the sight of God Loc. com de Praedest q. 20. 8. The Contra-Remonstrants We do professe that God in his Election had no respect to faith foreseen perseverance or any other good quality Collat. Hag. pag. 126. 4. Damman Scribe to the Synode The Election was made without any consideration of faith foreseen In suo consens To whom I may adde Lubbertus a Synodist too who saith 'T is a humane invention that God decreed Salvation to us upon this condition if we would repent In Declar. Respons pag. 50. 3. Master Baxter excepts He unworthily feigneth them to say that God appointeth them to eternall damnation without any regard to their impenitency or infidelity The truth of this shall be tried by the Suffrages of 1. Calvin Predestination is Gods eternall decree whereby he appointed what he would have done concerning every man All are created in a like condition But eternall life is preordained for some eternall damnation for others And therefore as every man is created for either end so we say he is predestinated either to eternall life or eternall death Instit l. 3. c. 21. § 5. Therefore that frivilous shift of the Schoolemen concerning prescience is overthrown For Paul doth not say the ruine of the wicked is foreseen of the Lord but ordained by his counsell and will Idem ad Rom. 9.18 2. P. Martyr That any should be created of God that they might perish seems absurd at first sight But the Scripture speaks it In app loc com in loc de Praedest 3. Polanus Whom God predestinated to eternall destruction those he created to eternal destruction In Hoseam 13.9 4. Beza God destin'd to destruction not for corruption or the fruits of it but because so it seemed good to him de Praedest contra Castol pag. 416. in Notia min. N. T. ad Rom. 9.21 Seeing therefore that the shame of death eternall is signified by the name of dishonour they speak like Paul who say some are created of God to just destruction and they that are offended with this forme of speech do betray their ignorance 5. Perkins Every man is to God as a masse of clay in the hand of the Potter a◠Paul affirms and therefore God by his absolute soveraignty doth make vessels of wrath and not find them But he should not make them but finde them made of themselves if we should say that in his eternall counsil he passed them by onely as sinners and not as men De Praedest Gratia Dei pag. 16. 6. Ant. Thysius a Synodist Reprobation is decreed without any regard had to sin Ad Summ. Baronis ex Piscat Let not Master Baxter except against this and say that Reprobation is not the same with Damnation for it doth inevitably draw damnation after it as is acknowledged by Festus Hommius Scribe to the Synod in these words The fruits that follow Rejection are 1. The creation of the Reprobate 2. Desertion or withdrawing of Gods grace and means 3. Blinding and hardening 4. Perseverance in sin Thesaur Catech. fol. 216. Lastly all the Supra-lapsarians must give their votes for this opinion who make the object of Predestination Man considered either as created and not faln or as yet not created but possible to be created Thus Amesius 'T is neither necessary nor consonant to Scripture to assign any pre-required quality in man as the formall object of Predestination or any certain state of man so as to exclude the rest for it is sufficient to understand that man is the object of this Decree so that the difference which is found in men may follow from the Decree In Medull Theol. l. 1. c. 25. th 10. And Gomarus a Synodist Predestination is twofold One to Supernaturall ends which though at once in the accounts of eternity yet in order of nature goes before because the end for which a thing is is first in the intention of the wise The other unto Creation in Originall righteousnesse and other meanes Thes de Praedest disput 1604. Thes 12. Thes 13. The object of Predestination are Rationall Creatures not as really to be saved or damned created about to fall or about to stand about to be repaired but as in a remote and indefinite power are saveable damnable creable fallable repairable c. And upon these very grounds of Gomarus Maccovius disputes the point stifly for the Affirmative Theol. Disput 17. mihi pag. 59. From hence ariseth that bitter dissension betwixt the Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians wherewith Grevinchovius so worthily upbraideth Smoutius in these words Gomarus Festus and other Supralapsarians and thy self also if I be not deceived do contend bitterly against Donteclock Acronius c. That nothing more foolish ot more sottish can be fastened upon God then that He should have created Man not having first appointed his end that is to say the salvation or damnation of every one or rather the shewing forth of his wrath and power in the perdition of the Reprobates On the other side Acronius and the rest of the Sublapsarians exclaime as much against the Supralapsarians That nothing can be conceived more unjust than that Man should be reprobated and created to destruction whilest considered as not yet corrupted by sin Absters Calum Smout p. 51. And this I hope is sufficient for the proof of the first Article as to the matter of Fact The II. Article runs thus That Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world What saith M. Baxter to this Article Why A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends We must Impannell an honest Jury to try this too and 1. That Christ is said to have suffered onely for the Elect. Call in the Witnesses under written 1. Geselius what say you to the matter in question They do greatly erre that teach Christ died for all and every man Specim c. 9. fol. 36. 2. M. Perkins 't is expected you should give in a full testimonie for the Plaintiffe what say you The Ransome was designed by the Decree of the Father and by the intercession and oblation of the Son for the Elect onely De Praedest p. 20. 3. Piscator a knowing man he will speak the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth That Christ died sufficiently for every one is a false Proposition For he died onely for the Elect paying a most sufficient price of redemption for them namely his own precious blood the blood of the Son of God the blood of God himself But for the Reprobate he dyed in no wise whether sufficiently or effectually Contr. Schaff Th. 209. 4. Beza what can you say to this point for the acquitting of Tilenus I say Whether you consider the counsil of God or the effect of the Passion or both Christ died no way for the wicked In Thes cum D.
