not make use of no not so much as to exempt and free themselves from that servitude of sin which is superadded to sin Originall As for Doctor Jeremy Taylor you should do well to stop his mouth first not by impotent and unworthy insinuations but by solid and convincing Arguments before you invite or provoke others of his minde to open theirs But why disown the Pelagians no more would you not persuade your Reader that Doctor Taylor is a perfect Pelagian and is not this suggestion as odious and uncharitable as the self-devised tale with which you charged Tilenus even now how then comes it to passe that so honest a man as Master Baxter is found guilty of it not against the poorest neighbour but against a very learned and worthy person though haply his enemy for telling him some truths that go against the grain of his interest Popularity or Ambition M. Baxter may remember a little Pamphlet intituled A Testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ c. subscribed by 52. Ministers his Brethren within the Province of London Pag. 4. with the 9. wherein amongst other abominable errours damnable heresies and horrid blasphemies they reckon this for one That Christ was given to undergo a shamefull death voluntarily upon the crosse to satisfie for the sin of Adam and for all the sins of all Mankind Now seeing the Pelagians are charged by the Ancients with this Doctrine that Christ did not die for all as appears by Saint Austin contra 2. Epist Pelag. l. 2. c. 2. Pelagiani dicunt Deum non esse omnium aetatum in hominibus mundatorem salvatorem liberatorem c. Suppose a man should return Master Baxters language upon his Party Those of you that are of the 52. Ministers mind in this speak out and disown the Pelagians no more How would they take it or how would Master Baxter interpret it This would be called a shamelesse calumny at least a perverse insinuation in Tilenus though it must passe currant for a piece of ingenuity and candor in himself But doth not Doctor Taylor in stating the Question that there may be no clamours against the person interested in either persuasion nor any offence taken by errour or misprision tell you It is not intended nor affirmed that there is no such thing as Originall sin for it is certain Further explicat p. 452 and affirmed by all Antiquity upon many grounds of Scripture That Adam sinned and his sin was Personally his but Derivatively ours that is it did great hurt to us to our bodies directly to our souls indirectly and accidentally So great hurt that the Doctor saith Pag. 431. in his Vnum necessarium That our Spirit when it is at the best it is but willing but can do nothing without the miracle of Grace He doth not stick in his Answer to the L. Bishops second Letter Pag. 101. to call it the Pelagian Heresie and saith it did serve it self by saying too little in this Article And in his Vindication to the Countesse of Devonshire Pag. 101. he saith I desire to be observed in opposition to the Pelagian Heresie who did suppose Nature to be so perfect that the Grace of God was not necessary and that by Nature alone they could go to heaven which because I affirm to be impossible and that Baptism is therefore necessary because Nature is insufficient and Baptism is the great channell of grace there ought to be no envious and ignorant lâ—â—d laid upon my Doctrine as if it complied with the Pelagian against which it is so essentially and so mainly opposed in the main difference of his Doctrine I do not insert this as if I had a minde to vindicate the Doctors opinion or espouse his quarrell he is of age to answer for himself but to give the Reader notice of the disingenuous practises used by this great pretender unto truth and Godlinesse in his unworthy defamation of some no lesse than in his undue vindication of others But for the Doctors honour and comfort M. Baxter puts him amongst very good company Saints Rest par 1. pag. 154. m. under this accusation viz. All the Fathers of the first two hundred or three hundred years and the plain truth is saith he till Pelagius daies all spoke like Pelagians And yet how this opinion can be true I understand not seeing S. Austin maintains his Doctrine against the Pelagians by the Authority of all the Fathers that wrote before him and condemneth that of Pelagius as a recent errour or novel Presumption However M. Baxter should do well to consider that the Manichees are at least as ill as the Pelagians and therefore he should take heed he runne not into the extreams of very many Calvinists who think they are never safe from the danger of this Charybdis till they fall into that Scylla And if I should say the Synod of Dort did so he would not spare to tell me as he doth Tilenus here that he speaks bitterly of them Why bitterly Some men are so tender of their very errours that they are ready to complain Truth bites them when she doth but imploy her tongue to lick their soars in order to their healing All other mens Gall and Copperas it seems doth corrode and fret but Master Baxters is purely Balsamical But is it all Gospel that was said by Saint Austin or the Synod of Dort Harae saith Augustinum tam varium fuisse in fervore disputationis hujus ut passim nec secum nec cum Scriptura conciliari possit De grat lib. arb lib. 2. cap. 14. You dissent from the first as much as Tilenus and the Canons of the later are no Authentick Text with you unlesse you may be allowed to make your own exposition So you professe in your Confession of Faith concerning Artic. 1. Sect. 12 Art 3. Sect. 12. 15. Art 5. Sect. 9 Pag. 25. 10 11 13. And having cleared your self of the imputation of Arminianismâ— you proceed in these words So I shall think that those who go as much on the other hand and differ from the Synod one way as much as the Arminians did the other way remain censurable as well as they and soon after Yet let me adde this Pag. 27. lest my seeking to satisfie the offended may draw me into guilt Though I have voluntarily my self professed my consent to those severall Canons and Confessions of Faith but this is upon liberty taken to explain what Phrases you dislike in them and putting your own sense upon them and therefore you might very well subjoyne what followes Yet for the Synod of Dort the Confession of the Assembly yea or the Larger Catechisme without some correction I do hereby protest my dissent against the so imposing them to a word upon all Ministers that no man that cannot subscribe to them shall be permitted in the Church whether our confession were intended for such a necessary Test I know not well But that the
Act of Reprobation whether it be Negative onely or Negative and Affirmative also The Synodists are not all of one minde in this point neither For the Hassien Divines say The Divines of the Reformed Churches do think we must accurately distinguish betwixt the two Acts of Reprobation whereof one is negative viz. The purpose of God not to have mercy or preterition The other affirmative viz. his purpose to damn or ordination to destruction as a just punishment Act. Syn. Dor. pag. 33. part 2. And the Churches of Wedderav There are two acts of Reprobation Preterition or Non-election and Damnation or preparation of punishment ibid. pag. 40. Thes 2. item pag. 45. th 2. But the Divines of Great Britain were of another opinion For they say The proper acts of reprobation as it is opposed to election we think to be no other then the deniall of the same glory and the same grace which are prepared for the children of God in election And in the Decree of election are prepared for them Glory and effectuall Grace and with that intention that it should be effectuall that is that by such grace they may be brought infallibly to the said Glory That such Grace and Glory is prepared for the Reprobates we deny ibid. pag. 11. a. m. These differences we observe amongst them in matters that relate to Tilenus his first Article So in reference to the Second Article If you inquire I. Whether Christ hath dyed for All or onely for the Elect you will finde them whatever they seem to say in the full Synod according to their Chamber Practice to contradict one another For the Divines of Great Britain do determine That God pitying mankind faln sent his Son who gave himself a price of Redemption or a Ransome for the sins of the whole world Acta Syn. Dor. pag. 78. Thes 3. part 2. Martinius giving in his Suffrage upon this Article doth resolve thus There is a certain Philanthropy of God whereby he loves all mankinde fal'n and seriously would have them all to be saved ibid. pag. 103. Thes 1. Th. 8. If this Redemption be not supposed as a common benefit bestowed upon all that indifferent and promiscuous preaching of the Gospell committed to the Apostles to be performed amongst All nations will have no true foundation Et thes 9. And seeing we abhorre to say this it is to be considered how much they speak against most clear and known principles who at their pleasure do plainly deny that Christ died for all men Thes 10. Neither will it satisfie to propose such a sufficiency as might be enough but such as is altogether enough in God's and Christ's account For otherwise the command and promise of the Gospell will be overthrown For Thes 11. from a benefit that is sufficient indeed but not designed for me by a true intention how can there be deduced a necessity of my believing it to belong unto me And Thes 26. he gives the chief Reasons which induced him to be of this opinion which are three 1. That the Scriptures might be reconciled without wresting 2. That the Glory of Gods truth mercy and justice in the commands promises and threatnings of the Gospell might be preserved lest by these God should be thought to will and do something otherwise then the words signifie 3. That it may be manifest that the blame of the destruction of the wicked may be in themselves not in the defect of a remedy by which they might be saved Thus Martinius sent to the Synod from Breme Act. Syn. Dord part 2. pag. 104. c. And Ludovicus Crocius another of the Bremish Divines sets down his opinion somewhat to the same purpose though not so well or so fully as M. Baxter doth intimate See ibid. pag. 117. Thes 2.3 But the Divines of the Palatinate were of another judgement for they say That the generall love of God to sinners is remarkable But that Love is more excellent which moved God to give his Son to save us from our sins This is not generall but speciall not common to all and every man but proper to the elect ibid. pag. 83. And the Divines of Geneva to the same purpose Christ out of the Fathers good pleasure merely was destin'd and given to be Mediator and Head to a certain number of men constituting his body Mysticall by Gods election Thes 1. pag. 100. Thes 2. For these Christ who best understood his own office would and decreed to die and to adde the infinite price of his death a singular and most effectuall intention of his will And Iselburg saith Christ died or laid down his life for all and every one of his elect sheep or Faithfull and in their stead and for their good onely Ibid. pag. 111. Thes 3. And the Ministers of Emden say Christ according to the intention counsil and decree of his Father died onely for the Elect. Ibid. pag. 119. q. 4. The Belgic Professors say If you consider the proper end and the singular and saving efficacie of Christ's death we affirm that according to his Fathers and his own counsil Jesus Christ died not for the Reprobates and those that perish but onely for the Elect and those that do believe Act. Syn. Dor. part 3. pag. 88. f. The Brethren of North-Holland say The Scripture saith Christ died for All that is for All the Elect out of all sorts of men Ibid. p. 107. p. 108. They say That of the Remonstrants is false that the intention of the Father delivering his Son to death and of the Son in undergoing death was that by the same he might save all and every one though through the fault of many of them the matter happens otherwise The Brethren of Zeeland offer these Arguments such as they are against Christ's death for all ibid. pag. 112. Thes 2. 3. If Christ paid a price of Redemption for all and every man then All and every one ought to be saved and none to perish But this is false c. If reconciliation with God and remission of sins be impetrated for all and every man then the word of reconciliation is also to be preached to all and every one But the Consequent is false Ergo. The Deputies of the Synod of Groningen say we do believe that according to the Father's intention delivering his Son to death and the Son 's in suffering it reconciliation with God and remission of sins is obtained onely for the elect Ibid. p. 138. The Deputies of the Synod of Gallo-Belgia say That according to the Scripture Christ really died for none but believers And the will of the Father in sending his Son and of the Son in dying was no other Pag. 151. Thes 2. The Deputies of the Synod of Gelderland shall conclude this part of the contradiction and the Reader shall have their very Syllogismes that he may learn Logick with his Divinity Whosoever God calls to salvation purchased by the death of Christ for them Christ died But
