is frivolous The objection is of Gods will to harden men their answer is of Gods will to soften them by repentance ADVERSARIES HEre they lay against their Adversaries Gods friends two false accusations First that they make God hate Esau and Pharaoh and the Reprobates before they be born from which hatred he decreed their damnation and that by his secret will which cannot be resisted to which the will of God declared in the Scripture is contrary secondly that God compelled Pharaoh to trespasse and so to suffer DEFENCE BY the Law the false accuser must be done by as he would doe by his brother These mens slanders therefore being false are as odious in them as were the opinions odious in us if true First we know that God hates none before the world otherwise then they are and that they are no otherwise then in Gods decree and foreknowledge He hates none actually or by application of hatred till they haue actuall yea sinfull being but hates them before in decree onely as they are onely in decree and foreknowledge This decree of God we consider according to two objects Sin and Condemnation For sin we say that God decrees to suffer the sin which he could hinder by his almighty power if he would and to order both sin and sinner both before he sin and in sinning and having sinned to his own holy ends For damnation we hold that God decrees it towards none but for their sin by him infallibly foreseen and by them freely to be committed and continued in without repentance For though God be moved onely from within himselfe and the loue of his holinesse to decree the condemnation of a sinner yet doth lie not so decree to condemn him but for sin as the deserving cause foreseen and by him to be practised Neither yet doe either of these decrees passe forth from God for themselvs but both the one and the other for the glory of his power and justice to be made known to men and Angels v. 22. Neither is the secret and revealed will of God held by us contrary one unto another as they mis-judgâ— no not though he will that by the one called revealed which can be resisted and will not but will that by the other called secret which cannot be resisted I say though God will the same thing by the one which he nils by the other for some things God wils by both for example the repentance of Paul and Peter and of all that doe repent It is his revealed will which requires it but his secret and unknown will to giue it till he make it known by giving it Neither doth the willing and not willing no nor nilling which is more of the same thing make two contrary wils saue as they crosse one another in the same respect else they are but divers in respect of divers objects in consideration To open this a little further It was the revealed or commanding will of God that Pharaoh should let Israel goe but so it was not his secret or working will that is God did not so will this as that he would use his omnipotent power and doe what he could to bring it to passe God who turned the heart of Laban persecuting Iakob and of Saul persecuting the Christians and in whose hands are the hearts of Kings as the rivers of waters which hee turneth whethersoever hee wils could had it so pleased him by his irresistable power haue softned Pharaohs heart towards his people Israel It was Gods revealed will wherewith Moses acquainted him that he should let the people goe his secret will which he knew not till he felt the woefull effects of it to harden his heart for the declaration of his power in his deserved destruction So for Abrahams offering up his son Isaak it was Gods revealed will that he should offer him up for a burnt offering as is plain in that he commanded him so to doe v. 1. 2 yet withall it was Gods secret will that he should not offer him nor lay his hand upon him nor doe any thing unto him as he also revealed unto him in due time but purposed in himselfe before God being without variablenesse or shadow of turning and not to be conceived to haue changed his mind as vain man doth yet were not these two wils contrary one to another but divers not in God in whom all things are one even one God but in respect of divers objects and ends God willed Isaaks offering so far as the commanding will reached for the tryall of Abrahams faith and obedience and this he revealed But now God would not haue him offered in regard of the event of the thing but this as secret for the present and till God revealed it in its time Neither doe we or the Apostle whose steps we tread in by teaching that God hardens men by a will that cannot be resisted say as they ignorantly accuse us and him that God compels men to trespass and so to suffer There is no compulsion of any but of him that is unwilling but he that is hardned is willingly hardned as well as necessarily His hardning of himselfe in a course of sin is as voluntary as is Gods hardning him by way of punishment necessary and irresistible The Apostle teacheth how it is impossible for these who were once enlightned have tasted of the heavenly gift c. if they fall away to renue them again to or by repentance If it be impossible for them to repent then they remain impenitent necessarily by Gods just judgment upon them and yet I suppose voluntarily also even our adversaries being Iudges Their impenitency therefore and hardnesse of heart though in regard of men a sin and therefore voluntary it is in regard of God a punishment and therefore necessary and irresistable except we will say that men can resist Gods judgments and doe that which the Apostle affirmes to be impossible Neither needs this deep and divine mystery of Gods judgments trouble any that considers aright of these three things First that as the Sun puts no ill savour into the dung-hill though the stink therof be increased by its shining so neither doth God add any hardnesse or impenitency to any but onely leaves unrestrained occasions stirrs up and orders the corruption which he finds in men to this event Secondly that man is more willing to be impenitent and hard-hearted then God is to have him so Thirdly that this in regard of man is a sin in regard of God a punishment of former sins The Apostles answer to the objection now followeth v. 20. Nay but O man who art thou that disputest with God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another to dishonor Wherein first he represseth mans insolency who being but man yet dare presume to call Gods doing