101. 3. Mehnius Justifying faith can never be lost because it is peremptorily given to the faithfull in perpetuum In Anchor Animarum pag 107 4. Whitaker This is that justifying faith with its necessary fruits which we maintain that we can never wholly lose In cygn. Cant. 20. 5. Piscator It is impossible true believers should fall from the faith the Decree and federall promise of God withstanding it In Resp ad Duplic Vorstii pag. 246. pag. 326. The naturall infirmity of the flesh whereby they may lose faith is so restrained and hindered by the absolute and effectuall decree of God that it cannot break forth into act Et pag. 238. There is a fatall necessity of the perseverance of the faithfull because it depends upon Gods absolute Decree 6. Contra-Remonstrantes They who have once believed have no need to feare perdition In Collat. Hagi p. 32. 7. Gomarus They who have received the gifts of faith and charity though in respect of their humane frailty 't is possible they may totally lose them yet in respect of the will of God and his gracious Conservation by his Spirit 't is impossible In Declar. sententia suae pag. 33. 8. D. Damman The Elect can never fall totally nor finally De Persever pag. 169. pag. 27. We know though the Spirit may be grieved in the faithfull yet can he not be totally excussed or quenched 9 Thysius But what is this to the Elect who though they do fall yet they cannot but be renewed Ad Sum. Baron pag. 73. And because M. Baxter calls that addition notwithstanding the most enormous sins they can commit a perverse insinuation Behold the Authors of it are 1 Contra-Remonstrants It is not true that they who may fall into grievous sinnes and commit the works of the flesh may fall wholly from the faith In Coll. Hag. in 5. Artic. 2. Zanchy Though by their grievous sins they may trouble the spirit and weaken faith yet the Spirit doth not wholly depart from them nor is faith wholly extinguished L. Miscel in depuls Calum pag. 305. 3. Rennercherus Those whom God hath once received into favour their sin and guilt being abolished them he preserves in his grace as just persons so that they cannot fall from grace and perish through any sins because they are and remain pardoned in them In Catena cap. 27. 4. Piscator The tenth head of Doctrine objected to our Divine is That the Regenerate cannot lose their faith through any heynous sins But this is the Doctrine that John teacheth Contra Schaff pag. 12. 5. Mehnius The sonnes of God though they fall into all the sins that Solomon committed they are alwayes converted before the day of death In Anchor Anim. p. 125. 6. Perkins The foundation of our salvation is laid in the eternall Election of God so that a thousand sins yea the sins of the whole world and all the Devils that are in hell can never make void God's election It may come to passe that sins may harden our hearts and weaken our faith and grieve the Spirit of God in us but they cannot take away faith nor quite excusse the Holy Spirit God doth not condemn any man for sinne whom he hath adopted into the number of his children in Christ Jesus In dialogo de statu homin pag 44. 7. D. Damman The Regenerate heaping up many sins cannot proceed so far as to excusse the Spirit of grace utterly through an universall Apostasie Et mox Because this seed of God cannot be ejected but onely by sinne therefore the Regenerate cannot eject it De perseverant pag. 33. pag. 20. If none can pluck them out of Christ or his fathers hands therefore not the Devill nor sin And pag. 128. The Regenerate when he sins against conscience he retains so much grace and hath so much of Gods favour that he cannot but rise again Item pag. 193. To the objection of Bertius It follows that if the Elect cannot die in mortall sins then if they alwayes go on in mortall sin they shall never die To this Doctor Damman answers I grant it But the question is whether the Elect can alwayes goe on in sinne and pag. 144. The decree of Election doth imprint upon man and his affections an inevitable necessity both of believing and persevering and therefore we think the righteous do alwayes persevere and cannot but persevere pag. 146. and therefore he concludes they need not consult about their perseverance nor feare falling from grace pag. 123. Thus we see the matter of fact is made evident throughout every one of the Five Articles and I hope this is more then abundantly sufficient to clear Tilenus from the guilt of the forgery unworthy falsification and perverse insinuations In Praefat. Sect. 5. which M. Baxter hath laid to his charge But Master Baxter will be ready to object you know that the Synod of Dort owneth none of these and it is that Synod that is the Test of the Calvinists Anti-Arminianisme How far the Synod owns these Doctrines we shall examine anon In the interim M. Baxter must not think to escape by telling us That Synod is the Test of the Calvinists Anti-Arminianism For that is not in question Every one may observe that the Project which that Synod did drive at and carried on was to cry down the Arminian Cause and Party and in this the Synodists agreed together †Adeo facile cocunt qui in fatalitatem absolutam tantū consentiunt An Deus ex parte una statuatur insipiens ex altera injustus fusque deque habent Salvo tantum fato Syncretismus Orthodoxus constat Hoc qui non admittit etiamsi non nisi verissima dicat in spongiam incumbat ex albo Orthodoxorum deleatur necesse est Absolutum Decretum id est fatum tessera est ex qua dignoscitur an quis sit Orthodoxus etiamsi id dicat unde necessario consequitur Deum esse insipientem stulium injustum Tyranno quovis crudeliorum peccati Authorem si quae alia ejus generis blasphema sunt Exam. Cens p. 63. b. sive Apol. pro Confes Remonstrant Supralapsarians of all sorts as well as Sublapsarians conspired in this But it is the Test of their Calvinisme that we are to bring them to And where shall we find such a Test as will secure us of the sincerity of these mens judgements Calvin himself is not such a Test He sometimes personates the Sublapsarian as the Synod of Dort a Act. Synod ed. in fol. 1. part p. 203. m. hath drest him up Otherwhiles he Acts the part of a Supralapsarian as he is brought upon the stage by the Remonstrants b Apolog. pro Confes Remonstr p. 64 65. And Beza treads in the very footsteps of his Master in this Art of double dealing as will plainly appeare to any that shall for his satisfaction consult the Remonstrants Apology cited in the Margin Shall we take the Synod of Dort upon M.