to the Elect ONEly and that according to the counsil will and intention of the Father and this Master Baxter had under his view when he exprest so much wrath against Tilenus and therefore he confutes himself with this Confession They do indeed assert Art 2. Sect. 8. That it was onely the Elect that God the Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to faith justification and salvation which is the same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Who ought Master Baxter this shame to betray him to this incogitancy The same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Why was not that Election of some certain culled out Persons as the Synod declares So we see what Master Baxters Universall Redemption comes to His Redeemed All are no more then his Elected All 't is an All in respect of kindes not of Persons But Christ is theirs to be sute according to the most Free Counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father So saith the Synod and this Master Baxter will subscribe to when he is Disputing against Tilenus though when he gets into the Pulpit he declares this to be a Doctrine of an ill influence for he saith Christ and salvation are made light of because of this disjunctive Presumption either that he is sure enough theirs already Making light of Christ pag. 21. and God that is so mercifull and Christ that hath suffered so much for them is surely resolved to save them or else it may easily be obtained at any time if it be not yet so Is it not the expresse Doctrine of the Synod and Master Baxter that Christ is sure enough the Elects and that God and Christ are resolved to save them and that this will most infallibly be obtained at God's time if it be not so yet This disjunctive presumption which he preacheth down in his Church he disputes up in his Closet And though when he is conversing with his papers inter Adversaria and drawing Diagrams concerning the Divine Decrees his good wits jump with the Synod and tells us The Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to Faith justification and salvation none but the Elect yet when he hath his Crown which is his crowd of Auditors about him he forgets himself and if not his love to truth his zeale to souls transports him into other language much more patheticall then this Doctrine will allow of For thus he addresseth his exhortation to them Ibid. pag. 29.30 Beloved hearers the office that God hath call'd us to is by declaring the glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of mens souls I hope you think not that I come hither to day of any other Errand The Lord knowes I had not set a foot out of doores but in hope to succeed in this work for your soules I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousand should perish Now the man is in a rapture and hath quite forgotten his Decree of Reprobation when God hath done so much for their salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text Mat. 22.5 But they made light of it is the cause It is one of the wonders of the world that when God hath so loved the world as to send his Son and Christ hath made a satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the benefits thereof so freely to them even without money or price that yet the most of the world should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his word Is it one of the wonders of the world that Gods eternall and immutable Decrees concerning them should be executed Why here is the reason saith Master Baxter when Christ hath done all this men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling but your Synod hath shewed otherwise and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that men should be restored to Gods favour and be saved but men are actually unwilling themselves God takes no pleasure in the death of sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33.11 How came he then to reject them upon Adam's sin and deny them Grace sufficient unto salvation as you teach But men take such pleasure in sinne that they will die before they will returne The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physitian and hath provided them a sufficient plaister of his own blood but such as his Father intended should not be effectuall by your doctrine but if men make light of it and will not apply it which your Party confess they are not inabled to do what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition It is a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care their time their pains for known vanities while God and Glory are cast aside and a little after Oh how should we marvell at their madnesse and lament their self-delusion who preach such contradictions Oh poore distracted world â— what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another world or what Decrees had past to shut them up under sin and deny them the Grace of Faith and Repentance according to your Disputations then they had been excufable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it This is Master Baxters preaching vein by which his vulgar flock would be ready to flatter themselves that they had their Teachers warrant to be confident that God doth earnestly intend the salvation of them all But when this pang of soul-saving zeal is over that he gets into his Polemicall strain then he disputes them out of all their hopes again for thus he proceeds If this Tilenus think that God intended the justification and Salvation of all by Christ it 's absolutely or conditionally Here I wish Master Baxter had positively spake out what it is that God intends them whom he calls the Reprobate or Non-elect if not their Justification and salvation then I know nothing else it can be but their greater condemnation and then sure he is unwilling they should be restored to his favour which is opposite point blank against Master Baxters popular exhortations But if God intended their justification and salvation absolutely they shall be saved saith Master Baxter which no Christian that I know believeth Tilenus as little Christian as you make him is of This Faith too and therefore he saith God intended this but Conditionally But then Master Baxter tells us The rigidest Anti-Arminians even Doctor Twisse doth over and over grant it you and I thank him for nothing of Justification and salvation that Christ died to procure this Common Grace that men shall be justified and saved if they will believe The Reader perhaps may be amused
sanctification the work of Christ p 211 212 And the first part of our Redemption yet D. Twisse and M. B. affirm most absurdly that Christ hath procured remission and life for those for whom he hath not purchased sanctifying Grace p 213 M. B. own universalists are too strict for his pretensions p 214 215 A bountifull promise upon an impossible condition 216. unworthy the most mercifull God p 217 How God purposed to cause the condition of the new Cov. in us p 217 218 Something to be done by us in a way of order to the introduction of Faith and the work of conversion 219 to 222. And this is M. Baxters own doctrine p 223 He makes salvation possible in his Sermons even to such men as he makes it impossible unto in his disputations p 224 225 226 According to M. B. doctrine against Tilenus His directions to prevent miscarrying in Conversion should have been dedicated not to men but to God p 226 The sufficiency of Christs death is no proof of the universall extent of the benefit in respect of Gods intention p 227 The Synodists cannot affirm if they speak consonantly to their doctrine that the sins of the non-elect were laid on Christ p 228 229 M. B. as well as others do untie the end and means 229. and divide them The Syn. grants an Evangelicall command without Evangelicall power to perform it p 230 To promise and offer life upon conditions which are made impossible by the propounder is absurd and a mockery 231. But to torment such wretches as do not because they cannot perform those conditions and receive those promises horrible p 232 Whether Saving Faith Regeneration c be under promise or under Revelation onely The Calvinists differ and M. B. dissents from himself in this point p 232 to 235 He had reason to alter his opinion for they that hold them promises doe make a double Gospel to avoid which he makes use of this new Light and yet he avoids not the absurdity of making a double Saviour p 236 237 Infidelity cannot properly be the Reprobates own fault according to the Synods doctrine p 239 240 M. B. universall Redemption is not sufficient to free the Non-elect neither from sin nor punishment 241. Why it ought rather to be called universall perdition p 242 How God calls the Non-elect to Faith and Repentance according to the doctrine of the Synod p 243 M.B. in extremes p 246 M. B. sufficient Grace deficient and not such as that the Remonst mean by sufficient p 247 c. Gods speciall grace restrained by the Calv. to the elect and his common Grace of no advantage to the salvation of the rest 248 c. But administred onely to render them inexcusable p 249 M. B. if the Synods doctrine were true might with as much reason inveigh against the Devils as against the non-elect for making light of Christ p 250 For the non elect are more hardly dealt withall by that doctrine than the devils are p 251 M. B. sufficient Grace is ineffectuall of its own nature and kind 253. But that asserted by the Remonstrants becomes uneffectuall through mans voluntary and vincible fault p 254 c. The Remonst grant that men may be and are sanctified by that Grace which they affirm to be bestowed on the non-elect which Calv. will not allow of p 255 An exact Account of the power and operations of Grace according to the Remonstrants p 256 257 They grant that Grace works irresistibly upon the understanding and affections yea and upon the will too as to a collation of power ibid. c. Whether he that doth not oppose Grace and is converted hath more grace than he that doth oppose it and is not converted p 258 259 Though a supernaturall power to believe be conferred irresistibly yet the actuall consent is not so wrought and why p 259 If Faith be irrisistibly infused the word cannot possibly be the instrument or means of it p 260 Illumination performes the whole work of Grace according to Camero p 261 The Calv. do not bring faith and salvation to mans choice by their doctrine as the Rem do p 261 c. The glory of Conversion to be ascribed to God but the miscarriage in that work only to man p 263 255 The Remonst preserve to the will her liberty in the work of Grace p 261 How the soul comes to miscarry under these helps of Grace and to be seduced and led away by sensuality 264. And rebell against the light p 265 Conversion not wrought irresistibly but a matter of choice according to the doctrine of the Primitive Church p 266 Preaching and Hearing the means to make men willing p 269 Lesse Grace would convert some than what is ineffectual to others p 270 271 Conversion is from Gods Grace with the cooperation of mans will p 272 M. B. denies Gods praedetermination and asserts the wills self-determination and yet maintains insuperable determining Grace p 273 274 275 Grace irresistibly determining the will not necessary 276. not convenient for it overthrows that Dominion which the will is said to have of its own Acts. It destroys the nature of duty p 277 It evacuates the use of the Ministery the use of exhortation p 279 c. It furnisheth the obstinate with a just Apology against all exprobrations p 283 284 It takes away all praise of vertue p 284 285 It makes God the first deficient cause in mans sinning p 285 It is an Inlet to Enthusiasme 286. And disparages the sweetnesse of the Insinuations and motions of Grace p 288 What move Authours to conceale their Names p 291 After the Fall no liberty left in the will to do well p 292 The Devil hath the naturall faculty of Freewill as well as Man p 292 Men under an unavoidable necessity of good and evil 292 293. The Calv. deny onely a necessity of coaction in humane affairs p 297 298 Elect and Reprobates put under an unavoidable necessity of being saved or damned respectively according to the Calv. p 296 Spontaneity no good salvage for the necessity of sinning or the justice of perdition that follows it p 299 Men will take unworthy courses to promote the cause they have once espoused p 303 The Syn. but a party in those controversies though they took a solemn oath to be impartiall p 303 The equity of the Helvetians p 304 Originall sin yielded to M. Baxter 305. Whether Christ hath not restored the power that was taken away by original sin M. B. seems to be for the affirmative p 306 307 D. Taylor unjustly censured by M. B. for a Pelagian 308 309. All the Fathers of the first 300 years spake like Pelagians saith M. B. 310. The Manichees as ill as the Pelagians and the Calv. to avoid one extreme run into the other p 311 M. B. will not subscribe the Canons of the Syn. of Dort without his own interpretation 312. and consequently he had been served as the Remonstrants were if
too great integrity to impose upon his Adversary or his Reader so is he known to be of too great learning and judgement to encounter with shadows and Chimaera's of his own imagination How this Doctrine of Predestination is held forth by the other sort of Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians he that desires to be fully satisfied may procure his satisfaction at an easie expense both of time and money if he will consult that small Treatise translated and lately set forth by Master Tobias Conyers Page 91. 92. 94. 95. 96. under the Title of The Just Mans Defence But amongst other Reasons inducing these men to deliver the Doctrine of Predestination in a different manner and method from the former Arminius observes Ibid. page 97. this was not the meanest their willingnesse to prevent lest God with the same probabilitie should be concluded the Author of sinne from this their Doctrine as some of them have judged it concludable from the first But really saith He if with diligent inspection we well examine these Opinions of a later Edition compared with the Judgement of the same Authors in other points of Religion we shall finde the fall of Adam not possibly otherwaies considerable Page 98. according to the Tenents of these men then as a necessary executive means of the preceding Decree of Predestination Page 100. and a little after The third Opinion scapes this Rock better then the other had not the Patrons thereof delivered something for the Declaration of Predestination and Providence from whence the necessity of the Pall may be inferred which cannot have any other rise then Predestinatory Ordination Thus Jac. Arminius Our next inquiry that we may come to the certaine knowledge of the truth of this Matter of Fact for which you have with no little confidence to disgrace him questioned the integrity of our Tilenus shall be how the Articles charged upon the Calvinists were drawn up by the Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague Pet. Bert. Coll. Hag. p. 7. 8. The first head of Doctrine which They charge the Contra-Remonstrants or Calvinists whom they style their Brethren to account ORTHODOX is thus expressed word for word I. THat God as some speak by an eternall and unchangeable Decree from among men Supra-lapsarians whom he considered as not-created much lesse as faln ordained certain to eternall life certain to eternall death without any regard had to their righteousnesse or sinne to their obedience or disobedience onely because so was his pleasure or so it seemed good to him to the praise of his Justice and Mercy or as others like better to declare his saving Grace Wisdome and free Authority or Jurisdiction Means being also fore-ordained by his eternall and unchangeable Decree fit for the execution of the same by the power or force whereof it is necessary that they be saved after a necessary and unavoidable manner who are ordained to salvation so that 't is not possible that they should perish but they who are destin'd to destruction who are the farre greater number must be damned necessarily and inevitably so that t is not possible for them to be saved II. Sub-lapsarians That God as others would rather willing from eternity with himself to make a Decree concerning the Election of some certain men but the rejection of others considered mankinde not onely as created but also as faln and corrupted in Adam and Eve our first Parents and thereby deserving the curse And that he decreed out of that fall and damnation to deliver and save some certain ones of his Grace to declare his mercy But to leave others both young and old yea truly even certain Infants of men in Covenant and those Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy by his just judgement in the curse to declare his Justice and that without all consideration of repentance and faith in the former or of impenitence or unbelief in the later For the execution of which Decree God useth also such means whereby the Elect are necessarily and unavoidably saved but reprobates necessarily and unavoidably perish III. And therefore that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World died not for all men but for those onely who are Elected either after the former or this later manner he being the mean and ordained Mediator to save those onely and not a man besides IV. Consequently That the Spirit of God and of Christ doth worke in those who are Elected that way or this with such a force of Grace that they cannot resist it and so that it cannot be but that they must turn believe and thereupon necessarily be saved But that this irresistible Grace and force belongs onely to those so Elected but not to Reprobates to whom not onely that irresistible Grace is denyed but also Grace necessary and sufficient for Conversion for faith and for salvation is not afforded To which Conversion and faith indeed they are called invited and fairely solicited outwardly by the revealed will of God though notwithstanding the inward force necessary to faith and conversion is not bestowed on them according to the secret will of God V. But that so many as have once obtained a true and justifying faith by such a kinde of irresistible force can never totally nor finally lose it no not although they fall into the very-most-enormous sins but are so led and kept by that same irresistible force that 't is not possible for them or they cannot either totally or finally fail and perish Every branch of these five Articles you may see sufficiently proved in Appendice Pressioris Declarationis and by the severall Syllabi Testimoniorum inter Scripta Synodalia Remonstrantium After the Synod at Dort had declared their judgement upon those five Heads of Doctrine the Remonstrants abridged the same into these Compendious Articles I. Almighty God out of all mankinde considered in the same state or condition chose a few certaine men to eternall salvation without any respect of their faith repentance conversion or of any good quality but that he might bring those elect ones to the appointed salvation he decreed that his Son should suffer death for onely them yea even when they as well as others were faln into Originall sinne and eternall perdition by Adam's transgression that he might reconcile unto God them onely that he might in them onely work faith by a most powerfull working and force no lesse then that put forth in the Creation of the World or raising the dead that he might preserve in that saving faith unto their lives end those very men although faln into the foulest and filthiest wickednesses and sticking some while therein and at last might bring them into the possession of eternall life for no other cause but because so was his good pleasure But on the Contrary I. Almighty God would passe by the farre greatest part of mankind without any consideration of their own proper and avoidable fault that is to say of their own unbelief
