forbear my Testimony against such unworthy Doctrines when just occasion is offered for truly it makes my very Heart sink in me to think what great Injury is done to the Justice Mercy and Love of God who hath graciously ingag'd himself as a Creator to love and respect his Creatures until they voluntarily renounce him by walking in and chusing sinful Ways or suffer the God of this World to blind their Eyes and to deface the Image of God in them See what the Lord saith by the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 44. 2. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the Womb which will help thee c. and so Chap. 46. 3 4. Hearken unto me O House of Jacob and all the Remnant of the House of Israel which are born by me from the Belly which are carried from the Womb even to old Age I am he and even to hoary Hairs will I carry you c. Mar. Pray to what purpose do you bring these Scriptures What would you have them prove God speaks here to his Church his Elect ones Phil. He speaks to the whole House of Israel and you will grant that all were not true Israelites that were of Israel nor because they were of the natural Seed of Abraham were they all Children but God reminds them that he was their Creator and Maker and so consequently bore the love of a Creator to them all and you ought to understand that the Relation of a Creator is one and the same to the Believer and Unbeliever the one being the Workmanship of his hands as well as the other as Holy Job speaks Chap. 31. 13 14 15. and Job 34. 19. sheweth that God tenderly loveth and respecteth all as they are his Creatures till they renounce him c. Mar. But did not the Lord say of Pharaoh That for this same purpose he had raised him up to shew his Power in him Doth it not shew that God before he created Pharaoh did peremptorily decree his State and Condition of Sin and Punishment yea and as God dealt with Pharaoh so doth he deal and will deal with all Reprobates to the Worlds end Phil. How was that Mar. Why as God hardened his heart so that he could not but be disobedient to all the Applications of God by Moses to him so those that are under an Eternal Decree of Reprobations are under an impossibility of repenting or believing In this Rom. 9. 17. the Apostle shews that God raised Pharaoh made him a Man a King gave him Power over the Children of Israel left him to the Corruption of his own heart for the same purpose to manifest his Glory in his Confusion and Destruction Phil. You have no saying in the whole Book of God that speaks of Pharaoh's being reprobated to eternal misery before he was born or that he was decreed and ordained before he was born by the Lord to be a Vessel of Wrath or that God created him for this same purpose that he might make his Power known in his Destruction And therefore as Mr. Loveday sheweth upon these words in his Personal Reprobation Reprobated p. 157 158 159. 't is not to be understood as referr'd to his Creation or raising him to be a King for then this Message would have been applied to him when God first sent Moses to him but we have not one word of it till after the six Plagues and now he speaks of raising him up so that this raising up must have respect to God's dealings with Pharaoh in extending some special Favour to him and so saith he To raise up signifieth as the Learned in the Greek tell us to raise up out of some low state and condition sometimes out of some Sickness James 5. 15. The Hebrew words from whence the Apostle draws this Latined Stare feci is read thus I have made thee to stand the vulgar Latin reads it I have sustained thee the Septuagint reads Thou wert kept alive the Chaldee Paraphrase reads For this cause have I endured thee or patiently born with thee the generality of Interpreters as well Calvinists as others do receive this as the most proper reading I have made thee to stand I have kept or sustained thee thou hast been laid low under the sentence of Death but upon Moses's Intercession I have raised thee up I have rescued thee I have forgiven thy disobedience and tried thee again by taking off my Plagues from thee and thy Land but if still after all this thou should'st remain obstinate and rebellious then the stroke shall be the heavier at last my Power shall be seen in thy Destrustion And now as Pharaoh would not obey the Lord in letting his People go but bore himself proudly and stubbornly against the Lord being seduced by the Magicians notwithstanding he had tasted of God's long-suffering and Mercies in raising him up at the request of his Servant Moses so now he should deeply feel his Power in his Destruction and so will the Lord do to all wilful rejecters of his Grace and Mercy in Christ Jesus in these Gospel days But I observe farther that you seem to say that God necessitated Pharaoh to be rebellious and hard-hearted against him by an eternal Decree so that he could not but be disobedient But surely God doth not necessitate that which is contrary to his Nature See Mark 3. 