but yee shall cry for sorrow of heart and house for vexation of spirit Yea and in making one piece rained upon sometimes and not another yet I nothing doubt but you will acknowledge God to bee as holy in these waies as in any other yea in causing two Beares to come out of the wood upon Elisha his cursing in the name of the Lord and teare fourty two children Yea in revenging Achans sacriledge not onely with his owne death but with his childrens also and in destroying suckling children and children in the wombe both in the generall deluge and in the conflagration of Sodome and when for the sinne of Saul hee caused seven of his sonnes to bee delivered into the hands of the Gibeonites to bee put to death for God is righteous in all his waies and holy in all his workes And the equity of Gods courses though sometimès discernable by man as in the case you put out of Ezechiel 18. 25. yet not alwaies so but that wee are driven sometimes to cry out with the Apostles Oh the depth of the riches of the wisedome and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out 5 I confesse that if to dictate like a positive Theologue be to instruct us you have thus farre instructed us That those paternes of holinesse or perfection which we are bound to imitate in him are not to be taken from his bare commandement or revelation of his will but from the objects of his will revealed or from the eternall practises which he hath exhibited as so many expresse and manifest proofes that his will is alwayes holy and just The paterns of holinesse which wee are bound to imitate are not to be taken you say from Gods bare commandement I finde what you say but I had rather finde what you prove When our Saviour exhorteth us to be holy as God is holy and perfect as God is perfect he speaketh it with a particular reference to a particular course in Gods providence taking thereby not an obligation to imitate him but onely an inducement to bee so much the more forward in doing that which God commands us in loving our enemies And unlesse wee have a commandement from God for the rule of our obedience it is nothing safe to imitate God For what shall Magistrates spare malefactors because God spareth them a long time Or because God causeth the children to be put to death sometime for the sinne of the father shall we do so too Or because God makes his sunne to shine as well upon one as upon another shall we therefore put no difference betweene such as are of the houshold of faith and others Wee may not imitate Elisha in cursing little children that mocked him nor the zeale of Phinees in killing Zimri and Cosbi in their lust much lesse must wee alwaies imitate God who hath greater power over mens lives then Elisha or Phinees had Yet why you should call the workes of God in the course of his providence eternall practises I know no reason or coulour of reason It may be that in stead of eternall it should be externall practises God no doubt is holy in all his waies and workes but herehence it followeth not that wee must imitate him in all his courses but rather wee must have an eye to his commandements And what I pray are those perfections whereof our generall duties are the imperfect representations Our generall duties are such as these We must not deale unjustly with any we must deale justly with all or wee must be holy Holinesse becomes thine house for ever and in the Priests forehead was wont to bee written Holinesse unto the Lord. Now are these the perfections wherein God as you say is holy and just Then t is as if you should say God is eminently and apparantly holy in the perfection which is called his holinesse God is eminently and apparantly just in that perfection which is called his justice Of all his morall commandements not one there is you say whose sincere practise doth not in part make us truely like him and we are bound to be conformable to his will revealed that we may bee conformable to his nature without conformity whereunto wee cannot participate of his happinesse for happinesse is the immediate consequent of his nature You proceede to cut out work for your Readers as many as are willing to Try the spirits and not hand over head to receive all for gold that glisters That the practise of Gods commandements maketh us like him is a plausible speech And it is true in the generall for as God is wise and holy so our obedience to his commandements is that which mades us wise and holy And as God doth nothing but that which very well becomes him so in obeying the will of God wee shall doe nothing but that which very well becomes us But as for particular duties there is little or no correspondency betweene the carriage of superiours and inferiours Wee have a God to worship by reverence and feare and by praying unto him these are moralities no way incident unto God Wee have parents both naturall and spirituall and masters and magistrates whom we must honour God hath none such to honour Wee by our authoritie may not take away the life of any be he never so great an offendor God may take away the life of any bee hee never so innocent without any blemish to his holines Matrimoniall chastitie is a vertue commendable in a Christian but this vertue is of so base a condition that the divine nature is not capable of it as who hath no lusts at all to order like as on the contrary the very Devills themselves being Spirits are no way obnoxious to unchristitie The like may bee said of temperance and intemperancie in the use or abuse of Gods creatures through gluttony and drunkennes T is theft for us to take any mans goods from him against his will it is not so with God who can send any man as naked out of the world as hee brought him into the world without any prejudice to the repuration of his justice And seeing he is not capable of any manner of concupiscence either of the eye or of the flesh for hee is a Spirit and not a body or flesh nor in the way of pride of life the contrary conditions cannot be in the way of any commendable vertues attributed unto God In a word all the goodnesse that is in God is essentiall unto him our goodnesse whatsoever we be is but accidentall unto us and therefore when we are exhorted to be holy as he is holy and perfect as God is perfect it tends onely to this even to set before us certaine actions of God as patternes and precedents to imitate him therein and that onely so far forth as they are suitable and congruous inducements to the performing of Gods commandements not to affect any conformity