he suffered them to enter into them Math. 8. 31. 32 Mat. 5. 12. 13 Luk. 8. 32. DEFENCE BVT first I would know how they can proue that though in one place where no punishment is directly intended suffering and sending be all one therfore they are all one in all other places where the Lord properly and professedly intends a punishment Secondly I deny that sending and suffering are here all one but as we find in many other places so in this that which one Evangelist relates though truely yet not so fully that another sets down more throughly with all the parts Luke saith He suffered them and this is true Matthew saith He sent them and this is the same which Luke saith and more namely together with the suffering of them the directing and determining also of their malice this way for the Lords most holy though unknown ends And if the Lord in this case onely suffered them and let them alone then it should follow that the creature doth some actions wherin he is wholly left to himselfe without Gods medling with him or ruling of him But to come neerer the matter I would know of these men when two Evangelists or Prophets set down the same thing in divers words the one in more sparing and strait and the other in more large termes whether we be not to expound the strayter by the larger and not the larger by the strayter except there be some apparant restraint The Evangelist Matthew relating the miracle done by Christ upon Peters mother saith He touched her hand and the fever left her Marke saith He took her by the hand and the fever left her Should we now say that to take her by the hand and lift her up were nothing but to touch her hand Or say we not truely that Mark said the same thing which Mathew doth and more also so is it in Christs suffering and sending the divels More plainly yet We reade how upon the death of Absolom Ahimaz the Priest being very desirous to be the messenger therof to David importunes Ioab greatly to let him run and again to let him run Ioab at the last condiscends and saith to him run and so v. 29 Ahimaz expresly affirmes that Ioab sent him to David He therfore both suffered him to goe and sent him He suffered him as having a desire of himselfe and sent him also as his messenger to the King So Christ both suffered the devils as desiring to possesse the swine rather then to be cast into the deep and also sent them as ordering their malice to that object and none other for the tryall of the Gergesenes In the next place followeth to be considered of the sending of Ioseph into Aegypt touching which let these two things onely be added to the things spoken for the opening of the former instances First that Ioseph expresly saith not onely that God sent him into Aegipt but that he sent him thither to preserue life which was Gods end and not his brethrens and therfore depends upon Gods work not upon theirs but withall that it was not they that sent him thither but God Ioseph here makes God in a respect a greater doer then his brethren these men shut God quite out and makes him onely a sufferer or one that left others alone and meddles not with them His brethren sold him but God sent him that is used their envious injury to his own gracious work both towards him and them and much other people whom by his meanes he kept aliue Secondly and for conclusion let this be observed that Ioseph speaks of Gods sending him to comfort his brethren in their sorrow and fear for the evill they had done to him But I would know what comfort it could be to their perplexed hearts to think that God suffered them to doe wickedly that is hindred them not Can any man having grace yea common sense take comfort in this that God leavs him to himselfe to doe wickedly and hinders him not A miserable comforter would this miserable exposition haue made Ioseph to haue been Whereas by the other and true sense though their sin were nothing the lesse yet Gods providence appeares the greater and more gracious in ordering their envy and malice to such an event as it had whence no small comfort did accrew unto them Of the death of Christ and Gods work in giving him thereunto even to the cursed death of the crosse by the hands of the wicked I haue formerly spoken at large and will not repeat the same things Onely I cannot but tax their allegation of Vrsinus as most vain who in the place notâ—d by them opposeth Gods permission to his willing and working of sinne as sinne and so God indeed onely permits and neither wils nor works sin as sin Otherwise all that haue but once lookt â—nto Vrsinus know how vehemently he impugneth that imagination of bare permission avowing the effectuall work of Gods providence in and about sin as both working the actions themselues which he cals the materials of sin and withdrawing his grace and withall destinating directing and bringing to their ends the same actions That of Amos 3. 6 is misapplyed if by any alledged and so easily answered The last place which they take upon them to answer is Ioh. 12 39. 40 Therfore they to wit the Iewes before whom Christ had done so many miracles could not beleev because that Esaias had said He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see c. ADVERSARIES THeir answer after divers incongruous forms of speech and some truths among is that this and the like places affirm that they winked with their eyes lest they should see for which cause God gaue them up to this reprobate sense DEFENCE THat is they being interpreters for winking with their eyes lest they should see God gaue them up to wink with their eyes lest they should see Thus by this untoward construction the same thing is the cause and effect of it selfe their winking with their eyes of their winking with their eyes It is certain that this reprobate minde in wilfull ignorance and obduration was their proper sin and as certain that it was Gods just judgement upon their former sins by his ordering therunto their corruption and therfore Christ spake to them in parables which were dark without exposition and expounded them when he was alone to them which were about him rendring thereof this reason because it was given to them namely to his Disciples to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God but unto them that were without all things were done in parables that seeing they might see and not perceiv c. and so Mathew saith this was given to the one and not given to the other wherof also elsewhere he rendreth the highest reason because so it seemeth good in Gods sight who hath mercy on whom he will haue mercy and whom he will hee
