actually saved for if in Christ 1 Cor. 15.22 all are made alive that are alive and that he that is alive liveth unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 then as Christ himself such dye no more sin hath no more dominion over them Rom. 6.9 for they live unto the Lord Rom. 14.8 and 1 Joh. 3.9 his seed remaineth in him Being born again 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Next And Christ rendreth the light of the Spirit of Grace to every man in the world It s true we have some expressions Ioh. 1.9 that Christ lighteth every man that cometh into the world but that is to be understood of the common light of nature or the actings of reason as the two next following verses do evince for the world knew him not and his own received him not they had not the spirit of grace and faith for 2 Thes 3.2 all men have not faith But how doth Christ tender the light of the Spirit of grace to every man surely after that ordinary manner that God hath sanctified to wit the preaching of the Gospel for Rom. 10.14 faith cometh by hearing and how shall they hear without a Preacher then that is apparently false for it is too well known that there are many thousand thousands in the world yea divers nations which never enjoyed the blessing to hear of Christ or the Spirit of grace but Ephes 1.12 lived without a God in this world and at last shall go Psal 49.19 unto the generations of their fathers and never see light If the meaning be that Christ tendreth the light of the spirit of grace inwardly and after an extraordinary manner this is but petitio principii as they say in the Schooles a plain begging of the question without any proof of Scripture or probability in common reason Nay it is flat against the Scripture for Luke 16.19 they have Moses and the Prophets they are to hear them Esa 8.26 to the law and to the testimony c. 2 Pet 1.19 We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place Next God also giveth a Talent to every man and power to improve it but man not improving it when received with a power is the cause of mans destruction Now what weight this talent bears with this Dictator or what power is given unto frail men to improve it and how far and to what or whom either of these talents or power is extended when he hath better studied the point and comes to understand his own meaning if he please then to communicate it he shall be sure to receive a further answer but in the mean time by way of Anticipation if his sense be as I conjecture through his clouded and dark expressions That God hath afforded sufficient means of grace and power to improve that means to every man whereby they may come to the knowledge of the truth and so be saved then I utterly deny it and my ground of such denial rests upon these ensuing Arguments 1. Arg. If God do purposely for the raising of his own glory harden some blind others and make fat the hearts of many then a sufficient means of salvation nor power to use the same is administred to all indifferently But God doth blind some hardens others and makes fat Therefore The major or first proposition is undeniable because blinding hardening and making fat is destructive to the use of means The minor or second proposition is proved from these express texts Ex. 4.21 and 7.3 and 14.4 Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardeneth Ex. 9.16 and Rom. 9.17 even for this same purpose have I raised thee up Ioh. 12.40 he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts c. Esa 6.9 Rom. 11.7 election hath obtained it the rest are blinded Esa 6.10 make the hearts of this people fat 2. Arg. If God willingly suffers Nations to walk in their own wayes and winkes at or lets them alone in their sins and ignorance then God doth not exhibite a sufficiency of means nor inables them with a power of acceptation of life and salvation But the first is true therefore the latter For the proof of the major is unnecessary for the minor see Acts 14.16 and 17.30 3. Arg. If the preaching of Christ crucified in the doctrine of the Gospel be the onely ordinary sufficient means to bring men to life and to salvation and that many nations never enjoyed that means then God hath not afforded a sufficiency of means to all men but the first is true therefore the latter That the Gospel is the onely ordinary means Rom. 10.14 How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard c. Acts 4.12 there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Ioh. 14.6 No man cometh to the Father but by the Son 1 Ioh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 Tim. 2.5 One mediator between God and man the man Christ Iesus Now that many nations want this means t is too evident and therefore no sufficiency The Seventh Position That Christ hath redeemed all men from the first transgression and crost the score of Adams sin I cannot well interpret what this dreamer means for if his sense should be by way of limitation in all men to all the elect of men then I imbrace his Position and should much enlarge it But I suspect worse that he covertly denies the being of original sin secretly insinuating that the death of Christ hath blotted out Col. 2.14 that hand-writing that was against us from any further imputation of Adams sin or obligation unto punishment onely the guilt and pollution thereof still remains inherent in us However it is I will shoot at rovers and adventure an argument or two in defence of the truth 1. Arg. That unto which the Scripture doth apply the name and nature of sin deserving punishment that without controversie must be sin indeed But unto original sin both the name and nature of sin are applyed in the Scripture Therefore For proof hereof see Psal 81.7 Rom. 5.12 14 16 19. Ioh. 3.6 Rom. 7.7 8. and 8.13 Iam. 1.14 2. Arg. If temporal death hath been the lot of every one which yet hath not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression then there is original sin still in being in respect of punishment for Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death and every sin is either actuall or originall but temporal death hath been the lot of many who yet have not sinned actually Rom. 6.14 and this we may see instanced in the death of Infants which die without actual sin Therefore The last Position is Christ hath laid his life and shed his bloud for
all in their several generations had tasted of death and for a more full manifestation hereof he distinguisheth mankind into infants and those of ripe years wherein he affirms by the effect that not onely those that were of ripe years had died who had sinned in their own persons but even infants who had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression i. e. who had committed no actual sins in their own persons for which they should suffer death which is the wages of sin even they likewise had died Rom. 6.23 as having brought into the world with them the guilt of Adams transgression and therefore it could not be denied but that sin was likewise in them So that you that undertake to be a Proctor for all infants for ought you have proved from this text you will leave them all in a sad condition if a more sufficient Advocate may not be found to to plead their cause Another reason there is which you would fain have to be received from the authority of Christ himself Luke 18.16 Of such is the kingdom of God for the salving whereof I must open the words which do evidence that the Disciples had a prejudice and a cruell one too against infants thinking as the Anabaptists do that they understood nothing of Christ nor of the kingdom of Grace but Christ rebukes them and instates infants of believing parents as members of the visible Church Of such is the kingdom of God Now we cannot think that Christs meaning is of such as such is the kingdom of God as if all infants whether Jew or Gentile Turk or Pagan belonged as subjects to the visible Church for then the infants of all the heathens should be covenanted members of the Church visible and yet their parents are without the viâ—â—ble Church and when they should grow to age they should without any scandal be excommunicated which were monstrous to affirm much less can the invisible kingdom of God be of such as if all infants because infants were actually saved but all that our Saviour intends is Of such i. e. of such in covenant-relation is the kingdom of God of such subjects i. e. infants as well as others So that our Saviour did herein hold forth the common interest of the whole species of infants within the visible Church their common interest in Christ that he is a Saviour of them as well as a Saviour of the aged But to conclude thence of such Therefore all such is an unheard of non sequitur We find salvation entailed upon qualifications of Graces but not upon any age or period of life But that whether it be for matter of election or of reprobation young as well as old are lookt upon as in the corrupt lump and out of which some are elected the rest are left and so not elected which is to be Reprobated You have one reason more for the defence of your assertion that no child dying in infancy c. And that I conceive you offer by way of anticipation to what might be objected from Rom. 5.15 2 Cor. 5.10 16 17 18 19. concerning the imputation of Adams sin to all his posterity and thus you state it that when all shal appear before the judgement seat of Christ every one shall receive according to what he hath done in his body but not to receive any thing as a punishment for what hath been acted in the body of another And I pray Sir tell me you that are so accurate the reason of your limitation why none shall receive any thing as a punishment of that which hath been acted in the person of another but that we may receive a reward for the good which hath been acted in the person of another where if the text by you cited 2 Cor. 5.10 be that rule you walk by it should hold for good as well as bad But perhaps you foresaw the instance that would be given in against you in that man Christ Jesus from the acting of whose person in his own body all other bodies that do expect or hope for any reward of all their labours of love they do participate Joh. 1. Ezek. 16.14 for of his fulness have we all received and we all are made perfect through his comliness that he shall put upon us and by his obedience shall those that are justified be made righteous And therefore my good friends this is but gratis dictum Rom. 5.19 and you do herein grosly suborn and abuse that place of the Apostle to serve your base ends this sure is no better then the devils juggle Matth. 4. to mince so much of a text as will serve his turn and to leave out the rest so to delude the Readers I pray use fairer play in your next and deal above board The next thing I observe of your alike fair dealing is about that text 1 Cor. 15.22 that all die and go to the dust in the first Adam in that all have sinned or in whom all have sinned Rom. 5.12 and here sure the dust so flies in your eyes that all the skil and labour you can take will never wipe it away For first you do confess that all Infants as well as others sinned in Adam and why should you not alike confess from that very place Rom. 5.18 that therefore judgement upon all to condemnation should pass upon infants as well as others but probable it is that here your meaning is that Adams first transgression whereon I shall have occasion more fully to answer when I come to examine and resolve your postscript of Queries till when I shall dismiss this paradox and shall apply my self to enquire into the mind of God in that text by you cited Ezek. 18.20 the soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father c. Upon which your comment is by death in this place is meant eternal death that which is the portion of the wiâ—ked for their wickedness for as for the temporal or natural death that is the portion as well of the righteous as unrighteous and therefore from this place you suppose it clear that no soul shall eternally be cast into the lake for the sin of another i. e. for Adams sin But I pray Sir what think you first of the sufferings of Christ both in his soul and body â—am 1.12 Isa 53.3 there was no sin inherent in himself neither of original nor actual sins yet was there never any sorrow or sufferings like unto his and therefore called a man of sorrowes which though they were not eternal in respect of duration yet were they eternal according to the nature and essence of them and in respect of the dignity of the person being God-man they were equivalent to any or all of those sufferings which are eternal for time and continuance and yet all this was undergone not for the satisfaction of any sin in himself but for what sins were acted in the