still I perceive your meaning reacheth further then you dare as yet to professe for your meaning is to prove that All that heare the Gospell and doe not believe it seeing they shall bee guilty of greater sinne and incurre greater condemnation at the day of judgement therefore they could believe it if they would This is the point that sticks in your teeth and which you dare not openly and plainely professe as indeed it is manifest Pelagianisme and which the Arminians dare not at this day openly avouch but rather professe that no man can believe or repent without grace Whereas yet like as your selfe maintaine that no man in state of nature can doe otherwise of himselfe then sinne yet is he justly condemned for sinning none compelling him in like sort no man of himselfe can believe the Gospell yet hee may be as justly condemned for not believing For as for that naturall impotency unto that which is good which is in all derived unto us from our father Adam that is of it selfe sufficient to condemne us and therefore most unsufficient to excuse us And that impotencie being in all alike the condemnation therefore shall be unto all alike but the increase of it by actuall transgressions which are freely committed is not in all alike for neither doth inclination naturall or tentations spirituall or occasions temporall hinder a mans libertie in doing or refusing to doe any act so likewise neither can it hinder the aggravation of his sinne But neither can this naturall impotency bee cured in any part but by the grace of God habituall neither any good act according to this grace habituall he performed without another grace both prevenient and subsequent actuall If your minde serves you to deale plainly in opposing ought of this you shall not want them that will bee ready to enter with you into the lists and scholastically to encounter you Yet I confesse the providence of God especially in ordering and governing the wills of men is a misterious thing and the operation and cooperation of his will with the operation and cooperation of the will of man But I am a long time inured unto this and now I feare no bugbeares least of all from your selfe with whom I have beene of old acquainted in our private and familiar discourse on these and such like arguments and to tell you plainely my opinion I doubt you have written so much that you have had time to read but litle And truly as for my selfe as I have written little so also I have not read much But in these points I have spent not a little time in searching after truth and examining arguments As for the place of the Apostle Act. 17. 30. it seemes your meaning is it pleads for universall grace now after Christs death yet your selfe immediately before profested that onely they that heare it and doe not believe are guilty of greater sinnes implying manifestly that since Christs death all doe not heare it Yet if you have any other meaning and will deale roundly in propounding it I will be ready to consider this or any other place that you shall bee able to produce to what purpose soever if orthodox in my judgement to subscribe unto it if otherwise to doe my best to confute it 3 In the next place you are so farre from maintaining universall grace that you undertake to give causes why all men in the world have not heard of this love of God in Christ. But these causes to be assigned by you are put off till hereafter and that not of certainty neither you onely say They may bee assigned T is your usuall course to feed your Readers with expectation as it were with empty spoones If you doe not gull them in putting them off to expectation t is somewhat the better The reason you give why many might have heard of Christ which yet have not heard of him and might have beene partakers of his death I thinke you meane of the benefit of his death which yet have not beene partakers of it is starke naught For that evill courses of men cannot hinder them from the participation of Christs death appeareth by the calling of the Gentiles and casting off of the Iewes For were the deeds of Babylon thinke you better then they of Sion Wee Jewes by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles saith the Apostle Gal. 2. 15. The Apostle in divers places puts no difference betweene them that are called and them that are not as touching their manners before grace 1 Cor. 6. 11. Eph. 2. 23. Tit. 3. 23. God sindes us weltring in our bloud when he saith unto us Live Ezech. 16. and Saul was taken off from his bloudy courses to be made a member of Christ. And your doctrine to the contrary tends shamefully to the obscuring and disparaging of Gods grace and to the advancing of the power of nature and liberty of will the trick of the Pelagians of old of whom Austine professed thus Inimici gratiae Dei latent in commendatione naturae The enemies of Gods grace welter themselves under the commendation of nature And Austine professeth it to be impiety and madnesse to deny that God can convert any mans will when hee will and where hee will And you blush not to professe in another discourse of yours that humility is the disposition which prepares us for grace I doubt you will finde little comfort in such humility and that at the day of judgement such humility will be found abominable pride What you meane by pledges I know not you love to walk in cloudes and in the darke if you mean the fruits of Gods temporall blessings how will you prove that these were evidences of that love which God man fested in the death of his Sonne And if it were so then this evidence should be manifested to all of ripe yeares for all are partakers of Gods temporall providence even they that have filled up the measure of their iniquity Yet then you usually professe God withdrawes his love from them but how can that bee if hee afford them the unquestionable earnests thereof as before you called these pledges whereas in the close you say that many are not acquainted with this manifestation of Gods love and that out of meere mercy it may well passe for one of your paradoxes I never doubted but that it was a mercy to know Christ and the love of God to the world in him but that it was a mercy to want Christ I never read nor heard till now Neither is it necessary that men though reprobates should be enraged to evill by the Gospell for God can make even reprobates to profit by it ad exteriorem vitae emendationem quà mitius puniantur To the outward emendation of their lives to the end their punishment may be the milder And we finde by experience that all were not enraged against it CHAP. XVIII Want of consideration or ignorance of Gods unfained love to such as perish a
