as the Synod would have it hath written their names in the booke of life from all aeternitie without having more regard unto their prayers then unto their faith and that it is impossible for them to be razed out and as for these they are no more able to gett themselves registred therein by their prayers theÌ„ to undo that inevitable unchangable decree of God So that by this triall of the practise each one may see what esteeme we ought to have of that religion which resisteth the conversion of Infidells the amendment of the scandalous and consolation of the afflicted which makes the preaching of the word to be of none effect and quite overthroweth the use of the Sacraments and exercise of prayers and in a word which overturneth the foundation of the ministry which consisteth in sound doctrine good discipline Consid. If the preaching of the word by the doctrine of these Synods be but thus made of none effect that is but by so hungry and comicall a discourse as this we shall have very small or rather no cause at all to think the worse of the doctrine of these Synods and we are confident that the use and profitt of the Sacraments will but in the like shallow and superficiary manner be enervated And how the ministers in their administration of the Sacraments doe destroy the same doctrine so unhappy as he conceavs it for no doctrine is so happy with them as that which maintaynes grace to be conferred according unto workes or that looke what we call grace as faith and repentance is neither merited by Christ nor indeed any gift of God otherwise then by giving them power to beleeve if they will repent if they will and persuading them thereunto by the ministry of his word for I have good reason to suspect that the Author of this discourse is a mere Anabaptist we are now to consider in the last place Now for proofe hereof he sayth that to every person whom we baptize we doe apply the promises of the covenant of grace which he saith is cleane contrary to our owne doctrine which saith that they nothing belong to the reprobates of the world I would he had particulated these promises of the covenant of grace For with the practise of their Churches in the office of baptizing I am not acquainted but onely with our own The promises assured by baptism according to the rule of Gods word I finde to be of two sorts some are of benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred conditionally others are of benefits which are to be bestowed upon us absolutely They of the first sort are justification and salvation For Abraham receaved circumcision as a seale of the righteousnes of faith Circumcision therfore was an assurance of justification to be had by faith If such were circumcision unto the Iewes we have good reason to conceave that such is baptisme unto us Christians For as that was unto them so this is the Sacrament of regeneration unto us And good reason the Sacraments which are seales of the covenant should assure that unto us which the word of the covenant doth make promise of Now the word of the covenant of grace doth promise unto us both remission of sinne and salvation upon faith in Christ. This by our doctrine we promise unto all and assure unto all as well as they doe by theirs If all and every one should beleeve we nothing doubt but they should be justified and saved On the other side if not one of ripe yeares should beleeve I presume our adversaries will confesse that not one of them should be saved But there are other benefites both promised in the covenant of grace and consequently assured by the Sacraments which are commonly called the seales of the covenant wherof there is or may be a question whether they are conferred on man by God absolutely or no but onely conditionally and the right solution thereof I willingly confesse is most momentous for the deciding of all those controversies and setting an happy end unto them But that question is wholy declined by this Author and generally by the Arminian partie For such a light and evidence of faith breakes forth herein that they are not able to abide it Those benefites are regeneration which in holy scripture is called the circumcision of the heart in reference to the Sacrament that sealed it and in the New Testament it is called the washing and clensing or sanctifying of our soules in reference to our Sacrament of regeneration which is called Baptisme under regeneration we comprehend the illumination of the mind and renovation of the affectâ—ons and these operations we commonly designe by faith and repentance Now let it be enquired whether regeneration and faith commonly supposed amongst us to be the gifts of God are bestowed upon men conditionally or absolutely If conditionally then like as the word of the covenant promiseth these gifts upon a condition to be performed by man so also shall the Sacrament of Baptisme seale it and assure us that upon the performance of that condition we shall obteyne at the hands of God faith and regeneration Like as justification salvation is promised in the word and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a condition on mans part Now the condition of justification and salvation we all acknowledge to be faith but what should be the condition upon performance whereof we should obteyne it we are much to