suffered Treatise of Convers pag. 2. and for all the Grace that is offered them in the Gospel is What Even because they will not receive this Grace nor entertain Christ and the mercy of God as it is offered to them And what doth this signifie but this because they would not chuse it And upon this account they are condemned and very justly Yet when he is come from his pulpit and undertakes to dispute with Tilenus 't is not sufficient that Gods Mercy and Christs Merits and the Divine Grace be at his choice to receive it this may serve the Non-Elect But be not angry saith he if we thank God for more even for giving us both to Will and Do. If you may be allowed to be your own Carvers no doubt you will be very liberall in the choice of your own portions and if God ratifies it 't is well for you But we find that Gods design in his way of dispensing Grace is to promote and advance duty but your way doth evacuate and cancell it For if he workes the very Act which we call duty by an irresistible operation in nobis sine nobis as the Synod saith of Conversion in us but without us then duty is no more duty but necessity and Grace is no more Grace but force That God worketh to Will and to Do others acknowledge with no lesse thankfullness then your selves if you mean a power and ability in us to Will and to Do as you implyed your meaning to be a little before when you said He gives both to believe and to suffer that is a power to do it yet so as the will is left more free rather then determined under an irresistible necessitation and consequently man may abuse his liberty Heb. 12.15 2 Cor. 6.1 and be wanting to the Grace of God and make default in his cooperation and so his will may remain undetermined and the work to which he was inabled be left undone But if you think when God works to will and to do 't is not in Mans power to bury his talent and contradict Gods motion I must reject that Comment as a corruption of the Text and a subversion of the Apostles argument to inforce his exhortation With all humility sollicitude fear and diligence Eph. 6.13 lest God be offended and you miscarry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perficite conficite interficite superate for the word hath all these significations all difficulties and opposition being subdued work out and make your salvation dead sure for it is God that grants and works ability not of necessity and indesinently but of his mere grace and good pleasure which he may be provoked to suspend and withdraw This sense gives a huge inforcement to the exhortation But according to your interpretation the Apostle should argue thus My beloved it is God that worketh in you to Will and to Do determining your wills to the very Act of duty insuperably and irresistibly so that it is not in your choice to do otherwise and this he doth because it is his Good pleasure therefore work out your salvation with feare and trembling Would such exhortations tend to the quickning of your Audience or rather make them carelesse Or can it consist with the Holy Spirit of Discipline and wisdome to use such a vehement exhortation and then back it with such a Reason as if granted would render that exhortation insignificant and to no purpose for what diligence is to be used out of a feare of miscarriage if the effect be irresistibly determined In the Appendix to your Aphorisme you say Pag. 52. Believing is properly a condition required of the Party if he will enjoy the thing promised And in your Treatise of Conversion pag. 296. you say Salvation is not given barely from the will of God but from the faith and obedience of men for it is an act of rewarding Justice as well as of Paternall love and mercy What is that rewarding Justice terminated upon Man's free duty or God's omnipotent irresistible work in him Resolve this and Tilenus will not be angry that you give God thanks for working in us to Will and to Do. Reflexions upon M. Baxters IX Section and the II. Article WHerein Master Baxter sets up to be baited and worried as his Phantasie pleases the Second Article in these words Saith this new Tilenus They hold that Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having never had any intent nor commandement of his Father to make satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world Here M. Baxter flies out into passion and foule language and the first Case of his indignation he gives us in these modest expressions A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends By the way I cannot sufficiently wonder why a man that hath wrote so many Directions for Peace of Conscience should throw such Birds of prey off his own fist to devour a strangers Reputation but the best on 't is they are so well acquainted with the place of their breeding he may safely venture to fly them without his varvells they will find the way home of themselves and therefore I shall not need to trouble my self to take them up for him But whether Master Baxters fingers ends be not more dexterous at such work then are Tilenus's let the Reader judge by what follows There is not a word of the Decrees of the Synod that hath any such importance saith Master Baxter But you have taught us to distinguish betwixt Name and Thing suppose the word should not be there I hope it will satisfie the Indifferent Reader and save Tilenus his Reputation if the sense be there and if at least this be not there I shall despair of ever understanding the Riddles of this Sphinx without the help of such an Oedipus as Master Baxter The Synod in their 2. Chapter Art 8. decrees and declares their Doctrine in these words For this was the most free counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father that the lively and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Sonne should manifest it selfe in ALL the ELECT for the bestowing upon them ONELY Justifying faith and bringing THEM infallibly by it unto eternall life that is God willed that Christ by the blood of his Crosse whereby he was to establish a new Covenant should effectually redeem out of every people tribe nation and language All THEM and ONELY THEM who from eternity were elected to salvation and given to him of the Father that he should bestow saith on THEM which as also the other saving Gifts of the holy Spirit he purchased for THEM by his death that by his bloud he should cleanse THEM from all sins both Originall and Actuall as well committed after as before they believed and finally should present THEM before him in glory without all spot or blemish Here we see the saving efficacy of Christs Death for their Redemption restrained