5. where Christ grieved for the hardness of their hearts which saith Mr. Loveday p. 173. supposeth these 4 things 1st That Christ had done what he could i. e. what he could in Wisdom and Justice to soften their hearts 2dly He declares that such a frame of Spirit to wit hardness of heart was contrary to his Spirit or else he had not grieved for it 3dly They had sufficiency of means to have made them soft 4thly They were not necessitated to be so from him Mar. But did not the Lord tell Moses before he went to Pharaoh that he would harden his heart Exod. 4. 21 Phil. 'T is true God did predict this Judgment which was afterward executed he did tell Moses that he would harden Pharaoh's heart that is conditionally if he first hardened his own for we find that the Scripture charges this Sin of hard-heartedness upon Pharaoh himself 1 Sam. 6. 6. So that Pharaoh first hardens his heart against God and after that God even in Judgment delivered him up to this hardening as the effect of his sin and disobedience for God never changeth the nature of a soft heart into a hard one and though it is said by God I will harden Pharaoh's heart yet God did not do it primarily or necessarily as may be seen by the means God used which tended rather to soften than harden him though accidentally he did and that many ways Loveday p. 178. by sending that Message to him to let Israel depart his Land which was so much against his proud and covetous Interest If God had been pleased that Israel should still have been Slaves to him we had not heard of Pharaoh's Rebellion
fat and make their Ears heavy as if the Lord should have said Go and preach to this People but preach them into hardness and blindness because they refused to hear or see let therefore the Light make them blind and the Gospel which is the joyful sound of Peace and Joy make them deaf and stop their Ears perswade no longer but make their Hearts fat their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes that they may walk in their own counsel and fill up the measure of their Iniquity Wo to those that God answers thus to leave them to their own Hearts lust and say as once to Ephraim Hosea 4. Let him alone If God deal thus with any they indeed shall never melt at any Sermon so as to awaken them out of their Sins they will prove but deaf Adders that stop their Ears against all Gospel-Charmers tho never so wise But this God never did nor never will do but as the Fruit and Effect of provoking Sin and Disobedience for which see Psal 81. 11. But my People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would have none of me so I gave them up c. Acts 7. 42. Rom. 1. 24 26. Hosea 4. 17. So that the ground of God's shutting their Eyes and hardning their Hearts was but the effect of their first shutting their own Eyes and Ears Acts 28. 27. Pro. 29. 1. When Men obstinately reject the Proposals of Mercy in the Gospel of Peace from such God may justly withdraw his illuminating Grace and wholly leave them in the dark and to themselves to follow their unbridled natures Duveil upon this place Acts 28. 27. quotes the words of Mollerus Clemens who explaining the words of Christ that seeing they should not see and hearing they should not hear Mat. 13. tell us That it is not lawful to think that ignorance was wrought in them by the Lord but it was a prophetical Discourse of that which was to be and signified that they would not heed those things that were spoken for neither do the Prophets blind any People nor doth God when he causeth blindness in them do this efficaciously but seeing he daily sheweth them his Will and moreover did many and those stupendous Miracles yet they despised and made a mock of them all God was provoked with their stubbornness so that he withdrew himself from them and so suffered them to wander and perish blindfolded in their darkness and that by his just Judgment Philet Is it not said Deut. 29. 4. That the Lord had not given them a Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to hear to this day Philad 'T is said so they once had seen the Wonders that the Lord did for them in the Land of Egypt unto Pharaoh c. as vers 3 4. yet the Lord hath not given thee a Heart to perceive and Eyes to see c. They once knew and did see and understand that it was the Lord that wrought deliverance for them in Egypt and at the Red-Sea and they sang his Praise but soon forgot his Works Psal 106. 