every one I would I knew once what forme would satisfie you for I am apt to entertaine a resolution to gratifie you therein But to say that we must pray for all not in an indefinite but in an universall consideration if you could make me understand it I would soone come to capitulation with you In the meane time I appeale to your conscience did you ever pray in this stile for all and signifie that your meaning was to pray for them not in an indefinite but in an universall consideration I professe unto you if God should leave me unto my selfe and to follow mine owne desires I should desire not onely that all that now live but that all that ever lived might have beene converted and saved yea the Angels that fell might have been kept from sin or having sinned might have beene brought to repētance saved I see no cause why I should desire the contrary But considering the wil of God wherby the angels that fell are bound in chaines and kept to the judgement of the great day I dare not pray for their salvation And to pray that every one that now lives might be saved with submission to the will of God I see no incongruity but we have better grounds of faith and those sufficient to take up our thoughts especially in these daies wherein we live whereupon to proceed in the ordering of our prayers And I would be loath you should put upon us any course or forme of prayer for all which you practise not your selfe And if I knew your practice in this kinde I would soone give in mine answer whether I thought good to subscribe to your forme or no. In the next place you tell us that the reason why we are bound to desire the spirituall good of all men universally considered is because we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Here againe you bewray your jealousie of the weaknesse of your owne cause as when you content not your selfe in saying we must pray for all men but adde hereunto that we must pray for all men universally considered the opposite member wherto before you signified to be this To pray for all men indefinitly considered Now the Apostle is farre from these scrupulosities He simply exhorts us to pray for all men hee doth not adde as you doe We must pray for all men universally considered and not indefinitely Yet in no other sense you think it will serve your turne That reason of yours drawne from the conformity to the courses of our heavenly Father whereon you so much insist I have already shewed how little it serves your turne Now I will shew you how in another respect it is rather repugnant then consonant to your Tenet For that example of conformity is onely in an indefinite consideration thus Wee must pray not onely for our friends and them that love us but also for them that are our enemies and hate us and persecute us like as God doth good unto the just and wicked and not onely to the just and good To our desires you say wee must adde our endeavours that saving truth may be imparted to all It seemes you have not failed herein Now I would gladly know what those endeavours of yours have beene hitherto whereby you have endeavoured that saving truth may be imparted to the inhabitants of terra Australis incognita or to the Negroes or to the Tartarians yea or the Turkes Saracens or Arabians Hitherto you have seemed to dispute thus God will have it our duty to pray for the salvation of all therefore God willeth the salvation of all but now you dispute in a quite contrary manner thus God wils that all should come to the knowledge of his truth therefore wee must desire and endeavour that his saving truth may be imparted unto al. The consequence of your former argument is utterly untrue as I have already shewed and as Austin long agoe discoursed mans will in an holy manner may be contrary to the will of God and againe in a most unholy manner may the will of man be concurrent with the will of God As it is the duty of the childe to pray for the life of the father though God will have the father to dye and not live On the other side a wicked childe wisheth the death of his father in an ungracious manner yet it may bee that herein he concurreth with the will of God supposing as it may well be that God willeth the death of the father at the same time that the sonne wisheth it As for the second argument we deny therein the antecedent if you understand it of all and every one For the case is cleer that God doth not bring all and every one to the knowledge of his truth not because he cannot for doubtlesse he could bestow his Gospell upon them that want it as well as upon us that enjoy it therefore the reason must needs be because he will not As he plainly professeth he will bring a famine of his word upon a Land Amos 8. 11. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord God that I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the word of the Lord. vers 12. And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the North even to the East shall they runne to and fro to seeke the word of the Lord and shall not finde it So the Lord threatens the Church of Ephesus to remove her candlesticke out of his place Revel 2. and long before threatned the Iewes to take his vineyard from them and let it out to others that should bring him the fruit thereof in due season And it is very strange that these and such like judgements should come to passe and God should not will them This is the reason whereupon Austin is moved to enquire into a commodious construction of that place left otherwise we should fall upon a direct contradiction to the prime Article of our Creed and therefore after he hath given two constructions of the place the last whereof is this which you impugne but not answer his reasons which are two the one drawne from the analogie of Scripture phrase as where our Saviour saith unto the Pharises you tithe Mint and Rue and every herbe which phrase cannot be understood otherwise then of every kinde of herbe the other reason is that formerly spoken of as if we say That God willeth such a thing to come to passe which yet doth not come to passe we shall thereby deny Gods omnipotency Yet see the ingenuity of this worthy father hee gives any man leave to give any fair construction of the place provided that God bee not made unable to bring to passe whatsoever hee will have to come to passe Et quocunque alio modo intelligi potest dum tamen credero non cogamur aliquid omnipotentem statutum voluisse fieri factumque non esse qui sine ullis