and impenitence and would not elect them to salvation or have his Son die for them or give them power sufficient for their conversion even then when he invites intreats beseeches and beggs of them to answer his Calling them to salvation under the promise of the said salvation and the penalty of eternal damnation but will have them all born into the world to eternall and never-to-be-ended torments and pains of hell-fire and at length throw them headlong thereinto for no other cause but because it was his pleasure so to do II. That God would that Iesus Christ should suffer the most bitter and the most shamefull death not for all men but onely for the elect that for them alone by the shedding of his own precious blood he might purchase faith and all other saving gifts of the Holy Ghost that by his blood he might clense them from all their sins both Originall and Actuall committed as well after as before their faith might keep them to their last breath and at last bestow on them eternall life But on the Contrary That God would not that Christ should die for other Mortals that he should or might obtaine for them any saving gifts of the Holy Ghost but would that they should be left in Originall sin and should by consequent fall or rush headlong into other sins which necessarily flow therefrom that they should continue destitute or devoid not onely of power whereby they might turn and repent but also of all hope of grace and salvation till at length beeing inwrapped in an unavoidable necessity of sinning they should be thrust down with the damned Divels to eternall and infinite torments both of soul and body III and IV. That God doth communicate inspire and infuse into his Elect children not onely a power to believe but also the will to believe yea the very act of believing or faith by such a supernaturall most powerfull and at once most sweet wonderfull secret and unspeakable operation or working as in its power is no lesse or inferiour then that whereby the world was made or the dead are raised so that it remains not in mans power to will to believe or be converted but will they nill they they cannot but be converted and believe On the other side That God doth earnestly indeed call and invite to faith and repentance infinite Myriads or ten thousands of men with threatnings of eternall death and damnation yet so still as he wills not to communicate to them either faith or the power to believe and repent so that though they be called of God to faith yet they cannot but remain unbelievers And that yet notwithstanding all this he will punish and doth punish eternally with the most grievous and horrible torments of hell those very persons for that unbelief of theirs that was unavoidable V. God will preserve in the faith all those who are absolutely elected from eternity and are in time brought to faith by an Almighty and irresistible operation or working so that although they fall into foul and detestable wickednesses and villanies and continue in them some space of time against their Conscience yet the said wicked villanies do not hinder so much as a straw amounts to their Election or Salvation neither do they or can they by means of or because of these fall from the Grace of Adoption and from the state of Iustification or lose their faith but all their sins how great soever they be both which heretofore they have committed and those which hereafter they will or shall commit are surer than assuredly forgiven them yea and moreover they themselves at last though it be at their last gasp shall be recalled to repentance and brought over into possession of salvation That this is the perfect sense of the Synods Doctrine the Remonstrants have notably evinced in their ANTIDOTUM Continens Pressiorem Declarationem Propria Genuinae Sententiae Quae in Synodo Nationali Dordracenâ asserta est et stabilita For Daniel Tilenus it seemes he took the like course for whereas the Synod delivered their Iudgement about the First Head Divine Predestination in the 18 Articles and 9. Rejections He abridged the sense thereof into seven short lines and the Second Head about Christs Death comprised in nine Articles and seven Rejections into foure or five lines and the three and foure Heads concerning Mans corruption and conversion conteining seventeen Articles and nine Rejections into fourteen lines and the fifth Head of Perseverance dilated in the fifteen Articles with nine Rejections into lesse than foure lines And besides in Compiling his Articles Tilenus had respect to the Doctrine as it is asserted or held forth by the Synod of Alez which is not now in my power to give any account of But my Present task is to make it good that these Articles of Tilenus are consonant to the sense of the Calvinists Doctrine whether delivered in or out of the Synod The first whereof is drawn up and presented in these words That God by an Absolute Decree hath Elected to salvation a very little number of men without any regard to their faith or obedience whatsoever and secluded from saving Grace all the rest of Mankind and appointed them by the same Decree to eternall damnation without any regard to their Infidelity or impenitencie Here Master Baxter takes exceptions 1. Where talke they of a very little number For your satisfaction heare Martinius one of the most moderate of the Synod of Dort who saith that (a) In praefat excussioris placidae Citante Smoutio Eendrachts fol. 109. God according to his good pleasure hath reprobated the greatest part of men was it for sin Christ doth not teach so Mat. 11. nor the Apostle Rom. 9. Here we have the greatest part of Mankind under the Decree of Reprobation and that not for sin neither The lesse part therefore is Elected But we have another Synodist speaks more fully to the Article (b) Antonius Thysius ad Summam Baronis p. 10. 20 literis gg collatis God hath by his absolute and irresistible will reprobated the greatest part of Mankind by far and created them to destruction saith Ant. Thysius And what is the number of the elect then If it be not small enough yet Master Calvin expresseth it to a tittle The Election is of a very small Number of the Godly Electionem exigui piorum numeri Instit lib. 3. cap. 21. § 7. mihi pag. 592. 2. Master Baxter excepts It 's not true that they say he doth it without any regard to their faith or obedience whatever Witnesse to the contrary 1. Donteclock How can it be true that God did from all eternity consider us in Christ as faithfull On the contrary he chose from all eternity some certain persons without respect to faith or any other quality onely for his will and good pleasure Respons ad Anonym Quatern E. 2. Bucan What manner of persons are Elected Such as are unclean and wicked in
the sight of God Loc. com de Praedest q. 20. 8. The Contra-Remonstrants We do professe that God in his Election had no respect to faith foreseen perseverance or any other good quality Collat. Hag. pag. 126. 4. Damman Scribe to the Synode The Election was made without any consideration of faith foreseen In suo consens To whom I may adde Lubbertus a Synodist too who saith 'T is a humane invention that God decreed Salvation to us upon this condition if we would repent In Declar. Respons pag. 50. 3. Master Baxter excepts He unworthily feigneth them to say that God appointeth them to eternall damnation without any regard to their impenitency or infidelity The truth of this shall be tried by the Suffrages of 1. Calvin Predestination is Gods eternall decree whereby he appointed what he would have done concerning every man All are created in a like condition But eternall life is preordained for some eternall damnation for others And therefore as every man is created for either end so we say he is predestinated either to eternall life or eternall death Instit l. 3. c. 21. § 5. Therefore that frivilous shift of the Schoolemen concerning prescience is overthrown For Paul doth not say the ruine of the wicked is foreseen of the Lord but ordained by his counsell and will Idem ad Rom. 9.18 2. P. Martyr That any should be created of God that they might perish seems absurd at first sight But the Scripture speaks it In app loc com in loc de Praedest 3. Polanus Whom God predestinated to eternall destruction those he created to eternal destruction In Hoseam 13.9 4. Beza God destin'd to destruction not for corruption or the fruits of it but because so it seemed good to him de Praedest contra Castol pag. 416. in Notia min. N. T. ad Rom. 9.21 Seeing therefore that the shame of death eternall is signified by the name of dishonour they speak like Paul who say some are created of God to just destruction and they that are offended with this forme of speech do betray their ignorance 5. Perkins Every man is to God as a masse of clay in the hand of the Potter a◠Paul affirms and therefore God by his absolute soveraignty doth make vessels of wrath and not find them But he should not make them but finde them made of themselves if we should say that in his eternall counsil he passed them by onely as sinners and not as men De Praedest Gratia Dei pag. 16. 6. Ant. Thysius a Synodist Reprobation is decreed without any regard had to sin Ad Summ. Baronis ex Piscat Let not Master Baxter except against this and say that Reprobation is not the same with Damnation for it doth inevitably draw damnation after it as is acknowledged by Festus Hommius Scribe to the Synod in these words The fruits that follow Rejection are 1. The creation of the Reprobate 2. Desertion or withdrawing of Gods grace and means 3. Blinding and hardening 4. Perseverance in sin Thesaur Catech. fol. 216. Lastly all the Supra-lapsarians must give their votes for this opinion who make the object of Predestination Man considered either as created and not faln or as yet not created but possible to be created Thus Amesius 'T is neither necessary nor consonant to Scripture to assign any pre-required quality in man as the formall object of Predestination or any certain state of man so as to exclude the rest for it is sufficient to understand that man is the object of this Decree so that the difference which is found in men may follow from the Decree In Medull Theol. l. 1. c. 25. th 10. And Gomarus a Synodist Predestination is twofold One to Supernaturall ends which though at once in the accounts of eternity yet in order of nature goes before because the end for which a thing is is first in the intention of the wise The other unto Creation in Originall righteousnesse and other meanes Thes de Praedest disput 1604. Thes 12. Thes 13. The object of Predestination are Rationall Creatures not as really to be saved or damned created about to fall or about to stand about to be repaired but as in a remote and indefinite power are saveable damnable creable fallable repairable c. And upon these very grounds of Gomarus Maccovius disputes the point stifly for the Affirmative Theol. Disput 17. mihi pag. 59. From hence ariseth that bitter dissension betwixt the Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians wherewith Grevinchovius so worthily upbraideth Smoutius in these words Gomarus Festus and other Supralapsarians and thy self also if I be not deceived do contend bitterly against Donteclock Acronius c. That nothing more foolish ot more sottish can be fastened upon God then that He should have created Man not having first appointed his end that is to say the salvation or damnation of every one or rather the shewing forth of his wrath and power in the perdition of the Reprobates On the other side Acronius and the rest of the Sublapsarians exclaime as much against the Supralapsarians That nothing can be conceived more unjust than that Man should be reprobated and created to destruction whilest considered as not yet corrupted by sin Absters Calum Smout p. 51. And this I hope is sufficient for the proof of the first Article as to the matter of Fact The II. Article runs thus That Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world What saith M. Baxter to this Article Why A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends We must Impannell an honest Jury to try this too and 1. That Christ is said to have suffered onely for the Elect. Call in the Witnesses under written 1. Geselius what say you to the matter in question They do greatly erre that teach Christ died for all and every man Specim c. 9. fol. 36. 2. M. Perkins 't is expected you should give in a full testimonie for the Plaintiffe what say you The Ransome was designed by the Decree of the Father and by the intercession and oblation of the Son for the Elect onely De Praedest p. 20. 3. Piscator a knowing man he will speak the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth That Christ died sufficiently for every one is a false Proposition For he died onely for the Elect paying a most sufficient price of redemption for them namely his own precious blood the blood of the Son of God the blood of God himself But for the Reprobate he dyed in no wise whether sufficiently or effectually Contr. Schaff Th. 209. 4. Beza what can you say to this point for the acquitting of Tilenus I say Whether you consider the counsil of God or the effect of the Passion or both Christ died no way for the wicked In Thes cum D.