12. yea rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit and so the Lord took away the Light he once gave and did not continue it to that day which Moses spoke to them and indeed thus hath God dealt with others and will deal with us if we neglect to follow the Light he affords to us even leave us in the dark So the Lord has done to many to whom he once gave a Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and yet he hath not given them to this day The Jews and Jerusalemites had the things belonging to their Peace revealed to them but now saith Christ they are hid from your Eyes 't is just with God many times to turn the wisdom of the Wise to foolishness Philet But what say you to 1 Pet. 2. 8. They stumbled at the Word being disobedient whereunto they were appointed And so Isa 8. 14 15. which is a Prophecy of Christ that he shall be for a Sanctuary to the Elect but for a stone of stumbling and for a Rock of Offence c. And so Luke 2. 34. Mat. 13. 10 11. Luke 8. 10. Philad Why what should I say to it shall I say that God laid Christ in the way and sent his Word and Gospel into the World with an intent that most Persons should stumble at this Stone and be broken to pieces or that Christ died so far for all Men that the Word might be preached to the whole World that so the greatest part might stumble disobey and reject Christ and the Gospel Should I say so it would be a great impeachment of God's Justice and Holiness and would make him the Author of Sin and Disobedience so contrary to his Nature And I once again desire you not to think that the bare naming a Text or Texts of Scripture enough to confirm an Opinion but that you seriously mind the Context with the sense and drift of the Holy Ghost in the Text and explain Scripture by Scripture otherwise we may run our selves into a thousand Misunderstandings contrary to the Analogy or Rule of Faith Now if we compare this Text with what you have in Acts 13. 47. Isa 49. 6. Tit. 2. 11. with many other places you will find that neither Christ nor the Gospel is sent into the World intentionally for any to stumble and disobey it but Christ is to be preached and held forth by Gospel-Ministers for the Salvation of all in the whole World that believe in him as Tit. 2. 11. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all Men c. or as our old Translation renders it For that Grace of God which bringeth Salvation unto all Men hath appeared Here you may see that this Grace in the offers of it and in the Intention of God is of a saving tendency and importance to all Men and the savingness of it and Salvation by it is tendered alike to all Men So that Christ came not into the World to be a Rock of Offence at which the greatest part of Men should stumble and fall but to shed his Blood for all Men not only for those that are saved but also for those which through unbelief and impenitency are not saved John 3. 17. Besides your Texts if read in that Spirit in which they were wrote shew you that they were appointed or put to the Word and they stumbled at that and were disobedient to that they stumbled at Christ and the Word out of stubbornness and wilfulness not for want of Light Mr. Loveday in his Exposition on Rom. 9. pag. 33. saith That Dr. Hammond reads the words That those that are disobedient to the Gospel and stand obstinately against Christ are those who are by God appointed and declared so to stumble as to be ruined by their obstinacy So that disobedience to the Gospel is not to be imputed to the God of Heaven but the God of this World 2 Cor.
as we now do 1st Thus God was concern'd in hardening Pharaoh's heart as he crost his will by declaring his own 2dly God accidentally hardened Pharaoh's heart by declaring himself above him in Power this must needs provoke him to hear of a Jehovah 3dly By deferring the full Revenging Power so long as he did Eccl. 8. 11. 4thly God hardened his heart accidentally by his condescending to remove his Judgments so soon at his request and that this Act of God hardened his heart you have declared in the History when God had removed this or that Plague it is said that Pharaoh hardened his heart So that after Pharaoh had hardened his heart and dealt deceitfully six times Exod. 8. 29. then the Lord threatned to pour out all his Plagues upon his heart he would punish his acquired hardness with judicial hardness and would withdraw those Influences of his Spirit that should soften him leave him to the perverseness of his own heart and to follow his own Counsel to his destruction Now though I might largely shew you the invalidity of your Opinion as it crosseth some principal Attributes of God God doth not make Decrees contrary to his own Nature nor simply according to his own Will but works all things according to the Counsel of his own Will So that in whatsoever God doth we are not only to look for Will but Counsel Wisdom and such things as tend to Ends worthy of him God's Will always follows his Nature The Apostle saith 2 Tim. 2. 