person of another Next what think you of those infants that were drowned in the flood Gen. 19. Num. 16.17 or those infants which suffered in the destruction of Sodom or those infants in the conspiracy of Corah where the little children are said to be swallowed into the pit Now all of these infants were not born within the compass of the Covenant and out of that there is no salvation and actual sin they had committed none in their own persons and therefore their suffering must needs be for the sins acted by another But to come more close to the text The scope of that Chapter is this The Jews in Babylon meeting with much hardship in their captivity instead of being humbled for their sins took up an unjust complaint against God and charged him that he dealt unjustly with them taking up this Proverb amongst them that The fathers had eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth were set on edge i. e. that their fathers had sinned and they who were their children suffered for their sin implicitly pleading their own innocency but in a downright way accusing God for afflicting them for their fathers iniquities Now this false charge God vindicates and clears himself from in this Chapter ver 4. and so ver 20. The soul that sinneth it shall dye By soul here is meant the person the principal part being put for the whole by a Synecdoche as Lev. 7.18 20 21. By dying here more properly is understood a metaphorical death viz. afflictions wars judgements plague famine captivity loss of comforts formerly enjoyed So it is taken Exod. 10.17 2 Cor. 1.10 and 2 Cor. 11.23 Else by dying is meant suffering of punishment putting to death so the words to dye do signifie Deut. 17.12 and 18.20 and 24.7 and 1 Sam. 14.39 and 2 Sam. 12.5 Take it of whether of these two you will The words import thus much that the man which sinneth what ever he be he shall suffer and be cut off for his sin himself and not any other shall bear the burden of it and beyond this to extend the words to eternal or second death or to be cast into the lake is not with any right reason to be forced from this place For the words are to be understood as a direct answer unto the Jews charge and crimination now we do not find that any one of them did complain that they suffered this second death or that they were cast into the lake you speak of but onely their complaint and charge was for a bodily personal suffering here in this life as some of those by me formerly mentioned the utmost was a death of the body by what violence soever inflicted beyond which they had no present experience to know or judg for how could they know which of their Fathers went into that lake or suffered the second death And therefore if we may as we ought to do suppose the answer of God to be ad idem and not impertinent to their cavil and charge then the construction of these words must necessarily be confined to temporal afflictions as war famine c. or at worst to death temporal or natural And then what becomes of all this waste stuff of yours by your quibling with the words all must dye i. e. go to the dust whether righteous or unrighteous c. T is true all the righteous dye as well as the unrighteous but there is a vast difference in the circumstances of their deaths It is to the righteous a thing desired a bridge whereby they pass from Egypt to Canaan Christ hath by his death sanctified it and sweetned it so to them that they desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 Mat. 24.8 But to the wicked it is the beginning of sorrows This might be enlarged but to him whose eyes are not blinded through prejudice t is very intelligible that the utmost of the Prophets scope can be extended no further then this temporal death if it be marked what the people laid to the charge of God and supposing God likewise to have made a direct answer unto their charge without any equivocation or mental reservation And so I leave all this that you have said in the dirt and proceed to what you further say And again if this man be of the same mind with some of his brethren as he doth in some measure discover himself so to be by his words which seem to imply that Infant children have faith although not the use of faith which conceit of theirs is usually grounded upon Matth. 18.16 These little ones that believe in me from which words some of them do infer that because Christ called a little child unto him to set before his disciples as a pattern of humility to them therefore he speaketh of such little children in respect of nonage in ver 6. and if that be so then they must needs conclude that little children as such cannot be reprobated for saith Christ ver 14. It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish But this I do to see how the opinions of those men will hang together for I do believe that the little ones he speaketh of ver 6. and ver 14. are his disciples which are born from above converted and in conversation in respect of innocency and humility become as little children whose qualifications in respect of these things are such as the Lord Christ requireth the best of his people to be but such Answ Sir to what you say that I discover my self to imply that Infants may have faith although not the use of faith T is very true I do so and shall be at all times ready not onely to speak it implicitly but explicitly and to justifie such an assertion faith they may have in actu primo but not in actu secundo as the Schools distinguish they may have it in the root habit and seed but not in the second acts of knowledge assent and application but of this I have enlarged my self sufficiently before pag. 127. whereto I shall refer the Reader for further satisfaction But for what you write that this opinion is grounded on Math. 18.6 and thereupon infer a strange exposition framed by some as you say I pray Sir find out those men that create such an interpretation as you speak of and when you have found them indite such another learned polemical pamphlet against their opinion as you have here done against me and if they can let them defend themselves and their private glosses and I will promise you that for my part I will not interpose between you nor have I any thoughts to vindicate it as conceiving it probable that you your self have forged this construction out of the anvile of your simple brain and now that you endeavour to refute it You make your close to this absurdiry thus And thus we owne the later of the two which he calleth absurdities
God wills not the death of the wicked with a desire of destroying or that he delights in the destruction vexation or perdition of such creatures neither would he it or would effect or cause it if it were nothing else but a naked destruction or perdition But he wills it and works it if they do not repent and delights in it as it is the punishment of sin and a vindictive act of divine Justice and work of God for God hath pleasure in all his works The destruction and ruine of Babylon is called his pleasure Isa 48.14 he will do his pleasure on Babylon and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans and Prov. 1.26 I will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh and Ezek. 5.13 thus shall mine anger be accomplished and I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted But to this you make some additions saying But now if God have so disposed of those that live and die in sin and unbelief as that they never could do otherwise because of that decree of God which was before they had any being then I say what truth were there in all those showes of love that come from God in saying as he liveth he delighteth not in the death of the wicked c. were it not dissembling false dealing and hypocrisie as bad as can be found in the worst of men But I have better thoughts of God and so I trust hath every sincere soul that truly feareth God Rom. 3.4 Yea let God be true and every man a liar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged Answ I shall onely take notice in this Paragraph of what this learned man writes that if there should be such a decree of God which did so necessitate men that they must do so and could not do otherwise and yet to say that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked were not this dissembling and false dealing and hypocritical as bad as can be found in the worst of men Horresâ—o referens Sir in this you shoot much besides the mark we suppose no such decree of God so necessitating any man by way of coaction or compulsion but that every man that lives and dies in sin and unbelief might have lived and died in a better condition if their own corrupt wills had not freely carried them on to such exorbitancies Reprobatio aeterna nihil ponit in reprobato The eternal act of Gods non-election insists infuses no sinful acts or qualifications and therefore every aberrancy or deficiency that is found in man as in reference to his obedience unto the most holy and righteous law of God cannot in the least degree be put upon the account of the decree of non-election but must be reduced onely to the malignant will of man totally depraved and deprived of the glory of God And to what you say as to matter of dissembling and Hypocrisie this is that which I say that if God should as his ultimate end by an immutable decree determine and appoint a man to sin or by an irresistible power plunge a man into a course of sinning and in the mean time make a protestation that he delights not in the death of the wicked here you may say were dissembling indeed But when God hath decreed to create a man in righteousness and true holiness and then to leave him to the liberty of his own will though in the mean time he know