of them the more easie or possible And his Victory over Death and his Resurrection hath procured a Resurrection to all the World 4. All men are his Subjects by Obligation as he is the Redeemer and so are under his healing saving kind of Government 5. A clearer revelation of Life and Immortality is made by him even to those that perish And they have far greater helps than else they would have had to set their hearts on a better World 6. Especially a Law of Grace is made by Christ for all the world In the last Edition to all Joh. 1. 11 12. 3. 16 17 18 19. 1 Joh. 5. 10 11. that hear the Gospel and in the first to all the rest By the Promise of which as by an Act of Oblivion or Instrument of Donation God hath Enacted and Given a full Pardon of all Sin to all Mankind with Reconciliation Adoption and Right to Christ and Heaven on condition of their acceptance of it as offered them So that men are pardoned and justified by that Instrument or Gift if they will believe and will not unthankfully reject their Mercies 7. Apostles and ordinary Ministers were appointed to preach this Gospel to all the World and make the Offer of Christ and Life to all men without exception 8. The Matth. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. execution of the violated Law of Innocency is forborn to all men in the greatest part Judgments kept off and they kept out of Hell while they have time and means to prepare for their Salvation 9. Many and great Mercies which signifie Gods goodness and lead towards Repentance are given to all the world even mercies forfeited by sins against the Law of Innocency and given by the Grace of our Redeemer 10. It is made all mens duty to believe the Revelation made to theâ— to repent to accept more mercy and to seek their own Salvation And such duty is not the smallest mercy 11. He hath recorded his Word and Grace in the holy Scriptures which all are allowed to use for their good He hath filled his Doctrine or Gospel with such powerful convincing Reasons and Perswasions which have a tendency to convince men and convert them 12. He secondeth his Word by many such Providences in his Works his Mercies his Afflictions as greatly Act. 14. 17. 17. 27 28. Rom. 1. 19 21. Rom. 2. tend to win mens Souls 13. He hath left his excellent Example to the world which greatly tendeth to mens Conviction and Salvation 14. He hath appointed several Church-Ordinances which are mercies to more than the Elect as is the visible communion also which they have with the Upright and their examples prayers c. 15. To all these he addeth an obligation on all Christians to do their best to convert and save all others 16. And the Office of Magistrates under Christ is appointed for these saving uses to promote the Salvation of the people 17. Death it self is now turned into a medicinal means by the prospect of it to convert and save men 18. Usually Gods patitience alloweth men time of Repentance and taketh them not at the first denial that they may consider and correct their former error 19. Remedies are offered men fetcht from Satan and Sin it self The Tempter by the malice of his temptations oft detecteth his owâ— fraud and mens danger A natural enmity against Devils and all that is known to be of them is put into all Mankind And Sin hath a sting to the Flesh it self and is madâ— such a misery to Sinners even in this life as may much tend to alienate and deter them from it And the world it self is made such a palpable vanity and smart vexation as tendeth to drive men to look out for a better and not to love it above God 20. Lastly To all these means there are certain internal motions and strivings of the Spirit of Christ which he commonly vouchsafeth mâ—â— in some degree and which irritate Conscience to do its office and which if men will
committed And the obligation to duty goeth before the obligation to punishment for that same action because the action cometh between and the first is an act of Gods antecedent Will and the second of his consequent Will that is of the Retributive and not the Preceptive part of the Law And they note not that the question is not what obedience a man is bound to but what he performeth or must be reputed to have performed If they will speak so unaptly as to say that the Law commandeth Lapsed man not to have sin or imperfect man to have been perfect that is that the Command to day bindeth Adam ad praeteritum not to have sinned yesterday or bindeth to Impossibility in nature that existent sin should not be existent in all which I leave them to their â—iberty of words yet it is certain that no man hath perfectly obeyed for one year or day And therefore if Christ's perfect obedience and â—oliness be imputed to them from their first being then they are reâ—uted not-lapsed nor-sinners from the beginning and so not pardonaâ—le But if it be only for the time after sin that Christ's perfection is â—theirs after what sin must it be If after Adam's then we need no pardon of any but Adam's sin If after conversion then we need no pardon for sins after Conversion If after our last sin then Christ's perâ—ection is not imputed to us till after death 126. Others would come nearer the matter and say that we are â—eputed Righteous as fulfillers of the Law and yet reputed Sinners as Breakers of the Law and that though there be no medium in naturals between light and darkness life and death yet there is between a â—reaker of the Law and a fulfiller of it viz. a non-fulfiller and beâ—ween just and unjust that is not-just But this is a meer darkness There â—s a medium negative in a person as not obliged but none between Posiâ—ive and Privative in one obliged as such A stone is neither just nor â—rivatively unjust Nor a man about a thing never commanded or forâ—idden him But what 's this to the matter God's Law is pre-supposed we talk of nothing but Moral acts The Law forbiddeth Omissions and Commissions both are sin Do these men think that he is not reputed Positively just and not only not-unjust who is reputed never to have committed a sin nor left undone a duty in his life Can â—he Law be fulfilled more than so What is Righteousness if that be not Obj. Adam was neither just nor unjust in his first moment no nor till he sinned say some because till then he was not obliged to obey or at least to any meritorious act that is to love God Ans 1. Adam was in his first instant but Habitually just and not by Act because not obliged to impossibilities any more than an Infant or a stone But we speak only of obliged persons 2. It is not true that Adam was not obliged to obey and Love God before he sinned or that he never Loved God as God Obj. At least Adam merited not the Reward though he sinned not till then Ans 1. He merited what Reward he had viz. the continuance o his blessings first freely given but not an immutable state 2. It is yet unresolved what that was by which Adam must merit Immutability and Glory whether 1. Once obeying or consent to his full Covenant 2. Or once loving God 3. Or conquering once 4. Or eating of the tree of Life 5. Or presevering in perfect obedience to the end that is till God should translate him which is most likely His not Meriting Immutability before the time was no sin we confess 3. And we maintain as well as you that Christ hath not only satisfied for sin and merited pardon but also Merited Immâ—table Glory But consider 1. That Adam's not doing that which was to merit Glory was his sin of omission and to pardon that omission is to take him as a meriter of Glory 2. Therefore it must be somewhat more than he forfeited by that omission and his commission which cometh in by Christ's merit above forgiveness 3. That Christ merited all this both by his active passive and habitual Righteousness by which he merited pardon 4. That it was not we that merited it in him but he to give it us only on the terms of a Law of Grace 127. Yet some come nearer and say that To punish and not-Reward are not all one And so the respect that Sin hath to the deserved punishment needed pardon and satisfaction But our deserving the Reward needed Christ's perfect Obedience to be imputed In this there is somewhat of truth But you must avoid the errors that lie in the way and aâ—â— by most supposed truths 1. Remember that man can have nothing from God but what is a meer Gift as to the matter though it be a Reward as to the order and ends of collation And in this case punishment is damni as well as sensus And so the loss of the Reward is the principal part of Hell or Punishment So that if Christ's death hath pardonâ— our sins of Omission we are reputed to have done all our duty And if so we are reputed to have merited the Reward And if he pardon our â—â—â—â— as to all punishment of sense and loss he pardoneth them as to thâ—â— forfeiture of Heaven as a Gift if not as a Reward 128. But say they remission of sin is but part of Justification because a man may be forgiven and yet not reputed never to have broken the Law To put away guilt and to make one righteous are two thing Ans Still confusion Guilt is either of the fault as such or of the punishment and of the fault only as the cause of punishment If all gâ—â— both culpae poenae were done away that person were reputed poâ—â— righteous that is never to have omitted a Duty or committed a â—â— But indeed when only the Reatus poenae culpae quoad poenam is doâ— away the Reatus culpae in se remaineth And this Christ himself never taketh away no not in Heaven where for ever we shall be judged once to have sinned and not to be such as never sinned 129. And this seemeth the very core of their error that they thâ—â— Of this see wotton de Reconcil at large we must be justified in Christ by the Law of Innocency which justified Christ himself and that we are quit or washed simply from all guilt of fault as well as obligation to punishment which is a great untruth contrary to all the scope of the Gospel which assureth us that we are justified by the Law of Grace or Faith and not by the Law of Works That Christ freeth us from the curse and penalty of the Law which he could not do if we were reputed never to have deserved it as never being Sinners If we are reputed such as fulfilled the Law of Innocency by another in our civil
all his Benefits are ever free Gifts â—â— to the matter and value first and then the relation of a Reward is bâ— secondary as to the Order of collation and the reason comparative whâ— one man hath them rather than another as a thankful Child hath the Gift which the Contemner goeth without 2. And that here Not to have this Gift forfeited by our sin is to be punished And so hâ—â—â— non-donari is puniri materially though the relations differ 3. And that it is the same Righteousness of Christ which meriteth our Impunity quoad damnum sensum and which meriteth our Right to the Gift of Life both sub ratione doni as a Gift and sub ratione condonationis as a forgiveness of the forfeiture and of the poena damni So that here â—â— no room for the conceit that Christ's death was only to purchase Pardon and his Righteousness to merit Life That which confoundeth men here is their taking the divers Respects and Connotations and Coâ—ceptions of one and the same thing to be divers separable things Thâ— same Law hath the Preceptive part to do and not do and the Retributing part penal and rewarding The same Obedience of Adam was â—â— doing what was commanded and a deserving what was promised â—â—â—â— more was promised to persevering Perfection than to the first act of Obedience One Sin deserved death but one act of Obedience desernâ—â— not immutable Glory And as the same Act is formally Obedience related to the Command and formally meritorious or praemiandus â—â— related to the Promise And the same Act is sin and punishable as related to the Precept or Prohibition and Threatening so the same Glory is a free Gift in one respect as related ut bonum to God as Benefactor and a Reward in another as related quoad ordinem conferendi to God â—â— Rector And the same loss of Glory is poena related to the Threatening and it is the loss of a Reward as related to the Promise And so the sâ—â—â— Merits of Christ's active and passive and habitual Righteousness because our Glory both by giving us pardon of our forfeiture and by Covenant-Donation and as a Reward to Christ and to us when â—â— perform the conditions of his Gift 133. And it is certain that Christ's Sufferings are first satisfactory and then meritorious being a part of his Active that is voluntary Oâ—dience And Christ's Holiness and Obedience are meritorious of pardon â—â— Sin as well as of Salvation 134. If there be as there is any thing which is given us througâ—â— Christ more than our own Innocency or Obedience would have mâ—â—â—ted the Gift of that is more than remission of Sin And is to be ascribeâ— accordingly to the Purchase of Christ's Merits But yet both his Holiness and Sufferings though not as sufferings did merit it And that was not a fulfilling of the Law in our stead 135. This superadded Gift what-ever it is seemeth in Scripture to be included in Adoption and not in Justification But yet it may in this sense be called Justification in that when our Right to that Gift is questioned that Right must be justified by the Covenant-Donation and by Christ's meritorious Purchase of it But this is only de nomine We are agreed of the thing 136. It is greatly to be noted that as a Reward is in the formal notion more than not punishing where materially they are the same so Christ hath not at all merited that eternal Life should be ours by way of Reward for our fulfilling the Law in him but that it should ours by his free Gift as a Reward to Christ for his own Merits So that the Relation of a Reward for Perfection belongeth only formally to Christ who taketh it as his benefit that we are saved through his love to Souls but not at all to us And to say as too many hold that Heaven is our Reward for our perfection of Holiness and Obedience in and by Christ is a Humane Invention subverting Christ's Gospel or unfit speech if better meant 137. Yet a Reward it is to us to be glorified but that is not for our fulfilling the Law of Innocency by Christ but for our believing in Christ and performing the conditions of the Covenant of Grace which giveth us Life as a free Gift but yet in the order of the condition it hath the relation and name of a Reward to us in the Scripture 138. So that here are three rewarding Covenants before us 1. The Covenant or Law of Innocency rewarding man for perfection to the end And this rewarded none but Christ And it is false that we are rewarded by that Covenant or justified by it for Christ's fulfilling it But it All the stir of the Papists is to prove that we have inherent Righteousness as well as pardon which Protestants are as much for as they The rest is de nomine justificationis Malder 1. 