13. God cannot deny himself yet give me leave to give you two Reasons why I cannot assent to your Opinion that God of his meer Pleasure did from all Eternity decree to glorify his Soveraignty in the Eternal Rejection and Damnation of the greatest part of Mankind I will be short because I would willingly put an end to this Discourse at this time Mar. Pray do for the time is far spent the Sun grows low and my Occasions call me away at this time Phil. Then my first Reason is this because no Man had a Being from Eternity nothing having been from Eternity but God and therefore in true Propriety of Speech Men cannot be said to be Reprobated but in time 't is true the Law or Decree of God whereby Men come in time to be reprobated was from Eternity God from Eternity did decree that all those that live and die in a State of Impenitency should perish but this Decree takes hold of Persons in time when they come to be actually disobedient to the Lord As the Lord said to Moses he which sinneth against me him will I blot out of my Book Therefore if nothing be Eternal but God and if that be a truth that whatsoever is in God is God himself then if God condemned or reprobated any from Eternity it must be himself or else we must say that Man was Co-eternal with God and so give the Glory and Honour which is due to God alone to a poor contemptible Creature Mar. But had not Man some kind of Being in God from Eternity as he was the common Root or producent Cause of all Men Phil. Yea and as all Men were singly one in him they were all alike holy innocent and free from blame and so all alike beloved of him all being yet nothing but himself Nay if we consider all Mens State in Adam while he was standing Just and Righteous in that State none of Mankind could be the Object of God's Hatred but of his Love and I hope you will not deny but we were in him while he stood in a State of Righteousness as well as when in a State of Sin and therefore none reprobated when they never had sinned nor were capable of sinning for they could not sin before they had a Being in the Flesh and man had no being in the Flesh from Eternity Therefore c. So that if God proposed from Eternity to appoint to Everlasting Misery Millions of Men it must be whilst they were nothing but himself My second Reason is if God from all Eternity of his meer Pleasure did decree to glorify his Soveraignty in the Eternal Rejection and Damnation of the greatest part of Mankind and that when they were innocent and harmless as above he must of necessity destinate them unto Sin also for where there is no Sin there Punishment cannot justly take place For if a Man be fore-determined to Damnation he must unavoidably sin else he could not be damn'd by this you make God the Author of Sin Mar. I do not say God is the Author of Sin in any yet this I say God did from Enity freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass and if a hair of our Heads falls not to the Ground or a Sparrow to the Earth without the Will of God how can you think that any Action of Men can come to pass or be performed but by the fore-determinate Will of God for all things come to pass according as his Hand and Council had before determined Phil. No 't is likely you will not be so blunt as to say directly that God is the cause of Sin that would spoil all when stated in its proper Terms but I know it is usual with such as you are to put it in a more disguised and specious Phrase that so you may impose with the more Art upon those that are ready to receive as Gospel what you say yet when you say that God hath appointed and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass it followeth by necessary consequence that he is the Author of it so that there is no Murder nor Whoredom Robberies Blasphemies or any Rogueries whatsoever that fall out in any time or place but they are all the effect of God Almighty's Decrees What Dishonour is done to the God of Love by such Doctrines as these that he should appoint ordain and unavoidably decree to make the greatest part of the World eternally miserable and that he might accomplish his ends did necessitate them to do Evil drawing them on from Sin to Sin till they had filled up the Measure of their Iniquitys that so he might inflict upon them that Vengeance which he had provided for them this is contrary to his revealed Will David saith Psal 5. 4. Thou art a God that hath no Pleasure in Wickedness and James 1. 13 14. Let no Man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God for God tempts no Man and John tells us that the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but of the World Surely God doth not use to necessitate that which his Soul abhors and which he not only forbids in his Word but also is the Condemner of it Saith one of the Antients to wit Prosper vid. God's Love to Mankind p. 50. 'T is against Reason to say that he that is the Damner of the Devil would have any to be his Servants what
