Church call Original should be no more then a meer Privation of Original Justice Of the Inconveniencies which will follow upon the affirmative Opinion that is of that Image of God wherein the First Man was Created But the Ingenuous Reader wil perhaps demand what further Inconvenience wil follow upon the yielding or granting of the former Postulatum or Supposition unto them This in the Second place That Adams Successors whether immediate or intermediate unto the worlds End should have a greater measure of that which they call Liberum Arbitrium or Free-will then the word of God doth acknowledge or any Ingenuous Man that will subjugate his Reason to be Regulated by the written word or Ancient Rules or Canons of Faith can allow or approve This deduction following is clear by Rules of Reason viz. If the Righteousnesse of the First Man did consist in a Grace Supernatural or in any quality additional to his constitution as he was the Work of God This Grace or Quality might have been or rather was lost without any Real wound unto our Nature Or without any other Wound then such as the Free-will or right use of Reason or other Natural parts which after the losse this of supposed Supernatural Grace or Quality were left might instantly have cured or yet may cure Or in other terms more Scholastical perhaps Thus If the Integrity or Righteousnesse of the First Man were lost only demeritoriè by way of Demerit without any physical or working cause of its expulsion or without any wound made in our nature by such positive cause The same Righteousnesse which the First Man had might have been regained by the right use of Reason which was left unto him or of those natural faculties which he had pro primâ vice abused From these premisses the necessary consequence will be this That the satisfaction of our Lord Christ for sin original at least had been superfluous And according to this Tenet the Opinion of the Socinians would be more tolerable and more justifiable then the Doctrine of the Romish Church so far as it concerns the Valew or Efficacy of Christs Sufferings or Satisfaction by his Merits or Justification by works rather then by faith especially works of the Moral Law or observance of those two great Commandments To love God above all and our Neighbours as our Selves or of that other whatsoever you would that men should do unto you even so do unto them 3. Lastly if all or any of these Opinions were granted to the Church of Rome we of Reformed Churches should be concluded to yield That Adams posterity or as many of them as are or shall be justified were to be Formally justified by inherent Righteousnesse that is they have or might challenge absolution from the first sentence denounced against Adam by way of legal plea or satisfaction The deduction or remonstration of this demonstrative inference is clear to any Artist to any reasonable man unlesse his Reason be overgrown by faction or by mingling of passions with his understanding The Remonstration of this demonstrative inference is thus It is in confesso and more then so an undoubted Maxim subscribed unto by the Church of Rome That the grace which is infused by and from our Lord Jesus Christ is a supernatural quality or a qualification more soveraign then the first grace which God the Father bestowed upon the First Man Now if that Grace were a super addition to his Nature or Constitution as he was the work of God the losse of this Grace or quality could not have made any wound in the humane Nature which the least drop of that Grace which daily distilleth from the second Adam might not more then fully cure Yea such grace would sublimate our Nature so cured unto an higher pitch or fuller measure of Righteousnesse then that which was bestowed upon our Father Adam In respect of these and many other Reasons which might be alledged all such Congregations or Assemblies of Christian Men as have departed or have been extruded out of the Romish Church stand deeply engaged to deny that the Righteousnesse of the First Man was a Grace or quality supernatural CHAP. III. Whether Original Righteousness were a quality Natural or a mean betwixt Natural and supernatural 1. TO affirm that the Righteousnesse wherein the First Man was created was a gift rather Natural then supernatural would be no solaecisme no assertion any way more incongruous then many Resolutions of the Roman Doctors in like Cases are no grosser blemish or deeper impression then might easily be salved or wiped off with that distinction usual amongst them in other the like or rather the same Cases The true state of the Question proposed That the righteousness wherein Adam was created was natural quoad terminum productum non quoad modum productionis A natural Endowment in respect of the essential qualitie produced albeit the manner of producing it were somewhat more then supernatural But this is a dispute which for the present shall be waved because the Original difference betwixt us and them may be more punctually stated and the Questions dependent on it may be more clearly resolved from these Postulata or presumed Maxims First That