142 Luk. 18.16 Explained 144 2 Cor. 5.10 and 1 Cor. 15.22 Opened 145 Ezek. 18.20 Discussed 146 Infants may have some faith 148 Mat. 18.6 Perverted 148 Rom. 10.18 and 16 25 26. Discussed 149 Christ not preachable to all but to whom he is sent 151 Many that never enjoyed any saving means 153 Gentiles judged by the covenant of works 154 No salvation to them without Christ 155 Nor have they any desires after Christ 157 Of original sin 158 c. Eph. 2.1 2 3. Discussed 162 Rom. 2.14 Explained 164 Rom. 1.31 Interpreted 165 What it is to be a child of wrath 167 The pamphleter confounds reprobation before time with that in time 169 How God is said to have hated Esau 170 How God may be said to hate without a cause 172 Sin may be a cause of temporal reprobation 173 Vain repetitions 174 The pamphleter toucheth not the matter in charge 175 According to the Arminians all may be saved or all may be damned 177 The decree as published may have a tendency to salvation 178 Means of grace not sufficiently extended to all 179 Whether a liberty to choose good 180 Deut. 39.19 Opened 181 Heb. 11.24 Luk. 10.42 Explained 182 Of personal election 183 2 Tim. 2.21 Discussed 184 God may punish though he be not provoked 185 No satisfactoriness in the teachings of the Anabaptists 186 Exotick expressions 188 The pamphleters Absurdities cannot be removed 189 The Conclusion 190 Gerizim and Ebal OR The absolute good pleasure of Gods most holy will to all the Sons of Adam Sir HAd you first consulted with that divine Oracle Pro. 3.5 Rom. 12.16 Prov. 3.5 Rom. 12.16 Pro. 26.12 Be not wise in your own conceit for there is more hope of a fool than of such a one you might perhaps have desisted from soaring above the clouds and thus to pry into Arcana imperii and to intrude your self as one of Gods Cabinet-Councel whereas your parts and gifts too well known considered you had need of milk your self Heb. 5.12 and not to give such strong meat unto your seduced Proselytes At least more corresponding would it have been to your present condition to have kept within your own sphear and if you had met with any temptation to more sublime speculations to have drawn back the reins with that ingenious acknowledgment I am no Prophet neither am I a Prophets son Amos 7.14 but I am an heard-man and a gatherer of wild figs. But probable it is you were tainted with that Epidemical disease a wanton itch of being a in print And whereas for the giving vent to that exuberant humour you could pitch upon no other object but my self to make your Antagonist I do though with much reluctancy as conscious to my own wants and imperfections undertake the defence of that truth which in this Pamphlet of yours you have much depraved and eclipsed by your false glosses and perverted interpretations and therein before I undertake the battering of your Castles in the air it will not be unseasonable to blow down your out-works Sir the Frontispice of your book is worded thus The free Grace of God to all the Sons of Adam vindicated Gen. 27.22 Sure your voice sounds like the voice of Jacob but I doubt your hands will prove like the hands of Esau you give a specious title which promiseth much howsoever you come off in matter of performance look you to that Grandia loquuntur inanes the emptiest barrels make the greatest sound parturiunt montes nascitur ridiculus mus But I pray Sir what mean you by the word Grace If you mean those natural outward and common Graces and so I joyn with you that they are Catholick and Universal Ps 145.9 Eccl 9.2 Mat. 5.45 Act. 17.28 for God is good to all and those outward things come alike to all He makes the same Sun to rise on the evill and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust for in him we live and move and have our being we see many Heathens to excell even Christians themselves in many morall vertues Even the wild Barbarians enjoy more plenty of gold have a fruitfuller soil than the choicest Christian Cain Judas Achitophel Simon Magus or cull out any other of the worst of Reprobats and tell me whether he doth not participate in some degree and measure of Gods free Grace and general love to mankind All that a man is hath or can do proceeding from free Grace and generall love and then I pray tell me whom have you in this to be your adversary you can find none in me But if you intend it of inward proper spiritual and special graces such as are Redemption effectual Vocation Justification of mens persons by faith in Christ and Sanctification of their natures by the renewing of the Holy Ghost and perseverance unto the end then I affirm that there is no such love of complacency in God unto the universality of mankind that any of these are communicated but to a peculiar people foreknown according to his eternall purpose But what is this to the dispute before us The controversie is about those glorious eternall immanent acts of Gods Election and Reprobation therein discriminating the universality of the world as your own positions do distinguish by parting them into two ranks or stations some elected some reprobated But your title page speaks it Gods free Grace to all the Sons of Adam I pray Sir the next volume you commit to the Press provide your self of a more Homogeneous title which may suit more adequately with the business in debate Your Title farther brags And the Arguments written by Mr James Rawson a national Minister for personal election confuted c. Virus crescit eundo what cannot this man do But ante victoriam noli cantare triumphum 1 King 20.11 Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off Confident I am that all those arguments by me produced will prove impregnable and cannon proof notwithstanding all those pot-guns of yours shot against them Next In your endeavours to answer my Papers your first adventure is upon the Proem whose language is thus I cannot much wonder that the Grandees of this nation c. Your answer speaks thus I must tell you that I do as little wonder as you that the Grandees of this Nation are not persecuting of people for their conscience in matters of Religion but I am perswaded the reason is because that doubtless they in their grave wisdomes have seen that such a practice in them that were before them being not a little deluded by your fathers the Bishops and their Adherents did thereby beat down the truth under the name of Heresie and doubtless they have learned that it is the Prerogative Royal of Jesus Christ to rule in the Consciences of men in the things which concern his own kingdom and that the wheat and the tares should grow together in the world
every man in the world In this likewise the novice leads me in a mist for if his meaning be that the death of Christ and the shedding of his bloud is sufficient for every man in the world but effectuall onely to those to whom it is intended then I joyn with him but if he be otherwise minded then the close of that Position trips up the heels of the former part But I could have heartily wisht that this Seraphical Doctor had not so magisterially dogmatized and after an Apostolical manner sat in his Cathedral Chair by delivering his dictates like an ipse dixit I say unto you but rathet that he had endeavoured to have proved out of the sacred Scriptures what he hath so crudely ventilated so might we better have tryed the spirits whether they be of God or no 1 Ioh. 4.1 Truly I do profess by what I find in these positions I cannot discern of what sect he is for by what he writes he is neither pure Pelagian Papist Arminian Socinian nor Anabaptist but a hotch-porch of them all jumbled together And that as it is written of Mahomet at the first he framed his Alchoran by the advice of Sergius the Monk a renagado partly of the Jews partly of the Christians and partly of the Gentiles opinions so hath this Evangelist composed his doctrinals So that in this we may see what fruits may be expected at Cockolds-pit and all such places of such illiterate and confused assemblies ex ungue leonâ—m ex pede Herculem If the blind lead the blind both must fall together into the ditch Matth. 15.14 But so it was in the Apostles time there arose such amongst them who desiring to be teachers 1 Tim. 1.7 understood not what they said themselves nor wherof they affirmed yea this was foreprophesied 2 Pet 2.1 that false teachers should arise up amongst them who should bring in damnable heresies but never so fully accomplisht as in these our dayes wherein many unheard of formerly and blasphemous opinions are daily ventituted under some specious appearances of truth and holiness The God of love and truth lead us into all truth So prayeth he that is the less then the least of all Saints James Rawson Short heads of the subsequent discourse THe title of the Pamphlet examined Page 1 2 The Preface examined 4 Toleration rightly stated 5 Magistrates power to interpose in matters of Religion 6 Bishops vindicated 7 Matth. 23.29 30. interpreted 8 Whether the doctrine of the Anabaptists be tolerable 9 Who are inconstant in their profession 11 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Examined 12 Eph. 6.11 12. Examined 13 Universal redemption offered to consideration 14 Isa 53.4 5 6. Interpreted 15 16 Psal 145.8 9. Cleared 17 Joh. 3.16 17. Opened 18 Rom. 5.18 19 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Interpreted 20 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Discussed 21 Tit. 2.11 Examined 22 Heb. 2.9 and 1 Pet. 3.9 Opened 23 Baptisme of Infants confirmed 24 c. Whether the Anabaptists be fixt to their principles page 27 Or at unity among themselves 28 Thom. Tazwells first position questioned 29 Whether the second position be not Pelagianisme 30 Ambiguity in the stating of the position 31 Psal 4.3 Explained 31 Who they be that are elected 32 Psal 37.9 c. Opened 34 Pro. 3.33 and Mar. 16.16 Discussed 34 Of the decrees of God 35 Of Gods foreknowledge and predestination 36 Of election 38 Of reprobation 39 My first Argument confirmed 40 Gods foreknowledge Independent 41 The pamphleter plowes with another mans heyfer page 42. As God decrees the end so likewise he decrees the means 43 Election to be distinguished from justification 44 Arminians make faith a foreseen cause of election page 45 c. Deut. 7.7 8. Expounded 48 Faith no foreseen cause of election 50 What place faith hath in justification 52 Rom. 9.1 c. ad ver 19. Analysed and interpreted page 53 c. The laws impotency to satisfie 57 What efficacy faith hath in justification 58 How God a respecter of persons to be understood 59 Absolute justification flows from Absolute election 60 Faith as much as works excluded from election 61 Gods alone will the cause of cause of election 62 Grace flows from the decree of election 63 Acts 13.48 Vindicated 64 c. Absurdities following foreseen faith in election 68 Other absurdities following that doctrine 69 What God did foresee in election 71 Marks of election no causes of election 72 Instrumental causes of salvation no causes of election 73 As God decreed the end so he decreed the means 74 Joh. 16.27 Explained 75 Of reprobation 76 Eph. 1.5 Discussed 77 Of the decree of election 78 Isa 45.9 Opened 79 No contradiction in what I do assert 80 What place Gods foresight in election and reprobation 81 God as he decrees the end so he decrees the means 82 The pamphleter begs the question 83 A twofold reprobation one before all time another in time 84 The pamphleter interferes with his own positions 85 Could Reprobates truly believe they might be saved 86 Reprobation includes both a denyal of the end and means of salvation 86 God the immediate worker of all spiritual graces 87 Sin foreseen not the cause of Reprobation 89 Sin the efflux not the effect of reprobation 90 Sin the consequent of reprobation 91 Our doctrine intrenches not on the divine attributes 92 Reprobation inforceth not to sin 93 A threefold necessity 94 Reprobation as by us stated not against the mercy of God 95 Nor against the truth of God 96 Ezek. 18.23 32. and 33.11 Explained 97 Absolute reprobation and exhortation to repentance argue no Hypocrisie in God 99 Absolute non election not against the wisdome of God 100 Isa 5.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Interpreted 101 God may expect the performance of our duty though we cannot do it 103 Matth. 11.25 26. Vindicated 104 What God doth in time he decreed to do before all time 105 What power we have to do good we have from God the redeemer 106 Those whom God decrees to save he decrees to save them by faith 108 Sin the cause of positive reprobation viz. of damnation 109 1 Pet. 2.8 Vindicated 111 c. Rom. 9.19 c. Analysed and interpreted 116 c. Thom. Tazwells uses upon the doctrine of reprobation 124 What use the Saints may make thereof 125 Though there be no external yet there is an internal cause of reprobation viz. the will of God 128 Arminian positions very aequivocal 129 Rom. 11.33 44. Vindicated 139 Mille narianism not inconsistent with the Articles of faith 132 Absurdities cleaving to Tho. Tazwells positions 132 Whether sin foreseen be the cause of reprobation 133 c. Whether Infants may have faith though not the use of faith 135 c. Whether any Infant can be damned 137 Infants elected or reprobated as well as others 138 c. Hope onely of such Infants as are within the covenant 140 The Spirit of God and not the word that doth regenerate 141 Rom. 4.15 and 5.13 Opened