the manner of Men yet it is not necessary that all those things which are attributed to God should have something in his Nature correspondent to them according to that ancient Saying Similitudes are not wont to run on all-fours Metaphors are not to be strain'd to express things in themselves quite opposite nor make the parallel run till it grows lame but great care must be taken that no mean base or unworthy thing be attributed to the most high And therefore from the Potter's Power over his Clay to make thereof a Vessel of Honour or Dishonour as he pleaseth to infer positively from thence that God hath purposely made some to be Vessels of Wrath is an unjustifiable Inference from that Similitude Surely the Holy Ghost compares not our most wise Creator to a foolish Potter who because he might make what he would of his Clay did therefore make the greatest number of his Pots to be broken again to shew that he had as well a Power to break them as to make them which none but a mad Man would do but rather to a wise Potter that designs his Work for some good end and use Doubtless God so made all things that not one of his Creatures hath so much cause of dislike as to say why hast thou made me thus No Vessel of Wrath came so made out of his Hands So that if any be Vessels of Wrath the fault is not in him but in themselves by reason of their Infidelity and Contempt of the Lord and his long Sufferance I know this place is usually made use of as a Fortress for such as you are to flee to and is misunderstood to imply what you say but if you will but mind what the Apostle was upon and let this place be expounded by the Context and other places of holy Scripture so that the whole and every part of God's Word may agree in one Truth then we shall never take it in this sense of yours for then this dark and obscure part of Paul's Epistle which the Apostle Peter saith many wrest to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3. 16. must be taken openly to oppose and contradict the whole Course and Tenour of God's Word Is there no way to understand the 9th of the Romans than by making those places which sound severely to clash against those that sound compassionately Is it not far the best way to interpret hard and doubtful Texts by those many Texts that are clear and easy than to interpret the many clear Texts by one that is dark and difficult or if one Scripture may have a double sense must we needs take it in the worst must I needs say that the Father of Mercy and God of Consolation which doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men did absolutely damn him before he had done either good or evil is it not the best so to understand it that his Mercy and Justice his Love and Power may imbrace and kiss each other Now the Scripture speaks in some places darkly and dubiously in other places it expresses the same thing more clearly and certainly the doubtful are to be expounded by the certain and dark places by those that are clear and all Exposition answerably to the Current of Scripture not contrary to it Now it doth seem as if the Apostle in these Words had an Eye to Jeremiah 18. 3 4 c. where he speaks of the Clay in the Potter's Hands not as it was in Creation but in Vocation being marr'd in the Hands of the Potter and so finding it would not be for that use he designed it for made thereof a Vessel as pleaseth him So God sometimes whilst he is at work to fashion a Soul for his own Work by the preaching of the Gospel by the sweet motion of his Spirit by Mercy and long Sufferance yet the Vessel is marr'd the Clav yields not nor is pliable to the Will of God and so finding it will not be a fit Vessel for Honour he makes a Vessel of Dishonour Read the 7 8 9 Verses and compare them with 2 Tim. 2. 20 21. so that it is plain God made of one Lump all Innocent and Upright Gen. 5. ult Eccles 7. ult at the first See what Mr. Loveday saith upon this in his Personal Reprobation Reprobated Page 243 God saith he like a Potter makes of low vile Man honourable Vessels Hath not the Potter any ordinary Potter power over the Clay to make it what Vessel he pleaseth and when a piece thereof runs coarse and is marr'd upon the Wheel hath he not power to make it a less honourable Vessel and hath not God the same and much more power over you that have imbas'd your selves by slighting and abusing all those Mercies he hath designed to bestow upon you and thereby make you honourable To be plain saith the Apostle why may not God for your Disobedience and Rebellion to his Son as zealous as you are for the Law of Moses of a glorious People and invested with all those extraordinary Privileges make you a base and contemptible People and besides your continuing still in Unbelief make your Condition far worse in the World to come Such a Paraphrase as this seems to