Lordship not of his justice If the Assembly of Divines came any lower yet not so low as the Sublapsarian way For they say Confess of Faith ch 3. th 3. By the Decree of God for the manifestation of his Glory some men and Angels are Predestinated unto everlasting life and others fore-ordained to everlasting death By ranking Men and Angels in the same Decree it is evident they conclude men to be Elected and Reprobate antecedently to the fall of Adam which appears more fully by comparing the 6. and 7. Theses of that Chapter with this third The Calvinists that speak most warily doe yet maintain an Absolute and irrespective Decree not as to the end but as to the means Dr Kendal De Doct. Neopel oratio habita in Comit. Oxonii p. 36. Asserimus Decretum Absolutum quod nullum Motivum ut loquuntur admittat ex parte Dei We assert an absolute Decree because it admits of no Motive on Gods part Non negamus fidem conditionem esse salutis Asserimus vero fidem dari absque omni conditione Similiter de damnatione philosophari solemus Non negamus impoenitentiam finalem esse conditionem damnationis Asserimus vero Deum absolutè decrevisse reprobos omnes impoenitentiae suae permittendos fidem verò in Electis omnipotenti Gratia suo tempore creandam We do not deny faith to be the condition of salvation But we affirme that faith is given without any condition In like manner also we are wont to speak concerning damnation we do not deny finall impenitency to be the condition of damnation But we affirm God absolutely decreed to permit all Reprobates to their own impenitency but to create faith in his own time in the Elect by his omnipotent Grace And a little after Decretum illud irrespectivum non est de salute sed side nec de instigendis poenis sed non concedendâ Poenitentiâ That irrespective Decree 〈◊〉 not such as to salvation but as to faith nor as to the infliction of punishment but as to the non-concession of repentance As well Sublapsarians as Supralapsarians of both forts though they frame a Decree that suspends the benefit of salvation upon a condition yet it makes that condition absolutely irrepudiable and irresistible as to some persons and absolutely impossible unto others and so takes away the proper nature of sin and duty and by consequence saves and damns respectively without them 2. If we consider the Article of Redemption by Christ however M. Baxter finds an Universality of it in the decisions of that Synod yet Doctor Thomas Hill Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and able sure to understand a piece of Latin as well as Master Baxter could find no such matter For to signifie his esteem of that Assembly he calls it a happy remedy against Arminianisme in his Epistle to the Christian Reader before Master Fenners Willfull Impenitency a. 3. yet two pages after he breaks out into this Lamentation But alas Arminius now appears amongst us not so much in the Schools and Pulpits as in popular meetings For as Zanchius complained with much regret of the Sulteran I suppose it should be Lutheran Ubiquitaries that he found them ubique every where to vex and molest him so may we grieve O that we could with brokennesse of heart bewaile it that our Universalists are almost universally spread amongst us It is gotten into our Netherlands much into the Fennish and Moorish parts of this Kingdome yea amongst many people that love Jesus Christ and therefore entertain it as conceiving it most for his Honour the more are they to be pitied c. Thus Doctor Hill who certainly did not think his happy Remedy to be infected with that he accounts disease and so much bewailes as if it were as mortall as he conceived it Epidemicall Good God! That mans eye should be so evil because God is so good and gracious That he should think it a matter of humiliation and that with brokennesse of heart that the Name of the Lord Jesus and the Merits of his Death and the emanations of his Grace should be so much magnified And yet we finde the whole Assembly of Divines if we may collect their Judgement out of their Publick Confession rather then take it from what a single member it seems hath whispered into M. Baxter's eare had so narrow a Faith they could not admit this Point to be an Article of their Belief For they speak restrictively of Christs Sacrifice Chap. 8. th 5. that it hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father and purchased not onely reconciliation but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdome of Heaven for all those whom the Father hath given unto him And more fully thes 8. To all those for whom Christ hath purchased Redemption He doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same making intercession for them c. And this is very probably collected out of the third Chapter too comparing the 6. and 7. Theses together They who are Elected being fallen in Adam are redeemed by Christ The rest of mankinde God was pleased according to the unsearchable counsil of his own will whereby he extendeth or with-holdeth mercy as he pleaseth for the glory of his not Justice but NB. Soveraign Power over his creatures to passe by and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin to the praise of his glorious justice ˙ ˙ Besides Master Baxter hath had some contest as I remember with Adversaries who make the remission of sins the immediate effect of Christs death and maintain that it is granted unto the elect before they do Actually believe I suppose Master Baxter will not say these men are for universall Redemption though perhaps as great Admirers of the Synod as himself and I doubt these are not a very few 3. As touching the unavoidable necessity of all humane Actions in regard of the effectuall Decree that the Calvinists do commonly maintain it is evident That I may not tire the Reader with a multitude of testimonies I shall satisfie my self with one or two The first cause so concurreth as it determineth the second cause in its operation saith M. Norton This is readily granted in naturall Agents in free-rationall Agents it is proved thus If the futurition of the operation of the second Cause is determined by the Decree of God then the operation is self is determined by the efficiency of God The Orthodox Evangelist p. 110. m. And a little after If as often as the will doth not will it therefore doth not will because God hath not determined that it should will then as often as it willeth any thing it therefore willeth because God hath determined that it should will But as often as the Will doth not will it therefore doth not will because God hath not determined that it should will Therefore p. 126. f. Notwithstanding sin is wholly of man and subordinate efficiency in sinfull actions belongs formally unto the
