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A41319
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An answer to Mr. Thomas Grantham's book, called, A dialogue between the Baptist and the Presbyterian by Martin Finch.
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Finch, Martin, 1628?-1698.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing F942; ESTC R7436
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100,803
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186
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a thing which he never purposed and intended to be be done yea which he resolved to hinder the doing of therefore it is one thing for God to command us to do a thing and another thing for God to purpose and intend this thing shall certainly be effected Yea take another instance concerning Pharaoh Exod. 4.21 And the Lord said unto Moses When thou goest to return into Egypt see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine Hand but I will harden his Heart that he shall not let the people go God sent a Command to Pharaoh to let the People of Israel go out of his Land Exod. 5.1 but before ever Moses came to Pharaoh with this Message and Command God said to Moses I am sure that the King of Egypt will not let you go no not by a mighty hand Exod. 3.19 So here you see that God as Sovereign Lord may give out a Command to shew his Authority over Man and require a thing of Man as his Duty when he doth not intend to enable a Man to do it Yea when God intends to harden a Man's Heart that is intends to leave Man to the Corruption of his own Heart that he shall never do what God commands him If you will not adore the Incomprehensible Majesty and Ways of God but compare him with Man put Laws upon God that he must do as Man is bound to do then I say this borders upon Blasphemy if it be not down-right Blasphemy against the most high God CHAP. III. An Answer to this Author's Letter to Mr. H. wherein this Author pretends to bring several places of Scripture for Vniversal Redemption IT seems Mr. H. sent a Paper of Verses to this Author He answereth these Verses by a Letter and with this very Humble and Civil Direction To the Nameless and Nonsensical Poet indeed I have seen these Verses and truly to speak my Judgment of them tho' this Author calls them Nonsensical yet they were written with great Judgment excepting the Scriptures which this Author quotes which are excellent in themselves however wrested and mistaken by Men I think there is more Truth and good Sense in those Verses than in all this Author's Book 'T is true he that made those Verses did not shew himself to be a good Poet but he shewed himself a knowing Christian and tho' I have known the Person many years yet I could not have expected that he could have framed so many solid Arguments against Universal Redemption and if I had known before hand that he would have written to this Author I would have advised him to have written in Prose and not in Verse Good Poetry is one thing and good Sense is another These Verses were against Universal Redemption This Author in Answer to this Letter brings several Scriptures for Universal Redemption which are now to be explained When the Papists bring for Transubstantiation the words of our Saviour This is my B dy We deny Transubstantiation but we don't deny the words of our Saviour but shew the meaning of the words to be otherwise than they understand them So in dealing with this Author we do not deny the Scripture we hold that Christ dyed for all for every Man for the whole World that is for all the Elect for all Believers of all Nations of all Ranks throughout the whole World and we say no more is intended in any of those Expressions but that this Author and those that are of his Opinion mistake the meaning of the Scriptures Before I come to explain the Scriptures this Author brings for Universal Redemption 1. Let it be considered that the words all every the World and the whole World do not always signify all Adam's Posterity but must be taken in a limited restrained Sense yea sometimes but for a few that there is nothing can be concluded from those Expressions but by considering the Subject matter spoken of and the Circumstances of the places of Scripture where those Expressions are used 1. As for example of the word all it is not always meant of all Adam's Posterity but sometimes of but few Persons Psal 145.14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall whereas Men fall into sin and misery yea the greatest part of mankind into Hell it self and the Lord doth not prevent these things The meaning is only that those that are upheld and kept out of Sin and Misery here or Hell hereafter he it is that upholds them but this all that the Lord upholds are indeed but a small number in comparison of those that God doth not uphold The Jews said to John chap. 3.26 He to whom thou barest witness behold the same Baptizeth and all Men come to him when it was so few that came to Christ so that John saith vers 32. that no Man comparatively received his Testimony 2. For that Expression every Man it is often to be taken in a limited restrained Sense Luk. 16.16 The Law and the Prophets were until John since that time the Kingdom of God is preached and every Man presseth into it It was only some of all sorts and very few in comparison of those that were then living in the World 1 Cor. 12.7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal when indeed the manifestation of the Spirit there spoken of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are given to few very few but the meaning is only that to every one of those to whom this Manifestation of the Spirit is given it is that they may profit others with it Again 1 Cor. 4.5 the Apostle speaking of the Day of Judgment saith That then shall every Man have praise of God which is meant only of every true Believer for the greatest part of Adam's Posterity shall not then have praise of God but have the Sentence of Eternal Damnation pass against them 3. As for the word World and whole world these Expressions are sometimes taken too in a limited restrained Sense John 12.19 The Pharisees therefore said amongst themselves Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing Behold the World is gone after him whereas it was but few very few of Men then living in the World that went after Christ and owned him in any Sense it was only of a few in that little Country of Judea that were there spoken of Luk. 2.1 And it came to pass in those Days that there went out a Decree from Caesar Augustus that all the World should be taxed it was but all the Jews as some Expositors think however it was but all that were subject to the Romans which were far from being all Mankind then living in the World I might give many more Instances that the word all and every Man the World and all the World are taken in a limited and restrained Sense sometimes and that nothing can be collected rightly from such Expressions but as the Matter treated of and the Circumstances of the place shall require 2. I would