God did make the First Man after his own image Secondly That the First man being so made was righteous and just Neither of these are denied by any The state of the Original Controversie unto such as are disposed to have it plainly propounded in constant or unfleeting Terms is thus Seeing man was made after the image of God and being so made was just and righteous Whether there were two works of God or two distinct effects of his work of creating the First Man in righteousness and in his own image And whether the one of them was terminated to his own image imprinted in man and the other to his original justice If these two expressions made by Moses of Gods image and mans righteousness expresse or include no more then one and the same work of God or effect of his work in man The losse of Original justice or defacing of Gods image enstamped upon him was more then a meer privation and necessarily presupposeth a positive Cause in our First Parents and a positive Effect wrought by that cause whereunto the privation of Original justice was Concomitant or rather Consequent Whatsoever Controversie may be moved concerning the Cause or manner how this Effect was wrought the effect it self was a deadly wound in our Nature a multitude of wounds all by Nature or any endeavour of Nature or performances of such Free will as was left to mankind after these wounds were once made altogether incurable without the help or assistance of better Grace or endowments then were bestowed upon the First Man The cure of these wounds wholly depends upon that grace whose Being and bestowing the second Adam did merit from the Father of Lights or from the Divine nature or Deity 2. To win the Assent of
extinguished before they cannot revive themselves Or if children by Baptism were restored unto that State of Innocency which our Parents once had this Innocency could not be lost without some Actual Transgression like unto that transgression by which our First Parents lost their Innocency or Justice Original Actually to transgresse after the similitude of Adam Infants whilest Infants cannot For such Transgression consists in a sinister choice of the Will or in the ill use of Reason And all ill Use of the Will or understanding presupposeth an Use of Reason which cannot be in Infants Again there is no Necessity that all Children should actually transgresse when they first come to the use of Reason if before that time they had been Freed from all Original Corruption or Reliques of the Old Man by Baptism For to lay a Necessity of sinning actually upon any that had been Freed from all Original sin or restored to the state of Innocency which Adam had were to make God the Author of such Actual Sin Adam himself did not actually sin upon any Necessity but Voluntarily and Freely If the First Sin had not been an Actual sin or if that Actual sin had been committed upon Necessity not Adam but God had been the Author of it Certain then it is that This Duty of Mortification is necessary in respect of ALL without any respect of Persons ☜ Every one at their first Arrival unto the Use of Reason or at their Passage out of Infancy into Youth are under This Yoke which is no Evangelical Counsel but a Peremptory Precept And if This Duty necessarily concern ALL at that time ALL must of necessity have Original sin or some Reliques of the Old man in them yea such strong Reliques as will impell them to some Actual Sin or other or to some transgression of some of Gods Commandments when they come unto the Use of Reason Otherwise This Duty or precept could not Vniversally concern ALL without Exception For by the Contrary Doctrine some at least when they first come to the Use of Reason should have no Deeds of the Flesh which they were bound to Mortifie Most of the Romans unto whom our Apostle here writes had been Baptized after they had come to years of discretion And Baptism without all question had been as Effectual in them as it hath been in any other since yet our Apostle supposeth some Deeds of the Flesh to be in ALL of them Even in such as had lateliest been washed in the Laver of Regeneration which were to be Mortified in them So that Baptism is rather a Sacramental Consecration of us to undertake this Flight with the works of our Flesh or corruption of our nature then an utter Extinction or absolute drowning of these Enemies 5. Another necessary Corollary or Consequence of this Doctrine there is not usually observed by Modern Controversors and it is This That the same measure of Regeneration which sufficeth Children or Infants dying before they come to the use of Reason will not suffice such as attain to the use of Reason or years of discretion For if it did or could they might be saved as Infants are without performance of this Duty of Mortification One of these Two must necessarily be granted as Either that Children or Infants are not so thorowly sanctified or regenerated as is necessary to Salvation before the hour of their death which no man to my remembrance hath taught Or else he that affirms them to be truly regenerated or sanctified in their Infancy must yield to us