at all to shew to whom the Law was given or not but onely that the Christian Church at Rome specially many of them being Iewes as appears chap. 16 to which he wrote was not ignorant of the Law whether generall or particular to which he had reference in that place To Deut. 11. 2 besides things answered by Mr. Ainsworth I adde that Moses there excludes not onely infants but many grown men as appears v. 3. 4. The other two places Matth. 13. 9 and 1 Cor. 10. 15 exclude too many mens of years also considering how few haue ears to hear or understanding to judg aright of spirituall things For the third head and that all sinned in Adam it is so plain from Rom. 5 as they haue nothing at all to answer though they object the place onely they bring certain other Scriptures in such a manner as if they would disproue one Scripture by another And indeed what exposition can be given or evasion found considering the expressenes of the words As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death passed upon all men for that or as the originall hath it in whom all men haue sinned So v. 19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners c. If they say as some doe that all are made sinners by imitation onely they are clearly confuted first by daily experience in which it is plain that children comming to some discerning will lie filch and revenge themselvs though they never heard lie told c. It is alas too evident that they bring this corruption into the world with them Secondly by the Apostles words v. 19 For as by ones mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If wee bee made unrighteous onely by imitation of Adams sin and not by his performing it as our root naturally then we are made righteous onely by imitation of Christs righteousnesse and not by his performing righteousnesse and fulfilling the Law for us as our spirituall root in which wee are grafted by faith Lastly these Adversaries grant that by Adams sin all his posterity haue weak natures by which when the commandement comes they cannot obey and liue but sin and so die Rom. 8. 3. Can they which are accustomed to doe evill doe well Or will these men never leav their godlesse custom of corrupting the words of the text for advantaging of an evill cause For flesh which the Text hath they put nature wheras it is without all question that by flesh the Apostle there understands properly sin and sinfull flesh as he expresly calleth it and as is plain in the whole context v. 1. 2. 4. 5. 6. 7 c. In all which hee opposeth the flesh to the spirit and the sinfull life of the one to the righteous life of the other And I would know of these deep Divines what but sin could possibly make Adams posterity unable to keep the Law This flesh or nature as they will haue it must be contrary to this good and holy Law and resist it And is not that properly sinfull and unholy which resists and is contrary to that which is good and holy Lastly this enemy to the Law of God in a man must be in his soule And what else can it be then a disposition in the understanding to ignorance and errour touching God and heavenly things and an inclination in the will and affections to evill Which is as properly sinne as their acts and effects are properly sinfull Infants therefore bring sin properly into the world with them Two things they here object First that Christ often accounts children innocents as Math. 18. 3. 4 19. 14. I answer first not as they mean that is such as haue in them nothing vertuous or vitious good or evill but as being humble and without pride and such as unto whom the Kingdom of God and his blessing did appertain Secondly He speaks not of all children but of those of and in the Church Their second objection is that our soules being the subjects of sin are created of God imediately But to this objection they that referrs the soules originall imediately to Gods supernaturall and indeed miraculous work do giue divers answers which these Adversaries should haue refuted Amongst others Mr. Ainsworths answer is worthy the consideration But let us consider their proofs for the soules immediate creation The first is Act. 17. 26 Of one bloud God made all mankind c. But this place makes rather against them seeing the body alone makes not mankind but the soule with it by which specially the man is The next place is Heb. 12. 9 whence they gather that Adam is the Father of our bodies and God the Father of our Spirits But first the Text neither mentions Adam nor can agree to him in the state of creation seeing in that estate there was no use of correction Secondly it saith not the fathers of our bodies but of our flesh nor the father of our Spirits but of Spirits And the meaning seems unto me with due respect had to other mens different judgment onely to be this that if we giue honour to men our carnall or fleshly fathers chastening us as they think good how much more owe honour to our spirituall father chastening us for our eternall good And surely God in his kinde is the father of the whole man not of the soule onely So is man in his kinde the father of the whole man and not of the body onely Lastly seeing the drift of the place is to shew that God as a father chasteneth his sons which he loveth and on the contrary that they that are not chastened are not sons and so haue not God for their Father I see not how the Apostle can speak of the creation of soules seeing in that respect wicked and godly children and bastards haue God alike their father The Preacher ch 12. 