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
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
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
a can or a will I mean power or desire that there is neither of them in professed Christians Phil. 2.13 but what is of Gods own working who giveth both to will and to do according to his good pleasure And as for the heathen instead of doing or any desires thereunto as to good there is nothing but backwardness indisposition aversness yea an enmity against any thing that is really good at least in a saving way But alas what persons or cause is there in the world that are so base and degenerate that cannot suborne some luxuriant tongues to plead their case though never so abominable I have now done with this and so proceed to hear what you can speak for your selfe in the defence of the position from the third absurdity which is this The third absurdity If the foresight of sin should be the cause of reprobation then the elect should be equally lyable to the decree of reprobation as the reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams transgression Answ See how he minceth his argument that he may bring forth absurdities from his own expressions and then father them upon us In the front of his argument he putteth in unbelief and the rejecting of the means but leaveth out the word continuing and now he hath thrust out all except it be this one single term Sin that he may bring reprobation to eternal destruction to the narrow scantling of Adams transgression but that shall never be granted by me until I see a better proof for it than he hath yet brought and I can allow him more Scriptures then he hath set down to his argument Iob 14.4 and 15.14 Psal 51.5 all which together with the Scriptures he bringeth do I confess prove that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with Sin and I deny not but that this pollution or corruption is in a measure from Adams transgression but that any ones being reprobated to everlasting destruction in the lake of fire which is the second death is for Adams transgression I deny for although all the fruits and effects of that sin in the first Adam do accompany us untill we come to the dust from whence we were taken which is Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Womens sorrow being multiplyed and their conception and bringing forth children in sorrow together with the curse that is upon the ground for mans sake so as that man must eat of it in sorrow all the dayes of his life eating bread in the sweat of his face being accompanied with pain and sickness which are the companions of death till he return to the ground for out of it was he taken for saith God dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return and this was the sentence of that condemnation that God hath pronounced against the first Adam or 1 Cor. 15.27 earthy man and we being then in him when the sin was committed and the sentence pronounced we have our part with him in these things as our portion in this life for the original sin or first transgression But the holy Spirit in Scripture doth no where declare as I could ever yet find nor as any one could ever yet shew me that mans reprobation to the second death is for being in Adams sin nor for sin in their own persons no nor yet for unbelief simply so considered but for continuing in sin and unbelief For if they do repent confess and forsake their sins they shall find mercy and be saved as hath been already proved and if the elect should continue in sin and unbelief and not repent and believe or imbrace the means of Salvation they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation as the reprobates themselves and there would be no difference but they in repenting believing and embracing the means of salvation fall under the unchangeable decree of Gods election so as they cannot miss of salvation as hath been already shewed Answ Truly Sir before this I did not rightly apprehend where the shooe did wring but now I find that it is Original sin that pinches you so sore that you cannot well endure the name of it which had I foreseen I would not have minced any thing in the Argument no not so much as the continuing in sin for howsoever it is that we affirm that Original sin is an hereditary disease which every soul brings with it into the world yet it leaves not a man suddenly no not when he is regenerate but continues to the end of a mans dayes It is the very last enemy of ours that death destroyes so that in respect of this Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus Now what you have to say against our doctrine of Original sin I find not much in this your discourse for this you grant First that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with sin and which pollution as you say flows from Adams transgression And secondly that all the fruits and effects of that sin do accompany us till death there is onely then your bare denial that eternal death is not the reward or wages of this sinful pollution the contrary whereof is incumbent on me to prove to make my charge good against you with that third absurdity Now to prove that the first sin of Adam was ours not because he is our father by nature though that be a ground of the imputation also but because he is such a father by Covenant and law the law and Covenant of works being laid in pawn in his hand we are to understand that there be three parts in Original sinne 1. First a partaking of the first sin of Adam we all sinned in him Rom. 5.12 14 15. 