that being so left to himself he must unavoidably fall and that he hath decreed to permit him to fall for the manifestation of his justice which fall will draw after it many other gross sins and for which at the last to give him the full wages of all his unrighteousness here is no false dealing nor hypocrisie though when he is so fallen God do require the exerting of those graces wherewith he had at first endowed him and which he wilfully deprived himself of The confiding creditor is not to be blamed nor charged for want of pity who having lent some money to his neighbour who spends it all and squanders it away in prodigality and lasciviousness if when his time of payment comes he expects a return of his money and for want thereof casts and debtor into prison He that hath wilfully made himself either blind or lame who can bemoan such a mans condition For those expressions so obvious in the Scripture setting forth Gods not delighting in the death of the wicked it may be inferred thence that their death and damnation are not things primarily well pleasing to God but it were ill concluded that God must become a hypocrite and a dissembler if he have eternally decreed to permit them to incurre death and damnation by their own default Gods ultimate and primary end in the non-election or Reprobation of some is mainly to raise glory to his great name by making his power and justice to be known and not that he creates a man on purpose to destroy him But enough if not too much hath been spoken about this already I shall now proceed to the examination of his last gravamen which is of the same import with the former onely it hath pleased this Merchant-venturer to clothe it in a distinct livery diffeâ—ing little in substance from his fellowes but onely in language whi h is this Again thirdly If Gods decree of Reprobation before man had any being doth produce or bring forth such an effect or consequence as a continuance in sin and unbelief c. so as that men cannot neither ever could repent or believe the Gospel to the saving of their souls nor do that which God hath required to be done in order to the obtaining of the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life then where is the wisdom of God Is it not below the wisdom that is in the men of the world which do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles they do not wait in expectation of grapes where they plant nothing but brambles neither do they look for a harvest of Wheat in the field in the which they sow nothing but Tares for if they should so do and also complain against the brambles because they brought not forth grapes and against the field because it brought not forth Wheat would it not be folly in them judge ye that have understanding Answ In answer to which to prevent the nauseousness of a vain repetition I am inforced to crave the Readers patience to revile the answer to the first Gravamen which will supply the place of a Catholicon or universal antidote against all the grievances he can muster up in prejudice of our Doctrine of non-election or Reprobation where he shall be abundantly satisfied that the decree of God is no cause producing any such effect as sin and unbelief neither doth the decree obicem ponere so that by reason thereof men cannot repent it onely denies
things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned No Sir it is the peculiar work of the Spirit to regenerate and convert Lydia's heart was opened Acts 16. Mat. 13.3 Rom. 1.16 before she so diligently attended to Pauls words The word of God that brought forth fruit did not make the ground good but it was so before by the special working of that Spirit The word which is the power of God to salvation doth not make believers but God first makes them so by sanctifying of their natures and giving them to believe Phil. 1.29 The word of God in Regeneration hath no greater force or power then the word of the Prophets and Apostles had in raising of the dead which had no other operation then to be tanquam signum as a sign of the thing done or as a moral instrument for there is no lesser power requirable in the recovery of a poor soul from a spiritual death to a spiritual life then there is from a natural death to a natural life And therefore as it is Gods peculiar to raise from death to life natural so it is his alone prerogative to raise from a spiritual death to a spiritual life The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Ioh. 5.25 Yea the same power is exerted in the work of Regeneration or the new creation as was at first in the work of the old creation 1 Cor. 4.6 no less then an hand of omnipotency in them both and therefore not communicable to any creature From all of which I shall hence infer that if it be Gods peculiar work to regenerate and not the word in the hearing of it and that Regeneration is principally necessary to give us ingress into heaven Joh. 3.3 Mat. 5.8 God may then as well regenerate infants by his secret power unsearchable to us though they neither hear nor understand as he doth those that are of riper years by so weak an instrument as the word and Gospel is which hath no such inherent power in and of it self Secondly this your assertion labours of another sickness viz. a false supposition that nothing but actual sins expose men to the danger of being cast into the lake of fire whereas the truth is That original sin or that hereditary pravity we brought with us into the world deriving it from our parents Psal 51.5 who conceived us in sin hath so much of filthiness and uncleanness in it that God may justly cast a new-born infant into the lake of fire for it unless it be washed clean by the blood of Jesus who is the alone way the truth the life Joh. 14.6 and through whose alone merits we have an access into the Holy of Holies into which place are admitted onely these whose names are written in the Lambs book of life Rev. 21.27 Luke 10.20 Rev. 20.15 whose names are written in heaven registred there in the eternal immutable decree of Gods election unto life all the rest whose names are not there recorded infants as well as others are cast into the lake of fire which is the second death But enough of this at present I shall be sure to meet you again more about this when you lay out your strength against original sinne Another thing which you give out in the nature of a reason why infants cannot be damned is viz. for that their not having of faith will never be charged upon them as sin Sir suppose I grant so much and so likewise what you produce out of Rom. 4.15 as a confirmation or rather as a reason of your reason for where no law is there is no transgression both may be very true as set disjunctively but as you have woven them both into one sentence they may not be true nor applicable to your purpose for herein you vary your terms that which you write takes notice of sin the text speaks of transgression wherein I conceive sin and transgression are not terms convertible for though every transgression of the law be a sin yet every sin is not a transgression of the law as in the case now before us for original sin though it be a sin properly and really yet it is not a transgression of the law as personally acted in and by the infants but as imputatively and as a defect of original righteousness So what you further say by way of illustration that there can be no law to infants as such and sin is not imputed where there is no law I grant you as to infants now in existence which law might require the exerting or putting out of any act or duty which their minority is uncapable to receive or to perform But I must withall tell you that as Adam as a publick person as a root and stock received Grace righteousness and holiness for him and his even for those in his loins so he received a law to him and his even the Covenant of works do this and live which law was incumbent not onely on Adam himself but likewise on all those that were in his loins So that infants now are born under a law and their want of original righteousness and that for the defect thereof their being conceived and born in sin and uncleanness shall be a deserving cause of their just condemnation What you bring forth in evidence to what you here aim at viz. Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no law is so far from answering your desire that it cuts the throat of your assertion For the clearing whereof its expedient to search into the mind of the Spirit by the scope of the place The Apostle in this Chapter is prosecuting that grand point of Justification by faith in Christ and ver 11. laies down this that we have received attonement by him whence he makes this corollary ver 12. that as by the first Adam sin and death entred into the world so by Iesus Christ righteousness and life are restored to us But ver 13. he meets with an objection that sin is not imputed where there is no law where he argues after this manner If all have sinned in the loins of Adam then those likewise have sinned who lived before the law was given by Moses but before the law was given there could be no sin because where there is no law there is no transgression as Chap. 4.15 and therefore all have not sinned in Adam Now here the Apostle denies the assumption or minor proposition affirming the contrary that sin was before the law given by Moses constantly affirming that howsoever it was not imputed i. e. reckoned or accounted or reputed to be sin yet indeed and in truth sin was then in the world and this being of sin in the world before the law ver 14. he proves by the effect viz. death was then in the world and that all had sinned because that