according to which he himselfe works in loue or hatred not of that according to which he commands and appoints men to worke These men in truth confound all things setting mans will where Gods should stand God saith on whom I will they say on him that himselfe wils or seeketh as he ought c. The same Idol of mans wil they advance set up v. 16 where in stead of Gods shewing mercy they put mans beleeving mercy The Lord by willing and running v. 16 excludes whatsoever is of or in man and either within or without him and draws all to himselfe alone In the stead of God shewing mercy they put themselvs and their free will receiving mercy by God offered as the proper cause of difference between man and man The 17 vers For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh c they handle very sleightly saying something such as it is about Gods hardening Pharoahs heart but not medling at all with the place according to the coherence which it hath with the words going before unto which yet the Holy Ghost strongly tyeth them in saying For the Scripture saith c. And herein they are in truth wise in their generation These words must needs answer to the latter part of the objection of unrighteousnesse with God in hating that is as they interpret it in rejecting such as seek righteousnesse by the works of the Law as did the fleshly Israelits But wherein I wonder did Pharaoh so How sought he justification by the works of the Law Who so professedly despised the God therof saying Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce Did they see that this example of Pharaoh and their exposition of the place could not stand together and therfore chose to cut off the coherence so firmly tying the words together rather then to let fall their preconceived erroneous exposition Whatsoever they intend herein we know it is brought for an example of Gods absolute but righteous power of hardening rather then another whom he will and not whom he finds most deserving it for whom finds he not too much deserving it if he would deal in like manner with all as it is said whom that is which rather then other he will he hardneth v. 18. And let it be diligently minded that the Apostle here opposeth Gods shewing mercy to some and his hardening of others and not his shewing mercy to some and his condemning of others The adversaries by Gods shewing mercy would haue us understand his saving of such as beleev and repent And then on the contrary by Gods hardening should onely be meant his not shewing mercy to but punishing condemning such as doe not beleev nor repent But we know that the not hearing God voyce not beleeving and repenting follow upon hardnesse of heart Wherupon the Lord promiseth that in the day of his mercy and pittie he will take from his people their stony and hard hearts And so touching Pharaoh the Scriptures expresly shew that his hardnesse of heart was the cause of his unbeliefe and disobedience Whereupon I conclude evidently that the Apostle here speaks not of such a mercy onely as follows faith as the Adversaries would haue him but as goes before it also as he speaks of such a hardening as goâ—s before unbelief Note we here also that the Apostle in this place propounds Gods will as the cause of his dealing diversly with divers persons and not of his saving such as are to be saved after a divers manner from that which some namely the carnall Israelites imagined ADVERSARIES NOW to return to them They lay down a question thus What is the meaning of the hardening of Pharaoh And in their answer wholly passe by God as no doer in the businesse They make Pharaoh a doer in hardening his own heart which is true and Satan a doer in hardening Pharaohs heart and this is true also but God no doer but a sufferer only in giving him up that is as else where they expound it in leaving him to himselfe and to Satan to be hardened DEFENCE BVT first the Text imports a further thing in God whom it brings in thus speaking For this same purpose haue I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my name might be declared through all the earth Is Gods raysing up which is his hardening v. 8 nothing but his letting a man lie still and fall down lower then he was before Besides the end which was the glory of Gods power and name shews God to be a worker Every end must haue an efficient or working cause The glory of God was not the end of Satans work nor of Pharaohs work and therefore of Gods work in it Thirdly God hardened Pharaohs heart by sending Moses and Aaron unto him as by an occasion though not a cause as the Law is the occasion of sin and the Gospell the occasion of strife and variance Fourthly God deprived Pharaoh of the use of common sense and reason otherwise it could not haue been that after so many experiments by him taken of Gods powerfull hand against him and for the Israelits he should so furiously as he did haue followed them into the middest of the Sea Lastly besides and aboue all these God in whose hands the hearts of Kings are as the rivers of waters to turn them whether he will hardened Pharaohs heart by ordering his pride cruelty and contempt of God to this effect of obstinacy appearing in his most desperate course without which powerfull and unerring hand of God all the former notwithstanding it might haue come to passe that Pharaohs heart might haue been softned by the miracles and means used and so Gods word which before had foretold his hardening might not haue taken effect which is contrary to the truth and drift of the Apostle in this place God therefore was not onely a sufferer but a doer in the hardening of Pharaoh ADVERSARIES THeir next question is How consider you these words Who hath resisted his will v. 19. Vnto which they frame this untoward Answer viz. that those Iews seeking salvation by those works of the Law did not resist Gods will and so gaue him no cause to complain DEFENCE NOthing lesse as we haue shewed and shall further manifest by and by from the Apostles answer v. 20. The meaning is plain The words v. 19 Thou wilt then say unto me why doth he yet finde fault for who hath resisted his will are an objection against that which immediately went before whom he will he hardeneth Now against this it may colourably bee objected that if God hardens whom he will hee hath then no reason to complain of mens being hardened in disobedience for Who can resist his will if he will harden them A piece of an eie is sufficient to see the plainnesse of this exposition and coherence Their discourse then following that God would saue all and haue all repent amend and beleev