bear a sweet Harmony with Jeremiah 18. also with the Scope of the whole Context and with the Apostle's conclusive Result Verse 32. that they did not attain to it because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law So that when Persons do Evil against God and will not obey his Voice but obey Unrighteousness and harden their Hearts against him then he will make them Vessels of Dishonour prepared for Destruction These are they that Jude speaks of Verse 4. that were of old ordained to this Condemnation not simply as they were Men but ungodly Men turning the Grace of God into Wantonness c. By what is or might farther be said we may see that those absolute Decrees of Mers inevitable Damnation is no part of God's revealed Will for if this 9th of the Romans faileth to prove what you bring it for as it is evident it doth then there is not the least shew in the Scripture for it Nay this Opinion of yours seems rather to be taken out of the Turkish Alcoran or Heathen Authors than the Bible for the Holy Scriptures are so far from containing or asserting any such Exercise in God over his Creatures which consists in a most severe and dreadful dooming them from Eternity to endless Misery that on the other hand they frequently exalt him as very gracious loving merciful and bountiful towards all and that there must be a great Breach on the Creatures part in point of Degeneration before the Lord gives him up to ruin Isa 27. 11. yea the Love and Pity of God to his Creature Man exceeds the Affections of a Father to his Son or of the tenderest Mother to her sucking Child Mat. 7. 11. Isa 49. 15. Martha I cannot
Christ died for all so that all should injoy all these equally alike but that God did really truly and cordially intend the Salvation of one Man as well as another considered as Men in and by Christ's Death What tho there be great disparity of Means and of Grace also according to the Divine Will yet sufficient Grace is afforded to all both to those that do not actually believe nor are really converted as well as those that are Ezek. 18. Pro. 1. 24. Mat. 23. 37. Luke 8. 12. for whomsoever God calleth to Faith and Salvation he doth it sincerely and with unfeigned Intentions of saving them John 5. 34. and 10. 20. Tit. 2. 11 12. 2 Tim. 1. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 20. and 6. 1. From all I conclude that Christ in dying for Man intended nothing but that which was real and saving in the proper nature and tendency of it But as to your third Moderatus you say Christ died for all Men so far that the Gospel might be preached unto all Now if you mean that in the Gospel terms of Reconciliation are offered to all poor Sinners and that the Word preached is by the Lord appointed an instrumental means to make Men new Creatures and that the Lord by sending the Gospel and his Ministers upon the Gospel errand doth not thereby intend the Obduration and Destruction of any but the Conversion and Salvation of all if this be your meaning I and you are no more two but one and I will say in the words of Abraham to Lot Let there be no strife between thee and me for we are brethren But if with Calvin in his Institut Lib. 3. Chap. 24. you say that God sendeth his Word to Reprobates that they may be made more deaf he setteth a Light to some Men that they may be so much the more blind and offers them Instruction that they may be the more ignorant and he useth a Remedy but to the end they may not be healed Or what Maccour in his disputation 14. Page 11 12. That Christ knocketh at the heart of Reprobates who he knoweth neither can nor will open unto him not that he may enter in but that he might upbraid them for their Impotency and increase their Damnation c. therefore did God speak to them by his Son that by the contempt and hatred of his Son they might procure the greater damnation If this be your Opinion produce some word to evince such a Decree and I 'll cease contending with you Philet Do not the Scriptures say Mat. 13. 13 14. and John 12. 39 40. in both places you have it expresly said that they could not believe because that Esaias said he hath blinded their Eyes c. and Deut. 29. 4. And doth not Simeon say of Christ Luke 2. 34. that he was set for the rising and falling of many in Israel 2 Cor. 2. 16. Christ is there said to be the savour of Death to some as well as of Life to others And our Saviour in John 9. 