damnation necessarily follows Molin knew well enough that to Reprobate is as it were a putting the fatall rope about the mans neck and tying his hands behind him and whatever follows whether exhortations or prayers is but in order to a preparation for turning the Ladder Hereupon he concluded that no man is Reprobated but for sin ibid. parag 3. But M. Baxter would make us believe in his next words that the Synod and himself too are of this opinion for he goes on and saith They do not onely respect Infidelity and other sins as the cause of damnation but as the state in which God findeth many when he denyeth them the grace of Faith You speak not a word of Impenitency 't is clearly granted by you all that that was not looked upon in the Act of Preterition But for its companion as Tilenus had linked them together though you divorce them for your advantage remembring the old Rule Divide Impera I mean Infidelity God had respect to that as the state wherein he found many c. I pray how many are they and which Infants or Adult onely 2. Is there not a Fallacy in those words When he denyeth them the grace of Faith He denyeth it to the Reprobates for ever and therefore if you understand it of his deniall of This grace in the last stage of their lives He must needs find them then in a state of Infidelity Or 3. do you mean the Heathens by these Many What state can they possibly be found in else when God denyeth them the Grace of Faith But if this be your meaning you have placed that Infidelity amongst very unfit Associates For this can be but a Negative not a Positive Infidelity and so whether it can be reckoned amongst their other sins as being a sin it selfe is another question †That men cannot see or believe without a certain Medium or object this is no more their fault then it is that they see not non-existents c. M. Baxter of saving faith pag. 53. f. But 4. did God find any really in the state of Infidelity when he denyed them the Grace of Faith according to the Doctrine of the Synod Do not they and you conclude that Preterition is the denyall of this Grace 'T is proved sufficiently already that they do so And you know some of them are of opinion and that opinion not rejected by the rest that in his Preterition God considered mankinde onely as having a possibility of being in regard of the sufficiency of his divine power Did God finde any then in a state of Infidelity They that bring the Decree of Reprobation down lowest amongst the Synodists do affirme that it was passed in consideration of the Fall of Adam To this purpose I might produce a cloud of witnesses Act. Synod Dord 2. part pag. 77. q. 5. 3. part pag. 24. thes 7. p. 123. f. were it not needlesse seeing we find so much in confirmation of it amongst the very Decrees and Articles of the Synod to which all those Divines subscribed That God out of his mere just will hath not decreed to leave any man in the fall of Adam and common state of sin and damnation or to passe over any in the communication of grace necessary unto faith and conversion This they reject as one of the troublesome errours Cap. 1. Reject 8. and cap. 2. Re ect 5. That all men are received into the state of reconciliation and grace of the Covenant so that no body shall be condemned for originall sin nor in respect of it be liable unto death or damnation but that all are acquitted and freed from the guilt of that sin This they reject as the same errour too To the like purpose is the first Rejection of the 3. and 4. Chapters Where we have not onely rejection or denyal of grace but damnation also intailed upon Original sin And if the grace of faith was denyed to them upon that account how could God find them before it in the state of Infidelity Sure you will not make it Adams state before his fall for he had no need and therefore it was no part of his duty to believe in the Gospel sense of believing and consequently Originall sin whether as committed by him or derived unto us cannot be Infidelity Therefore that was not the state he left men in and yet the Decree of Reprobation had no other lower Prospect of man as a condition to passe him by upon but that wherein Adam left him as the Synod hath defined And therefore your other sins must disband together with your state of Infidelity unlesse Originall sin be a Noun of Multitude For that is that which the Synod calls the common state of sin and damnation wherein they say God left the Reprobate when he denyed them the grace of Faith But M. Baxter proceeds and tells us of the Synod further that Of all the Non-elect they determine that God leaves them but in that misery into which by their own fault they precipitate themselves and that he leaves them by his just Judgement to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts 'T is most certain when ever God leaves men he doth it by his most just judgement but that He should leave them to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts before this Malice and Hardnesse be found in them were very strange And unlesse Adams sin or Originall sin upon which the Decree of Reprobation passed against them be Malice and Hardnesse of heart I see no truth in that assertion that God leaves them then to the Malice and Hardnesse of their own hearts This is indeed a misery into which men by their own personall faults do precipitate themselves such is not that which you and the Synod speak of neither by omission nor by commission nor by consent How then It is the fault of their Nature which they are made guilty of onely by imputation saith Master Calvin as you may finde him cited in the Preface to Tilenus his Examination To which I will adde that of Lubbertus †A Synodist In Declaratione Respons pag. 105. Our Carnall generation from Adam fal'n and guilty neither is neither can it be the cause of that originall guilt which we derive from him but the imputation of sinne committed by him c. And if it be thus then you cannot say they are but left in that misery into which by their own if you mean proper personall fault they ptecipitate themselves Neither is it true that they are but left in this misery for according to the nature of the means designed by this very Decree and subordinated to the execution of it they are subjected inevitably to a far greater misery 1. of sin and 2. of condemnation and punishment To proceed You say Though they deny Election to proceed upon foreseen saith because God decrees to give that faith before we can be foreseen to have it yet they purposely passe by
