children of the Resurrection shall be equal to the Angels Luke 20.36 and the bodie raised shall be not a natural but a spiritual bodie 1 Cor. 15.44 and therefore shall not need natural but spiritual refection and delight Sixthly Whereas the Church of God is either militant or triumphant either subject to temptations and exercised with crosses on earth or else crowned with victory and glory in heaven By this opinion the Church for so many years shall be neither or betwixt both out of heaven but reigning on earth without sin without ordinances And whereas the Church of God upon earth is a mixt societie of good and bad and is to continue such till the last the tares must grow with the wheat till the harvest which is the end of the world by this opinion the wheat shall grow alone without the tares the just reign without the unjust long before final consummation And Lastly According to the Millenarians new Creed the joy of the Saints in Gods presence and the pleasures at his right hand shall not be for evermore or perpetually continued but be broken asunder intermitted not with absolute misery but with happiness so far inferiour to that of heaven in degree and in kinde that it may well be interpreted and taken for a degree of unhappiness When Peter saw but a figure or glimpse of the celestial light he forgat all things would never by his good will have come down from the mount And can we think that the glorified Saints who are perfectly blessed with the sight of Gods face shall be rewarded with leaving heaven and coming down to enjoy the tastless pleasures of an earthly Paradise Had you observed your own rule you gave us before page 11. Contrary to things plain and fundamentall no difficult saying is to be enterpreted because it would be against the Analogie of Faith you would never have suffered your self to be carryed away with such a dream as this is A very learned Commentatour who telleth us he hestowed above thirtie years studie upon the book of the Revelation after all this saith he found it an easier matter to say what the thousand years are not than to say what they are or what is meant by them and yet there lyes your greatest strength of Chiliasm Saint Pauls Epistles are hard to be understood you could once alledge it to weaken the testimonie taken thence Is not S. Johns Revelation especially the twentieth Chapter much more hard In your first chapter you could spy a mote of Judaism where there was none but behold a beam here which you would not see while you interpret spiritual promises by a temporal kingdome which is the main and blinding errour of the Jews to this day Now I come to consider the Texts of Scripture upon which you ground this opinion 1 Cor. 15. 23. Every man shall rise in his own order and is that onely the just are they every man they that are Christs at his coming he says not then all men at his coming as men commonly say Elsewhere it is said All men good and bad shall rise at his coiming I named before joh 5.28 I name now Maith 25.31 When the Son of man cometh he shall separate one from another as the shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats must they not both be raised before they be separated 2 Thess 1. It is righteous to recompence rest to you who are troubled when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven taking vengeance of them that know not God 2 Tim. 4.1 Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing if the quick and dead then the unjust and if they be judged they must be raised first And secondly whereas it is said Every man shall rise in his own order Unusquisque Every one extendeth no further than to Christ and his bodie mystical first Christ the Head and then those that beleeve in him not denoting any orderin beleevers as if one should rise before another much less doth it extend to unbeleevers or shew how they shall rise which is proved further because ver 22. To be made alive as I take it is never understood but of resurrection to life to which standeth in opposition resurrection to condemnation Why says Christ he that doth good shall be rewarded Luke 14.14 at the resurrection of the just if the just and unjust shall both rise together why speaks he of that as a distinct period He doth not speak of it as a distinct period of time but as of a distinct state Many things may differ very much which yet may come to pass together The prisoners that are innocent or that have obtained a pardon may call the Assizes the time of enlargement and delivery and yet upon the very judgement-day when they are acquitted and sent home other malefactours may be sent back to prison and execution 1 Cor. 15. 24. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdome to God the Father Now plain it is that he shall not deliver up the kingdome then when the just shall rise for they shall reign with him wherefore also it is said He shall judge the quick and the dead at his coming and in his kingdome 2 Tim. 4.1 that implyes that he shall not deliver up the kingdome at his coming but when he hath reigned with his Saints that here suffered with him If Death be put down at his coming where is his reign till that be put down You loose your self and all that follow you in your confusions while you choose rather to lead the ignorant than to tread in the steps of the learned that have gone before you There is a twofold kingdome of our Saviour Jesus Christ The first Natural Absolute and Essential to him as he is God equal with the Father with whom he reigneth from everlasting to everlasting of this kingdome shall be no end and as he never received it of any so shall he never surrender it The other is a Ministerial or Oeconomical Kingdome belonging to him as he is Mediatour having all power given him in heaven and earth for the good and salvation of his Church whereof he is the Head This kingdome consisteth in dispensing his gifts diversly for the edification of his people by his Spirit Word Ministerie and Ordinance and in subduing Sin Satan Death and all enemies of what kinde soever This kingdome he hath received of his Father and shall at last deliver it up As if a king should give authority and commission to his eldest son to go and reduce to due obedience a rebellious countrey lying at some distance which work being done the son returneth renders up his Commission delivers to his Father the possssion of a peaceable kingdome yet ceaseth not to be his Fathers son as he was before The text you bring out of 2 Tim. 4.1 and that of Rom. 8.17 and 2 Tim. 2.11 12. do speak of the first kinde of kingdome But that of