2. q. 113. a. 2. p. 572. Apostolus 2 Cor. 5. non aliud vult quam Christum cui nullum debebatur supplicium factum fuisse hostiam pro nostro peccato ut nos qui apud Deum nihil merebamur praeter supplicium justitia Dei fieremus in ipso id est gratis sine nostris operibus consequeremur per ipsius merita justitiam coram Deo What doth this differ from the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches Idem ibid Quando Apostolus dicit multos constitui justos per unius obedientiâ—â— significatur causa meritoria non autem formalis And so say we But some call Christ's Righteousness the causa materialâ—s meaning no more but that it is the matter of that Merit for which we are justified As if Adam had perfectly fulfilled the Law his fulfilling it had been meritorious of his sentential Justification and yet the matter of his constitutive Justification that is of his Righteousness And some uâ—â—ptly call it the formal cause But an unapt logical notion is not an error in Faith or Theology Idem ib. p. 573. Quamvis â—x omnino rigida justitia solus Christus Dominus satisfactat de condigno tamen ita ut merces operi â—ono debeatur post Dei promissionem meretur justus coronam justisiâ— quam reddet in illa die justus judex Est nostra justitia tota totum meritum tota satisfactio dependens a meâ—ito satisfactione Christi Still here is a wordy Controversie justified Christ 2. The Law or Covenant made only to and with Christ the Mediator And this Covenant further rewarded Christ as Mediator giving him all that it promised to himself and us for his performing the mediatorial conditions And so our Life is Christ's Reward 3. The Covenant or Law of Grace for it is the same thing in several respects that 's called the Law and the Covenant which giving Life on the condition of Faith doth justifie and reward Believers And we are justified and rewarded by no other Law 139. When Rom. 4. oft saith and other Texts that we are
many had such distinctions of Believers But the weak and the strong or confirmed all distinguish 281. But the other side had need as much to be perswaded to pacifick moderation in their censures And first They say that it is an intollerable opinion which is confessedly contrary to all the ancientest Churches of Christ And by Vincent Lerinens rule quod ab omnibus ubique sâ—mper such singularity or novelty must be heresie or certain error at the least I answer 1. They that assert this certain perseverance of all the justified do believe that the Churches planted by the Apostles were of their mind which they gather from the Scripture 2. The foresaid Rule holdeth indeed in things so universally received as Essentials of Religion and Necessary Articles of Faith and Practice without which men cannot be saved But Universality of Consent in a doubtful or unnecessary opinion or practice may possibly be erroneous and may oft lawfully be deserted It was once and beyond the investigation of its original the practice of the Universal Church that there should be no Adoration by Genuflexion on any Lords Day or on any Week day between Easter and Whitsunday And this commanded in the Great Council of Nice and the Canons of Trull And yet the Papists themselves have now forsaken it To distinguish as is usual between such Canons of Practice and points of meer doctrine and to make consent of Antiquity more obligatory in the latter is but vanity For where a point of Practice is founded in an oportet or supposition of Divine or Apostolical authority it must needs be at least as obligatory as a meer Doctrinal so founded For all Precepts include Doctrines and all Obedience includeth Faith Though all Doctrine be not Preceptive nor all Belief for immediate practice For every Divine Precept includeth this assertion This God commandeth And that God commandeth it is de fide and then it must be obeyed for Gods Authority as it is first believed for his Veracity All therefore that can be said is that this practice was not taken to be by a Divine universal Law unchangeable but by universal Custom of the Church And so may there be a consent in unnecessary and questionable Doctrinals as there hath been for the peripatetick Philosophy almost The opinions of the Souls corporeity of the Millennium of the lust of Daemons that there were no Antipodes to say nothing of some that Augustinâ— opposed were little less than universally owned of some ages And I doubt many Texts of Scripture for want of perfect Translations and skill in the original Tongues were universally misinterpreted 282. And the common objection which maketh the greatest noise is a meer injurious pievish cavil or slander viz. when they say You lead men to all wickedness by teaching that let them commit never such heinous Sin they are sure that they cannot fall from Grace nor lose their Justification For it 's commonly acknowledged that if any man should fall into a state of Sin inconsistent with the love of God he would lose his justification and right to Heaven and that without any change in God And they constantly hold that Gods decree de fine mediis is one and that he decreeth of his Elect that They shall persevere in love and holiness and be saved and not that they shall be saved whether they persevere in holiness or not And that they are no surer to be saved than they are to persevere in holiness SECT XIX Of Mortal Sin or what Sin will not stand with Saving Grace 283. But as to the question How great the Sin must be which is inconsistent with true love to God or holiness that belongeth to the Controversie about Mortal and Venial Sin where the difficulty is as great to one side as another so great that not only Pious Gerson but many another have confessed it too hard for them well to solve 284. In general It is certain that all Sin is so far Mortal as to deserve Vid. Le Blank de Pece Mort. Ven. 2 Disp Death according to the Law of Nature and Innocency and so far as to make us need a pardon Though not so far as to be inconsistent with spiritual life and justification and right to Glory and to make damnation due to us according to the Law of Grace And Prâ—testants confess Vid. Rob. Baronim de Peccat Mort. Ven. The best I know on the Subject the distinction of Mortal and Venial Sin under the name of Wickedness or Reigning Sin and Sin of Infirmity in this sence that Mortal Sin is that which is inconsistent with true Faith Repentance Love Justification and right to life and is never pardoned till the person be changed by true conversion But Venial Sin or Infirmity is that which consisteth Vid. Episcopii Resp ad Quâ—st 64. q. 18. pag. 19. with all these aforesaid and is presently pardoned by the Covenant of Grace upon the actual or habitual Repentance or hatred of it in the Sinners 285. It is certain that the interruption of the Act of Divine Love will not prove a Sin to be Mortal For though I detest such conclusions as the Jansenist gathereth from the Jesuites Morals that loving God once or Davenant de Justit Actuali cap. 35. Saith that Sin may be called Mortal in three degrees 1. Because it is never pardoned as the Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost 2. Those which bring novum reatum mortis sed remissibilem upon repentance And such he maketh all such gross Sin acted as is mentioned 1 Cor. 6. and Gal. 5. which be they that the Papists call Mortal Sin 3. The daily infirmities of the faithful which in rigour of Justice deserve death but are pardoned by Grace twice in a man's life or once a month may save him yet it is certain that the love of God is not always notably acted by any It is interrupted in our sleep and in common studies and businesses which take up the whole man And therefore if a Sin as sinful study interrupt it that will not prove it a Mortal sin 286. And it is certain that a sin is not therefore Mortal because it diminisheth the Habit of Love For that may be in those that still are the justified Children of God 287. There are two Degrees of Mortality in Sin as our Divines at Dort do more than intimate and those of Breme there The one is when sin putteth a man into the same state as to the Love of God which he or any other was in in the next degree before true Justification or Sanctification or Conversion which is when the Habit of Divine Love and all other saving Grace is so far lost as that Habitually the Creature is more loved than the Creator If any do fall thus far which is the controversie then it 's granted that their Justification Adoption and right to Heaven is lost But while God is habitually dearest to the Soul and Sin is
Conditional Covenant of Grace for I talk of no other extendeth not universally to all men but that any men are yet lest under no other Law or conditional-promise or Covenant than that of Innocency For if that were true 1. Then God should be supposed to make men a promise of Life on a condition of present natural impossibility And to say to sinners If you be not sinners you shall live 2. And to oblige men to the same Impossibilities as the means of their salvation saying still to sinners I require you sinners that you be no sinners that you may be saved 3. Which is indeed to say that the case of all that are under the first Law of Innocency only is desperate and they have no more hope or remedy than the Devils 4. And then Christ had mistaken the matter himself when he commanded his Ministers to Preach this Gospel or Covenant to all the world and every humane Creature and tell them that If they believe they shall be saved and to offer them Baptism if they consent 5. And either Preachers must preach an untruth to many or else not know what man to preach to 6. But the actu-al force and obligation of the Covenant puts all out of doubt that the world is under a Law of Grace For what man that by siding hath not his understanding utterly distorted to look only on one side can say that none but the Elect are bound to Believe in Christ or to Repent of sin or to turn to God and this as a means of their salvation What man dare say that any Heathens in the World are under no obligation to use any means at all for the pardon of their sins or the recovery and saving of their souls What man dare say that it is no sin in them not to use any such means And what duty or sin can there be without a Law And what Law can bind men to accept of Grace and to seek it and use means for pardon renovation and salvation but the new Covenant or Law of Grace Sure the Law of Innocency hath no such obligation 7. Lastly And Gods usage of all the world puts the case past Controversie For he useth no man according to the meer Law of Innocency All the world have a great proportion of the Mercies of the New Covenant and therefore are not under the Covenant of Innocency alone Yet we maintain that the preceptive part of the Law of Innocency as to the future is still in force to all men Obey perfectly And that the penal part is so far in force as to make death in the first instant due for every sin But we add 1. That the Remedying pardoning Law being in force with it doth immediately dissolve that obligation and make it uneffectual to the punishment of believers 2. And that the Promising part of the Covenant of Innocency is utterly ceased by the cessation of mans capacity And therefore that the Preceptive part for perfection is now no Condition of Life to any man Two things I was wont in my Ignorance to say against the universal tenour of the new Covenant 1. That God distinguished and excluded some at the first making of it under the name of the Seed of the Serpent But 1. No Scripture giveth us the least ground to think that men equally guilty are some called the Seed of the Serpent and some of the Woman meerly as denominated from or distinguished by Gods own will or decree without any real difference in the persons 2. And if the Image of Satan in Original sin were it that denominated the Seed of the Serpent then all the world should be excluded because all are such before they are regenerate 3. Therefore it is plain that it is not meer Original sin that denominateth any one the Serpents Seed in the sence of that Text but a consequent rejection and opposition of the Mediator or Grace of the new Covenant 2. I was wont in my great Ignorance in my youth to think that All men were meerly under the first Covenant till Conversion and then they came under the second only But this was but Confusion To be under a Law or offered Covenant as the terms of life or death is one thing And so all are under a Law or Covenant of Grace and no man under the meer Law of Innocency obliged to perfection as the sole condition of life And to be obedient to this Law and a Consenter to this Covenant and so to be in the Covenant as Mutual is another thing And this is the case of Consenters only So that I may take it for granted that we are agreed that as to the first Edition of the Law of Grace to Adam and Noe it extendeth or is in force to all the world at least till by enmity against Grace they have made themselves desperate as the Serpents seed Yea then the Law of Grace is in force to them though they reject the Grace of it 2. And as to the last Edition of the Covenant of Grace by Christ 1. The tenour of it extendeth to all as is visible Matth. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. Joh. 3. 16. 2. And Christ hath made it the office of his Ministers by his commission to promulgate and offer it to all 3. And whereas providence concurreth not to the universal execution we must all confess that Christ came not to put the world into a worse condition than he found them in If he did any no good by his Incarnation he would do them no harm Therefore they that never hear the Gospel are still under the first Edition of the Covenant made with Adam and Noah so far as it is unaltered I add that word because that so far as the Promise was to give salvation by the Messiah hereafter to be incarnate none is now bound to expect his future Incarnation because it is past But the same benefits that were due to believers before Christs incarnation are due since upon the true performance of so much of the condition as is still in force and not repealed 3. And we must needs agree that the Ignorance of the Apostles before Christs sufferings of his death sacrifice and resurrection doth shew that the faith of the Godly Jews then was far more general and less particular than the faith now required of Christians 4. And also that more was required then to be known particularly by the Jews that had the Scripture and Tradition to acquaint them with the Messiah to come than of the rest of the world that had not those distinct discoveries nor Abraham's promises made known unto them And how much Gen. 3. 15. might cause them to understand we may conjecture by the words At least this much was required of all that they believe that their sin deserveth punishment and misery and yet that God of his abundant mercy by his Wisdom securing his Truth and Justice will pardon sin and grant salvation to all that truly Believe and Trust in
Creature doth preach him to us and all things must be sanctified and used to this holy end § 33. He setteth Death continually before our eyes assuring us of the shortness of our lives and shewing us how we must leave this world that we may read Vanity upon all and not be deceived by it § 34. By all this we see that this Kingdom of Christ is a sapiential frame of Moral Causes designed for the Government of man in right ordering his internal and external acts and glorifying eminently the wisdom of our Ruler § 35. And he that will think rightly of this excellent frame must have all these things in his consideration 1. That Christ himself is not only a Justifier and Actor of us but a Prophet Priest and King and that the Government is laid upon his shoulders Isa 9. 6. 2. That we are not only Patients and pardoned sinners but also Subjects and engaged Covenanters 3. That Christs Church is not like a Statuaries shop but a Kingdom and a School where all must learn and obey 4. That Christ hath not only Motive power but Laws Promises Threatnings c. to work by 5. That his great blessings of Glory are his Rewards and Hell at last after those here are his punishments foretold to work on souls 6. That he hath a day in which as Rector he will judge the world in righteousness according to what we have done in the body 7. That faith is wrought by Preaching and Love and Hope and obedience are the ends and uses of faith 8. That the felicity of individuals and in them of the Heavenly Society in one Glorified body with Christ is the end of all where Gods Remunerating Justice is to be glorified and his governing Wisdom and Love for ever § 36. From all this I conclude That they that slight all this work of God by the contemptuous name of Moral Suasion and take it to be a diminutive term as to the honour of it to call it Moral and by Means and talk of Gods work of Grace on the soul as if there were no more in it very honourable than a physical Motion and God Converted souls but as Boyes whip their Tops or Women turn their Wheels or the Spring moveth the Watch are Cartesian blind Theologues and overlook the very nature of that Theologie which they profess which is the Doctrine of the Kingdom of God over man And while they see little but Matter and Motion they are fitter mechanically to treat of or deal with Stones or Bricks or Timber than men â— being unfit to treat of humane Government much more of Divine SECT IV. How far God useth Means § 1. CHrist who is the chief means is used in all the Conveyances of Grace to any one in the world § 2. God hath a double work in Illuminating and Converting souls One by activity of exteriour appulsive causes The other within us on the Agid. Column Rom. Quodl 1. qu. 2. p. 5. citeth Dioâ—ys de div nom l. 3. as holding that every order of second causes is like a beam of light streaming down from God as so many cords let down to men to draw them up to God And if a man should take hold of one of them and ascend to Heaven he might imagine that Heaven did bow down to him when indeed it moveth not but he would draw himself up to it so when upon Prayer or other second Causes God doth us good he seemeth to incline and bend to us but it is not so but he is unchangeable and it 's we that are drawn and moved to him and by the use of means by us we are conjoyned to Gods purpose that the things may be done for us which he hath decreed Vid. reliq where he confuteth the contrary errours faculties of the soul without those causes I cannot better illustrate it than by the causing of sight hearing c. The Light without us is not only a terminating object as some dream but an Active thing or Action which operateth by appulse upon the eye And the Sun and Aire are the causes of it The eye is not only a passive Receiver as some dream but an Organ where the visive spirits and soul are Active And God worketh internally on this visive faculty by his influx to sustain it in its activity And by a congress of these two fires or Active causes the sensitive soul doth see Now we all know that God giveth the external light only per media by the Sun c. But how he sustaineth and actuateth the Visive faculty is more difficult His own influx or Causation is undoubted And that the same Sun ut causa universalis cherisheth and moveth the visive spirits But whether God move the sensitive faculty or soul it self by any superiour spirit or mediate cause in its motion or action towards and on the exteriour light is past our knowledge Though the order observed in other cases maketh it not improbable Even so in the Illumination of the mind and conversion of the will we are sure that beside the terminative object there is an external motion which by the foresaid means is made at least on the senses and imagination whatever it do further on the Intellect But in the superiour Influx on the soul it self what use God may make of Angels or other superiour spirits or causes we cannot tell We are sure as is said that if there be a second cause yet as to proximity it is never the less neerly from God And souls being Intellectual and for ought we know of the highest nature of Creatures though not the highest Degree neither is improbable that God moveth us by a second cause or that he doth it without § 3. But as Christs fore-described mediate Causality is still supposed so it is certain that God doth not only work as some think concomitantly with the word but by it as his Instrument Though his wayes of co-operation are past the reach of man yet this much is sure 1. That he adapâ—eth the means to do their work both word Minister c. 2. And that his concurse maketh the due Impression on the sense and imagination 3. And though no Philosopher certainly know whether the Images in the phantasie be meerly passive as to the Intellect or what use is made of them and the passions to Intellection and Volition yet such use as is naturally to be made of them for these ends God maketh and manageth them accordingly by skill and power § 4. But here MOTION the effect of Active force and ORDER of motion as the effect of GOVERNMENT must be well distinguished For it is not so much the second Causes of the souls Action as such that we are now enquiring after But of the ORDER and Rectitude of its Actions which is done by Government § 5. That God doth work Grace on man by means ordinarily as ordinarily he causeth natural effects by means and Miracles are rare may be proved by all
saith is not willed by the sinner himself § 33. So far as God Causeth not sin he willeth it not and they that say that he Loveth and Willeth the existence of it as a means to his glory abuse Gods Moliness and are confuted before Par. 1. § 34. How God overruleth sinners and the effects of sin and procureth his own ends not by the Means or Causality but Occasion of it I have so largely there opened that I must refer the Reader thither SECT XX. How far God and how far Man himself is the Cause of Hell and other punishments THough somewhat be said of this in the Conclusion of the second Jo. Major in 4. sent d. 50. fol. 289. q. 1. inquit concl 3. Sive actus damnatorum dicantur mali culpâ— vel peccata non patientur aliquam poenam inflictam ratione illorum actuum Quia non sunt in statu merendi demerendi sed addit Signanter de poena inflicta loquor quae à culpa distinguitur ejus est reordinativa per cruciatum De poena enim acta non est possibile dare culpam quin suam poenam habeat annexam eo modo quo idem potest habere se Ipsa scilicet peccandi continuatio est poenae miseriae continuatio Nec mihi probabile videtur quod Demerendi ratio cessat apud inferos Praemium quidem mereri non possunt At quare non Poenam commereri sunt putandi Nonne adhuc sunt subditi etiam ipsi daemones sub quadam Lege ideâ—que peccandi adhuc capaces nonne omne peccatum suâ naturâ meretur poenam Ipsius scilicet Joh. Majoris ibid. Conclus 1. Est Damnati habent multos malos actus in inferno libere An opâ—abilius sit damnà tum esse an non esse vide quae ibidem sequuntur ubi concludit Itaque tenco si daretur viro optio vel non esse vel esse in perpetua flamma quod licitè posset vel alterutrum eligendum est non esse Nam minus malum habet rationem boni See Aureolus in 2. d. 31. a. 2. pag. 301. shewing ten wayes how one sin causeth another and so multiplyeth and continueth it self in the wicked Part I think meet to say more here because I find that the not understanding it doth tempt many to unbelief and others to hard repining disaffected atheistical thoughts of God § 1. Again here consider that God made man such as he is in Nature before either Laws or sins or punishments had any being so that if you can but forgive God for making you men that is Rational Free-Agents you can have no fair pretence of quarrel with him As will appear by these considerations following § 2. Mans Body and sensitive soul are of such a nature as that things inconvenient will be his pain He that will take poison shall be griped and tormented by it and he that will eat unwholsome meat or will surfeit shall be sick and he that will cherish diseases by sloth or excesses or abuses of nature will have the pain of them And he that will wound himself or break his bones will be his own afflicter And he that cuts his throat or hangeth himself must dye And all this without any doing of God besides the making him a man and continuing such a nature under his Government in and with the world § 3. Not only positive hurting but omissions will bring mens bodies unto pain and death As not eating not exercising not keeping warm c. And consequently such a life of prodigality or sloth as tendeth to such wants § 4. The inward senses Imagination and Passions are so constituted as that their inconveniences will be a pain and torment as well as the inconveniences of the outward senses 1. Cares and Melancholy thoughts are distracting 2. Desires breed such care and are themselves like a thirst or hunger to the soul 3. Fears are tormenting 4. Sorrows if deep and long are as a living death 5. Anger is a vexatious feaver of the mind And revengeful malice and envy do prolong it 6. Despair anticipateth eternity of misery c. 7. And Love it self how pleasing soever at first is the strength of them all § 5. The superiour faculties as they are more noble are capable of greater misery and their corruption and disorder is the worst To have an ignorant erring mind that taketh evil for good and good for evil To have a carnal malignant