before wholly to be ascribed to the Grace of God in Christ as the principal and primary Cause Now as to Faith and Repentance being the Gift of God this is a truth God is said to give Faith and Repentance yea to intend the Salvation of all Men when he vouchsafeth a sufficiency of means Now Faith is taken many ways sometimes and very frequently 't is taken for the Gospel Acts 6. 7. Gal. 1. 23. So it is the Gift of God and he is said to give Faith and Repentance when he gives the Gospel which is the Word of Faith and so Faith is the Gift of God and when any Soul is by the goodness of God led to repentance God is said to give Repentance Also God gives the power or ability to repent and believe or else Man could do neither yet doth not God's Grace destroy our Duty tho God gives not only Grace necessary but also sufficient for yielding Faith and Obedience yet the Act or Duty of believing is not God's Work but Man's Heb. 11. Rom. 10. 17. James 3. 2. And the Person that is regenerate must be so far active in the Work that the Work it self may be as truly and properly ascribed unto Man and called his as it is ascribed to God and called his Gift now this you must believe unless you have so far forsaken your Reason as to say that Christ acts the Creature 's Actions and so Jesus Christ repents and Jesus Christ believes and Man doth nothing But surely we stand bound to believe repent and obey the Lord if we expect Salvation these are our own acts and 't is impossible they should be the acts of Christ for he that is said to act any action is said to do it Now if when we are exhorted to do these Duties Christ should do them for us while we sit still what sense must we make of Scripture must Jesus Christ break off his Sins by Repentance and amend his evil ways and doings or must Christ believe in Christ or walk in the steps of Christ And from hence it will infallibly follow that Persons shall be damned because God did not only make them Believers by an irresistible Power but also act their Work too Saith Paul Rom. 8. If ye through the Spirit not the Spirit without you nor ye without the Spirit intimating that Man must be an Agent in the Work it must be his own act and therefore he is not wholly passive neither have we ground to believe God will work these in such a way as shall be impossible to be frustrated Philet But if God works Conversion in a resistible way still Free-Grace loseth the triumph and Free will takes the Crown but when God works he works irresistibly Men cannot resist his Will if he works none can hinder it Philad I believe that God hath and still works and none can be able to hinder such are the Works of Creation and Redemption c. When Man was fallen none could hinder the Lord from setting his Love upon him nor hinder him from shewing Mercy to him in sending his only Son to die for them nor hinder the planting of his Will and Light in their Hearts convincing them of Sin Nor could the Jews of old or any in our days hinder or prevent God from rising early and sending his Prophets and Ministers to call Persons to Repentance nor hinder him from administring Grace and Mercy to them nor is it in the power of Man to frustrate God in raising up Persons from the dead in the Resurrection and setting the Godly with Christ in Glory and all the Rejecters of his Grace and Love in endless Misery Neither do I deny but God hath and may still if he please convert some by an irresistible Power we must not care to limit the Holy One of Israel in any of his ways yet it is not God's usual way of working to force Persons against their Wills to be Holy and to accept of Life but he is pressing by his Holy Spirit and by his Word and Ministers which is the ordinary way that the Lord takes to beget Faith c. and therefore Gospel-Ministers are said 2 Cor. 6. 1. to be workers together with God that is Ministers do co-operate with God in order to one and the same effect not that Ministers in their pressing and preaching should so work with God as to be able to do as much as God himself doth in perswading Men but rather they work after one and the same way Ministers in their preaching incline and move the Heart of Men to accept of Christ and this he doth perswadingly without forcing or necessitating their Wills to such or such Election this is God's usual way of working in the dispensation of his Divine Will Philet But I tell you 't is effected by the irresistible act of free Grace Persons are altogether passive in the work of Conversion yea have no more power to stir than Lazarus had when he had lain four days in the Grave Persons are dead in Sins and Trespasses and what less than the almighty Power of God can cause them to live a spiritual Life I do not know You ought not to believe there is any annext Power in the act of Conversion doth not the Apostle Ephes 1. 19 20. speak of the exceeding greatness of the Lord's Power wrought in them that believe according to his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Philad As for your urging Christ and Lazarus being both dead to prove Persons as unable to act in Conversion it is impertinent for tho the Lord in raising up Christ did the work wholly of himself by his mighty Power neither was Lazarus able to act any thing in the Grave towards restoring his Life yet in the Work of conversion the Lord comes to a Creature which he hath by free Grace furnished with Abilities to do what he requires of him And Lazarus after he heard the Voice of the Lord and received Life was active and came forth and so when Persons hear the Voice of the Lord and are thereby raised from a death in Sin or a deadly custom of Sinning to live soberly justly and godly this is said to be a raising from the Dead and a new Creation begotten again and by Faith and Repentance making new Creatures tho the Lord bestoweth Grace sufficient for the yielding to the Voice of the Lord when he calleth them by the Gospel yet through the alone proper fault of Man it becomes unfruitful for the Lord doth not usually come to Persons in such a mighty Whirlwind as 1 Kings 19. 11. to force their consent and carry them headlong to their duty and irresistibly compel them to embrace eternal Happiness and shew such a Miracle of his mighty Power as he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead or upon Lazarus when he had lain four days dead in the Grave Now it is true the Power by
believe is an Error presently they are ready to say I cannot see it because God hath purposely blinded my Eyes and am such a one as is cast out of the Love and Favour of God and when this is once settled in their Hearts how can I expect Love from them unless I can believe they can be better to me than they represent God to be to the greatest part of Mankind Mar. I see that which is uppermost will out you still are of the same mind you was you hold fast your Error and will not let it go Philad Truly I am much of Rawlin the Martyr's Mind when the Bishop after he had read Mass ask'd him if he would revoke his Opinion answered my Lord Rawlin you left me and Rawlin you find me and by God's Grace Rawlin I will continue and tho I may seem to you to err yet I have considered every Particular and it seemeth so pleasing an Error if it be one and so comfortable a Doctrine to poor Mankind and doth so much exalt the Justice and Mercy of God that I think I shall never be of a contrary Mind Yea and if for any thing in the World I could suffer the Loss of all that 's dear to me methinks it should be to witness to this great Truth Mar. I know that natural Reason seems to stand on your side but you must know and allow Faith to be above Reason and God may have and questionless hath Ways and Actions which are known only to himself past finding out by Man neither doth he give an Account or Reason of any of his Matters Job 33. 