7 speaks of the manner of the creation of the first man Adam onely but no more proues that our soules or spirits are created by God imediately then that our bodies are made of dust immediately That ch 8. 8 hath no colour of proof in it Against our fourth and last assertion that all by Adams sin are guilty of death Rom. 5. 12 they cavill that we were not in Adam to bring any soule to hell for the breach of that commandemant Thou shalt not eat Where first to passe by their incongruity of speech they free Adam himselfe from the guilt of condemnation of which our question is as well as his posterity by that his sin seeing it brought not him himself to hell But secondly for the thing it selfe They grant acording to the Scriptures that death as a part of the curse came over all Adams posterity for his sin And will they then deny that eternall death was also due by the same law of justice Is
A DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINE PROPOVNDED BY THE SYNODE AT DORT AGAINST IOHN MVRTON AND HIS ASSOCIATES IN A Treatise intuled A Description what God c. WITH THE REFVTATION OF their Answer to a Writing touching BAPTISM By IOHN ROBINSON Printed in the year 1624. THE PREFACE THE record which the Apostle bare the Iews in his time such as either reade these mens writings or know their persons may bear them which is that they haue a zeal of God but not according to knowledg I add touching them nor in modesty neither Which if it held any place in their hearts as were meet would moderate and restrain both their causlesse presumption in themselvs and gracelesse licentiousnesse which they fear not to use both towards God and other men They would seem very zealous for the Scriptures purity and perfection vvarning all to take heed they presume not aboue what is written nor to add to or diminish from the perfect law of the Lord contained therin And yet they themselvs presume so frequently and notoriously in this their book to corrupt the very words of the Texts which they cite by adding to and taking away and altering for their advantage as I suppose the like hath not been seen before in any of any sect whatsoever and as if in truth they meant not to use a gift to interpret the holy Scriptures but a priviledg to correct them A taste of this they giue us in their very Epistle where answering an objection taken from the learning of the Synode at Dort by Es. 29. 14 Math. 11. 25. 26 they instead of wise and prudent which are Christs words put learned and that in small letters as part of the Text both wronging therin that lawfull and helpfull learning in others which themselvs want and corrupting the Lords words which they ought religiously to keep and obtruding another meaning then ever came into his mind which they doe usually in this Treatise by neglecting the main scope of the place cited and catching at a word or phrase in it which is the highest way that can be to all heresie And for men how uncharitable are they towards them in their persons judging them as perishing without remedie if they receiv not their new Gospell of Anabatistry and Free-will How injurious in relating their own mis-formed collections for their opinions And lastly how contemptuous of their gifts and graces how eminent soever As if the word of God came out from them or to them alone It is true we ought not to pin our faith on the sleevs of any nor to call any Master as Christ speaks and means but him alone and no lesse true that Christ hath given gifts to some men for the edifying of others and that we ought not to look on our things alone as if we alone had knowledg and conscience and zeal and soules to saue but every man also of the things of others though in some things differing from them as having these things as well as we and therwith considering that many eies see more then one and that specially having as so many spectacles the advantages of knowledge of Tongues and Arts with daily travail in the Scripture which in us are wanting And thus serving God in all modesty of minde and being sincere in the truth in loue we shall be much sitter both to help others and to be helped by them in the things agreeable thereunto A DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINE PROPOVNDED BY THE SYNODE AT DORT CHAP. I. Of Predestination ADVERSARIES WEE hold that before the foundation of the world the most holy God predestinated to make the world and man c. DEFENCE NEither the Scriptures so speak neither is it sensibly said that God predestinated to make the world and man c. To predestinate is to predetermine or to destinate or ordain before hand a person or thing to its end God indeed purposed from eternity to make the world and man but destinated it and him considered as to be made to their ends Christ as God was preordained or predestinated before the foundation of the world and manifested in the last times for our redemption yet is he not of the number of persons or