proving that which no Christian will deny For your conclusion is that God willeth not the death of any but the life of all whom of men or infidels he hath made Christians Did ever any Christian deny this Is this it you are to prove that God wils the salvation of all Christians Have you not rather undertaken to prove that God willeth not the salvation of all sorts of men onely which was Austins glosse and which you set up here as a mark to shoot at thinking by the power of your discourse to beare downe the authority and learned discourse of that worthy Father hereupon but that he willeth the salvation of every man of every sort throughout the world And this you would prove out of the doctrine established in the Church of England that is out of their Liturgie and three prayers therein you insist upon whereas the two first are apparantly nothing for the purpose whereof your selfe seeme to bee sensible enough and therefore the third place Triary like was to doe the feat and to cleare all and the conclusion herehence definit in piscem being no more but this that God willeth the salvation of all men whom he hath vouchsafed to make Christians which no man denies or cals into question May I not justly aske and that with admiration Quid dignum tanto tulit hic promissor hiatu Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus But what should move you to carie your selfe so preposterously and to balke or blast rather so faire a consequence and so beneficiall unto your cause as your antecedent doth bespeake For if your antecedent be true namely that God willeth not the death of any Turke Iew or Infidell will it not manifestly follow that God willeth not the death of any Turke or Iew or Infidell To my thinking it should follow as manifestly as to say that if the Sunne shineth it shineth though in my poore judgement this is identity rather then consequence or concomitance I say I wonder what moved you to blast this consequence with such a dash of your pen in the very face of it and the addition of such a proviso as this whom of men or infidels he hath made Christians First especially considering that no such qualification is in the antecedent and it is most unreasonable that any qualification should be foisted into a conclusion that hath no ground in the premisses especially it being such a qualification as utterly marres your market and that at the end of the day and you have a long time waited for a good penyworth and now your selfe are the man that cuts your owne throat Did the conscience of so foule a conclusion as was towards make you blush to put it in writing that cannot be for you have it full and whole in the antecedent though straining to proceed most indecently it fares with you as it doth with the horse in the Poet Peccat ad extremum ridendus ilia ducit Or by the way did your consequence suggest unto you that the argument drawne from this prayer proves no more but this that God will save every Iew Turke and Infidell in case he be first made a Christian If so then the supposed consequence in your antecedent was made against your conscience and therefore by the consequence herehence made you desired to strangle it that so the birth of it might bee abortive Yet because you carie some shew of argumentation in the antecedent I will not trust to the corruptnesse of your consequent deduced therhence but I will take the pains to strangle it my selfe since the presse hath brought it to light your antecedent is this If God therefore will not the death of any Jewe Turke or Infidel because of nothing he made them men Now this includes such an Enthymeme Of all Turkes Iewes and Infidels it is true that God of nothing hath made them men therefore he will not the death of any Iew Turke or Infidel Now I say this consequence is notoriously false and in stead of your proving it in any manner I disprove it in this manner Of all Devils it is as true that God of nothing made them angels shall I herehence inferre therefore he will not the death of any devill So likewise of all cats and dogs horses and hogs it is as true that God of nothing made them such as they are will it therefore follow that God willeth not the death of any of them But perhaps some may say that the Collect implyeth some such argument for it runneth thus Mercifull God who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made have mercy upon all Jewes I answer first here is no such argument implyed as to inferre that God will not the death of any Iewe Turke or Infidell but onely it implieth a reason why we pray God to have mercy upon all Iewes Turkes and Infidels But albeit we doe thus pray for all yet it followeth not that God will save every Iew Turke and Infidell that liveth as before I have shewed For who doubts but the childe is bound to pray for the recovery of his fathers health being cast downe upon the bed of sicknesse at what time it may bee it is Gods will that his father shall not recover but dye the death Secondly the complete reason why we pray for all signified in this praier is not this because God hath made all men and hateth nothing that he hath made for by the same reason we might be urged to pray for devils as well as for men This is onely a part of the reason not the whole reason The whole reason is this Who hast made all men and hatest nothing that thou hast made nor wouldest the death of a sinner but rather that he should be converted and live And we finde by manifest experience that most wicked men are converted and God hath revealed unto us that the fulnesse of the Gentiles shall come in Rom. 11. and that then shall be the calling of the Iewes therefore wee pray for the fulnesse of the one and of the other but with submission unto the will of God as touching the time of this and the manner how Thirdly and lastly like as it followeth not that because we must pray for all men therefore wee must pray for every man throughout the world in like sort it followeth not that because our Church prescribes us to pray for all Iewes Turks and Infidels therefore it prescribes us to pray for every Iew Turke and Infidel throughout the world and looke what restraint may be laid upon all men the very same restraint of interpretation may be laid upon all Jewes all Turkes and all Insidels Yet you keep your course and tel us that as God made all things without invitation a prettie phrase for them that affect eloquence beyond intelligence out of meere love made nothing hatefull Apply this I pray to devils and see whether we have not as good a ground to pray for them