Righteousness and an bundred years space to Repent in I Answer if they had had a thousand thousand Preachers of Righteousness as good as Noah was and better and had not only a hundred years space to repent in but had had never so many thousand of years this was not enough to Convert one of them without Gods special Grace working a new Heart in them and as to Noah himself he was as bad by nature as the rest But Noah found Grace in the sight of the Lord Gen. 6.8 not only to preserve him and his Family when the Floud came but Noah found Grace in the sight of the Lord to make him a real Saint and to be Righteous before God in that Generation If the rest had found Grace in the sight of the Lord they had been turned to God too 4. You add that you are sure if they had Repented God would not have desiroyed them for he hath taught us so to judge of his threatnings to a sinful Nation I Answer that Repentance is twofold 1. There is such a Repentance as Ahab had A change of mens Thoughts and Conversations meerly out of slavish fear of outward Judgments here or of Hell hereafter and upon such Repentance God may please God doth please sometimes to defer outward Judgments and to bestow outward Mercies and when it is so God purposed to give such Repentance in order to that end for we must by no means admit that there can be any new immanent Acts in God any new purposes and intentions in him with whom there is no variableness There is no mutability in the Divine Majesty from Eternity to Eternity 2. There is saving Repentance or Repentance to Salvation such as Gods Children have given them when God takes away the Heart of Stone and gives them an Heart of Flesh that is Sorrow for Sin accompanied with Faith and Reliance on Gods free Mercy in Christ for pardon of Sin and desire and endeavour to walk so as to please God to be sure such shall never perish in the World to come though they suffer in common Calamities here in this World There is a Connexion between true Repentance and Salvation not for any Merit in our Repentance But so hath the Lord in infinite Wisdom ordained from Eternity and hath in time manifested it in his word that those that he is pleased to bestow glory upon hereafter he bestows upon him them the beginnings of of grace here both were intended eternally to their particular persons and from his meer good pleasure and the exceeding Riches of his Grace Those that God had a purpose of grace to from Eternity them he calls in time according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 Whom he hath predestinated them he hath also called v. 30. 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our Works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began Others besides the elect are called by the Preaching of the Word yea and may have inlightning and Convictions of the Spirit and God hath Wise and Holy ends in it To Restrain some of them from being Persecutors of the Church and to restrain them from gross Idolatry and such like Sins whereby they are less punished in Hell 2. That his elect may adore for ever his Free Special and Discriminating Grace that they should be savingly Converted when some that lived under the same outward means of Grace and some of them had great Convictions and Enlightning too and exceeded many of them it may be in notional knowledge and such common gifts of the Spirit And yet they are savingly turned to God when others are never so changed Many other Holy ends might be mentioned why God affordeth the Preaching of the Word to many upon whom he never purposed and intended to bestow special and saving Grace But to the Elect God gives special Grace and this the Apostle saith is not according to their works that is not for any worthiness or towardliness in them above others but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given them in Christ Jesus before the World began That is was promised them to Christ in the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son from Eternity For which purpose and Grace they shall be enabled to praise God to Eternity 2. Then you come to the Jews and say to the Doctor is it possible you should call in question Gods Seriousness to the Jews Did not God say to them Psal 81.13 O that they had hearkned unto me and that Israel had walked in my ways With v. 8. and 10. I answer as to God's Seriousness and being Serious I told you before I do not like that such words should be used when we speak of the most high God but that which the Doctor put you to prove is that God purposed or intended to Convert those Jews that in the Conclusion were not Converted As for these words O that they had hearkened unto me and that Israel had walked in my ways 1. Some observe that the words that we translate O that might be rendered O if so they are rendred by the Septuagint and the Targum and so they only shew the issue of their Obedience if they had obeyed the Law of the Lord. 2. This is spoken of Israel only what is that to all mankind The Jews had some peculiar Promises as to being preserved in the Land of Canaan and to give them plenty of outward things if they continued to worship the True-God and observe his Ordinances tho' but in an outward way tho without Spirituality and Sincerity God had said to them Vers 9. There shall be no strange God in thee neither shalt thou worship any strange God But they fell to Idolatry and so forfeited God's protection to them in the Land of Canaan and so the Lord shews that if they had hearkened unto him to have no strange Gods and to walk in his ways tho' as I said but formally and outwardly God would soon have subdued their Enemies Vers 14. and the Lord saith he would have fed them with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock would he have satisfied them Vers 16. So that this place speaks of Temporal Blessings only Nothing of God's Intention and Pleasure to give Eternal Salvation to all that People and so is nothing to the purpose See what is said of the generality of that People of the Jews Deut. 29.2 3 4. God hath not given you a Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to hear unto this day No doubt God gave to Moses and his Elect amongst them a new Heart but as to the generality of the People God did not give them Hearts to perceive Eyes to see and Ears to hear which he doth infallibly give to them to whom he purposed and intended to do it for them No Text of Scripture must be understood so