too great integrity to impose upon his Adversary or his Reader so is he known to be of too great learning and judgement to encounter with shadows and Chimaera's of his own imagination How this Doctrine of Predestination is held forth by the other sort of Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians he that desires to be fully satisfied may procure his satisfaction at an easie expense both of time and money if he will consult that small Treatise translated and lately set forth by Master Tobias Conyers Page 91. 92. 94. 95. 96. under the Title of The Just Mans Defence But amongst other Reasons inducing these men to deliver the Doctrine of Predestination in a different manner and method from the former Arminius observes Ibid. page 97. this was not the meanest their willingnesse to prevent lest God with the same probabilitie should be concluded the Author of sinne from this their Doctrine as some of them have judged it concludable from the first But really saith He if with diligent inspection we well examine these Opinions of a later Edition compared with the Judgement of the same Authors in other points of Religion we shall finde the fall of Adam not possibly otherwaies considerable Page 98. according to the Tenents of these men then as a necessary executive means of the preceding Decree of Predestination Page 100. and a little after The third Opinion scapes this Rock better then the other had not the Patrons thereof delivered something for the Declaration of Predestination and Providence from whence the necessity of the Pall may be inferred which cannot have any other rise then Predestinatory Ordination Thus Jac. Arminius Our next inquiry that we may come to the certaine knowledge of the truth of this Matter of Fact for which you have with no little confidence to disgrace him questioned the integrity of our Tilenus shall be how the Articles charged upon the Calvinists were drawn up by the Remonstrants in the Conference at the Hague Pet. Bert. Coll. Hag. p. 7. 8. The first head of Doctrine which They charge the Contra-Remonstrants or Calvinists whom they style their Brethren to account ORTHODOX is thus expressed word for word I. THat God as some speak by an eternall and unchangeable Decree from among men Supra-lapsarians whom he considered as not-created much lesse as faln ordained certain to eternall life certain to eternall death without any regard had to their righteousnesse or sinne to their obedience or disobedience onely because so was his pleasure or so it seemed good to him to the praise of his Justice and Mercy or as others like better to declare his saving Grace Wisdome and free Authority or Jurisdiction Means being also fore-ordained by his eternall and unchangeable Decree fit for the execution of the same by the power or force whereof it is necessary that they be saved after a necessary and unavoidable manner who are ordained to salvation so that 't is not possible that they should perish but they who are destin'd to destruction who are the farre greater number must be damned necessarily and inevitably so that t is not possible for them to be saved II. Sub-lapsarians That God as others would rather willing from eternity with himself to make a Decree concerning the Election of some certain men but the rejection of others considered mankinde not onely as created but also as faln and corrupted in Adam and Eve our first Parents and thereby deserving the curse And that he decreed out of that fall and damnation to deliver and save some certain ones of his Grace to declare his mercy But to leave others both young and old yea truly even certain Infants of men in Covenant and those Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy by his just judgement in the curse to declare his Justice and that without all consideration of repentance and faith in the former or of impenitence or unbelief in the later For the execution of which Decree God useth also such means whereby the Elect are necessarily and unavoidably saved but reprobates necessarily and unavoidably perish III. And therefore that Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World died not for all men but for those onely who are Elected either after the former or this later manner he being the mean and ordained Mediator to save those onely and not a man besides IV. Consequently That the Spirit of God and of Christ doth worke in those who are Elected that way or this with such a force of Grace that they cannot resist it and so that it cannot be but that they must turn believe and thereupon necessarily be saved But that this irresistible Grace and force belongs onely to those so Elected but not to Reprobates to whom not onely that irresistible Grace is denyed but also Grace necessary and sufficient for Conversion for faith and for salvation is not afforded To which Conversion and faith indeed they are called invited and fairely solicited outwardly by the revealed will of God though notwithstanding the inward force necessary to faith and conversion is not bestowed on them according to the secret will of God V. But that so many as have once obtained a true and justifying faith by such a kinde of irresistible force can never totally nor finally lose it no not although they fall into the very-most-enormous sins but are so led and kept by that same irresistible force that 't is not possible for them or they cannot either totally or finally fail and perish Every branch of these five Articles you may see sufficiently proved in Appendice Pressioris Declarationis and by the severall Syllabi Testimoniorum inter Scripta Synodalia Remonstrantium After the Synod at Dort had declared their judgement upon those five Heads of Doctrine the Remonstrants abridged the same into these Compendious Articles I. Almighty God out of all mankinde considered in the same state or condition chose a few certaine men to eternall salvation without any respect of their faith repentance conversion or of any good quality but that he might bring those elect ones to the appointed salvation he decreed that his Son should suffer death for onely them yea even when they as well as others were faln into Originall sinne and eternall perdition by Adam's transgression that he might reconcile unto God them onely that he might in them onely work faith by a most powerfull working and force no lesse then that put forth in the Creation of the World or raising the dead that he might preserve in that saving faith unto their lives end those very men although faln into the foulest and filthiest wickednesses and sticking some while therein and at last might bring them into the possession of eternall life for no other cause but because so was his good pleasure But on the Contrary I. Almighty God would passe by the farre greatest part of mankind without any consideration of their own proper and avoidable fault that is to say of their own unbelief
the sight of God Loc. com de Praedest q. 20. 8. The Contra-Remonstrants We do professe that God in his Election had no respect to faith foreseen perseverance or any other good quality Collat. Hag. pag. 126. 4. Damman Scribe to the Synode The Election was made without any consideration of faith foreseen In suo consens To whom I may adde Lubbertus a Synodist too who saith 'T is a humane invention that God decreed Salvation to us upon this condition if we would repent In Declar. Respons pag. 50. 