wicked obstinate froward Will and sinful Affections and by these to have mens actions misguided and so the sensitive soul it self brought into the foresaid misery through bad government is a misery to man in the Nature and immediate effects of the thing § 6. Man liveth among multitudes of fellow Creatures in the world which will all be tormentors of him if he will make them such As a post will hurt him if he knock his head to it The fire will burn him if he touch his flesh with it The water will drown him if he will leap into it over-head The Sun will scorch him the frost will pain him if he expose himself to them A Lyon or Mastiff will tear him if he avoid them not His neighbours will hurt him likely if he hurt them and cross their interest Men in power will hurt him if he offend them And all things will be to him as he behaveth himself to them § 7. All this being Natural let us now consider what sin doth to the sinner here and you will find that almost all his calamity consisteth in his very sin it self and the natural effects of it But yet it is sin as mans and it is punishment as from God when yet God is no Cause of the sin § 8. This is plain if you consider that Gods Act by which he maketh sin a Punishment was Before the sin though the Relation of a Punishment come after the relation of sin Here are two Agents 1. God making Nature and a Law therein 2. Man disordering his actions by transgressing 3. Hence Immediately followeth Guilt or the form of sin 4. And with it even in the change or after it the natural pain of loss or hurt 5. And this is Related to man as a punishment for the sin in the last place For instance God made man and God made meat wine and poyson God telleth Man in Nature I have made thee such a Creature as that excess of Meat will make thee sick excess of Wine will make thee mad and Poyson will torment and kill thee I have given thee self-love and command thee that thou avoid all these and I will not deny thee necessary help But if thou wilt not it will be thy pain which I will that thou suffer for and by thy sin I need not further apply it here the application is obvious § 9. All this I speak only of natural punishments which by the Law of nature follow sin what is supernatural is after to be considered §
are wrought by common grace and that it is special acts and habits overcoming the flesh and world which are wrought by special grace So that those firemen that are resolved that yet differ they will and implacably differ and their adversaries shall be enemies of Gods Grace whether they will or not are yet defective in that acuteness and pregnancy of wit which is necessary to pretend a real disagreement and are forced to say that they disagree when they have not wit enough to seem to prove it to any but those that take their cholerick zeal and reproach for proof For in this there is no difference among us 6. Obj. At least we can prove that we differ in this about the effects that one side make Gods gracious habits given to believers to be such as may be lost and dye and the other do not Answ That is no difference You still want wit to make differences though you want not will For both sides are agreed that perseverance ariseth not from the meer nature of the Habit of grace but from Gods superadded sustentation For Adam and the faln Angels had as is commonly held such kind of habitual grace as we though objectively differing 7. Seeing there is no difference on Gods part as they all conclude Resistible grace and irresistible sufficient and effectual can have no difference but in the very effect or event and the connotation of mans Power or impotency to the contrary I know as I have said that not only the Dominicans and Calvinists but Suarez and other Jesuits say that Effectual Grace is such ex parte principii as is forcibler for faith as the effect But they contradict themselves who confidently say that besides that effect it is nothing but Gods essence which hath no degrees or real differences And mans power of Resistance and frustration is none as to Gods will and essence but only as to the effect When he could have done otherwise 8. The same Vanity they declare in the question Whether the same degree of Divine Grace help or operation would Convert one man as doth another or would Convert as doth not Convert When they are agreed that the effect is not the same and that the cause hath no degrees of difference 9. And though it 's past mans understanding to comprehend how all the various effects in the world should be produced without the least diversity in the Cause Will or Action ex parte agentis and that Velle salvare Petrum velle damnare Judam should be perfectly the same Volition ex parte Volentis yet it is the liker to be true because man cannot comprehend it as long as he hath no evidence to prove that it is not true For God is incomprehensible 10. Seeing then that we must concent 1. That God Decreed to do all that he doth and properly and absolutely no more 2. And that Christs death is the cause of all that it effecteth and properly of no more Of which the conditional gift of pardon and life is part And so that all the Controversie 1. Of Decree 2. Of Redemption is resolved into that of the effects 3. And seeing all the effects are such whose difference we little differ about if at all and ex parte Dei agentis they agree that there is no difference where then is the Difference among all the contenders §. II. Alvarez his Epitome in Twenty Propositions considered BUt that all this may more plainly appear I will recite the Twenty Conclusions which Alvarez in his Epilogus giveth us as the summ of all his Book one hundred twenty one Disputations And I shall tell you how far they are all to be consented to * Thus Bradwardine concludeth his Book with thirty six errors and as many verities which he would have the Church especially that of Rome determine But leaving out the most unsavoury parts or expressions of his own judgement Whether God be the chief necessitating Cause of all sin is none of them I. Free-will in lapsed nature cannot without the help of grace do a moral work which by co-operation of the supernatural End shall be truly good and a work of Virtue so as that by the doer it be referred to God beloved simply above all as to the ultimate natural End Answ It is granted and more that though all natural men have one sort of Grace given them yet I think this cannot be done without special saving grace II. Man by the sole strength of nature cannot assent to all supernatural mysteries propounded and explained to him as revealed of God or because revealed of God so as the formal reason of his belief is Divine revelation Answ It 's true He must have commoner grace to believe them dogmatically and uneffectually and special saving grace to believe them practically and savingly III. Not only faith it self but also the first beginning of faith proceedeth from the help of grace and not from the strength of Nature only Answ Very true IV. The free-will of man in lapsed Nature cannot without the help of Grace Love God above all simply even as he is the author of Nature Answ It 's true V. Man in lapsed Nature without the help of Grace cannot fulfill all the precepts even of the Law of Nature nor overcome any great difficulty and temptation even for any little time which it is necessary to overcome for the keeping of that Law Answ True Therefore they have some Grace that do it VI. There is no Law nor ever was made by God of his giving the actual helps of preventing grace to them that do all that is in them by the sole faculty of nature nor hath Christ merited or would have any such Law Answ True For he giveth some common grace to all men antecedently without any condition on their part And though he give to those that use their common grace to the utmost or near it sufficient encouragement to go on and hope that such endeavour shall not be in vain as to the obtaining of peculiar grace yet de nomine vel definitione Whether this encouragement shall be called a Law or a Promise or neither we contend not VII God by his helping grace floweth into free-will by premoving it that it may co-operate and also truly-efficiently together with the same free-will causeth its pious operation Answ It 's true But all adjuvant grace produceth not the second effect which floweth from both Causes of which before and after VIII When God by his exciting Grace striketh and toucheth the hearts of men he doth not expect that the will by its innate liberty begin its motion by Consenting But God by adjuvant grace effecteth that it freely and infallibly Consent Answ It 's true of all that do consent But God hath a degree of exciting and adjuvant grace which are Necessary and give the posse Velle which cause not the act through mans defect And though God expect not that effect as one that is deceived
to the work of Redemption his notions are too floridly or ambiguously delivered for me to undertake with confidence to unriddle But this seemeth the summ 1. That God is the fountain of Being by Emanation as the Sun of light And that his eternal Wisdom is Jesus Christ in the first instant or nature 2. That the first â—reature that he made or emaneth from him is a perfect universal mind the platform of all the rest of the Creation such as the old Philosophers called the soul of the world or an universal Intelligence And that this is Jesus Christ in his second nature and notion which Arius knew but did ill deny his divine nature 3. That this Universal Spirit or Mind maketh all the world besides and is in them all And so the whole Creation else was Christs first shadowy Image or body 4. That the Angels are the noblest parts of this and that the Deity first and Christs superangelical nature next is one in them all and they one with him as the beams with the Sun and as the lower part of the Sun-beams with the parts next the Sun 5. That the soul of man is the next part of Christs shadowy Image into which he descended 6. And so into all Bodies 7. And as into a special Branch into that Body born of the Virgin Mary 8. And in that and in other Bodies he dyeth and descendeth to his lowest state and 9. Then as the Sun doth rise again and bring all back to the state of pure spirituality in his superangelical nature whence all sprang And this is their Redemption which is most floridly set forth § 13. This doctrine seemeth to reconcile Philosophy or Gentilism and Christianity For what is it almost but names that are left in difference That which a Philosopher will call an universal Intelligence or soul of the world he calleth Christ And if such a soul there be no one will deny but that it floweth into all particular souls and bodies and is united to them or is to individuals as the soul in the head to the soul in the hand and foot § 14. And if I did believe that sin death hell and holiness life Glory are in the world but as Winter and Summer Night and Day and as Origen that the wicked are but in a state of Revolution and shall come about again into a state of hope or as he here seemeth that their sin and misery is but like the dying of a flower in the fall that shall in the Spring again be as before or rather another in its stead and that it is but the retiring of Christ from the Creature as the spirit of the Tree in Autumn from the Leaves I should then be ready to receive his Necessitating Predetermination to sin and fit all the rest of my opinions hereunto § 15. There is among many others one Joh. Jessenius à Jessen Doctor Eques Hungarus who in a Tract de Anima Corpore Universi hath written much to the like purpose save as being a Peripatetick he differeth from the Platonists viz. The world is one Animal and hath one soul and body which all Creatures are parts of That Stars are Intellectuals or Angels and all intuitively know each others minds loving the good and hating the evil here and are our chief friends and Keepers That Death befalleth only us lower Creatures Mors continua singulis nulli tamen aeterna Nam post longissimum temporis excursum quem Plato triginta insuper aliquot annorum millibus determinare ausus est removebitur factâ iterum aliquâ secundùm naturam solutione redintegratione And the Intellectus Agens he describeth as Mr. Sterry doth Christ in his second or middle nature pag. 165. Intellectum agentem substantia primae atque Dei fulgorem esse Non accidens sed substantiam Intelligeâ—tem quaeprimò propriéque Intellectus dicitur agens Primae substantiae adhaerens ab ea excurrens indivisus indivisibilis non aliter ac Lumen à Lucido emanat and so in many other particulars § 16. To all this my short time will allow me to give you but these short observations following 1. The doctrine of Redemption is so much of meer supernatural Revelation as that we must not easily receive that concerning it which is not in the Scriptures And where Christs person hath such a description in Scripture as he giveth I am not satisfied e. g. in pag. 232. where he thus saith The Word made flesh is the whole Tree of Being Uncreated and Created the Root the Body with all the Branches putting forth themselves into one little top branch now withering that through its death they may renew all to a fresh and flourishing spring I am loth to say that the Universe is Christ that his Divinity is the soul and the world his body and every Man and Beast and substance part of it and that he dyeth in all that dye and that his body born of the Virgin Mary was but one top branch of the Tree which Christ thus animateth and so that all other bodies are as truly personally united to the Word as that § 17. I will not deny that the Opinion of a Threefold nature in Christ looketh very plausibly viz. that the Divine eternal word the first nature produced and united it self to the prime created superangelical Mind the second nature and that this second nature in the fulness of time produced and united it self to the humane third nature 1. There are many texts which seem to countenance it 2. It seemeth to give Christ the greatest honour as being the most excellent of all Gods Creatures which is not so easily believed of him as Man 3. It seemeth to expound those texts of the Old Testament which mention such appearances of God to Adam Abraham and others which many of the Ancients say was Christ And it seemeth to some more probable that some pre-existent created nature should assume a body than the Divine nature only and immediately 4. And it smileth on us as an opinion likely to reduce and reconcile the Arians once too great a part of the Christian World as called Christians as not only Philostorgius and Saudius shew but also Petavius de Trinit who holding the prime-created super-angelical nature and denying the Divine it 's like would the more easily be brought to acknowledge the Union of the Divine Nature with the super-angelical if the super-angelical it self were first granted them For they might the sooner be convinced that the eternal wisdom or word which made that first creature was intimately united to it I know some pious worthy persons who upon such reasons incline to this opinion of a threefold nature in Christ Though some of them think that this second nature was the humane soul assuming only a body and others that it assumed both soul and body I am not forward to take men for unsufferable Hereticks that differ from me or hold that which seemeth to me hard and