seeke neither doe the Arminians willingly come to the defining of it this Author utterly declines the question though most proper and criticall by the Orthodox resolution thereof to sett a blessed end to all the controversies wherwith the peace of Gods church hath been of late yeares so much disturbed Now whatsoever be devised to be the condition it must be in generall some worke of man and consequently it must be acknowledged that grace is given to wit the grace of faith according to mens works which is plain Pelagianisme So for regeneration it being acknowledged to be a gift of Gods grace if so be God bestowes it conditionally they must tell us what that condition is upon the performance whereof God is pleased to regenerate us but I never yet mett with any that undertooke to notifie unto us what that condition is certeynly it must be not onely a worke of man but a worke of nature seeing it precedes regeneration and consequently the grace of regeneration shal be conferred according unto workes of nature and this also is Pelagianisme and that in a degree beyond the former and withall directly contradictious to the word of God where it is sayd that God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his owne purpose and grace 2 Tim. 1.9 and where the Apostle saith that God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth Rom. 9.16 and to bestow faith upon a man is clearly to
divine operation to be resistible Is it in respect of the fleshe But if he be well content that it shoulde not be in the power of the worlds or the divill to resist Gods operation working us to good why should he affect to have it in the power of the flesh 1. Considering that if it be in the power of the flesh to resist divine operation it is therwithall in the power of Satan For in fulfilling the will of the flesh and the minde we are sayde to walke after the Prince that ruleth in the ayre Eph. 2. 2. Why should any man be so zealous for upholding the power of his flesh is it not a signe he is in love with it still 3. Or rather is it in zeale of the honour of his owne performances in doing good as it were in despight of such a potent adversary If so then let hell be loosed and the divill and the world both armed with the like power and that honour in withstanding them is likely to be greater and you shall have the greater cause to rejoyce but where is your respect to the glory of God in all this Or in fine would you have your regenerate part to be so strong and able that neyther flesh within nor world or divill without be able to resist its course in grace only you would have it free eyther to yeilde or to resist divine exhortations But consider I pray is not your unregenerate part your flesh free enough and forward enough yea most propâ—ne and propense to resist that and shoulde you not rather desire that your regenerate part should be as free and forward as propense and prone to resist them and to doe that which is good Otherwise in what a miserable case shall man be even in state of regeneration when his worse part is still prone to sinne and wants not the world and the divill to drive him headlong therinto and his best part to witt his regenerate part shall not be as prone to good but only indifferent to good or evill Beside doe you not consider how you debase the grace of regeneration making it inferior to morall goodnes For morall goodnes doth not leave a man indifferent to good or evill but inclines him naturally to that which is good and to that alone but the grace of regeneration is so shaped by you as to bring a man but to an indifferent constitution to doe eyther good or evill But perhaps you will say if regeneration and the grace thereof shall cary a man naturally unto that which is good only where is a mans freedome I answere as much as in a morally vertuous constitution For who was ever knowne to affirme that morall vertues take away a mans libertie Agayne why should any man be so eagerly sett upon libertie to doe evill were it not better for us to enioy such a libertie alone as of many good â—hings to choose which we thinke good but must we needes affect such a libertie as to choose evill allso if we thinke good and doe you not perceave what colour of contradiction steales upon you ere you are aware and shrewde evidence of the unreasonablenes of your affections Yet take one thingâ— more to acquaint you with that which perhaps may seeme a mystery unto you in morall philosophy for some may be so given to the stage and taken up with the obsequies therof that they may forget their philosophy Therfore I say that like as morall vertues tende only to the ordering of the reasonable soul aright as touching her right ende by light of nature so the grace of regeneration tendes to the ordering of the degenerate soule aright as touching her right end discovered by the light of grace Now Libertie of will consists not in appetitione finis the nature of man rightly ordered is naturally caryed on thereunto But freedome of will hath place in electione mediorum So that albeit my right end being once discovered and my nature so qualified as it ought to be in respect thereof albeit I am necessarily naturally caryed to the affecting of that end yet still I am free to choose amongst many what shall seeme most convenient to the