For us we do not hold that God decreed Adams sin as they conceiue that is either to approue it or command it or compell unto it nothing lesse but this we affirm that God decreed to leaue Adam to himself in the temptation and not to assist him with that strength of grace by which he could if he would haue upheld him and so to order both him and all things about him in that his temptation as that he by the motion and sway of his own free-will following his naturall appetite to the pleasant but forbidden fruit and that false perswasion wherewith his understanding was by Sathan overclouded should both choose and eat the forbidden fruit Neither are these two things contrary that God should forbid a thing and yet decree that it should come to passe in the manner fore-mentioned God commanded Abraham to kill his son as it was a tryall of his obedience and yet decreed that the event of killing should not follow as we know God commanded Pharaoh by Moses to let Isâ—â—â—l goe and yet sayd before I will harden Pharaohs heart that he shall not let the people goe That which he sayd he decreed and puâ—posâ—d Christ our Lord desired to drink of that bitter cup appointed him and to be baptised with that baptâ—sme and was pained till it were accomplished and yet desired in an other respect that the same cup might passe from him and he not drink of it if it were possible These things may well stand together in their severall respects and are not as light and darknesse to any but to them whose light is darknesse Next they take upon them to impugne the received distinction of Gods revealed and secret will and demand If it be Gods secret will how we come to know it I answer by his revealing it afterwards either by his word or by his work When a thing comes to passe in this or that manner though before not so much as insinuated in his Word and therfore secret we then know that it was the will of God it should so come to passe either by his working it according to its kinde if it be good or by his suffering and ordering it and the worker therof if evill It is true which they adde that Gods revealed will was not revealed but hidden before it was revealed But what then There was then say they two hidden wils in God contrary to each other wherof the one willed yea decreed Adam to sinne and the other willed him not to sin and so by consequence a good will and an evill will I answer that the will of God in him and its selfe is but one and the same most simple but by us conceived of as divers according to the diversity of objects upon which it is set Secondly we doe not say that God willed Adams sin immediately but that he willed the suffering and ordering of both the sinne and sinner in sinning Thirdly the willing and nilling of the same thing in divers respects makes not two contrary wills as the Scriptures last cited manifest but the willing and nilling of the same thing iâ— the same respect makes the contrariety ADVERSARIES THey make us further to say that God willeth justice for its selfe and sin not for sin but that he might either haue praise in pardoning or punishing sin and thereunto frame answer that to pardon or punish sinne is not to will sinne and that if God willeth sinne in any respect why doth he punish it in Adam and all his posterity DEFENCE BVT who hath sayd that God wils sin though not for sin We know that the object of mans will is onely good in appearance and of Gods in truth We doe not then say that God wils sin properly though he will the thing which in regard of the creature is sin but in regard of him either a most holy and wise tryall of the creature or just punishment of former sins either their own that practise it or others so Absoloms wicked sin was Gods just punishment upon David So the reprobate minde vile affections and all unrighteousnesse of the Gentiles was a meet recompence from God of their error in not glorifying him as God in the things which they clearly saw in the creation of the world They cannot here hide themselues in their burrow of Gods bare suffering considering how expresly it is sayd that God gaue them up to vile affections and as a just Iudge recompenced thereby their former sins to wit as otherwise so by ordering that corruption which was in and of themselues to this fearfull event of a reprobate mind The things which they ad about mens how much more Gods speaking the truth from his heart and their bold charge of others with blasphemie in making God to be blessed for ever an hypoorite I passe by as a fruit of that spirit which makes men presumptuous self-willed and not afrayd to speak evill of the things which they know not themselues nor will learn of others The Lord who taught Paul that he who being a Pharisee and in his ignorance had accounted Christs doctrine blasphemy had himselfe blasphemed shew these men the like mercie for they know not what they speak ADVERSARIES IN the next place to shew how free Adam was from all necessitie of sinning they at large relate how God furnished him with all things that might support him in the estate in which hee created him DEFENCE THE particular helps mentioned I acknowledge with them but with limitation of some of them which they set down at a large adventure Whereas in the third they affirm that Adam had a meet help and comfort for him his wife Hevah This is true of her created state but not of that which followed she being first seduced by the serpent taking advantage upon her womanly weaknesse and the absence of her husband becoming the onely imediate instigator of him to sin So for the 7 th and last which is that God gaue Adam will and power not to haue eaten we confesse it but not as they mean it in their more overly considerations and peremptoric determinations then is meet in this deep mystery Let us therefore a little more distinctly consider how it may and ought to be granted that God furnished Adam with all necessarie and sufficient grace and helps against sin and for perseverance in holinesse First then we confesse that God making him a reasonable creature bestowed upon him withall whatsoever grace was sufficient and necessarie on his part that is as much and more then he was bound to giue him Secondly that God gaue him whatsoever was sufficient for his preservation in that state of holinesse and integritie in which he was created out of the case of temptation Thirdly I grant that whatsoever grace he wanted for the resisting of the temptation when it came it was by his own default and that if hee had not failed himself the grace of God would and