drawing as that it is by the cords of a man with bands of love i. e. by arguments suitable to our capacity where the love of Jesus Christ constraineth them and that of an unwilling they are made a willing people in the day of his power Psal 110.3 1. Whether the Saints may not be said to judge the world righteously if those that are judged by them have by a free and willing choice acted those things in the body which are repugnant to the most holy and righteous law of God 1. Whether God be bound to supply man with that Grace which he hath formerly and that voluntarily deprived himself of 2. Whether that in the waies of salvation and damnation there be any coaction or compulsion of the will either to good or evil but that whatsoever it wills it wills freely else were it no will 3. Whether in the decree of some unto salvation God doth not decree unto the means as well as to the end viz. unto salvation but through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes 2.13 4. Whether in the decree of preterition non-election or negative reprobation God leaves not man to his own contracted disobedience and for that disobedience decrees to condemn him 5. Whether the decrees of God be not immutable and that thence whatsoever God decrees must necessarily come to pass 6. Whether there be not a foreknowledge of God in the decrees 7. Whether that foreknowledge can be deceived but that it must necessarily be effected as it is foreknown 8. Whether in the proposals of choosing and refusing mentioned in the Scripture God may not justly expect the acting and exercising of that power wherewith he had at first endowed man 9. Whether such proposals are not chiefly used to convince men of and humble men under their natural inability and so to drive them to seek for a power out of themselves and not any way conclusive that they have such a power in themselves for the choosing of that which is good 1. Whether those to whom God hath decreed not to infuse grace into them not to give them faith and repentance when God is the alone worker of it as Phil. 1.29 Ephes 28. 2 Tim. 2.25 whether I say can such believe or repent Matth. 13.11 and therefore their Reprobation anteceding their unbelief 1. Whether to speak properly there be not one onely will in God 2. Whether the Commandments Promises Threatnings c. being by some called the revealed will of God is not a part of and subordinate to his secret will 3. Whether God doth not sometimes command that which yet in his secret will he hath not purposed should be effected but so commanded sometimes for trial as in that command to Abraham of sacrificing his son Gen. 22.1 and to Pharaoh of letting the people of Israel go Exod. 6.7 that the hardness of his heart might be discovered and Gods power on him might be shewn 1. Whether that opinion which some hold concerning God be not damnable namely to say that God intends the salvation of all men for if he did intend it who should hinder him for Rom. 9.19 Who hath resisted his will and Ier. 5.29 every purpose of the Lord shall be performed and Rom. 9.11 the purpose of non-election as well as of election must stand and Iob 9.12 Who can hinder him 2. Whether those words God willeth all men to be saved are not to be interpreted thus viz. some of all sorts and not all of all sorts viz. some of Kings and those that are in Authority as well as of any other lower sort of people 1. Whether it can be infallibly known to any one Minister of the Gospel for what individual person God never intended salvation in the death of his Son and therefore since there are still Tares amongst the good Wheat Reprobates among the Elect indiscriminate till Christ shall distinguish them by setting the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left 2. Whether the Gospel is not to be published to all persons promiscuously to whom such Ministers are sent to preach it 1. Whether condemnation to the second death or lake of fire is not threatned to those that are without Rev. 22.15 and Rev. 21.8 27. not written in the lambs book and such are those Gentiles who Ephes 2.12 being strangers from the Covenant of promise and without a God in the world they were not in a capacity to reject the means which they never enjoyed Ps 147.20 1. Whether those that perish to eternity can possibly be saved when as God hath decreed not to give them faith nor to give them repentance 2. Whether any or all the outward means in the world can be so improved as to the saving of any one soul unless God by his omnipotent power do inwardly make it effectual by infusion of sanctifying and saving grace Ezek. 36.27 and taking away the stony heart 1. Whether any can believe that Christ died for sin upon a Scripture-account except he believe that Christ his death is sufficient for all 2. Whether the Scripture doth warrant this assertion to say that Christ died effectually or intentionally to save all for he laid down his life for his sheep onely 3. Whether believing onely be not a sufficient title to interest a man in the death of Christ 1. Whether Gods own wayes and his thoughts in opening a door of salvation to some of the sons of men and shutting of it against others will not make his righteousnes appear glorious in judgement more then our waies and our thoughts in opening a door of salvation to all alike 2. Whether the glory of God manifested in his executing of justice upon the reprobates is not as dear unto him and to be as much adored by us as if he had saved and glorified all the world 1. Whether a man may not be justly said to refuse that which was once in his power to receive but that he voluntarily disinabled himself of that power as all of us did in Adam his sin being ours by Imputation 2. Whether all sorts of reprobate persons do not really refuse the outward tenders of grace and resist the external motions of the holy Ghost and neglect so great salvation offered to them and forsake their own mercies though they were never in a possibility to receive them because God had decreed never to work grace in them 1. Whether doth not Gods bemoaning persons in the state of unbelief plainly argue that their state is lamentable 2. Whether such persons who are in a state of unbelief would not believe if God would give them to believe 3. Whether Christ his bemoaning of persons in a state of unbelief and yet his suffering them so to continue be not well consistent especially they being none of those who were given to him of the Father A POSTSCRIPT TO Thomas Tazwell SIR I need not tell you what trouble you have put me to in pursuing you in all this
17. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Answ That God doth put forth acts of Grace of free and undeserved love unto his worthless creatures we have willingly acknowledged we further say that that love of God is no passion not proper affection in God who is not capable of such but onely a purpose in God of willing well and doing well unto the creature and that out of the wel-spring of that love did slow that good pleasure of his of the sending of his Son into the world But that either it was the purpose of God in sending or the intention of Christ in coming into the world to be a Redeemer of all and every particular person or to offer himself a sacrifice for all this text doth not evinâ—e Yet I say that this love here spoken of may be said to be universal in respect of the Elect and of believing persons answerable to that Rom. 3.22 Rom. 3.22 The righteousness of God which is of faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe and yet withall particular in respect of the whole mass and lump of mankind according to that Rom. 9.13 Rom. 9.13 Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated and ver 18. he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Neither doth Christ intend any other universality here then this mentioned first because that those for whom Christ came into the world are also saved for what shall be able to hinder his purpose or resist his will Secondly because believers onely are saved Rom. 8.19 Phil. 1.2 Mat. 13.11 and shall not be condemned onely to the Elect it is given that they shall believe Phil. 1.29 Matth. 13.11 And thirdly to what purpose was this pretended love and affection in God if it never did nor can take any gracious effect in saving any reprobate That which takes the fourth place is Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life Answ That by All men unto whom did slow the benefit purchased by Christ is not meant of all and singular men absolutely but all men that did appertain unto him who were given him of the Father i. e. the elect and believers For the Apostle here makes a comparison between the first Adam and the second Adam as being two roots either of whom do communicate unto their several branches i. e. unto a certain company descending from them what they have do or shall enjoy and therefore saith that as the first Adam by his carnal generation did communicate two pestilent evils Sin and Death unto all descending from him So Christ the second Adam by his spiritual generation did communicate two contrary blessings viz. Righteousness and Life to all that did believe in him The truth of this interpretation is clear from the scope of the Apostle which is to compare Christ the Authour of Righteousness and Life with Adam the Authour of Sin and Death from ver 12. to the end of the Chapter and therefore hereupon ver 19. repeating the same matter which in probability should be more clear the word all is interpreted by many For had it been otherwise the Apostle would have pulled down what before he had built up and clearly contradicted himself in that doctrine which he had before delivered in the third and fourth Chapters therein asserting the justification onely of believers and therefore here is but little advantage to be gotten from this Antithesis But you will say if more perished in Adam then are saved in Christ his Grace then should be weaker then Adams sin where is then the much more abounding grace spoken of ver 17. To which I answer that the greatness and power of grace above â—n ought not to be esteemed according to the multitude of those that are condemned in Adam and of those that are justified and glorified in Christ for so Grace should be equal onely and nothing at all stronger then sin if every of these should be made righteous in Christ as many as were born sinners in Adam But herein consists the extensiveness of Grace beyond what sin did First in that whereas sin brought forth death and grace righteousness and life now it s well known t is easier to destroy and condemn an innumerable company then to quicken and save one single person all the world compacted together could not save one but Adams single sin could make obnoxious the whole world Secondly In Adam all the whole world are involved and made liable to condemnation by his one only offence but Christ doth emancipate his little flock not onely from that one original sin contracted by stain and imputation but likewise from all actual sins wherein they themselves are personally culpable neither is there any Righteousness besides Christ as there be some sins besides the sin of Adam And how mighty is this gift which innumerable sinners cannot withstand and this is that which the Apostle hinteth ver 17. and not as c. And so I proceed to your fifth Text prest to give in evidence which is 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again True it is Christ is said here that he died for all but for what all therein lies the doubt truly then the resolve must be that Christ died first for those all to whom his death is imputed viz. such who through the virtue and efficacy of the death of Christ which he underwent for them are accounted as dead and secondly Rom. 13.14 for such as do repent i. e. whereas before they did indulge their pleasures and lived to the satisfying of the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof now they live no longer to themselves but do endeavour to live conformably to the will and honour of him that died for them Now whether this can be extended to any but believers let my adversary judge for it were blasphemy to think that Christ could not obtain the end of his death had it been intended by him for any else besides believers yea even those to whom he had purposed to give them power to believe and to become sons of God The sixth Text forced by you to give its vote is 1 Tim. 2.1 c. I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and