Universal Grace which is the very express Covenant of Grace it self that all men are already through Christs satisfaction reconciled to God and pardoned if they will believe or that a conditional pardon is already given to the World And to deny this is to deny the Gospel and Christianity it self and to be no Christians B. You would make your selves and others believe that they deny that which they never dreamed of denying Like him that dreamed that he was wounded and call'd out for something to stop the blood Do not all Protestaents profess to believe that Covenant and conditional Pardon as well as you Do they not preach it constantly and administer Baptism in the same terms as you do who denieth that all are reconciled if they will believe A. But by that they mean only exclusively that all are not reconciled or pardoned because all believe not And not inclusively that all men are conditionally pardoned already B. You mistake and slander them Do they not read the very express pardon made already in Gods Word That Whoever believeth shall not perish c. Joh. 3. 16. Mark 16. 16 Do they not all acknowledge that this is a Law of God an Act of Oblivion Enacted long ago by God And is not this visible written Promise or Law of Grace an existent conditional pardon of all No man of sense and understanding and faith denieth it A. But they say that in making it Gods secret intent was that none but the Elect should have any saving benefit of it * What say others less Malderus in 1. 2. q. 111. a. 3. d. 5. p. 486. Cum de Redemptore dando Deus constituisset ut secerneret illos quos elegit eum rerum ordinem elegit in quo certi quos voluit homines a reliquis discernerentur cosque pro beneplacito suo ad nullum bonum usum liberi arbitrii respiciens ad vitam aeterâ—am praedestinavit talemque tis gratiam decrevit cum qua certissimo infallibiliter ad regnum pervenirent Reliquos autem qui ex illo numero non sunt reliquit non quidem sint omni auxilio Gratiae sicut juste potuisset propter Adae peccatum sed cum auxiliis gratiae secundi Adae ad ipsos derivandis in ordine ac cursu rerum jam electo Et videns scieâ—tia visionis hos in peccato vitam finire reprobavit eos statuit in aeternum punire a regno excludere Thus the Jesuites ordinarily And what is here considerably different from the Synod of Doâ—t If the name of sufficient Grace be the quarrel call it Gratia efficax ad posse and all is ended B. 1. Still you are returning to the dispatched Controversie of the Decrees which is a confession that you disser not otherwise about Redemption 2. Do not you your selves hold the same which you quarrel with 1. Inclusively they hold that the Elect shall be saved by Christ And do you deny it 2. As to the exclusion of others they hold that God decreed not any mans Infidelity and Sin but fore-seeing their Infidelity and Sin decreed that they should not be saved by Christ but perish And do not you say the same Away with these contentious dreams A. I am sure I can name you divers that say otherwise B. It is the Synod still and the common Confessions and Doctrine of the Churches which you have to do with Tell not me of singular men The Doctrine of the Church of England I told you out of the Catechism The Synods words I recited And remember as Dallaeus tells Spanhemius that Davenant with the rest of the British Divines Martinius and the other Breme Divines who all gave their suffrages and writ for Universal Redemption did yet all subscribe in the Synod And therefore undoubtedly understood that no words of the Canons were contrary to their sense of Universal Redemption The later famous Helvetian confession saith We teach and believe that this Jesus Christ our Lord is the only and eternal Saviour of Mankind yea and of the whole world upon which words the English Collector of the Confessions giveth us a ridiculous Observation that he thinks they meant the restoring of the world at last contrary to the context As if he had not known that Musculus Bullinger c. were for Universal Redemption But that I be not over-tedious I pray you peruse in Dallaei Apolog. To. 2. the citations out of the Confessions and Catechisms and Liturgies of the Reformed Churches viz. Of Berne August Bohem. Helvert Saxon. Anglic. Palatin Synod Dord Colloq Torun with a multitude of Protestant Divines The fourth Crimination A. They make it impossible for any man to believe in Christ at first by a rational and true Faith For his dying for men being the Object of Faith must be before the Act. And no man by their way can know that Christ died for him till he is a Believer and yet they say that our first saving Faith must be a believing and trusting in Christ as one that died for us So that men must stay till they believe that Christ died for them that they may have reason to believe that he died for them For before the first Faith or belief of it they can have none B. You still make the world believe that men hold that which they do not This concerneth not the Churches but some singular men The common Protestant Doctrine is That Christ by his Death hath procured the universal conditional Gift of Pardon and Life contained in the Covenant of Grace Mark 16. 16. Joh. 3. 16 c. And that his death was thus far efficient by which it is sufficient for the actual Justification and Salvation of penitent Believers And that this is it that men must first believe and so accept of an offered Saviour for Justification and Life and give up themselves to him in the baptismal Covenant which when they do they are justified and adopted having right to and union with Christ and in him right to the Covenant-benefits And then Christ's death which was sufficient by its efficiency of Satisfaction Merit and the Covenant-grant becometh efficient of Justification c. And are not you and they agreed in this I confess that many singular Divines have given you this occasion But what 's that to the Churches The fifth Crimination A. They tell men that they must believe a Lye or an unrevealed thing that by believing it it may become true and they may be saved and ese they shall be damned For they say that Christ died for none but the Elect And yet that others also are bound to believe that he died for them And because they believe not this Lye God will damn them But if they did believe it it would be true As if the Objective Truth were not before the belief of it B. This also is but your quarrel with singular men and not with the Churches unless you wrong them Their common Doctrine is that no man
in his first act of Faith is bound to believe that he is Elect or that Christ died for him any more than for lost Mankind But that he must first believe that Christ by his Death hath so far satisfied and merited for Mankind in general as to procure the universal conditional Gift of Christ Pardon and Life And that they must believe that this is procured for and offered to themselves as well as other Sinners And hereupon they are to accept this free Gift and so it is theirs What lye or unrevealed matter is in this or what difference about it among the Churches The sixth Crimination A. They disable Ministers rationally to preach the Gospel For if Christ died for none but the Elect and no Minister know the Elect they know not whom to offer and preach Christ to For the objective Gift must go before the offer And that which is to be offered to every Sinner is A Christ that hath already died and satisfied for him and not one that is to die and satisfie for him yet if he will believe Therefore the very offer is as much as to say Accept Christ as one that hath satisfied for thee And so they make the very preaching of the Gospel a lye to most B. I will not answer you as some that say they tell not men that they are Elect and that Christ died for them but that if they will believe then it is a sign that they are Elect and Christ died for them And they may offer him to all that some may accept him For I say as you do that it is a Christ that hath already made satisfaction and thereby is become a sufficient Saviour who is to be offered to men And the being of the Gift is before the offer of it in nature But I say again that you fight against straglers in a Cause which the Churches are not concerned in They say that it is a Christ who died for all as to sufficiency who is to be offered to men that he may efficiently save them The seventh Crimination A. They leave most men in the World as remediless as the Devils who had no Redeemer whereas God judgeth the wicked at last as Rejecters of his remedying Grace If Christ died not for them what differ they from the Devils in point of hope B. I will not answer you as some that though Christ died not for them yet they know it not and the offer differenceth their Case For still I confess that none is to be offered to men but a Christ that was already offered to God for them and hath made satisfaction But again I tell you that you fight with a shadow and feign the Churches to differ from you because some singular persons do so The eighth Crimination A. They harden men in impenitency for the most damning sin even denying the Lord that bought them For they tell all the Reprobates that they never sinned against a Christ that died for them B. All this is the old fiction and concerneth only some singular men The ninth Crimination A. They would exempt the Infidel World from much of the torments of Hell For he that in Hell knoweth that Christ never died for him especially adding that God unresistibly predetermined him to sin and unbelief cannot rationally have an accusing Conscience for his not accepting a Gift that never had a Being B. I will not repeat the same answer as oft as you call for it by the same false supposition Let them answer it that are concerned The tenth Crimination A. They teach the World abominable Ingratitude and reproachfully deny a great deal of the Grace and Mercy of Christ and the fruits of his Death and Sacrifice For they teach men that all the Mercies given to any besides the Elect were no fruits of the death of Christ for them nor were at all by him purchased for them yea that they are no Mercies to them at all because God eternally decreed that they should turn them into sin and suffer the more for the abuse of them for ever And so all the rest of the World may say that they are not at all beholden to the death of Christ for their Lives Liberties offers of Grace and all other Mercies B. Let them answer you that are concerned in the Charge The Reformed Churches hold That Mercy is to be judged of by its nature and tendency in it self and not by mans abuse and that God decreed no mans abuse of it and that all the Mercies given to Mankind since the forfeiture of all by Adam's sin are procured and given by Christ as the Intercessor and Redeemer of the World and that wicked men justly are deprived of life for rejecting it and suffer Hell for abusing Mercy and refusing Heaven The eleventh Crimination A. They are Anti-christian half-Infidels For they deny Christs Kingdom as to its far greatest part For when the Scripture telleth us That to this end he both died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. And that the Father hath committed all Judgment that is Government to the Son Joh. 5. 22. And given him all power in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28. 18. And that his dying for all obligeth all men not to live to themselves but to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5. And so that he hath by his death acquired a jus Dominii Imperii over all Mankind they deny him his Crown and Dignity even this Right of Dominion and Empire as Redeemer and deny the World to be obliged to subjection to him as their Redeemer And so make that Rebellion for which they shall perish Luke 19. 27. to be no sin B. The Protestant Churches hold all that you charge them with denying It 's a pitiful work to caluminate that you may divide Tell those singular men of all this that are guilty of it The twelfth Crimination A. They make Christ to come on so narrow a design into the World as if they would tempt Unbelievers to despise him Even to die for none in all the World for 4000 years save a very few of the little Country of Judaea which was mostly wicked and even since the Church was Catholick but for a few called the Elect. B. 1. If you and they differ about the conditions of Salvation say so and tell the World the difference If you do not but are agreed that it is Faith Repentance and Holiness what are all these Objections but fighting by fictions against Concord and Peace They never held that none out of Judaea were saved And how many in the World are holy Believers they pretend not to judge They believe that all that are holy are saved by Christ in all Ages and Nations of the World And that all the Order and Government and common Mercies of the World with the offers of Grace and Salvation to them that wilfully refuse it are all to be ascribed to the death and procurement