pass that he was so great an adversarie to that sect if he were not how come those men to be Manicheans whose Doctrine is the same that his was as I hope you have so much modestie as to acknowledge what danger they are in to fall into Manicheism or something that is worse who denie Gods Providence in the evil of sin so far as commonly they do denie it I wish they would timely consider and beware So much for Manicheism Verily all my instructions given to seek the Lord imply that I think God can do more than he hath done Though what he could have done more for our redemption and for providing salvation for us than to have given his onely son to death for us and raise and glorifie him as he hath done I suppose must pose all men when the time comes when God will be cleared in his sayings and in his doings and that shall be his appeal Judge between me and my vineyard what more could have been done c. and that to little comfort to the censurers of his goodness now which we desire together with his power and wisdome to adore Whether or no you have and how far in this chapter impeached three of Gods most sacred attributes namely First his Immutabilitie while you reckon it for an errour to say that he cannot will anew Secondly his Providence while you compare it with the Stoicks fate Thirdly his Omnipotence while you speak as if he could do no more than he hath done for mans salvation whatsoever he is able to do for other things This leave to others to judge who are more able to judge and whom it better becometh to give their censure Of this I am well assured that without doing wrong more or less to these three aforesaid and divesting God of them so far as to think him like our selves in things which argue our imperfection which the fiftieth Psalm reproveth as wickedness The Remonstrants Divinitie can never consist nor hold together while the world standeth And of these three attributes I understand the second namely Gods Providence to comprehend 1. his seeing and foreseeing all things 2. his upholding or maintaining all things in their being and actions 3. his orderly directing and governing all things to his own ends and according to his own will Yea whosoever looketh into their writings and is not partial will soon perceive what expence they are continually put to in making good their first breach what waste and havock they make of their old stock and patrimonie to maintain the title of their late purchase And you show your self as bad as the worst of them in giving such a maim and imperfect enumeration of the mean and helps that God hath afforded to salvation H◠hath given his Son to death raised him and glorifie him and here you stay and tell us there is n◠more that could be done very offensively yet giving us fairly leave to guess when at other times you speak of any further help or grace or strength and divine assistance whether thereby you mean any thing or nothing The means to life eternal are of two sorts The frist called Media immediata or Media interna internal and immediate means by which a Christian is placed and set in the state of regeneration and life spiritual as Faith Repentance Sanctification and justification these are proper to the Church invisible or mystical bodie of Christ The second media mediorum Or Media externa outward means tending to produce the former sort of means as not onely Preaching of the Gospel sending of Pastours Administration of the Word and Sacraments which are common to the Church visible but moreover the Incarnation of Christ his Passion and Resurrection which are in some sort and in a sense formerly explained common to all the world Now you have omitted the former sort of Means and mentioned onely this latter and most remote of Christs Death and Rising again as if you had rather follow Puccius and Huberus whom both Papist and Lutheran count Monsters than conform to the Doctrine of the reformed Churches It is a Custom with you and with other men of your minde to deface and obscure Gods Grace by discourse tending to set forth his Mercy and Goodness and Love to all mankinde But such Mercy it is by which none are saved no man is brought to heaven by universal Grace or that sufficient Help that is given to all men You may for that matter beleeve your Dutchman in his Diatriba pag. 17. Divitias illas bonitatis divinae omnes fastidirent nisi abundans misericordia Dei quosdam sib◠separâsset quibus efficacem vocationem ac finalem perseverantiam dare ab aeterno decrevisset praeteritis aliis quos demum propter impoenitentiam insidelitatem esset damnaturus The riches of Gods goodness would be despised and abused even by all men unless the mercy of God had set apart and chosen some upon whom he did decree from eternitie to bestow effectual vocation and final perseverance in Grace while he passed by others who at last are to be condemned for their impenitence and unbelief This Doctrine therefore that you so zealously obtrude upon the world is no such friend to the world as may be imagined For while you plead for some kinde of intention and will that God hath to save all men you do withall violently plead against any absolute intention he hath to save any man in particular Corvinus contr Molin cap. 12. § 25 26. Admittimus fieri potuisse ut nemo in Christum crederet ut nulla sit Ecclesia We grant it follows for what we teach that there may be no church at all and not one true beleever And it cannot well be otherwise because the preventing Grace you speak of I mean those of your minde is no other than is given in the first Covenant whereby God doth teach and instruct command and forbid and threaten and promise All this was done in the covenant of works in which yet they continued not Hebr. 8.9 And if it be not this grace you mean why should you bring the examples of the Angels in heaven and Adam in Paradise to prove the Apostasie of Saints and that true grace may fail And doubtless should man be left now as he was at the first creation in manu consilii sui Ecclus 15. in the hand of his counsel a place commonly brought to the present purpose he must needs be seduced now who fell when he had a far greater stock of strength wherewithall to resist and stand And as the grace you plead for and the onely grace you think is to be had is the same by which Adam stood and notwithstanding which he fell so is it no other nor better than that grace which is bestowed upon the reprobates for whom your Adversaries do beleeve Christ did and doth as much as you hold he did and doth for the elect both the one and the other being left to