infallibility is that whereby God doth certainly and infallibly foresee the futurition of all things for whereas the foreknowledge of God cannot be deceived as resting on an immutable decree therefore whatsoever he necessarily foreknoweth the same must necessarily come to pass Act. 15.18 known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Thirdly necessity of coaction or compulsion is that wherein any patient by violence is compelled by an external agent to do this or that which otherwise he is unwilling to do so Matth. 27.32 they compelled Simon to bear the cross of Christ so Luk. 14.23 at the great supper the guests are compelled to go in that the house might be filled so Acts 26.11 Paul compelled some to blaspheme These things thus premised I do hence infer that if the decree of God did produce such an effect as from a proper cause thereof as the continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation by way of coaction or compulsion so that though they would they could not do otherwise then well might you fall into that admiration Where is the tender mercy of our God! But the decree of God leaves not men under such necessity of continuance in sin c. as though it either compelled men or sollicited any unto sinning but those that sin sin as voluntarily and sin is acted as freely by them according to their own perverse wills and desires as though there were no such decree or foresight of God at all And yet it is very true that sins do come to pass according to the decree of God by a necessity first of immutability in as much as they are permitted determined directed and limited by the eternal decree of God which is as himself immutable Secondly by a necessity of infallibility in as much as the foreknowledge of God concerning such future things cannot be deceived But they do by no means come to pass by any decree of God necessarily inforcing infusing perswading or soliciting to sin But Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum all of your complexion are not equally capacitated to digest such notions and therefore Qui potest capere capiat he that is able to receive it let him receive it If these speculations be too sublime for your thick noddle blame not me for it And for that portion of Scripture by you cited it hath come under consideration already and hath received a full answer pag. 17. to which I must refer the Reader onely I shall adde this That non-election or negative Reprobation doth not contract the mercy of God into such strait terms but that every man in the world hath some share in it though not an equal share And if Gods mercy and love may be understood secundum effectum and not secundum affectum I would have you find out any creature in the world which hath conferred so many and so great effects of mercy and love upon his young ones as God did upon Cain Iudas or any other Reprobate and then I le give you leave to say that our Doctrine of Reprobation is destructive to the tender mercies of God No Sir the decree of Reprobation as it relates to the permission of sin in those non-elected argues no want at all of mercy in God though it import a denegation of some mercies even the top and height and bowels of his tender mercies which God had he been so pleased might have bestowed on them but Ratinabiliter negatur quod nulla ratione debetur and with this I shall relax my shoulders from the burden of this gravamen and so proceed to the next which is but the second part to the same tune For thus you write Secondly If God hath brought forth such an effect as a continuance in sin and unbelief c. by his decree before man had any being so as that the greatest part of men must be eternally damned for doing but what they must do and cannot neither ever could do otherwise Then where is the truth of God who hath said Ezek. 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that he should turn from his waies and live Now if this man should undertake to resolve this question and be true to his own principles he must say there can be no other reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelief and the rejecting of the means but meerly the good will and pleasure of God But God himself whose word I shall believe before this mans arguments hath said Ezek. 18.32 I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth And if this be not sufficient yet lest men should distrust him he confirmeth it in Ezek. 33.11 say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye why will ye dye Oh house of Israel Answ Let there be a transposition of the words mercy for truth in these two gravamens and then see whether the subject matter be not the very same I must therefore desire the Reader to receive satisfaction unto this from that before written which howsoever calculated for the meridian of mercy yet may generally serve as an Antidote against all his Gravamens There remains therefore little else to be done as to this onely to examine his texts of Scripture wherein he insists much upon such expressions that the Lord hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth or in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live c. Now the mind of the Prophet in this place is to stir up such as had declined from God to returne unto him by true repentance and because their iniquities were so many and their offences so great that justly they might have despaired of remission mercy and grace therefore doth the Prophet for the better assuring of those that should repent affirm that God delighteth not in nor willeth the death of the wicked but of what wicked doth the Prophet speak this Doubtless of such wicked that truly should repent and in the death of such wicked God doth not nor never will delight But he delighteth to be known a God that sheweth mercy grace and favour to such as unfeignedly call for and desire the same how grievous soever their former offences have been But such as continue obstinate in their impiety have no part nor portion in these precious promises for them will God destroy and them will he thrust by the power of his word into that fire that never shall be quenched Secondly suppose I say that the death spoken of here is to be extended no further then a temporal death and I am sure it is more then you are ever able to prove that properly and directly it can be applied to eternal death and what will that avail you then as to matter of damnation Thirdly t is true
your principles for if Gods foresight of faith and the embracing of the means be the ground-work of election as it is by you and that in children dying in infancy nothing either of faith or works can be foreseen because never reducible into any act of faith upon what ground with you can such be elected is a riddle to me Your next work is to make an apology for your tediousness in these words I am constrained to be larger in answering these arguments because I cannot but a little follow him that I may find him out in his crooked waies that so he may be discovered and therefore I cannot but take notice of this expression before they had the use of faith by which one would think that the man is of that opinion that faith comes by generation because his words do seem to intimate as if infants had faith but not the use of faith but Paul certainly was of another mind when he said faith cometh by hearing Rom 10.17 Answ Sir to let pass your crooked words you seem to make it a wonder for one to affirm that infants may have faith but not the act or use of faith and from such an opinion to conclude that faith then might come by generation which indeed were an absurdity in grain But Sir are you onely a stranger in Jerusalem and know not these things or have you not learnt to distinguish between the habit of faith and the act of faith I know a regenerate person when he sleeps hath the habit of faith though at that time he want the act and use of faith A convert likewise under a spiritual desertion may have the principle and seed of faith and yet want an active and an operating faith And so an elect Infant though in respect of the imperfection of its natural faculties he is indisposed actually to believe yet in regard he is a subject capable of the inward workings of the Spirit of God to sanctifie his corrupt nature he may passively receive the grace of sanctification and therewith the habit root seed or principle of faith and from thence to be denominated a believer Infants are reputed in the number of reasonable creatures yea even before they have the act or use of reason onely because they have it in semine in the seed or root of reason and why not alike to have faith in the habit or root and so reputed for believers though they cannot actually exert it Phil. 19 Sir I must tell you first that faith is infused not acquired t is given to believe which passively infants are in a capacity of as well as those that are adult 2. That their souls may as well be now sanctified by infused grace as if Adam had not fallen they should have been holy from the womb by original justice propagated unto them and inherent in them 3. That the humanity of Christ was in this manner holy even from the conception which was therein by special priviledge like unto that course which should have been ordinary in our conceptions and births if we had not sinned in Adam 4. That it cannot fairly be denyed to be so in Iohn Baptist but that so great a Prophet was sanctified by the holy Ghost even from the womb which may be confirmed by that his extraordinary motion upon the salutation of Mary the mother of our blessed Saviour and of Ieremy it is not improbable by that which God saith of him Ier. 1.5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the nations But wonder I know to be the fecundous spawn and brood of ignorance and therefore I cannot wonder at the wonder Yet to extricate your self out of this absurdity you undertake thus But whereas he seemeth to make it a very doubtful thing if not altogether impossible that children dying in infancy should be elected to life and salvation from what we hold I must tell him there is a great ground to hope if not a certainty whereby we may believe that no child dying in infancy before they come to have a being to act shall ever be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death because they not having the use of those faculties as hearing together with the use of reason to understand what is spoken and being not capable of any embracing of the means and which never had a being to act therefore they cannot reject the means of salvation and their not having of faith will never be charged upon them as sin for where no law is there can be no transgression Rom. 4.15 and there can be no law to infants as such because they cannot know it when they are Infants and sin is not imputed where there is no law Rom. 5.13 and also we find that Christ himself said Luke 18.16 That of such is the Kingdom of God and hath no where said that such are reprobated to everlasting destruction if he hath shew us where he hath spoken it in Scripture or appointed it to be spoken by any of his Ministers It is true we find that we shall appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 but we do not find that any shall receive any thing at the day of judgement as a punishment for what hath been done in the body of another although we 1 Cor. 11.22 all dye and go to the dust in the first Adam in that all have sinned or in whom all have sinned Rom. 5. ver 12. compared with the Margin and God himself hath declared against such iniquitie of proceeding in Ezek. 18.20 The soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father c. Now that this was a dying that was more then to dye and to go to the dust it is evident for all must undergo that whether they be righteous or unrighteous and we find ver 26. that when a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dieth in them he shall dye which doth imply that it was a death that is to be the portion of those that dye and go to the dust in wickedness and impenitency after that death when the judgement cometh which is called in Scripture the second death and it doth appear that that death will not be the portion of any for any thing that is acted in or by another but for the wickedness and impenitency of every particular soul that liveth and dieth therein In answer to this rabble I say that as there is salvation for all sorts and degrees of persons of age in covenant but not to be extended to all of those sorts and degrees to reach every individual person so in a parallel way we may think of infants I know no Text giving us