13. You must have a care of searching into God's Decrees they are not to be fathomed by Man's weak and shallow Capacities what Eye looks upon the Sun doth not by that dazle So while Men would by the Eye of Reason see a Cause in God's secret Will they stumble and fall Pray ye what Reason can be given concerning the Mystery of the Trinity or that the second Person should take our Flesh upon him and be conceived of a Virgin or that the same Bodies after dissolved to Dust should be restored to a Spiritual Immortal and Incorruptible State These things are the object of Faith and are above our Reason to comprehend or define yet are we to believe these things to be Truth because revealed to us by God in his Word So tho it be beyond the Reason of Man to define how God whose Ways are all equal and just should from Eternity predestinate the greatest part of Adam's Offspring to Everlasting Misery or freely and unchangeably ordain the coming to pass of every thing in the World and yet he himself neither guilty of Cruelty or the Author of Sin yet we ought to believe it is so when declared to us by the Word of the Lord. Mod. These are great Mysteries which we ought not to pry into Secret things belong unto God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our Children Deut. 29. 29. Philad This is true but surely Moderatus This wretched Opinion of God's positive Reprobation doth not carry the Nature of Divine Mysteries along with it It is not accompanied with so great Awe and Majesty as that it should be only obeyed and no way disputed For God himself denies it to be any Decree of his Ezek. 3. 11. And as Calvin saith We should not be ashamed to be ignorant of some of the Nature of Divine Predestination Yet as Eusebius saith 'T is an Argument of great Sloth and Idleness not to seek unto that whereof we may justly make inquiry Hockins on God's Decrees Page 126 190. Now I do not pretend to draw the Curtain to look into the wonderful and astonishing Mystery of the Holy and Blessed Trinity or of the Incarnation of the Son of God God manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. which is so great a Mystery that infirm Man with all the strongest Faculties of his Soul cannot reach unto I also freely grant that whatsoever God hath revealed in his Word must needs be a Truth and meet and worthy to be believed of us all But where do you find that God hath revealed in his Word that he hath appointed the greatest part of the World to Everlasting Misery and tho there may be many things above Reason quite out of the Apprehension of it yet not altogether against Reason How is it contrary to Reason that God the first Being of all things being Infinite should have a manner of subsisting far different from all created and finite Beings Neither is it contrary to Reason that God should be able to make a Virgin to conceive in a way beyond the Course of Nature or ordinary Providence for the accomplishing of so great and glorious a Work as the saving poor lost and undone Mankind Neither ought it to be look'd upon no not in the Eye of Reason as a thing incredible that God should raise the Dead Act. 16. 8. Is it not every way as easy for God to restore a Body dissolved to Dust and give a Perfection and Glory to it as to restore a dry Hand to Life and Activity in the Body or cause Aaron's dry Staff to blossom and bare Almonds Can Man burn a Tree into Ashes and change it into shining Glass And cannot God cause that Dust that was once Flesh to become Flesh again and to restore it to a Spiritual Immortal and Incorruptible State But to let this pass are these Friends of yours to whom you say you have imparted the Substance of our Discourse c. of your Mind Mod. There is some Difference for what I hold you have heard But Philetus looks upon Mankind as lying in the Fall under the Guilt of Adam's Sin so that God looking upon Man as fallen did decree the greatest Number of Men to Eternal Misery for the Declaration of his Justice without affording them a Saviour which is the only Way and Means of their Recovery or without sufficient Grace for the avoiding of Sin Philad Truly I see little difference between you you both place the Sin and Damnation of the greatest part of Mankind upon the alone absolute Will and Pleasure of God you looking upon it from Eternity he as lying in the Fall But surely God never left any Man in that State whereunto Adam brought him but as I have said hath graciously provided means whereby both Sin and Misery might be prevented or removed if timely embraced seeing Christ hath abolished that Wrath and Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel and God hath so far reconciled all Sinners to himself that thro the Sacrifice and for the sake of that Lamb of God that takes away the Sins of the World he is graciously pleased to be reconciled to them and to open a Door of Hope for all the Sons of Adam And tho it is a great Truth that Adam in breaking the Law of his God brought not
only himself but all his Posterity if he should have had any under Sentence of Death and Condemnation yet did the Lord who delights in Mercy before he pronounc'd the Sentence due to him for Sin graciously promise a Saviour Gen. 3. 15. by which he was put into a state of Recovery from this dreadful Fall And God by this gracious Promise took whole Adam into Grace and Favour And you can no more exclude any from Justification of Life which hath abounded towards all by Christ than you can exclude them from the Condemnation which hath abounded towards them by Adam Rom. 5. 16 17 18 19. Here the condemned Ones by Adam and the justified of Christ are computed by one and the same Number For as we hear of the Condemnation of all Men by the Offence of Adam so of no fewer than all Men justified by Christ and no more than many made Sinners by Adam or of any fewer than many made Righteous by Christ Mar. Let it be well observed that the Scope of the Apostle in this place is to shew that as Death and Condemnation came inevitably upon all the first Adam's Posterity by his Fall so shall the free Gift of Righteousness come infallibly upon all in whose room and stead Christ died as their Second Adam their Surety and Mediator the first Adam's All was all Mankind the second Adam's All was the Elect upon which Justification and Sanctification shall most certainly and infallibly be bestowed upon them Philad But why the All in the first Clause should be taken for all Mankind without excepting so much as one and All in the latter should exclude all Men a few only excepted I know not For unless Persons will take to themselves a lawless Liberty to exercise Dominion over the Expression of the Holy Ghost they cannot make them greater or lesser in one Clause than in the other for if Condemnation should come upon all Men by the offence of Adam and Righteousness only upon some few by the Obedience of Christ then where Sin abounded Grace should not super-abound as Verse 20. unless Grace hath a proportionable Reign unto Life so as to put all Men into a Capacity of Life and Salvation as Sin reigned over all Men without exception unto Death Philet The Apostle's Scope is to shew that as Death came in by one publick Person so Life and Salvation came in by another publick Person and that the Lord Jesus will infallibly justify and save his All for whom he undertook and died as their Head and Representative Philad But it seems you will not own that the Grace of Christ did profit Mankind as much as the Sin of Adam damnified it No you make Christ less than Adam and that Adam did more to the damning of the Souls and Bodies of all his Posterity than Christ did for the saving of them if so what will become of Paul's glorying over the Grace of God in Christ as much more abounding as in Verse 15. For if thro the offence of one many be dead much more the Grace of God and the Gift by Grace which is by one Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many But now if many more Millions of Men are dead thro the offence of Adam than are made alive by the Grace of God in Christ where 's the much more Philet All Men being fallen in Adam God beholding Mankind in the corrupt Mass and he being the Sovereign Lord of all might at his Pleasure and in his electing Love pardon one or a few of fallen Mankind and by an eternal Decree of Reprobation leave the greatest part of Mankind in that sad and depraved Condition without any Power to believe or a Christ to believe in and this he might do because he hath an absolute and uncontroulable Power and Dominion over his Creatures Philad Now you run upon a Fundamental Mistake about personal and absolute Election and Reprobation You make Adam's Sin the Foundation of building your fearful Opinion upon that Man suffers Eternal Damnation for Adam's Sin This is a most sad Doctrine that God should lay men under a necessity of being born under the Guilt of that Sin which was out of their Power to help or withstand for men can no more help Adam's Sin than they could help being born and yet for that cast away the greatest part of Mankind forever Shall one Man sin and will the Lord be wrath with all Num. 16. 