tend to the glory of God for to that end was man created Prov. 16.4 Ephes 1.15 And therefore neither have the elect cause for which they should boast because what they do receive is of undeserved grace 1 Cor. 4.7 neither are those who are pretermitted cause to complain whiles they have but their deserved reward Rom. 9. the Potter having power over his lump of clay to make one vessel to honour another to dishonour That which hath the fourth place is Election which is not to be understood of an election to a civil or sacred place or office as 1 Sam. 10.24 Iohn 6.70 Nor of a people separated to a special Covenant as Deut. 4.37 Nor onely of such as were called to the outward profession of the Gospel whereof a Church may consist as 1 Cor. 1.27 But it is A personal definite and immutable separation of certain singular men from the rest of mankind and preordaining them to salvation by such means as it hath pleased him to appoint in his most wise decre Matth. 20.16 and 24.24 Mar. 13.20 Rom. 11.7 And means for the execution of this decree of election are Redemption by Jesus Christ effectual vocation justification by faith and sanctification joyned with perseverance Rom. 8.29 30. Eph. 1.4 1 Thess 5.9 1 Pet. 1.2 Act. 13.48 Tit. 1. 1. Phil. 1.6 In election Christ is the basis and head thereof Eph. 1.4 5. both in that he was designed by the Father as a Redeemer of the elect 2 Cor. 5.18 Esa 12.2 As also because that such so elected were given to Christ to be redeemed by him and to be brought unto glory Ioh. 17.6 and 10.16 So that Christ is inrolled in the decree of election not as a meritorious cause of it nor as the foundation thereof but as executing that decree and the meritorious cause of grace and glory to be conferred upon the elect according to the decree of God Faith likewise sanctification good works and perseverance are ingredients in the decree consequently as means ordained to the end by that decree but not antecedently as the foundation or causes upon foresight whereof our election doth depend For if upon the foresight of our faith or foreseeing who would believe or embracing of the means or continuance therein our election should depend then were it necessary that the same should be foreseen in us either as those graces or works wrought in us by our selves and of our own innate strength or else wrought in us onely by God and of his grace and gift alone If you l ' say they proceed as from our selves as from the innate activity and choice of our own free-will then have we whereof to boast and then have we made our selves to differ from others contrary to that of 1 Cor. 4.7 for what maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it what dost thou glory is if thou hadst not received it But if we have received that grace from God and that it be onely of his working in us to give us faith and repentance from dead works c. Then God hath decreed to give us those graces which since they are infallible means unto salvation therefore they are to be drawn and derived from infallible election wherin salvation is decreed unto us for the further clearing wherof consult these places Matth. 11.25 26. Luke 12.32 1 Tim. 1.9 Rom. 9.11 12. and 11.5 Eph. 1.4 Rom. 8.29 Ioh. 15.16 Acts 13.48 1 Cor. 7.25 Ioh. 6.37 and 8.47 2 Tim. 2.19 Matth. 24.24 1 Ioh. 2.19 The last proposed is Reprobation which is the eternal Immutable and most free decree of God wherein a certain company of men considered in an alike lump and mass of corruption and guilt with all others he hath decreed to pass them by and not to have mercy upon them neither to confer on them the means tending to salvation but leaving them in their sin whereinto they had cast themselves for the same sin to condemn them for the manifestation of his liberty and justice and power This reprobation by a metonymy is styled in Scripture Hatred Rom. 9.13 So the purpose of God Rom. 9.11 that determined counsel of God Acts 2.23 the good pleasure of God Mat. 12.25 26. And the Reprobates are called vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9.22 men of old ordained to condemnation disobedient whereunto they were appointed 1 Pet. 2.8 Appointed unto wrath 1 Thess 5.9 wicked made for the day of evil Pro. 16.4 All which do argue that God is the efficient cause of Reprobation and that hell fire is prepared for such Goats as well as for the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 that God must be the efficient cause of Reprobation as well as of election appears in this that as he elects i. e. decrees to save some so likewise he decrees to Reprobate i. e. to pass by and leave others and not elect them as Matth. 24.40 41. For else had not he fore-determined what to do with a great part of mankind but to have left them to an uncertain event which is unsuitable to his wisdome Now the act of God in Reprobating may be distinguished into a negative and privative act i.e. of not granting salvation nor conferring means of salvation and into an affirmative or positive act i. e. of inflicting damnation and of blinding and hardening After both these waies the Scripture sets forth Reprobation 1 Negatively Mat. 7.23 and 25.12 I know you not Ioh. 10.26 you are not of my sheep Ioh. 17.19 I pray not for the world Matth. 13.11 to them it is not given to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven 2 Affirmatively Rom. 9.13 Esau have I hated Rom. 9.22 vessels of wrath sitted to destruction Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardens Ioh. 12.39 40. They could not believe because he had blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts So that if it be demanded wherefore God when he saw all men in an alike condition sinners and children of wrath Reprobated some i. e. did not elect them or suffered not his face to shine on them as he did on others viz. those which he did elect no reason can be assigned for this but the absolute good pleasure of his will But if it be demanded why he doth not confer salvation on them or glorifie their persons in heaven but contrarily inflicts upon them eternal torments in hell here the cause is assigned to be their own sinnes Matth. 25.41 42. Go ye cursed into everlasting fire for I was hungry c. and Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death And therefore in the matter of Reprobation God is to be lookt upon partly as a sovereign who hath the sole power and dominion over his creature Psal 145.17 Gen. 18.25 and partly as a Judge who is righteous in all his waies and doth right to every man As a sovereigne and so according to his absolute power and liberty dependent on
your principles for if Gods foresight of faith and the embracing of the means be the ground-work of election as it is by you and that in children dying in infancy nothing either of faith or works can be foreseen because never reducible into any act of faith upon what ground with you can such be elected is a riddle to me Your next work is to make an apology for your tediousness in these words I am constrained to be larger in answering these arguments because I cannot but a little follow him that I may find him out in his crooked waies that so he may be discovered and therefore I cannot but take notice of this expression before they had the use of faith by which one would think that the man is of that opinion that faith comes by generation because his words do seem to intimate as if infants had faith but not the use of faith but Paul certainly was of another mind when he said faith cometh by hearing Rom 10.17 Answ Sir to let pass your crooked words you seem to make it a wonder for one to affirm that infants may have faith but not the act or use of faith and from such an opinion to conclude that faith then might come by generation which indeed were an absurdity in grain But Sir are you onely a stranger in Jerusalem and know not these things or have you not learnt to distinguish between the habit of faith and the act of faith I know a regenerate person when he sleeps hath the habit of faith though at that time he want the act and use of faith A convert likewise under a spiritual desertion may have the principle and seed of faith and yet want an active and an operating faith And so an elect Infant though in respect of the imperfection of its natural faculties he is indisposed actually to believe yet in regard he is a subject capable of the inward workings of the Spirit of God to sanctifie his corrupt nature he may passively receive the grace of sanctification and therewith the habit root seed or principle of faith and from thence to be denominated a believer Infants are reputed in the number of reasonable creatures yea even before they have the act or use of reason onely because they have it in semine in the seed or root of reason and why not alike to have faith in the habit or root and so reputed for believers though they cannot actually exert it Phil. 19 Sir I must tell you first that faith is infused not acquired t is given to believe which passively infants are in a capacity of as well as those that are adult 2. That their souls may as well be now sanctified by infused grace as if Adam had not fallen they should have been holy from the womb by original justice propagated unto them and inherent in them 3. That the humanity of Christ was in this manner holy even from the conception which was therein by special priviledge like unto that course which should have been ordinary in our conceptions and births if we had not sinned in Adam 4. That it cannot fairly be denyed to be so in Iohn Baptist but that so great a Prophet was sanctified by the holy Ghost even from the womb which may be confirmed by that his extraordinary motion upon the salutation of Mary the mother of our blessed Saviour and of Ieremy it is not improbable by that which God saith of him Ier. 1.5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a Prophet unto the nations But wonder I know to be the fecundous spawn and brood of ignorance and therefore I cannot wonder at the wonder Yet to extricate your self out of this absurdity you undertake thus But whereas he seemeth to make it a very doubtful thing if not altogether impossible that children dying in infancy should be elected to life and salvation from what we hold I must tell him there is a great ground to hope if not a certainty whereby we may believe that no child dying in infancy before they come to have a being to act shall ever be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death because they not having the use of those faculties as hearing together with the use of reason to understand what is spoken and being not capable of any embracing of the means and which never had a being to act therefore they cannot reject the means of salvation and their not having of faith will never be charged upon them as sin for where no law is there can be no transgression Rom. 4.15 and there can be no law to infants as such because they cannot know it when they are Infants and sin is not imputed where there is no law Rom. 5.13 and also we find that Christ himself said Luke 18.16 That of such is the Kingdom of God and hath no where said that such are reprobated to everlasting destruction if he hath shew us where he hath spoken it in Scripture or appointed it to be spoken by any of his Ministers It is true we find that we shall appear before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 but we do not find that any shall receive any thing at the day of judgement as a punishment for what hath been done in the body of another although we 1 Cor. 11.22 all dye and go to the dust in the first Adam in that all have sinned or in whom all have sinned Rom. 5. ver 12. compared with the Margin and God himself hath declared against such iniquitie of proceeding in Ezek. 18.20 The soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father c. Now that this was a dying that was more then to dye and to go to the dust it is evident for all must undergo that whether they be righteous or unrighteous and we find ver 26. that when a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dieth in them he shall dye which doth imply that it was a death that is to be the portion of those that dye and go to the dust in wickedness and impenitency after that death when the judgement cometh which is called in Scripture the second death and it doth appear that that death will not be the portion of any for any thing that is acted in or by another but for the wickedness and impenitency of every particular soul that liveth and dieth therein In answer to this rabble I say that as there is salvation for all sorts and degrees of persons of age in covenant but not to be extended to all of those sorts and degrees to reach every individual person so in a parallel way we may think of infants I know no Text giving us