2. Secondly the want of the Image of God Rom. 3.23 called the glory of God or original righteousness 3. Thirdly Concupiscence or a bentness or proneness of nature unto sin Rom. 7.7 14 17 23 24. As to the first Adams sin is ours really and truly not so much because it is ours as because it is imputed to be ours by God who so contrived the law of works as that it should be made with Adam not as a single father or person but with Adam as a publique person representing all mankind and having our common nature as a father both by nature and law which came from the meer free-will of God He was as the root and stock of all mankind Rom. 5.19 By one mans disobedience many were made sinners i. e. morally and legally but not physically and personally the fruit and effect of which is death and damnation for Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death not onely temporal or natural death but as the Apostles Antithesis necessarily carries it spiritual and eternal death in opposition to eternal life acquired by Jesus Christ the second Adam Yea and the whole series and purport of the Apostles discourse Rom. 5.12 to ver 19. carries this clear that every mouth may be stopped
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
tend to the glory of God for to that end was man created Prov. 16.4 Ephes 1.15 And therefore neither have the elect cause for which they should boast because what they do receive is of undeserved grace 1 Cor. 4.7 neither are those who are pretermitted cause to complain whiles they have but their deserved reward Rom. 9. the Potter having power over his lump of clay to make one vessel to honour another to dishonour That which hath the fourth place is Election which is not to be understood of an election to a civil or sacred place or office as 1 Sam. 10.24 Iohn 6.70 Nor of a people separated to a special Covenant as Deut. 4.37 Nor onely of such as were called to the outward profession of the Gospel whereof a Church may consist as 1 Cor. 1.27 But it is A personal definite and immutable separation of certain singular men from the rest of mankind and preordaining them to salvation by such means as it hath pleased him to appoint in his most wise decre Matth. 20.16 and 24.24 Mar. 13.20 Rom. 11.7 And means for the execution of this decree of election are Redemption by Jesus Christ effectual vocation justification by faith and sanctification joyned with perseverance Rom. 8.29 30. Eph. 1.4 1 Thess 5.9 1 Pet. 1.2 Act. 13.48 Tit. 1. 1. Phil. 1.6 In election Christ is the basis and head thereof Eph. 1.4 5. both in that he was designed by the Father as a Redeemer of the elect 2 Cor. 5.18 Esa 12.2 As also because that such so elected were given to Christ to be redeemed by him and to be brought unto glory Ioh. 17.6 and 10.16 So that Christ is inrolled in the decree of election not as a meritorious cause of it nor as the foundation thereof but as executing that decree and the meritorious cause of grace and glory to be conferred upon the elect according to the decree of God Faith likewise sanctification good works and perseverance are ingredients in the decree consequently as means ordained to the end by that decree but not antecedently as the foundation or causes upon foresight whereof our election doth depend For if upon the foresight of our faith or foreseeing who would believe or embracing of the means or continuance therein our election should depend then were it necessary that the same should be foreseen in us either as those graces or works wrought in us by our selves and of our own innate strength or else wrought in us onely by God and of his grace and gift alone If you l ' say they proceed as from our selves as from the innate activity and choice of our own free-will then have we whereof to boast and then have we made our selves to differ from others contrary to that of 1 Cor. 4.7 for what maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it what dost thou glory is if thou hadst not received it But if we have received that grace from God and that it be onely of his working in us to give us faith and repentance from dead works c. Then God hath decreed to give us those graces which since they are infallible means unto salvation therefore they are to be drawn and derived from infallible election wherin salvation is decreed unto us for the further clearing wherof consult these places Matth. 11.25 26. Luke 12.32 1 Tim. 1.9 Rom. 9.11 12. and 11.5 Eph. 1.4 Rom. 8.29 Ioh. 15.16 Acts 13.48 1 Cor. 7.25 Ioh. 6.37 and 8.47 2 Tim. 2.19 Matth. 24.24 1 Ioh. 2.19 The last proposed is Reprobation which is the eternal Immutable and most free decree of God wherein a certain company of men considered in an alike lump and mass of corruption and guilt with all others he hath decreed to pass them by and not to have mercy upon them neither to confer on them the means tending to salvation but leaving them in their sin whereinto they had cast themselves for the same sin to condemn them for the manifestation of his liberty and justice and power This reprobation by a metonymy is styled in Scripture Hatred Rom. 9.13 So the purpose of God Rom. 9.11 that determined counsel of God Acts 2.23 the good pleasure of God Mat. 12.25 26. And the Reprobates are called vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9.22 men of old ordained to condemnation disobedient whereunto they were appointed 1 Pet. 2.8 Appointed unto wrath 1 Thess 5.9 wicked made for the day of evil Pro. 16.4 All which do argue that God is the efficient cause of Reprobation and that hell fire is prepared for such Goats as well as for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 that God must be the efficient cause of Reprobation as well as of election appears in this that as he elects i. e. decrees to save some so likewise he decrees to Reprobate i. e. to pass by and leave others and not elect them as Matth. 