of wisedom in discerning and of truth in speaking and of power in working If any object that God saith Saul will come to Keilah I easily answer that God therin onely fore-tels what was in Sauls will and purpose which compared with the event shews that Sauls purpose of will was alterable not Gods in whom there is neither change nor shadow of changing neither is he as man that he should repent So the threatning of the Ninivits as divers other particular both threatnings and promises are but upon condition sometimes expressed and sometimes understood It is ignorantly said that a thing will be which is promised or threatned conditionally except it be presupposed that the condition will be first Alike impious as accusing God both of being deceived and deceiving is that which followeth that God knows and pronounceth that the wicked shall be damned and yet that there is no necessity of it but that it may be prevented by repentance This is to say that God knowes and saies a thing shall be when it may not be yea when he knows it shall not be as in them that doe repent afterwards If they say further that wicked men may and shall be saved if they repent they say but as the truth is but if thereupon they conclude of all simply that therfore they may either repent or be saved they erre not knowing the nature of a conditionall proposition in which it is sufficient if the consequence or latter part follow truely upon the antecedent or former part though it may be that neither consequent nor antecedent can possibly be For example 1 Cor. 15. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 19 If there be no resurrection from the dead then is Christ not risen and your faith is also in vain c. The consequence is firm If this then that and yet neither this nor that apart nor both together could possibly be ADVERSARIES THese men having as they list vilified Gods infallible knowledg and unchangeable truth come to his counsell against which say they things may be done as Luk. 7. 30 the Pharises did against the counsell of God adding that Christ knew those he admonished should perish if they repented not yet there lay no necessity of their perishing because Christ knew it for as be testifieth repentance might help it DEFENCE IN the former place they commit the fallacie of equivocation taking the word counsell there for the internall and eternall decree of God in himself When by it Act. 7. is meant onely the outward instructions and exhortations ministred by Iohn Baptist. Of salvation upon condition of repentance I spake even now that which is sufficient to which the Reader may look back Comming to answer certaine scriptures they begin with Prov. 16. 4. which they set down thus God created all things for his owne sake yea the wicked for the day of destruction and so corupt the text whilst they pretend the opening of â—t for it is not sayd that God created but that he made that is wrought or did all things as Psal. 11. 3. 15. 2. and generally wheresoever the word is used They therefore like unskilful workmen make themselues labour and loose it when they haue done in proving that God created all men good and none bad Neither is it wholly true much lesse the whole truth which they conclude as the meaning that man becomming evill God made the day of destruction for him or him for the day of destruction as a iust recompence For first is it not all one as they make it to say that man is made for the day of destruction and the day of destruction for man seeing the one imports the Lords work in or upon the person for the thing and the other in or upon the thing for the person Secondly they misse the meaning of the place which is that all things in the world yea wicked men who seem to liue without all compasse yet come under the divine ordination and that as there is nothing so casuall in regard of men no not the casting of a lot nor falling of a sparrow upon the ground but comes under the Lords disposition and providence so there is no person nor thing in the world so evill but he rules and over-rules it as it may serue for the manifestation of his glory ADVERSARIES VNto the instances brought by us to proue Gods holy work in and about mens sinfull works and Satans with them for example Gods bidding Shemei curse David His stretching out his hand upon Iob and taking away all that he had His moving David to number Israel sending a lying spirit upon Ahabs Prophets and the like to all these they haue their ready and round answer that God onely suffered all these things and that Satan and evill men were the workers of them DEFENCE BVT first let the godly Reader who will not oppose his own fleshly reason against the wisdom of God wel weigh the most effectuall and significatiue terms that possibly can be used by the Holy Ghost every where to shew the Lords powerfull work in those matters and not his bare sufferance as if he were onely an idle looker on letting men alone without medling with them in a great part of the greatest even all the evill works of their liues For example that God sent Ioseph into Egipt and not his brethren that he hardened Pharaohs heart and raised him up to shew in him his power c. that the Lord gaue and that the Lord took away from Iob that God bade Shimei curse David that he moved David against Israel to say Go number Israel and Iudah that he put a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahabs prophets that Asshur was a staffe in the Lords hand and the rod of his anger that he sent strong delusions upon them that received not the loue of the truth and lastly to let passe infinite other places that God by his determinate counsell and foreknowledge delivered Christ into the hands of wicked men and that they did what Gods hand and counsell had determined before to be done Now can we conceiu it to be for no more but a simple suffering that the Holy Ghost who knew right well how to speak should not once nor twice but I may safely say a thousand times in the Scriptures use words and phrases importing so effectuall operation and working Is to send men to take away things to raise up to use men as a staffe in the hand and bid them goe onely to suffer them and let them be still and alone Surely the Art of Chimists is nothing to these mens in evaporeating who can reduce those most just and powerfull works of God to a very nothing for no more is a bare suffering then a not doing But we will briefly as may be handle the particulars following their foot-steps who beginning with Shemei allow God onely the poore pittance of sufferance for Davids tryall But David himselfe will teach