actually saved for if in Christ 1 Cor. 15.22 all are made alive that are alive and that he that is alive liveth unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 then as Christ himself such dye no more sin hath no more dominion over them Rom. 6.9 for they live unto the Lord Rom. 14.8 and 1 Joh. 3.9 his seed remaineth in him Being born again 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Next And Christ rendreth the light of the Spirit of Grace to every man in the world It s true we have some expressions Ioh. 1.9 that Christ lighteth every man that cometh into the world but that is to be understood of the common light of nature or the actings of reason as the two next following verses do evince for the world knew him not and his own received him not they had not the spirit of grace and faith for 2 Thes 3.2 all men have not faith But how doth Christ tender the light of the Spirit of grace to every man surely after that ordinary manner that God hath sanctified to wit the preaching of the Gospel for Rom. 10.14 faith cometh by hearing and how shall they hear without a Preacher then that is apparently false for it is too well known that there are many thousand thousands in the world yea divers nations which never enjoyed the blessing to hear of Christ or the Spirit of grace but Ephes 1.12 lived without a God in this world and at last shall go Psal 49.19 unto the generations of their fathers and never see light If the meaning be that Christ tendreth the light of the spirit of grace inwardly and after an extraordinary manner this is but petitio principii as they say in the Schooles a plain begging of the question without any proof of Scripture or probability in common reason Nay it is flat against the Scripture for Luke 16.19 they have Moses and the Prophets they are to hear them Esa 8.26 to the law and to the testimony c. 2 Pet 1.19 We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place Next God also giveth a Talent to every man and power to improve it but man not improving it when received with a power is the cause of mans destruction Now what weight this talent bears with this Dictator or what power is given unto frail men to improve it and how far and to what or whom either of these talents or power is extended when he hath better studied the point and comes to understand his own meaning if he please then to communicate it he shall be sure to receive a further answer but in the mean time by way of Anticipation if his sense be as I conjecture through his clouded and dark expressions That God hath afforded sufficient means of grace and power to improve that means to every man whereby they may come to the knowledge of the truth and so be saved then I utterly deny it and my ground of such denial rests upon these ensuing Arguments 1. Arg. If God do purposely for the raising of his own glory harden some blind others and make fat the hearts of many then a sufficient means of salvation nor power to use the same is administred to all indifferently But God doth blind some hardens others and makes fat Therefore The major or first proposition is undeniable because blinding hardening and making fat is destructive to the use of means The minor or second proposition is proved from these express texts Ex. 4.21 and 7.3 and 14.4 Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardeneth Ex. 9.16 and Rom. 9.17 even for this same purpose have I raised thee up Ioh. 12.40 he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts c. Esa 6.9 Rom. 11.7 election hath obtained it the rest are blinded Esa 6.10 make the hearts of this people fat 2. Arg. If God willingly suffers Nations to walk in their own wayes and winkes at or lets them alone in their sins and ignorance then God doth not exhibite a sufficiency of means nor inables them with a power of acceptation of life and salvation But the first is true therefore the latter For the proof of the major is unnecessary for the minor see Acts 14.16 and 17.30 3. Arg. If the preaching of Christ crucified in the doctrine of the Gospel be the onely ordinary sufficient means to bring men to life and to salvation and that many nations never enjoyed that means then God hath not afforded a sufficiency of means to all men but the first is true therefore the latter That the Gospel is the onely ordinary means Rom. 10.14 How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard c. Acts 4.12 there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Ioh. 14.6 No man cometh to the Father but by the Son 1 Ioh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 Tim. 2.5 One mediator between God and man the man Christ Iesus Now that many nations want this means t is too evident and therefore no sufficiency The Seventh Position That Christ hath redeemed all men from the first transgression and crost the score of Adams sin I cannot well interpret what this dreamer means for if his sense should be by way of limitation in all men to all the elect of men then I imbrace his Position and should much enlarge it But I suspect worse that he covertly denies the being of original sin secretly insinuating that the death of Christ hath blotted out Col. 2.14 that hand-writing that was against us from any further imputation of Adams sin or obligation unto punishment onely the guilt and pollution thereof still remains inherent in us However it is I will shoot at rovers and adventure an argument or two in defence of the truth 1. Arg. That unto which the Scripture doth apply the name and nature of sin deserving punishment that without controversie must be sin indeed But unto original sin both the name and nature of sin are applyed in the Scripture Therefore For proof hereof see Psal 81.7 Rom. 5.12 14 16 19. Ioh. 3.6 Rom. 7.7 8. and 8.13 Iam. 1.14 2. Arg. If temporal death hath been the lot of every one which yet hath not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression then there is original sin still in being in respect of punishment for Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death and every sin is either actuall or originall but temporal death hath been the lot of many who yet have not sinned actually Rom. 6.14 and this we may see instanced in the death of Infants which die without actual sin Therefore The last Position is Christ hath laid his life and shed his bloud for
as 2 Chron 15.2 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while you be with him and if you seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you God had promised them sworne to them that they should enter into Canaan but they brought up an evil report concerning that land they murmured against God who hereupon told them that they should not come into that land but wander fourty years in the wilderness till their carcasses were wasted and so they should know his breach of promise or altering his purpose as the margin hath it Had they made good their promise he would have made good his promise but because they brake with him in sinning he brake with them in punishing and so here was exact justice lex talionis The like we have Ezek. 16.59 I will even deal with thee as thou hast done which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant Having set this buttress to my first Argument and throughly fortified it against all your crooked engines I am now ready to attend to what you have to say against my second argument which is this If the Patriarch Iacob was elected meerly out of Grace without any respect had to any of his faith works or use of means then all others are likewise so elected for there is the one alike motive for the election of all as of one But Iacob was elected meerly out of the good will of God without any respect had to faith works or use of means at least for the moving of God to elect him Therefore all others are so elected Whereto you begin thus to answer First I cannot but mind those words that fall from his pen in the close of his argument at least saith he for the moving of God to elect him certainly either it was his mind to give out something as though the position had said that mens faith works and use of means did move God to elect then when the word works was not there at all for had it been in it without an explanation of it I should not have vindicated the position but as it is I must maintain the truth of it against all opposers whatsoever neither is there any thing in it as that faith or use of means doth move God to the electing of any men or else surely his heart smote him or his own conscience did accuse him that he had excluded the use of means wholly in the electing of men to life and salvation as if God had no respect to it upon any account whatsoever and yet should take pay for preaching as if it were a thing of great worth upon that account Answ Sir by your last I hoped to have found you somewhat conformable to the rules of Schools and to have denyed some one proposition for matter or the whole for forme but instead thereof you fall into a rambling discourse without either art or wit so that I am forced to follow you in your wildgoose-chace though it be somewhat immethodical And I now shall tell you this that these words for the moving of God to elect him did neither casually nor by check of conscience drop from my pen but very considerately for the better illustration of the sense of the Argument and therefore whatsoever your disclaimer is as that nothing is implied in the position whence to conclude your admitting of external motives in the object by way of condition qualification or thing prerequisite for or according to which God doth elect and thereby become a motive or incentive for Gods electing and so not singly and simply his bare and meer good pleasure Yet as I have by severâ—â— arguments made to appear in the defence of the former Argument that in reality of truth according to you faith embracing of the means c. are concauses or incentives for God to elect And why you should grumble as in this and several times after you do that I insert works with faith and use of means in my argument I know no cogent reason you can have for it for as for works whereby I mean a conformable walking according to the mind and will of Iesus Christ they being via regni Heb. 11.6 Heb. 12.14 they are every way as necessary unto salvation as faith it self is for as without faith it is impossible to please God so without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And therefore that I yoke the Papist with the Anabaptist I shall only say Matth. 20.13 14. friend I do thee no wrong tolle quod tuum est et vadâ— for ought I see you are no holier then they their foreseen works carrie as much colour of truth as your foreseen faith and both alike both of them necessary and concurrent to salvation but both of them and all things else out of God excluded from election his alone will and good pleasure being the sole rise and fountain why any is elected and yet as God doth elect unto glory and salvation as the end so he doth elect unto grace unto faith unto good works as the way and means conducing to that end You second what you have begun and say that the Patriarch Iacob and all others that are elect are elected meerly of grace without any respect had to their works if it be meant meerly the works of the Law but that Iacob or any other man or woman whatsoever is elected without any respect had to faith or use of means I do deny This to me seems a bold attempt and a plain contradiction that any thing should be meerly i. e. solely and singly of grace and yet with a respect had to faith and use of means If the Apostles Argument be good Rom. 11.6 If of grace then not of works because grace excludes all other things besides it self if it be meerly grace then certainly it must be as concluding here if of grace then not from any respect had to faith or use of means which last in plain English is nothing else but good works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 That same grace excluding all other things besides as to the decree it self of election Though I alwaies did and shall affirm that the same gracious God that so freely without any respect had to any thing in those he did elect did decree to save them So he did decree to save them by faith in his Son and through good works to bring them to glory The next thing you endeavour is to commit a rape upon Rom. 9. and to defloure the purity of that Scripture by your false gloss upon it which you dictate thus For the Scripture in Rom. 9.11 which is that which he bringeth to prove his Argument proveth no such thing but the contrary for although it was said to Rebecca before the children were yet borne neither having done any good or evil that the pâ—rpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of
him that calleth yet there is nothing at all about excluding faith or use of means for the Apostles drift in that very text is to exclude the works of the law that the Jews would dwell upon for justification that so he might set up faith in the room and place thereof which I shall have occasion to speak of hereafter In the mean while consider that Paul is so far from confusion in putting faith works and use of means altogether and shutting them all out of doors together as having no place at all in that great and weighty work of our election to eternal life as this Babylonian doth that on the contrary he in beating down the works of the law and casting it out from having any place at all in that thing viz. the election or justification of persons in the sight of God to eternal life doth in the 9th of the Romans together with many other sayings by him recorded in that Epistle and other of the Epistles written to the Churches of the Saints endeavour to set up faith and the use of means that is leading thereunto in the same things Answ The result of all this nothing amounts onely to this that the Apostle in that chapter his intended scope is to exclude works and to entertain faith in the stead thereof But truly Sir I am very jealous or confident rather that if you were well canvast about it that whiles you undertake to be a teacher of others 1 Tim. 1.7 yet you understand not what you say or whereof you affirm For this I so positively affirm Matth. 