of Christ And that his common Redemption is presupposed to our Faith and special Grace * See my Direction to sound Conversion Dir. 6. And now if this be all you have to say review it and tell me what disagreement you have found out about the commonness of Redemption THE Fourth Days Conference WITH a CALVINIST Of Common and Special REDEMPTION B. We are now to try what difference you can find between the Lutheran and Calvinist Churches or the Synodists and the moderate Arminians in the Article of Redemption by the death of Christ Name all that you have against them in this Point alone The first Crimination C. * These Objections are answered by Dallâ—us Amyrald Camero and Davenant Dissert de Morte Christi at large And I have a full disputation on this Subject by it self Lege Ephrem Syri Sermon de Passione Salvatoris Ambros in Psal 118. Serm. 8. Sol justitiae omnibus ortus est omnibus venit omnibus passus est omnibus resurrexit si quis autem non credit in Christum generali beneficio ipse se fraâ—dat Ut si quis clausis fenestris radios solis excludat Prosper de Vocat Gent. l. 2. c. 16. Nulla ratio dubitandi est Jesum Christum pro impiis mortuum â— quorum numero si aliquis liber inventus est non est pro omnibus mortuus Christus sed prorsus pro omnibus mortuus est Christus They make Christ to have shed his Blood in vain even for them that he knew were to perish for ever B. How prove you it to be in vain and that God can have no end in it but actual Salvation de eventu to each person for whom Christ died 1. When the Scripture most clearly telleth us de facto That Christ died for all even for them that perish and that he bought them that denied him be afraid of blaspheming God by telling him If Christ died for any that perish he died in vain I accuse you not but ex natura rei warn you I durst not tell God so 2. God made man in Adam capable of Salvation as the very perfection and end of his faculties and nature and put him under a conditional Covenant accordingly And will you say that God made Adam in vain in this capacity and made the first Promise of Life and the Tree of Life also in vain because Adam and all of us in him did sin and come short of the Glory of God Nay God made not the Devils in vain in a state of blessedness or the way thereto though he knew that they would forsake that state and perish It is dangerous reproaching the Counsels and unsearchable Works of God 3. By your own reckoning it is not in vain For you say that Gods Justice is glorified on Unbelievers and that this is his end And what is that Justice but the punishing of men for rejecting a Christ that died for them and Grace that was procured and tendered to them 4. But if you add all the other benefits and ends you will see that it was not in vain God demonstrated and so glorified his Love and Mercy to lost Mankind in the very greatness of the Gift of Christ Pardon and Glory which the Impenitent do refuse And Mercy is glorified notwithstanding the refusal God giveth the Covenant aforesaid or the conditional Grant of Pardon and Life to the World He reprieved them and gave them time of Repentance and exercised Patience toward them to that end Rom. 2. 3 4 5 6. Act. 17. Rom. 1. 19 20 21 c. Joh. 3. 16 18 19. He governeth the World on terms of Grace He giveth all men abundance of Mercies and Means of recovery and life He keepeth the World in order hereby and maketh the wicked serviceable to the Salvation of Believers In a word he will lose nothing by any mans sin against Nature or Grace Where then is the vanity of the Death of Christ if in a common degree it be for all The second Crimination C. They make Christ an imperfect Saviour by pretending that he died Cyril Hierosol Catech. 18. Multas aeternae vitae januas aperuit ut omâ—es quantum in ipso est absque impedimento illo potiri possent for some to some lower ends whom yet he saveth not B. This needeth no other answer than the last Is God an imperfect God to Adam because he saved him not by the way of Innocency at first made by God the way of Life Or was he an imperfect God and Salvation to the Angels because they kept not their first Estate Or is the Holy Ghost an imperfect Sanctifier because he giveth some but such common and temporary Grace and Faith as is mentioned in Heb. 6. 5 6. Matth. 13 c. Or dare you say that no man that perisheth had any Grace or Gifts of the Holy Ghost when some prophesied and cast out Devils in Christ's Name Must Christ do all that our muddy brains will dictate to him or else be reproached as an imperfect Saviour O take heed The third Crimination C. They cast that absurdity on Christ as to die for those that were in August de Symbol ad Catech l. 2. c. 8. saith Perhaps Christ keepeth his wounds to shew the wicked at the day of Judgment and say Videtis vulnera quae infixistis agnoscitis latus quod pupugistis quoniam per vos propter vos apertum est neque tamen intrare voluistis Hell when he was dying for them and to make a Medicine for the dead and desperate B. 1. As you would state the Supposition it would be as liable to your charge of absurdity to say That he died for them that were long ago pardoned and saved and to purchase Heaven for them that had possession of it long before 2. But when we speak of Christ's Death as a Sacrifice for the Sins of all the World we mean no more but that in esse cognito volito the undertaking was so far for all as that all should have the conditional Promise or Gift of Life by the Merits of it And so as all that were saved before Christ's Death had actual Salvation by it before-hand as undertaken so all that perished had a Gift of conditional Pardon and Salvation and perished for refusing it But at the time when Christ was dying we say that he was not then intending to offer the second Edition of his Covenant either to those in Hell or in Heaven But only that he purposed to do what he from the beginning undertook for the undertaken ends The fourth Crimination C. They make Christ to die for those that he would not pray for Joh. 17. I pray not for the world but for those that thou hast given me out of the world B. He maketh himself to die for them It is ofter and plainer said that he died for all than it is that he prayed not for all And many plain Texts yea the
pâ—â—supponit opus miserecordiâ— in ea â—undatur tanquam iâ— prima radice quia ne procedatur in infinitum deveniendum est ad aliquid quod ex sola bonitate divinae voluntatis dâ—pendeat B. I hope you have no malignant desire to extenuate Gods Grace but are willing to acknowledge it to be as great and large as indeed it is if you can discern the proof C. God best knoweth how to honour himself B. Quest. 1. Do you think that all the World or all that shall perish yea or any part of the World is under the meer Curse of the Law of Innocency as violated by Adam without any remedy or mercy C. I think they are without real Remedy though not without all Mercy for a delay of punishment is mercy B. Quest 2. Do you think that they are only under the Curse of that Law as the Devils are without any possibility or offers of a remedy or that they are also still under the Covenant-Offers of Life upon condition of Innocency C. I cannot suppose God now to offer a man Life on condition he be no Sinner whom he knoweth to be a Sinner For such an Offer is equivalent to a sentence of Death or denial of Life Nor can I say that they are as desperate as the Devils because they know not the desperateness of their case B. Quest. 3. Do you think all the difference between them and Devils lieth in delay and ignorance of their misery Then the most ignorant and presumptuous of them is the least miserable though the most sinful which cannot be Quest 4. But do you think that no Meâ—cy is to be offered â—o such C. Yes because we know not who are Elect and who not B. Quest. 5. Are we to offer men mercy only as Elect or rather as Sinners and miserable under a Law of Grace and as Subjects of God obliged by that Law to accept it C. We offer it to all Sinners that the Elect may receive it B. Quest. 6. Are none but the Elect under a Law of Grace as the rule of their Duty their expectation and of Judgment C. Others may be under the Obligations of it but not under the Gâ—aâ—e of it B. Remember then 1. That they are not lawless 2. That they are not under that meer violated Law of Innocency Be innocent and live 3. That they are under the Obligations of the Law of Grace Quest 7. Is there any of them that are not bound to use certain means appointed of God in order towards their own Salvation C. They are bound to intend their own Salvation and with that intention to use some means But God intends it not B. Quest. 8. Doth God command men on pain of damnation to any vain endeavours or use of means C. He commandeth it not in vain for it shall make them unexcuseable 2. They are not to judge their endeavours vain because they know it not 3. But in the issue all will be in vain to them B. Quest 9. Would it be in vain to them if they really did the utmost that common Grace enableth any men to do C. It is not properly Grace to them and so not common 2. It would be in vain to them B. Quest 10. Is that vain which bringeth a man into the nearest preparation for special Grace and nearest to the Kingdom of God C. To the Elect it is not vain Nor to others for their sakes Nor to others as to the lessening of their pains in Hell But as to their Salvation it is B. Quest 11. Who would it be long of or be reputed the Cause if it be in vain C. Of themselves who are born in sin from Adam and are Unbelievers B. You suppose it impossible for them to believe and impossible for them not to be the Children of Adam They made not themselves and you suppose that for want of Grace they cannot believe Quest 12. When Death shall acquaint them with the impossibility that they were under do you think 1. That it will be the way of glorifying the Justice of God in Judgment to have the World know that he condemneth Sinners meerly because he will condemn them for that which they never had any more true power to avoid than to make a World 2. Or will their Consciences in Hell accuse them or torment them for that which they then know was naturally impossible and caused by God C. We know not how God will glorifie his Justice or how their Consciences will torment them It may be they shall then be as ignorant of the necessitating cause as now B. 1. Do you know it now and shall not they know it then 2. God telleth us the contrary That all hidden things shall be brought to light and that God will justifie his own proceedings by proving that mens destruction is of themselves that every mouth may be stopped and all the World be guilty before God And he calleth it his Righteousness in judging to give to every man according to his Works and that mens Consciences shall then excuse them or accuse them when God shall judge the secrets of their hearâ—s and not when he shall torment them by deceiving them Rom. 2. 2 Thess 1. 6 7 8 9 10. Matth 25. 7. 23 24. 2 Tim. 4. 8 9. Rom. 14. 10. Gen. 18. 24 25. Quest 13. Do you believe that none but the Elect have now any real mercy besides a delay of their future misery and hopes of its abatement C. I do For all things are to be judged of by the end And that is really no mercy which is not intended to a mans happiness but his misery As Afflictions are no evils to the Elect because they are intended and work together for their good B. Is the offer of Christ and Life no mercy Is all Gods patience and forbearance as a means to lead them to repentance no mercy Is all the teaching perswading intreating condescension of Christ no mercy See what error here you run into and how contrary to Scripture and to nature it self 1. You contradict Gods Word which frequently calleth them mercies Psal 145. 9. 106. 7. 45. Neh. 9. 19 27 28 31. Jon. 4. 2. Rom. 2. 4. Matth. 18. 33. Isa 63. 9. Ezek. 16. 2. You deny the chiefest part of mens duty even to accept of mercy to improve mercy to be thankful for mercy to be led by Gods good-ness to Repentance to use mercies as Gods Talents to his Glory c. If you say They know not but they are mercies you feign God to bind men to duty but by deceit It is as mercies and not as that which for ought they know may be mercies that they are to be valued used c. 3. You excuse men from the greatest aggravation of their sin even sinning against Mercies How can they sin against them that have none 4. You feign Gods Justice to be stragely glorified by damning men in Hell for ever for sinning against mercy who never had any