101. 3. Mehnius Justifying faith can never be lost because it is peremptorily given to the faithfull in perpetuum In Anchor Animarum pag 107 4. Whitaker This is that justifying faith with its necessary fruits which we maintain that we can never wholly lose In cygn. Cant. 20. 5. Piscator It is impossible true believers should fall from the faith the Decree and federall promise of God withstanding it In Resp ad Duplic Vorstii pag. 246. pag. 326. The naturall infirmity of the flesh whereby they may lose faith is so restrained and hindered by the absolute and effectuall decree of God that it cannot break forth into act Et pag. 238. There is a fatall necessity of the perseverance of the faithfull because it depends upon Gods absolute Decree 6. Contra-Remonstrantes They who have once believed have no need to feare perdition In Collat. Hagi p. 32. 7. Gomarus They who have received the gifts of faith and charity though in respect of their humane frailty 't is possible they may totally lose them yet in respect of the will of God and his gracious Conservation by his Spirit 't is impossible In Declar. sententia suae pag. 33. 8. D. Damman The Elect can never fall totally nor finally De Persever pag. 169. pag. 27. We know though the Spirit may be grieved in the faithfull yet can he not be totally excussed or quenched 9 Thysius But what is this to the Elect who though they do fall yet they cannot but be renewed Ad Sum. Baron pag. 73. And because M. Baxter calls that addition notwithstanding the most enormous sins they can commit a perverse insinuation Behold the Authors of it are 1 Contra-Remonstrants It is not true that they who may fall into grievous sinnes and commit the works of the flesh may fall wholly from the faith In Coll. Hag. in 5. Artic. 2. Zanchy Though by their grievous sins they may trouble the spirit and weaken faith yet the Spirit doth not wholly depart from them nor is faith wholly extinguished L. Miscel in depuls Calum pag. 305. 3. Rennercherus Those whom God hath once received into favour their sin and guilt being abolished them he preserves in his grace as just persons so that they cannot fall from grace and perish through any sins because they are and remain pardoned in them In Catena cap. 27. 4. Piscator The tenth head of Doctrine objected to our Divine is That the Regenerate cannot lose their faith through any heynous sins But this is the Doctrine that John teacheth Contra Schaff pag. 12. 5. Mehnius The sonnes of God though they fall into all the sins that Solomon committed they are alwayes converted before the day of death In Anchor Anim. p. 125. 6. Perkins The foundation of our salvation is laid in the eternall Election of God so that a thousand sins yea the sins of the whole world and all the Devils that are in hell can never make void God's election It may come to passe that sins may harden our hearts and weaken our faith and grieve the Spirit of God in us but they cannot take away faith nor quite excusse the Holy Spirit God doth not condemn any man for sinne whom he hath adopted into the number of his children in Christ Jesus In dialogo de statu homin pag 44. 7. D. Damman The Regenerate heaping up many sins cannot proceed so far as to excusse the Spirit of grace utterly through an universall Apostasie Et mox Because this seed of God cannot be ejected but onely by sinne therefore the Regenerate cannot eject it De perseverant pag. 33. pag. 20. If none can pluck them out of Christ or his fathers hands therefore not the Devill nor sin And pag. 128. The Regenerate when he sins against conscience he retains so much grace and hath so much of Gods favour that he cannot but rise again Item pag. 193. To the objection of Bertius It follows that if the Elect cannot die in mortall sins then if they alwayes go on in mortall sin they shall never die To this Doctor Damman answers I grant it But the question is whether the Elect can alwayes goe on in sinne and pag. 144. The decree of Election doth imprint upon man and his affections an inevitable necessity both of believing and persevering and therefore we think the righteous do alwayes persevere and cannot but persevere pag. 146. and therefore he concludes they need not consult about their perseverance nor feare falling from grace pag. 123. Thus we see the matter of fact is made evident throughout every one of the Five Articles and I hope this is more then abundantly sufficient to clear Tilenus from the guilt of the forgery unworthy falsification and perverse insinuations In Praefat. Sect. 5. which M. Baxter hath laid to his charge But Master Baxter will be ready to object you know that the Synod of Dort owneth none of these and it is that Synod that is the Test of the Calvinists Anti-Arminianisme How far the Synod owns these Doctrines we shall examine anon In the interim M. Baxter must not think to escape by telling us That Synod is the Test of the Calvinists Anti-Arminianism For that is not in question Every one may observe that the Project which that Synod did drive at and carried on was to cry down the Arminian Cause and Party and in this the Synodists agreed together †Adeo facile cocunt qui in fatalitatem absolutam tantū consentiunt An Deus ex parte una statuatur insipiens ex altera injustus fusque deque habent Salvo tantum fato Syncretismus Orthodoxus constat Hoc qui non admittit etiamsi non nisi verissima dicat in spongiam incumbat ex albo Orthodoxorum deleatur necesse est Absolutum Decretum id est fatum tessera est ex qua dignoscitur an quis sit Orthodoxus etiamsi id dicat unde necessario consequitur Deum esse insipientem stulium injustum Tyranno quovis crudeliorum peccati Authorem si quae alia ejus generis blasphema sunt Exam. Cens p. 63. b. sive Apol. pro Confes Remonstrant Supralapsarians of all sorts as well as Sublapsarians conspired in this But it is the Test of their Calvinisme that we are to bring them to And where shall we find such a Test as will secure us of the sincerity of these mens judgements Calvin himself is not such a Test He sometimes personates the Sublapsarian as the Synod of Dort a Act. Synod ed. in fol. 1. part p. 203. m. hath drest him up Otherwhiles he Acts the part of a Supralapsarian as he is brought upon the stage by the Remonstrants b Apolog. pro Confes Remonstr p. 64 65. And Beza treads in the very footsteps of his Master in this Art of double dealing as will plainly appeare to any that shall for his satisfaction consult the Remonstrants Apology cited in the Margin Shall we take the Synod of Dort upon M.
God calls not every man to salvation purchased by the death of Christ Therefore Christ dyed not for all Whomsoever God commands to believe in Christ crucified for them Christ dyed God does not command every man to believe in Christ crucified Ergo. ibid. pag. 93. II. If we inquire who then the Impetration of Reconciliation be to be separated from the Application of it we find them at Boy 's play at Heads and Hollies here too for some are for the Affirmative as Martinius That externall Calling doth necessarily require as going before it these things the promise and sending of the Son and the paying of a Ransome to take away sin and God so appeased that he requires no other sacrifice of any man for sin being content with that most full one of Christs and that there be no need of any other merit or satisfaction for mans reconciliation so that which ought to be done in all remedies there be an application of the medicine Act. Syn. Dord part 2. p. 104. Thes 7. thes 23. Christ hath merited for all God's favour to be really obtained if they do believe and so by Gods favour righteousnesse and life and Thes 24. This his favour God commonly declareth by his Gospel which notwithstanding because he keeps the merits of his Son in his own power as being given and propounded not by us but by himselfe he takes order it shall be published to whom he pleases and especially by that means it is effectuall in whom when and how far he pleases Thes 25. Hence it is manifest that the merit or impetration and the application are and are not of an equall latitude in a diverse respect Ludovicus Crocius is of the same judgement too Vid ibid. pag. 117. Thes 2 3 4. But these two great lights of the Church of Breme as far as I can observe for the present are eclipsed by the Negative Suffrages of all the rest of that Synod But first let us heare the judgement of Peter Moulin inserted amongst the Acts of the Synod Part. 1. pag. 292. The Sectaries saith He pretend that Christ by his death hath impetrated reconciliation and remission of sins for all and every man which is prest with so many Inconveniences saith He and draws so many wicked absurdities after it that it is a wonder they can strive against it Et paulo post God is manifestly illuded by this Doctrine and after Thus God is not onely illuded but He himself is feigned to illude mankind And in short he concludes that this impetration as distinguished from the Application is vain and ridiculous The Divines of the Palatinate say That it is an evident errour in the Remonstrants that they do divide and sever the impetration and application of the benefits of Christ according to severall objects and not judge them to be applyed to all those for whom they are impetrated Act. Syn. Dord part 2. pag. 87. To the same purpose the Helvetians pag. 94. thes 3. and they in the Name of the Churches of Wedderav pag. 97. thes 2. So the Divines of Geneva pag. 103. thes 7 8. And Iselburg contradicts his brethren before mentioned for he saith Whomsoever Christ hath reconciled to his Father by his death to all them and to them onely he doth apply truly certainly and absolutely that impetrated reconciliation with God and the remission of all their sins ibid. pag. 113. thes 5. See also Thes 4 6 7 8. So the Ministers of Embden pag. 119. quast 5. And amongst the Provinciall Divines see to this sense pag. 105. p. 109. m. 113. m. c. 134 135 137. f. 140. Thes 3 4. 145. p. p. 151. Thes 3. Part. 3. in folio III. If you inquire of those Divines whether all that heare the Holy Gospell be commanded to believe in Christ or no they are not agreed in this which is one of the chief fundamentall Articles They are yea and nay here too For the Synod saith Cap. 2. Art 5. It is the promise of the Gospell That whosoever believes in Christ Crucified should not perish but have life everlasting which promise together with the injunction of repentance and faith ought promiscuously and without distinction to be declared and published to all men and people to whom God in his good pleasure sends the Gospel Act. Syn. Dord part 1. pag. 252. But P. Moulin was of another judgement ibid. 294. The Sectaries saith he are alwayes up with this Argument What all are bound to believe is true But that Christ dyed for them all are bound to believe Therefore it is true The Minor of the Syllogisme is false saith D. Moulin And some of those who subscribed the Former Article have declared themselves of another judgement in their single Suffrages As the Deputies of the Synod of Gelderland who argue thus Whomsoever God commands to believe in Christ crucified for them Christ dyed God doth not command every man to believe in Christ Crucified Therefore Christ dyed not for every man They have somewhat a better Syllogisme following but the same doctrine still in these words They onely whom Christ calls unto him they onely are commanded to come unto him that is to believe in him Act. Synod Dort part 3. pag. 95. f. pag. 100. a. m. and after Christ calls unto him onely the thirsty the labouring burdened such as acknowledge their own blindnesse want and nakednesse Therefore Hereupon we do not command all promiscuously to believe in Christ though we presse this also that they cannot enter into life eternall nor be delivered from sin the wrath of God and damnation but through Christ onely Again in Questions relating to the third and fourth Articles you will be as far to seek if you have recourse to their judgement for a Resolution For herein they cannot agree upon a verdict how ever they made a shift to shuffle up their Canons and Rejections For inquire of them whether the unregenerate have power to understand the sense of Holy Scripture The Divines of Great Britain do affirm it To certain of the Non-Elect there is granted a kind of supernaturall illumination Act. S. V. part 2. pag. 188. by vertue whereof they may understand the contents of Gods word to be true and yield an unfeigned assent unto them De 5. Artic. Thes 1. And the Divines of Drent say That man faln by nature though corrupt can hear the word of God understand believe it to be true and in some measure be affected with it To which purpose Paul treats in the first and second Chapters to the Romans And this also appears from hence in that the Devils themselves who are faln more foully then man and wholly destitute of Gods grace yet can do these things Luk 14.13 Act. 16.17 Jam. 2.19 We therefore grant Act. Synod Dord part 3. pag. 211. f. in a sound sense what the Remonstrants say that by the strength of freewill men may attentively hear and read the Gospel revealed But the judgement
of the Brethren of North-Holland is otherwise for they say That the blindnesse of mans mind in spirituall matters is so great that although the Gospel be preached to him yet without the internall illumination of the Holy Spirit he cannot understand the sense of Scripture Ibid. pag. 175. p. 170. m. necessary to be known believed hoped in and practised And the Deputies of Over-Issel say The understanding being blind by its naturall power without some other and that a supernaturall or spirituall light Ibid. pag. 195. V. 169. it can by no means comprehend the good that is revealed by the Gospell And the Deputies of the Synod of Groning do affirm That an unregenerate man that is considered in the fall hath nothing in him whereby he is able to dispose himself unto supernaturall good The Holy Ghost doth expresly deny that man by the light and gifts of nature remaining in him Ibid. p. 206 may be raised to the true knowledge of God Ibid. p. 219. To the same purpose do the Deputies of the Synod of Gallo-Belgia expresse themselves In the state of sin say they the naturall man is blinde and perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God and that not onely because he is unable to find them out before their Revelation but also because after they are revealed to him he cannot savingly understand or yield assent unto them without the internall illumination of the Holy Spirit and speciall grace Again if you inquire whether the unregenerate be able to do any thing that may conduce to their comfort in gaining assurance of their election and regeneration The Synod doth at least imply it in the Chapter of Predestination Artic. 16. where they say That those who do not as yet effectually perceive in themselves a lively faith or a sure confidence of heart in Christ c. such as these ought not to be cast down at the mention of Reprobation nor reckon themselves among the reprobate but must diligently go forward in the use of those means by which God hath promised that he will work these things in us and ardently desire and humbly and reverently expect the good hour of more plentifull grace If this doth not imply a power in them to doe so as is here directed they do but trifle to no purpose but to blind the Reader That they speak here of the unregenerate appears 1. Because they propound the case of the Regenerate in the infancy of their Regeneration in the words following and sure they would not be guilty of so grosse a Tautology as to repeat the same thing twice in one Article 2. Because if this doth not concerne the unregenerate there is no light of hope in the Article no not so much as for the Elect that are yet in an unregenerate state and surely they would not be so negligent as to omit provision for their incouragement unto duty which therefore must needs be this they must use the means c. And yet to assert that the unregenerate hath any such power this is rejected as an errour that had troubled the Churches c. For that an unregenerate man is not properly nor totally dead in sins nor destitute of all strength tending to spirituall good but that he is able to hunger and thirst after righteousnesse or everlasting life c. This they reject Chap. 3. 