3. Master Baxter excepts He unworthily feigneth them to say that God appointeth them to eternall damnation without any regard to their impenitency or infidelity The truth of this shall be tried by the Suffrages of 1. Calvin Predestination is Gods eternall decree whereby he appointed what he would have done concerning every man All are created in a like condition But eternall life is preordained for some eternall damnation for others And therefore as every man is created for either end so we say he is predestinated either to eternall life or eternall death Instit l. 3. c. 21. § 5. Therefore that frivilous shift of the Schoolemen concerning prescience is overthrown For Paul doth not say the ruine of the wicked is foreseen of the Lord but ordained by his counsell and will Idem ad Rom. 9.18 2. P. Martyr That any should be created of God that they might perish seems absurd at first sight But the Scripture speaks it In app loc com in loc de Praedest 3. Polanus Whom God predestinated to eternall destruction those he created to eternal destruction In Hoseam 13.9 4. Beza God destin'd to destruction not for corruption or the fruits of it but because so it seemed good to him de Praedest contra Castol pag. 416. in Notia min. N. T. ad Rom. 9.21 Seeing therefore that the shame of death eternall is signified by the name of dishonour they speak like Paul who say some are created of God to just destruction and they that are offended with this forme of speech do betray their ignorance 5. Perkins Every man is to God as a masse of clay in the hand of the Potter a◠Paul affirms and therefore God by his absolute soveraignty doth make vessels of wrath and not find them But he should not make them but finde them made of themselves if we should say that in his eternall counsil he passed them by onely as sinners and not as men De Praedest Gratia Dei pag. 16. 6. Ant. Thysius a Synodist Reprobation is decreed without any regard had to sin Ad Summ. Baronis ex Piscat Let not Master Baxter except against this and say that Reprobation is not the same with Damnation for it doth inevitably draw damnation after it as is acknowledged by Festus Hommius Scribe to the Synod in these words The fruits that follow Rejection are 1. The creation of the Reprobate 2. Desertion or withdrawing of Gods grace and means 3. Blinding and hardening 4. Perseverance in sin Thesaur Catech. fol. 216. Lastly all the Supra-lapsarians must give their votes for this opinion who make the object of Predestination Man considered either as created and not faln or as yet not created but possible to be created Thus Amesius 'T is neither necessary nor consonant to Scripture to assign any pre-required quality in man as the formall object of Predestination or any certain state of man so as to exclude the rest for it is sufficient to understand that man is the object of this Decree so that the difference which is found in men may follow from the Decree In Medull Theol. l. 1. c. 25. th 10. And Gomarus a Synodist Predestination is twofold One to Supernaturall ends which though at once in the accounts of eternity yet in order of nature goes before because the end for which a thing is is first in the intention of the wise The other unto Creation in Originall righteousnesse and other meanes Thes de Praedest disput 1604. Thes 12. Thes 13. The object of Predestination are Rationall Creatures not as really to be saved or damned created about to fall or about to stand about to be repaired but as in a remote and indefinite power are saveable damnable creable fallable repairable c. And upon these very grounds of Gomarus Maccovius disputes the point stifly for the Affirmative Theol. Disput 17. mihi pag. 59. From hence ariseth that bitter dissension betwixt the Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians wherewith Grevinchovius so worthily upbraideth Smoutius in these words Gomarus Festus and other Supralapsarians and thy self also if I be not deceived do contend bitterly against Donteclock Acronius c. That nothing more foolish ot more sottish can be fastened upon God then that He should have created Man not having first appointed his end that is to say the salvation or damnation of every one or rather the shewing forth of his wrath and power in the perdition of the Reprobates On the other side Acronius and the rest of the Sublapsarians exclaime as much against the Supralapsarians That nothing can be conceived more unjust than that Man should be reprobated and created to destruction whilest considered as not yet corrupted by sin Absters Calum Smout p. 51. And this I hope is sufficient for the proof of the first Article as to the matter of Fact The II. Article runs thus That Christ Jesus hath not suffered death for any other but for those Elect onely having neither had any intent nor commandment of his Father to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world What saith M. Baxter to this Article Why A most shamelesse falshood made as they say of his fingers ends We must Impannell an honest Jury to try this too and 1. That Christ is said to have suffered onely for the Elect. Call in the Witnesses under written 1. Geselius what say you to the matter in question They do greatly erre that teach Christ died for all and every man Specim c. 9. fol. 36. 2. M. Perkins 't is expected you should give in a full testimonie for the Plaintiffe what say you The Ransome was designed by the Decree of the Father and by the intercession and oblation of the Son for the Elect onely De Praedest p. 20. 3. Piscator a knowing man he will speak the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth That Christ died sufficiently for every one is a false Proposition For he died onely for the Elect paying a most sufficient price of redemption for them namely his own precious blood the blood of the Son of God the blood of God himself But for the Reprobate he dyed in no wise whether sufficiently or effectually Contr. Schaff Th. 209. 4. Beza what can you say to this point for the acquitting of Tilenus I say Whether you consider the counsil of God or the effect of the Passion or both Christ died no way for the wicked In Thes cum D.
101. 3. Mehnius Justifying faith can never be lost because it is peremptorily given to the faithfull in perpetuum In Anchor Animarum pag 107 4. Whitaker This is that justifying faith with its necessary fruits which we maintain that we can never wholly lose In cygn. Cant. 20. 5. Piscator It is impossible true believers should fall from the faith the Decree and federall promise of God withstanding it In Resp ad Duplic Vorstii pag. 246. pag. 326. The naturall infirmity of the flesh whereby they may lose faith is so restrained and hindered by the absolute and effectuall decree of God that it cannot break forth into act Et pag. 238. There is a fatall necessity of the perseverance of the faithfull because it depends upon Gods absolute Decree 6. Contra-Remonstrantes They who have once believed have no need to feare perdition In Collat. Hagi p. 32. 7. Gomarus They who have received the gifts of faith and charity though in respect of their humane frailty 't is possible they may totally lose them yet in respect of the will of God and his gracious Conservation by his Spirit 't is impossible In Declar. sententia suae pag. 33. 8. D. Damman The Elect can never fall totally nor finally De Persever pag. 169. pag. 27. We know though the Spirit may be grieved in the faithfull yet can he not be totally excussed or quenched 9 Thysius But what is this to the Elect who though they do fall yet they cannot but be renewed Ad Sum. Baron pag. 73. And because M. Baxter calls that addition notwithstanding the most enormous sins they can commit a perverse insinuation Behold the Authors of it are 1 Contra-Remonstrants It is not true that they who may fall into grievous sinnes and commit the works of the flesh may fall wholly from the faith In Coll. Hag. in 5. Artic. 2. Zanchy Though by their grievous sins they may trouble the spirit and weaken faith yet the Spirit doth not wholly depart from them nor is faith wholly extinguished L. Miscel in depuls Calum pag. 305. 3. Rennercherus Those whom God hath once received into favour their sin and guilt being abolished them he preserves in his grace as just persons so that they cannot fall from grace and perish through any sins because they are and remain pardoned in them In Catena cap. 27. 