obteyning of that end Whether in all this I have not spoken parables and mysteries in the judgement of this Author I know not yet this I know God can open his eyes and the eyes of those that are in love with these frivolous discourses of his and make them to discerne the vanity of their wayes in opposing the grace of God and withall Gods judgements upon them in striking them with such confusion as not onely to shutt their eyes against the light of grace but runne themselves on ground and cast themselves away as touching common sobriety while the courses they take are contradictious to the very light of nature What a sottish objection is that which followeth how dissolute a consequence is this which here he frames namely that because we say God doth worke in us both the will and the deed Ergo it is not Man that willeth but God not man that doth this or that good worke but God God doth repent in making us repent and God doth obey his owne commandements in making us obey them God hath given all creatures their naturall properties and on som he bestoweth supernaturall qualities and mooves them all that effectually to worke according to their properties whose operations though they are from him as the efficient cause thereof for in him we live and moove and have our beings and hitherto the Arminians themselves have pretended to concurre with us herein yet they are not formally to be attributed unto him but to the secoÌ„d causes whose proper operations they are as for a Lyon to roare for an horse to neigh an asse to bray an oxe to lowe a dogge to barke and the like The sixt last Section THe preaching of the word being thus made of none effect by the doctrine of these Synods there will remayne no use and profit of the Sacraments of baptisme the Lords Supper unlesse it be that the Ministers themselves in administring thereof doe destroy this unhappy doctrine For to every person whom they baptise they apply the promises of the covenant of grace cleane contrary to their owne doctrine which saith that they nothing belong to the Reprobates of the World The Eucharist is likewise given to all with assurance that Christ dyed for all those who do receave it although their doctrine doe affirme that he dyed not for those who receave him unworthily and to their owne condemnation the number of whom is very great in the Reformed Churches by their owne confession What then remaines Even their prayers themselves the exercise wherof is common both to the Pastor and the Flocke cannot be of any profit either to the one or to the other seeing that all are eyther elect or reprobate they for their parts obteyne nothing by this meanes if that God
then of the great seeing that you my Pastor and Comforter will not that the promises of salvation in Christ are made vniversally vnto all and that those places of Scripture which seeme generall according to your opinion are to be restreyned onely to the vniversalitie of the elect And that in all the rest of Holy Scripture there is no more speciall promise nor mention made of my self in particular who also besides the Holy Scripture have no testimony whether of Angell or Prophet to assure me thereof When our Saviour sayd unto his Apostles One of you shall betray me Although this concerned but one of them yet were they all exceedingly troubled therewith So then were there but a small number of Reprobates for whom as you sayd Christ dyed not yet should I have just reason to feare or thinke that I were one of them but much rather seeing their number is so great Consid. Now we are to proceed to tâ—e third Act of this Authors Comedy and the severall scenes thereof We have considered how well he had playde the part of an Infidell refusing to be converted by us as also of a bad living Christian refusing to be reformed at our hands Now we are to consider how well he performs the part of an afflicted Christian refusing all consolation that we can minister unto him I finde he hath a good witt and Proteus like can transforme himself into the likenesse of any condition and can act more parts then many In this last personation of his he is well neere as large as in both the former which whether it proceedes from greater confidence of his cause in this particular than in the former and that makes his witt to exuberate the more or that he meetes with more difficulties in this passage then in the former and therfore is put to the more paynes in Mastering them I knowe not He feignes us in his introduction unto this perhaps able to acquitt our selves farre better in undergoing the office of a comforter but the fictions of poeticall and comicall witts are nothing to be regarded as of any force to discover unto us their true meaninge As for us we neyther take upon us to convert or reforme or comfort any but only to minister a word of comfort to a weary soule a word of terrour to humble a debaucht Christian and a word of conversion unto an Infidell we leave it unto God and pray unto him by the powerfull operation of his Spirit to strike the stroke in any mans conversion reformation consolation Neyther is our doctrine of predestination and reprobation that word which we minister eyther for the conversion of the one or for the reformation of the other or for the consolation of the third but the terrors of the