universal assurance of their happiness in case there were and that all this that you have said were truth I suppose there were much more cause for believers to beg of God their infants death then with David in prayer to seek their life there being as you say full assurance of their happiness dying and so much fear of their condemnation living to see the temptations to which in their growth they are subject Nay if no child dying in infancy shall ever be cast into the lake of fire what should then deny but that it should be enrolled in the Chronicles as the mercifullest act that Herod ever did in all his life Mat. 2.16 when he commanded that all the male children in Bethlehem from two years old and under should be murthered for had they live to ripe years probably they would have filled up the measure of their fathers Mat. 23.32 and contributed as much and had their hands dipt as deep in the blood of Christ as any other of their brethren and therefore Herod to be as a blessed memorable butcherous murtherer that sent so many poor souls as Martyrs to heaven by the sleight of hand who had been like never to come thither had it not been for his merciful cruelty Yea you your self might be registred as the most indulgent father who for the saving of the souls of your children would expose your own to loss by cutting of your childrens throats as soon as they were born and so posting of them to heaven before their due time whereas perhaps if they had lived so long as with their mothers milk to have suckt in the venome of your principles and positions they might have endangered both body and soul from ever coming thither But what horrible things are these to think of I am amazed to write it and yet consectaries that without any inforcement might very well flow from your positions viz. that no child dying in infancy before they come to have a being to act shall ever be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death Whereas we do affirm that children as well as others being the objective subjects of Predestination and so considered as in the corrupt lump and mass of perdition with the rest of all the posterity and brood of old Adam according to the eternal and immutable decree proceeding from the sole good pleasure of Gods most holy will 1 Sam. 25.29 the souls of some of them are bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord their God and the souls of the rest being past over or not elected they shall be flung out as out of the middle of a sling But yet for confirmation of what you here assert you do endeavour cum ratione insanire to have some reason for this your wild assertion and next you basely prostitute the pure and undefiled word of God to fortifie your first I shall undertake them both in their order and by Gods assistance shall first prescribe you a pill to purge this your melancholy frenzy and next shall rescue those Scriptures by you alledged out of your hands giving them to speak in that peculiar sense they were at first intended by the holy Ghost And first my learned Antagonist had you placed the ground of your hope distributively viz. upon the children of believers you might have had some foundation for it because the promise of the Covenant doth no less appertain to Infants then to those of ripe years Gen. 17.7 I will be a God to thee and to thy seed The promise is to you and to your children Acts 2.39 Acts 2.39 But whereas you take it collectively and universally including therein the children of Turks Jews Pagans Infidels you have neither rule nor word nor promise for any such hope that they shall be saved And now the first reason that you produce for your Infantissimous assertion that no child in infancy shall ever be cast into the lake of fire is Because they not having the use of those faculties as hearing together with the use of reason to understand what is spoken and being not capable of any embracing of the means and which never had a being to act therefore they cannot reject the means of salvation Sir for this time admit it so that children cannot hear nor have not the use of reason Sir neither can those that are born deaf nor Ideots nor madmen in what state or rank will you then place them And for the rejecting of the means of salvation neither can they that never enjoyed the means reject it and in what squadron will you place them And therefore this assertion of yours is grounded on a false supposition that God cannot or at least he will not or doth not regenerate without the word heard understood and embraced but good Sir I must tell you that what expressions are used in Scripture as necessarily requiring the hearing of the word and receiving of the means it speaks of to such as are in a capacity so to hear it and receive it viz. those of ripe years and rationalists and where the Scripture is silent viz. as to children deaf or fools do not you undertake to determine without Gods advice and counsel but leave all the work as I do to Gods secret decree of predestination wherein he may do with his own what his good will and pleasure is either to save or to damn without the control of any And though we in a charitable way may hope the best of all those children that are born within the compass of the Covenant viz. of believing parents yet how God is pleased to bring his purpose to pass in the saving of any one of them is to me and sober-minded men as inscrutable as is the fashioning of their tender bodies in their mothers wombs and it is enough to me that we may hope well of them because God by his promise hath ingaged himself wherein he cannot lye 2 Tim. 2. Tit. 1.2 nor deny himself to be a God in covenant not with us onely but with our children likewise and were it not upon the account of the decree of election which is the foundation of all the promise wherein God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens and that not for any thing of good either done or foreseen but meerly out of his own good pleasure we should have just cause to doubt that all children dying in infancy should unavoidably be damned Besides my good friend have you yet learnt or do you understand what it is that doth regenerate If you ascribe this work to the word heard as it seems you do you are mainly mistaken 2 Cor. 3.6 The word of it self is but a dead Letter at best it is but a moral instrument and therefore it can never operate unless it be understood which can never he by one that is as yet unregenerate 1 Cor. 2.14 for the natural man receiveth not the
because it is a truth viz. that no child dying in infancy can possibly be reprobated for reprobation is the portion of such as have the means of the knowledge of God and his truth which is the means of salvation and so reject it which infants as such can never do as hath been already proved But for the former viz. that children dying in infancy before they have any being to act should be reprobated to everlasting destruction he shall never father it upon us for it followeth not from any principle that we hold neither will it agree with the tender mercies of our God who hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked and therefore not of an innocent dying infant for mercy rejoyceth against judgement Answ Sir this latter absurdity will stick to your skirts as long as ever you uphold this your position and that you do not recant it as hath been by me sufficiently proved and for the former it likewise hath been evidenced that children dying in infancy before they had the act and use of faith must unavoydably be damned were it not for the sole good pleasure of Gods most holy will who hath chosen some of them according to the election of Grace they being in the same lump with others And so I proceed to the second absurdity which is As 2. neither such Gentiles or Turks Indians and Savages that never heard of Christ who never enjoyed the Gospel c. Answ To which I answer first by demanding why he concludeth that there be some Gentiles that never heard of Christ c. The Apostle Paul delivereth doctrine contrary to this saying have they not all heard yes verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the world Rom. 10.18 and chap. 16.25 26. Speaking of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandement of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith how then is it that this man saith that there be such Gentiles or Turks and the like that never heard of Christ if he hath been among such pretending himself to be a Minister of Christ he should have preached Christ unto them But I am perswaded that he groundeth what he saith upon a report of some History of Travellers or the like and from thence there is as good ground to conclude that they may hear of Christ and that there are Christians in this part of the world which worship that God that is the creator of al things by Jesus Christ as there is for us to conclude that there is a Mahomet which the Turk doth believe in and that there are Indians and Savages who are strangers from the life of God and that worship the creature more than the Creator for certainly they may as wel hear what we do as we can hear what they are and what they do and if they did but delight to retain that God in their knowledge whom we worship and to entertain the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts in whom we believe without question they might know more of God and his Son Christ then they do and this doth appear from the words of Christ Luk. 16.10 11. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who shall commit to your trust the true riches and therefore if they were faithful in the use of that means which they do enjoy from God without doubt they might know more of God then they do Answ Well fare you good Sir in your understanding you have already dispatcht infants even those of Pagans and sent them into Limbo infantum for there is no place in heaven for them I mean Pagan infants and to the Lake you say they must not go and now you are engaged to become an advocate for infidels and take heed at last you turn not proctor for the Devil and with Origen to be so charitable as to have some hopes of his salvation for truly for what yet appears by the word he is in as great a capacity for salvation as those infidels are Salvation according to Scripture-account is incompassed within the verge of the covenant and doth not go beyond it The Scripture leaves men out of covenant in a hopeless condition But against what I say that some Gentiles yet never heard of Christ you produce that of Rom. 10.18 and 16.25 26. that their sound i. e. of the preaching of the Gospel went into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world as it was made known unto all nations But my good friend you that mist before in your Chronography I believe you are here likewise out in your Cosmography for here the Apostle speaks of the ministers of the Gospel yea and of those not as sent to the Gentiles neither but to the Jews of whom he here treats and shews their inexcusableness for not obeying the Gospel whose sound went to the ends of the world But what ends of the world we know that the word world is sometimes straitned to Iudea onely as some are wont to construe that of the taxing of the world by Augustus Caesar Luke 2. onely of Iudea Now saith the Apostle the Iews cannot plead ignorance of the Gospel because the preachers of it have sounded it to them every where Have they not heard ver 18. did not Israel know ver 19. but to Israel he saith All the day long have I stretched out my hands ver 21. and you that are so indulgent over those pitiful Pagans how is it in right reason imaginable that when Paul writ this Epistle to the Romans that every mothers son under heaven should have been a hearer of the Gospel when as the compass of the earth is many thousand miles about and so many nations which have never been discovered till of late years yet that they then should have heard the Gospel and that in so short a time sure herein your pen did run before your wit in understanding those words in such a sense and therefore my friend if you mean to make a right construction of those words you must not extend them to such a latitude as that all the posterity of Adam had immediately upon the death of Christ the Gospel preached to them but you must interpret that place by comparing it with other such like universal expressions as Mat. 4.23 Christ healed all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases and Act. 10.38 healed all that were oppressed with devils and Act. 10.12 All manner of four footed beasts and wild beasts and creeping things and foules of the ayre appeared by Peter as in a great sheet and Mar. 1.5 All Iudea went out to Iohn Baptist and all were baptised in the river Iordan
forth all day long were spoken to the Israelites Rom. 10.21 But to Israel he saith But in what place soever sin or unbelief or rejecting of the means are mentioned as any cause of Reprobating blinding shortning or cutting off it is spoken onely of reprobation in time which is but the execution of that decree which was determined before all time and about which immanent act of God and not these transient is our present debate And so I leave both these objections as yet unresolved by you and standing in as full force for any thing that you have thereunto answered as when they were first endited by the Holy Ghost penned by his holy Apostle Paul Give in an answer to it in the heavens if you can for you are never able to do it here upon earth And so I proceed to the sixth and last Absurdity which is this Absurd 6. Hereby we confine Gods infinite soveraignty over the creatures to that narrow scantling of our subordinate power as though he might not do with his own what he list without our controll and not make a vessel either to honour or dishonour unless he were accountable to us for a reason of his so doing Answ We confine not Gods infinite soveraignty over his creatures to any subordinate power in man whatsoever neither doth any principle that we hold tend to the limiting the holy One of Israel in the least in the disposing his creatures any otherwise then it seemeth good in his good will and pleasure to do as hath been by me already made to appear For as I have already granted so I say yet again that God might have left his creature man in that lost condition that his own sin had brought him into and needed not to have been countable to any for a reason of his so doing But it was meerly the good will and pleasure of our God to be moved onely from that fountain of love that was and yet is in himself to give forth his Son Christ to dye for all and tast death for every man and that all whatsoever was in man or acted by man did not merit the least drop of the bloud of Christ but by the grace of God it came freely and he might have withheld that great mercy from his creature and needed not in the least have been countable to any for a reason of his so doing but through that good pleasure of God the Lord Jesus is that lamb of God that was in the purpose and decree of God Rev. 13.8 slain from the foundation of the world which purpose and decree of God was put into execution in the fulness of time for our everlasting good and notwithstanding we could not in the least have looked for these things from God as a debt yet it hath been the pleasure of God by grace to send his Son into the world and to make known the mystery of his will in these things and freely to give us an account or shew unto us a reason of his so doing which will appear plainly in the resolving those following questions by the express words of the holy Spirit in Scripture without either inference or comment Quest 1. Wherefore did God give his onely begotten Son or send his Son into the world Answ That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Ioh. 3.16 and that the world through him might be saved ver 17. Quest 2. Wherefore did Iesus Christ come a light into the world Answ That all men through him might believe Ioh. 1.7 and that whosoever believeth in him should not abide in darkness Ioh. 12.46 Quest 3. Wherefore was Iesus Christ delivered to death Answ For our offences Quest 4. Wherefore was he raised again Answ For our Justification These and many more of this nature that might be mentioned are laid down in Scripture as grounds and reasons whereby it hath been the pleasure of God to be accountable unto us wherefore he hath done these great things for us not in order to the limitation of himself to any subordinate power in us but in order to the accomplishment of his own will and pleasure for our good And so in like manner Gods disposing of his creature in making vessels of honour or dishonour is not in respect of any confinement of his soveraignty over his creatures to any subordinate power in us but the confinement of himself therein is to his purpose decree and promise which must stand and cannot be disannulled So that the question now is not What God might have done with his creature being once at liberty but that which we are to take notice of is How he hath disposed or doth dispose thereof as having freely and voluntarily bound and ingaged himself thereunto by purpose decree and promise Isa 14.27 for the Lord of hosts hath purposed and who shall disannul it his hand is stretched out and who shall turn it back So that what God for ought that we know might have done with his creature being once at liberty cannot now by him be done he having bound himself as aforesaid Take but this one instance for the further illustration of this to be a truth God might if it had been his pleasure to have kept himself at liberty for ought that we know have destroyed the world with the waters of a flood since the flood that was in the dayes of Noah but since it hath been the pleasure of God freely to enter into a Covenant with all flesh Gen. 9.9 10 11. yea with every living creature and to make a promise that all flesh should be cut off no more by the waters of a flood neither should there any more be a flood to destroy the earth therefore now he cannot destroy the earth so any more because he changeth not neither can lye Answ My good friend I cannot look upon you as a licentiate Chirurgion but rather as an upstart mechanick Mountebank who though you profess by a tedious tautology to plaister up the wound given to your Position by this Absurdity yet it sticks as close to it as a bur to your garment neither can it be cured or removed by any thing you have applyed for you do but daub with untempered morter a multitude of words will never do it I would rather have one solid convincing Argument then a whole volume of such nonsense and impertinencies as you have surfeited me withall And therefore in answer to what you would say I deal thus plainly that I do resolve not to pursue you in this your rambling discourse you have served us here with a dish of cockcrowne pottage whereupon if I should insist to frame an answer it would but wast my most precious time and nauseate the Reader for from this to the end of your Pamphlet there is nothing of new but a recapitulation and vain repetition of what hath been spoken to over and over again and fully answered Onely one thing about the liberty of the will which
he pleaseth and it shall prosper in the thing whereto it is sent Amen so be it Thomas Tazwels QUERIES Counter-questioned SIR when at first I surveyed over your bundle of Queries I was divided in my thoughts whether it was fittest for me to undertake an answer to them yea or no T is true I did not conceive that they were proposed by such a one that breathed after satisfaction for then I had been bound in conscience because directed to me to have given a direct account for the resolution of a troubled spirit but I was better acquainted with the temper of such Scepticks Seekers Queristers the top of whose Religion consists most what in abstruse Questions But that which caused this distraction in me was the calling to mind Solomons advice Prov. 26.4 5. Answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou also be like unto him And Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit So that which way soever I did address my self I was sure to be gored by one of the hornes of that Dilemma Therefore I did the rather make choice of a middle way neither directly to answer to any of your queries nor yet to leave any of them unresolved but when I apprehended them as captious Questions more to try abilities then to expect satisfaction I thought it best to follow our Saviours example Mark 12.13 Who when the primates of the Pharisees had sent unto him certain of that sect with the Herodians to catch him and intangle him in his words they began first by insinuation Master we know that thou art true and carest for no man for thou regardest not the persons of men but teachest the way of God in truth Secondly by question Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not shall we give or shall we not give But Christ who was privy to the secret guil of their hearts desiring a penny to be brought him askes them this question Whose is this Image and superscription they say Caesars then saith he give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods so that he makes no direct answer but by a Question The like may you see Mark 11.28 29. when the chief Priests and Scribes askt of Christ by what authority dost thou these things Iesus answered I will also ask you one question and answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things c. The like course I shall take with you I have not positively delivered my judgement to any of your queries but for the resolution of them have set down antiquestions to which if you give a direct answer according to the Scripture you must then needs answer your self to all those of your own queries So that making Christ his practise a president to my self I shall both follow his example and withall observe the wise mans direction both to answer a fool in his folly and yet not to answer a fool in his folly viz. implicitly and consequentially to answer by a question but positively and directly not to answer to the words 1. Whether it can be proved from the word of God that the fall which we had in the first Adam were any further than to the dust from whence we were taken 2. Whether it be not improper to say that we died in the first Adam a spiritual death when the Scripture doth say that that was not first which was spiritual but that which was natural and afterwards that which is spiritual 1 Cor. 15. 