in This That such Children or Infants as have been formerly regenerated in a measure sufficient to their Salvation out-grow this measure of Regeneration or Sanctification after they come to the use of Reason or years of discretion as they do their apparel or clothes which were fit for them whilest they were Infants And no question but the Old Man after we come to the use of Reason grows stronger and stronger in all of us untill we abate his strength and Mortifie his members by the Spirit Wherefore Leaving Children or infants unto the Spirit of God alone who doth Regenerate them by Baptism and preserve them in the State of Grace without our Ministery of Preaching This Precept is a Precept of Working Faith The Duty here injoyned is a Duty Necessary unto All that are of years fit to be instructed or of Capacity to understand the Scripture or Rule of Faith expounded to them Let us then take his words into a Second Consideration If ye live after the flesh Of the Nature of the Fight with our own Bodies in General ye shall die He saith not If ye have lived after the flesh ye shall die for this had been rather a certain Prognostick of death then any medicinal Advice or Prescript unto his Patients One man there was and no more who was First Good and afterwards Bad this was the First Adam Another there is and no more who was Never Bad alwayes Good this is the Second Adam Christ Jesus blessed for ever Of all the rest that is most true which a Father hath Nemo unquam bonus qui non antè fuit malus No son of Adam ever proved Good who was not sometimes Bad. The Apostles Saying is in this Case true First is that which is natural then that which is spiritual We Even the Elect themselves were the sons of Adam before they were the Sons of God in Christ All or most have lived after the Flesh before they come to live after the Spirit Thus much our Apostles Second Proposition will infer If ye though the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall Live Inasmuch as Mortification of the Flesh is necessary to All it is presupposed that All have a Flesh which may be Mortified or a Life of the flesh seeing nothing can be Mortified but that which hath Life in it 6. Again Our Apostle saith not If the Deeds of the Flesh be Mortified in you by the Spirit ye shall Live For so we might happily have dreamed of a Mortification already wrought in us or to be wrought in us without our Consent or Endeavours as well whilest we are asleep as whilest we are awaking Or we might conceive it to have been so wrought by the Spirit in our Cradles as we might presume to passe the time of our youth in play and pastime Or we might hope to have it so fully accomplished by the same Spirit alone in our youth or maturity as we might spend our Old Age in sleep without setting a Careful Watch over our Works or thoughts His words if we observe them are thus If ye through the Spirit do Mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh ye shall Live So then we see The Flesh must be Mortified and Mortified it must be By Vs Every man must Mortifie his own Flesh although he cannot Mortifie it but through the Spirit It is The Spirit alone which giveth Victory yet this doth not Priviledge us from
hath The words cited in the following Chapter See Israels Fast printed in the year 1628. which is owned by Mr. Burtons Name sub-printed Though neither the Printer nor the Place where it was Printed be set down See also The Narration of Mr. H. Burton his Life written by Himself and Printed in London 1643. The Printers name is not there set down in the fift Page of which Book he owns The Book styled Israels Fast and says it was published at a General Fast CHAPTER XXXIX Dr. JACKSON'S VINDICATION of himself written above twenty years agoe OR A Serious Answer to Mr. Burtons Exception taken against a Passage in his Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes AGainst A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes lately published by me some Exceptions have been taken many sought as if it did open a Gap unto Arminianism And yet I have not had the happiness to know either what Point of Arminianism they be which I am suspected to favour or the particular Proposition in that Treatise upon which the Indefinite or confused Suspition is grounded Only thus far I have been beholden unto One man that it hath pleased him to avouch a quarel against One Passage in my Book with subscription of his Name And it is expected by some but by few of my good Friends that I should give him a Serious Answer For my own part I have ever held it a point not of Folly only but of Cowardise and Inhumanity to accept a Challenge from a man desperately set to wast his spirits to spend his strength to wound himself and the Cause he undertakes by a long and furious fight with his own shadow before he can finde the way into the appointed Field Wherefore leaving him with his Assistants and Abettors to wrastle or combat with their own Imaginations which as I see will find them Play enough and make the Enemies of that Religion which they would profess if they knew how too much Sport I shall