39. expresly saith That for Judgment am I come into the World that they that see not might see and those that see might be made blind Do not these Scriptures shew that tho the Gospel is preached to all yet for the blinding the Eyes and hardning the Hearts of those that believe not Philad Do not we look upon the Gospel the greatest Blessing next to Christ that we can injoy or receive But if the choicest Blessings are intended as Snares to intrap our Souls we have little cause to be thankful to God for them These Scriptures speak not of the primary and direct Intention of God in sending Christ into the World but of the Event and that which many times is effected by it through Mens voluntary Rebellion Christ was not sent into the World with any intent on God's part nor came with any intention of his own to make those that see to become blind but with an intent to heal the blindness of all to their Peace and Glory so that if any be blind ignorant and foolish 't is merely accidental and tho the glorious Light of the Gospel should equally shine on all Men as the natural Sun doth diffuse his Beams to all Places yet it hath not an equal effect on all alike for the same Beams that cause the Flowers to smell make the Dunghils stink yet this is but accidentally as it finds matter to work on no fault being in the Sun so in Mat. 13. we read of several effects the Word hath not from any defect in the Seed sown the Seed being one and the same but from the badness or goodness of the Soil it shews that some hearers of the Gospel would hear so that their hearing would turn to a blessed account others would hear without reaping any Soul benefit thereby So that these Scriptures speak not any thing of God's intention of sending Christ and so the Gospel into the World but they shew how unworthily some Men will behave themselves towards Christ and the tenders of Salvation by the Gospel and what will be the end and effects the Gospel will have upon those that despise and reject it for it is with the Gospel preached and the Gifts of Nature and Grace also as it is with the good things of this Life which are by the Lord given to the Children of Men that so his bountifulness and goodness might lead them to repentance but if their Table be a Snare and their Prosperity their Ruin 't is through their own perversness and horrid impieties so if the Gospel hardens or blinds any 't is through the ill temper of Mens Hearts and their desperate obstinacy to refuse such means of Salvation and the severity of God who giveth up obstinate Men to their own hearts lust and in his just Judgment permits them to dash against Christ and other means of Salvation What saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If our Gospel be hid 't is hid to them that are lost whom the God of the World hath blinded their Eyes that are alienated from the Life of God through the ignorance that is in them and so give up themselves to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness and despise the Light of the Gospel cavil and quarrel at it no wonder then that God withdraws his Spirit from striving with them and gives them up to their own hearts lust and if ever the Lord restrains the heavenly Influences of his Spirit and withdraws his Blessing that usually accompanies the faithful and sincere preaching of the Gospel a stupid blindness must needs follow so tho there be Preaching and Prayer and other Ordinances yet when the presence of God is not with them there is no Milk in the Breast and to such 't is all one as if there was none nay as some the Gospel enlightens these it smites with blindness as it softens some so it hardens these as Isa 6. 10. Acts 28. 26. make the Hearts of this People
I have already shewed it cannot still that of the Apostle will stand good Ephes 2. 8. By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God So that all boasting is excluded since we cannot change our Hearts cannot repent of our Sins or believe on him by virtue of our own natural Abilities but by the aid and assistance of Divine Grace Man's Perfection and Felicity is derived from God and we live daily in a necessary dependance upon him for his Grace and the Aid of his Holy Spirit to repair our Strength and assist our Faculties and every way to enable us to perform those Duties which are due to so Sovereign a Lord and as it becometh Creatures to do Yet still we are to remember that his assisting Grace doth not destroy our Endeavours for as we can do nothing without God so he will do nothing for us without our selves and as God works in us to will and to do c. so Persons are to work out their own Salvation with fear and trembling and not think to sit still and take their ease and live in a carnal state without improving those means that God hath vouchsafed them to repent and believe till the Lord by an irresistible Power pluck them out of their Sins This we are not to expect neither are we to thank our selves if we be saved but God's free Love and Bounty is to be acknowledged the sole cause of our Salvation neither can it be any diminution to Divine Goodness to say that unless Man doth concur with the first Cause the End cannot be obtained since Faith Repentance and Obedience to the Lord is made a condition with reference to Eternal Life