22. 'T is true when Man by disobedience became Bankrupt of the Divine Bounty and had run himself so far in Debt both to the Law and Justice beyond any possibility to pay the Debt the Lord in Justice might have left him in the Fall and made him Partaker of his fierce Wrath Yet was the Lord pleased to break forth in high and much Mercy and in the tenderness of his Love deeply compassionating Man's Misery entered into a Covenant of Peace freely giving his only Son to satisfy the whole Debt and set us free for which we are obliged to be unfeignedly thankful to our dear Lord and truly to love him that first loved us and hath promised that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life God hath now tied himself by promise and hath firmly indented with us in the Covenant of Grace and Mercy through Christ that if we believe and obey the Lord we shall undoubtedly reap the blessed Fruits of the Promise in Eternal Life Therefore I beseech you do not entertain such dreadful Apprehensions of an Infinite Gracious God that he should send Millions of Men to endless torments for Adam's single Transgression Surely if it was so the Holy Ghost who so effectually in the Scriptures of Truth vindicates the Righteousness and Equity of God's Proceedings in the Condemnation of wicked and ungodly Men would have insisted more or less upon it we should find something of it in the Word of God either from Christ or some of his Servants but I cannot find the least hint of it in the whole Scripture that ever the Lord decreed to assign Men their Portions with Devils for that Sin it being taken away as to the condemning Guilt of it by the Grace of God in Christ Where doth the Scripture say that for Adam's Sin in eating the forbidden Fruit God hateth the greatest part of his Posterity yea so hates them as to reprobate them to the second Death but plainly tells us the Child shall not suffer for the Father's Sins Ezek. 18. Philet But doth not the Lord say Exod. 20. 5. That he will visit the Sins of the Father upon the Children c. Philad Yea but 't is to those that hate him mind the words If Children come to be haters of God as their Fathers were treading in the same steps of sin and disobedience with their wicked Parents they thereby becoming partakers of their sins shall share with them in their punishment But this doth not shew that God will condemn any for that offence which
of Grace made with Adam till they come to abuse the Grace of the Covenant For God hates none till they first hate him leaves none till they first forsake him makes none Partakers of Everlasting Burning till they kindle his Wrath by their actual Sins for he doth not so delight in the Blood of Souls as by his pure and naked Will to decree Man to Eternal Death before they enjoy any Life or commit the least Sin Infants are accounted Innocent and our Saviour tells us 't is not the Will of his Father that any of those little ones perish Philet This is a strange assertion to say That all Infants come into World in a state of Innocency and that if they die in Infancy they die in a state of Innocency Alas there is a universal depravedness in the Soul of an Infant which if it live to express it will discover it self A young Cub of a Fox or Wolf doth not presently discover its ravenous nature but it is inherent in it bred with it and Men kill those young Cubs though they never did any mischief because it is their natures to be ravenous and mischievous So an Infant hath the Seed of all Sin a corrupt Nature though it doth not act as it doth when Age comes on and I say God may for the guilt of Adam's sin and because there is such Rebellion and Wickness in Man's nature against him glorifie his Justice upon them though they should die in their Infancy they are far from dying in Innocency Philad It seems by what you hold because Man may slaughter Beasts of Prey without any cruelty or injustice therefore God may as well nay more appoint as many of poor Infants to the Torments of Hell if he pleaseth and yet be just and good notwithstanding May we not as well reason thus God without any injustice appointed brute Creatures to be slain for Man's use therefore he may ordain Men to be cast into Hell Torments for ever Though God permitteth nay appointeth Man to slaughter Beasts that they might be Meat for his use and so giveth him power to kill them yet it would be look'd upon barbarous injustice and cruelty to prolong the Life of a Beast to vex and torture it to shew what Power and Sovereignty he hath over it So I do not doubt but God may when he pleases take away the Life of an Infant or Man yea resolve them to nothing without any cruelty or injustice Yet he cannot without both these decree to keep them alive in Hell there to torment them without end to shew his Sovereignty without just cause in the Creature Some poor Infants never so much as saw the Light of this World or receiv'd the least Good and yet must be punished with Devils to Eternity O wretched Doctrine Philet I do not think God would have destroy'd the Old World and called them the World of ungodly and destroy'd Sodom and Gomorrah and made them suffer the vengeance of eternal Fire amongst whom no doubt were many Infants if all Infants were innocent I will not meddle to determine the eternal State of those that die in Infancy to be sure you go too far to assert what you do you are not the Sovereign and Judg of all Philad All Infants through the Grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ are discharged from the condemning Power of Original sin and they having no actual sins 't is not the infirmity of their Nature shall damn any neither can it I hope enter into the heart of a Christian to believe that God should create any Infants on purpose to damn them and though it be true that Original sin is come upon Infants and Death by sin yet this is as true that Original Sin was not committed against the Covenant of Grace and seeing that you cannot prove any Infant hath sinned against the Covenant of Grace they cannot come into Condemnation of Hell Torments for our Gracious God will condemn none but those that first destroy themselves by sinful courses though 't is true they many times suffer the first Death for the sins of others as those you mention Mar. All Infants are under a Sentence of eternal Damnation only such Infants that are elected and have the Principles of Grace infused in them shall be sav'd Philad What then is become of that Gracious Speech of the Almighty God Ps 145. His tender mercy is over all his works sure damned Infants have no share in hs Mercy no not so much as a Toad by a thousand degrees And thus by your Doctrine you not only most dreadfully preach Millions of poor harmless Souls to Hell but also represent the Father of Mercy