Ezek. 14. 23. They shall comfort you when you see their way and their enterprises and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it saith the Lord God Secondly when God doth chastise not as parents for their owne pleasures but with an eye to the good of those whom hee chastiseth Rom. 12. 10. According thereto is that of Augustine Qui trucidat non considerat quemadmodum laniet sed qui curat considerat quemadmodum seret This is my answer following the course of your owne reading of the place whereas Piscator blames the vulgar translation in this place which you follow for saith hee in the Hebrew it is not I will not the death of a sinner but this I am not delighted in the death of a sinner But saith he A man may will that wherein he takes no delight as a ficke man may will to drinke a bitter potion wherein he takes no delight For he may will to take it not for it selfe but for something else to wit to recover his health And so God willeth the eternall death of reprobates for his owne glory to wit for the manifestation of his just wrath in punishing of their sinnes And Iunius reades it and translates it in like manner and with these accordeth our last English translation As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turne from his way and live Ezek. 33. 11. And the 18. of Ezekiel doth cleare the meaning of the Holy Ghost where the same phrase is used and in the same manner translated by our worthiest Divines and followed in our last translation vers 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye saith the Lord God and not that hee should returne from his waies and live and verse 32. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God wherefore turne your selves and live ye Now in this chapter the Lord justifieth himselfe against an imputation of harsh if not unjust dealing as if hee punished the children for the sinnes of their fathers which in a proverbiall manner was delivered thus The fathers have eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge which might occasion a desperate disposition in them and provoke them to cast off all care of amending their waies and turning to God by repentance because all was one whether they repented or repented not because the sowre grapes which their fathers had eaten were enough to set all their teeth on edge Against this the Lord made a solemne protestation that all soules were his even the soules of the children as well as the soules of the fathers and that the soule that sinned that should dye and hereupon expostulates with them thus Have I any pleasure in the death of a sinner to wit so as to bring death upon him notwithstanding his repentance because forsooth his father had eaten sowre grapes No no the Lord hath no delight in their death but if they returne and live hee delights in that and therefore concludes with exhorting them to returne unto the Lord that they may live Now when you forsake the translation of our Church and slicke unto the Vulgar corrupt translation to hold up your odde conceits doth it become you to make question whether they that oppose you in your extravagant tenents and proofes have subscribed to the booke of Common Prayer Piscator proceedeth further and saith that the meaning is not simply that God delights not in the death of the wicked but in case he ceaseth not from his iniquity as appeares saith he by comparing of it with that which goeth before and with that which commeth after for otherwise God takes delight in all his workes like as Lyra upon Ezech. 18. Punitio improbitatis bene est à Deo volita quia justa In Proverbs 1. 26. thus we reade I will laugh at your destruction and mocke when your feare commeth How are these places to bee reconciled Piscator answereth God is not delighted in the death of man as it is the destruction of the creature but is delighted therein as it is the just punishment of the creature which is as much as to say he delights in the execution of his owne Iustice like as wee reade Ier. 9. 24. Let him that glorieth glorie in this that he understandeth and knoweth me For I am the Lord which shew mercy and judgement and righteousnesse in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. 4. Now as if you had made all sure on your side partly out of our authorized devotions wherein you make choice of three prayers whereof two are nothing to the purpose and the third at your uttermost straining of it doth but encourage you to conclude finally that God wils not the death but the life rather of them that of Infidels are made Christians and partly out of the Catechisme where you finde that Christ hath redeemed all mankinde which hath no coloutable extent further then all men and without manifest opposition to Austin you finde this phrase will not serve your turne whom yet you oppose so as without answering any one of his arguments one whereof was drawne from analogie of Scripture phrase another from manifest reason professing therewithall that your construction of this place contradicts the prime Article of the Creed And last of all driving the naile of your discourse home with a concludent proofe depending upon a translation of the text quite different from the most authentique translation of our Church which yet must be without prejudice to your conformity having a sound heart of your owne and therefore some peccadilies may bee well borne withall and you take liberty to question others your opposites whether they have subscribed or no to the booke of Common Prayer such is the height of your imperious cariage bearing downe all before you Now you come to enquire By what will God doth will they should be saved that are not saved and you demand whether God doth will their salvation by his revealed and not by his secret will As if this were our opinion whereas neither Calvin embraceth it nor Beza nor Piscator but all concurre upon that interpretation which Austin gave many hundred yeares agoe and which you impugne and how judiciously we have already considered Peter Martyr proposeth it amongst divers others but embraceth it not neither doe I know any Divine of ours that embraceth it Cajetan indeed embraceth it and Cornelius de Lapide and Aquinas amongst other interpretations As you doubt whether your opposites have subscribed to the booke of Common prayer so if you take a liberty to put upon us the opinions and accommodations of distinctions used by Papists you may in the next place make doubt whether wee have not subscribed to the Councell of Trent We plainly deny that God doth will the salvation of any but of his elect For to