5.17 that as all works are not excluded from a justified person they being for necessary uses Tit. 3.14 Christ not coming to destroy the law but to fulfill it Rom. 8.3 and to cast down the merit of our works and to declare that they could have no justification by them as being weak through the flesh So neither is faith ushered in by Paul here in the room as you phrasifie it of works as by the excellency thereof it could justifie us before God much less be any waies instrumental to our election as this Athenian babler seems to innovate For whereas you contradistinguish the Law of faith spoken of under that term 1 Thess 1.3 and 2 Thess 1.11 to the law of works You must know that the Gospel is called a law of faith because the promise of Grace in Christ is propounded with Commandement that men believe it But now we deny that faith justifies us as it is a work which we performe in obedience to this law It justifies us onely as the condition required of us and as an instrument of embracing Christs righteousness no Sir it is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or the act of believing that hath any such efficacy for so it is a work of our own and so as much turned out of doors as any other of our good works Our believing being impure and but in part Lord I believe help mine unbelief and so altogether unable to justifie for that must be done by a perfect righteousness But whatsoever is here or any where else in Scripture spoken to the advance and honour of faith is to be understood of faith objectively i. e. Christ believed on by faith that doth supply to our perfect justification Isa 64.6 Phil. 3.8 when all the merits of our Righteousness are but as filthy raggs yea dung and loss compared with Christ So that it is not properly faith that is a believers evangelical Righteousness whereby he is justified but Christ set up as the brazen serpent and laid hold on by faith the souls organ and hand to receive him that is our Righteousness Ier. 23.6 the Lord our Righteousness and 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made to us wisdome Righteousness But that I may more clearly rescue this eminent portion of Scripture out of such soule fingers who lay violence upon it and by their tricks of legerdemain make a Babylonish confusion of election with justification as this jugler doth here and all along as you shall find forcing upon election that which is peculiar to Justification not distinguishing the decree of election from justification which is onely the means for the execution of the decree the ordinary slur that this society of people would put upon us I shall by the assistance of Gods Spirit give you the genuine scope and sense of the Apostle in this Chapter In the former Chapter the Apostle had been treating of Justification in these three next Chapters he treats of Predestination but this is occasioned by way of Anticipation For against the Doctrine of Justification it might be objected If the Doctrine of Justification by faith alone were true then it would be received by the Jewish nation But the Jews disclaim that Doctrine at least the greatest part of them ergo it cannot be true The first Proposition the Apostle denies and answers to the reason of it teaching that not all the Jews are to be accounted the people of God who are partakers of the outward promises but onely those who do believe the promises of grace and that whereas they are but few that do believe and that most of the Jews do not believe this doth wholly rest on the secret will and Predestination of God who hath elected some unto salvation for the manifestation of his mercy and hath not elected or reprobated others according to his unfathomable justice Upon which Reprobation did depend the rejection of the greatest part of the Jews of that time and the calling of the Gentiles in their stead This is the general scope of this Chapter Now because a doctrine of this nature must needs be a stumbling-block of offence unto the Jews therefore in the five first verses he insinuates into their good opinion intimating his tenderest bosome-love unto them and extols them for many prerogatives wherein they did outstrip other nations and yet withall he expresseth his sorrow when he considers that they were rejected of God and appointed to destruction In the six and seventh verses he meets with an objection which in substance was thus If the Iews be rejected then the Covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed is of no effect But this is not so ergo not the other The Apostle here denies the sequel of the Major Proposition and renders a reason of such his denial by a distinction of a double sort of the children of Abraham viz. 1. Children of the flesh 2. Children of the Promise and thence informs them that the Covenant doth properly belong to the children of the Promise i. e. to the elect Jews Therefore howsoever the children of the flesh for the most part of them be rejected yet the Covenant of God remains sure and firm towards the children of the Promise i. e. towards the elect Jews This distinction he confirms by a special example of the two sons of Abraham viz. Ismael and Isaac whereof the first was onely
Gentiles did not follow after righteousness yet they have attained to the law of righteousness because they believed in Christ and on the contrary that the Jews though they followed after righteousness yet they have not attained unto righteousness because they believe not in Christ but seek justification by their own works and together with this he sets forth the cause why they believed not in Christ because they were offended with or at him at which offence of theirs lest believers should be offended he declares that that of old was declared by the Prophet Isa 8.14 and 28.16 You hold on at the same rate as you have begun thus and in chap. 3. where he wholly excludeth the deeds of the law in the business of justification saying v. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sin but sheweth that faith is for another end and use in the following verses and then in making enquirie in the 27. ver Where is boasting then it is saith Paul excluded By what law of works Nay but by the law of faith In which words of the Apostle it is clear that faith and the deeds of the law are different and the law of works and the law of faith have different ends and as he concludes in ver 20. that by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God So in ver 28. he makes that a sure ground by which he certainly concludeth that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law And so also in chap. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is accounted to him for righteousness And so preferring faith or shewing that as faith was counted to Abraham for righteousness so faith is counted to all that believe for righteousness and the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith ver 13. For if they which are of the law be heirs faith is made void and the promise made of none effect ver 14. Because the law worketh wrath for where no law is there is no transgression ver 15. and then concludes again in ver 16. That in regard That to be justified in the sight of God or to be the heir of the world was not through the law nor of the law nor by the deeds of the law therefore saith he it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed See also chap. 5.1 2. Answ What need was there of all this parcel of impertinent words quite besides the business inhand we are upon the point of election and all this is about justification Let me for hereafter give you this for a Motto Hoc age remember what you are about I do readily acknowledge that there are different ends of the law and of faith the most exact and strictest observers of the law could never obtain perfection thence Heb. 7.19 Heb. 10.1 The law made nothing perfect The sacrifices that they offered from year to year could not make the comers thereunto perfect There was an impotency and beggarliness in the observances of the Law to justifie their persons and make them accepted of God and truly Sir so is faith so far as it is ours Cor. our graces are all imperfect we know but in part our faith is mixt with some doubtings hence Lord I believe help mine unbelief O Lord increase our faith for we are of little faith Nay were any the best of men nay or of all the men in the world their graces put all in a lump together the excellency of all those graces of all those persons could not amount unto such a value as to justifie any one person and render him acceptable to God Eph. But when Christ is received by faith his merit mediation and intercession presents them to God the Father holy and without blemish they are complete in Christ Col. 1.28 and 2.10 and 4.12 Even by those ornaments he hath put on them Ezek. 16.14 T is Christ who is our Passover our peace our propitiation our righteousness our justifier that reconciles God and man together Faith of it self is but a creature and hath no such omnipotency and though it be an uniting and an excellent Grace yet it is a gift wrought in us by the immediate finger of God and not of our own strength yea it is a part of the purchase of Jesus Christ merited by his death and passion and he gives it to those sheep that little flock which were given to him of the father and those sheep he knows by name Joh. 10.3.27 and 13.18 You draw near to a conclusion and say so that we may see that although election to life and salvation and to be justified in the sight of God be not of the law nor through the law nor by the deeds of the law nor yet for faith and yet it is by faith and through faith and in believing and no where said to be without it by which it doth appeare that the putting off faith and works and the use of means altogether and to say that God had no more respect to faith and the use of the means of salvation then he had to the works of the law in electing and justifying persons in his sight to eternal life is a mistake at least if it amount not to an error Answ Sir abate me but two words in all this and that before viz. election and electing and I le freely give you without begging all the rest But truly Sir this is no fair play especially in divine things this trajection and slipping from one species of a mercy to another so unworthily to foist in to give it no harsher a term the word election as though those places before quoted by you had spoken to it when there is not one word mentioned that looks that way but onely speaks of Justification all which as to that I give you gratis deal more faithfully hereafter with your over-credulous learners and readers And now you conclude what you have to say against this Argument thus For if God respect not faith and use of means in the electing of men and women to life and salvation then shew by plain Scripture-proof if you can what it is that he respects for we have learned already that he respecteth not persons Acts 10.34 Rom. 2.11 1 Pet. 17. 1. Col. 3.25 Answ Why Sir I have often inculcated that in election the Lord ultimately consults his own glory and that there is no external condition or qualification in the object that he hath any such respect unto as that because thereof he doth elect yea nothing besides the manifestation of his infinitely rich mercy and to his glory in extending it to such undeserving
and means appointed of God for that end and one would think that this man were a little of my mind in this by what falleth from him in the close of this second Argument using these words at least for the moving of God to elect Sir If here where you make mention of any Instrumental cause you intend onely the Instrumental means of salvation then I joyne with you for as I have before asserted That as God hath decreed the end so likewise hath he decreed the means conducing to that end But as there is no external cause at all and therefore none Instrumental for which he doth elect before all time but all arising from within himself even his own love and good pleasure so when that decree comes to be put into execution in time then there are subordinate causes but all set on work by the first cause which is God himself but not as to election but all as tending to salvation And therefore that fell very advisedly from me when I said at least for the moving of God to elect where I place a vast difference between election and salvation God elects without respect had to faith works or use of means as to the decree but yet he saves with by and through faith works and use of means as in respect of the end 2 Thes 2.13 1 Pet. 1.2 You pack up these your fardles of exceptions thus Now if he do not hold that it is some cause by which men come to be more peculiarly interessed into the favour of God by believing then they are without believing why did he not rather say it must not be accounted any cause at all upon any account whatsoever But it is that which the Lord Christ hath said in Ioh. 16.27 which perswadeth me to be of that mind in that he hath said the Father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God and therefore If I should say that loving of Jesus Christ and believing in him were no cause at all by which we came to be chosen into the Fathers love I should sin against Christ in speaking contrary to his word But this is more then was in the Position and yet it is no more then truth Answ Sir now I will give you an account why I used that expression at least for the moving of God to elect my meaning was not that any man came to be interested into the first favour and love of God which is the good pleasure of his will immanent and eternal in himself more by believing then without believing For in election God lookt upon men as sinners enemies ungodly in their blood in a doleful plight and the objects of pity and compassion and not as on believers And therefore my words carried this sense that though there were no cause or motive at all why he should elect one rather then another because all were in an equally lost condition yet in the decree of election wherein there was a love unto and a purpose to save some he likewise decreed to save them by such means which in his wisdome he had ordained to be suitable for the attaining of the end so that salvation should have adequate causes for the effecting of it viz. faith works and use of means though election it self had none but singly and simply the love of God arising onely out of his own bosome And therefore it excluded causes as to election but did admit of causes as to the accomplishment of salvation For the rest of this paragraph of yours it trips up the heeles of all the former your seeming fair concessions and plainly discovers the secret guile and fraud of your heart For now you begin to speak plain enough saying If I should say believing were no cause at all by which we come to be chosen into the Fathers love I should sin against Christ Here indeed is plain dealing though all along before you have juggled with me and denyed all causes as to election And this indeed though you are not aware of it moâ—lders to nothing all your former exceptions which have still denied all causes motives c. And now you grant loving and believing to be causes and confirms every argument that I have raised and fortifies every of those absurdities that I have charged upon you as following upon your position to any of which you make not the least appearance of an answer But I tell you as before God in electing lookt upon men as in the corrupt mass and lumpe of perdition regarding nothing what they could be as of themselves for they must unavoidably be in a lost condition till by his own act transient flowing from that of Immanent in himself he made them believers by giving of them faith and all of this for the greater advance of his own free grace which he did not do to others For that place of Ioh. 16.27 brought to confirm their purpose I answer that the love of God hath a two-fold acception The first is amor benevolentiae which is the foundation and fountain of all the good his people have and receive t is the wombe that conceives and sends forth all the good things we do enjoy of which Ier. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love and so 1 Ioh. 4.10 we love him because he loved us first and of this no cause or reason can be rendred besides the good pleasure of his will The second is amor complacentiae when in time the Lord is delighted with the persons of those that he loved from eternity Ezek. 16.14 thy beauty was perfect through the comeliness I put upon thee Cant. 3.1 Behold thou art fair c. and thus the Lord crowns rewards and delights himself in those graces given to his elect ones and of this love of complacency is this text to be understood and not of the everlasting love spoken of Ier. 31.3 in electing of us before all time and whereof onely this controversie is And now gather up altogether and make up your accounts and see to what an excrescency of advantage your numerous exceptions against my arguments will amount unto and you shall find that the Summa totalis will be just o Hitherto have we fayled in that still river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God Psal 46.4 Psal 87.7 Rom. 11.33 and from whence all our springs flow viz. Gods electing of us to life eternal But now we are to lanch into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that unfathomable gulfe of the wisdom and knowledge of God whose judgements are unsearchable and his waies past finding out viz. that of non-election or Reprobation Concerning which this Gentlemans Position did assert this viz. That God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief yet haply not without the exact form of godliness but denying the power those he reprobated to everlasting destruction from the foundation of the world But In
nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas Corpora c. Having taken counsel of his pillow by his second thoughts he hath transformed the terms of his position by putting it into a new dress and at his peril be it if it prove to his own disadvantage The Position is new moulded thus God saw some rejecting the means to wit the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel continuing in sin and unbelief denying the power of godliness those he reprobated to everlasting destruction but the foresight of God did not nor doth necessitate the thing seen To which my answer was Answ This hath the like unsoundness in it as the former of Election there being no other ground or reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelieving no other rejecting of the means but the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy Will who will do with his creature what he will do neither can any expostulate why hast thou done thus Isa 45.9 It is true that sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but yet not the causes of their Reprobation that is solely and singly in the good pleasure of his will Ephes 1.5 His reply is this especially to that Text of Ephes 1.5 This Scripture saith nothing at all of Reprobation or mans destruction but of the Predestinating or appointing of believers to the Adoption of children by Jesus Christ Answ T is very true Sir that the letters and syllables of that word Reprobation is not in terminis exprest in that text cited of Ephes 1.5 but if by a necessary and an unavoidable consequence it may be thence concluded I hope it will be as sufficient as though in express words it had been so declared The words are recorded as for the comfort and encouragement of elect believers in beholding of the certainty and stability of their Predestination and Election resting in the bosome of God and the counsel of his will So likewise to keep them in an humble posture and engage them to a continual duty of thankfulness that when as they were in the same corrupt mass and lump of perdition with others the worst of men yet the Lord meerly out of the good pleasure of his will and from no other argument or motive out of themselves did fix his love upon them and predestinated them to the Adoption of children But was there not then the same good pleasure of his wil in the preterition non-election or not predestinating to the Adoption of children the rest that were past by who in respect of themselves were in as great and as good a capacity of partaking of any indulgence as those that were elected and what will this then amount unto but to be non-elected which is the same as to be Reprobated according to the good pleasure of his will I presume all the art you have cannot assign a medium between the decrees or at least make two decrees of predestinating of some men and the not predestinating of others but that if some men were not predestinated or not elected they must thence necessarily be reprobated He give you a familiar instance Suppose ten men for the evil deeds that they have committed be arraigned indicted convicted and adjudged to death but that immediately before the time of execution an act of Grace or special Pardon issues out from the supreme Magistrate and relaxes and freely remits the punishment to five of those ten I hope you may hence safely conclude that the other five shall be executed So let us suppose that the number of mankind are two Millions of men If out of these by the eternal and unchangeable decree of God one Million onely be infallibly appointed and ordained to eternal life they being all alike equally culpable and liable to eternal wrath and death who can deny but that the other Million are also as absolutely comprised under that sentence of eternal death whereinto they had hurled themselves as the decree of predestination or election saves some of meer good pleasure so the same decree of preterition non election non predestination leaves the rest where it found them weltring in their own gore and so reprobates them I hope you will not with the Papists in another like kind make a limbo non praedestinatorum seu non electorum such as shall neither go to heaven or hell And this of the decree of God before all time But when it pleaseth God who separated such from the mothers womb to reveal his Son unto them in time Gal. 1.16 then it is after this manner He brings his elect ones to eternal life by giving of theâ—â— faith repentance and perseverance and the manner of Gods permitting the non-elect to run themselves on the rock of eternal death is by leaving them in their own natural blindness and perverse enmity of their own imbred corruptions and nor supplying them with any restraining assisting or saving grace being not bound unto his creature so to do without which they must unavoydably wallow in their own mire and out of which they are never able to extricate themselves but are justly by God suffered to continue in their infidelity and impenitency Farther I say that the formal decree of election contains an absolute and an eternal decree of preparing of effectual grace for those that are so elected But the formal decree of negative Reprobation or non-election an absolute eternal decree of not preparing this effectual grace for those who are so pretermitted From whence is plain that the divine prevision of faith works and use of means in the elect so likewise the continuing in sin and unbeliefe in the nonelect doth not nor cannot go before the forementioned decree as you vainly imagine but are concomitant and coordinate in and with the decree and that when some are predestinated and elected to the Adoption of children out of the good pleasure of Gods will Eph. 2.12 Others are not predestinated not elected but reprobated according to the same good pleasure of his will and still remain aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and never made partakers of the joy of the elect Pro. 14.10 From the canvassing of this text you proceed to another but with the like success of which thus you dictate Neither is that In Isa 45. at all to the purpose for it speaketh not at all of Reprobation or mans eternal destruction but of Gods calling and raising up Cyrus to subdue nations before him and that he would direct all his waies that he should build his City and let go his Captives and it was his will so to do and therefore woe be unto him that should strive with his maker to go about to hinder or frustrate the designe of God in that thing as doth appear from ver 1. to ver 15. Answ Sure Sir whatsoever mine is I am sure this is little to
his wisdome I cannot but stand up in detestation of such a doctrine which striketh at the very being of these attributes in God Answ Alas Reverend Sir have I incurred crimen laesae majestatis that you seem so passionate or is it onely an affected garbe of one of your Hypocritical raptures No Sir I doubt not evidently to make it so appear that our doctrine dorh not in the least degree intrench upon any of the Divine attributes but that it gives to the most High God the honour due unto his name by exalting him infinitely beyond all the creation shewing their necessary dependance on him in all they have do or hope to enjoy Whereas your Doctrine whatsoever offers and fair pretences it makes yet t is no better then Iaels bottle of milk to Sisera Judg. 4.19 when ready to perish with thirst she administers withal a nayle and with a hammer beats it into his temples for howsoever you make a fair flourish of vindicating the free grace of God yet the issue of all tends to this namely to usher in that mincing minion free-wil so to set her cheek by jowle by God himself neither are you contented with this alone but that in those grand determinations of mans salvation or damnation you plainly give the casting voyce to her so that the result of all must be as she will please to accept or refuse grace offered so that all the while you will make God as an Idle spectator till she hath been pleased to interpose her umpirage and yet all of which must be suspended untill the moment of death for according unto your principles which unto me is a paradox Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus What prejudices you muster up as in defiance and detestation of our Doctrine you do reduce unto three heads as striking at as you vainly imagine first the mercy secondly the truth thirdly the wisdome of God but all of these are built on one and the same false and rotten foundation and therfore the labour is not so great as to lay it all even with the ground and for the original of it to return it to hell where it was first forged I shall then in your own order wait upon you in your march and so examine what you have to say for your self and cause which begins thus First if God hath by an absolute decree brought forth such an effect as a continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means of salvation so as the greatest part of men must be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death for doing nothing but what they must do by the decree of God and cannot do otherwise then where is the tender mercy of our God which is over all his works Answ My good friend I must tell you that we utterly abjure that which you infer as a sequel of our doctrine and for answer unto yours say that this which his companions the other two seeming gravamens are all alike grounded on a false hypothesis wherein you discover a gross mistake conceiving that non-election or negative Reprobation draws along with it an invincible necessity of committing of sin or that it doth determine mans will to sin either by compulsion or necessity for which such so reprobated are afterwards condemned but no such inferences can be drawn from our opinions We say the negative will of God is no cause at all of mans sin or misery but his own positive will is the cause both of his wickedness and of his wretchedness He is the true and principal cause of any effect or event who imployeth his faculties and endeavours to bring it into being and not he who onely resolveth not to hinder such evill effects though he foresee they will come into being if he prevent them not The infallible prevision of God seeth from all eternity the actions of men and their ends and yet this maketh not the modus agendi to be necessary or compulsory but