and God of Goodness more like a Tyrant that destroys his Subjects for will and pleasure though they never provok'd him by breaking the least Law in their own Persons only to shew his Power over them Would not such dealing be look'd upon amongst Men meer Cruelty when acted by bare Prerogative and Power not being attended with Equity Justice and Mercy Would this be Cruelty in Man and shall we think that the Infinite God who is Goodness and Truth it self will harbour it or that he will proceed with Man according to his Absolute Power and Sovereignty without being accompany'd with Justice and tender Mercy Or do we think the Lord will fall below man and suffer himself to be out-done in Justice Mercy and Goodness by any of his Creatures Surely no so though the Nature of man is too sadly depraved by the sin of our first Parents yet it must needs be a contradiction to the Divine Goodness Mercy and Justice of God to say that any suffer for their Fathers sins Mar. You talk of God's Justice as if God could not punish one for the fault of another and yet be Just you do not know what you talk of I 'll give you an instance to the contrary 't is that of Saul utterly destroying of the Amalekites 1 Sam. 15. 2 3. he was to slay both man and woman Infants and Sucklings and the reason was because Amalek laid wait for Israel when he came up from Egypt ver 1. Exod. 17. 8. But now what had this People done that was so many Generations remov'd from Israel coming out of Egypt Or what had the poor Infants and Sucklings done Or how can it stand with Justice that the Fathers committed the fault and the Children are punished for it Philad This was only to a Temporal Death I hope you will not say that it was the Decree of God after Saul had destroy'd those Infants and Sucklings Bodies that he would send their Souls to Hell for their Fathers faults sure it was not the sin of Infants that caused the Lord to plead in such wrath with them no more than the Cattle which was to be destroy'd as well as they Was God offended with the Beasts of the Field But come I believe it was no unjust thing in God to take away by
Death those Infants and Sucklings no more than to take away by Death many thousands which daily die through the World for Death reigns over all and when Infants are taken away either by a Natural Death or in any cruel manner 't is for Sin even that of Adam's yea many times their own Parents Sin hastens the Death of the Child and in Temporals very often the Children suffer for the Father's fault not only in the good things of this Life but also Death it self as in the Old World and in the overthrow of Sodom and are slain with the Sword as in this Case and likewise in those common Calamities which have befallen Nations and Cities But what will any one dare to say that such Infants and Sucklings are damned Who can forbear trembling at such a dreadful conceit And surely you that hold than Infants have sin enough from Adam to damn them to Hell had need bring good Scripture-proof for such a dreadful Doctrine But I need say no more to this than to refer you to what Mr. Grantham hath writ upon this Subject in his Answer to Mr. Petto and Mr. Firmin in his Presumption no Proof and his Infants Advocate First and Second Parts where if you be not wedded to your Opinion or blinded with Prejudice you will see that though all are guilty of Adam's Sin Rom. 5. 14. yet Infants by the presentment of the Satisfaction of Christ are and shall be sav'd for the free Gift cometh upon all Rom 5. 18. Mar. Come leave this Philetus you may easily perceive that Philadelphus owns that rotten and corrupt Opinion of universal Redemption a grand piece of Popery Philet Yea I see he 's an Arminian and I doubt a Free-willer too which is an old Pelagian Heresy and hath been condemned for an Error long since by the best and most knowing Christians Philad This is but the Devil's subtilty and delusion to hood-wink Peoples Eyes and to draw on a Vizor upon the lovely Face of true Religion to make it extremely deformed that so People may start at the naming of it Mod. Come pray let us have no Heats Philad There shall be none for me yet methinks they deal in our Day and Time by those that own the Truths of the Lord much like the barbarous Pagans did by the Christians under the persecuting Emperors who that they might have some Pretence to put them to death loaded them with odious Names and Imputations as if all the Troubles that were in the World happened for their Sakes As may be seen in Tertullian's Apology for the Christians Or as they did when they put them to death in their publick Theater they put upon them the Skin of some Savage Beast or put them into the shape of Monsters such as the nature of Man has the most Antipathy against that they might be the more excited to destroy them and the more expos'd to the fury of the Dogs Even so the noise of Arminians Pelagians Popery Free-willers and I know not what sounds so terrible to the Ears of some that they neither will nor dare examine either the Writings or Opinions of those that differ from them by the Word of God Mod. Neither will nor dare for what reason Philad Why only their Teachers whom they admire have drawn them into a dislike of the Truth of God by putting the Name of Ignominy and Reproach upon them What tho the Papists hold universal Redemption and are so unhappy to hold this part of Truth in unrighteousness Doth it therefore cease to be a Truth Or must I be ashamed or afraid to own it because held for a Truth by them May I not as well renounce the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament yea God and Christ too lest I should be accounted a Papist The Devil held that Christ was the Holy One of God and may not I do so too It will not excuse any in the Rejection of any Truth to say the Papists hold it Tho it was told Paul Acts 28. 22. That this Sect was every-where spoken against yet it did not turn him out of the way or make him out of love with the Truths of God neither ought it to do any and tho you may call this Truth Popery Arminianism c. yet was it owned for a Truth before Popery or James Arminius was heard of or had any being in the World and is indeed the ground of all Saving-Truth and Soul-establishing Comfort since the Foundation of the World and the contrary to it will be found to appear rotten and unsound having no firm footing in the Word of God let it be varnish'd over with never such dresses of Words or pretence of Zeal thereby to make the Face of it shine in the Eyes of others And I must tell you I look upon it to be a piece of daring Pride in any that shall confidently attempt to set bounds and limits to God's infinite Wisdom and Goodness acted towards all Men in the death of his Son Philet Well I am one of those that hold that God looking upon Man in the Fall did set his Love upon some of the fallen Race chusing some to eternal Life and Salvation for which he gave his Son to die for them and rejected others and never afforded them an Object to believe in nor power to believe but hath left them to perish Philad Pray prove what you affirm if you can Philet That God chuseth some to Life and leaveth others in the Fall of his meer Will and Pleasure I prove it by the Instance of Jacob and Esau Rom. 9. 13. As it is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated And this was done before they were born the one elected to eternal Life and the other reprobated to eternal Death and this at the meer Will and Pleasure of God Philad I know it is concluded from this Text that Esau in Person was damned but this is but Mens Rashness and Presumption there is not the least Syllable in all the word of God that I know of for Persons to ground such a Belief or from whence to draw such a dreadful Conclusion that Esau should be damned eternally Love and Hatred in this Text may be with respect to Temporal Blessings and so Esau may be said to be hated and Jacob loved because to Jacob was given the fruitful Land of Canaan and to Esau was given the barren Country of Mount Seir Or Love and Hatred may be with respect to Christ the promised Seed and so Jacob was separated or sanctified to be the Fore-father of Christ according to the Flesh and Esau with respect to that rejected and so was but a common or profane Person Now this was one end of Circumcision to distinguish the Family of whom Christ should be born and to keep that People of whom the Messiah was to come unmixt from the idolatrous Nations Now Esau very justly lost that Blessing for selling his Birth-Right at so base a Price for