not all possibilitie of amendment being taken from him My opinion to the contrary is that no man hath filled up the full measure of his iniquity till death As touching the possibility of amendment I acknowledge none in man without the regenerating grace of God whereby he gives man repentance Neither do I know any time in the course of mans life wherin any man is excluded from possibility of repentance by the grace of God We know God gave the thiefe repentance upon the crosse Our Saviour gives us to understand that God calleth some at the very last houre of the day Paul admonisheth Timothy to carrie himselfe gently towards them that are without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if so be God at any time may give them repentance that they may come to amendment out of the snare of the devill by whom they are led captive to doe his will Of old it was wont to be said Inter pontem fontem and the like is usuall amongst us Betweene the stirrop and the ground Mercy I askt mercy I found All this which followeth and which you have transcribed out of Bishop Hooper I finde nothing that contradicteth any of these assertions of mine or that justifieth any of your opposite assertions not in this which immediately followeth thus Every man is in Scripture called wicked and the enemy of God for the privation and lacke of faith and love that hee oweth to God Et impij vocantur qui non omnino sunt pij that is They are called wicked that in all things honour not God beleeve not in God and observe not his commandements as they should doe which we cannot doe by reason of this naturall infirmity or hatred of the flesh as Paul calleth it against God In this sense taketh Paul the word wicked So must we interpret S. Paul and take his words or else no man should be damned In all this I finde nothing to that purpose whereto you alledge it Yet by the way I am not of Master Hoopers opinion in saying that They were called wicked meaning in holy Scripture that in all things honour not God beleeve not in God and observe not his commandements as they should which wee cannot doe by reason of this naturall infirmity c. For all this is verified of the very Saints and children of God here on earth and I doe not finde that the Saints of God in holy Scripture by reason of their infirmities not honouring God not beleeving in God not observing his commandements in such measure as they should as God knowes and our consciences well know that in many things we offend all are therefore called wicked Especially considering that the Greeke word which Master Hooper aimes at and which hee renders by the word wicked in English is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as appeares by his reference to Rom. 5. 8. In this sense saith Bishop Hooper taketh Paul this word wicked when he saith that Christ died for the wicked Now this state noted by S. Paul in these words is not the state of grace but the state of sinne precedent to justification and the state of enmity against God as appeares by the two next verses Much more being justified by his bloud we shall be saved by his life 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne c. Whereby it is manifest that the state of sinne in which we were when wee were reconciled to God by Christs death was the state of enmity against God And indeed otherwise there were no place for reconcilement which consists in making them friends which before were enemies Neither doe I know any Divine of master Hoopers opinion in construing S. Paul in this manner as if these sinners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he cals wicked for whom Christ died were onely such as doe not honour God beleeve in God and observe his commandements as they should which wee know is incident to the very children of God and to the most righteous Saints that are on the earth who yet are never accounted in holy Scripture for ought I know the enemies of God Yet such are they termed for whom Christ died and who S. Paul saith are reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne I willingly grant that Christ died to procure the salvation of none but such as sooner or later should become the Saints of God to honour him beleeve in him and observe his commandements though not in such measure as they should by reason of the flesh which they carie about them still lusting against the spirit and this seemes by this place undoubtedly to be the opinion of Bishop Hooper though he erreth in the interpretation of S. Paul who in this place considereth not what shall be their condition sooner or later for whom Christ died but only sheweth what was their condition when Christ died for them thereby the more to commend the love of God towards us who sent his Sonne to die for us when wee were sinners and reconciled us to himselfe by the death of his Son what time we were his enemies And I am perswaded your selfe are of the same opinion with me in this though I will not say that the evidence of S. Pauls text seemed so plaine unto you this very way I have interpreted it that therefore you concealed S. Pauls passage mentioned by master Hooper thus When he saith that Christ died for the wicked and in the margent referres us to Rom. 5. 8. all which you have handsomly left out to what end I know not But hereby it comes to passe that the reader may be to seeke of that passage of S. Paul in case he have no other meanes to judge thereof then your transcribing it As for the reason of Bishop Hooper to justifie this interpretation of S. Pauls text it is nothing consequent as when he saith So we must interpret Saint Pauls words or else no man should be damned If S. Paul had said Christ died for all the wicked or for all sinners then indeed we should be driven to seeke out some such interpretation of the word wicked or sinners or else none should bee damned But S. Paul doth not say Christ died for all that are wicked or for all sinners but for us sinners his words are these God commendeth his love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Now he writes unto Christians and for such onely hee died though they were not Christians when Christ died for them but rather in the state of enmity against God And thus to appropriate Christs dying for mankinde doth manifestly appeare to bee master Hoopers meaning as before I shewed albeit he deviates from the right interpretation of S. Pauls Text in the place mentioned by him That which followeth doth in my judgement carie a greater shew of justifying your former assertions and yet but a shew neither as when he saith Now we know that Paul himselfe S.