leaveth the agent most free as if he had never foreseen it so that the absolute decree of not giving faith final perseverance and eternal life unto the non-elect which he is no waies bound to do howsoever it deny them that grace which would effectually and infallibly make them bring forth fruits meet for repentance Mat. 3.8 yet it depriveth them not of their own natural freedome and liberty neither doth it necessitate compel or constrain them unto any their unbelief or committing or continuing in sin T is he and he alone or chiefly may well be said to be invincibly drawn into sin and plunged into and cast into the like of fire who fights against sin with all his strength and striveth to avoid damnation And yet by the overmastring power of another is thrust into the one and hurld into the other which the consciences of the most wicked in the world can tell them that there is no such forcing power in non-election or reprobation Yea the non-elect Angels which are now Devils in hell cannot upon their non-election charge God that either their transgression or damnation was invincibly inforced upon them they indeavouring to escape it Take a view of any of the men of the world whom you much conceive may be ranked among the number of such castawaies and therein see whether the decree of reprobation had any such influence upon their outward wiâ—ked actions that they might say for excuse they were necessitated thereunto The decree of reprobation did not compel or necessitate Cain to the murtherous act of the killing of his brother neither was there any obligation upon Absalom incestuously to defile his fathers Concubines Neither did it unavoydably inforce Iudas to the selling and betraying of his Master all these sinful actions and all the like committed by other the like reprobates proceed meerly out of their own election having a power whereby they might have abstained from the committing of them And therefore my kind neighbour to help you one of this mire that you sink not into grosser absurdities as it is too incident to those of your Tribe who open every casement to entertain all your new lights though many of them prove but ignes fatui It will be expedient to take notice of a threefold necessity which may have a dependency upon a subject person and by means whereof a man may be said that he must do so and that he cannot do otherwise There is a necessity of immutability a necessity of infallibility and a necessity of coaction or compulsion I shall explain the terms I call that a necessity of immutability which doth befal all such things as are appointed by the eternal and immutable decree of God for God cannot change his counsel but it must of necessity come to pass Psal 33.11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not Secondly necessity of
unbelief Answ Though this be all yeelded yet the truth that I profess is never the more prejudiced I shall therefore hearken to what you further say But there is one text yet in the rere of all the rest that are mustered up for the proof of this Argument which I cannot well pass by without speaking something to it lest it should be said that there was some strength in it which I knew not how to remove the text is 1 Pet. 2.8 which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed Answ Alas grave Sir are you now at last grown so consciencious as to hold your self obliged exactly to answer all my allegations or do you think you have here espied an advantage I am very certain that there are but few of all those places I have cited that you have medled with at all but put a slur upon the most of them but none of all that you have satisfactorily answered Let your whole pamphlet be surveyed and judgment given upon it whether you have given but the appearance of an answer to any one text by me presented and now do you come with such pretences that there is no such strength in it but that you knew how to remove But let us hear what your wisdome wil say to it To which I reply first by demanding who it is that can be disobedient in doing what they are appointed to do by God himself Now if those that live and dye in unbelief were appointed of God so to do then where is their disobedience are they not as much obedient as those that live and dye in the faith for they do no more then what is appointed them of God to do and then do they not equally and alike do the will of the Father and then would they not be the brethren and sisters of Christ Matth. 12.50 Let those that have understanding judge Sir I will give you for your better satisfaction the scope of the place and that will a little conduce to gain the sense of the words The Apostle in this same verse partly confirms what he had delivered concerning Christ ver 4. viz. that he was a living stone chosen and precious and partly he prevents an objection which might arise from the in redulity of the greatest part of the Jews and chiefly of the Scribes and Pharisees This scandal he removes by the commemoration of a prophecy of David Psal 118.22 whereby to signifie that they ought not to be offended with the incredulity of the Jews as a thing so strange as never to have been expected whereas it was foretold by David and that by a special instinct of the Holy Ghost 2. And to the confirmation of the same he adjoynes another prophecy of Isa 8.14 And lastly the same scandal he utterly cashiers by a declaration that such was the will of God that it should be so whi h as being most just and holy all the people of God are bound to acquiesce in and this he clears ve 8. when he saith that those unbelievers who are offended at the Gospel were appointed unto this very same thing The like expressions are found 1 Thes 5.9 God hath not appointed us to wrath and Rom. 9.17 for this same purpose have I raised thee and ver 22. vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and Iude 4. of old ordained to condemnation And this of the scope now for the sense of the words 1. We do not say they were appointed as if we did maintain that God had decreed to infuse oâ— instil unbelief into them for all men are by nature unbelievers and disobedient to the truth Adams disobedien e had exposed them to and left them in such a connative state of unbelief and disobedience that they were never able to shake off nor rid their hands and hearts from untill God by his immediate hand had spâ—inkled them with pure water and washt them clean and therefoâ—e there needed no new infusion to make them do that to which you say they were appointed to do their own contracted original depravation woâ—ld carry them on fast enough to that without any other or new intervenient act of God No Sir Gods acts are all holy and just they were appointed to that unbelief and disobedience not that God would work it in them But that he had decreed and so appointed to leave them in that unbelieving and disobedient condition whereinto man at first had freely precipitated himself whereby he had so captivated all his posterity that they being deprived of the glory of God and God likewise having decreed to permit them to fall into gross actual transgressions from which he was no way obliged to preserve them and hence it is that here it is said they are appointed to it because God had decreed not to prevent it none of this disobedience or unbelief came to pass either God not knowing of it or wanting power to hinder it but God for the setting forth of his own glory in the manifestation of his justice upon such immorigerous subjects he had decreed to permit that unbelief and disobedience and so it was appointed 2. Neither do we say that there was any precept or command whereby God did require that unbelief or disobedience No the purity of his most holy nature doth most severely forbid it but this it is that we assert that the just God had appointed or decreed not to give them faith which is an undeserved grace Eph. 2.8 not to give them the spirit of obedience for that is a disobliged mercy and yet without whose gift of themselves they could do nothing Ioh. 15.2 Phil. 2.13 and that positively likewise he had decreed that when they were refractory and disobedient against the Gospel in a righteous way of judgement more grievously to blind and harden them so punishing sin with sin and in the end and issue of all to give them the wages which they had earned that so they might reap what they had sowen and receive the fruits of their own labours viz. hell and destruction and so all of this was appointed because decreed to be done or permitted to be done Therefore you do but dally and play with the words and make a mock of the language of the holy Ghost when you write If those that dye in unbelief were appointed of God so to do then where is their disobedience are they not as much obedient as those that live and dye in the faith Good Sir this obedience that you dream of that so much perplexeth your brains supposeth a command to that unbelief that disobedience which we utterly deny T is true this we do affirme that there doth proceed a decree and that not positive but negative viz. a denyal of such grace as by which they might be inabled both to believe and obey the Gospel And that grace being wanting to them how shall they believe how can they obey and yet all this is no other then God in his secret
because it is a truth viz. that no child dying in infancy can possibly be reprobated for reprobation is the portion of such as have the means of the knowledge of God and his truth which is the means of salvation and so reject it which infants as such can never do as hath been already proved But for the former viz. that children dying in infancy before they have any being to act should be reprobated to everlasting destruction he shall never father it upon us for it followeth not from any principle that we hold neither will it agree with the tender mercies of our God who hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked and therefore not of an innocent dying infant for mercy rejoyceth against judgement Answ Sir this latter absurdity will stick to your skirts as long as ever you uphold this your position and that you do not recant it as hath been by me sufficiently proved and for the former it likewise hath been evidenced that children dying in infancy before they had the act and use of faith must unavoydably be damned were it not for the sole good pleasure of Gods most holy will who hath chosen some of them according to the election of Grace they being in the same lump with others And so I proceed to the second absurdity which is As 2. neither such Gentiles or Turks Indians and Savages that never heard of Christ who never enjoyed the Gospel c. Answ To which I answer first by demanding why he concludeth that there be some Gentiles that never heard of Christ c. The Apostle Paul delivereth doctrine contrary to this saying have they not all heard yes verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the end of the world Rom. 10.18 and chap. 16.25 26. Speaking of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandement of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith how then is it that this man saith that there be such Gentiles or Turks and the like that never heard of Christ if he hath been among such pretending himself to be a Minister of Christ he should have preached Christ unto them But I am perswaded that he groundeth what he saith upon a report of some History of Travellers or the like and from thence there is as good ground to conclude that they may hear of Christ and that there are Christians in this part of the world which worship that God that is the creator of al things by Jesus Christ as there is for us to conclude that there is a Mahomet which the Turk doth believe in and that there are Indians and Savages who are strangers from the life of God and that worship the creature more than the Creator for certainly they may as wel hear what we do as we can hear what they are and what they do and if they did but delight to retain that God in their knowledge whom we worship and to entertain the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts in whom we believe without question they might know more of God and his Son Christ then they do and this doth appear from the words of Christ Luk. 16.10 11. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who shall commit to your trust the true riches and therefore if they were faithful in the use of that means which they do enjoy from God without doubt they might know more of God then they do Answ Well fare you good Sir in your understanding you have already dispatcht infants even those of Pagans and sent them into Limbo infantum for there is no place in heaven for them I mean Pagan infants and to the Lake you say they must not go and now you are engaged to become an advocate for infidels and take heed at last you turn not proctor for the Devil and with Origen to be so charitable as to have some hopes of his salvation for truly for what yet appears by the word he is in as great a capacity for salvation as those infidels are Salvation according to Scripture-account is incompassed within the verge of the covenant and doth not go beyond it The Scripture leaves men out of covenant in a hopeless condition But against what I say that some Gentiles yet never heard of Christ you produce that of Rom. 10.18 and 16.25 26. that their sound i. e. of the preaching of the Gospel went into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world as it was made known unto all nations But my good friend you that mist before in your Chronography I believe you are here likewise out in your Cosmography for here the Apostle speaks of the ministers of the Gospel yea and of those not as sent to the Gentiles neither but to the Jews of whom he here treats and shews their inexcusableness for not obeying the Gospel whose sound went to the ends of the world But what ends of the world we know that the word world is sometimes straitned to Iudea onely as some are wont to construe that of the taxing of the world by Augustus Caesar Luke 2. onely of Iudea Now saith the Apostle the Iews cannot plead ignorance of the Gospel because the preachers of it have sounded it to them every where Have they not heard ver 18. did not Israel know ver 19. but to Israel he saith All the day long have I stretched out my hands ver 21. and you that are so indulgent over those pitiful Pagans how is it in right reason imaginable that when Paul writ this Epistle to the Romans that every mothers son under heaven should have been a hearer of the Gospel when as the compass of the earth is many thousand miles about and so many nations which have never been discovered till of late years yet that they then should have heard the Gospel and that in so short a time sure herein your pen did run before your wit in understanding those words in such a sense and therefore my friend if you mean to make a right construction of those words you must not extend them to such a latitude as that all the posterity of Adam had immediately upon the death of Christ the Gospel preached to them but you must interpret that place by comparing it with other such like universal expressions as Mat. 4.23 Christ healed all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases and Act. 10.38 healed all that were oppressed with devils and Act. 10.12 All manner of four footed beasts and wild beasts and creeping things and foules of the ayre appeared by Peter as in a great sheet and Mar. 1.5 All Iudea went out to Iohn Baptist and all were baptised in the river Iordan