to believe in him or to cast himself upon him for Salvation no more than the fallen Angels Now either Christ shed his Blood for all with an intent to save them unless they be their own destroyers or to damn them or for nothing pray tell me which of these three things Christ intended in dying for all Philet I cannot say to save all Philad For what then Philet Why truly I believe all that Christ did for the Reprobate was to effect for them the good things of this Life Philad But doth he not give his Grace to all Philet Yea common Grace Philad For what use is it given Philet For no use in respect of Eternal Life all that it effects for them is to make their Condemnation in Hell the greater or as some say if they use it well the lighter Mar. Others beside the Elect may have the inlightning and conviction of the Spirit and God hath wise and holy Ends in it to restrain some of them from being Persecutors of his Church and to restrain them from gross Idolatry and such-like Sins whereby they are less punished in Hell but if they abuse these common Graces it will make their condemnation in Hell the greater Philad Then was Christ's Death rather grievous than gracious and Christ came not that they might have life more abundantly but that they might have Hell and Damnation more abundantly Blush O ye Heavens at this How cruel do you represent the God of Love For if Christ shed his Blood for all and yet did not intend Salvation to all then he must needs shed his Blood not for them but against them and so God gave his Son to die for the condemnation of the World contrary to our Saviour's Expressions John 3. 17. 12. 47. 1. 29. So that here can be no potent Argument used to perswade all Men to love and live to him for he that shall pay for the ease and benefit of another what was sufficient to have eased me as well as him and yet shall neglect me in such a Paiment and leave me in misery when he might without the least trouble or charge to himself above what he voluntarily put himself upon for the sake of others have relieved me and of miserable made me happy what reason is there that I should wholly live to him who wholly neglected me in my greatest need or that he should expect service or thanks for doing nothing 'T is a sensless conceit to think Men are engaged in any Bond of thankfulness or service unto Christ for dying sufficiently for them unless he died intentionally also Philet What do you believe Christ shed his Blood intentionally to save all then if all be not saved Christ must miss of his Intention God shall be frustrated of his Design and Jesus Christ be defeated of that excellent Honour provided by his Father for him Now if one of those that Christ died with an intent to save should miscarry why not another and consequently all and so by this God's Counsel and Christ's Honour must be laid in the Dust Mar. For all you make such a noise about Christ's dying for all Adam's Posterity yet do you really deny that Christ died for any Man or Woman in the World in a true Scripture-sense for unless Christ died so for Persons as to make satisfaction for all their Sins and to purchase saving Grace here and Glory hereafter to be infallibly bestowed upon them all you talk of universal Redemption by Christ is a universal Nothing Philad It may very well be conceived that God may intend the Salvation of all Men by Jesus Christ and yet not all Men saved nay should all Men prove so neglective of themselves as voluntarily to deprive themselves of that great Salvation which Christ out of his great Love hath provided for them yet it doth not follow from hence that the Counsel or Design of God should thereby miscarry nor Christ's Honour be laid in the dust because of the wilful folly of Men to forsake their own Mercy and destroy themselves see Isa 49. 5. And now saith the Lord that formed me from the Womb c. Tho Christ was sent to save and make Israel blessed and as the Apostle saith Acts 3. ult Hath raised up Jesus and hath sent him to bless you and to turn every one of you from your evil ways here you see it was God's Mind to gather Israel and to turn them from their Sins yet all Israel was not gathered nor turned from their Sins yet no disparagement to Christ nor a defeating the Counsel of God Indeed if it had been the Design and Intent of God that the saving Benefits intended to Sinners by the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ should immediately become theirs upon the bare shedding of his Blood and that therefore God must needs pardon the Sinner and bring him in by head and shoulders that is by a strong and irresistible hand save him whether he will or no or whether they repent of their Sins believe in him or continue in impenitency then indeed if any should miscarry here would be a defeating of the Counsel and Intention of God but seeing that as the Grace and Mercy of God in Christ to Sinners is absolutely free so is the Lord free to apply the Merits of his Son's Blood to whom and in what way and upon what terms he in his Wisdom thinks fit for we must not conceive that God intended to save Man upon any terms or without any provision or exception at all but to put the World into a capacity of Salvation by removing those grand Obstacles which stood in the way of Mercy and obstructed its communication to the Offender and to afford unto the Sons and Daughters of Men means and opportunities to repent and believe and consequently to be saved so that whensoever Christ is faithfully and effectually preached to Men and the Holy Spirit convinces Men of Sin in order to their Salvation God obtains his end and intent concerning their Salvation whether they come to be saved or no so Christ is said 1 John 2. 2. to be the Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World it doth not therefore follow that the Sins of the whole World are so actually and compleatly atoned by him that they shall never be charged against them but that which Christ offered in order to atoning the Sins of the whole World is so full of Virtue and withal is so propounded and held forth by the Lord unto the whole World that if any Man's Sins remain actually unpardoned 't is through their voluntary neglect of this Sacrifice not from any intention on God's part that their Sins should not be atoned as well as others Many more such Testimonies I might add Dr. Holmes upon John 6. 37. pag. 13. saith That all the Sins of Mankind are become venial in respect of the Price paid by Christ unto the Father c. But all do not obtain actual remission