4. Piscator The tenth head of Doctrine objected to our Divine is That the Regenerate cannot lose their faith through any heynous sins But this is the Doctrine that John teacheth Contra Schaff pag. 12. 5. Mehnius The sonnes of God though they fall into all the sins that Solomon committed they are alwayes converted before the day of death In Anchor Anim. p. 125. 6. Perkins The foundation of our salvation is laid in the eternall Election of God so that a thousand sins yea the sins of the whole world and all the Devils that are in hell can never make void God's election It may come to passe that sins may harden our hearts and weaken our faith and grieve the Spirit of God in us but they cannot take away faith nor quite excusse the Holy Spirit God doth not condemn any man for sinne whom he hath adopted into the number of his children in Christ Jesus In dialogo de statu homin pag 44. 7. D. Damman The Regenerate heaping up many sins cannot proceed so far as to excusse the Spirit of grace utterly through an universall Apostasie Et mox Because this seed of God cannot be ejected but onely by sinne therefore the Regenerate cannot eject it De perseverant pag. 33. pag. 20. If none can pluck them out of Christ or his fathers hands therefore not the Devill nor sin And pag. 128. The Regenerate when he sins against conscience he retains so much grace and hath so much of Gods favour that he cannot but rise again Item pag. 193. To the objection of Bertius It follows that if the Elect cannot die in mortall sins then if they alwayes go on in mortall sin they shall never die To this Doctor Damman answers I grant it But the question is whether the Elect can alwayes goe on in sinne and pag. 144. The decree of Election doth imprint upon man and his affections an inevitable necessity both of believing and persevering and therefore we think the righteous do alwayes persevere and cannot but persevere pag. 146. and therefore he concludes they need not consult about their perseverance nor feare falling from grace pag. 123. Thus we see the matter of fact is made evident throughout every one of the Five Articles and I hope this is more then abundantly sufficient to clear Tilenus from the guilt of the forgery unworthy falsification and perverse insinuations In Praefat. Sect. 5. which M. Baxter hath laid to his charge But Master Baxter will be ready to object you know that the Synod of Dort owneth none of these and it is that Synod that is the Test of the Calvinists Anti-Arminianisme How far the Synod owns these Doctrines we shall examine anon In the interim M. Baxter must not think to escape by telling us That Synod is the Test of the Calvinists Anti-Arminianism For that is not in question Every one may observe that the Project which that Synod did drive at and carried on was to cry down the Arminian Cause and Party and in this the Synodists agreed together †Adeo facile cocunt qui in fatalitatem absolutam tantū consentiunt An Deus ex parte una statuatur insipiens ex altera injustus fusque deque habent Salvo tantum fato Syncretismus Orthodoxus constat Hoc qui non admittit etiamsi non nisi verissima dicat in spongiam incumbat ex albo Orthodoxorum deleatur necesse est Absolutum Decretum id est fatum tessera est ex qua dignoscitur an quis sit Orthodoxus etiamsi id dicat unde necessario consequitur Deum esse insipientem stulium injustum Tyranno quovis crudeliorum peccati Authorem si quae alia ejus generis blasphema sunt Exam. Cens p. 63. b. sive Apol. pro Confes Remonstrant Supralapsarians of all sorts as well as Sublapsarians conspired in this But it is the Test of their Calvinisme that we are to bring them to And where shall we find such a Test as will secure us of the sincerity of these mens judgements Calvin himself is not such a Test He sometimes personates the Sublapsarian as the Synod of Dort a Act. Synod ed. in fol. 1. part p. 203. m. hath drest him up Otherwhiles he Acts the part of a Supralapsarian as he is brought upon the stage by the Remonstrants b Apolog. pro Confes Remonstr p. 64 65. And Beza treads in the very footsteps of his Master in this Art of double dealing as will plainly appeare to any that shall for his satisfaction consult the Remonstrants Apology cited in the Margin Shall we take the Synod of Dort upon M.
Act of Reprobation whether it be Negative onely or Negative and Affirmative also The Synodists are not all of one minde in this point neither For the Hassien Divines say The Divines of the Reformed Churches do think we must accurately distinguish betwixt the two Acts of Reprobation whereof one is negative viz. The purpose of God not to have mercy or preterition The other affirmative viz. his purpose to damn or ordination to destruction as a just punishment Act. Syn. Dor. pag. 33. part 2. And the Churches of Wedderav There are two acts of Reprobation Preterition or Non-election and Damnation or preparation of punishment ibid. pag. 40. Thes 2. item pag. 45. th 2. But the Divines of Great Britain were of another opinion For they say The proper acts of reprobation as it is opposed to election we think to be no other then the deniall of the same glory and the same grace which are prepared for the children of God in election And in the Decree of election are prepared for them Glory and effectuall Grace and with that intention that it should be effectuall that is that by such grace they may be brought infallibly to the said Glory That such Grace and Glory is prepared for the Reprobates we deny ibid. pag. 11. a. m. These differences we observe amongst them in matters that relate to Tilenus his first Article So in reference to the Second Article If you inquire I. Whether Christ hath dyed for All or onely for the Elect you will finde them whatever they seem to say in the full Synod according to their Chamber Practice to contradict one another For the Divines of Great Britain do determine That God pitying mankind faln sent his Son who gave himself a price of Redemption or a Ransome for the sins of the whole world Acta Syn. Dor. pag. 78. Thes 3. part 2. Martinius giving in his Suffrage upon this Article doth resolve thus There is a certain Philanthropy of God whereby he loves all mankinde fal'n and seriously would have them all to be saved ibid. pag. 103. Thes 1. Th. 8. If this Redemption be not supposed as a common benefit bestowed upon all that indifferent and promiscuous preaching of the Gospell committed to the Apostles to be performed amongst All nations will have no true foundation Et thes 9. And seeing we abhorre to say this it is to be considered how much they speak against most clear and known principles who at their pleasure do plainly deny that Christ died for all men Thes 10. Neither will it satisfie to propose such a sufficiency as might be enough but such as is altogether enough in God's and Christ's account For otherwise the command and promise of the Gospell will be overthrown For Thes 11. from a benefit that is sufficient indeed but not designed for me by a true intention how can there be deduced a necessity of my believing it to belong unto me And Thes 26. he gives the chief Reasons which induced him to be of this opinion which are three 1. That the Scriptures might be reconciled without wresting 2. That the Glory of Gods truth mercy and justice in the commands promises and threatnings of the Gospell might be preserved lest by these