24.40 41. For else had not he fore-determined what to do with a great part of mankind but to have left them to an uncertain event which is unsuitable to his wisdome Now the act of God in Reprobating may be distinguished into a negative and privative act i.e. of not granting salvation nor conferring means of salvation and into an affirmative or positive act i. e. of inflicting damnation and of blinding and hardening After both these waies the Scripture sets forth Reprobation 1 Negatively Mat. 7.23 and 25.12 I know you not Ioh. 10.26 you are not of my sheep Ioh. 17.19 I pray not for the world Matth. 13.11 to them it is not given to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven 2 Affirmatively Rom. 9.13 Esau have I hated Rom. 9.22 vessels of wrath sitted to destruction Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardens Ioh. 12.39 40. They could not believe because he had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts So that if it be demanded wherefore God when he saw all men in an alike condition sinners and children of wrath Reprobated some i. e. did not elect them or suffered not his face to shine on them as he did on others viz. those which he did elect no reason can be assigned for this but the absolute good pleasure of his will But if it be demanded why he doth not confer salvation on them or glorifie their persons in heaven but contrarily inflicts upon them eternal torments in hell here the cause is assigned to be their own sinnes Matth. 25.41 42. Go ye cursed into everlasting fire for I was hungry c. and Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death And therefore in the matter of Reprobation God is to be lookt upon partly as a sovereign who hath the sole power and dominion over his creature Psal 145.17 Gen. 18.25 and partly as a Judge who is righteous in all his waies and doth right to every man As a sovereigne and so according to his absolute power and liberty dependent on
Ioh. 10.26 Ioh. 12.39 40. Rom. 9.18 33. Rom. 11.7 8. 1 Pet. 2.8 Whereunto you say To which I answer first by distingushing upon his Major proposition and to enquire into his meaning therein now if he mean by Reprobation the decree of God before time distinct from Reprobation in time or Rom. 1.28 Gods giving them over to a reprobate mind which is the execution of the decree then I deny that sin and unbelief is the effect of it for God is so far from decreeing and appointing men to commit sin or that sin is an effect that cometh to pass by his decree and appointment that he doth not so much as tempt any man to sin as we may see Iam. 1.13 yea the Apostle Iames is so far from laying sin upon Gods decree as if that should be the cause that should produce such an effect as sin and unbelief that he saith v. 14. that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed and then v. 15. he saith when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death By which we may see that the Apostle doth not make Gods decree the cause of sin but that indeed which is the cause which bringeth it forth is even lust Quem recitas meus est Sed male dum recitas incipit esse tuus Answ Here were matter for you to work upon indeed if I would own the Argument as it is by you thus mistated and truly I do not well know how this error crept in as you have thus translated my second Argument whether you lookt upon it with a squint eye or a wry neck and so had a mind to pervert both the words and sense of it but I am sure in mine own written paper which one alone and no more I ever had which is now in my custody where as your pamphlet hath it That which is the effect and consequent of Reprobation is and so should be That which is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation which one word of effect for efflux doth much vary the case and overthrows at least silenceth a great part if not all what you have said against it for I utterly disown the word effect I know sin followes negative Reprobation or non-election not as an effect the cause but as the consequent flowing from and following its antecedent and therefore I protest against the word as spurious and illegitimate and no brood of my brain But yet if cause may be lookt upon in the latitude it is many times used and taken for I see not but that in a large sense Reprobation may be said to be a cause of sin viz. causa sine qua non for had there not been such a negative reprobation or non-election as the mother sin at least actual sin had never been born nor brought into the world as the daughter Had God elected all at least had not God decreed to permit the sin of Adam and of his posterity he had not permitted it at all for whatsoever he purposed to do or permitted to be done in time the same he did decree before all time so to do or to permit to be done and if he had not permitted sin at all and so decreed to permit it sin would never have been but it must have been hindred But I insist not upon this but apply my self to that member of your distinction of Reprobation viz. that which is before all time Wherein for so much as is contended for by you in this paragraph if I may gratifie you in it I will sâ—bscribe unto it abating me but this that whereas you say lust is the cause of sin I say the devil combining with the corruption of mans nature which is originally and totally depraved and hath little of other proper and innate quality but to sin and so I come to the other member of your distinction which is worded thus Secondly if by Reprobation he meaneth the act or execution of Gods decree in time which is Gods giving up of people to their own hearts lust and to a Reprobate mind as aforesaid then also we find that Gods act in the first place is not the cause of mans sin but mans