craveleave Three things proposed First To unfold this mans Notorious Falsification of my Assertion Secondly to shew the Orthodoxall Truth of that Assertion which he falsifieth with the dangerous and Unchristian Consequences of the Proposition Contradictory unto it Thirdly To make it appear how deeply it concerns every Loyall member of the Church and Commonweal of England especially such as are engaged with me to maintain the Religion which we all profess against the Doctrine of the Church of Rome to prevent the further speading of that rigid Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation as it is held by most if not by all which have hitherto excepted against the forementioned Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes 2. The first Exception which to my knowledge was taken against it was in a Book entitled Israels Fast dedicated to the Royal Ioshua and Loyal Elders of Israel now happily assembled in Parliament In the Epistle before that Book he hath Verbatim These Words These Neutralizers or Popish Arminians or Arminian Papists 〈◊〉 what you will under the name of the Church of England dare vent any Arminian Heresie As in a Book lately printed by Authority too there is This most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie That there is a Goodnesse Objective In the Creature which in Order of Nature is precedent to the Act or exercise of Gods Will thus by necessary Consequence making the Creature a God having a Self-Being Independent but only upon Gods bare Prescience upon which and not upon that Supream Cause of Causes Gods Will he hangeth the Being and well-being of all the Creatures And in the Margin of that Epistle just over against the words last quoted he hath these words also Gods eternal and blessed Will Providence Wisdom Free Grace Glory and consequently his whole Essence overturned by an Arminian Trick and that also backed with abused Authority 3. If the Exhibiter of this Complaint will acquit himself from a double slander he must as I conceive the course of all Justice requireth prove these Two points following First That the Proposition which he chargeth with most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie is or hath been maintained by Arminius or some Arminian Secondly That the same Proposition hath been uttered or maintained by me That Arminius or any Arminian did ever in writing or otherwise deliver or mantain that Proposition which this Objector hath censured for a most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie is more then I know more then I can suspect and more I think then the Author of this Accusation can prove unlesse his meaning be that any absurd or Blasphemous Opinion may justly be fathered upon Arminius or ascribed unto the Arminians And if this be his meaning he will prove him self to be a more Gross Arminian Heretick then those whom he only suspects but proves nothing of most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie For I never heard or read that Proposition which he chargeth with most Blasphemous Arminian Heresie delivered by any save only by the Author of the forementioned Epistle to the Royal Joshua and Loyal Elders of Israel 4. This Proposition following I acknowledge to be mine and have avouched it in A Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes Cap. 13. Par. 3. Pag. in quarto 149. As there is a Logical Possibility presupposed to the working of the Almighty Power so there is a Goodnesse Objective precedent in order of Nature to the Act or exercise of his Will That either this Logical Possibility which is presupposed to the working of the Almighty Power or the Objective Goodness which is precedent in order of Nature to the Act or exercise of Gods Will should be IN THE CREATVRE I never writ I never said I never was so uncharitable as to think that any man in his right wits had ever said or writ it untill I read it in the forecited Epistle without any Distinction of Letter Point or Parenthesis to notifie whether these words IN THE CREATVRE were conteined in my Proposition or inserted by the Author of that Epistle out of some Probable Collections from Words or Circumstances precedent that my meaning was as he doth make it though my words were not so as he relates them 5. That the Author of this Epistle might conceive such a Proposition Charity may attribute it to his Ignorance in matters handled in that Chapter wherein my former Proposition is contained But why he should insert these words In the Creature into the Proposition by me delivered Christian charitie it self which is not suspitious which Believeth all things that may without imputation of folly be believed cannot attribute it to his Ignorance but to his Passion or to his too much credulitie unto others who suggested the former Proposition unto him as worthie of a Parliamentarie Censure or to his zeal to have me censured as one of the Achans that trouble Israel But what he can say for himself in excuse of this palpable Falsification of my words I leave to them who have just cause and full Authoritie to examine him