sin by giving him the spirit of faith and grace goes before his beleeving for hee cannot beleev before hee haue faith nor haue it before God giue him it but his actuall saving by justification and glorification follows after faith The discourse which here they fall into touching Gods deliberating and decreeing to make man c is impertinent considering that our question is onely of that decree which is Evangelicall and of mercy and so presupposeth man faln and in misery by reason therof So is the deliberation which they imagine in God incompetent to his infinite wisedom and providence They make God like a weak man contriving his purposes with ifs ands as though he stood in a mammering and unresolved what to doe till hee found by experience what men would doe first And here I demand of these men what if some of those so actually really and particularly chosen to salvation as they speak upon their faith and obedience and to whom God hath so fully purposed without ifs or ands to impart the Kingdom of heaven doe afterwards wholly fall away as they hold any may and many doe then all this actuall reall and particular chusing and setled purpose of God is voyd and frustrate and God must unpurpose what he had formerly purposed really actually and particularly and undecreâ— what he had formerly decreed They should therfore haue learnt in this place from their more learned Masters to haue added the condition of their persevering to the end without which it is certain none shall be saved But then they must needs rush upon the same deperate rock with the other which is that none are thus actually and particularly elect or chosen till they be dead seeing they deny all certainty of perseverance to the living not acknowledging any thus elect either before the world or in it but after the world and in heaven The Scriptures here produced to proue that men are not actually really and particularly Gods people and partakers of the grace of Christ before the world and they also be and before they haue learned Christ might well haue been spared as proving that onely which no man doubts of Onely they must learn that it is one thing for a people to become actually Gods people and partakers of his grace and another thing for God actually to purpose in himselfe from eternity in time to make them such Nothing in God is potent all but all actuall Their proofs of an universall calling in the means of salvation we will presently examine notâ—ng onely by the way their apparant contradiction of themselues and unjust insinuation against us They contradict themselues in saying that God chuseth all men good and bad upon condition of faith and obedience the partition wall being broken down To chuse is to take some from the rest and not to take all He that takes all alike chuseth none Besides by this the same persons are both elected and reprobated chosen and refused and every one alike either of both Then which nothing is more absurd The insinuation is that we make God an accepter of persons in saying that he chuseth men that haue not put on Christ. Nothing lesse To accept persons in the Scriptures is to judge of or doe to a person better or worse for some by thing in or about him whereas God in chusing one before another whether in the decree or actuall application of grace respecteth nothing in the chosen but onely the good pleasure of his own will in himselfe This is the highest cause that God would haue us take knowledge of though wee also know in the generall that God is no way wilfull in his will though hee be most free but alwaies most wise and holy To remoue a little further out of the way this stone at which divers stumble First we know that all by nature and of themselvs are subject to sin and condemnation and so might in justice haue been left of God without remedy of redemption If then it had been but just with God to haue left all in that state of sin and misery into which they haue cast themselvs it is then meere mercy that he hath chosen any in his Son or given him for any Now if of all men indefinitely considered as faln God haue purposed in himself from eternity to raise up some by working effectually in them faith and obedience so to saue them and not to work the same in others but to leav them to their own affected and effected pravity and sin and so in justice to condemn them for that their wickedness by them freely committed and obstinately continued in I would know in regard of whether of these two works we can be said to make God a respecter of persons The one being a pure work of his mercy and the other of his justice Why God should thus chuse some and passe by others in the generall we see reason both by the light of nature and the Scriptures namely that the glory of his power and justice might be seen in the one and of the riches of his mercy in the other But why in particular the Lord God should rather chuse this man or woman then that we leav unto himselfe to know till the day of revelation of hidden things Onely let our care and diligence be in the mean while first to know assuredly that we are our selvs of that blessed number and by such marks as cannot deceiv and so knowing both to haue in our hearts and to expresse in word and deed all thankfulnes unto our good God and most gracious Father who hath vouchsafed unto us aboue many others such singular mercy ADVERSARIES IT now remains we come to examine whether to use their own words the wicked that come to damnation had by this purpose of God spoken of before means of salvation if they had not refused it DEFENCE FIrst if this of outward means were granted them it would not help them to proue the purpose of God to saue all except they could also proue that there needed nothing on Gods part but the outward means This as they cannot doe so haue I formerly proved plainely the contrary and that though God so provide that even Paul plant and Apollos water in the most full and free offer of the outward means that can be yet except the same God by the inward and effectuall work of his Spirit giue the increase also all is nothing Secondly I deny that the wicked who perish all and every one of them haue had or haue the outward meanes of salvation offered them ADVERSARIES BVT here before they come to that which they promise they offer and enterprise the proving of another thing which is that Christ dyed unfeynedly for all without exception by whose death all might be saved if they did not reject it DEFENCE FIrst I here acknowledge that the death of Christ being God is in it selfe sufficient for all and every