very injurious to his Goodness yet directly and immediately opposite to his very Nature which is meer Goodness and Happiness and hath no Affinity with Rigour Cruelty or Misery Read Psal 34. 6. Psal 86. 5. Joel 2. 13. Jonah 4. 2. Micah 7. 18. If God doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men without just cause Lam. 3. 33. how can we in reason think that God in his eternal Purpose and absolute Pleasure should affect the extream Misery of any of his Creatures for the shewing of the absolute Soveraignty he hath over them If so he may as well damn them as create them How can we think that he should send them one after another into this World to enjoy some of the good things of this Life and after this short Life is over to torment them with Devils and damn'd Spirits for ever to shew his Power over them without just cause in the Creature What saith Abraham Gen. 18. 25. when he was interceding with God for Sodom with respect to a temporal Judgment Wilt thou destroy the Righteous with the Wicked that be far from thee Shall not the Judg of all the World do right If to destroy the Righteous with the Wicked was far from God in Temporals shall we think that God resolved to punish the Innocent in Hell with wicked Spirits For pray you observe if God hath from Eternity reprobated the greatest part of Mankind it must be understood that he look'd on them as Persons that would in time prove sinful or else he reprobated them simply as Men. If the first then was their Sinfulness wherein he beheld them the cause of their Rejection if the second then the pure and perfect Workmanship of his Hands yea that which was very good Gen. 1. 31. must be the Object of his Reprobation which cannot be it was a saying of one of the Ancients Aug. Lib. 3. Cont. Julian Cap. 31. Pag. 164. God is Good and God is Just he may without any desert free Men from Punishment because he is Good but he cannot without Evil desert and condemn any Man because he 's just And again Aug. Epist 106. ad Bonifac. If God be believed to damn any man that by Sin deserveth it not he is not to be believed to be free from Injustice And therefore for any to say that God hath irrevocably reprobated the greatest part of the World to eternal Misery before they had a being in this World or any possibility of doing Good or Evil he speaks more like a Mahumetan than a Christian however more harsh of the God of Love than he ought to speak and reflects dishonour upon him making him to be the Prime Principal and Irresistable Cause of the Damnation of Millions of Souls appointing them to Destruction of his own voluntary Will antecedent to any desert in them No Martha there is nothing can proceed from the God of Love that is unjust nothing unequal nothing hard nothing that any ways inclineth to the hurt of any of his Creatures considered as innocent and therefore no irreversible decreeing or ordaining of Men to everlasting Destruction as you pretend Mar. But doth not the Apostle Rom. 9. 20. 21. shew 't is no unrighteous thing no unequal or hard thing in God to reprobate or predestinate to Destruction which or how many of his Creatures he pleaseth 'T is his lawful and just Prerogative as he is absolute Lord of all Who art thou that repliest against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over his Clay to make one Vessel to honour and another to dishonour Phil. I know this 9th Chapter to the Romans is the great Magazine and Fortress wherein all your imaginary Strength lieth and those Verses are the Weapons which you draw to silence those that question your horrid Notions about Personal Election and Reprobation Pray do you think that Paul was about to prove personal Election and Reprobation in these Verses Mar. Yes what else but to prove that God hath Power to create and appoint Vessels of Honour and Dishonour and consequently of Wrath as the Potter hath to make Vessels at his Pleasure without contradiction of the same Lump of Clay Phil. You are under a great mistake the great Controversy lay about the Terms of Justification whether by the Law or Faith and not about personal Election and Reprobation so that the Prerogative which the Lord claims to himself as a Royalty annexed to the Crown of Heaven and Earth in this 9th of the Romans or elsewhere in respect to the Condemnation and Eternal Destruction of his Creatures stands not in leaving what Persons he pleaseth to eternal ruin but in making the condition of Life and Death Salvation and Damnation as he pleaseth according to the Counsel of his own Will Eph. 1. 1. Now the Apostle was shewing the Way and Method that God will take in saving Sinners and that it is not the purpose of God that men should be justified by the Law but by Grace and through Faith and tho the Jews much boasted of their being Abraham's Seed and Moses's Disciples and their observing of the Law and judged it an equal thing that God should make that Law to be the Law of Life and Salvation to Men and the neglect of it the Law of Death and Damnation yet it being the good Pleasure of God to do otherwise and to ordain Faith in his Son Christ Jesus to be the way of Justification and Life and Unbelief the way to Condemnation and Death this Choice or Election shall stand whatever Men may think meet and fitting for him to do Therefore saith he Verse 15. I will have Mercy upon whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion upon whom I will have Compassion Men shall not prescribe unto me Laws or Terms of shewing Mercy my Will shall not be bounded by Man's Will neither will I be obliged by them what manner of Persons or how qualified I shall justify and save I mean to keep close to the Counsel of my own Will in that which concerns the Life and Death the Salvation or Destruction of my Creatures and so in this 21st Verse Hath not the Potter power over his Clay c. meaning that God Almighty hath the like Power over the whole Lump of Mankind in Adam to make what Laws of Life and Death he pleased and to appoint what manner of Persons should be saved or condemned which the Potter hath over the Lump of Clay to make what Vessel he pleaseth for Honour or Dishonour Now at best this Scripture is but an Allusion and should we suppose that the Apostle doth compare the Lord to a Potter as we often in Scripture find him compared to Persons and Things and human Actions Affections and Members of a Man attributed to God and divine Things because God in his Word descends as it were to our Capacities expressing heavenly Matters after
decreed that very few should have any benefit thereby when they had done their utmost they could do to obtain it Is it possible that Men should truly love God while they apprehend him as an Enemy bent in an unappeasable manner to destroy them and that to Eternity can any thus be induced to love him or live to him Thus your Doctrine cuts asunder the very Sinews of Religion discourageth Holiness and encourageth Profaneness for by your Opinion Heaven shall unavoidably be obtained by those that are elected and Hell must be as certainly endured by those that are reprobated and a Man may as well stop the Sun in its course and mete out the Heaven with a Span as force the Lord to revoke his Decree Truly if poor Man lies under such a rigid Fate all that he can do for the obtaining Heaven or avoiding Hell is but a piece of industrious Folly Why should we take upon us a strict course of Life why should we submit to Divine Precepts or address our selves to God by Prayer and like good Jacob wrestle with him for a Blessing to what purpose should we maintain a warfare against Satan Sin and all Vice when the greatest industry in the use of means to obtain them signifies nothing if not decreed to it May not this cause Persons to be swelled up with sorrow and destroy the chiefest inducements to Holiness when they shall seriously reflect upon all they had done to be purely in vain And again if Persons be absolutely appointed by the immutable and irreversible Decree of the Almighty to destruction 't is not all their hearing reading praying Works of Charity nor all mourning for Sin nor believing neither that can possibly procure their Salvation damned they must be And on the other side if Persons be absolutely ordained to Salvation their open contempt and neglect of all Holy Duties their living in pleasure and walking in ungodly courses cannot bring Damnation upon them they must be saved See God's Love to Mankind What Man rightly master of his own Reason will ever trouble himself about such impossible or unavoidable things 't is in vain to repent fruitless to weep yea madness to add to my own Infelicities