a sin was incest in Lot such are all the sins committed by the Elect And so were all the sins of the Elect remitted before they were committed But the Question is Whether God did so absolutely decree the remission of any mans sin from eternitie as that their remission was from eternitie absolutely necessarie If God did absolutely decree that the sins of the Elect should be remitted Sin not remitted before committed then he did absolutely decree that they should be committed For even in Gods eternal Foreknowledge of all things that fall out in time the Commission of sins hath precedencie of their Remission and if their Remission were in respect of his Foreknowledge or decree absolutely necessary their Commission was as necessarie It is impossible there should be any Remission of sins without a presupposal of their Commission Yet are the former Conclusions not muttered in corners but maintained as part of that holy doctrine which hath been delivered unto us by the masters of Israel approved by the best writers in reformed Churches These and the like Doctrines are held in so precious esteem that if the lawful Pastor seek to root them out where they have been planted by others or to prevent their growth or spreading he shall be traduced for an Arminian and as they hope be so censured by the high Court of Parliament But my hope is that no Loyal Elder of Israel shall ever so far forget himself as either to attempt or seek to have those and the like Conclusions ratified by our great Josuahs Royal consent Sure I am these are no branches of that Ancient Catholick Apostolick Faith of which we acknowledg our Soveraign Lord to be the defender and God grant that he may ever defend and keep it pure and undefiled from these and the like Conclusions that it may defend him and his people from their adversaries 12 Yet to seek the Correction of these and the like Conclusions though malapertly maintained by some of the Flock against most of their Pastors or the punishment of those which so maintain them until the Principles from which they naturally issue be checkt or inhibited were but Tyrannie These here related are the least not the worst part of those noysom branches which spring from this one root That Gods irresistible decree for the absolute Election of some and the absolute Reprobation of others is immediatly terminated to the Individual Natures Substances or Entities of men without any Logical respect or reference to their qualifications This Principle being once granted what breach of Gods moral Law is there whereon men will not boldly adventure either through desperation or presumption either openly or secretly For seeing Gods Will which in their Divinitie is the only Cause why the one sort are destinated to death the other to life is most immutable and most Irresistible and seeing the Individual Entities or natures of men unto which this irresistible Decree is respectively terminated are immutable let the one sort do what they can pray for themselves and beseech others to pray for them they shall be damn'd because their Entities or Individual Substances are unalterable Let the other sort Live as they list they shall be saved because no corruption of manners no change of morality breeds any mutability or change in their Individual Natures or Entities unto which Gods immutable Decree is immediatly terminated Whatsoever become of good life and manners so the Individual Nature or Entity fail not or be not annihilated salvation is tyed unto it by a necessity more indissoluble then any chains of Adamant 13. This Assertion Whosoever is Elected from Eternity was never the child of wrath save only in the esteem of men I found delivered in certain papers at my first entrance upon my Pastoral charge in the Town of Newsastle written by one that had been a great Rabbi in some private Conventicles in and about that Town And for the refuting of this Opinion and the Principles out of which it doth most necessarily follow it was presently conceived by some of my Auditors that I went about to refute the Doctrine of all Reformed Churches concerning Election and Reprobation And Amongst the Doctrines of Reformed Churches which it was vehemently suspected I went about to refute this was expressed for one That the sins of the Elect or Regenerate were remitted before they were committed A doctrine which for my part I dare not charge any one reformed Church with though some in reformed Churches have stifly maintained the Principle out of which this Conclusion will necessarily follow and some few have in expresse Termes delivered the Conclusion but so hath not to my knowledge any reformed Church or entire Congregation besides the Familist to which this errour properly belongs The Council of Dort hath expresly delivered the contrary so have others which write against the Arminians But in this Point a Reverend and Learned Pastor in the City of London hath saved me a Labour The false Principle from which both these Conclusions 1. The sins of the Elect are remitted before they are committed 2. Whosoever is Elected being elected from eternitie never was never could be never can be the child of