no such obligation for t is not the blessings but the sanctified use of them that is a pledge and assurance to them of the favour of God unto salvation and so the sanctified use of Gods temporall curses are no lesse evident a pledge and assurance to them of the same favour of God For by chastising divers and sundry waies with crosses and afflictions hee manifests unto them that God receives them for his sonnes and so esteemes of them and not as bastards Heb. 12. 8. I am glad to heare you acknowledge that Of all the motions of our hearts and soules God is the sole author and guide For such acknowledgements are most rare with you and which you cannot embrace without manifest contradiction to your selfe and overthrowing all your discourse touching Gods decree which as you say decreeth contingency but not the contingent things themselves But the motions of the soule and heart are contingent things and these must needes he decreed by God if they be produced by God And if God be the author of them hee must needs produce them So that the whole tower of your discourse touching Gods decree is suddenly overthrowne by your selfe and that with the blast of this one sentence Besides when you acknowledge God to be the authour of all the motions of our hearts and soules you therewithall acknowledge him to be the author of evill motions as well as good For you doe nor say hee is the author of all good motions but of all whose motions in reference to our hearts our soules our strength God is the sole Authour and guide yet we dare not avouch that God is the Author much lesse the sole Author of all our motions without manifold distinctions And to my thinking it became you to be very cautulous of such assertions who are so apt to charge your opposites with making God the Author of sinne Of every action of man that is free wee maintaine man to be the author as well as God but man wee make in operation subordinate unto God the second cause unto the first This is true as touching actions naturally considered and as touching good actions but with a difference man in working any naturall action we make him subordinate unto God in respect of influence generall in working good actions wee make him subordinate unto God in respect of influence speciall But as touching evill actions there wee make man alone to be the author of them as they are evill without any subordination unto God in respect of any influence generall or speciall And cannot sufficiently wonder what improvidence hath overtaken you to out-lash in so strange a manner But even in this we acknowledge a providence of God confounding the wittes and longues of them that build up Babell I remember what the Prophet saith of the Aegyptians The Lord hath mingled among them the spirit of errours and they have caused Aegypt to erre in every worke thereof as a drunken man erreth in his vomit and how is that but in defiling himselfe and that which is before him oâ— his owne favourites that sit next unto him Christs yoake is easie and his burthen light to the regenerate but is it so unto naturall men doe they not account it coards and bands Psal. 2. Doth not the Apostle tell us The affections of the flesh are not subject to the law of God nor can be It seemes you are a very morrall man you do so willingly fall upon this theame of advancing the power of mans naturall morallity But I remember withall what Austine sometimes said Malo humilem peccatorem quam superbum innocentem And arrogancie is a speciall fruit of pride And you discourse in such sort of the nature of man as if it had never beene corrupt in Adam 4 If our love of God be raised from the beliefe of his loving kindenesse to us then our love to God is not the first conception or plantation of true happinesse but rather our faith as the Apostle plainely testifieth 1 Tim. 1. 5. saying The end of the law is love out of a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfained And neither the one nor the other is the worke of nature but of Grace nor the worke of God neither by influence generall and naturall but by influence speciall and spirituall As for the conclusion you deduce herehence it is well known that life and sense and reason we obtaine by course of nature and naturall generation of naturall and reasonable parents And to know that God gives all this and maintaines naturall generation by the counsell of his will that he it is that fashioneth us in the wombe is not knowne by light of nature for the greatest Philosophers knew not this but by light of grace and so the moanest christian comes acquainted with this mysterie But herehence to inferre that God hath a purpose to give me with them whatsoever good things my heart my sense or reason can desire is a verie loose inference God hath no purpose to give his own children whatsoever good thing they doe desire much lesse what they can desire Paul desired and prayed thrise to be delivered from the buffetings of Satan but God granted it not unto him Moses desired to go over Iordan to see the goodly mountain and Lebanon but it was denied him Abraham desired that the blessing might be conferred on Ishmael but could not obtaine it And no marveyle For God knows what is better for us then our selves the childe prayeth for his Fathers health sayth Austine but it is Gods pleasure to take him away by death God hath not promised to give us all that we desire much lesse that sense desireth but hath promised that all things shall worke together for our good even povertie as well as riches sikenesse as well as health and adversitie as well as prosperitie For every creature of God is sanctified unto them that beleive and know the truth This is the faith only of a childe of God who is the heyre of the World by faith in Christ. But to say of all and every one hand over head that God hath a purpose to give them all eternall life is your common errour that now is like an hereditary sicknesse unto you driving you to maintayne two foule tenets the one that God is not omnipotent as purposing to give that which he never performes a manifest signe that he is not able to performe it as Austine many hundred yeares agoe disputed Enchirid 95. Deus noster in caelo sursum in caelo in terra omnia quaecunque voluit fecit Quod utique non est verum si aliqua voluit non fecit quod est indignius ideo non fecit quoniam ne fieret quod volebat omnipotens voluntas hominis impedivit And Enchirid. 96. Deo procul dubio quam facile est quod vult facere tam facile est quod non vult esse non sinere Hoc