disobedience in the first place is the cause why God doth execute the same as his just and righteous judgement upon them for their continuance in sin c. as it is expressed in this Position as appeareth Psal 81.11 12. Rom. 1.22 23 24 25 26 27 28. and yet I do not deny but sin and unbelief may be the effect and consequence of Reprobation in this sense as mens delaying and not coming in while the door is open is the cause of the door being shut against them and the door being shut against them is the cause of their abiding still without Wherefore strive to enter in at the straite gate before the good man of the house be risen up and hath shut to the door Luke 13.24 25. While it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 Answ I wonder why you should think I meant it of Reprobation in time which is not in the decree about which our controversie is but onely the execution of the decree though this be your practise yet I use no such extravagancies as to run from the question which is onely about Reprobation before all time and therefore this requiring no other answer I proceed to that where you hit the nail on the head for thus you write But I do partly believe that his meaning by reprobation in his argument is that which is generally held amongst them That Gods will and decree before any thing was brought forth in order or before man had any being is the onely and alone cause of Reprobation and so consequently of sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation and that no other fruits at any time can be brought forth by them notwithstanding all that they can do but that these things must unavoydably follow they being bound up thereunto by the decree of God and that which doth make me inclinable to believe that his meaning is so is because I find his Arguments tend much to the maintaining of such a thing Answ All this I stedfastly believe saving an ill-favoured expression that is interwoven viz. That being bound up thereunto by the decree of God which in my subsequent discourse shall be clearly refused But as though that in thus affirming I had maintained some formidable doctrine abhorrent to the Churches of the Saints he seems to bless himself from it thus But as I tender the honour and glory of God in the exaltation of his Psal 145.8 9. tender mercies over all his works and the purity of that truth and sincerity that is in himself together with his faithfulness in his upright and sincere dealings towards the sons of men and also when I think upon the excellency of
his wisdome I cannot but stand up in detestation of such a doctrine which striketh at the very being of these attributes in God Answ Alas Reverend Sir have I incurred crimen laesae majestatis that you seem so passionate or is it onely an affected garbe of one of your Hypocritical raptures No Sir I doubt not evidently to make it so appear that our doctrine dorh not in the least degree intrench upon any of the Divine attributes but that it gives to the most High God the honour due unto his name by exalting him infinitely beyond all the creation shewing their necessary dependance on him in all they have do or hope to enjoy Whereas your Doctrine whatsoever offers and fair pretences it makes yet t is no better then Iaels bottle of milk to Sisera Judg. 4.19 when ready to perish with thirst she administers withal a nayle and with a hammer beats it into his temples for howsoever you make a fair flourish of vindicating the free grace of God yet the issue of all tends to this namely to usher in that mincing minion free-wil so to set her cheek by jowle by God himself neither are you contented with this alone but that in those grand determinations of mans salvation or damnation you plainly give the casting voyce to her so that the result of all must be as she will please to accept or refuse grace offered so that all the while you will make God as an Idle spectator till she hath been pleased to interpose her umpirage and yet all of which must be suspended untill the moment of death for according unto your principles which unto me is a paradox Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus What prejudices you muster up as in defiance and detestation of our Doctrine you do reduce unto three heads as striking at as you vainly imagine first the mercy secondly the truth thirdly the wisdome of God but all of these are built on one and the same false and rotten foundation and therfore the labour is not so great as to lay it all even with the ground and for the original of it to return it to hell where it was first forged I shall then in your own order wait upon you in your march and so examine what you have to say for your self and cause which begins thus First if God hath by an absolute decree brought forth such an effect as a continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means of salvation so as the greatest part of men must be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death for doing nothing but what they must do by the decree of God and cannot do otherwise then where is the tender mercy of our God which is over all his works Answ My good friend I must tell you that we utterly abjure that which you infer as a sequel of our doctrine and for answer unto yours say that this which his companions the other two seeming gravamens are all alike grounded on a false hypothesis wherein you discover a gross mistake conceiving that non-election or negative Reprobation draws along with it an invincible necessity of committing of sin or that it doth determine mans will to sin either by compulsion or necessity for which such so reprobated are afterwards condemned but no such inferences can be drawn from our opinions We say the negative will of God