wrath will most necessarily follow is the forementioned Errour which tyes or terminates Gods Eternal and irresistible Decree for the absolute Election of some and the absolute Reprobation of others to the Individual Natures persons or Entities of men elected or reprobated But to omit for the present the question concerning such absolute Election not the most Tyrannical Lawgiver that to this day hath breathed on earth did ever declare himself to be so farre the son of the Divel as to make solemn decrees against mens persons without respect or reference to their Qualifications It is the propertie of the enemy of mankind to delight in mans punishment as he is a man or a reasonable creature to desire to have any man as he himself now is but sometimes was not a vessel capable only of vengeance or punitive justice alltogether uncapable of Gods free bounty mercy or favour And seeing this most Honourable Court of Parliament now happily assembled to make wholesome Lawes doth not intend to make any Punitive Lawes or decrees specially capitally punitive against any mens Persons or Nature but against mens ill Qualifications misdemeanors I am confident that every member of it doth firmly believe that our heavenly Father did never make any such Decree or Law Again seeing God hath revealed his good Will and pleasure to be this To reward every man according to all his wayes I shall find no opposition or Contradiction to this Conclusion as I hope among good Christians God did from eternity decree to reward every man not according to his Individual Nature but according to his wayes his works or qualification which he did no lesse certainly foresee then he did his Individual Nature He hath decreed from eternity to revvard the vvicked and the ungodly for their vvicked vvorks
from their Doctrinal Error For whilest this vail is spread over their hearts envious or malitious slander whilest it exonerates it self upon such as they suspect for Achans and Arminians will be interpreted zeal violent passions will be taken for the Power of the Spirit such nastie Soloecismes or rude scurrilitie as would seem loathsom to heathen Artists will go current with themselves and their associates for sanctified eloquence and so will ignorance in Philosophie or School-Divinitie be applauded for holy Simplicitie But seeing their tongues and pens are their own seeing they have cast off the yoke of obedience and begin to proclaim not mutter with our tongues we will prevail we are they that ought to speak and print books Who is Lord over us Let them use what language they please the Print-houses in this interim possessed and imployed by them shall but exercise my patience as some I hope by usurpation not by just Warrant pulpits here and there ever and anon for these three and twenty years have done during which time whilest such Schediasticks as these have preached of absolute Election or Reprobation I still have prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they said And so I suppose many more of my profession in this Kingdom have done God in the mean while hath enlightened the hearts of many by our prayers and ministry to see their error and hath made me a witnesse of many mens sorrow for being misled And whensoever the vail shall be taken from the heart of such now living in this land as still maintain that Rigid Doctrine their sorrow and compunction will be no less then the sorrow and compunction of those Jews which had through ignorance consented to the crucifying of the Lord of Glory 18 The practise of the Jews was in the issue more desperate then men in this age no less zealous of that which they apprehend for truth can have opportunity to attempt But the error which led the Jews to that desperate practise against the Son of God is no way impaired but rather enlarged by some Christians of these times Our onely comfort is that however the common error of both times be rather strengthened then any way enfeebled by such in our times as nurse it yet is it neither so general nor so inveterate in this land as it was in the Jewish nation before their final destruction The Governours of our Church and State the learned Pastors or conformable Layity are not so infected with it as the Pharisees Scribes and Elders in Judea were in our Saviours time Their excessive pride and Hypocrisie made them so extraordinarily impatient of reproof and contradiction and their extraordinary impatience of reproof in matters of practise and of contradiction in point of opinion hatched that cruel and murtherous hate against the Son of God The setled matter of their deadly malice was pride and hypocrisie of heart that wherewith this corrupt matter was continually fed was passionate zeal to maintain the Absolute Election of their Nation and the Absolute Rejection of the Gentiles humorous perswasion of their own immutable estate in Gods promise first occasioned or strengthened by reflecting upon the accurate reformation which to their seeming they had made of their forefathers Idolatry of Sabbath-breaking other palpable transgressions of Gods Law But however crueltie and fury