God should be thought to will and do something otherwise then the words signifie 3. That it may be manifest that the blame of the destruction of the wicked may be in themselves not in the defect of a remedy by which they might be saved Thus Martinius sent to the Synod from Breme Act. Syn. Dord part 2. pag. 104. c. And Ludovicus Crocius another of the Bremish Divines sets down his opinion somewhat to the same purpose though not so well or so fully as M. Baxter doth intimate See ibid. pag. 117. Thes 2.3 But the Divines of the Palatinate were of another judgement for they say That the generall love of God to sinners is remarkable But that Love is more excellent which moved God to give his Son to save us from our sins This is not generall but speciall not common to all and every man but proper to the elect ibid. pag. 83. And the Divines of Geneva to the same purpose Christ out of the Fathers good pleasure merely was destin'd and given to be Mediator and Head to a certain number of men constituting his body Mysticall by Gods election Thes 1. pag. 100. Thes 2. For these Christ who best understood his own office would and decreed to die and to adde the infinite price of his death a singular and most effectuall intention of his will And Iselburg saith Christ died or laid down his life for all and every one of his elect sheep or Faithfull and in their stead and for their good onely Ibid. pag. 111. Thes 3. And the Ministers of Emden say Christ according to the intention counsil and decree of his Father died onely for the Elect. Ibid. pag. 119. q. 4. The Belgic Professors say If you consider the proper end and the singular and saving efficacie of Christ's death we affirm that according to his Fathers and his own counsil Jesus Christ died not for the Reprobates and those that perish but onely for the Elect and those that do believe Act. Syn. Dor. part 3. pag. 88. f. The Brethren of North-Holland say The Scripture saith Christ died for All that is for All the Elect out of all sorts of men Ibid. p. 107. p. 108. They say That of the Remonstrants is false that the intention of the Father delivering his Son to death and of the Son in undergoing death was that by the same he might save all and every one though through the fault of many of them the matter happens otherwise The Brethren of Zeeland offer these Arguments such as they are against Christ's death for all ibid. pag. 112. Thes 2. 3. If Christ paid a price of Redemption for all and every man then All and every one ought to be saved and none to perish But this is false c. If reconciliation with God and remission of sins be impetrated for all and every man then the word of reconciliation is also to be preached to all and every one But the Consequent is false Ergo. The Deputies of the Synod of Groningen say we do believe that according to the Father's intention delivering his Son to death and the Son 's in suffering it reconciliation with God and remission of sins is obtained onely for the elect Ibid. p. 138. The Deputies of the Synod of Gallo-Belgia say That according to the Scripture Christ really died for none but believers And the will of the Father in sending his Son and of the Son in dying was no other Pag. 151. Thes 2. The Deputies of the Synod of Gelderland shall conclude this part of the contradiction and the Reader shall have their very Syllogismes that he may learn Logick with his Divinity Whosoever God calls to salvation purchased by the death of Christ for them Christ died But
to the Elect ONEly and that according to the counsil will and intention of the Father and this Master Baxter had under his view when he exprest so much wrath against Tilenus and therefore he confutes himself with this Confession They do indeed assert Art 2. Sect. 8. That it was onely the Elect that God the Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to faith justification and salvation which is the same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Who ought Master Baxter this shame to betray him to this incogitancy The same Doctrine with that of Election before mentioned Why was not that Election of some certain culled out Persons as the Synod declares So we see what Master Baxters Universall Redemption comes to His Redeemed All are no more then his Elected All 't is an All in respect of kindes not of Persons But Christ is theirs to be sute according to the most Free Counsil gracious will and intention of God the Father So saith the Synod and this Master Baxter will subscribe to when he is Disputing against Tilenus though when he gets into the Pulpit he declares this to be a Doctrine of an ill influence for he saith Christ and salvation are made light of because of this disjunctive Presumption either that he is sure enough theirs already Making light of Christ pag. 21. and God that is so mercifull and Christ that hath suffered so much for them is surely resolved to save them or else it may easily be obtained at any time if it be not yet so Is it not the expresse Doctrine of the Synod and Master Baxter that Christ is sure enough the Elects and that God and Christ are resolved to save them and that this will most infallibly be obtained at God's time if it be not so yet This disjunctive presumption which he preacheth down in his Church he disputes up in his Closet And though when he is conversing with his papers inter Adversaria and drawing Diagrams concerning the Divine Decrees his good wits jump with the Synod and tells us The Father intended by the death of Christ effectually to bring to Faith justification and salvation none but the Elect yet when he hath his Crown which is his crowd of Auditors about him he forgets himself and if not his love to truth his zeale to souls transports him into other language much more patheticall then this Doctrine will allow of For thus he addresseth his exhortation to them Ibid. pag. 29.30 Beloved hearers the office that God hath call'd us to is by declaring the glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of mens souls I hope you think not that I come hither to day of any other Errand The Lord knowes I had not set a foot out of doores but in hope to succeed in this work for your soules I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousand should perish Now the man is in a rapture and hath quite forgotten his Decree of Reprobation when God hath done so much for their salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text Mat. 22.5 But they made light of it is the cause It is one of the wonders of the world that when God hath so loved the world as to send his Son and Christ hath made a satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the benefits thereof so freely to them even without money or price that yet the most of the world should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his word Is it one of the wonders of the world that Gods eternall and immutable Decrees concerning them should be executed Why here is the reason saith Master Baxter when Christ hath done all this men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling but your Synod hath shewed otherwise and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that men should be restored to Gods favour and be saved but men are actually unwilling themselves God takes no pleasure in the death of sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33.11 How came he then to reject them upon Adam's sin and deny them Grace sufficient unto