4. Reject 4. Again if you inquire whether a man can do more good then he doth or omit more evill then he omitteth The Brittish Divines affirme he can whether you understand it of the unregenerate Act. Synod Dor. part 2. pag. 135. or of the regenerate But the Deputies of the Synod of Gelderland ib. part 3. pag. 164. do deny it for they Answer thus Per Gratiam Dei potest He may do it by the grace of God for he can do all things through Christ that strengthens him But without the grace of God he can do no such thing and he that saith the contrary He is injurious to the grace of God on one side and on the other side he falls into plain Pelagianisme as they say Here observe the question is propounded by them concerning the Regenerate one in a state of Grace and supposed to be under the influences of the divine assistance according to that state whether such an one can do more good then he doth or omit more evil then he omitteth Now they do not answer directly and positively that he can but with this addition By the Grace of God he can do it which is an insinuation of the negative that he cannot without a further measure of Grace superadded to that wherein being regenerated He is upposed to stand as was said before Again if we have recourse to this Oracle at Dort to be informed whether the New Covenant be made with all and every man and consequently whether the Promises of the Gospel be Generall Their Decisions are off and on here too videtur quod sic and probatur quod non For example The Divines of Great Brittain do affirm That there is an Vniversall promiscuous Promise Evangelical founded in the merit of Christs death De Art Part. 2. pag. 79. 2. Thes 4. Thes 5. They say That according to this promise salvation is offered unto all And Martinius saith That there is a common or generall love of God towards all mankind faln and that God seriously would have all men to be saved De Art 2. Thes 1. And accordingly He saith there is a promiscuous calling allotted to the Elect and Reprobate Thes 2. And a common execution or exhibition of Grace Thes 6. See the rest cited out of him above to the same purpose The Belgick Professors do affirm That it is not denyed by the Orthodox but to whomsoever the Gospel is preached the Ransome of Christ as such is to be declared indifferently and offered in Christs name and that seriously and according to the counsil of the Father c. Act. Syn. Dord par 3. pag. 88 m. But all are not of this mind For the Brethren of Vtrecht say The promises of the Gospel are universall but not simply as belonging to every one of all kinds but to all and every believer and elect person Ibid. pag. 118. and 123. As concerning the new Covenant's being establisht with every man we answer that whether God could do it or no we will not dispute but that he would so establish it we deny Of the same judgement are the Deputies of the Churches of Friesland Ibid. 130. And the whole Synod rejects it as an error in them that teach That all men are received into the state of reconciliation and grace of the Covenant so that no body shall be condemned for Originall sin nor in respect of it be liable to death or damnation but that all are acquitted and freed from the guilt of that sin Cap. 2. Rej. 5. pag. 253. Let us ask them another Question viz. Whether God
most profitable and most necessary to the obtaining of Faith and the Spirit of Renovation as the Remonstrants do expresly teach Also That a man in the state of sin before his Regeneration and Vivification hath the knowledge of his spirituall death grief and sorrow for it desire of deliverance hunger and thirst after life likewise confession of sins contrition initiall fear c. as our Brethren the Remonstrants speak at the Conference at the Hague All this they reject Ibid. p. 144. Reject 6. The Divines of Embden are of the same judgement Vid ibid. pag. 178. Quaest 13. Those of Vtrecht say The heart and affections of an unregenerate man are quite corrupt so that till he be regenerate he cannot hunger after the salutary grace of God and newnesse of life nor desire deliverance from sin nor beg the Spirit of Regeneration Part. 3. pag. 184. Thes 6. The Deputies of the Synod of Groningen deliver themselves to the same sense too Ib. pag. 73. p. But it is high time to explore the judgement of these Divines in some few points relating to the Fifth and last Article Touching which the first thing I shall propound for the Reader 's satisfaction shall be Perseverance be a Condition of the yea or no The Divines of the Palatinate a Judic de Artic. quinto inter Jud. Th. exter p. 206. a. m. say That Perseverance is God's gift But the Remonstrants are deceived and do deceive in that they think Perseverance being reckoned an effect of Election and a gift of God cannot be a Condition of the Covenant commanded by God and to be performed freely by us As if these were inconsistent and repugnant being rather subordinate and very Consentaneous For God who in the New Covenant prescribes the condition of Perseverance to all the adult that are in Covenant and by that prescript requires it doth not leave it suspended upon the strength of their free will but doth effectually work and produce it in them That it is a condition and under command though it be the gift of God is the acknowledgement of the b Judic de 5. Art inter Jud. Th. pro p. 221. a.m. Belgick Professors and of the Brethren of Vtrecht c Ibid. pag. 252. Th. 2. and the Divines of Drent d Ibid. 273. Th. 4. But this Doctrine is rejected by the whole Synod in their First Rejection e Act. Syn. 1. part pag. 268. Th. 1. upon the fifth head of Doctrine And the Divines of Embden f Ib. 2. part pag. 246. q. 3. do determine thus Perseverantia non est Conditio N. P. id est Perseverance is not a Condition of the New Covenant prae-required to be performed by men that the promise of the New Covenant may he sure but it is the very gift of the New Covenant which God hath promised to bestow freely upon his Elect. See to the like sense the Judgements of the Divines of Great Britaine g Ib. p. 201. Th. 2. and Geneva h Ib. p. 226. Th. 2. 2. Suppose we should propound this easie Question Whether Salvation or eternall life be the reward of Faith or onely the end of it This Question one would think so clearly and peremptorily resolved in Scripture that wise men could not disagree in the Solution of it yet behold here we have pro and con too Salus in Credentibus Proemium est fidei 2 Tim. 4.8 Finis 1 Pet. 1.8 So saith Gomarus the great Supralapsarian i Act. Sy. 3. part pag. 21. f. That is Salvation in the Believers is as well the reward of faith as the end of it Yet the Deputies of the Synod of Gelderland k Ibid. pag. 30. p. will not admit of this Uti gratis filii fimus c. That is As we are made sonnes and obtain the right of the inheritance freely so are we freely also put into the possession of that inheritance Therefore it is ill said that eternall life as a reward is decreed and given by God to those that fulfill the conditions which he hath prescribed For to give life as a reward upon the performance of a condition upon which that life was decreed as a reward this is to give life not altogether freely and of good pleasure but of debt 3. Let us inquire of them Whether a Temporary faith be a true faith or onely hypocriticall What do they resolve of this The British Divines say l Sententia De Artic. 5. explic Thes 1. Aâ—â— Syn. part 2. pag. 189. p. The Non-Elect may give an unfeigned assent to the Gospel The seed which fell upon stony ground Luk. 8.13 doth denote those hearers which believe for a time that is which assent to the Divine Revelations especially to the Evangelicall Covenant And that this Assent was unfeigned is evident in that the Word was received with joy Simon Magus Act. 8.12 believed Philip evangelizing the things that appertained unto the Kingdome of God and gave a Testimony of his Faith by receiving the Sacrament of Baptisme Hymenaeus and Alexander made shipwrack of the faith not that which is counterfeit or feigned but a true one For he is not to be blamed that falls off from an hypocriticall faith neither is shipwrack made of a feigned faith but a detection and discovery neither can a man be shipwrackt unlesse he were truly in the ship c. Thus our Learned Divines and some others with them But others of them and by name the Deputies of Over-Issel m Act. Syn. 3. part pag. 277. p. p. are of another judgement for they say Quale discrimen est inter hypocritam verum Christianum tale quoque est inter fidem temporariam salvificam Look what difference there is betwixt a true Christian and an Hypocrite the same difference there is betwixt a temporary and a saving Faith 4. If you inquire of them Whether Faith may be lost or no here they divide themselves and their opinions Some say the Act may be lost but not the Habit. Others do maintain that not the Habit nor the Act neither That the Habit the seed the root the Spirit of Faith may be lost we deny That the Act the trust the comfort may be cut off and that totally though not finally that we grant say the Divines of Gelderland n De 5. Artic. Act. Syn. Dor. 3. part pag. 228. f. And so the Deputies of Friesland o Ibid. pag. 261. Thes 3. As to the Act of Faith we easily grant that through the frauds of Satan the allurements of the world and the malignant power of the flesh it may be represt interrupted and as it were suffocated for a time But as to the Habit of Faith which is not a transient but an immanent Act infused into us of the Holy Ghost whereby our hearts are purified and we united as members to Christ our head and quickened by his Spirit we deny it But the Divines of Drent p Ibid.
damnation necessarily follows Molin knew well enough that to Reprobate is as it were a putting the fatall rope about the mans neck and tying his hands behind him and whatever follows whether exhortations or prayers is but in order to a preparation for turning the Ladder Hereupon he concluded that no man is Reprobated but for sin ibid. parag 3. But M. Baxter would make us believe in his next words that the Synod and himself too are of this opinion for he goes on and saith They do not onely respect Infidelity and other sins as the cause of damnation but as the state in which God findeth many when he denyeth them the grace of Faith You speak not a word of Impenitency 't is clearly granted by you all that that was not looked upon in the Act of Preterition But for its companion as Tilenus had linked them together though you divorce them for your advantage remembring the old Rule Divide Impera I mean Infidelity God had respect to that as the state wherein he found many c. I pray how many are they and which Infants or Adult onely 2. Is there not a Fallacy in those words When he denyeth them the grace of Faith He denyeth it to the Reprobates for ever and therefore if you understand it of his deniall of This grace in the last stage of their lives He must needs find them then in a state of Infidelity Or 3. do you mean the Heathens by these Many What state can they possibly be found in else when God denyeth them the Grace of Faith But if this be your meaning you have placed that Infidelity amongst very unfit Associates For this can be but a Negative not a Positive Infidelity and so whether it can be reckoned amongst their other sins as being a sin it selfe is another question †That men cannot see or believe without a certain Medium or object this is no more their fault then it is that they see not non-existents c. M. Baxter of saving faith pag. 53. f. But 4. did God find any really in the state of Infidelity when he denyed them the Grace of Faith according to the Doctrine of the Synod Do not they and you conclude that Preterition is the denyall of this Grace 'T is proved sufficiently already that they do so And you know some of them are of opinion and that opinion not rejected by the rest that in his Preterition God considered mankinde onely as having a possibility of being in regard of the sufficiency of his divine power Did God finde any then in a state of Infidelity They that bring the Decree of Reprobation down lowest amongst the Synodists do affirme that it was passed in consideration of the Fall of Adam To this purpose I might produce a cloud of witnesses Act. Synod Dord 2. part pag. 77. q. 5. 3. part pag. 24. thes 7. p. 123. f. were it not needlesse seeing we find so much in confirmation of it amongst the very Decrees and Articles of the Synod to which all those Divines subscribed That God out of his mere just will hath not decreed to leave any man in the fall of Adam and common state of sin and damnation or to passe over any in the communication of grace necessary unto faith and conversion This they reject as one of the troublesome errours Cap. 1. Reject 8. and cap. 2. Re ect 5. That all men are received into the state of reconciliation and grace of the Covenant so that no body shall be condemned for originall sin nor in respect of it be liable unto death or damnation but that all are acquitted and freed from the guilt of that sin This they reject as the same errour too To the like purpose is the first Rejection of the 3. and 4. Chapters Where we have not onely rejection or denyal of grace but damnation also intailed upon Original sin And if the grace of faith was denyed to them upon that account how could God find them before it in the state of Infidelity Sure you will not make it Adams state before his fall for he had no need and therefore it was no part of his duty to believe in the Gospel sense of believing and consequently Originall sin whether as committed by him or derived unto us cannot be Infidelity Therefore that was not the state he left men in and yet the Decree of Reprobation had no other lower Prospect of man as a condition to passe him by upon but that wherein Adam left him as the Synod hath defined And therefore your other sins must disband together with your state of Infidelity unlesse Originall sin be a Noun of Multitude For that is that which the Synod calls the common state of sin and damnation wherein they say God left the Reprobate when he denyed them the grace of Faith But M. Baxter proceeds and tells us of the Synod further that Of all the Non-elect they determine that God leaves them but in that misery into which by their own fault they precipitate themselves and that he leaves them by his just Judgement to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts 'T is most certain when ever God leaves men he doth it by his most just judgement but that He should leave them to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts before this Malice and Hardnesse be found in them were very strange And unlesse Adams sin or Originall sin upon which the Decree of Reprobation passed against them be Malice and Hardnesse of heart I see no truth in that assertion that God leaves them then to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts This is indeed a misery into which men by their own personall faults do precipitate themselves such is not that which you and the Synod speak of neither by omission nor by commission nor by consent How then It is the fault of their Nature which they are made guilty of onely by imputation saith Master Calvin as you may finde him cited in the Preface to Tilenus his Examination To which I will adde that of Lubbertus †A Synodist In Declaratione Respons pag. 105. Our Carnall generation from Adam fal'n and guilty neither is neither can it be the cause of that originall guilt which we derive from him but the imputation of sinne committed by him c. And if it be thus then you cannot say they are but left in that misery into which by their own if you mean proper personall fault they ptecipitate themselves Neither is it true that they are but left in this misery for according to the nature of the means designed by this very Decree and subordinated to the execution of it they are subjected inevitably to a far greater misery 1. of sin and 2. of condemnation and punishment To proceed You say Though they deny Election to proceed upon foreseen saith because God decrees to give that faith before we can be foreseen to have it yet they purposely passe by