is no cause at all of mans sin or misery but his own positive will is the cause both of his wickedness and of his wretchedness He is the true and principal cause of any effect or event who imployeth his faculties and endeavours to bring it into being and not he who onely resolveth not to hinder such evill effects though he foresee they will come into being if he prevent them not The infallible prevision of God seeth from all eternity the actions of men and their ends and yet this maketh not the modus agendi to be necessary or compulsory but leaveth the agent most free as if he had never foreseen it so that the absolute decree of not giving faith final perseverance and eternal life unto the non-elect which he is no waies bound to do howsoever it deny them that grace which would effectually and infallibly make them bring forth fruits meet for repentance Mat. 3.8 yet it depriveth them not of their own natural freedome and liberty neither doth it necessitate compel or constrain them unto any their unbelief or committing or continuing in sin T is he and he alone or chiefly may well be said to be invincibly drawn into sin and plunged into and cast into the like of fire who fights against sin with all his strength and striveth to avoid damnation And yet by the overmastring power of another is thrust into the one and hurld into the other which the consciences of the most wicked in the world can tell them that there is no such forcing power in non-election or reprobation Yea the non-elect Angels which are now Devils in hell cannot upon their non-election charge God that either their transgression or damnation was invincibly inforced upon them they indeavouring to escape it Take a view of any of the men of the world whom you much conceive may be ranked among the number of such castawaies and therein see whether the decree of reprobation had any such influence upon their outward wiâ—ked actions that they might say for excuse they were necessitated thereunto The decree of reprobation did not compel or necessitate Cain to the murtherous act of the killing of his brother neither was there any obligation upon Absalom incestuously to defile his fathers Concubines Neither did it unavoydably inforce Iudas to the selling and betraying of his Master all these sinful actions and all the like committed by other the like reprobates proceed meerly out of their own election having a power whereby they might have abstained from the committing of them And therefore my kind neighbour to help you one of this mire that you sink not into grosser absurdities as it is too incident to those of your Tribe who open every casement to entertain all your new lights though many of them prove but ignes fatui It will be expedient to take notice of a threefold necessity which may have a dependency upon a subject person and by means whereof a man may be said that he must do so and that he cannot do otherwise There is a necessity of immutability a necessity of infallibility and a necessity of coaction or compulsion I shall explain the terms I call that a necessity of immutability which doth befal all such things as are appointed by the eternal and immutable decree of God for God cannot change his counsel but it must of necessity come to pass Psal 33.11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Secondly necessity of
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
by a comparison of our righteousness and life received by Jesus Christ with sin and death contracted from Adam that as by the disobedience of Adam we were made sinners viz. sinners by imputation his sin being laid upon our account as much as if we our selves had eaten of the forbidden fruit So by the obedience of Christ we are made righteous i. e. righteous by imputation God being so pleased to accept of Christ his righteousness as though we in our own persons had fulfilled all righteousness either in doing or in suffering See for further satisfaction 1. Cor. 1.30 and 15.22 and 2 Cor. 5.15 The second thing considerable in original sin is a privation of the Image of God the glory of God or original righteousness of this see Rom. 3.23 Eccles 7.29 Ephes 4.24 which uprightness had been hereditary had man kept his first station but he failing in the breach of the holy law of God he lost that righteousness both to himself and all his posterity So that there unavoidably succeeding a defect of conformity to the law of God which sinless nature did enjoy necessarily must it draw with it the sin of that nature which it voluntarily had contracted viz. Original unrighteousness Whence I reason thus Every transgression of the law of God takes along with it the true and proper name and nature of sin and to have eternal death as the reward thereof 1 Ioh. 3.4 Rom. 3.23 But every defect of conformity with the law of God is such a transgression Therefore c. The Minor is proved from those places 1 Cor. 2.14 and 2 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 3.10 and Rom. 7.18 cum multis aliis The third thing considerable is a proneness aptitude and bentness to sin not by imputation but by inclination As the young Lion and the young Serpent have not the bloudy and stinging nature of the old Lion and the old Serpent by imputation but by natural and intrinsecal inherencie so it is with men from the womb they are sinners from the birth bringing into the world a body of sin and death Whence I argue thus Every evill concupiscence or proneness in man to sin or rebellion to the law of God or enmity to God carries with it the name and nature of sin But original sin Synecdochically taken for the habit of original unrighteousness is that evil Concupiscence or proneness to sin c. Therefore For the Major I presume