have no such Objects to practise upon in these latter dayes as the Jews and as the Scribes and Pharisees had yet is not bodily death a more Usual effect of pestilent feavers then slander persecution crueltie and murderous hate are in all Ages of ignorant zeale and hypocrisie Nor do putrified or malignant humours more usually breed pestilent feavers or other dangerous diseases in mens bodies then immature perswasions of their own Immutable estate in Grace or indigested resolution concerning absolute Election or Reprobation do hatch pride and hypocrifie in mens soules And the most infallible Symptome of pride and hypocrisie is Jealously of being contradicted by such as contradict them not or impatiency of meer Logical Contradiction without gallor bitterness in point of Opinion Another Accidental Improvement of the Jews murtherous hate against our Saviour was the hotness and blindness of their zeal to Moses's writings Yet were not Moses's writings in higher esteem with them then St. Paules Epistles are deservedly with us And would to God some amongst us did not further mistake or pervert his scope and aim in that 9. Chapter to the Romanes then the Jewes did Moses's meaning But the Parallel between the Jewish misperswasions of love and zeale to God and his servant Moses and the misperswasions of many Modern Christians presumed love to our Saviour and his Apostles is elsewhere S See his Tiâ—eatise of Justifying Faith Sect. 2. Ch. 14. page in quarto 245. handled in the general and shall by Gods assistance be further prosecuted in some particulars My purpose for the present is to shew how neerely it concerns my self and all that seek to prevent the Resubmission of this people unto the Roman yoke to beware of peremptory resolutions concerning Absolute Reprobation 19. It was well observed by Oecolampadius that the ordinary Pictures of God or of his enemy Puerorum major pars nescit quid sit Deus quid Sathan quid bonum quid malum idque firmitèr credo Neque talis Deus vel Sathan quemadmodum Pictores in tabellas aut parietes pingunt Si nosti quomodo Deus misericors sit benignus mitis mansuetus Longanimis patiens justus c. verè Deum agnoscis per illas enim res propriè quid sit Deus discimus E contrario Sathan nihil aliud est quam immiserâ—cordia odium invidia homicidium mendacium irrisio proximi omne malum Oecolamp concione ad adolescent pag. 349. were no good Books for instructing Laymen or Children in the nature of God or of Sathan The truest representation that can be made of God would be to teach them what truth is what mercy what Love or Goodness is The best Picture that can be taken of Sathan would be the true Characters of Falshood malice hatred crueltie envy Yet by this Good Authours leave however Sathan be the Father of lyes the Author of malice the hatcher of envy and hatred the Com-plotter of cruelty yet can he not so truly and properly be called falshood it self envy it self hatred it self cruelty it self in the abstract as God is said to be Truth it self Love it self Mercy it self and Goodness it self For though falshood hatred envie cruelty c. be now become Natural to the old Serpent yet were they adventitious to his prime nature and substance he was not from the beginning invested with these or the like habits But if the Opinion of some men amongst us concerning absolute Reprobation were from above He whom we professe to be the Almightie Creatour of heaven and earth should be as truly and properly falshood it self hatred it self cruelty it self as he is
Truth it self Love it self Mercy it self Goodness it self The Branches of the Doctrine concerning Absolute Reprobation which bear this Fruit are to omit others for the present specially these Two The First That the manifestation of Gods punitive Justice was a part of the Object of Gods Primary Will and an exercise of his Will as directly as immediatly and as irresistibly intended by him in the Creation as the manifestation of his Goodnesse Bounty or reservation of his mercy to such as shall be saved was The Second That God from Eternity did as truly hate all those who perish without respect or reference to their works or qualifications as he did love those who shall be saved Now if the number of such as perish be much greater then the number of such as shall be saved and if the same God did from eternitie as truly hate the greater sort of men as he did love the lesse without all respect or reference to their works or qualifications if he did out of his eternal hatred as peremptorily decree the endless torments of the One as he did the everlasting happiness of the Other These Conclusions of the Lutherans avouched by them in some Catechismes which I have seen before the name of Arminius was heard of in these Parts will necessarily follow viz. That such as maintain this rigid doctrine of Absolute Reprobation do not believe in or acknowledge the same God which the Lutherans with all antiquitie acknowledge for they acknowledge their God to be Truth Mercy Love and Goodnesse whereas the stiffe maintainers of Absolute Reprobation confesse their God to be hatred and Crueltie