so doing it was not a Will but bruitish Appetite B. The Understanding said truly It is pleasant and Appetible and so the Will in its initial desire sinned not But that it looked no further and excited not the Intellect to remember and it self to desire more to please God was by an abuse of its power and liberty of self-determining and so the sensible good prevailed because the superior good was forgotten and neglected And the Will may thus suspend its act after an intellectual perception without being bruitish though it so â—ar disobey Reason its guide C. These things are exceeding intricate and difficult for all that you say B. They are so * The same I say of objective and intellectual necessitation of the Will saith H. Kipping truly Inst Philos Nat. li. 9. c. 10. pag. 416. Errant Scholae reformatâ— doctores qui asserunt voluntatem ad actum suum determinari a judicio intellectus ita ut voluntatic libertas nulla sit constricta vero sit ad intellectus ductum a quo semper determinatur Joh. Camero Mart. Schogkius Hornbeck Maccovius Heerbord Hos prolixe bene refellit Episcopius But forget not that the great difficulty is between us and the Hobbists or Infidels and Fatists and not between the true Christians among themselves as to our present Controversies I confess that the confuting of their Opinion that all Volitions are necessitated unavoidably by Gods Operation is a far harder work than the reconciling of the Lutherans and Calvinists who go upon no such Principles Tell me Is this it that you would come to or not If you once perswade me that God causeth all sinful Volitions as necessarily as he causeth a Tree to grow and that man can no more avoid them and that liberty of Will signifieth no more than velle or not nolens velle and so that God is the prime irresistible cause of all Sin as much as of all Good so far as it is capable of a Cause I must needs next believe 1. That God hateth not his own Work yea that he loveth it 2. That he hateth no man for it 3. That moral Good and Evil is nothing in man but such as obeying or disobeying proportionably in a Horse or Dog 4. Yea far less because man doth â—ut as my pen which writeth as I move it in respect to God But so is not my Horse or Dog to me 5. And how then to judge of all the Scripture the Ministry of the Incarnation and Death of Christ of the Duties of a Christian life of Hell c. it 's easie to perceive viz. That as God differenceth Men and Toads meerly because he will do so even so doth he the good and the bad in the World and that Sin is no evil any way but to our selves and that God is as much the cause of it as of Sickness and is as well pleased with the Worlds Infidelity and Impiety as with the Churches Sanctity And that he will no otherwise damn men for Sin than erbitarily to make such baser than others as Dogs are than men Benedictus Spinosa hath given you the Consectaries more at large O how heartlesly should I preach and pray how carelesly should I live if once you brought me to this Opinion that all sin is the unresistible Work of God so far as it is a work as much as holiness is C. If there be no middle between Free-will and this Impiety as I confess I cannot disprove your Consectaries it's time for us to turn our studies against the common Enemies of all Religion and Morality instead of contending with one another specially when they have so much to say B. And do you think they do well and friendly by the Church who take these mens part and own their Cause in the foundation and entangle poor Souls in such intricate difficulties when we that know not the least of Gods Creatures or the mysteries of any of his Works do little know all the quick and intricate actions of our own Souls In a word man hath more power to good than he useth and that power is called sufficient or necessary Grace to the act though there be many difficulties which no one of either side can resolve The second Crimination C. But I fear many of them with Pelagius by GRACE do mean nothing So Dr. Twisse frequently repeateth that meeâ— posse credere is but Nature and not Grace because it is equally a posse non credere But 1. A natural power reprieved by Grace and preserved and given for gracious ends 2. And many and great helps of Grace to excite and rectifie it may be called an effect of Grace but Nature it self at least when they speak of the Heathens who they say have some kind of Grace B. Turn your eyes a little from the name of Pelagius and every thing else that useth to blind Disputers with prejudice and partiality and then answer me these following questions Quest. 1. Do you think that Mercy contrary to sinful Commerit is not properly Grace C. I confess it is B. Quest. 2. Is not the whole frame of Humane Nature and our Utensils put into the hand and power of Christ the Redeemer to be managed by him to his Mediatory ends Joh. 17. 2. Math. 28. 19 20. Joh. 13. 3. Ephes 1. 22 23. Phil. 2. 7 8 9 10 11 12. For this end he died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14. 9. Joh. 5. 22 23 24. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son c. And is not the very reprieval of the World from deserved ruine and misery so many thousand years an Act of Grace and Nature now continued used and improved by Grace and so far may be said to be of Grace C. This is plain truth and must not be denied B. Quest 3. Is it not undeserved Mercy to all Mankind that ever since Adam's Sentence Gen. 3. 15. they are all ruled by a Law of Grace and not the Law of Innocency alone and by that Law of Grace must all be judged C. If you before evinced that any thing is truly mercy to the Reprobate I must confess it But I have not before so much thought of this what Law the World is under as the case deserveth But I remember Camero in the fragments of his dispute with Courcellaeus taken by Testardus though he deny not that the Covenant of Grace was made with all mankind in Adam and Noah yet saith That by or for their nearer Parents sins the Infants of Infidels are out of that Covenant B. 1. It 's well you note that it is not only Augustine Enchir. ad Laâ—rent and I that are for the Imputation of nearer Parents sin in some Vid. Pet. Martyr in Rom. 5. confessing Augustine's judgment sort as well as Adam's 2. He speaketh there of the Covenant as mutual and not as a Law or an offered Covenant or Divine
equality with the wise Do we not see that as man is so is his strength and work operari sequitur esse The strong do as the strong and the weak judge and do as the weak Why else doth God give men strength of Grace sure they that think the habit of Grace must needs be before any act will not hold that all our lives after the Acts from immediate divine production go beyond the degree of the habits We know that God is the chief cause of our perseverance and all our works that are good But he causeth them by disposing and quickening strengthening illuminating and sanctifying our faculties to do them which is habitual Grace B. What is your own judgment in this point A. Our judgment is 1. That he that truly at the present preferreth the pleasing of God and his Salvation before all this World is sincere and justified 2. That of these some have well setled apprehensions and resolutions but others have such shallow Conceptions and weak Resolutions as that a very strong Temptation would change their minds and overcome them 3. But if they escape such Temptation and be not overcome they shall be saved For God will not damn men for possible Sin and Apostacy which they were never guilty of but only for that which they did commit 4. And that it is no certain sign of hypocrisie that they would have fallen away had their Temptations been great but only a proof that they were weak 5. Else to pray Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil should be rather discover not our sincerity or hypocrisie by temptation 6. Therefore God useth to proportion mens trials to their strength And that young and weak Believers may persevere he exposeth them not antecedently to their provocation to great Temptations as he doth the strong Even as while a young Tree hath little rooting it hath also but a little top else had it the top of a great Tree and but the roots of a Plant the first great Wind would overturn it 7. Even strong Christians might possibly have some Temptations which would over-match their strength and turn them from Christ if God should not keep them from such Temptations 8. Therefore there are some Temptations so far above the very nature of man by such Grace as is not a meer Miracle to be overcome as that God doth not suffer Mankind to be tried with them As to be most exquisitely tormented many moneths or a longer time And in that unusual trial of the poor Christians in Japon though many endured those torments many weeks yet nature could not sustain them to the last but when they had suffered as much as many Smithfield burnings to death at last almost all denied Christ so that Christianity is now there extirpated Now if Rogers Bradford Hooper shewed sincerity by suffering death why should we not think that these did so that suffered far more than they though afterward the degree was greater than their strength 9. We hold that Gods Punishments and Mercies to men in this World are very much exercised in either permitting or not permitting great Temptations * The same Bradwardine l. 2. c. 16. holdeth that the cause of the damneds obstinacy in sin is not only themselves and Gods not-willing to cure and save them but also Gods positive Will by which their obstinate wills are for ever continued in the act But I see not why we should assert Gods positive Will of Sin in Hell or Earth when his not-effectual willing to cure it is enough And that for great sin he oft delivereth men up to Satan and giveth him the greater power over them Yea that the nature of sin it self is such as giveth greater advantage to the Tempter As he that will with Achan look on the wedge of Gold or that will please his tast with delicious Drinks and Meats or that will permit his eyes immodest Spectacles hath thereby let in the Devil into his Imagination and will not easily thence cast him out And on the other side he that pleaseth God and conquereth one Temptation obtaineth that Grace by which he is much saved from the next and the Tempter is the more disadvantaged and restrained 10. Lastly We therefore hold That seeing Temptations do not only try our sincerity or hypocrisie else we should desire them for self-examination but also tend to change mens minds and make them worse the way to persevere is to pray against and avoid Temptations and resist those that cannot be avoided This is our judgment In which you see that we hold that all weak Christians that are sincere may have assurance of their present Justification though they are not strong enough to stand the greatest trials And that they may well hope that God will save them from over strong Temptations while they sincerely do his Will B. But Christ saith That he that forsaketh not all that he hath and hateth not his own life cannot be his Disciple And what greater trial can there be than the loss of life it self A. Though some taking it to be hard that none are true Christians that would not be Martyrs were they tried have said that this Text speaketh de necessitate praecepti non medii You must grow up to this at last if you will be my Disciples yet I will not so force the Text but say as you do But 1. There are far stronger Temptations than the love of Life Though not from Interest yet from false reasonings which may deceive the judgment And one that would die for Christ while he believeth in him may possibly have so strong Temptations to unbelief as shall exceed in danger his fear of death 2. And all men that at the present would forsake Life and all for Christ yet have not the same fixedness of Resolution nor the same degree of Faith and Love No doubt but the Martyrs in the same flames had various degrees of Grace Now a less firm and fixed measure may be loosened by degrees or shaken by Seducers and mutable man may after be overcome by that same Temptation which once he could have overcome So that I accuse their Doctrine as utterly inconsistent with true Christian Comfort on both these account And such is the success of those men that will overdo and devise means of their own for extraordinary comforts which God never gave them B. The comfort of poor Christians it seems standeth but on slippery terms in the Opinion of both sides while each Party thinks that there is no true comfort in the others way * Whether we may be morally sure of our present Justification the Papists Doctors agree not among themselves Bellarmine and many others affirm it and others deny it as Aureolus cited by Brianson in 4. q. 4. fol. 36. and others that say no man can know whether his Habits are infused But doth not experience confute you Do you not see that many have true Christian comfort that are not of