this Such an hight of sinne implyeth a contradiction to infinite justice to vouchsafe them any favour Now of this proposition of yours I see no reason Nay I seeme to observe manifest reason to the contrary For justice consists in giving to every one his owne Now seeing the wages of any sinne is death even everlasting death Not to condemne him that hath deserved to be condemned seemes as contradictory to justice as not to condemne him that is come to an hight of impiety And which is more many thousand infants perish in Originall sinne and yet we beleive that Manasses who unto Originall sinne added many abominable sinnes was notwithstanding all this saved and will you say there was any contradiction unto Gods justice in all this And I wonder you so much beate upon the contradiction unto Gods justice and take no notice of Gods mercy whereas we doe not consider the pardoning of sinnes as an act of Gods justice but rather as an act of his mercy and without quest on it is not contradiction to Gods mercy to pardon any sinne And God is mercyfull as well as just and it is very absurd in my judgment to say that God in performing an act of mercy contradicts his justice as well as to say that in performing an act of justice he contradicts his mercy And the reason is because it is indifferent to God to exercise eyther his mercy in commiserating whome he will or his justice in hardening whome he will And therefore when the Apostle proposeth such an objection against his former doctrine of election reprobation as this What shall we say then is there any injustice with God He answereth it by this that God is free and hath a lawfull power to exercise mercy and compassion on whome he will God forbid sayth he we should thinke so For he sayth to Moses I will have mercy on him to whome I will shewe mercy and will have compassion on him on whome I will have compassion And yet I pray consider what colour of contradiction to Gods justice in pardoning the sinnes of them be they never so many never so fowle for whome the sonne of God as you say hath suffered the sorrowes of death and therby made full satisfaction for all theire sinnes unlesse you will say that Christ dyed to make satisfaction for originall sinne only and not for sinnes actuall or for some of theire actuall sinnes and not for all to which strange and uncouth opinion You seeme to incline in the end of your 15. Chapter where you say that Christ only receaved our infirmities and originall disease and not the contempt of him and his law I have cause to suspect that you concurre with Arminians in maintayning that all Infants the very children of Pagans Turkes and Saracens that perish in theire infancy are saved For how can it be conceaved that any improvement of evill inclinations is made in them unto such an hight as that it should imply contradiction to Gods justice to shew them any favour And where such an hight of impiety is not you professe they cannot be excluded from all fruits of his love Yet I confesse theire soules have a being and that eternall and if this be a fruit of Gods love then though the hight of impiety be never so greate yet is no man or devill excluded from this fruite of Gods love For they shall continue for ever and that to theire everlasting wo. As touching your manner of expressing your meaning this increase of sinne you call the sinister use of contingency that God hath bestowed upon them your meaning must be the sinister use of the liberty of theire wills which in your phrase is the sinister use of contingency wherof I am perswaded you can give no example And by the way I observe you suppose in every naturall man a power to use the liberty of his will eyther will or ill I had thought and doe still thinke there is no power in carnall man to use theire naturall liberty well but only to use it either in this or that subject but so as still the use of it shall be evill For the affection of the flesh is not subject to the law of God nor can be sayth the Apostle and every man is dead in sinne till God quickneth him Ephesi 2. 2. And a dead man can performe no action of life naturall if dead naturally no action of life spirituall if dead spiritually But whether naturall inclinations unto evill may be thus farre improved in the children by theire Forefathers on no you say is disputable but in another place that is it is a disputable question whether children may not by the sinnes of theire Father be so farre corrupt that it implyeth contradiction to Gods justice to shew them any favour You might as well say it is a disputable question whether there be any God or no For that there should be a God and yet not able to cure the naturall corruption wherein any man is borne is contradiction And if he were then sure he were able to shew them no small favour And as for contradictions to Gods justice there is so litle colour herof in the saving of Infants that on the contrary there is nothing the condemnation of the Sonne of God alone excepted wherin the justice of God is more obscure then in the condemnation of Infants I thinke you have litle minde to come to an accoumpt how you doe accommodate this your doctrine unto Infants yet you must be called hereunto whether you will or no unlesse you clippe the wings of your generall propositions as when you say None can be excluded from the fruits of Gods love untill the improvement of inclinations naturally bent to evill come to that hight of impiety as to imply a contradiction for infinite justice or equity to vouchsafe them any favour Yet by the way you put in an exception concerning Infants and that is in case there be a neglect of duties to be performed to them by theire Elders why doe you not speake plainly and say saving in case they are not baptized And what thinke you in this case Are they damned I cannot beleive you thinke so yet the face of your discourse lookes this way I say I cannot beleive it and that for two reasons The one is because the tenour of your tenet caryeth you rather to maintayne with the Arminians that all children dying in theire Infancy though they dye without the Church are saved My second reason is because herein you should directly contradict the discourse Kinge Iames had with certaine Divines a litle before his death and his apparent profession to the contrary not as his private opinion but as the opinion generally of our Divines whome he had learned in his younger dayes to have censured Austine for his opinion to the contrary as one that was Durus Pater Infantum Now I am so well perswaded of you that I thinke you would not