Suppose a Prince should see one that has riotously mispent his Portion in great want and he out of his free Bounty should profer him a Sum of Money sufficient to supply all his Wants discharge all his Debts free him from all fear of Arrestments and enrich him for ever in this World provided he will but come to him and put forth his hand to receive this Treasure he shall have it if he will not he will give it to those that will Will any say that this was no free act of Love because it had such Conditions propounded with it or if any one should refuse so kind an Offer tho upon such terms as these and will not come to him nor put forth his hand to receive any of his Gold or Silver but will rather pine away or rot in a Goal unless he will force it into his Pocket whether he will or no would not all People look upon this as the greatest folly and imprudence in the World What be loaded with Bags of Gold and Silver and discharged from all Wants and Fears and yet not so much as reach out the hand to receive them Well suppose he should put forth his hand to receive this Treasure is it the act of receiving the Money or the Money received that enricheth him surely tho his putting forth his hand was a means yet it was the Mony received that inriched him and he had cause for ever to be thankful to him and admire his Love and Bounty and free Gift here would be no cause for such a poor Wretch to pride up himself as if by his own power and towardliness he had merited such Grace and Favour but rather the contrary so in spirituals O here will be enough for Souls to admire and that to Eternity the signal Acts of God's free Grace and Favour in that he has provided such effectual Means and afforded them so powerful Aids and Assistances in order to make them holy and to bring their Wills into a compliance with his own And I desire you to consider whether it will not be an aggravation to the damned to think that they might have been happy as well as others but that they wilfully refused Grace and Mercy when it was tendered to them 1. Now if Conversion is to be wrought only by the irresistible and unfrustrable Power of Grace why is it said that some resisted the Holy Ghost and made void the Counsel of God against themselves and would not hear come nor obey his Voice but closed their Ears and hardned their Hearts as may be seen Acts 7. 51. Luke 7. 30. Acts 13. 46. 7. 39. Prov. 1. 24 25. Zac. 7. 11 12 13. Jer. 5. 7. and of others that they heard the word readily and received it chearfully and obeyed it from the heart as Acts 2. 41. 13. 47. 6. 7. 17. 11. Rom. 6. 17. Now how can any of these be attributed to those who either can no ways believe and obey it being wholly above their power or could not but believe and obey by the force of Grace no ways resistible 2. But again if God by a strong hand of irresistible Grace works conversion in all then all the Exhortations Threatnings and Promises made unto Sinners in order to their repentance and believing are made in vain yea bootless and ridiculous The Divine Decree doth not impose any real and fatal necessity on any in respect of their eternal safety or ruin for the Voice of Reason must needs proclaim those Laws and Constitutions unjust which plainly forbid and prohibit that which a Man cannot possibly assume or avoid nor can no more be changed by our most earnest endeavours than we can stay the course of the Heavens or fly in the Air. Mr. Hockins on God's Decree p. 122. 3. If we have not a sufficiency of Means vouchsafed by the Lord to repent believe and obey him then doth the Lord deal more severely with Men under the Covenant of Grace than under the Covenant of Works now I say I suppose you will not deny but that the Lord endued Adam with sufficient Means for the persormance of that Covenant and so to obtain the Reward of that Covenant but now if the Lord should under the Covenant of Grace require of Persons a ready submission to his holy commands and yet pass a Decree that they should not move one step forward in the way of Obedience and wholly deny his Grace to them doth he not deal more severely with most of Adams off-spring under the Covenant of Grace by Christ than under the Covenant of Works in Adam requiring only possible things in the first and impossible things in the latter And saith Hockins on God's Decree pag. 189. If a Master should be so severe to require as much work of his Servant when his hands are fast tied as when he is at liberty this would argue an unheard of Cruelty joyned with the greatest Severity 4. Nay if Persons be not enabled by Grace to repent and believe the Gospel they are thereby laid under an absolute necessity of despising it thereby making themselves more the Children of Wrath and Death than before Heb. 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation clearly implying that