by denying my self of any Pleasure or Profit which I might enjoy by closing with the World and in gratifying the sensitive Part Or why should we take upon us a strict course of Life endeavouring to keep God's Commandments and fighting with the Temptations of the Devil and keep them under our Bodies and bring under subjection when all we effect by it is an honourable Nothing What compass we by striving therewithal Why spend we time in rising up to fall Why linger we to act so many Crimes To suffer over Grief so many times And live so many several Deaths to taste To be no worse nor better at the last Or wherefore have we prayed since we know What must be must be tho we pray not so Wither's Britain's Rememb p. 54. So that your Doctrine makes all Endeavours and Undertakings of Persons in order to the attaining Heaven and Eternal Felicities fruitless and highly gratifies the Devil's Interest such an Opinion frames and fits a Soul for the Suggestions of Satan by which he draws Souls with more ease into Eternal Misery for will not Persons be ready to say I am one of those that are absolutely elected to Grace and Glory one of those that Christ died for or I am ablolutely cast away and left in the Fall to die and perish without a power to believe or a Christ to believe in If I lie under a necessity of either why should I trouble my self about Means or Ends since if I perish by my Sins I did but what was natural for me to do and which I was compelled to by an overpowring necessity and therefore I 'll take my ease and swim down the Stream of all Delights so that your Opinion overthrows the very Foundation of all true Piety and gives Persons the greatest discouragement to Duties and quite breaks the Anchor of the Soul that it cannot fix it self upon any Offers of Grace and Invitation nor stay it self upon any Promise of Heaven upon their repenting believing or obeying the Lord. Hope stirs up Men to begin and to continue in well-doing Hope is a patient and well-grounded Expectation of the fulfilling of whatsoever God hath promised But how is the Anchor well-grounded when notwithstanding the Promises of Heaven to all those that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for it Men by the most vigorous undertaking for Heaven shall be rewarded with the Wages of Death and crowned with eternal Shame for all they have done in their Christian Progress Is not this enough to shipwrack the Soul upon despair Yea I dare say This is the nearest and the straitest way To all Profaneness if the Bridle gives To Carnal Liberties and makes the Lives And Hearts of many Men so void of care From hence Distractions hence Despairings are Hence Mischiefs hence Self-murders do arise Hence is it that such multitudes despise Good Discipline yea this contemned makes The Life of Faith if once it rooting takes Disableth pious Practices out-right And where it roots destroys Religion quite Britain's Remembrancer p. 56. Which I could prove by many Instances from the Writings of others and the known Experiences of our Age one in my knowledg when reprov'd for his wicked loose Life would answer God might have made him better And in God's Love to Mankind pag. 204. we have it recorded concerning the Landgrave of Thuring who being reproved for his debauched Life and warned of the dangerous consequence thereof that so it might move upon him to consider his miserable condition and return gave this Answer If I am absolutely predestinated to Heaven the committing of the vilest Crimes will never exclude me And if I be reprobated let me manage my Life never so carefully let me steer my course never so prudently and piously I shall never arrive at Heaven and Happiness Philet But our Doctrine is not as you say a hinderance to Piety and a godly Life for those that hold it are Men of singular Piety indued with a Spirit of Prayer and live according to the strictest Rules of Holiness far beyond any that hold the contrary who are a company of loose livers Philad I know there are many of your opinion of late flown very high in their own conceit and condemn others we are apt on all hands according to the old Proverb to count our own Geese for Swans and every Fowl thinks its own Bird the fairest yet I doubt not if Persons of the one Judgment and the other were but truly compared together and an estimation made of the religious worth and holiness of each those that own General Redemption need not count it robbery to make themselves every way equal with their Opposers General Redemption having been not only avouched by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles but also owned
of Sins because most Offenders do not take out nor plead their Pardon as they ought to do And pag. 15. That the Lamb of God offering up himself clothed with humane Nature a Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World intended by giving satisfaction sufficiently to God's Justice c. to prepare a Sovereign Medicine for the Sins of the whole World which should be denied to none that were minded to take the Benefit thereof howsoever he intended not by applying this Alsufficient Sacrifice to every one in particular to make it effectual unto the Salvation of all or to procure thereby at the hands of his Father actual Pardon for the Sins of the whole World he applys this only effectually to them who make claim to the Satisfaction by promise suing for the Spirit and Faith upon other Promises in Prayer waiting for a gracious answer till they have it c. So in respect of his Merit he may be accounted a kind of universal Cause of restoring our Nature as Adam was of the depraving of it Much of the same nature and almost word for word is that of Bishop Vsher quoted by Mr. Grantham in his Dialogue pag. 22. And saith Hockin on God's Decree pag. 45 46. We need not refer the deplorable misery of the Sons of Adam to the Divine Will as Mr. Calvin is pleased to do Instit lib. 18. cap. 1. but the horrid perversness of our own Wills for the highest Act of Divine Intention is to save Men if they do not by the wickedness of their own perverse Will frustrate the same by refusing the gracious Offers of Salvation by Christ and not observing the real Conditions upon which the Proposals of Mercy are made for the Lord doth solemnly prove that he is not willing that any should perish 2 Pet. 3. 9. Therefore we cannot lay the blame upon God in any thing but wholly upon Man who doth voluntarily bring Death and Misery upon himself Nay Calvin himself upon John 3. 16. saith That Faith in Christ is of a saving Nature to all and that Christ brought Life because his Heavenly Father would not have Mankind to perish which he loved c. For tho there will be nothing in the World found worthy of the Favour of God yet he sheweth himself favourable unto the whole World in that he calls all Men without exception to believe in Christ Here you may see that in the Eyes of these God may intend the Salvation of all Men by Jesus Christ and yet all Men may not be saved without any prejudice in the least either to the Grace and Goodness of God or to his power of working in this behalf Mar. But Philadelphus pray consider with respect to Christ's dying for all that when our Saviour died as a Mediator it was near 2000 Years from the Creation and there were multitudes then in the Prison of Hell from whence there is no redemption and do you think that Christ died upon the Cross and bore such unutterable Dolours for them to redeem them that were there There was need indeed that Christ should die for those Saints that were in Heaven before he died because they were saved upon the account of his having undertaken as a Surety for them to make Satisfaction to the Justice of God for their Sins but surely it will sound very harshly in the Ears of all Christians that Christ should sweat drops of Blood and bear the Curse of the Law for them who were then in Hell when he died 1 Pet. 3. 