is not unprobable touching the generall beginnings of the Gentiles sacrifices so considering them in their particulars their own words will judge them guilty of grosse errour in instancing them as they doe The question is of Gods offering of the means of salvation to all even to the very Heathens before Christs coming in the flesh Their proofe for the affirmatiue is the sacrifices which the Gentiles had which yet they grant to haue been remembrances and acknowledgments of a false Christ. And are remembrances of a false Christ means of salvation Is there any other name under heaven by which men are saved then by the name of the true Christ Iesus the Son of God crucified by the Iews and raised again by God from the dead If the remembrances of a false Christ be means of salvation then is salvation had by a false Christ. The Apostle maketh the sacrifices of the Gentiles means of fellowship with devils these men make them means of fellowship with God The Apostle teacheth that they cannot stand with the remembrances of Christs body and bloud the cup of the Lord and the Lords Table these men make them the same in effect and remembrances of Christ. The Apostle means of provoking the Lord to anger and so of condemnation they means of pacifying God and of saving men Else where these men in their hote zeal will haue all even the most zealous Ministers in the Church of England preach and pray and doe all other things by none other spirit but the spirit of the man of sin and that all the effects of their so preaching and praying is but the false enlightning and heat of a false spirit And yet here in their hote charity towards the heathen they will haue their sacrifices in which they offer to devils and not to God yea those in which they sacrificed their sonns and daughters unto them and that as histories mention by the devils speciall direction in his Oracles these they will haue means of salvation by which God cals his guests to the marriage of his Sonne and as a good Phisit on offers to heal the fick of sin Thus tâ—ansforming God into the devill the true Christ into a false the Gospell into heynous Idolatry and the means of salvation into the high way and most effectual cause of utter pâ—â—dâ—tion To concludâ— this point If in Religion that which is false be none which elsewhere they make the ground of their rebaptizing how had or haue the Heathens any means of salvation which haue only the means of knowing and acknowledging a false Christ For the time since Christs coming in the flesh their first pâ—oof is Luk. 3. 6 All flesh shall see the salvation of our God But I demand of what sight of Christ Iohn here speaketh Not of bodily without doubt neither availed it them if he did Of spirituall then But so to see is to enjoy as Ioh. 3. 35 Psal. 69. 49 99. 15 1 Ioh. 3. 6. Neither doth the bare offering suffice to giue sight of Christ and of salvation by him except there be withall an opening of their eyes to whom he is offered so as they discern and acknowledge him and his salvation in the means so offering him to wit the Gospell But to let passe them that never heard of Christ how many are there that understand not the Gospell preached to them yea to whom it is meer foolishnes And how doe these see the salvation of God in Christ The meaning then of the words is that the Gentiles indefinitely as well as the Iews and in greater number then they should beleev in Christ to salvation By all Nations is meant as we haue formerly shewed not every particular Nation without exception much lesse every particular person but commonly the Gentiles with the Iews The Sun and Moon teaching God was as well before as since Christ but never taught Christ the Mediator but onely God the Creator and governour of the world Neither is the Gospell which is not known but by supernaturall revelation of the spirit so common as the Law which is naturall and written by creation in the heart of every man Neither should it be a fault if God offered not Christ to all as they most absurdly insinuate He ows not the offering of him to any more then the giving of him for any All is of mercy and therfore no fault but justice onely where no such offer is Where they affirm afterwards and truely that some to whom Christ is offered put him away quite as Iews and Turks I demand how then they keep and practise any remembrances of him or make any acknowledging of him which even now they affirmed every man in the world to doe Or if the fathers put him quite away how can the children haue or make any remembrance or acknowledgment of him having no new offer of him Can that which is quite put away be still continued That Christ might haue been manifested to every particular person whatsoever to wit if God had so pleased is true but both besides the question which is not what God might haue done or doth but what hee hath done or doth and also against themselvs for to say God might haue done a thing is to insinuate that he hath not done it In adding that if the means of salvation haue not been offered to every particular soule of reason and understanding the Scriptures are not true they are like themselvs but the Scriptures are true and their glosse upon them false God is true and all men lyars even such as tell a lye for God as they doe whom God will reproov therefore The two last kinds of their proofs are strange and either brought by them in cunning to deceiv the undiscerning Reader with the truth in it selfe but nothing to the maâ—n purpose yea plain against it or in weaknesse and want of judgment in themselvs to discern what makes for them and what against them Let us consider the particulars They professe and promise proof that Christ hath been offered in mercy to every particular man to whom the Law either written in mens hearts or in tables of stone hath come for reconciliation But in steed hereof as Balaam blessed when he meant to curse they both affirm and prov the plain contrary and that God hath not vouchsafed this mercy to many but in just judgment hath kept it from them Sundry true grounds they here lay down and prove to which we willingly assent as first that God by creating the heaven and earth and by their teachings sends men to seek out the worke-master This we grant and that the Heathens should by this light not of Christ to salvation of which our question is but of Gods power and Godhead haue grâ—ped after God and the further revelation of hâ—s will as he that lying in a dungeon sees some little glimpse of light and groaps aftâ—r it by the wall