things made or created Again the glory of the grace of God shineing in mans salvation is a created thing and yet not predestinated of God nor preordained to any end being it selfe the utmost end of all things We see then something predestinated and yet not made and something again made and â—ot predestinated With like incongruity they adde that God predestinated to make man a reasonable soule to giue him a righteous Law and lastly to send his sonne to purchase the very wicked c. which last words haue neither truth in them in their meaning nor sense as they lay them down Secondly the Synode at Dort against which these Adversaries deal and all others speaking distinctly of things apply the decree of predestination to reasonable creatures and that Synode specially to men and the same considered as faln its Adam and thereby made guilty of eternall death referring the decree of creation and permission of the fall to a more general work of divine providence Their description of the elect and reprobate may be admitmitted in a good sense namely that the receiving of grace by some argues Gods eternall election of them as the effect doth the cause The not receiving of this grace by others to whom it is offered his eternall reprobation that is his not-electing but refusing or passing by of others as the consequent the antecedent Of which more hereafter In setting down the difference between them and us they insinuate as if we made God the Authour yea the principall Authour of all the evill of sin in the world But as the Synode disclaims that prophane errour so doth it justly complain of this ungodly slander which in these men ariseth from their want of skill to put difference between Gods working of the sinne as authour therof and his appointing and ordering both of sin and sinner to his own holy ends ADVERSARIES THe first particular against which they deal is our affirmation that God decreed the sinne of Adam and that of necessity to come to passe and consequently all other sinnes in their time taking upon them with all to manifest that herein wee not onely contradict the truth but our own affirmation elsewhere quoting for example Theses Genevenses pag. 26 where it is affirmed that Adam in innocency had free-will or power from the creation of God not to haue sinned which matter they also prosecute in many words with great disorder making the head of their discourse Predestination and the body sin DEFENCE AS the contradiction is not in our Assertions but in their misunderstanding So might I by good right forbeare to meddle about Adams sin in the case of predestination considering the determination of the Synode at Dort hereabout which I take upon
he speakes not onely of Christ as dying for us but also as he is our Advocate in heaven with the Father propitiating or pacifying his anger towards us in procuring actually the forgivenesse of our sinnes and acceptance with him By the whole world therefore he understands such as confess their sins such as whose sins God forgivs cleansing them from all unrighteousness such as have Christ their Advocate with the father for whose sins he is a propitiation c. which are onely the faithfull and that not onely of the Iewes intended in these words and not for ours onely but of the Gentiles also as the whole world here and els where by Christ and the Apostles opposed to the Iewes Mark 16. 15. Iohn 3. 16. specially Rom. 11. 12. where as here by the world is meant the beleeving Gentiles obtaining salvation opposed to the Iewes And this our limitation in just proportion the very next place cited by our adversariâ—s confirmeth The whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1. Ioh. 5. 19. that is all such Iewes and Gentiles as are not born of God v. 20. not Iohn or other beleevers one or other The Apostle Peter 2. Epist. 3. 9. speaks not at all of Christs death but of Gods patience that none might perish but all repent By which all he means all the elect which were in their time to repent and so to be saved for whose sakes and not in slackness as the mockers accounted he deferred his judgments Reve. 6. 11. we haue this poynt notably exemplified And it was sayd unto them that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fuâ—filled For which purpose it must be minded that Peter sayth The Lord is long suffering towards us not willing that any should perish opposing us as the elect to the reprobate Scoffers at God both in his word and works The last place being 2. Chron. 36. 