salvation as you teach But men take such pleasure in sinne that they will die before they will returne The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physitian and hath provided them a sufficient plaister of his own blood but such as his Father intended should not be effectuall by your doctrine but if men make light of it and will not apply it which your Party confess they are not inabled to do what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition It is a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care their time their pains for known vanities while God and Glory are cast aside and a little after Oh how should we marvell at their madnesse and lament their self-delusion who preach such contradictions Oh poore distracted world â— what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the world to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another world or what Decrees had past to shut them up under sin and deny them the Grace of Faith and Repentance according to your Disputations then they had been excufable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it This is Master Baxters preaching vein by which his vulgar flock would be ready to flatter themselves that they had their Teachers warrant to be confident that God doth earnestly intend the salvation of them all But when this pang of soul-saving zeal is over that he gets into his Polemicall strain then he disputes them out of all their hopes again for thus he proceeds If this Tilenus think that God intended the justification and Salvation of all by Christ it 's absolutely or conditionally Here I wish Master Baxter had positively spake out what it is that God intends them whom he calls the Reprobate or Non-elect if not their Justification and salvation then I know nothing else it can be but their greater condemnation and then sure he is unwilling they should be restored to his favour which is opposite point blank against Master Baxters popular exhortations But if God intended their justification and salvation absolutely they shall be saved saith Master Baxter which no Christian that I know believeth Tilenus as little Christian as you make him is of This Faith too and therefore he saith God intended this but Conditionally But then Master Baxter tells us The rigidest Anti-Arminians even Doctor Twisse doth over and over grant it you and I thank him for nothing of Justification and salvation that Christ died to procure this Common Grace that men shall be justified and saved if they will believe The Reader perhaps may be amused
Grace upon any Condition to be performed without it Give me leave to ask you Hath not God made a Generall invitation to all the unregenerate within the pale of the Church to come unto him with a gracious promise to receive them and doth not this promise imply a readinesse to grant what ever may fit them for his communion without which that promise cannot be made good to them Dare you affirm that God will deny saving Grace to some who make the best use they can of the Gifts of nature and his common Grace to stirre up themselves to lay hold upon him If you dare do this you dare contradict the Apostle S. Peter Act. 10.34 35. and say though not as he doth Of a truth I perceive that God is a respecter of Persons for in every nation there be some that feare God and work righteousnesse which are not accepted with him You complain * Vbi supra pag. 40. you have people in your Parish that are harping on this string and yet this is Ipsissima Fides DORDRACENA †Chap. 3. 4. Râ—ject 485. a string of that very Instrument which you have provoked Tilenus to play upon We cannot give Grace to our selves nor be saved without it nor can we have it till God give it us which if he will doe we shall be saved if he will not all that we can doe will not help it I pray do not you twist another string for them to harp upon by telling them Doe what they can to dispose themselves for it God hath made no promise to bestow saving Grace upon them For this will make as foul a jarring in their minds and as unpleasant Musick in Gods Church as the Denyall of works Preparatory and Dispositive to saving Grace But to give you your due you Govern your discourse sometimes with more moderation and Caution when you addresse your self unto your Congregation For though in heat of Disputation you determine That God hath Cull'd out some certain persons for himself by his Decree of Election wherein he had no praevision of or respect unto either faith or obedience or any other good quality as wrought in them by his Gospell accompanied with his Spirit But he therein made provision for it that in due time it might be irresistibly wrought in them not with but without them by His own Omnipotent strength And for the rest not comprehended within that Decree there is another Decree past against them withholding from them all internall Grace sufficient and necessary for their salvation which though offered them in the Gospel yet 't is suspended upon the Condition of Faith and Repentance which Condition is impossible because God did not Purpose to Cause it in them This is your Disputation-wise Doctrine when you are combating with an Adversary But when you are consulting the advantage of Souls then you are zealous as best becomes you in another strain In your Sermon on Mat. 22.5 you say It is true that Grace is free Making light of Christ p. 21 22. and the offer is universall according to the extent of the Preaching of the Gospel and it is true that men may have Christ when they will that is when they are willing to have him on his terms but he that hath promised thee Christ if thou be willing hath not promised to make thee willing and if thou art not willing now how canst thou think thou shalt be willing hereafter But soon after Oh Sinners you might do much though you are not able to your selves to come in if you would now subject your selves to the working of the Spirit and set in while the gales of grace continue And in your Directions for Peace of Conscience Direct 9. p. 65. Edit 2. you affirm If wicked unbelievers would but do what they can in daily serious deep considering of these things viz. the vanity of the world and certainty of damnation the excellency of Holinesse with the certainty of everlasting Happinesse and the like they would have no cause to despair of obtaining Faith and Sanctification This is your Sermon wise Doctrine And you have written Directions to prevent Miscarrying in Conversion Sure you do not fear a miscarriage of the work on God's part the danger is not from his falling but our own Therefore something is required on our Part and possible to be performed by us which being performed our Conversion is ascertained but being neglected it miscarries and we our selves onely are guilty of it If this be not true Master Baxter the Title of that Book is improper and your whole Discourse impertinent And now you have so many blocks in your way and some of your own sawing out I hope your course will be stopt and your Dispute not run out in infinitum I return to your Vindication of the Synod you say 2. But contrary to this Accuser This is another Cast of your displeasure A Civill Title To be an Accuser is a piece of the Devils character but such bolts are soon shot when Faction hath bent her Bowe and Pride hath a mind to make a quarrell But if Tilenus be the Accuser the Synod or Master Baxter is the Adversary For he saith Contrary