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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96265	A discovery, and confutation of the opinions, and practises of some false brethren, betwixt Bridge, and Lincolne: shewing how they agree in their opinions, with Pelagians; Papists; Arminians; in their practises, with Anabaptists. Wherein univerall redemption is confuted; and Gods absolute decree confirmed. / By John Wetherall, minister of Spridlington, near Lincolne. March 22. 1651. Imprimatur. John Downame.	Wetherall, John, minister of Spridlington.	1652 (1652)	Wing W1523; Thomason E661_1; ESTC R206761	53,660	88

that God from all Eternity before the world was made hath not onely fore-seene all things that could be or should be by his appointment or permission but also by an unchangeable Decree hath fore-ordained all things and persons to certaine determinate ends for his owne Glory and that neither the Saints were elected in Christ to infallible and persevering Grace and eternall Glory for their fore-seene righteousnesse nor the Reprobates refused or non-elected for their fore-seene wickednesse but both the one and the other were Predestinated to those their severall Estates according to the Councel of Gods owne Will which was not mooved by any thing hee foresaw in the parties but hee most freely Decreed according to his own pleasure absolute dominion that he hath over the Creature And this Decree of Gods Will is the first mover of all other wills and things in the creatures whereupon the smallest and most contingent or casuall things that fall out depend as upon their Universall Cause whose influence into the second causes directeth produceth inclineth and ordinateth them to their effects not by enforcing them by any constraint but by enclining them to worke according to their owne condition so as the sayd effects proceed out of them according to their own natures a contingent effect of a contingent cause and a free effect out of a voluntary and free cause This is the sum of that Doctrine which the Reformed Protestant Churches hold touching Predestination They place the Decree of God to order all things for his own glory as it is Pro. 16. 4. which is the end before the meanes that is before Creation the Fall Redemption c. but the Pelagians Papists Arminians Universalists place the means before the end as for example these say Mediatio Christi est Causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or externe movens respectu volitionis divinae in Electionis actu that is the mediation of Christ is the externall cause moving the will of God in the act of Election whereas the Reformed Churches say that the will of God is the sole cause of the mediation of Christ Christ is not subordinate to the very Decree it selfe of Election he is to the Execution thereof as it appears 1 Pet. 1. 20. Thus in the distribution of the causes of Salvation and Damnation our Adversaries turne them upside downe for they feigue a generall decree in God 1. To create man 2. To give a Law to his Creature with condition of life and death 3. To permit the fall 4. To redeeme all mankinde in Christ hence Universall Election 5. To call all mankinde so redeemed hence Universall Vocation 6. Upon their Faith or Infidelity he fixeth his Decree First say they God propounded equally to himselfe Jacob and Esau and loved the one no more then the other secondly he purposed to save him of the two that should do well and damn him of the two that should do ill thirdly he Decreed to give them both sufficient means of salvation whereby Esau may as well be saved as Jacob fourthly he Decreed to leave them both to the liberty of their owne Free-will to use or not to use the means fiftly he foresaw Jacob would Esau would not use the means sixthly hereupon he pronounced the Decree of Election to Jacob and of Reprobation to Esau thus Pelagians Papists Arminians Universalists These two last Remonstrants so the Germans call them and the name offends them not for this Sect pester'd them parts first and gave occasion to the States of the United Provinces to assemble that Synod at Dort whither at their instance came religious and learned men from other Reformed Churches as out of England Bishop Carleton Doctor Davenant Doctor Ward Doctour Goade Doctor Belcanquell c. I say these Remonstrants that oppose our Doctrine of Predestination being of the same minde with them that defend Universal Redemption they say thus I 'le use their owne words Deum Amesius de Elect. pag. 11. aeterno immutabili decreto in Jesu Christo filio suo ante jactum mundi fundamentum statuisse ex lapso peccatis obnoxio humano genere ill●s in Christo propter Christum per Christum servare qui Spiritus Sancti gratia in eundem Filium ejus credunt in ea fide fideique obedientia per eandem gratiam usque ad finem perseverant that is God in his eternall and immutable Decree in Jesus Christ his Son before the foundation of the world did determine out of lapsed mankinde to save those in Christ for Christ and by Christ who by the spirit did believe in that his Sonne and persevere in that faith and obedience of faith by grace unto their lives end Now in this Thesis of theirs are these five things 1. The Act or Decree it selfe 2. the Object 3. the End 4. the Condition 5. the Foundation First the Act or Decree it selfe and that they say is two fold 1. Generall by which God Decreed to save all that would believe and persevere the 2. Particular by which hee did Decree to save certaine persons whom he foresaw would certainly beleeve and persevere unto the end some of them call these two Gods Antecedent Consequent Will or generale particulare pronuntiatum Thus they make you may see two Wills in God against the Spirit of God which saith God is in one mind Job 23. 