16. is impertinent as neither meant of Christs death of which the question is nor of mans salvation by it but of a bodily and visible judgement in which kind of works God tieth himself to no certain form of proceeding Against their error of universall redemption by Christs death I thus argue Them whom God and Christ love to wit with that speciall loue of mercy they love unto the end and therefore never come to hate them as they do the wicked and damned But for whomsoever Christ dyed God in giving his Sonne and he in giving himselfe to the death for them love with the most speciall love of mercy that can be Therefore they for whom Christ died never perish but in time haue wrought in them faith and repentance and are kept in the same by the power of God to life Christ therefore dyed effectually and in his and his fathers intention of love for them onely that are saved and perish not This is also more manifest Ioh. 17. whence may be drawn many arguments to prove that all for whom Christ died are saved seeing all that are given to Christ of the Father keep the word of God and haue eternall life given them by him Now it cannot be denyed but that all for whom Christ dyed are given him of the Father that he might redeem and save them by his death Furthermore the death and bloodshed of Christ is every where called the price of our redemption and a ransome for sinners Vpon this holy foundation most clearly layd in the Scriptures these men and others would build a more hatefull Babell then that of old in the East by which they would as it were scale heaven and depriue God of divers his most glorious Attributes by name his Wisdom his Power and his Iustice. His wisdom they â—mpeach in affirming that he would buy with so rich precious a price as the bloud and death of his onely begotten Son that and them whom he certainly knew before he should never possesse by it for that end for which he bought them their justification sanctification and salvation Secondly it impeacheth Gods power and makes him unable doe he what he can to save any more then he doth save though he desire it never so much For look for whom he would do the greatest thing that possibly he could which was the giving of his onely begotten and beloved Sonne to the cursed death of the crosse for them and their salvation without all doubt hee he will doe whatseever other good as lesse that possibly he can Whereupon it should follow that God cannot possibly give the Gospell to more then he doth and by it convert and confirm them to and in his grace which are lesse things then the former it being the foundation they but the building upon it it being the meritorious and deserving causeâ— and they effects thereof Thirdly this conceit makes God unjust in taking a full price and ransom for mens sins at the hands of their surety Christ as was his death and obedience and yet not resting satisfied with it but exacting the debt of their sinnes at their hands by eternall punishment which is the condition of many thousands in the world ADVERSARIES OTher things follow tending to prove Gods purpose to save all even such as slew Christ blasphemed and resisted the spirit of God to their condemnation c. Act. 3. 25. 26. 5. 30. 31. 7. 51. 13. 46. 15. 6. DEFENCE I Answer that the persons of whom those Scriptures speak were the peculiar people of God and not yet wholly cast off by him The argument therefore from Gods will and work for the saving of them is stretched beyond its reach to prove such purpose will or work of God to save all which are not his people as they were Secondly I grant that where the Gospell is preached there the Lord truely wills that is commands the conversion of sinners and their turning from iniquity as the text hath â—t approving and rewarding the same with salvation in them in whom it is found as it is ordinarily in some of them to whom the Gospell is preached and so was in some of the persons to whom the men of God spake in those places who before were elect of God and redeemed of Christ and were in their time effectually called to that grace whatsoever before they had done or been Now the Apostles not knowing which in particular were elect and redeemed in the secret purpose of God and Christ were to sow the seed of grace upon all grounds and to preach to all indifferently as they had occasion hoping in charity that this and that and any one particular might be of the elect vessels and good ground in Gods destination by whose preaching such as were preordained to life beleeved actually The Lord tels Paul abiding in Corinth that he had much people in that Citie and that therefore he should speak the word there and not hold
not the justice of God infinite and so requiring infinite satisfaction To what reasonable creature soever the smallest punishment is due from God the greatest is due also in rigour of justice And so the curse as they grant extending to Adams generation by his sin eternall condemnation as the principall part of it extendeth unto them necessarily except mercy be shewed them Neither will it help our Adversaries that other creatures die also seeing their absolutely mortall condition limits their punishment to this present life But such is not the estate of infants but their immortall soules unto which their bodies at that day are to be reunited makes the whole capable of a more full declaration of Gods justice if he deale in severity therof without mercy as he may Besides the Apostle saith that death passed upon all for that all haue sinned viz. in that one man Adam Doth death come over bruit beasts because they haue sinned in Adam They are brutish that see not the difference which these men will not acknowledge It is said else-where that in Adam all die Doe beasts die in Adam as his posterity doth As all that are Christs are in Christ and made aliue by him so all Adams posterity were in him and die in him Which death also the Apostle makes no lesse then judgement to condemnation to wit if redemption be not obtained to which he opposeth justification and eternall life Ioyn herewith these mens confession that all mankind by Adams fall are made unable to keep Gods precepts when he giues them and so all fall under the wrath of God and are therfore said to be children of wrath Eph. 2. 