suffered Treatise of Convers pag. 2. and for all the Grace that is offered them in the Gospel is What Even because they will not receive this Grace nor entertain Christ and the mercy of God as it is offered to them And what doth this signifie but this because they would not chuse it And upon this account they are condemned and very justly Yet when he is come from his pulpit and undertakes to dispute with Tilenus 't is not sufficient that Gods Mercy and Christs Merits and the Divine Grace be at his choice to receive it this may serve the Non-Elect But be not angry saith he if we thank God for more even for giving us both to Will and Do. If you may be allowed to be your own Carvers no doubt you will be very liberall in the choice of your own portions and if God ratifies it 't is well for you But we find that Gods design in his way of dispensing Grace is to promote and advance duty but your way doth evacuate and cancell it For if he workes the very Act which we call duty by an irresistible operation in nobis sine nobis as the Synod saith of Conversion in us but without us then duty is no more duty but necessity and Grace is no more Grace but force That God worketh to Will and to Do others acknowledge with no lesse thankfullness then your selves if you mean a power and ability in us to Will and to Do as you implyed your meaning to be a little before when you said He gives both to believe and to suffer that is a power to do it yet so as the will is left more free rather then determined under an irresistible necessitation and consequently man may abuse his liberty Heb. 12.15 2 Cor. 6.1 and be wanting to the Grace of God and make default in his cooperation and so his will may remain undetermined and the work to which he was inabled be left undone But if you think when God works to will and to do 't is not in Mans power to bury his talent and contradict Gods motion I must reject that Comment as a corruption of the Text and a subversion of the Apostles argument to inforce his exhortation With all humility sollicitude fear and diligence Eph. 6.13 lest God be offended and you miscarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perficite conficite interficite superate for the word hath all these significations all difficulties and opposition being subdued work out and make your salvation dead sure for it is God that grants and works ability not of necessity and indesinently but of his mere grace and good pleasure which he may be provoked to suspend and withdraw This sense gives a huge inforcement to the exhortation But according to your interpretation the Apostle should argue thus My beloved it is God that worketh in you to Will and to Do determining your wills to the very Act of duty insuperably and irresistibly so that it is not in your choice to do otherwise and this he doth because it is his Good pleasure therefore work out your salvation with feare and trembling Would such exhortations tend to the quickning of your Audience or rather make them carelesse Or can it consist with the Holy Spirit of Discipline and wisdome to use such a vehement exhortation and then back it with such a Reason as if granted would render that exhortation insignificant and to no purpose for what diligence is to be used out of a feare of miscarriage if the effect be irresistibly determined In the Appendix to your Aphorisme you say Pag. 52. Believing is properly a condition required of the Party if he will enjoy the thing promised And in your Treatise of Conversion pag. 296. you say Salvation is not given barely from the will of God but from the faith and obedience of men for it is an act of rewarding Justice as well as of Paternall love and mercy What is that rewarding Justice terminated upon Man's free duty or God's omnipotent irresistible work in him Resolve this and Tilenus will not be angry that you give God thanks for working in us to Will and to Do. Reflexions upon M. Baxters IX Section and the II. Article WHerein Master Baxter sets up to be baited and worried as his Phantasie pleases the Second Article in these words Saith this new Tilenus They hold that Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having never had any intent nor commandement of his Father to make satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world Here M. Baxter flies out into passion and foule language and the first Case of his indignation he gives us in these modest expressions A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends By the way I cannot sufficiently wonder why a man that hath wrote so many Directions for Peace of Conscience should throw such Birds of prey off his own fist to devour a strangers Reputation but the best on 't is they are so well acquainted with the place of their breeding he may safely venture to fly them without his varvells they will find the way home of themselves and therefore I shall not need to trouble my self to take them up for him But whether Master Baxters fingers ends be not more dexterous at such work then are Tilenus's let the Reader judge by what follows There is not a word of the Decrees of the Synod that hath any such importance saith Master Baxter But you have taught us to distinguish betwixt Name and Thing suppose the word should not be there I hope it will satisfie the Indifferent Reader and save Tilenus his Reputation if the sense be there and if at least this be not there I shall despair of ever understanding the Riddles of this Sphinx without the help of such an Oedipus as Master Baxter The Synod in their 2. Chapter Art 8. decrees and declares their Doctrine in these words For this was the most free counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father that the lively and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Sonne should manifest it selfe in ALL the ELECT for the bestowing upon them ONELY Justifying faith and bringing THEM infallibly by it unto eternall life that is God willed that Christ by the blood of his Crosse whereby he was to establish a new Covenant should effectually redeem out of every people tribe nation and language All THEM and ONELY THEM who from eternity were elected to salvation and given to him of the Father that he should bestow saith on THEM which as also the other saving Gifts of the holy Spirit he purchased for THEM by his death that by his bloud he should cleanse THEM from all sins both Originall and Actuall as well committed after as before they believed and finally should present THEM before him in glory without all spot or blemish Here we see the saving efficacy of Christs Death for their Redemption restrained