lawe we make use of for mans humiliation therby to praepare him for the grace of the Gospell and being humbled the gracious promises of the Gospell we make use of to rayse him by bringing him to faith in Christ then we instruct him in the dueties of Christianitie exhorting him to walke answerably to his profession and if he fayle herof we sett the wrath of God before him and shewe him how it had bene better for him he had never knowne the way of righteousnes then after he have knowne it to depart from the holy commandement given unto him Or if in the course of Christianitie he walkes uncomfortably according as we shall finde the cause of his disconsolate condition we will endeavour to fitt our consolations thereunto If affliction be the cause we will represent unto him how that this is the common condition of Christians and that through manifold temtations we must enter into the Kingdom of God that God sheweth hereby that he receaves us for his owne Children and not as bastards If conscience of sinne and of walking litle answearable to our profession we will represent unto him how that if we judge our selves we shall not be judged of the Lord that griefe for this doth argue a desire of the contrary and that God accepteth the will for the deede and hath promised that if we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just he will forgive them If weakenes of faith be the cause of disquietnes without any farther cause we will represent unto him how Gods gracious course is not to breake the bruised reede nor to quenche the smoaking flaxe and stirre him up to pray unto God to encrease his faith or to helpe his unbeliefe That this disquietnes doth manifestly argue a desire to believe and God hath promised to fulfill the desire of them that feare him If he hath atteyned to faith and holines we can assure him of his election by our doctrine which the Arminians doctrine cannot If he hath neyther yet there is no cause of desperation forasmuchas his condition is no worse then Saulâ— was before his callinge yen and the holyest servant of God God calls some at the first houre of the day some not till the last Nothing but finall impenitencie or the sinne against the holy Ghost is an assurance of reprobation But let us proceede along with this Authors discourse to examine it as we goe This Author hath but one ground of consolation I have lately had to deale with another of his Spirit that makes three grounds of consolation to witt the universalitie of Gods love the universalitie of Christs death the universalitie of the covenant of grace By which it is manifest that he makes a Christian capable of no better consolation then a Turke or Saracen is capable an elect then a reprobate And if in all three he thrives no better in his course of consolation what shall we thinke of this Authors successe in the worke of consolation who insists but upon one of those three Yet I commend him for being sensible of the unseasonablenes of his consolation had he rested as the other doth only in this that Christ having by his death and passion satisfied the justice of his Father he obteyned reconciliation for all mankind But this Author caryeth not himselfe so covertly but addes that this reconciliation is appliable to all those who acknowledging the infinitenes of the benefite doe therupon embrace the Author of it with a true and lively faith wherby it is manifest that in this Authors judgment consolation arising from the death and passion of Christ is appliable to none and consequently none are capable of it but such as believe in Christ which he calls the embracing of the Author of the benefite with a true lively faith Now we willingly confesse that we cannot finde any other foundation wherby to consolate and assure any afflicted soule against the terrors of Gods justice the condemnation of the lawe and accusation of his owne conscience But wheras he saith that the afflicted can never make this true foundation of Gods word agree with the second article of the Synod of Dort which he calleth false foundations but prooves it not
shew mercy Rom. 11.30 Hereupon we conclude that faith and regeneration are gifts of grace which God bestowes absolutely according to the mere pleasure of his owne will regenerating whom he will and denying the grace of regeneration to whom he will Now then who are they on whom God should bestow faith and regeneration but his Elect and accordingly the Apostle calleth it the faith of Gods elect Tit. 1.1 and Act. 13.48 The Evangelist cleerely telleth us that as many believed as were ordeyned to aeternall life and Rom. 8.29 Whom God foreknewe them he predestinated to be made confoâ—mable to the image of his Sonne and whom he predestinated them he called and whom he called he justifyed and whom he justified he glorified And accordingly baptisme as it is a sâ—ale and assurance of performing this promise of justification and salvation unto them that believe so it is a seale and assurance of the promise of circumcising the heart and regeneration only to Gods elect Yet I confesse that according to the booke of Common prayer in use with the Church of England we professe of every Childe as he comes to be baptized and when he is baptized that he is regenerate and grafted into the body of Christs regeneration whereupon