3 and there is sufficient for their conviction as hath been shewed But I add that the Apostle means plainly a further matter and that all are born children of wrath for to be so by nature and to be born so are the same We are children of wrath by sin onely If therefore all be children of wrath by nature it is by the sin of nature which we call originall sin and not by actuall sin onely as they surmise Lastly I demand whether if Adam had not sinned hee should not haue transferred to his posterity the Image of God after which he was created and a pronenesse to keep it as notwithstanding sin he doth some feeble remainders thereof and therewith right to eternall life If yea why not then sin and the guilt thereof by proportion having sinned To Ezech. 18 I haue formerly answered He speaks of the sins of immediate parents not of the first sin of our first father which was naturall whereas the other but personall yea not onely other mens but his after sins also Secondly it is plain he speaks of such children as seeing all their fathers sins consider and doe not the like but doe that which is lawfull and right keeping and doing all Gods statutes To such God imputes no sin Their affirmation following is strange that Infants shall receiv no judgment because they haue done neither good nor evill according to which all judgment passeth By this they should neither be saved nor damned for what else is it to receiv judgment of salvation but to be saved and so for the contrarie They doe ignorantly exclude Infants from a state one or other for wanting that condition which is required of men of years onely They might as probably say that Infants shall be damned seeing Christ saith He that beleevs not shall bee damned or should not eat because it is said He that will not work shall not eat To the place Ps. 51. 5 Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceiv me they answer not directly but by many Ifs ands chusing many uncertain vanities rather then one certain truth which is that David in this whole context confesseth his transgression and sin And as men ascend by the stream to the fountain so doth he in those words to the fountain of all evill As if he should haue said Lord I am not onely stayned with and guiltie of these particular evils but I am even wholly corrupt by nature from the very womb and haue brought a fountain of sin into the world with me from whence these particular mischiefs haue issued ADVERSARIES THeir Answers follow The first is that David confesseth that he is made as Ps. 103. 14 of weak flesh and unable to resist the Tempter being dust c. DEFENCE DOth mans being made of dust make him unable to resist the Tempter Then God making Adam of the dust made him unable to resist the Tempter also which both crosseth the truth and their own assertion The Prophet Psal. 103. 14 speaks of bodily weaknesse and frailtie onely which is nothing at all to the matter in hand and which if it had been greater in David would haue been more advantageable against that sin into which he fell Next for their advantage they corrupt the Text Rom. 8 in saying Christ came in sinfull flesh where the Text saith hee came in the similitude of sinfull flesh He came in nothing sinfull but all holy and pure from sin So doe they that 2 Cor. 5. 21 leaving out for us which shewes how Christ became sin for us that is as our Surety and lyable to the curse due to our sinns but not in sinfull flesh as they erroneously say Thirdly they absurdly affirm that the sin of his mother whether Hevah or that bare him is that sin or punishment layd upon her which he here confesseth in saying I was conceived in sin David confesseth a sin as evill wheras all punishments are Gods good work yea his own sin onely of which he desires forgiuenesse Neither doe the words here at all agree with those Gen. 3. 16 as they say The Reader that will may see them opened at large by Mr. Aâ—nsworth They add that it is frequent with the Holy Ghost to call punishments for sins by the name of sins But first not so frequent by a 1000 times as to call the transgression of the Law sinn secondly the phrase in sin is never taken but properly as to be in sin to liue in sin to continue in sin to die in sin and specially to be born in sin as Ioh. 9. 34 the Pharisees in so judging followed the errour of the Pythagorean Philosophers thirdly where Christ is sayd to bear our sins it is primarily in regard of the guilt as he was our Surety Of what sin of his mother was David guilty They unjustly accuse us as saying that David sinned in being born and conceived or that the very matter and substance wherof David was made was sin Vayn are they in imagining such vain things of us David was meerly a patient in being born and sinned not therin neither yet did his mother sin either in conceiving or bearing him though shee conceived and brought him forth in sin But he having sinned in Adam