Grace upon any Condition to be performed without it Give me leave to ask you Hath not God made a Generall invitation to all the unregenerate within the pale of the Church to come unto him with a gracious promise to receive them and doth not this promise imply a readinesse to grant what ever may fit them for his communion without which that promise cannot be made good to them Dare you affirm that God will deny saving Grace to some who make the best use they can of the Gifts of nature and his common Grace to stirre up themselves to lay hold upon him If you dare do this you dare contradict the Apostle S. Peter Act. 10.34 35. and say though not as he doth Of a truth I perceive that God is a respecter of Persons for in every nation there be some that feare God and work righteousnesse which are not accepted with him You complain * Vbi supra pag. 40. you have people in your Parish that are harping on this string and yet this is Ipsissima Fides DORDRACENA †Chap. 3. 4. Râ—ject 485. a string of that very Instrument which you have provoked Tilenus to play upon We cannot give Grace to our selves nor be saved without it nor can we have it till God give it us which if he will doe we shall be saved if he will not all that we can doe will not help it I pray do not you twist another string for them to harp upon by telling them Doe what they can to dispose themselves for it God hath made no promise to bestow saving Grace upon them For this will make as foul a jarring in their minds and as unpleasant Musick in Gods Church as the Denyall of works Preparatory and Dispositive to saving Grace But to give you your due you Govern your discourse sometimes with more moderation and Caution when you addresse your self unto your Congregation For though in heat of Disputation you determine That God hath Cull'd out some certain persons for himself by his Decree of Election wherein he had no praevision of or respect unto either faith or obedience or any other good quality as wrought in them by his Gospell accompanied with his Spirit But he therein made provision for it that in due time it might be irresistibly wrought in them not with but without them by His own Omnipotent strength And for the rest not comprehended within that Decree there is another Decree past against them withholding from them all internall Grace sufficient and necessary for their salvation which though offered them in the Gospel yet 't is suspended upon the Condition of Faith and Repentance which Condition is impossible because God did not Purpose to Cause it in them This is your Disputation-wise Doctrine when you are combating with an Adversary But when you are consulting the advantage of Souls then you are zealous as best becomes you in another strain In your Sermon on Mat. 22.5 you say It is true that Grace is free Making light of Christ p. 21 22. and the offer is universall according to the extent of the Preaching of the Gospel and it is true that men may have Christ when they will that is when they are willing to have him on his terms but he that hath promised thee Christ if thou be willing hath not promised to make thee willing and if thou art not willing now how canst thou think thou shalt be willing hereafter But soon after Oh Sinners you might do much though you are not able to your selves to come in if you would now subject your selves to the working of the Spirit and set in while the gales of grace continue And in your Directions for Peace of Conscience Direct 9. p. 65. Edit 2. you affirm If wicked unbelievers would but do what they can in daily serious deep considering of these things viz. the vanity of the world and certainty of damnation the excellency of Holinesse with the certainty of everlasting Happinesse and the like they would have no cause to despair of obtaining Faith and Sanctification This is your Sermon wise Doctrine And you have written Directions to prevent Miscarrying in Conversion Sure you do not fear a miscarriage of the work on God's part the danger is not from his falling but our own Therefore something is required on our Part and possible to be performed by us which being performed our Conversion is ascertained but being neglected it miscarries and we our selves onely are guilty of it If this be not true Master Baxter the Title of that Book is improper and your whole Discourse impertinent And now you have so many blocks in your way and some of your own sawing out I hope your course will be stopt and your Dispute not run out in infinitum I return to your Vindication of the Synod you say 2. But contrary to this Accuser This is another Cast of your displeasure A Civill Title To be an Accuser is a piece of the Devils character but such bolts are soon shot when Faction hath bent her Bowe and Pride hath a mind to make a quarrell But if Tilenus be the Accuser the Synod or Master Baxter is the Adversary For he saith Contrary to this Accuser the Synod declareth Art 2. Sect. 3. This death of the Son of God is the onely and most perfect Sacrifice and satisfaction for sins of infinite value and price abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world and that it is therefore sufficient because this death was joyned with the sense of Gods wrath and curse which we by our sins had merited that is that the sinnes of all the world were c. But how is this contrary to this Accuser Indeed it is besides him if you will and as much besides the purpose There is in the Chamber of London as much Treasure perhaps as will pay the Debts of all the Prisoners about the City and 't is so much the more currant because it is of excellent old Gold But what is this to the poore Prisoners redemption as long as the Major and Aldermen in whose sole power it is to dispose of that Treasure will not disburse it to that purpose The superabundant sufficiency that is proclaimed to be in the Exchequer doth not relieve the distressed for whose benefit 't is not imployed but rather upbraid the want of Liberality in him who is Master of it and hath the Power but wants the Will to lay it out in such charitable and pious uses But you say the sinnes of all the world were charged on Christ and he bore their penalty as Paraeus in his writings to the Synod and there conteined expresseth it Answ Laid on Christ To what end to Load him or ease them But you joyne with Paraus Pag. 14. in your first Assize Sermon where you say Doubtlesse Christ died not for all alike nor with equall intentions of saving them and yet he hath born the sinnes of all men on