Mr. Monâ—acute sometimes tooke advantage to justifie his opinion touching falling away from grace as the Docteine of the Church of England but he was answered by D. Carleton then Bishop of Chichester that there is a regeneration so called Sacramento tenus and which Austin as he shewed distinguished from true regeneration And for ought we know to the contrary every one that comes to be baptized by a minister may be an elect of God and therefore we have no reason to conceave them to be reprobates And I would gladly knowe what this our adversary conceaves of every one that is brought unto him to be baptized will he conceave them in the judgement of charity to be elect or no Or doth he beleeve them in judgement of faith to be elect In my judgement his opinion hereabout is no more then this that God hath ordeyned that in case they beleeve they shal be justified and saved and accordingly that in Baptisme assurance hereof is sealed unto them and no more Now that God hath so ordeyned we beleeve as well as they and that baptisme is a seale of the righteousnesse of faith and of salvation by faith But if he thinkes the covenant of grace comprehends no more then this herein alone we differ from him and are ready to mainteyne that all who are under the covenant of grace are such as over whom sinne shall not have the dominion Rom. 6.14 and that the Lord vouchsafeth to become their Lord and their God to sanctifie them and to circumcise their hearts to love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soule as he seeth their wayes so to heale them to subdue their iniquities to give giftes even to the rebellious that he may dwell among them to powre cleane water upon them that they may be cleane and from all their filthinesse to clense them A new heart also to give unto them a new spirit to putt within them and to take away the stony heart out of their body and give them an heart of flesh And to putt his owne Spirit within them and cause them to walk in his statutes and to keepe his judgements and doe them And as in the Prophet Ieremiah the Lord professeth This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those dayes sayth the Lord I will putt my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shal be my people And Ier. 32.39 I will give them one heart and one way that they may feare me for ever for the wealth of them of their children after them And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will never turne away from them to doe them good but I will putt my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me And Ezech. 16.60 Neverthelesse I will remember my covenant made with thee in the dayes of thy youth and I will confirme unto thee an everlasting covenant 61. Then shalt thou remember thy wayes and be ashamed when thou shalt receave thy sisters both thy Elder and thy yonger and I will give them unto thee for daughters but not by thy covenant And 20.37 I will cause you to passe under the rod bring you into the bond of the covenant And 37.23 Neyther shal they be polluted any more with their idols nor with their abominations nor with any of their transgressions but I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned I will clense them so shall they be my people and I will be their God 24. And David my servant shal be King over them they shall have one sheapheard they shall also walke in my judgements and observe my statutes doe them So that regeneration sanctification faith repentance holinesse obedience these be the works which God promiseth to worke in them and that by vertue of the covenant of grace he hath made with them The Eucharist we confesse is likewise given to all who for their profanesse impuritie or conâ—umacy are not excommunicated and that with assurance that Christ dyed for all those that doe receave it worthily not otherwise but as many as receave it unworthily doe receave it to their owne condemnation And doe the Arminians themselves administer it with assurance of the favour of God towards them any otherwise then in case they are found worthy pertakers As for Christs dying for mankind I have already shewed at large how this Author treates of it hand over head carying it in the cloudes of generalitie Now it is a rule of schooles that in genere latent multae equivocationes Therefore for the cleering of the truth in this particular I have distinguished the benefits which Christ procured for us some of them as remission of sinnes and salvation are conferred onely conditionally to witt upon condition of faith And herein we extend the vertue of Christs death as fart as they to witt in conditionall manner for we willingly professe that if all and every one should believe all and every one should be saved by Christ On the other side no Arminian will say that any man of ripe yeares shall be saved by Christ if he never beleeve in Christ. But other benefites there are which God bestowes upon man for Christs sake as we say to witt faith regeneration repentance Now these are conferred not conditionally for if they were then should grace be given according to mens workes which is manifest Pelagianisme Therefore these must be conferred absolutely not on all for then all should believe and be saved but on some and who can they be but Gods Elect Now as for the Remonstrants