suffered Treatise of Convers pag. 2. and for all the Grace that is offered them in the Gospel is What Even because they will not receive this Grace nor entertain Christ and the mercy of God as it is offered to them And what doth this signifie but this because they would not chuse it And upon this account they are condemned and very justly Yet when he is come from his pulpit and undertakes to dispute with Tilenus 't is not sufficient that Gods Mercy and Christs Merits and the Divine Grace be at his choice to receive it this may serve the Non-Elect But be not angry saith he if we thank God for more even for giving us both to Will and Do. If you may be allowed to be your own Carvers no doubt you will be very liberall in the choice of your own portions and if God ratifies it 't is well for you But we find that Gods design in his way of dispensing Grace is to promote and advance duty but your way doth evacuate and cancell it For if he workes the very Act which we call duty by an irresistible operation in nobis sine nobis as the Synod saith of Conversion in us but without us then duty is no more duty but necessity and Grace is no more Grace but force That God worketh to Will and to Do others acknowledge with no lesse thankfullness then your selves if you mean a power and ability in us to Will and to Do as you implyed your meaning to be a little before when you said He gives both to believe and to suffer that is a power to do it yet so as the will is left more free rather then determined under an irresistible necessitation and consequently man may abuse his liberty Heb. 12.15 2 Cor. 6.1 and be wanting to the Grace of God and make default in his cooperation and so his will may remain undetermined and the work to which he was inabled be left undone But if you think when God works to will and to do 't is not in Mans power to bury his talent and contradict Gods motion I must reject that Comment as a corruption of the Text and a subversion of the Apostles argument to inforce his exhortation With all humility sollicitude fear and diligence Eph. 6.13 lest God be offended and you miscarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perficite conficite interficite superate for the word hath all these significations all difficulties and opposition being subdued work out and make your salvation dead sure for it is God that grants and works ability not of necessity and indesinently but of his mere grace and good pleasure which he may be provoked to suspend and withdraw This sense gives a huge inforcement to the exhortation But according to your interpretation the Apostle should argue thus My beloved it is God that worketh in you to Will and to Do determining your wills to the very Act of duty insuperably and irresistibly so that it is not in your choice to do otherwise and this he doth because it is his Good pleasure therefore work out your salvation with feare and trembling Would such exhortations tend to the quickning of your Audience or rather make them carelesse Or can it consist with the Holy Spirit of Discipline and wisdome to use such a vehement exhortation and then back it with such a Reason as if granted would render that exhortation insignificant and to no purpose for what diligence is to be used out of a feare of miscarriage if the effect be irresistibly determined In the Appendix to your Aphorisme you say Pag. 52. Believing is properly a condition required of the Party if he will enjoy the thing promised And in your Treatise of Conversion pag. 296. you say Salvation is not given barely from the will of God but from the faith and obedience of men for it is an act of rewarding Justice as well as of Paternall love and mercy What is that rewarding Justice terminated upon Man's free duty or God's omnipotent irresistible work in him Resolve this and Tilenus will not be angry that you give God thanks for working in us to Will and to Do. Reflexions upon M. Baxters IX Section and the II. Article WHerein Master Baxter sets up to be baited and worried as his Phantasie pleases the Second Article in these words Saith this new Tilenus They hold that Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having never had any intent nor commandement of his Father to make satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world Here M. Baxter flies out into passion and foule language and the first Case of his indignation he gives us in these modest expressions A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends By the way I cannot sufficiently wonder why a man that hath wrote so many Directions for Peace of Conscience should throw such Birds of prey off his own fist to devour a strangers Reputation but the best on 't is they are so well acquainted with the place of their breeding he may safely venture to fly them without his varvells they will find the way home of themselves and therefore I shall not need to trouble my self to take them up for him But whether Master Baxters fingers ends be not more dexterous at such work then are Tilenus's let the Reader judge by what follows There is not a word of the Decrees of the Synod that hath any such importance saith Master Baxter But you have taught us to distinguish betwixt Name and Thing suppose the word should not be there I hope it will satisfie the Indifferent Reader and save Tilenus his Reputation if the sense be there and if at least this be not there I shall despair of ever understanding the Riddles of this Sphinx without the help of such an Oedipus as Master Baxter The Synod in their 2. Chapter Art 8. decrees and declares their Doctrine in these words For this was the most free counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father that the lively and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Sonne should manifest it selfe in ALL the ELECT for the bestowing upon them ONELY Justifying faith and bringing THEM infallibly by it unto eternall life that is God willed that Christ by the blood of his Crosse whereby he was to establish a new Covenant should effectually redeem out of every people tribe nation and language All THEM and ONELY THEM who from eternity were elected to salvation and given to him of the Father that he should bestow saith on THEM which as also the other saving Gifts of the holy Spirit he purchased for THEM by his death that by his bloud he should cleanse THEM from all sins both Originall and Actuall as well committed after as before they believed and finally should present THEM before him in glory without all spot or blemish Here we see the saving efficacy of Christs Death for their Redemption restrained
before Glory and to this purpose he tells his Reader flatly that without a grain of his own salt he cannot relish that saying of Saint Austin Bona opera non praecedunt justificandum sed sequuntur justificatum Good works doe not goe before justification but follow after it The Hassien Divines likewise do most expresly declare Act. Synod Dor. 2. par p. 92. pr. that holinesse and righteousnesse †And they do alleadge for it Hebr. 9.10 Hebr. 13 12. Eph. 5.25.26 27. were as true parts of Christs purchase by the sacrifice of himself and intercession of his bloud as were either Pardon reconciliation or eternall life Now if our delivery from sinne by sanctification be the very first Part of that Redemption which Christ hath wrought for the world is it not a very grosse and palpable absurdity to overlook or overleap these first fruits of our Redemption as I may call them and to affirm That Christ hath purchased the latter for some men for whom he hath in no wise procured the former i. e. Remission of sins and eternall salvation for those to whom he hath not so much as procured reconciliation or sanctifying Grace Yet this is generally the Doctrine of those Calvinists who seem most to advance the Merit and efficacy of Christs death by their proclaiming an Universall Redemption Christ say the Hassien Divines appears before his Father as the onely Mediator Ibid. p. 100. that by the Presentation of his merits and accomplisht satisfaction he may procure remission of sinnes and restitution of righteousnesse for us Then he undertakes with his Father for our obedience and gratitude the seal and earnest of which sponsion or undertaking which is his holy Spirit he conferres upon us by whom he stirs up in us a care and study both to avoid sin and to performe righteousnesse Lastly he makes intercession for us Quae tria intercessionis Christi momenta nullo modo ad hoedos sed tantum ad oves Christi pertinent These parts of Christs Mediation do belong to none but the Elect. But perhaps these are none of those Vniversalists of the Synod that Master Baxter will be tried by Well then to do him a kindnesse he shall have his own choice First he named Paraem and having examined him he acknowledgeth the sufficiency of the merit but the efficacy as to the procurement of power Ibid. par 1. p. 213. c. for the Non-elect to performe that Condition of Faith and Repentance upon which pardon of sin and eternall life are suspended he flatly denies it Ibid. par 2. pag. 79. Th. 3. in explic Here is but cold comfort from that stranger let us therefore come to those who sate warm in the Synod what say the British Divines It seemeth good to Almighty God they say even after his acceptation of Christs Sacrifice not to conferre remission of sins and eternall life actually upon any but by and through Faith in the Redeemer And here that eternall and secret decree of Election discovers it self when that Ransome which was paid for all and shall most certainly be beneficiall unto all the faithfull to life eternall yet notwithstanding it doth not profit all because it is not given to all to perform the condition of that gracious Covenant Christ therefore so died for all that by means of faith all and every one by vertue of this ransome may obtain remission of sins and life eternall He so died for the Elect that by the merits of his death especially destined for them according to Gods eternall Beneplaciture they might infallibly obtain both Faith and eternall life Here is very slender confirmation of Master Baxters Universall Redemption hitherto and now he hath but one reserve to trust to the Bremish Divines and alas they say so little to make his assertion good that I wonder as much why he should offer to intitle them to it as why he should so foully asperse Tilenus for declaring the Divines of the Synod c. to be of another judgement Ibid. p. 110. Thes 2. For Isel-Burg affirms roundly that the Decree of Reprobation hath shut out all the Non-elect from all the saving benefits of Christs death And Lud. Crocius tells us of no other universall Redemption Ibid. p. 117. Thes 3. but Reconciliation upon Condition if they will repent and believe Ibid. p. 106. Th. 21. with Pag. 107. Thes 2 3 4 5. but not a word of procuring Grace to inable all men to perform this Condition And Martinius whom it seems M. Baxter reposed most of his confidence in though he tels us of a like Conditionall Remission and Salvation if they will be regenerated repent and believe yet really and effectually Christ hath promerited purchased obtained and communicateth Faith Regeneration or effectuall Calling Justification and Glorification to none but the Elect according to Gods speciall Decree This is his judgement And now are not these Divines wonderfull Magnifiers of the merit of Christ in affirming that it hath procured this Common grace even for the worst that perish as Master Baxter Phraseth it that he shall be saved if he will believe This is just according to the Proverb If the skie fall we shall catch Larks You had as good and may do it as reasonably tell men of a certain inheritance designed for them in the world in the Moon provided they will make a Ladder to Climb up to take possession of it Happinesse propounded upon Condition but that Condition made impossible and that by a punishment inflicted by the Propounder and yet he to be the Father of Mercies who sent his own Son to seal a Covenant of Grace with his own bloud wherein he hath undertaken to give both Grace and Glory this as the end and that as the way How inconsistent But saith Master Baxter did God purpose to cause in men this condition or not Sure he did Otherwise it would follow 1. That God invites poore sinners to confederate with him in a covenant of Grace and yet is deficient in affording what is necessary to inable them to perform it And then 2. it would follow that God were the First Desertor in respect of this new Covenant which is against all sober Divinity 3. It will make the Covenant of Grace to be no lesse intolerable than that of workes for by this Doctrine it doth exact impossible commands and afford no strength at all to perform them It supposeth God to make new Lawes and lay new Impositions upon those bruised shoulders of Adams Posterity whiles he pretends to heal them It is a Rule in the Civill Law Quando quis aliquid concedit id etiam concedere videtur sine que res concessae esse non potest If God makes a grant of eternall life to any or a serious Promise sure he promiseth and granteth therewith whatever is necessary for the enjoyment of that life And in our case you heard provision is made for it by the very Article
Grace upon any Condition to be performed without it Give me leave to ask you Hath not God made a Generall invitation to all the unregenerate within the pale of the Church to come unto him with a gracious promise to receive them and doth not this promise imply a readinesse to grant what ever may fit them for his communion without which that promise cannot be made good to them Dare you affirm that God will deny saving Grace to some who make the best use they can of the Gifts of nature and his common Grace to stirre up themselves to lay hold upon him If you dare do this you dare contradict the Apostle S. Peter Act. 10.34 35. and say though not as he doth Of a truth I perceive that God is a respecter of Persons for in every nation there be some that feare God and work righteousnesse which are not accepted with him You complain * Vbi supra pag. 40. you have people in your Parish that are harping on this string and yet this is Ipsissima Fides DORDRACENA †Chap. 3. 4. Râ—ject 485. a string of that very Instrument which you have provoked Tilenus to play upon We cannot give Grace to our selves nor be saved without it nor can we have it till God give it us which if he will doe we shall be saved if he will not all that we can doe will not help it I pray do not you twist another string for them to harp upon by telling them Doe what they can to dispose themselves for it God hath made no promise to bestow saving Grace upon them For this will make as foul a jarring in their minds and as unpleasant Musick in Gods Church as the Denyall of works Preparatory and Dispositive to saving Grace But to give you your due you Govern your discourse sometimes with more moderation and Caution when you addresse your self unto your Congregation For though in heat of Disputation you determine That God hath Cull'd out some certain persons for himself by his Decree of Election wherein he had no praevision of or respect unto either faith or obedience or any other good quality as wrought in them by his Gospell accompanied with his Spirit But he therein made provision for it that in due time it might be irresistibly wrought in them not with but without them by His own Omnipotent strength And for the rest not comprehended within that Decree there is another Decree past against them withholding from them all internall Grace sufficient and necessary for their salvation which though offered them in the Gospel yet 't is suspended upon the Condition of Faith and Repentance which Condition is impossible because God did not Purpose to Cause it in them This is your Disputation-wise Doctrine when you are combating with an Adversary But when you are consulting the advantage of Souls then you are zealous as best becomes you in another strain In your Sermon on Mat. 22.5 you say It is true that Grace is free Making light of Christ p. 21 22. and the offer is universall according to the extent of the Preaching of the Gospel and it is true that men may have Christ when they will that is when they are willing to have him on his terms but he that hath promised thee Christ if thou be willing hath not promised to make thee willing and if thou art not willing now how canst thou think thou shalt be willing hereafter But soon after Oh Sinners you might do much though you are not able to your selves to come in if you would now subject your selves to the working of the Spirit and set in while the gales of grace continue And in your Directions for Peace of Conscience Direct 9. p. 65. Edit 2. you affirm If wicked unbelievers would but do what they can in daily serious deep considering of these things viz. the vanity of the world and certainty of damnation the excellency of Holinesse with the certainty of everlasting Happinesse and the like they would have no cause to despair of obtaining Faith and Sanctification This is your Sermon wise Doctrine And you have written Directions to prevent Miscarrying in Conversion Sure you do not fear a miscarriage of the work on God's part the danger is not from his falling but our own Therefore something is required on our Part and possible to be performed by us which being performed our Conversion is ascertained but being neglected it miscarries and we our selves onely are guilty of it If this be not true Master Baxter the Title of that Book is improper and your whole Discourse impertinent And now you have so many blocks in your way and some of your own sawing out I hope your course will be stopt and your Dispute not run out in infinitum I return to your Vindication of the Synod you say 2. But contrary to this Accuser This is another Cast of your displeasure A Civill Title To be an Accuser is a piece of the Devils character but such bolts are soon shot when Faction hath bent her Bowe and Pride hath a mind to make a quarrell But if Tilenus be the Accuser the Synod or Master Baxter is the Adversary For he saith Contrary to this Accuser the Synod declareth Art 2. Sect. 3. This death of the Son of God is the onely and most perfect Sacrifice and satisfaction for sins of infinite value and price abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world and that it is therefore sufficient because this death was joyned with the sense of Gods wrath and curse which we by our sins had merited that is that the sinnes of all the world were c. But how is this contrary to this Accuser Indeed it is besides him if you will and as much besides the purpose There is in the Chamber of London as much Treasure perhaps as will pay the Debts of all the Prisoners about the City and 't is so much the more currant because it is of excellent old Gold But what is this to the poore Prisoners redemption as long as the Major and Aldermen in whose sole power it is to dispose of that Treasure will not disburse it to that purpose The superabundant sufficiency that is proclaimed to be in the Exchequer doth not relieve the distressed for whose benefit 't is not imployed but rather upbraid the want of Liberality in him who is Master of it and hath the Power but wants the Will to lay it out in such charitable and pious uses But you say the sinnes of all the world were charged on Christ and he bore their penalty as Paraeus in his writings to the Synod and there conteined expresseth it Answ Laid on Christ To what end to Load him or ease them But you joyne with Paraus Pag. 14. in your first Assize Sermon where you say Doubtlesse Christ died not for all alike nor with equall intentions of saving them and yet he hath born the sinnes of all men on