none dare question it and for the Minor that is confirmed abundantly and that in a special manner in the greatest part of Rom. 7. where the nature of original sin is most lively represented and the Apostle not onely for himself but for all others bemoanes their sad estate in respect of the natural inherency of that depravation of our nature And whereas you Sir were pleased to supply me with places to prove what I intended as to original sin I must tell you it was not for want of stock that I had then in store but onely because I would not then in so short an epitome be tedious and troublesome to such dissatisfied persons for whose alone satisfaction I composed that breviary but never intending it should have been exposed to publick view it was onely your pleasure to bring it into the sun light naked and bare as it was And therefore that you may see that the subject is not any wayes lame or defective for want of sufficient authority to support it take these texts of Scripture ex abundanti for the confirmation of it Gen. 6.5 and 8.21 Iob 14.5 Psal 57.7 Isa 64.10 Ier. 17.9 Matth. 15.12 Ioh. 3.6 Rom. 5.12 c. and 6.16 c. and 8.6 7. c. Eph. 2.3 and 4.22 Col. 3.9 11. Tit. 3.3 Heb. 12.1 Iam. 1.14 15 c. For what you conclude this paragraph with that if sinners should repent confess and forsake their sins they should find mercy And if the elect should continue in sin and not repent c. they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation I say Sir though to affirm this doth utterly interfere with your first position where you affirm that the elect cannot become reprobates neither can reprobates become elect And yet there is some truth in it according to the Gospel manner of expressions but this hath been fully spoken to already Your next encounter is to answer a place by me quoted where you write thus But yet lest it should be thought that there is some weight in that Scripture which he quoteth out of Ephes 2.1 2 3. Children of wrath even as others to prove that reprobation to the second death is for that sin in Adam or that infants dying in infancy should be cast into the lake of fire for the same I doubt not but by the help of my God I shall make it appear that there is no such thing in it for first consider that these words in ver 1. you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins cannot relate to their being in the corrupt mass or lump of Adams transgression for that is but one being in the singular number but that which is there spoken of is in the plural number or more than one to wit trespases and sins Secondly it doth appear that it doth not relate to that sin they had as they were new born infants because it relateth to their conversation or course of life as they had a being in this world ver 2.3 wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world amongst whom we all had our conversation in times past c. By which it doth appear that he doth not speak to the Ephesians of what they were as they first came into the world as Infants for they could not upon that account be said to walk according to the course of this world neither can new born Infants as such be said to have their conversation in times past in the lust of the flesh of the mind and therefore they were not children of wrath upon that account but the Apostle there speaketh of that course of life or conversation in which they lived in time past as they were grown persons in the lusts of the flesh and the mind fulfilling the desires thereof and being by nature the children of wrath even as others Answ What man are you so confident of this first fruits of your brain as to think that you have answered all things of weight in what I have formerly written to your positions Truly Sir if I have any judgement at all there is not one parcel of all that I have delivered that you have given the least colour of satisfaction to But let us examine the reasons you give in why those words were the children of wrath even as others cannot prove reprobation to the second death or expose infants to a desert of the lake of fire Your first reason is because those words ver 1. you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins cannot
perceives not the things of the Spirit nor is there any such power given them of God for unto you is given to know the secrets of the kingdome of heaven but unto them it is not given Joh. 15.5 and without Christ they can do nothing What then was become of this mans reason thus to bragg of men in their pure naturals which are so befogged that they are never able to extricate themselves I have done with the first reason and left it naked and bare I shall next proceed to your second reason which as it is by you worded is scarce common sense but such as it is take it thus 2. Because those that were given over of God to a reprobate mind being filled with all unrighteousness Rom. 1.28 are said ver 31. to to be without natural affections now if natural affections had been such an unrighteous thing as that it should lead them into sin and they being filled with all unrighteousness could not have been without it To which I answer First you mistake in your reading t is affection in the singular number and not affections Secondly the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred by the Translators natural affection is yet by them in the margent rendred unsociable and if Scapulaes Lexicon be consulted with such are there denoted and so the word properly signifies in quo non inest affectus amoris illius mutui inter parentes liberos who are destitute of that reciprocal love that ought to be between husband and wise parents and children And now be judge your self what a sad reason you have brought upon the Stage for