your mind A. That is because of some better Principles which they hold and because they see not the contradiction and inconsistence B. You come near to this truth Indeed there are Principles better than either of your controverted Opinions common to both sides which may afford us great Consolation and which sound Christians live upon And I doubt your Disputes on both sides do more disturb than comfort most But this must be granted that Opinions are not true because they are comfortable nor all false that have any thing in them apt to trouble men who have the sinful matter of trouble in themselves no more than Physick is naught that maketh men sick We must take our Comforts on Gods terms The truth is your Doctrine seemeth more comfortable in the respects which you have named as to the assurance of present Justification and theirs more comfortable in another respect viz. as to the continuance of it when they have it But if this Doctrine were to be chosen by the comfortableness yea and usefulness of it there is a middle way of some Schoolmen which would be preferred before both That is that neither any of the Elect nor any that have attained to confirmation â—r a fixed degree of Grace do ever fall away But that there are some not-Elect who are sincere and justified but weak and mutable as Adam in Innocency and not confirmed who fall away and perish And this Vossius thinketh was Augustine's Opinion And Grotius in his excellent Epistle against Molin lately translated into English by Mr. Barksdale affirmeth it to be the common judgment of the Fathers which will be no small advantage to it with me And 1. This avoideth the uncomfortable Doctrine which you charge on them For this holdeth that a weak Christian may have the comfort of present Justification that is not certain to persevere nor that he is any better than some that fall away 2. And it avoideth the uncomfortableness which they charge on you viz. that no man can be assured of his Perseverance and Salvation For these hold that all the consâ—med may be assured of it And that all weak Christians may possibly attain to confirmation 3. And it only leaveth weak unconfirmed Christianâ— uncertain of Salvation which both sides are agreed in For they confess that weak Christians are seldom if ever sure of their present sincerity and Justification And you hold that they are uncertain to persevere And so both of you hold them to be uncertain of Salvation But proceed The fourth Crimination A. They do reproach the Holiness of Gods people and his â—mage and encourage most horrid wickedness while they make all the sâ—â— that ever was committed by any man after his Regeneration to be consistent with Holiness and Justification not only Noah 's Drunkenness Lot 's being Drunk and Incestuous two nights together David's hâ—rrid Murder and Adultery Peter 's denying and forswearing his Lord but for instance Solomon they say was a Saint and justified when he gave up himself to all manner of pleasure and denied himself nothing and Paul saith The carnal mind is enmity to God and if ye live after the flesh ye shall die when he clave in love to many Idolatrous women having seven hundred Wives and three hundred Coâ—cubins and his Wives turned away his Heart after other gods and his Heart was not perfect with the Lord but he went after Ashtoreth the Goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the abomination of the Amorites and built an High Place for Chemoth the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of Ammon and likewise did he for all his strange Wives which burnt Incense and sacrificed to their gods his Heart was turned from the Lord that appeared to him twice 1 King 11. 1 to 12. All this say the Calvinists you may do and yet be Saints and justified and saved * Bradwardine li. 3. c. 27. having maintained that all things come to pass by necessity and cap. 29. p. 734. answering the Objection that this will make men cast all their sin on God and be ungodly answereth that it will do so by none but the Reprobate and confesseth that so one of his Monastery did argue and turned thereupon to a wicked life but that he cannot help that for he cannot predestinate men that are reprobated All this may stand with Gods Image and true Holiness B. As to all the rest except Solomon the sin being one or two particular Acts contrary to the main bent and scope of their lives which were holy you seem 1. To deny an evident truth viz. that the habitual love of God was not extirpated by those Sins Can you think that habitually though the act was hindred Noah Lot David Peter did not then love God and Holiness better than sinful Pleasures And the Papists confess that Sin is not mortal that is an evidence of spiritual death till it conquer the habit of the love of God 2. You seem to take your offence at the Mercy of God himself because he will not disown men for such a particular sin contrary to their general will and life As if you provoked him to deal hardlier also with yourself lest he deal too easily or mercifully with others 3. But they are in these resolved that no man hath true Grace that loveth not God and Holiness above the World and sinful Pleasure And they and you are agreed in this And in the hypothesis if you can make them believe that any of these lost that predominant habitual love they would grant that they fell from saving Grace So that thus far you agree 4. And as for Solomon's case it is too hard for us all Some think that he had but common Grace till that Repentance which he published in Eccles And that so much might produce his Proverbs which say they were but spoken by him and written long after by others as some by Hezekiah's men Others think that he did but tolerate his Wives Idolatry and that he aggravated his own sensuality in hyperbolical words and so that his sin did stand with true Grace Others think that he fell into a state of damnation in which had he died he had been damned but yet neither totally from all feminal Grace nor finally and that others may do the like In a word the case is too hard for us But our comfort lieth not in being sure what condition Solomon was in either first or last And also as Means and Grace are greater under the Gospel than they were to Solomon and Life and Immortality more brought to light so more spirituality and heavenliness is now required of us than was then of them As long as Christ hath fullier described to us the title-conditions of Salvation we have better means to judge of our states than the deciding of these Difficulties about Solomon would be A. This is true but nothing to the purpose we prove by Solomon that a man may fall from Grace B.
hath oft times disowned Popery among us and would make that less odious which God by wonders hath oft called us to abhorr P. You still mistake It is only your strengthening them or sinning against God by false and ignorant accusations and calumniating wiser men as favouring them that I speak against God hath oft marvellously preserved us from their attempts But if you will use untruths against them they will repay you two for one and with what measure you mete it shall be measured to you Little know you how odious they render us by lyes abroad where they are believed and I would have no honest man to imitate them I will instance to you in a few of their Stories Saith Thom. Waldensis a Learned man against Wickliffe citante Tympio pag. 104. I will tell you a Story which I saw with my own eyes in the Cathedral of St. Paul in London where Tho. Arundel a Venerable Prelate of happy memory a Son and Brother of Earls the Bishop of Norwich and others assisting him sitting in judgement proposed some questions of the Eucharist to a certain Taylor of Worcestershire taken in Heresie and when he could not be moved and would call the most Sacred Host nothing but Blessed Bread at last being commanded to do reverence to the Host he blasphemously answered A Spider is worthier of Reverence And presently a great and horrid Spider descending from the top of the room by his thread made directly to the Blasphemers mouth and laboured to get in while he spake The Illustrious Prince Thomas Duke of Oxford then Chancellor of the Kingdom saw the prodigie which so confirmed them of Gods revenge that they burnt the man Saith the same Tympius Theatr. p. 148. Oecolampadius an Apostate married Monk an 1528. was strangled by the Devil in Basil as Luther reporteth in his Book of the private Mass a death worthy his life Luther writeth that he had proved it explor atissimum esse that Oecolampadius was killed by the fiery weapons of the Devil Carolostadius an 1530. strangled by the Calvinian God went quickly to Hell as Erasmus Albertus reporteth John Calvin was consumed of the lowsie disease the Worms eating through all his body with blaspheming words cursed God and called on the Devil and committed his soul to him an 1567. saith Bolsec in vit Calv. c. 22. Beza writeth that Calvin tormented four years miserably at last eaten with swarming Lice dyed unhappily and filthily Pag. 154. Luther having supped daintily and gone merry to bed was strangled in the night Th. Bozius de sig Eccl. l. 23. sig 96. â— 3. saith that he was certified by a Boy that served Luther and turned to them that Luther hang'd himself but they swore all the house to conceal it Ibid. id They say saith Bozius that when Bucer was dying a horrid Devil stood by and almost frightned all present to death of whom he Bucer was stricken that he might carry away his soul for being pull'd out of the bed his bowels being scattered all about the Bed-chamber and he killed with many torments did expire How like you such work as this such horrid lyes of things fully known Should not the detestation of them make us afraid of coming near them by any imitation and to take heed what we believe or say of others Abundance more such Stories Miracles and Progidies you may find in Tympius and Caesarius besides many others Read but those two Books and you will see who be the great pretenders to Prodigies and Miracles and readiest to proclaim Gods Judgements on others when they that think they do it for the honour of God alas are unawares moved to it by the interest of that Cause and Party which is so much their own as that it may be called Their own Interest S. Well for all this I take it to be Gods Mercy to possess the unlearned Professors themselves with so great a zeal against all that savoureth of Popery so that were it not for them the Ministers themselves would comply further than they do But when they see that it is the sensus communis fidelium and they must lose all the good people if they comply it holds them in Many that cannot dispute against Popish errors and practices can hate them P. No doubt but the habit of Divine Love doth hold many good Christians much faster to God and the certain Essentials of Christianity and Piety than the strongest disputing Reason would do without it But if you will say the same of doubtful disputations you will much mistake In many such things the stricter professors go with the stream of their party and follow them that carry it for the reputation of most godliness or those leaders or friends that have most advantage on them And do they not use the very same argument as you in different Countreys for different and contrary causes In Germany the Communis sensus fideliuâ—â— is one thing and in England another and in France another in such matters Yea in the same Countrey in several times I can remember since among the Religious stricter party it was abominable to wear long hair even to cover the ears and now these twenty years they many of them exceed those that then were accounted Ruffians It was then a crime with them to take Tobacco and now it is none and thus custome changes the matter with them And now in some Congregations they will not sing Psalms in others they will not read the Scripture In others these can be endured but not the use of the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue In others that much but no Forms of Prayer of mans devising In others the Ministers own self-imposed Form but none imposed by Superiours In one Congregation they are commonly for Universal Redemption and Free-will and in another commonly against it And why then would you perswade us that in such things as these the common sense of the faithful goeth all one way when they usually are carryed down the stream of pious reputation where they live And indeed you have small reason to be glad that Ministers have the temptation of popular esteem or censure to conflict with or that so many are conquered by it Is it a lovely thing to hear silly women ever learning or rather hearing but never coming to a competent knowledge of such matters to cant out against their Teachers Antichristian and Popery upon words or actions not understood which suit not with their vain conceits S. It is one of the artifices of the Papists which you have learned when they would draw men to set light by the purity of Religion and the Worship of God to cry up Love and Concord and Peace instead of it and so to tye all mens tongues and hands from resisting their wicked Church-pollutions by the fear of Schism or being uncharitable to the polluters And so you will draw men to an indifferency in Religion on pretence of Peace and Charity P. I am certain that