that it is his will by way of approbation he approveth alloweth and liketh well of universall and perfect obedience and the salvation of all men as agreeable to his nature and generall inclination and as morally good though he doth not compleatly and perfectly will it so as to effect it And that his will to save all men consisteth in procuring a Saviour or Redeemer for all men and ordaining means of salvation more or lesse for all men not in causing those means always to take place Thus have we been taught by those whom you had done better to follow than to take the chair of the scorners and make a mock of what you cannot or will not understand But were not the Ceremonies of Gods appointing then more warrantable and sutable to Davids spiritual worship than Rites or Ceremonies of mans Institution now that God never commanded might not a man expect more blessing then in observing them than in the other now I durst not determine positively You compare the Rites and Ceremonies given to the Jews by Moses with the Ceremonies of Mans Institution now And you do it so that the people may think the Rites established in our Church are appointed as appertaining to Gods service no less than those which were imposed upon the people of the Jews in the old Testament Wherein you deal very injuriously with the Church of England and with the consciences of the weak Before the Liturgy is declared that what of Ceremonies is retained is for Discipline and Order and not to be esteemed equall with Gods law When the Gileadites had erected an Altar on the other banck of Jordan and that of their own heads without divine command yet as a Ceremony some way significant in religion the other Tribes were highly offended at it taking it to be a corruption of the true worship and a kinde of defection from the God of Israel But so soon as they heard them protest against any such intention and declare that they meant it onely as a witness of their consent in Gods worship and of their joint-profession with their brethren that dwelt in the land of Canaan they gave over presently laid aside their jealousie add suspicion and rested well content They who have endeavoured to satisfie the Non-conformists did fully declare these things to be matters of indifferency no part of divine worship no way necessary to salvation no more than any thing else that is done and ought to be done at the command of a Superiour They did always disclaim any opinion of necessity or efficacy ascribed by Papists to their Ceremonies any obligation of Conscience otherwise than in civill Laws which God in the general hath commanded us to observe The more to blame are they that will not at last after so many protestations and declarations receive satisfaction If any of those high-flown Anabapists with whom you have discoursed who are against civill customes yea against customes of Civility as well as against Ecclesiastical Laws and will not come at our Churches because they have been defiled with Mass should argue thus against you as you have in a sort taught them to do Might not a man expect more blessing in going to the Temple at Jerusalem which was of divine dedication appointed and consecated by God himself descending from heaven and by his cloud of glory owning it for the place of his mansion and abode than we can expect in going to our Churches which are but of mans institution and consecration I suppose you would shape him some answer or other I pray let that answer serve for you both Upon occasion of those words in the Church-Cathechisme To keep Gods holy will and Commandments you asked your Scholar what is the will and Commandment of God concerning thee And you taught him to answer thus Gods will is that I should be saved Upon this I noted that Gods will to save men is matter of belief not of practice therefore not of precept hereto now you answer That God commands us to be saved I prove from Isa 45.22 and there I find these words look unto me and be ye saved this is your proof because Be ye saved is the Imperative mood forsooth and that is as much as commanding A most worthy argument but more worthy of G. F. or G. W. than of their Antagonist but better becoming one of your Laymen that can read no Latin than your self for if they could they might there have found it salvi eritis or ut servemini I hope your skill in Logick will help you not to make two preceps of those words but to resolve them into a precept and a promise or if you be resolved to hold you to your Grammar and your Moods then let me tell you that though it be called the Imperative yet it is not always so but now and then something else as Precative carrying prayer or entreaty for otherwise you will teach not the Souldier onely with a sword in his hand but any other beggar when he asketh Almes to command for they make use of the Imperative Mood and Postulative or requesting as Pay me that thou owest a Demand not a Command and Concessive or granting as sleep on now and take your rest and Hortative as Be of good courage fear not and Constitutive causing something to be or be made which was not before as Gods Voice at the Creation Fiat and the Kings Sois Chevalier and Lastly Promissive as Do good and live for evermore So that which you call a Command is a Promise Look unto me and ye shall be saved He commands us to look to him and if we do he promiseth to save us CHAP. XXX The Conclusion IN your last chapter there is little I shall take notice of besides that which you have in effect mentioned twice before namely pag. 2. pressing ceremonies and domination in the Church yon call Beastly doing and the voice of the Dragon and pag. 36. The Magistrate must not exercise the Authority of the Dragon in appointing Ordinances of worship and here you are at it again If the time of Beast-worshipping be not yet over as many godly persons think it is not then the Scripture says all that then dwell upon the earth are false worshippers onely excepted whose names written in the book of life And many godly persons know that there have been and are still many ungodly persons who would gladly overthrow and destroy all Christianity upon pretence of Antichristianisme The Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 2. hath given us warning of the danger incident to Reformation and what the Devices and Machinations of Satan are at such a time and what his Method and that is this to drive men from one extreme to another Witness the case of the incestuous Corinthian there who being at the first tolerated in his wickedness without any manner of censure was in the next place well nigh plunged into despair and swallowed up of sorrow through over-rigorous dealing When the