and so gotten the temptation into his bosome this was to make provision for his Lust not for his Repentance and while we find him unrelenting at the crime we ought to conclude his design was to perpetuate the pleasure under a colour of legitimating the use of his Adultery and therefore 't is observable 2 Sam. 2. last cap. 12.9.10 God was angry at the after marriage as well as at the former murder and uncleannesse And this may in some sense be urged against Peter but of him more anon 2. You say You cannot imagine that the Faith of David and Peter were Habitually extirpated and they were turned unbelievers And I cannot think what ever the Papists have yet said to the contrary that a sound Christian faith is separable from Charity though a superficiall opinionative belief may Answer To the first branch of your imagination I shall say but this foâ— the present we are told by the divine Revelationâ— that we must be judged by the wâ—â—k 〈…〉 own performing and not by the 〈…〉 â—ods infusing 2. Misbelievers as well as Unbelievers may be in an unjustified state and if Faith without good works be dead and cannot justifie then Faith with dead works is dead and damning also 3. As to your second branch if by a sound Christian Faith you understand such a faith as you have defined a saving faith to be in some of your writings I think you will have no Papists much lesse Protestants your Adversaries but then I hope you cannot think such a Faith any more separable from chastity brotherly kindnesse or loyalty to Christ then from charity Aut yet we see these separated from the faith of David and Peter respectively Therefore the faith that they had now was not that sound Christian saving Faith 3. You ask a question and then resolve it your self thus Do you think that if David or Peter had after this sin been upon sober deliberation put to it they would not have chosen the love of God before the world or sinfull pleasure I think they would Answer 1. Doubtlesse Judas would have done so too Esau did so concerning his fathers blessing But what matters it what men would have done when woulding is too late their will having undone them 2. The neglect of sober deliberation many times betrayes men to destruction The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters Crib Isa 1.3 but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Jer. 8.6 No man repented him of his wickednesse saying what have I done Every one turneth to his course as the horse rusheth into the battell 3. Peter had an hours respite after one temptation Luk. 22.59 and so long a time is sufficient to make the killing of a man be adjudged a prepensed and willfull murder by our common Law and whose fault was it that he wanted such a sober deliberation as you speak of Why did he not put himself to it to chose the love of God He had a naturall power to do it to use your own distinction and why he had not and did not exercise a morall Power you must fetch the reason from his own or to excuse that from the will of God For Davids part he had a pritty considerable time to deliberate in Sure it was the love of pleasure not the love of God that kept him from it 4. You demand Is it likely that this one Act should turn their hearts into as Gracelesse a frame as the ungodly themselves that never were sanctified It is not likely Yet so it must be if they excussed all the Love of God Answ If they excussed all the love of God Why all the love of God I told you not long since out of your own writings that every degree of the love of God will not serve the turn but onely that which doth preponderate and prevaile And therefore though all the love of God be not excussed if that prevailing degree be excussed they remain unjustified whether or no their hearts be turned into as Gracelesse a frame as the ungodly themselves that were never sanctified But this doth follow you say and it is not likely that it should be so I answer 2. That a Gracelesse frame of heart may be so denominated either from the totall absence and privation of grace onely or else it may imply also a contracted vicious habite in opposition to Grace In the first sense I grant their hearts may be said to be turned into as Gracelesse a frame but not in the later because though their hearts may have as little grace for the present yet are they not through custome of sinning reduced to such an indisposition to receive the impressions of Grace as are the hearts of the notorious ungodly who were never sanctified And yet I must tell you 3. That as it is observed of water that hath been heat it will be congealed and freez the sooner so such as have felt the heat of that Divine fire and been inlightned and melted and warmed and refreshed by the sweet and efficacious beams and influences of that Grace they are in danger for their great ingratitude Hebr. 6. and 10. to be permitted to fall into a state more miserable and hopelesse then such as were never sanctified But 4. you alleage Is it likely that this one Act Answ 1. There are some single Acts of sin so heinous that their enormitie doth equalize the Habites of many sins and of some they do manifestly preponderate and surpasse them And such Acts though they proceed not from a habite but are onely once committed they do exclude a man from the kingdome of heaven One Act of unmercifull severity to his fellow servant brought an implacable wrath and endlesse torments upon him who had not long before received his Lords Acquittance though he had not passed a very fair Accompt to him Mat. 18.34 What more then a single Act deprived Esau of the blessing Heb. 12.16 and that sinne unto death mentioned by Saint John 1 Joh. 5.16 seems to be no more Mark 10.21 And what followed Christs unum tibi deest to the young man in the Gospel yet that was but an Omission neither But 2. why do you call it but one Act when it was so accumulatively and exceeding sinfull There was a complication of many sinnefull Acts as well in the fall of Peter as of David To that Objection Account of Persever p. 13. that Adam by one act did lose his habituall state of Grace and Relation to God becoming unholy and unjustified therefore so may we you deny the Antecedent For you say it was not by one Act but by many that Adam so far fell But sure here was no lesse if not a much greater combination of sinfull Acts in the fall of David and Peter then in that of Adam therefore neither of them ought to be contracted or extenuated into one single Act. 5. Your discourse runs on in these words