the advancing of nature that as you say it is so far from leading men to sin that the teachings of it are against sin because for such is the strength of your reason or else it is nothing such given over by God to a reprobate mind are without that reciprocal or mutual love that ought to be between husband and wife parents and children I pray Sir in the next look before you leap And now for the third and last reason which is of the same size the former were and this it is Because the Apostle himself directeth the Saints to the teaching of nature it self 1 Cor. 11.14 and certainly if Paul had been of that mind that nature had been such an evil principle as that it being followed would lead men into a wicked and filthy conversation he would never have mentioned it as a teacher unto them therefore the teaching of nature doth not lead men into sin but the contrary Answ The Apostle in this part of the Chapter is giving directions what suits best with decency and order in their Church-assemblies and in particular concerning prayer whether covered or uncovered and thereby occasionally of short hair and long hair and ver 14. Doth not nature it self teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him the doubt now is what is meant by nature here and first not any principle connatural to man in the state of innocency for thereof there is neither precept nor rule nor example either for long hair or short hair But secondly by nature is to be understood that which by a common consent was taken up and brought it into a custom or fashion and that especially among the Greeks for if we look upon other nations and take the pains to search Antiquity concerning their fashions you shall find that it was a long time before the Romans used any clipping of the hair neither was it practised in France or Germany till of later years nor would Lycurgus suffer it among the Lacedemonians and if it were unnatural why did Absalom were long hair 2 Sam. 18.9 or why was the law of the Nazarites permitted It is very apparent therefore that the Apostles meaning is that custome being as it were another nature it was not the manner custome and fashion of these parts at least among the Corinthians to weare long hair because it was an Argument of too much effeminacy And now Sir do but revise the strength of your reason as I have clothed it and see what weight it may bear which any man of common reason and thus it lies the teachings of nature lead not to sin because the Apostle directs the Saints what is fit for them to do about long hair from what the custome was then in use among the Grecians I pray Sir take more reason with you when you next offer any reason to a reasonable man Your next endeavour is to make a gloss upon this text but it is such a one as doth corrupt the text and thus it is But as the law written in tables of stone did discover or make known sin to the Jews so the law of nature did discover or make known sin to the Gentiles and so the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men as well the Gentiles as the Jews as appeareth Rom. 1.18 and as the law written doth work wrath to the Iews Rom. 4.15 when they sin against it so the law of nature doth work wrath to the Gentiles when they do that which is contrary thereunto and so the Ephesiaens which Paul directeth these words unto being Gentiles were not lead unto sin by nature but nature did in its measure and degree witness against sin and did by its teaching declare them to be the children of wrath when they lived in such an evil conversation which was contrary to the teaching of it Answ In answer to this paraphrase of yours it is not enough for me to unsay what you have said but rather to say that you cannot gainsay in giving of the genuine sense of the words we are all by nature the children of wrath i. e. we that are converted whether Jews or Gentiles all were alike children of wrath wherein there are two things to be opened first what it is to be a child of wrath secondly what it is to be so by nature First what it is to be a child of wrath First some by this do understand one that is guilty of and obnoxious to eternal death and condemnation because of sin but this though it be somewhat yet it is not the whole for Adam after his sin committed was made obnoxious to the wrath of God and guilty of eternal death and yet he could not be said to be a son or child of wrath for by this manner of speaking such an one is denoted as is born such and by his nature is such For the clearing whereof take notice of some such parallel places It is well known to those who are Divines indeed that these are Hebraismes to say one is a son or child of perdition as Ioh. 17.12 2 Thes 2.3 or that one is a child of disobedience Eph. 2.2 and 5.6 and Col. 3.6 and hence this manner of speaking doth a I se because whosoever is begotten or born of a man is a man that which is