23. The second thing considerable in their Thesis is the Object of this Decree which they are forced to confesse all the members of Christ are not they cannot tell how to include Infants because they want faith and perseverance nay they include in the Object of this Decree onely such as have lived and persevered all other are excluded that are yet alive untill they persevere to the end so that by this Opinion they must first have Faith and Perseverance before God can fix his Decree which is a fearfull thing to affirme for so they are not Pre-destinated but Post-destinated they are forc'd therefore to a further absurdity that is to distinguish betwixt an incompleat which they say is common to all the faithfull and a compleat Election which is proper only to such as persevere The third thing to be considered in their Thesis is the End of this Decree and that they say is salvation and glory contrary to the expresse words of Scripture which saith not we are Predestinated to Glory onely but also to Holinesse or a godly life and to the Grace of Adoption before we can attain to Glory as it is plaine Eph. 1. 4. 5. He hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World that we should be Holy c. In the Decree of Predestination there is first What 2. by What 3. to What the first Man the 2. Grace the 3. a Godly Life and after it is ended Eternall Glory The 4. thing is the Condition required in this Decree of theirs wee say it is the Good Pleasure or the Will of God without any Condition

a Lanthorn and Candle lighted is better then a Man that hath a Torch if it be unlighted now in all these 4. or 5. years that they have roved in our corner of the Country I heard of none that made day resistance or did or durst say Sir Why doe you so The feare of Captaine T. and his Troops did shake some Ministers and many other men besides like a Fever or as the Trees of the Forest are shaken with the Wind Therefore rather then Gods Cause should sustaine such damage as I saw it did by a general silence I stept forth like the Lacedemonian Soldiour impotent of his legs and neither meet to fight nor to flie yet had he this hope that he might blunt the edge of his Enemies swords and set on or make others ashamed that were more able to fight Silver and Gold have I none but Goats hair or Rammes skins or such as I have I give to cover the Tabernacle of my God It pitied mee to see the Sheepe of Christ like Wolves swallow down whole whatsoever was put into their mouthes by such Carvers and if I gain or beget but one Soule it will be some comfort to me That one in time may beget another and that other another and so I may bee a means to beget many Soules to God I shall pray as it is my part that my poore paines may profit thee Reader and prevaile to the beating down of Sinnes and Schismes which God grant for Christ Jesus his sake our only Lord and Saviour It shall be in the dayly devotions of Thy Brother in Christ JOHN WETHERALL In pag. 4. line 17. for Earth read Church A Discovery and Confutation of the Opinions and Practises of some false Brethren c. SUch as are Adversaries to the Truth slaunder our Doctrine touching Predestination and Free Will as if thereby we led men to bee carelesse in their lives because as they urge it God having Predestinated all things mans Free Will is lost thereby so that he can not doe otherwise then he doth but God himselfe by our Doctrine must be the Authour of sinne Wherein they shew their unsatiable desire of contētion that besides the Grave the barren Womb the Earth the Fire which are never satisfied Pro. 30. 15. There is yet a fifth thing as unsatiable as they that is the Contentious Spirit of an Adversary never satisfied with lying and contradiction For let them say directly what they mislike Is it our Doctrine of Predestination Yea besides that it is the Profession of all the Protestant Churches you shall see it presently proved by one who is able to say the least of ten thousand Is it because we deny Free Will Yea they bely their owne knowledge they know we deny it but in part In statu integro it was Free in statu laeso it is Free from constraint Is it because we teach God is the Authour of sinne Even the Jesuits excuse us the Protestants know well saith Suarez that God intendeth not that Opuse lib. 2. cap. 2. which is formall in sinne nor inclineth the Will of man that he should intend it Or is it finally because we hold some fatall necessity constraining the Will of man that he cannot doe otherwise then he doth That so all care and consultation should be to no purpose Indeed some of the old Philosophers and new Mahumetans tell such Tales but we teach the contrary These and the like being malicious and base imputations devised by men in their fury and desperate adventures against us to seduce the ignorant and make our Cause odious which even their owne people would embrace if they knew it And my selfe being threatned by many ignorant men of meane condition set on by others not