3. Whether there need to be any talk at all of any wisdome power or strength of our own when it is by all granted that we have our life and being in Iesus Christ and have nothing that we have not received 4. Whether God the Father have any other end or designe in giving of or sending his Son into the world but onely that the world through him might be saved 5. Whether the elect are at all in the Scripture demonstrated under any such term as that word world 6. Whether the Lord Iesus Christ doth use or exercise any other power in bringing of men and women to believe to the saving of their souls but that which may be resisted or rejected 7. Whether Gods decree before the foundation of the world be any other thing but that believers should be saved and unbelievers should be damned 8. Whether God can be said to judge the world in Righteousness and yet condemn those for unbelief which never had power to believe 9. How can the Saints be said to judge the world righteously if they are carried on to believe by a power that they cannot resist and those that are to be judged by them cannot believe for want of the same power 10. Whether if the salvation of some and the condemnation of others be necessitated by the decree of God without any respect at all to obedience or disobedience then to what end is it said in the Scripture of truth that men did or might choose or refuse 11. Whether is unbeliefe the cause of Reprobation or Reprobation the cause of unbelief 12. Whether it be not sin to say that the secret will of God is not according to his revealed will 13. Whether that opinion which some men hold concerning God be not damnable namely to say that God declareth in his word that he would have all men to be saved by his Son and yet never intendeth that they should be saved 14. Whether there be any Gospel to be preached to that man or woman for whom God never intended salvation in the death of his Son and if there be any then I would know what Gospel it is and who they are that should preach it 15. Whether condemnation to the second death or lake of fire was ever threatned but for personal rejection of the means afforded 16. Whether those that perish to eternity might not have been saved had they in their day improved the means afforded 17. Whether any can believe that Christ dyed for him upon a Scripture-account except he believe that Christ dyed for all 18. Whether Gods opening a door of salvation to all the Sons of men will not make his righteousness appear glorious in judgement 19. Can man be said to refuse that which he never was in a possibility to receive 20. Doth Christs bemoaning persons in the state of unbelief plainly argue they might believe 1. Whether we did not all sin in Adam as Rom. 5.18 19. 2. Whether the desert and reward of that sin be not death eternal as well as temporal as Rom. 6.23 where eternal death from Adam is placed in opposition to eternal life by Jesus Christ 3. Whether there was not in Adam immediately upon the eating of the forbidden fruit inward terrors and feelings of Gods wrath and thoughts that he was cast off and forsaken of God as Gen. 3.10 wherein the truth of that threatning was really accomplished Gen. 2.17 these
every man in the world In this likewise the novice leads me in a mist for if his meaning be that the death of Christ and the shedding of his bloud is sufficient for every man in the world but effectuall onely to those to whom it is intended then I joyn with him but if he be otherwise minded then the close of that Position trips up the heels of the former part But I could have heartily wisht that this Seraphical Doctor had not so magisterially dogmatized and after an Apostolical manner sat in his Cathedral Chair by delivering his dictates like an ipse dixit I say unto you but rathet that he had endeavoured to have proved out of the sacred Scriptures what he hath so crudely ventilated so might we better have tryed the spirits whether they be of God or no 1 Ioh. 4.1 Truly I do profess by what I find in these positions I cannot discern of what sect he is for by what he writes he is neither pure Pelagian Papist Arminian Socinian nor Anabaptist but a hotch-porch of them all jumbled together And that as it is written of Mahomet at the first he framed his Alchoran by the advice of Sergius the Monk a renagado partly of the Jews partly of the Christians and partly of the Gentiles opinions so hath this Evangelist composed his doctrinals So that in this we may see what fruits may be expected at Cockolds-pit and all such places of such illiterate and confused assemblies ex ungue leonâ—m ex pede Herculem If the blind lead the blind both must fall together into the ditch Matth. 15.14 But so it was in the Apostles time there arose such amongst them who desiring to be teachers 1 Tim. 1.7 understood not what they said themselves nor wherof they affirmed yea this was foreprophesied 2 Pet 2.1 that false teachers should arise up amongst them who should bring in damnable heresies but never so fully accomplisht as in these our dayes wherein many unheard of formerly and blasphemous opinions are daily ventituted under some specious appearances of truth and holiness The God of love and truth lead us into all truth So prayeth he that is the less then the least of all Saints James Rawson Short heads of the subsequent discourse THe title of the Pamphlet examined Page 1 2 The Preface examined 4 Toleration rightly stated 5 Magistrates power to interpose in matters of Religion 6 Bishops vindicated 7 Matth. 23.29 30. interpreted 8 Whether the doctrine of the Anabaptists be tolerable 9 Who are inconstant in their profession 11 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Examined 12 Eph. 6.11 12. Examined 13 Universal redemption offered to consideration 14 Isa 53.4 5 6. Interpreted 15 16 Psal 145.8 9. Cleared 17 Joh. 3.16 17. Opened 18 Rom. 5.18 19 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Interpreted 20 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Discussed 21 Tit. 2.11 Examined 22 Heb. 2.9 and 1 Pet. 3.9 Opened 23 Baptisme of Infants confirmed 24 c. Whether the Anabaptists be fixt to their principles page 27 Or at unity among themselves 28 Thom. Tazwells first position questioned 29 Whether the second position be not Pelagianisme 30 Ambiguity in the stating of the position 31 Psal 4.3 Explained 31 Who they be that are elected 32 Psal 37.9 c. Opened 34 Pro. 3.33 and Mar. 16.16 Discussed 34 Of the decrees of God 35 Of Gods foreknowledge and predestination 36 Of election 38 Of reprobation 39 My first Argument confirmed 40 Gods foreknowledge Independent 41 The pamphleter plowes with another mans heyfer page 42. As God decrees the end so likewise he decrees the means 43 Election to be distinguished from justification 44 Arminians make faith a foreseen cause of election page 45 c. Deut. 7.7 8. Expounded 48 Faith no foreseen cause of election 50 What place faith hath in justification 52 Rom. 9.1 c. ad ver 19. Analysed and interpreted page 53 c. The laws impotency to satisfie 57 What efficacy faith hath in justification 58 How God a respecter of persons to be understood 59 Absolute justification flows from Absolute election 60 Faith as much as works excluded from election 61 Gods alone will the cause of cause of election 62 Grace flows from the decree of election 63 Acts 13.48 Vindicated 64 c. Absurdities following foreseen faith in election 68 Other absurdities following that doctrine 69 What God did foresee in election 71 Marks of election no causes of election 72 Instrumental causes of salvation no causes of election 73 As God decreed the end so he decreed the means 74 Joh. 16.27 Explained 75 Of reprobation 76 Eph. 1.5 Discussed 77 Of the decree of election 78 Isa 45.9 Opened 79 No contradiction in what I do assert 80 What place Gods foresight in election and reprobation 81 God as he decrees the end so he decrees the means 82 The pamphleter begs the question 83 A twofold reprobation one before all time another in time 84 The pamphleter interferes with his own positions 85 Could Reprobates truly believe they might be saved 86 Reprobation includes both a denyal of the end and means of salvation 86 God the immediate worker of all spiritual graces 87 Sin foreseen not the cause of Reprobation 89 Sin the efflux not the effect of reprobation 90 Sin the consequent of reprobation 91 Our doctrine intrenches not on the divine attributes 92 Reprobation inforceth not to sin 93 A threefold necessity 94 Reprobation as by us stated not against the mercy of God 95 Nor against the truth of God 96 Ezek. 18.23 32. and 33.11 Explained 97 Absolute reprobation and exhortation to repentance argue no Hypocrisie in God 99 Absolute non election not against the wisdome of God 100 Isa 5.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Interpreted 101 God may expect the performance of our duty though we cannot do it 103 Matth. 11.25 26. Vindicated 104 What God doth in time he decreed to do before all time 105 What power we have to do good we have from God the redeemer 106 Those whom God decrees to save he decrees to save them by faith 108 Sin the cause of positive reprobation viz. of damnation 109 1 Pet. 2.8 Vindicated 111 c. Rom. 9.19 c. Analysed and interpreted 116 c. Thom. Tazwells uses upon the doctrine of reprobation 124 What use the Saints may make thereof 125 Though there be no external yet there is an internal cause of reprobation viz. the will of God 128 Arminian positions very aequivocal 129 Rom. 11.33 44. Vindicated 139 Mille narianism not inconsistent with the Articles of faith 132 Absurdities cleaving to Tho. Tazwells positions 132 Whether sin foreseen be the cause of reprobation 133 c. Whether Infants may have faith though not the use of faith 135 c. Whether any Infant can be damned 137 Infants elected or reprobated as well as others 138 c. Hope onely of such Infants as are within the covenant 140 The Spirit of God and not the word that doth regenerate 141 Rom. 4.15 and 5.13 Opened