do enjoy then their not knowing of Christ and believing in him as we do will never be charged upon them as sin For we do not find that the Lord Jesus doth require the use of a talent of them which never received any of him to use Answ Sir what faith infants have by which they are saved hath formerly been discussed It is such as is suitable to their infantile state differing not in nature and essence from those which are adult but onely in degrees of the discovery of it It hath been likewise acknowledged that the Gentiles who never heard of Christ unbelief will not be their sin for which they shall be condemned for they shall be judged not by the law of faith but by the law of works 2 Cor. 5.10 according to what evil they have done in the body and therefore I do affirm that the onely breach of the covenant of Grace is too narrow to be the adequate cause of damnation for many pagans who never heard of Christ and are under no covenant but that of works are condemned not for not believing in him of whom they never heard Rom. 10.14 nor for the breach of the covenant of Grace but for the breach of the covenant of works and without doubt uncleanness covetousnes sorcery lying Idolatry c. and many the like sins are the causes of their damnation They received a talent in Adam their primogenitor and he forfeited it both to himself and all his posterity whereof unless redemption be made by Jesus Christ they are utterly lost persons They have likewise received a general talent bestowed on them by Jesus Christ Ioh. 1.9 Rom. 1.20 who enlighteneth all that come into the world even enough to make them inexcusable And kind Sir if you revise your own position it is limited to the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel and therfore as you put the case your supposition utterly clasheth with what you have in your position But it is an easie matter for such intoxicated unsteady brains as yours to cross leggs now and then You absurdly conclude what you have to say in discharge of your self from the second absurdity thus But the Gentiles if they cannot notwithstanding all that they can do hear of Christ in the Doctrine of the Gospel in express words that they have a means from God by which they in their consciences may be accused or excused in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ Rom. 2.14 15 16. See also chap. 1 from ver 18. to the end also Psal 19. at the beginning by which means there is such a discovery of God from the creation of the world that the invisible things of him are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made so that they are without excuse but not onely in the far countries but even here in England where the Gospel is preached there are many that are strangers from the life of God I do freely grant the greater is their sin and as it is just with God to give those Gentiles over to a reprobate mind that did not like to retain the knowledge of God which they had or might have had by the things that are made so in like manner will the just and righteous judgement of God appear toward them which have Jesus Christ preached unto them in the Doctrine of the Gospel and they receive him not in suffering the mystery of iniquity to cloud and darken their understanding by the coming of the man of sin 2 Thes 2.9.10 11 12. Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness by which mystery of iniquity their understandings are so darkned and their minds blinded by which they look that all must be in a mystery removing mountains in a mystery the body of Christ in a mystery the Ascention of Christ into heaven and his second coming in a mystery the resurection out of the Grave or dust of the earth in a mystery to be out of the grave of sin and all these and many more such dark and cloudy conceits there are and will be more and more in men because they receive not the love of the truth even the teaching of Jesus Christ in these things that are written Ioh. 20.31 that they might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing they might have life through his name Answ Truly Sir your revolution of mysteries is a mystery to me And if in this whole paragraph your meaning be onely this that in the defect of the revelation of Jesus Christ Rom. 1. Psal 19.1 Rom. 2.14 yet that the Gentiles have so much made known unto them by the invisible things of God and the objective works of the creation and the reliques of the law of nature so far as to render them inexcusable I shall joyne with you in it and give my vote against them But if you have any secret reserve for indeed you are a pitiful soul that any of those herd of Goats the Gentiles I mean should have any possibility of salvation or hopes to be excused in the day of Judgement from receiving of the just reward of all their iniquities Joh. 15.5 Joh. 14.6 I do then abominate any such conceit Without Christ we can do nothing he is the way the truth and the life and none cometh to the Father but by him neither is there salvation in any other nor none other name under heaven given among men whereby they can be saved If it should be otherwise then farewel the prerogative of the Jew above the Gentile of the Christian Church above the Pagans If God may have his Church his converts his right worshippers his beloved and saved ones even amidst the blindness and darkness of Gentilism without the knowledge of Christ and all divine revelation of Gods wil in his word then let 's bid adieu to al Scripture to all religion to all profession but alas what are such opinions as those but like sick mens dreams or rather mad mens ravings But I pray Sir tell me in good earnest what your meaning is by those words you thus write viz. The Gentiles if they cannot notwithstanding all that they can do hear of Christ c. which as the words import imply an abominable slander against the majesty of God as though the Gentiles had a desire and thereupon did endeavour to know and learn the mind of Christ but being impeded by a more supreme power were not able to compass their desires Sir learn to be more modest and reverent in treating of such divine things Alas so far are the heathens for
when I meet it in its due place I shall then encounter it In the mean time for what is comprehended in this Section If I should yield you all I should receive no loss by it not your cause any advantage and therefore I shall dismiss it with the appendant question and answers without further trouble to my self or the Reader Onely let me tell you that so far as I perceive by your discourse you have not dived into the bottom of the absurdity contracted to your self by your Position which doth assert that the rejection of that means of salvation viz. the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel and continuing in sin and unbelief are the causes of reprobation as conceiving it inconsistent with the justice mercy and wisdom of God to reprobate without these causes whereas our constant affirmation is that the sole good will and pleasure of God is the alone and single cause of non election or negative reprobation from eternity God having that absolute power over his creature as that it rests solely in his will not to elect him but to suffer him to sin and so to run himself into eternal perdition and that therefore those who are contrary minded that do imagine that this absolute non election cannot well consist with the divine attributes as his justice mercy wisdom c. as you do in your strange acclamation p. 16. Then you do confine the infinite soveraignty of God that he hath over his creature as though he might not do with his own what he list without our controll but as I have shewed he may either annihilate or cast into hell whom he pleaseth as Lord Paramount But to this you have spoken nothing at all as to this reprobation all that you have said is to a Gospel declaratory way that no man gainsayes neither is it the subject of this our present discourse But you further write And so it cometh to pass that those two different events which do or shall befall the sons of men which is salvation to all that sort or kind of people that do imbrace the means and believe in Jesus Christ and reprobation and everlasting destruction to the other sort or kind of people that do continue in sin and unbelief rejecting the means of salvation and these two different events come to pass according to that purpose and decree of God which was from before the foundation of the world but the decree of God which was before time doth not necessitate thse different actings of men that came forth in their generations in time which is the penitency faithfulness and obedience of those that thereby come to be under the decree of election to everlasting life nor the impenitency unbelief and disobedience of those that for that cause fall under the decree of reprobation to everlasting destruction no more then the law and decree that was made by the Governours of this Nation many ages and generations past concerning the protection of honest men and the punishment of them that do evil But as the decree that was made as aforesaid many ages and generations past since it was made is yet a tendency and conducement if it be considered of to lead all men to live honestly So the decree of God that was before time and published or made known to the sons of men in time is so far from the necessitating men to do wickedly viz. to continue in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation that it is of such tendency and conducement upon the right consideration thereof in respect of the great benefit on the one hand to be the portion of penitent and obedient persons believing in Jesus Christ and the great woe and misery on the other hand that doth and will befal all those that continue in sin and unbelief and reject the means of salvation that it doth I say being considered of as aforesaid tend strongly to the perswading of all ungodly persons speedily to break of their sins by righteousness and their iniquities by cleaving unto Jesus Christ in believing and walking in that truth undoubtedly they shall be saved Answ T is right Sir what you say that there is salvation for one sort of people and destruction for another sort of people and that according to the decree of God from all eternity But when you are put to it notwithstanding the decree all may be saved and none damned or all may be damned and none saved for you do not affirm that God hath purposed any thing as to persons but meerly as to qualifications T is likewise true we say as you that he that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned and this is according to decree but this is not all that is decreed for some particulars he hath elected others he hath not elected but reprobated those whom he hath elected he hath likewise decreed to give them faith and therefore it is called the faith of Gods elect Tit. 1.1 The rest he hath decreed not to give them he hath denied them that grace he did not bear so much of love unto them as to those he did elect It is likewise true what you say that the decrees of God do not necessitate the different actings of men if you mean such a necessity as of compulsion or coaction but if we have a respect unto a necessity either of infallibility or immutability and so Quicquid fit necessario fit in respect of these all things that are are necessarily so as they are for Gods foresight cannot be deceived and his decrees cannot be changed But of this sufficiently hath been spoken before pag. 95. and 96. To what you say that the published decrees of God are of such a tendency and conducement to the perswading of men to forsake their sins and believe in Jesus Christ I deny not but that those decrees which are so published in the Scriptures may be of the like import as some other portions of Scripture are viz. of tendency to perswade men to forsake their sins and believe in Jesus Christ But I must tell you that they are onely morally and instrumentally so and not physically they work onely on the outward man they cannot change the heart that is Gods chamber of presence Prov. 21.1 there is his throne alone t is he alone that changeth that and turnes it as the rivers of water Phil. 1.29 2 Tim. 3.25 Ezek. 11.19 Rom. 8.15 2 Co. 5.14 Joh. 1.12 Cant. 8.6 Were those decrees published unto men every houre yet they can never work faith until that God shall give them to believe and repent and take away their stony hearts and give them hearts of flesh Somewhat they may do by setting forth the danger and horror of a reprobate estate and so to bring a man under the Spirit of bondage to fear but surely it is the alone love of Jesus Christ that hath a constraining power to put a man into a capacity