and who are they that have drawn them name the Persons and produce the Inferences Who denies God a liberty to dispense what undeserved favours he pleaseth and to whom he pleaseth and in what measure or proportion he pleaseth I know no man repines at it or disputes against it Hereby had he pleased so to Reveal and communicate himself he had done great benefit to them and no injury to others The odious inferences are drawn or rather of themselves do follow from that which Master Calvin called an Horrible Decree from your Doctrine of Reprobation wherein you teach That God for the Sin of Adam denies All Grace that is Sufficient and Necessary to salvation to the farre greatest part of mankinde and yet decrees in the very self same Act to torment them for want of it and that notwithstanding he invites them with the greatest shews of seriousnesse and earnestnesse and the highest expressions of Love and indeerement to embrace it These Master Baxter are some of the Inferences that strike so deep into the face of Gods justice and sincerity and that makes them so odious and distastfull and this is the ground of that practise so frequently taken up by your Party in their writings as well as by your self in this place you throw out before your Readers eies the Lure of Effectuall meaning irresistible Grace and infrustrable Perseverance and infallible Assurance the greatest certainty whereof lyeth in the strength not of your Arguments but your Confidence to draw him off from the deep Resentment of those other Inferences which are really abominable if not blasphemous But hark you Master Baxter one word more before we leave this point Are you sure that such odious inferences will fall upon our Doctrine upon the Concession of Gods Foreknowledge as falls upon yours upon the Position of such Decrees Why according to your Doctrine of Decrees things are therefore future because they are decreed but according to ours of Foreknowledge things are therefore foreknown because they are future Zanchy saith as was shewed above that by the immutable Reprobation there is incumbent upon the Reprobate a necessity of sinning and that even unto death without repentance and of suffering eternall punishment for it And Piscator saith the Rebellion of the Reprobate depends upon the Antecedent Absolute and irresistibly Efficacious will of God This Immutable Decree with that irresistible means †Which are inseparably tyed together Hence the Divines of Wodderan say that sin comes to passe of necessity in respect of the Decree and the good end intended De cap. 38. 4. pag. 154. par 2. appointed in order to its executions doth make an Antecedent Causall Necessity But the Foreknowledge of God doth not so and therefore the Liberty of mans will doth very well consist with this Foreknowledge though it cannot with that Decree Nequaquam rectè intelligenti haec repugnarè videntur Praescientia quam sequitur necessitas libertas arbitrii à qua removetur necessitas quoniam necesse est quod Deus Praescit futurum esse Deus Praescit aliud aliquid esse sine omni necessitate saith Anselmus That is In Concordia Foreknowledge which inferrs necessity and Freewill which rejects necessity are no way repugnant because both what God foreknows is necessary to be future and God foreknows the futurition of many things to be without any necessity But you will say whether God foreknows me to sinne or not to sinne it is necessary that I do according to Gods Foreknowledge else his foreknowledge should not be infallible which were absurd to affirm To this Anselm answers You ought not to say God foreknowes that I will sin or not sin but God foreknows that I will sin or not sin without any necessity and so it fellows that whether thou sinnest or sinnest not it will be without necessity because God foreknows it to be future without necessity and so it must be Gods foreknowledge therefore doth not oppose or take away contingency or liberty from second Causes but establish them It doth not presse upon the will a necessity of future Acting but onely extends its notice to all her future motions which are free and it supposeth them to be such And therefore although the futurition of things be necessary upon Gods Foreknowledge yet that Necessity is not effective but onely illative The things foreknown are supposed to have a being before and not to derive their being from that foreknowledge Ideo enim quia ponuntur res esse Ibid. Anselm dicuntur ex necessitate esse aut quia ponuntur non esse affirmantur non esse ex necessitate non quia necessitas cogat aut prohibeat rem esse aut non esse Nam cum dico si erit ex necessitate erit hic sequitur necessitas quae rei positionem non praecedit Idem valet si sic pronuncietur Quod erit ex necessitate erit Non enim aliud significat hic nisi quia quod erit non poterit simul non esse thus Anselm Whereby it appears that Gods Foreknowledge doth suppose the operation of the will as future and therefore the necessity arising from thence is but a Consequent Necessity He saith the same of Predestination upon Foreknowledge Ibid. Quaedam Praescita Praedestinata non eveniunt eâ necessitate quae praecedit rem facit sed eâ quae rem sequitur Some things Foreknown and Predestinated do not come to passe by that Necessity which Praecedes the thing and is the cause of it but by that which doth follow it I referre the Reader for his satisfaction in this Particular to Doctor Hammond Of Fundamentals pag 160 161. but for M. Baxter I 'le commend him to writings that are of more Authority with him In his Treatise of Conversion he saith What if I could foretell from the obstinate wickednesse of such a thief or such a drunkard that he will never be cured Is it long of me because I foreknew it What if the Prophet foretells Hazael what cruelty he shall commit on the children of Israel is the Prophet therefore the cause of it And in his Sermon of Judgement he saith Must God either be ignorant of what you will do Excuse 26. or else be the cause of it If you foreknow that the Sunne will rise to morrow that doth not cause it to rise If you foreknow that one man will murder another you are not the cause of it by foreknowing it So is it here The short is Gods foreknowledge hath no such influence in drawing men on either to Presumption or desperation because it makes no such Provision of insuperable or irresistible means to carry on the work of salvation or damnation respectively as that Decree is supposed to doe And thus much in vindication of Tilenus his fourth Article Reflexions upon Section XVI and Article V. THe fifth feigned Article of Tilenus is saith Master Baxter That such as have once received that Grace by Faith
Grace here or his Glory hereafter On the other side Observe 1. That according to this Synopsis containing Master Perkins's and the Judgement of all the Creabilitarians That the farre greatest part of mankinde are Reprobates before they are Creatures and according to the most modest opinion amongst them they are Reprobates as to the demerit of Preterition onely upon the account of Adams sin which was no more in their power to prevent or avoid than to hinder Gods imputation of it or to forbid their Parents Banes of Matrimony and for Actuall sins they do commence upon the stock of this sin Originall 2. That Christ was not given according to Gods intention for their benefit They have no interest in him there is no line of communication drawn betwixt him and them For 3. at least upon the Fall of Adam Gods implacable and immutable hatred was extended towards them And hence 4. His calling of them is but uneffectuall so that 5. Though they own and answer that Call so farre as to be inlightned by it repent at it believe upon it relish the heavenly Gift and grow zealous of Gods Glory yet this doth not remove them one step out of that road or line drawn by the Decree of Reprobation to lead them to eternall death according to the Series and processe whereof which is immutably set and insuperably carried on the Deceitfulnesse of sin must and shall inevitably and necessarily prevaile to bring them into a Relapse which shall heighten their pollution and guilt by an accession of obduration and malice unbelief and Apostasie and so cooperate to the aggravation of their condemnation and torments And this is the very Doctrine of the Synod of Dort as it is delivered Act. S. Dor. par 2. p. 62. th 24 25. in the Judgement of the Divines of Embden For speaking of the means by which the Decree is executed in the Reprobates They say Prima summa eorum exitii Causa The first and chiefest cause of their destruction is the corruption of our first Parents Spontanea Adami voluntate of Adam's own accord first brought upon himself and afterwards by the just judgement of God propagated unto his whole Posterity in which if God had left all he had done injury to none because he is debtor unto none The second Cause is because either God vouchsafes not to call these Reprobates at all by his Gospel or if he calls some of them outwardly by the Gospel yet it is not accompanied with any internall Spirituall efficacie or if in some of them he begets a certain assent and some kinde of faith yet he leaves them all at last in their blindnesse and voluntary corruption and doth not vouchsafe them his saving grace And Szegedin To the Question In loc com de Repr tab 1. p. 122. f. Whether the Reprobate can do good works he makes this answer They may do good works sometimes but not persevere in them as the Predestinate in like manner do fall into most grievous sins Therefore saith he we may conclude that Good works are sometimes inservient unto Predestination and sometimes unto Reprobation By good works Predestination doth illustrate Gody glory and in respect of Reprobation they are many times reasons why sin is aggravated For they that fall from God when he hath adorned them with good works as they do more grievously sin so are they more severely-punished Lastly Observe that according to this Series or Table of Causes The onely Glory that God designs and aims at primarily and by it self as to be drawn out of the Rationall Creature for himself consists in the Salvation of some for the Declaration of his Justice and Mercy and the Damnation of others for the Declaration of his Power and Justice Whereas the Scripture informs us otherwise viz. That the Glory which he intended to have and therefore requires and expects from us doth consist in the oblation or performance of a free and dutifull obedience or results from it To this purpose we have our Saviours own warrant Joh. 15.8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit and his example Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the worke that thou gavest me to doe and his Command Matth. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven and Gods own approbation Psal 50.23 Who so offereth praise glorifieth me and to him that ordereth his conversation aright c. So that Gods Glory is intended all the way Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God This is that duty we are all primarily designed for and called unto by the dispensations of his Grace 1 Pet. 2.9 Ephes 1.6 And if men will not comply by a voluntary obedience with this Gracious designe that the Goodnesse of God may triumph in our exaltation then for their contempt or neglect of his honour and service as he hath threatned so he rejects them and glorifies his Justice in the infliction of their deserved punishment Act. S Dor. par 2. pag. 104. th 5. Martinius therefore acknowledgeth that the condemnation of the wicked is an event of Gods Calling which is not intended of God by it selfe but by accident it is an attendant upon mans transgression Hic autem eventus per se non intenditur à Deo sed per accidens hominis Culpa sequitur As for that Glory of God which the Blessed Saints and Angels do eternally celebrate in heaven that is not designed by Almighty God for a part of Mans duty the Scene whereof lyes here on earth but for his Reward upon the performance of that duty which duty the wicked having neglected they are by way of punishment for ever debarred Rev. 7.14 15. Job 17.24 from having any communion in that blessed solemnity which is the Masters joy into which none are admitted but such as have been faithfull servants This by the way will afford a sufficient answer to that Maxime in Logick What is first in the intention is last in the execution Whence some Admired Doctors would inferre that punishment was intended before sinne and Glory before obedience But the Maxime will not hold in the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments which doe alwaies where Justice holds the Sword and ballance presuppose duty and fault respectively as the Vshers to go before them This is easily seen and many times complained of in Civil administrations †Call to the Vnconverted p. 84. A Rulers will us Lawgiver is first and principally that his laws be obeyed c. See the rest wherein as the Magistrate that intends reward before obedience is accounted imprudent so he that designs a personall punishment before there be a fault shall not escape the Reproach of being a Tyrant AN EXAMINATION OF Master BAXTERS XIX and XX. Sections Wherein the state of DAVID AND PETER is Debated The State of