onely with the losse of my Living but I may almost say of my life besides the slaunders cast upon me by such as can doe nothing else I am forced therefore to this Defence for my selfe the Church of England and other Reformed Protestant Churches against Pelagians Papists Arminians Universalists I have read of a studious Father who meditating very much upon the Mystery of the Trinity there appeared unto him a Childe that with a Shell was lading the Sea into a little hole he demanded of the Child what he was about to doe I intend sayd the Childe to empty all the Ocean into this Pit it is impossible for thee sayd the Father as possible the Childe replyed as for thee to comprehend this profound Mystery in thy shallow capacity De me nunc narratur fabula and this is the Case of the most able men in these deepe Divine Mysteries Simonides being asked by Hiero King of Sicily what God was he desired a day to deliberate then being asked again he desired two daies and being asked again he desired four daies and ever as he was asked he gave no other answer but desired to have the dayes doubled but double and triple daies and yeares yet that time is no time for such an undertaking For the men of this World to undertake to tell what God did even before there was one man or a world is but a desperate adventure even beyond the Gyants of old but it is able to make any mans heart ake and his haire stand upright to heare how our ignorant people prate as boldly as if they had beene by and say what they say concerning the secret unsearchable Decree of our Great God Almighty if any man list to heare he may for they will speake that which I may not write For my owne part in this mysterious point of Predestination I could have chosen rather to ascend by Repentance New Obedience Good Workes c. Then descend diving into or determining Gods Decree For I know that in the true Doctrine of Predestination we should reason rather ascendendo then descendendo thus I live in obedience to God in love with my Neighbour I follow my Vocation honestly and therefore I trust that God hath Elected and Predestinated mee to salvation not thus which is the usuall course of Argument God hath Predestinated and chosen me to life therefore though I sinne never so grievously yet I shall not be damned For whom he once loveeth hee loveth to the end I say that this is the right manner of reasoning in the point of Predestination But unlesse we will suffer our people to be led I verily believe they will be loth to let me tell the manner how they are led I must declare my conscience to cleare my self that it is none of my fault if any persevere and perish in this rent now new made in the Earth through which they may as easily fall into Hell as Korah and his Company did through that rent in the Earth therefore with as great a care as I can to avoyd Presumption I proceed First touching Predestination we hold according Rom. 9. Eph. 1. 4 5. 1. Thes 5. Acts 2. 23. 2. Tim. 2. 20. to the Scriptures

the Inke passively and brings nothing of its owne to the writing but being written on it becommeth an Instrument with me of the writing so is it in the Will of man at his Conversion It is God only that doth justifie Rom. 8. 33. For it is he onely that forgiveth sins Esa 43. 25. It is he only that can by makeing us righteous in Christ gives us right and title to the Kingdome of Heaven It is no action therefore of our owne or of any Creature neither is it wrought by our owne Preparations and Dispositions For although every man is bound to use all Meanes to attaine to Justification Yet it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9. 16. For if God bee the Agent in justifying us then are We the Patients and for that cause we are never in the Scriptures exhorted to justification or to the parts thereof which are not our officia or duties but Gods beneficia or blessings as we are to the duties of sanctification whereunto we being already justified and regenerated doe cooperate with the Spirit of Grace If the Sonne have made us free wee shall be free indeed Rom. 8. 36. We are made free for of our selves we are the servants of sinne Rom. 6. 18. 20. Better is it to ascribe too little then too much to Free Will if I offend be it rather in giving more to Gods Grace Absur 7. Seventhly hence it follows that Predestination is mutable all things being forelaid which are necessary sufficient for perseverance it remaineth still in the power of man to persevere or not to persevere saith Bertius in his Booke of the Apostacy of Saints and he endeavoureth to prove this bold I had almost said blasphemous Assertion by divers Texts of Scripture Non esse hominum alios ad vitam alios ad mortem aut perditionem deputatos sed de salute ad perditionem de perditione ad salutem transire posse there are not any particulars appoynted to life or death but they may passe from either state to the other sayd Pelagius and numerus Electorum potest augeri ac minui the number of the Elect may be lesse or more sayd G●evincho Thes exhibit pag. 137. Then Paul may or may not be saved and whosoever is Predestinated is but contingently Predestinated if he persevere then the Authour to the Hebrewes is out where he saith the Counsell of God is immutable Heb. 6. 