to the Elect ONEly and that according to the counsil will and intention of the Father and this Master Baxter had under his view when he exprest so much wrath against Tilenus and therefore he confutes himself with this Confession They do indeed assert Art 2. Sect. 8. That it was onely the Elect that God the Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to faith justification and salvation which is the same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Who ought Master Baxter this shame to betray him to this incogitancy The same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Why was not that Election of some certain culled out Persons as the Synod declares So we see what Master Baxters Universall Redemption comes to His Redeemed All are no more then his Elected All 't is an All in respect of kindes not of Persons But Christ is theirs to be sute according to the most Free Counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father So saith the Synod and this Master Baxter will subscribe to when he is Disputing against Tilenus though when he gets into the Pulpit he declares this to be a Doctrine of an ill influence for he saith Christ and salvation are made light of because of this disjunctive Presumption either that he is sure enough theirs already Making light of Christ pag. 21. and God that is so mercifull and Christ that hath suffered so much for them is surely resolved to save them or else it may easily be obtained at any time if it be not yet so Is it not the expresse Doctrine of the Synod and Master Baxter that Christ is sure enough the Elects and that God and Christ are resolved to save them and that this will most infallibly be obtained at God's time if it be not so yet This disjunctive presumption which he preacheth down in his Church he disputes up in his Closet And though when he is conversing with his papers inter Adversaria and drawing Diagrams concerning the Divine Decrees his good wits jump with the Synod and tells us The Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to Faith justification and salvation none but the Elect yet when he hath his Crown which is his crowd of Auditors about him he forgets himself and if not his love to truth his zeale to souls transports him into other language much more patheticall then this Doctrine will allow of For thus he addresseth his exhortation to them Ibid. pag. 29.30 Beloved hearers the office that God hath call'd us to is by declaring the glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of mens souls I hope you think not that I come hither to day of any other Errand The Lord knowes I had not set a foot out of doores but in hope to succeed in this work for your soules I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousand should perish Now the man is in a rapture and hath quite forgotten his Decree of Reprobation when God hath done so much for their salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text Mat. 22.5 But they made light of it is the cause It is one of the wonders of the world that when God hath so loved the world as to send his Son and Christ hath made a satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the benefits thereof so freely to them even without money or price that yet the most of the world should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his word Is it one of the wonders of the world that Gods eternall and immutable Decrees concerning them should be executed Why here is the reason saith Master Baxter when Christ hath done all this men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling but your Synod hath shewed otherwise and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that men should be restored to Gods favour and be saved but men are actually unwilling themselves God takes no pleasure in the death of sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33.11 How came he then to reject them upon Adam's sin and deny them Grace sufficient unto salvation as you teach But men take such pleasure in sinne that they will die before they will returne The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physitian and hath provided them a sufficient plaister of his own blood but such as his Father intended should not be effectuall by your doctrine but if men make light of it and will not apply it which your Party confess they are not inabled to do what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition It is a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care their time their pains for known vanities while God and Glory are cast aside and a little after Oh how should we marvell at their madnesse and lament their self-delusion who preach such contradictions Oh poore distracted world â— what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another world or what Decrees had past to shut them up under sin and deny them the Grace of Faith and Repentance according to your Disputations then they had been excufable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it This is Master Baxters preaching vein by which his vulgar flock would be ready to flatter themselves that they had their Teachers warrant to be confident that God doth earnestly intend the salvation of them all But when this pang of soul-saving zeal is over that he gets into his Polemicall strain then he disputes them out of all their hopes again for thus he proceeds If this Tilenus think that God intended the justification and Salvation of all by Christ it 's absolutely or conditionally Here I wish Master Baxter had positively spake out what it is that God intends them whom he calls the Reprobate or Non-elect if not their Justification and salvation then I know nothing else it can be but their greater condemnation and then sure he is unwilling they should be restored to his favour which is opposite point blank against Master Baxters popular exhortations But if God intended their justification and salvation absolutely they shall be saved saith Master Baxter which no Christian that I know believeth Tilenus as little Christian as you make him is of This Faith too and therefore he saith God intended this but Conditionally But then Master Baxter tells us The rigidest Anti-Arminians even Doctor Twisse doth over and over grant it you and I thank him for nothing of Justification and salvation that Christ died to procure this Common Grace that men shall be justified and saved if they will believe The Reader perhaps may be amused