temptations and to reserve the unrighteous to the day of judgment for punishment Likewise v. 21. The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the myre They were alwayes then in truth but Dogs and Swine though sometimes vomiting dogs and washed on the out-side as swine are in the waters And yet more plainly of the same persons Iude sayth v. 4. that they were ungodly men and before of old ordained to that condemnation and such as crept in unawares They were at the best but hypocrites in truth and such as had crept in unawares though seeming for a time to others and it may be to themselves also sanctified and purged by their outward profession which profession formerly by them made the Apostle upbraids them with to their greater confusion To Heb. 10. 29. the same answer serveth The form of speech is but conditionall If we sin wilfully c. v. 26. which proves that if any so sin then there remaines no more sacrifice for him but proves not that any truly justified and sanctified doth so sin If it be asked to what end then serves the fearfull denunciation used I answer first to keep the truely faithfull from so sinning 2. to awaken even the secure if not not desperate 3. to paint out the fearfull state of incurable hypocrites and Apostates And as the particular persons unto whom the Apostle there hath reference could not by him certainly be discerned ever to haue been truely and inwardly sanctified for what man knoweth the things of a man saue the spirit of man which is in him so by their after course of Apostasie from Christ he seemeth not obscurâ—ly to gather and pronounce of them that at their best they were but hollow-hearted as v. 38. 39. making an opposition between the truly just that liues and perseveres notwithstanding all temptations by faith and those with-drawers to perdition So chapt 6. speaking of the same and like persons If they fall away v. 6. he insinuates against them v. 8. that they were never other then thorny earth opposed to good earth bringing forth hearbs meet for him that dresseth it As also v. 9. 10. he makes it a poynt of Gods righteousnes not to forget the work and labour of loue of the truely faithfull or beloved viz. so as to suffer them to fall away from the things which accompany saluation With which accords that else-where Faithfull is he that calleth you which will also doe it that is will preserv the truely faithfull blamelesse unto the comming of the Lord Iesus Christ as doth that also in the parable where onely the seed sown in the stony or thorny ground withered and was choked before the harvest but not any one corn sown in good ground To 1. Tim. 1. 19. where it is sayd that some as Hymenaeus and Alexander by name haue put away a good conscience and made shipwrack of faith I answer letting passe other things that Paul speaks no more of them then he knowes and so not knowing their heart and inward man which onely God doth he speaks of their faith and good conscience not as considered in their hearts which he knew not but in outward profession whereof he had taken knowledge The same answer serveth to 1. Tim. 5. 12. if by the first faith there be not meant these womens former promise of serving the Church in the widowes or Deaconesses office and then it is nothing to the matter in hand It is not sayd Exod. 32. 32. 33. in the text but in their glosse that some written in the book of life may be blotted out Moses onely desires-there that if God would not pardon his peoples sin and bring them into Canaan he would blot him out of his book But the Lord answers him in the same place that that cannot be but that he that sins against him him he will blot out Is it to be conceived that Moses for the sin of others whereof he was altogether innocent yea for his holy zeale and loue towards Gods people should be blotted out of the book of life If you say that yet some to wit sinning may be blotted out I grant it in Gods sense but not in theirs For first this is meant of temporary and not of eternall life of the blotting their name from vnder heaven of the destroying them and making of Moses a nation greater then they Of that of which God is sayd to repent upon Moses his prayer v. 14. which was onely in regard of their temporall state and life 2. It is not onely vanity but impiety also to affirm that these persons were ever truely justified and sanctified Not onely Moses and Aaron but God himselfe upon this very occasion testifies the contrary v. 9. 22. Deut. 9. 7. 13. To Psal. 69. 29. I answer that David means no more then that his adversaries should no longer be continued in the Church and fellowship of Gods people the latter part of the verse expounding the former Let them not be written with the righteous which the Prophet Ezechâ—el termes not being vvritten in the vvriting of the house of Israel And seeing David here speaks of certain particular persons his adversaries let these men shew the markes by which he knew certainly that they were once truely justified and sanctified or by which they know them so to have been They take that for granted in which the maine question lyeth and laying such foundations what can their building bee As the Black-more changeth not his skin so neither doe they their bold manner in putting their glosse for the Scripture as appeares in the next place cited by them Rev. 3. 5. Christ there teacheth that some namely they that over-come shall not haue their name blotted out of the book of life They bring him in saying that some vvritten in the book of life may be put out God blots not out their name that overcome and if any overcome not in the spirituall warfare it shewes his name was never written there All that dwell on the earth shall vvorship the beast vvhose names are not vvritten in the book of life of the lamb On the contrary the Saints indeed and elect get victory over the beast by faith and patience That by the Talents given to the servants Math. 25 is meant the graces of justification and sanctification and not the gifts of the Spirit given for the edification of the Church as 1. Cor. 12. 7. Eph. 4. 8. is their presumption Iustification sanctification make men the servants of Christ at first these talents were given to them that were servants already and that according to their severall ability for their speciall places Besides the taking away of the talent here spoken of is not in this life but at the day of judgment and therefore is unskilfully brought for their purpose Touching Pauls affirming that the Saints at Rome were justified by faith Rom. 5 and yet