to this Accuser the Synod declareth Art 2. Sect. 3. This death of the Son of God is the onely and most perfect Sacrifice and satisfaction for sins of infinite value and price abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world and that it is therefore sufficient because this death was joyned with the sense of Gods wrath and curse which we by our sins had merited that is that the sinnes of all the world were c. But how is this contrary to this Accuser Indeed it is besides him if you will and as much besides the purpose There is in the Chamber of London as much Treasure perhaps as will pay the Debts of all the Prisoners about the City and 't is so much the more currant because it is of excellent old Gold But what is this to the poore Prisoners redemption as long as the Major and Aldermen in whose sole power it is to dispose of that Treasure will not disburse it to that purpose The superabundant sufficiency that is proclaimed to be in the Exchequer doth not relieve the distressed for whose benefit 't is not imployed but rather upbraid the want of Liberality in him who is Master of it and hath the Power but wants the Will to lay it out in such charitable and pious uses But you say the sinnes of all the world were charged on Christ and he bore their penalty as Paraeus in his writings to the Synod and there conteined expresseth it Answ Laid on Christ To what end to Load him or ease them But you joyne with Paraus Pag. 14. in your first Assize Sermon where you say Doubtlesse Christ died not for all alike nor with equall intentions of saving them and yet he hath born the sinnes of all men on
your sins What pleasure is it to you to provoke your God to anger who loveth Righteousnesse and hateth iniquity 'T is very true and I know it right well that you cannot but Rebell against me because I have deprived you of the power to will and to do rightly and from all eternity rejected you from all communion in my saving Grace but yet I do seriously affirm it and protest and swear by my Holinesse that your Repentance will be very acceptable to me And do you but Repent thorowly and I will unfeignedly give you Pardon and Salvation Behold what a Patheticall Scheme of Persuasion God should use Behold what affections and bowels his Invitation of the Non-elect should be cloathed with according to this Doctrine And yet for all this in the next 10. Sect. Master Baxter puts it home to Master Pierce with sufficient confidence in these words Can Tilenus or you or any that is most passionate in these points tell us of one jot more that you ascribe to the death of Christ for all then the Synod of Dort doth I must say if you can it 's yet beyond my reach or my remembrance Then I must say you have a shallow reach or a Treacherous memory or a Partiall judgement The first if you could not apprehend the second if you have forgotten the third which lyes most under my suspicion †Because I find you referring your Reader to Books that are confuted and yet you take no notice of it E. G. Saints Rest. par 1. pag. 154. in the Margin Bogerman Vedelius c. I pray see Corvinus against Bogerman and Vedelius Rhapsodus if you will so rashly condemn whom you will not vouchsafe to hear pleading Gods cause as well as their own so earnestly and so convincingly in their many Writings But t is time to take up here that we may reserve our strength and patience to follow you in your next stage where you run on in Tautologies of a tedious length You set forth after this manner They give more to Christs death for the Elect then you but no lesse that I know of the more shame for you then to condemn opinions and persons unheard and unexamined to his death for all then you For you say that he dyed to bring it to mens choice whether they will have Christ and life or not and so say they you should adde EQUIVOCALLY and perhaps you may say true and Calvinists commonly as Dallaeus hath told you in the very words of abundance of them If you say that according to you Christ hath purchased Grace for all or for more then the Elect to Cause them to believe I answer I. That the highest Grace with you doth but bring it to their choice and help but not determine their wills and this but not verily this they grant to others as well as you do 2. Is it the Name of sufficient Grace or the Thing The thing that you call so as I said too often already unlesse it had been to more purpose they grant to be as common as you can Reasonably expect them to imagine you say right considering the rest of their Principles and Christ did not die to purchase empty Names as a benefit I pray what is that Remisson of sins and eternall life which you say he purchased for Reprobates Is there Name and Thing too They heare the sound of it but never any of them tasted how sweet it is The difference you conclude is plainly but in this The Synod thought that Christ purchased more for some then you do but no lesse for others Here we have Master Baxter in extreams he is excessive in his bounty towards the Elect but defective in his Charity towards the Reprobates and therefore no wonder he is out in the mean which is that Grace that brings Salvation to Man's choice as stated not by him but by the Remonstrants For the First he is deficient even in his Pretended Sufficiency and the Accompts being truly and exactly cast up we shall find the Reprobates are very little obliged to him or to the Synod for their Alms of sufficient Grace For when they speak of Grace they understand either Gods Love and favour or the effects of it Gods Grace in the first sense is either Generall extended to all mankind considered as Rationall Creatures but out of Christ and this though the Reprobates have an interest in it will not serve the turne or Speciall which passeth into a Decree of Election and thereby provides Christ and all other means necessary to the working of Conversion and bringing Salvation as they affirm insuperably And this is a peculiar Inclosure to the Elect. If we take Grace in the Second sense for the effects of Gods free Love and favour this Grace is divided as the former into Generall and Speciall The Speciall Grace which is saving is Proper to the Heirs of Salvation saith M. Baxter and the Synod too that is to the Elect. The Generall is that Common Grace consisting of such effects as flow from Gods Generall Love and this is vouchsafed to the Reprobate Which Grace though adorned with the Title of Sufficient to tickle the fancy of the unwary vulgar and flatter him into an apprehension that it containes all that is needfull unto his salvation yet really it signifies onely in the very acknowledgement of the more ingenuous sort of Calvinists so much as is sufficient to Convince men of their sinne and misery of their infirmity and want of a Redeemer and because it informs them likewise that Christ is such an one sent to give life and pardon upon condition of Faith and Repentance though intentionally designed for the benefit onely of the Elect and that life and pardon is tender'd to them upon those conditions which are irresistibly effected in those Elect but made impossible to the Reprobate therefore by the administration of this Common Grace they become guilty of impenitency and unbelief and so this Grace is inservient to the execution of the Decree of Reprobation And this is all the Sufficiency I can find in it whether I examine it by Perkins his Table or the Doctrine of the Synod We see how little the Reprobates are beholding to you for your bounty For this your sufficient Grace both Name and Thing is of no more value then a New Nothing which many times is promised unto children to please them but with an intent really to cousen them and therefore discovering the fallacy we account it a piece of ingenuity in them to slight the offer If the Non-elect neither have nor can have interest in that Grace of God by what name soever you will call it which is of force to procure Conversion and a saving faith what do you telling them of the rest by which never man was nor ever shall be nor ever can be saved And is it possible for any man to arrive at Salvation who lies under the Decree of Preterition and is thereby