17. Then the Papists may say there is no Predestination of the Reprobate they are onely fore-knowne which is true in sano sensu but not in their sence Absurd 8. Eightly hence it followes all men are disposed and ordained of God so as they may obtaine Eternall Life if they will their Predestination being like unto an Hypotheticall Proposition Absurd 9. Ninthly hence follows falling from Grace that the Seale of Gods Election is not sure that some who were given to Christ may be lost Or as if after our Regeneration there were as at our Creation a posse mori we might die from God woe to man if his condition were the same in the second Adam that it was in the first Indeed sides quae creditur may be forsaken but from or a side qua creditur we cannot fall away It is contrary to the sixteenth Article which is against a totall and finall falling from Grace for the Article speakes of falling into sinne after Baptisme and rising againe by the same Grace Now he that falleth finally cannot rise againe and he that falleth totally from Grace cannot rise againe by the Grace he had received because he is supposed to have lost all the Grace he received The Reformed Churches all of them united disclaime the Doctrine of falling from Grace Indeed the Righteousnesse required by the Law may be lost and it is of that the Prophet speakes Ezek. 18. But the Righteousnesse promised by the Gospel cannot be lost Card. Bellarm. himselfe speakes truth sometimes in this particular touching the Apostacy of Saints it is true saith he that the Predestinated or Elected are in no danger of losing Eternall Life and that the terrifying threats used by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures are to this end to stirre up the Elect to watchfulnesse and diligence Lib. 3. de Justif cap. 12. so that Motives they are to and Meanes of Perseverance no Arguments at all to prove the Saints Apostacy Absurd 10. Tenthly hence Justification by God onely is utterly overthrowne even in the Nature of it which signifies justum facere to make just not invenire to finde us just for Justification is the Action of God without us To the Faithfull there belongeth a two fold Righteousnes the one of Justification the other of Sanctification the former is the Righteousnesse of Christ and therefore the Righteousnesse of God because it is the Righteousnesse of him that is God and is imputed onely to the Believer The latter is ours because inherent in us though received from God as all our good things are of this second there is no question and the first being ab extra cannot be from our fore-seene Faith or Workes Absurd 11. Eleventhly hence it followes that God cannot tell who are his till they persevere to the end and therefore Arminius was forced to make the Object of Gods Decree onely qui vixerunt quoties fideles statuimus objectum Electionis toties nos fidem perseverantiam in fide conjungimus saith Grevinchovius Our Register Bookes must first be given in such a man dyed such a day before his name can be written in the Register Booke of God contrary to Act. 9. 15. where Paul is called a chosen Vessell even whilst he was a Persecutor and was going to Damascus with that intent and contrary to Act. 13. 48. where in the first instance of their Conversion it is sayd As many as were ordained to eternall life did believe Absurd 12. Lastly Universall Grace or Universall Redemption was the opinion of that wicked Heretick Pelagius condemned in a Generall Councell held at Malta about the yeare 425. against the Pelagians and Donatists at which Augustine was present and 214. Bishops and at a Counsell in Affrick where all the Provinces came together in the time of Boniface and Celestine Bishops of Rome to condemne Pelagius Prosper in an Epistle which hee writ to Augustine de Reliquiis Pelagianae Haereseos hath these words Hane Pelagianorum definitionem professionemesse Universis hominibus propitiationem quae est in sacramento sanguinis Chriti sine exceptione esse propositam pro Universo humano genere mortuum esse Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum neminem prorsus a Redemptione sanguin●s ejus exceptum etiamsi omnem hanc vitam alienissimam ab eo mente pertranseat that is the Pelagians professe that the propitiation into or by the bloud of Christ without exception is common to all that Christ died for all mankinde and none is excepted although he be all

the salvation of all of every particular man it 's true they affirme both of these and I prove them both false on this manner for either God wills not or he wills the salvation of every particular man if God will not the salvation of every particular man it is that which we say the Scriptures and the Reformed Churches with us if he will and cannot or will and doth not which is all one as the Papists Pelagians Arminians and Universalists say then how is God Omnipotent if he cannot doe what he wills or will he once save all and will he not-afterward Is God mutable as man No sure his name is I am he is the same yesterday and to day hee is in one minde Job 23. 13. With God is no variablenesse nor shadow of change Ja. 1. 17. God wills a Change but he changeth not there may be mutatio facti not deereti Nineveh was changed but there was no change in God Incomplete and compleat antecedent and consequent wills are fictions of our Adversaries and are the Attributes of some other God our God is one so is the will of our God He but willed and it was so Gen. 1. 6. 