of the spirit of Adoption for love is strong as death And then I pray tell me what will all your publications tendences and conducements avail where God hath decreed to deny effectual grace and faith to believe what is so published But there is enough of this we shall have more to say to what follows whiâ—h is this And as God hath thus bound himself by his purpose decree and promise to the doing of the things aforesaid that so they must come to pass in their season and it being also his pleasure to let the sons of men enjoy a sufficiency of means while the day of grace lasteth to be used by them in order to their everlasting good so he giveth them liberty in the right use thereof in that day of grace to choose or refuse and it cannot be otherwise for a choice must needs be at liberty and if there were not a liberty given of God in these things then those expressions in Scripture were in vain as in Deut. 30.19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life Object But to this it will be objected that that which they might choose or refuse was the temporal or earthly Canaan Answ That there was such a thing intended in it I deny not but that was not all for in those typical things that did belong to them as they were the Children of Abraham according to the flesh there was held forth that which did lead them up to faith in Christ in order to their being children of Abraham also by faith that so they might be heires also of the heavenly inheritance and this the words immediately going before do prove being compared with what Paul had said Rom. 10. For as it is said Deut. 30. vers 14. the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it the very same word is said by Paul Rom. 10. vers 8. to be the word of faith which they preached and we find the like of Moses Heb. 11.24 25. He refused to be called the son of Phraohs daughter Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season also Luk. 10.42 Mary hath chosen that good part Answ Sir if by sons of men your meaning be to take them collectively and universally viz. all men of all sorts that they all enjoy a sufficiency of means in order to their everlasting good then I utterly deny it and I have formerly proved it contrary that whereas he shewed his word unto Iacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel yet he had not dealt so with other nations Psal 145.19 Matth. 13.11 Acts 16. for unto some it was given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven but to others it was not given the Spirit would not suffer the Apostle to preach the Gospel to the Bithynians and certainly you will never prove any such sufficiency of Grace tendered to every person all the world over unless you do suborn those silent Orators the Sun Moon and Stars to plead your cause by a discovery of what feats they have done and how many they have converted amongst the Indians Americans Antipodes and other unknown places of the world by their dumb preaching of the everlasting Gospel in order to the everlasting good of these forlorn creatures The next point I shall take notice of in this Section is the liberty of the will concerning which you spake before but somewhat lispingly like an Ephraimite Judg. 12.6 but now like a flesht Gileadite you speak with a full mouth and in plain English that it is in a mans liberty to choose or refuse things to their everlasting good And this indeed is that unknown Goddess to whom you sacrifice all the strength of your other Positions for if this liberty of will should miscarry all the superstructure of your other Positions must needs disshevell and moulder to powder I have not much to say unto it because you have said so little that choice must needs be at liberty And though I need not hunt after fresh work yet thus much I shall say that there was in Adams will besides the liberty thereof an habitual holy inclination to all that was good though with a possibility of embracing evil But that since the fall besides some kind of liberty an habitual vicious quality in man making him averse and froward in choosing the good Job 15.16 Pro. 2.14 prone and inclinable to embrace the evil so that man now doth naturally drink iniquity like water and make a pastime of doing evil and therefore as Adams will was truly good not onely in the actions but in the inward qualities thereof so our will is truely and properly corrupt not onely as to its evil actions but also the inward vicious disposition thereof And until such time as God is pleased to heal the disease and replant in our wills their primitive integrity they are utterly dead in sin captives and bondslaves of corruption So that however they have some liberty in naturall civill or externall spiritual things yet in regard of true grace and holiness they have no liberty at all to chuse that but are wholly enthralled unto sin according to that of the Apostle Rom. 6.20 When ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness and Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be And therefore the man doth in plain terms give the lye to the Spirit of God speaking in the Scriptures that dares to affirm that a man in the estate of unregeneracy who without doubt is if any be a servant of sin and carnally minded is notwithstanding free unto righteousness and may be even of his own natural power subject to the law of God commanding him faith and obedience and that he hath a liberty and power to choose grace when it is offered strong arguments might be brought to overturn this power upside down but I am weary of what is already upon my hands For the objection that you offer let those vindicate it whosoever made it for my part I do not insist upon it but shall answer to that place by you quoted Deut. 39.19 after another manner And I do indeed conceive that this allegation is not any thing ad rem not at all to the business in hand For first Moses here speaks unto the Israelites not as then in a state of sinful unregeneracy but rather as in a state of grace for they were then the Church and people of God and he speaks unto them as they were a Church wherein because of their holy calling by the law of charity he accounts of them all as in a state of grace but if any were in a state of unregeneracy as doubtless there were he counsels them to choose life yet
drawing as that it is by the cords of a man with bands of love i. e. by arguments suitable to our capacity where the love of Jesus Christ constraineth them and that of an unwilling they are made a willing people in the day of his power Psal 110.3 1. Whether the Saints may not be said to judge the world righteously if those that are judged by them have by a free and willing choice acted those things in the body which are repugnant to the most holy and righteous law of God 1. Whether God be bound to supply man with that Grace which he hath formerly and that voluntarily deprived himself of 2. Whether that in the waies of salvation and damnation there be any coaction or compulsion of the will either to good or evil but that whatsoever it wills it wills freely else were it no will 3. Whether in the decree of some unto salvation God doth not decree unto the means as well as to the end viz. unto salvation but through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes 2.13 4. Whether in the decree of preterition non-election or negative reprobation God leaves not man to his own contracted disobedience and for that disobedience decrees to condemn him 5. Whether the decrees of God be not immutable and that thence whatsoever God decrees must necessarily come to pass 6. Whether there be not a foreknowledge of God in the decrees 7. Whether that foreknowledge can be deceived but that it must necessarily be effected as it is foreknown 8. Whether in the proposals of choosing and refusing mentioned in the Scripture God may not justly expect the acting and exercising of that power wherewith he had at first endowed man 9. Whether such proposals are not chiefly used to convince men of and humble men under their natural inability and so to drive them to seek for a power out of themselves and not any way conclusive that they have such a power in themselves for the choosing of that which is good 1. Whether those to whom God hath decreed not to infuse grace into them not to give them faith and repentance when God is the alone worker of it as Phil. 1.29 Ephes 28. 2 Tim. 2.25 whether I say can such believe or repent Matth. 13.11 and therefore their Reprobation anteceding their unbelief 1. Whether to speak properly there be not one onely will in God 2. Whether the Commandments Promises Threatnings c. being by some called the revealed will of God is not a part of and subordinate to his secret will 3. Whether God doth not sometimes command that which yet in his secret will he hath not purposed should be effected but so commanded sometimes for trial as in that command to Abraham of sacrificing his son Gen. 22.1 and to Pharaoh of letting the people of Israel go Exod. 6.7 that the hardness of his heart might be discovered and Gods power on him might be shewn 1. Whether that opinion which some hold concerning God be not damnable namely to say that God intends the salvation of all men for if he did intend it who should hinder him for Rom. 9.19 Who hath resisted his will and Ier. 5.29 every purpose of the Lord shall be performed and Rom. 9.11 the purpose of non-election as well as of election must stand and Iob 9.12 Who can hinder him 2. Whether those words God willeth all men to be saved are not to be interpreted thus viz. some of all sorts and not all of all sorts viz. some of Kings and those that are in Authority as well as of any other lower sort of people 1. Whether it can be infallibly known to any one Minister of the Gospel for what individual person God never intended salvation in the death of his Son and therefore since there are still Tares amongst the good Wheat Reprobates among the Elect indiscriminate till Christ shall distinguish them by setting the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left 2. Whether the Gospel is not to be published to all persons promiscuously to whom such Ministers are sent to preach it 1. Whether condemnation to the second death or lake of fire is not threatned to those that are without Rev. 22.15 and Rev. 21.8 27. not written in the lambs book and such are those Gentiles who Ephes 2.12 being strangers from the Covenant of promise and without a God in the world they were not in a capacity to reject the means which they never enjoyed Ps 147.20 1. Whether those that perish to eternity can possibly be saved when as God hath decreed not to give them faith nor to give them repentance 2. Whether any or all the outward means in the world can be so improved as to the saving of any one soul unless God by his omnipotent power do inwardly make it effectual by infusion of sanctifying and saving grace Ezek. 36.27 and taking away the stony heart 1. Whether any can believe that Christ died for sin upon a Scripture-account except he believe that Christ his death is sufficient for all 2. Whether the Scripture doth warrant this assertion to say that Christ died effectually or intentionally to save all for he laid down his life for his sheep onely 3. Whether believing onely be not a sufficient title to interest a man in the death of Christ 1. Whether Gods own wayes and his thoughts in opening a door of salvation to some of the sons of men and shutting of it against others will not make his righteousnes appear glorious in judgement more then our waies and our thoughts in opening a door of salvation to all alike 2. Whether the glory of God manifested in his executing of justice upon the reprobates is not as dear unto him and to be as much adored by us as if he had saved and glorified all the world 1. Whether a man may not be justly said to refuse that which was once in his power to receive but that he voluntarily disinabled himself of that power as all of us did in Adam his sin being ours by Imputation 2. Whether all sorts of reprobate persons do not really refuse the outward tenders of grace and resist the external motions of the holy Ghost and neglect so great salvation offered to them and forsake their own mercies though they were never in a possibility to receive them because God had decreed never to work grace in them 1. Whether doth not Gods bemoaning persons in the state of unbelief plainly argue that their state is lamentable 2. Whether such persons who are in a state of unbelief would not believe if God would give them to believe 3. Whether Christ his bemoaning of persons in a state of unbelief and yet his suffering them so to continue be not well consistent especially they being none of those who were given to him of the Father A POSTSCRIPT TO Thomas Tazwell SIR I need not tell you what trouble you have put me to in pursuing you in all this