certain Law the transgression whereof is Tyranny but he doth it jure dominii as an Absolute Lord whose Soveraignty is without Law or controll and therefore he may dispose of them at his pleasure That this is their sense notwithstanding what they publickly professe to detest may easily be collected from the 18. Art of the 1. Chap. Of Predestination where to stop the mouthes as they pretend of such as murmur at the grace of free Election and severity of just Reprobation as they call it they alleage that of the Apostle Rom. 9.20 O man who art thou that replyest against God And that of our Saviour Mat. 10.15 Is it not Lawfull for me to do what I will with my own Texts of Scripture which the Creabilitarian-Supralapsarians as well as the Existentialists make use of for proof of their Decrees and they are just as much to their purpose that is altogether impertinent to the use those severall Parties do make of them Amongst those Doctrines which the Synod doth purposely disown and publickly professe to detest there is another which I wonder Master Baxter hath omitted which is this That this Doctrine of the Calvinists maketh God the Author of sin But perhaps he hath smelt out the Fallacy exprest in the Fifth Article of the first Chapter where they say Incrodulitatis istius ut omnium aliorum peccatorum causa seu culpa neutiquam est in Deo sed in homine The cause or fault of unbelief as of all other sins is in no wise in God but in man Here are two words made use of as of the same importance Causa seu culpa Cause or fault by which while many of their Doctors do affirme that God doth incite and irritate urge and impell necesitate and constraine men to sin nay worketh sin in them yet shall they be excused from prevaricating the Doctrine of the Synod for though to speak properly God be the cause of sin by such manner of working to the production of it yet Culpa the fault of sin can in no wise be ascribed to him Zuinglius and Keckerman have given the Reason of it because there is no law made to bind Almighty God to the contrary but man onely For confirmation hereof they adde Sicut Taurus cum nunc has nanc illas vaceas promiscua vaga Venere init adulterii culpa non tenetur sed homo si cum aliorum uxoribus rem habeat eo quod huic non illi prohibens lex lata fit ita Deus peccato seu culpa non tenetur cum creaturam ad hos illos actus movet sed tantummodo creatura ipsa quia ei lex prohibens lata est non Deo I shall not so much as English it for shame I cannot leave Master Baxter till I have followed him to the very last stage of his Preface which he shuts up thus We should live in peace if the advise of the Synod ibid. were followed A Phrasibus denique iis omnibus abstineant quae praescriptos nobis genuini Sanctarum Scripturarum sensus limites excedunt protervis sophistis justam ansam praebere possint doctrinam Ecclesiarum Reformâ—tarum sugillandi aut calumniandi But the Synod should have done well to have left us an example herein by their own practice But we find that when the British Hassien and Bremish Divines moved to have the harsh and incommodious speeches of some of their Doctors declared against and rejected they were out-voted and cried down upon this account Ne Phrasium istarum rejectione Orthodoxa doctrina ab illis asserta defensa paritèr damnari videretur Session 13â— We may see by this it is a great deal easier to give good advise than to follow it And this appears further by that Admonition of Master Baxter in the next words And if withall we were humbly Conscious of our own frailty and fallibility and could maintain that unfeigned charity to our Brethren which beseemeth all the Disciples of Christ and which would cause us to say and do by others even in our Controversall writings and private Speeches of them as we would have them say and do by us But alas the Disciples of that Synod will neither be persuaded to be the first nor do the last they will follow none of these Prescriptions no not so much as Singular M. Baxter †Physician heal thy self witnesse his proceedings against A Table of Decrees of Salvation Damnnation Ye shall live therefore ye shall mortifie the deeds of the Body Ye shall die therefore ye shall live after the Flesh Delineated by Mr. W. Perkins In his Armilla Aurea Predestination Creation Election The Fall Reprobation Supralapsarian Creabilitarians Supral Existentialists Sublapsarians Suprulap Creabilitar Sup Existent Sublapsarians God's Love in Christ towards the Elect Effectuall Calling Justification Sanctification Glorification Eternall Life The Word Softning Faith Remission Imputation Mortification Vivification Repentance New Obedience CHRIST the Mediator His Holinesse Obedience Death Buriall Dominion of the grave Resurrection Ascension Session Intercession Illumination Repentance Faith Tast Zeale Deception of Sinne. Obduration Malice Vnbeliefe Apostacy Calling Vneffectual Agnition of that Call Relapse Gad's hatred towards the Reprobate No Calling Ignorance Blindnesse Reprobate Sense Greedinesse in sinning Pollution Damnation Death Eternall Death Judgment Declaration of Mercie Declaration of Justice GOD's GLORY Place this at Page 411 M. Perkins his Synopsis or Table In Armilla Aurea shewing according to his account the Series of Causes both of Salvation and Damnation or the Decrees of Election and Reprobation with the Means and Order of their Execution BEcause this Table contains an Ocular demonstration of the matter of Fact charged upon the Calvinists and their Synod by Tilenus I thought it convenient to insert it and to make some Reflexions and Observations upon it for the benefit of the Reader who upon a view of this Diagram may take notice with me 1. That there are three severall Sects contending as well against one another as against the Remonstrants They are usually divided into two Parties Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians But because Supralapsarians are of two sorts I shall distinguish them by severall Names The first sort who make the creature Gomar disp de Praedest 1604. thes 13. not in its Actuall existence but in its condition of Possibility the Obâ—ect of the Decree These I shall call Supralapsarian Creabilitarians The second sort who make the creature in its Actuall Existence but yet Innocent the Object of that Decree These I shall call Supralapsarian-Existentialists The third sort who make mankinde faln in Adam and by Divine imputation guilty of Originall sin the Object of the said Decree These are called Sublapsarians * Piscator indeavours to reconcile all three opinions Considerationes illa non sunt opposiâ—ae sed tantùm diversae ac proinde omnes locum habere possunt sicut revera habent Objectum praedestinationis esse hominem consideratum ut nondum