9. Dixit factum est willing and Doing are all one with God in him for him by him and through him alone are all things Rom. 12. 36. That Idea Divina is both the Being and the well Being of every thing in Heaven or Earth he worketh all things upon no Condition after no Example but after the counsell of his owne will Ephes 1. 5. He wills not therefore it is not so because hee will not have it so that every particular man should be saved Arg. 6. If Christ layd downe his life for his sheepe was delivered to Death for his Church and Children gathered together Pilios Dei dispersos the Sonnes of God dispersed in what place soever died and gave himselfe to Redeeme a peculiar People prayed not for all c. Then he did not Redeeme everyone Fideles and Infideles all are not Sheep his Church his Children his People nay his peculiar People as it appeares John 10. 27. 28. John 17. 9. and almost the whole Chapter Tit. 2. 14. Acts 20. 28. Ephes 5. 25. John 1. 12. Psal 33. 12. sed verum prius ergo posterius the first is true therefore the last I know they distinguish 'twixt Impetration which they say was for all and reall fruition which they say is but for a few Christs prayers they feigne are meant of the first not of the last but it is false for these prayers were fulfilled eo ipso momento quo Christus ponebat animam at that instant when Christ laid downe his life though the actuall fruition followed after the prayers of Christ had been to small purpose had they not apper●●●ned both to the first and last there is not one place of Scripture where Impetration is named without respect to Application it must needs follow therefore that Christ died not for all Arg. 7. For whom Christ died he so died that he tooke their death and the punnishment they deserved upon himselfe so the Phrase of dying for any is to be understood as it is plaine 2. Sam. 18. 33. Rom. 9. 3. but they dare not say that Christ took the Death and Punishment which all deserved upon himselfe it is against John 3. 36. Mat 7. 23. therefore he died not for All. How to answer this Argument which they are never able they make themselves Socinians as in many things they make themselves Massilians they will hardly put mee to prove Arg. 8. All those for whom Christ died may say who can condemne us Christ died for us who shall seperate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8. 34. 35. but all cannot say so for there are infinites condemned and therefore Christ died not for All. Arg. 9. Are all those whom Universalists say have received this Grace of Redemption Regenerate or are they not Regenerate if they be Regenerate then all men are Regenerate if not then have all men power to believe and to attaine salvation if they will whilest they remaine unregenerate they will not say the first and Pelagius could say no more then the last I might double this number of Arguments against Universall Redemption but that may bee done when my Adversaries undertake to answer these which they that is the Thomsonists will never attempt Yet let me alledge the words of Mr. Perkins Tom. 1. pag. 302. where he saith thus Universall Grace appertaining to all and every man may sitly be termed the Schoole of Universall Atheisme for it pulls downe the Pale of the Church and laies it waste like to a common Field it breeds a carelesnesse in the use of the means of Grace the Word and Sacraments when as men shall be perswaded that Grace shall be offered to every one effectually whether he be of the Church or not at one time or other wheresoever or howsoever he live c. Now whether were the Smith the Miller the Thatcher the Thrasher or he that sent and set them on more ignorant or impudent to charge me and all the Reformed Churches with me of high Treason against the Crowne Royalty Love Goodnesse Soverainty of the Son of God for the words which the truth is I tooke out of Mr. Perkins in the place aforesaid they might have had more reverence to that worthy Mans memory though they regarded not me It may be at that grand meeting to devise and do me some mischiefe they know where and when they all laid their little wits together to devise and draw the Charge but the Smith that read it writ it sure it was so like him Children challenge their Parents like Lips like Lettice the Matter and the Letter stunke much what alike Thus fearfully they fall whom God forsakes they run out of one Extreame over the Medium into another Extreame and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle cals it 2. Thes 2. 2. quite out of their wits High Treason against the Doctrine of Jesus Christ so they call their Vniversall Redemption Free will c. charged upon or against all the Reformed Churches at once by such men of ignorance Father forgive them they knew not what they did Now let me use a few Arguments against their fictitious Election Arg. 1. If perseverance bee a condition required in the Object of Election as they say then there are none Elect til the End of this life but Paul is called an Elect Vessell even whilest he was a Persecutor Act. 9. 15. And S. John wrot his second Epistle to the elect Lady yet alive and her children 1. John 2. 1. Therefore Perseverance can bee no Condition required in the Objection of Election the Antecedent is confessed for perseverance is a part of their Thesis as I shewed out of Amesius de Electione pa. 1. neither do they deny it then the Consequence cannot be denied how can it bee knowne who will