it self Now to acknowledge one and the same God to be Truth Love Mercy and Goodnesse itself in respect of some and in respect of others to be falshood hatred crueltie it self is a grossser Heresie or Transformation of the Deity then was the Heresie of the Manichees which acknowledge Two Gods or independent Originals of all things the One as Fountain of all Goodness the Other the Authour of all Evill For avoyding these and the like Conclusions no evasion or observation hath been or can be pretended by such as make the Entity or Individual Natures of man the Formal Objects of Reprobation besides this One viz. That Gods Will is so the Rule of Goodness that if he will the death of all that dye without respect unto their works or Qualifications this must be Good If he be pleased to hate the greater Part of mankind without all reference to their Qualifications the hatred of them must be as good as his Love of those few which shall be saved And the Apostle did advise them to rest upon this answer when he saith O man who art thou that disputest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus hath not the Potter power over the clay c. But whether this Use of our Apostles Doctrine in that place be according to his meaning or whether any Conclusion can be drawn from that Chapter which may make for absolute Election or Reprobation is elsewhere examined By that which hath been said See Chapt. 42. Numb 9. 10. it may appear that such in this Land as stifly hold the Tenet of absolute Reprobation which the Christian world besides hath for the most part forsaken have some reason though no just cause to question the truth delivered by me in what sense Gods Will is said to be the Rule of Goodness For unlesse they can disprove my Tenet which God be praised hath stronger Supporters then my weaknesse can afford they must either revoke their errour or admit God to be more then the Author of sin as truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as properly sin it self as Being it self or life it self And yet if they could perswade the ignorant that Gods Will is the Rule of Goodness in such a sense as they would make it the Inconveniences which the Lutherans object would be rather for a while removed then cleerely avoided They might be prest upon them again with greater force and advantage with this addition that they maintain the Turkish Opinion concerning Fate and Providence And upon this Ground only as I conceive do the the Lutherans instile the Calvinists Limbs of Gog or of the Eastern Antichrist But the best is that of such who at this day do not disclaim the name of Calvinists the most and best learned dislike the opinion of Absolute Reprobation and so I hope in good time will every faithfull Pastor in the Church of England and every Loyal Elder in this our Israel For admit we could make full proofe unto the Congregations committed to our Charge that Papistry is as some have enstiled it the Ocean of Heresies that the Absolute Infallibility of the Pope or Consistory exceeds the mixture or combination of all other particular Heresies which have been that the Idolatry which the Roman Catholicks from the belief of the Pope or Churches absolute Infallibilitie are inforced to commit and practise doth equalize the Idolatry of those heathens which solemnly worshipt the Divel yet all this being proved by us and firmly believed by our flocks would be of small force or sway to retain understanding men in their Allegiance to their Soveraign Lord or in obedience to the Lawes Ecclesiastick or Civil of this Kingdom if once the Doctrine of Absolute Reprobation might be fastened upon the Church of England or be embraced by her Learned Pastors or Governours For so they might as concludently prove us to be as grosse Hereticks as we say they are and evince our Churches doctrine to be as Blasphemous as theirs is Idolatrous To have this Rigid Doctrine generally embraced or acknowledged by us or at least to have the World believe that it were generally acknowledged by us is the very Thing and the main business which the Factors for the Romish Church for these many years have earnestly sollicited This is the very net wherein Sathan hopes to catch this Island he hath set the Jesuites to spread and hold it and when opportunity serves to draw it And the Jesuites as they have long used our Pulpits and Print-houses so they attempt to use some in our Parliaments as their Podders to drive us into it Their prey they know must needs be great if they can bring us into these straights or put a necessity of this hard choice upon us Whether were better to live in obedience to a Church which adores wicked and naughty men Divels incarnate for such some of their Popes have been as Gods on Earth or to hold communion with that Church or societie of men which makes the God of heaven the Almighty Creatour of all things Visible and invisible much worse then an Incarnate Divel yea then any wicked Spirit or then the Divel himself can without slander be conceived to be Isaiah 58. 4. Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the Fist of wickedness ye shall