run out as leaking vessels and 2 Tim. 2.21 purge themselves from error sin and uncleanness shall be vessels unto honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work And we do find in the Scripture that all those actings of God in a way of mercy in order to the everlasting good of his creature come from him with abundance of willingness freeness and delight for he is a God that delighteth in mercy Mich. 7.18 Answ Sir you onely speak here of Gods not consining himself to any subordinate power but you prosecute not the point as it is laid to your charge We with the Sctiptures do affirm Gods absolute purpose or the good pleasure of his most holy will is the alone cause of non-election or Reprobation and not the rejecting of the means to wit the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel and the continuing in sin and unbelief are not the causes as you assert pretending that if these be not assigned causes then God would be unjust or unmerciful to the creature hereupon we say that if God may not do with his creature what seems best to him in his own eyes without rendring a reason of his actings but that his attributes must be called into question this is to limit and confine the infinite soveraignty that God hath over all the creation and to suffer worms and dust to controll majesty But to this Sir hitherto you have said nothing To what you say of that place 2 Tim. 2.21 that it is the good will and pleasure of our God whosoever they be that delight to embrace the means of salvation and purge themselves from error sin and uncleaneness shall be vessels unto honour is very true and good in that sense it was intended by the Spirit of God but neither true nor good in that sense it is by you applied and made use of For first of all you suppose that it is in their own power to purge themselves from error sin and uncleanness whereas this is Gods peculiar work to purge us from our sins and purely to purge away our dross and to wash us with clean water and to turn us to himself and then we shall be sure to be turned all our strength to performe such a taske is else altogether insufficient Your second couchant error here is that you conceive this purging of themselves will hereby make them vessels of honour but I say this their purging was no cause at all of their being vessels of honour but it was onely a means of the discovery of it wherein they might have comfort and consolation Before even from all eternity by that decree of election they were out of that lump of perdition made vessels unto honour or vessels of mercy which God had afore prepared unto glory but when the times of refreshing come Rom. 9.21.23 Gal. 1.16 Heb. 9.14 and that the Lord is pleased to reveal his son in them and that such his secret decree comes to be put in execution in time by God his giving of faith and repentance and purging their consciences from dead dead works to serve the living God then they shall be vessels unto honour unto their own comfort and to the good example of others Such a manner of speech there is Ioh. 5.8 Herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples Now they were his Disciples before but the meaning is that by bearing of fruit they should approve themselves both to their own consciences and to the world besides that they were the Disciples of Christ Neither is that which follows altogether so sound where you write But on the other hand in respect of what he doth in the making forth of his justice in the punishment of his creature for sin and impenitency he doth it not until he is provoked thereunto even 2 Chron. 36.16 untill there is no remedy for the Lord is Psal 19.1 and 145.8 slow to anger and of great mercy and hath Ezek. 33.11 no pleasure in the death of the wicked And therefore although that the embracing of the means repenting and believing in Jesus Christ be no procuring ground or cause of any the least mercies we do enjoy yet the continuing in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation is a procuring of punishment see Ier. 2.17 Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way also ch 4.18 thy way and thy doings hath procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it reacheth unto thine heart Answ Sir though it be very true that the continuing in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation be the procuring cause of punishment in time but not the cause of the decree of negative reprobation before time Yet where you say that God doth not make forth his justice in punishing until he be provoked Sir I cannot allow you so much to take this universally For tell me if you can how those infants had provoked God in the general deluge Gen. 7. when they were swept away with the rest of the wicked world or those infants in the combustion of Sodom Gen. 19. how had they communicated in pride fulness of bread and idleness with the rest of the citizens or what confederacy was there in those infants in the rebellion of Corah Numb 16. that they descended likewise with their fathers into the pit or how had those women been a provocation whose wombes were shut in the case of Abimelech Gen. 20. 2 Sam. 24.17 or those sheep the people of Israel what had they done when they suffered that havock by the pestilence when seventy thousand men were destroyed No Sir in many cases there is no visible provocation besides the original depravation of corrupt nature which through the want of original righteousness doth justly deserve wrath and punishment In some it is not for any sin either in them or their Parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in them Joh. 9.3 But for other cases take the rest and make the most of them And now to fill up your pamphlet and for want of better stuffe you obtrude upon us a leathern tale of your own observation and this it is And I can yet remember when I have been a hearer of these men which have taken unto themselves the title of Clergy as if they onely were the heritage of the Lord and none besides them speak much to this purpose that God was abundantly more prone to shew mercy than to execute wrath and have earnestly prest their hearers to the use of means calling upon them to be careful to come to Church as they call it and to heare sermons saying thou dost not know when Gods time is therefore give attendance to the means If thou art careless in coming and wilt come but now and then thou mayest be
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
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
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