it in without resistance and permits it to levy forces and stand in competition with the spirit and much more if he shall invite it in and assist it against his interest Whether the sin of Peter or David were of this nature we shall examine in the sequel In the mean while let us consider what is granted concerning the danger or sad estate that the regenerate men fall into by their perpetration of foul sins De Persev Sanctorum Spiritum contristant indignationem Dei paternam incurrunt reatum damnabilem contrahunt sic ut demeritoriè saltem licet non effectivè jus ad regnum coelorum penitùs admittunt fideles regeniti justificati saith Doctor Prideaux Some resemble their estate to the condition of a man excommunicated or outlaw'd who loseth his actuall claim to whatsoever is due to him upon never so good assurance D. Field Ap. to 2. B. of the Ch. pag. 313. 834. so that albeit the right and title to it is yet invested in them yet all prosecution of that right is suspended during the time he continues in that estate Others represent their estate by the condition of the Leper amongst the Jews who for the time was debarted the use of his own habitation yet he lost not his right to it for after he was healed he might reenter and keep possession But by the way if he died before his actuall cleansing he could not do so I suppose rather that their estate might be represented by the Law made against the presumptuous sinner Num. 15.30 The Soul that doth ought presumptuously or with a high hand whether he be born in the land or a stranger the same reproacheth the Lord and there was no sacrifice to make his atonement that soul shall be cut off from among his people His punishment was not sequestration or exclusion from his People but excision I do not here take upon me to determine what the finall and eternall estate of such a person was that must be according to the quality and degrees of his repentance before his execution but I observe that by the sentence of God declared in that law presumptuous sins do ipso facto make an alteration of estate as great an alteration as is from life to death in the person that commits them Now to give us to understand that Davids sin was of such a nature there is the very character of a Presumptuous sin set upon it which is that the Lord is reproached by it ib. and so 't is said of Davids sin 2 Sam. 12.14 By this deâ—â— thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme Before I proceed further I could wish you would seriously consider the importance of that caution given by the Apostle Heb. 12.15 16. Looking diligently lest any man fail or fall from the grace of God lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsell of meat sold his birth-right for ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected If you think such caveats and threatnings being applyed as preservations against defection do alwaies become a means of perseverance to the regenerate and at most imply but a possibility of their Apostasie in regard of themselves not the certain futurity of it unlesse it be in the Non-elect God having put in a bar against it for the rest I desire you to consider that a Type being given and an instance made in a person who certainly had once a just right to inherit whether this must not needs imply a reall danger of the event viz. of falling to those who for the present have a true right and title to the Evangelicall blessing and celestiall inheritance I say a reall danger of falling and in some case which is here set down to aggravate the danger and consequently to excite their care to avoid it to the highest pitch irrecoverably But to return to David I think it very easie to conclude him in an unjustified estate out of your own principles In your Account of Perseverance Pag. 40. you lay these for grounds n. 5. The Dominion of any one sin is inconsistent with saving grace and justification n. 7. You say He that hath not more hatred then love to any sin and that had not rather be rid of it even in the use of Gods means then keep it in regard of the Habituated state of his will is under the dominion of sin and in the state of damnation n. 8. He that is thus resolved and affected against a grosse sin or any known sinne that is under the power of hâ—s will is not like to live in or give up himself to it Nay he cannot commit it without renewed resolutions against it and a restlesse importunity of soul to to be delivered which will prevail If this be true as I am ready to subscribe to it David was in a much more sad condition then you are apt to believe him in For that he was guilty of a grosse known sin you cannot you will not deny but where were his renewed resolutions against it where was the use of Gods means or the restlesse importunity of his soul to be delivered from it Did he not give up himself to it and industriously make provision for it and live in it Nay did he not upon design and contrivance against all the ingagements of noblenesse ingenuity and humanitie proceed from one wickednesse to nother It cannot with any colour be denied There is but one Salvo in all your three propositions to help you you will say perhaps that in regard of the habituated state of his will he had rather have been rid of it then have kept it That does not appear but very much against it If it had been so why did he not consult his Prophet or fast and mourne as he did afterward for the sicknesse of his child His habituated estate it seems was a very secure state that the accustomed ministery of the Church would not serve the turn but God was faln to discharge an especiall piece of his Ordnance to awaken him out of it You adde in your 10. Proposition That sin doth as naturally breed troubles and feares as the setting of the Sun causeth darknesse or as a grosse substance in the Sunshine causeth a shadow And this from the nature of the thing and by the will of God If it be so what can we conclude from the want of such feares and troubles in him but that 't is probable God left him for the time under some degrees of obduration And indeed not so much the palpitation and trembling of the heart through fears and troubles as the hardning of it is the inseparable companion of presumptuous sinning The Devill carries himself with a kind of bashfulnesse till he finds incouragement And that man must be lustily steeld with impudence
that will be presumptuous where he hath little interest It is argument enough that the sinne hath gotten a great force in a man when it is presumptuous Upon this account it is that our Criminall prayes so earnestly at another time Psal 19.14 Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me Upon which words Amesius saith In Psal 19. Talia flagitia non constunt cum timore Dei Such crimes cannot consist with the fear of God Indeed he infers from thence that the servants of God are not inthral'd to such contumacies And it is true in sensu composito as they are and whilest they are Gods servants But if they betake themselves to the service of another Master his lusts then they will do Shall a man need to serve an Apprentiship to the trade of sin before he can merit the title of being a servant to it His servants ye are to whom ye obey saith the Apostle Suppose David had onely been surprized at first with the beauty of the woman though indeed those sins whose horrid enormity is so great that the very light of nature commands us alwaies to be in arms and stand upon our guard against them can never be excused or extenuated upon the account of a surprizall But put case I say he had been surprized at first yet upon whose command was it 1. That after sufficient time of recollection and advisement when he should have been at prayers he sent Messengers and sure some preface of courtship was used to flatter and seduce her and so took her and lay with her 2 Sam. 12. 2. That he afterwards sent for her husband from his duty in the Leaguer 3. That he advised him so earnestly to go home and wash his feet and sent a messe of meat after him 4. That he blamed him under a pretence of pity that he went not down to his house 5. That he bad him tarry till the morrow and then invited him to an entertainment where he made him drunken 6. That he laid so cunning a plot to murder him whom he had so lately debauched that he was scarce awakened or at least scarce recovered out of his distemper and then wrote a letter with so much formality to Joab to acquaint him how he should manage and carry on this projected stratagem and lastly that he sent it by Uriah's own loyall hand making him carry the Warrant for his own unworthy and treacherous execution At whose command I say did David do all this Was it not at the command of Lust and then did he not obey her as her servant What clearer evidence can there be in the world then this to prove that sinne hath got the Dominion over a man I 'le offer you but one argument more from the doctrine of Saint John 1 Joh. 3.9 10 12 14 15 17. verses Take it in this form No man that is not of God that hath not eternall life nor the love of God abiding in him but is of the Devil and abideth in death no such man is in the state of justification But David guilty of the matter of Vriah is such a man viz. not of God not having eternall life not the love of God abiding in him but is of the Devil and abideth in death Therefore c. The Major is undeniable being the expresse words of S. John The Minor is thus proved out of the same Apostle He that committeth sin and doth not righteousnesse that loveth not his brother that shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him that not onely hates but actually murders him like Cain for the satisfaction of his lust he is not of God hath not eternall life nor the love of God abiding in him but is of the Devill and abideth in death But David in the matter of Uriah committeth sin doth not righteousnesse loveth not his brother shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him and actually murders him Ergo. The Major is again the expresse words of S. John and the Minor is proved evidently by the History which containeth the matter of Fact 2 Sam. 11. I am the more confirmed in the certain truth of this doctrine by reflecting upon the scope and method of the Apostles discourse upon it Having represented the great priviledge of Adoption he proceeds to declare that this priviledge is to be preserved by a purity of soul and life suitable to that state and because 1 Joh. 3. v. 4. to 17. as he urgeth injustice and uncharitablenesse are altogether inconsistent with it therefore he earnestly dissuades from them as a most certain means conducing to the forfeiture of the benefit thereof Beloved Ibid. v. 2. now are we the sonnes of God saith he by inchoation adopted into that state of speciall grace and favour to give probation of our filiall ingenuity and obedience in purifying our selves that we may be advanced to a due and fitting capacity for the glorious presence and communion of the Holy God Thus we are now the sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be for that glory is not yet revealed in us neither have we yet performed the condition which is required to qualifie and dispose us for it Aug. doth distinguish betwixt sons by Regeneration and sons by Praedestination as in your Ac. of Persev pag. 16. 1 Pet. 1.14 15. for we must withdraw our selves from all pollutions and be devoted by a speciall separation to his service As obedient children not fashioning our selves according to the former lusts in our ignorance but as he which hath called us is holy so must we be holy in all manner of conversation Wherefore come out from among them Heathenish pollutions and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And will be a father unto you 2 Cor. 6.17 18. and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty This Priviledge of Adoption is not absolutely our own free-hold our tenure in it is conditionall no lesse than that of being his house and his Disciples which imports the same benefit under diversified expressions and this condition is the sincere and constant performance of our faithfull duty and service Heb. 3.6 14. Joh. 8.31 Rom. 2.7 which consists in a course of holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our life Luk. 1.75 according to the covenant made with Abraham All the Divines that I have met with at least to my best remembrance do set Justification before Adoption in order of nature if not of time and yet you your self confesse Aphor. of Justif distinct 21. Those onely are his practicall conquering Disciples who actually persevere Disp of Sacram. pag. 94. that that justification of which the person hath true possession though it be ours actually after faith yet 't is but conditionally viz. upon condition of perseverance in faith and sincere obedience If that Justification which
no perjur'd no seditious no disobedient hereticall unrighteous person nor doer of any of those works of the flesh mentioned by the Apostle can enter into the kingdome of heaven Then no man whose entrance into that kingdome is Immutably and irrespectively determined can be an Adulterer incestuous perjur'd seditious disobedient hereticall unrighteous person If you say he may be such and yet Repent and then be capable of entring into that kingdome which he was not before I answer That his entrance being immutably and irrespectively determined his want of Repentance can no more hinder his entrance than it can rescind the Decrees of God and therefore though you do but incline to think so of a person once sanctified that though he doth fall into such wasting sins Disput of Justific pag. 398. if he be cut off by death before repentance he shall be fully pardoned at the instant of death and so be saved yet you say of all the Elect Account of Persever pag. you are sure of it Hence it appears that you hold such persons to be lesse sinfull then those of the Non-elect Yea their very sins of the same nature for substance and quality with those of the Non-elect to be lesse sinfull And this you averre expresly more than once in your Preface for you say Sect. 18 20. The sin of David Peter c. was exceeding different from the like Fact in a Gracelesse man in regard of End Manner Concomitants c. But here I must expostulate What other end would an unsanctified man propound in denying of Christ but his own safety to escape persecution and did not Peter propound that end to himself And after what other manner and with what Concomitants could it be attended in an unsanctified man would he have stood to it with more confidence or have used bigger oathes and execrations For Davids sin what the manner and concomitants of that were we have considered before and I would fain be satisfied what end he propounded to himself in that matter more than another Adulterer aimes at even the satisfaction of his lust He did not intertain such a thought surely that it should conduce to Gods glory You disclaim that opinion your self in your sheet annexed to your debate with M. Barlow †Of Saving Faith pag. 92. where you say Either David in Adultery did desire flesh-pleasing for it self or for some other end If for it self then it was his ultimate end in that Act If for somewhat else as his end For what No one will say it was for Gods Glory And there is nothing else to be it This was then your opinion Thus you see your Doctrine as it makes God lesse Gracious so it makes man lesse sinfull whether you understand the Elect or Non-elect And yet it makes man more impotent too a strange Paradox But a true saying for according to some of your Calvinists as Piscator and Maccovius it concludes No man can do lesse evill nor more good than he doth His will being infallible and irresistibly predetermined to every individual Act as was declared above so that he can no more advance one single step further towards hell or heaven but as he is so predetermined than adde a cubit to his stature And you make the Elect so impotent as I may say in respect of sin they cannot effectually and eventually hinder either their Conversion or finall Perseverance on the other side you make the Non-elect so impotent and under the influences of Common Grace too as you call and define it that they cannot so much as exert one a Preface Sect. 20. Act of Saving love nor intertain a good purpose or intention b Disp of Justis pag. 304. Such is your Sufficient Grace Of which enough before SACRED AMULETS OR Spirituall Charmes Against the poisonous suggestions of the Three Grand Tempters of Mankind to prevent Apostasie I. The DEVIL Luk. 22.31 Behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat Revel 12.4 And the Dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devoure her childe assoon as it was born The AMULET Heb. 3.12 Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbelief in departing from the living God 1 Pet. 5.8 9. Be sober be vigilant because your Adversary the Devill as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devoure Jam. 4.7 Whom resist stedfast in the faith and he will flee from you II. The WORLD Mat. 4.8 9. Again the Devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and sheweth him all the kingdomes of the world and the glory of them And saith unto him All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me 2 Cor. 6.8 By honour and dishonour by evil report and good report 2 Cor. 11.24 25 26 27. Of the Jews five times received I fourty stripes save one Thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day I have been in the deep In journeyings â—ften in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by mine own countrey-men in perils by the heathen in perils in the city in perils in the wildernesse in perils in the Sea in perils amongst false Brethren Joh. 16.1 2. These things have I spoken unto you that yee should not be offended They shall put you out of the Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service The AMULET 1 Joh. 2.15 17. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world For the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Phil. 4 11 12. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me Luk. 12.4 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Rev. 2.10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer behold the Devill shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried and ye shall have tribulation ten dayes be thou faithfull unto death and I will give thee a crown of life Mat. 26.41 Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation III. The FLESH Jer. 17.9 The heart is deceitfull above all things and desperately wicked Jam. 1.14 15. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entised Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death The