18 19 20. Philad The 1 Pet. 3. 18 19 20. is of doubtful interpretation and by your own grant the doubtful ought to be expounded and tried by the Light and Testimony of such as are more clear and evident Now in this Text the Apostle sheweth the great patience of God toward that wicked Generation and that he strove with them by his Spirit and gave unto them a Preacher of Righteousness and a hundred years space to repent in and doubtless the patience of God towards them was for this end to allure and draw them to Repentance But it seems you would not have any believe that Christ died for any of those that before his coming in the Flesh had withstood the Day of Grace and sinned beyond the reach of Mercy But there was need for him to die for those that were in Heaven before he died because they were saved upon the account of his dying for them Now I might shew you from your own sense of Election being from Eternity without any consideration of Faith in Christ how you abrogate the Grace of God in Christ and make his Death to be in vain seeing that God loved them every whit as well and intended to do as much for them before Christ died for them or before their ingrafting into Christ by Faith yea before the Blood of the Covenant was sprinkled upon them as after and therefore there was no reason that Christ should shed his Blood to procure those things for the Elect which were truly and properly theirs before in and by God's purpose in electing of them yea and that without any consideration of Christ's dying for them or their believing in him Philet Nay hold we do not say that God intends actually to confer Remission of Sins or Eternal Life upon the Elect otherwise than through the Satisfaction made by Christ for them in his Death and tho God might intend and purpose Salvation to the Elect without the consideration of the Death of Christ yet in the execution of this his purpose the Death of Christ is all in all and you ought to distinguish between God's Decrees and the execution of them Philad If it was consistent with the Wisdom and Justice of God to decree forgiveness of Sins and Salvation unto Men without consideration of the Death of Christ or their believing in him he may as well confer these things upon them without any such consideration and then to what purpose should Christ die But Philetus were those that were in Heaven before Christ's coming saved without Faith in him that was to come Philet No all that were saved before Christ's coming were saved by believing and imbracing him that was to come and to be a Sacrifice for their Sins in the belief of which they offered Sacrifices and through which they looked at Jesus who was to come Philad Then it is sufficient to tell you that the want of that Faith in the Christ to come and obedience to his Will was the cause of their destruction Besides consider Christ was the Lamb slain virtually in the Decree or Purpose of God from the Foundation of the World and it was on the account of Christ's taking humane Nature upon him that Man was preserved in the World from returning to the Dust from whence he was taken for all Men live and move and have a being here by virtue of the Lord Jesus the Seed of the Woman and Believers did before Christ's coming in
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
Mankind in the Fall and so totally desert them without affording them a Saviour to believe in or any power to believe whereby they must unavoidably perish and yet at the same time command all Men without exception to believe in his Son Acts 17. 30. 1 Joh. 3. 23. Mat. 16. 5. Rom. 10. 16 17. and severely threaten all those that shall not believe on him Mark 16. 16. John 8. 24. John 3. 36. John 16. 9. And Jesus Christ not only commands all Men to repent and believe on him and threatens all with Death that refuse to believe but also hath promised Life and Salvation to all without exception which shall believe John 3. 16. 11. 25 26. 1 Pet. 2. 6. And also by many sweet encouraging ways labours to induce them to believe Sometimes he presents them with his great Love John 3. 16. Tit. 3. 4. sometimes with his Mercy and tender Compassion Exodus 34. 6. Luke 1. 72. sometimes with his delight in shewing Mercy Micha 7. 18. Ezek. 33. 11. and with his desire after their Salvation 1 Tim. 2. 4. At other times with the great trouble of his Soul at their stubborn courses and that because if they persisted in them it would bring destruction to them Ezek. 18. 31. Jer. 44. 4. likewise shewing what Glory would accrue to them Ephes 1. 6 12. Now to think or say that under all these Expressions of Love and Desire to save Mankind he hath past and sealed a firm Decree in his Eternal Counsel to the contrary is a great dishonour done to God making him guilty of horrid and notorious Hypocrisy to destroy his Creatures under the specious pretence of Justice and shewing Mercy and as a great * The Lord Russel's Speech Statesman once said To kill by Forms and Subtilties of Law is the worst sort of Murders And to destroy Millions of Persons under a colour of Mercy and Good-will is like a Cat playing with a Mouse and making sport with other Mens miserys and one of the greatest Cruelties in the World which Doctrine I am sure is altogether inconsistent with his incomprehensible Justice Mar. I deny that which I hold clasheth against or oppugneth the Justice of God 't is true it sheweth there is much of Sovereignty in God but nothing of Injustice he doth but leave the Dog in his Vomit the Viper to his own Poison and as Philetus said before God was not bound to bring forth a Saviour for any of fallen Mankind nor is he obliged to give restituent Grace to fallen Man so that this Preterition is not a substraction of any inherent Grace but a suspension of Assistance for God may do what he will with his own and there can be no injustice in it May not God who is the Supreme Lord of all deny a free Benefit without wrong to his Justice Besides God is not bound to restore to Man a Power to believe because he once had it and lost it through his own fault Philad Most of this I have answered already and so shall say the less to it now I believe that the God of Heaven is not absolutely bound to any Man but hath free liberty to dispense his Favour where and to whom he will yet hath he engaged himself for our assistance if we be not wanting to our selves to let in such spiritual strength as to inable us to perform that Duty that is required of us the Lord always giveth strength where he giveth a Command or else the neglect of it will not be their condemnation if it was not so he would be as the evil Servant stiled him a hard Master reaping where he hath not sawed c. or like Pharaoh whom God punished as a Tyrant to deny Straw and yet require the tale of Brick to require obedience to his Divine Will and yet deny supernatural Grace without which it was impossible for them to keep it But if your Doctrine be true Persons are required to believe and are condemned for not believing and yet God hath shut them under unbelief they have no power to believe and God hath decreed they shall never have a power to believe whilst they live nay he not only denys a Power to believe but a Christ to believe in the greatest part of Men have no more part in Christ and the Covenant of Grace than the Devils have and yet the Gospel is to be preached to all for the obedience of Faith Is not this a piece of the highest Blasphemy making the great Creator as vile and treacherous as a Creature yea to make the Almighty subject to the most servile Art of Flattery pretending one thing when the contrary is really intended as if the Lord designed to sport himself â—…th the ruin and destruction of miserable Man This would be the visible effects of injustice and guile in God and it would be mere folly in Man to walk in any Christian Practice Philet I would not have you Philetus wade too deep into God's Secrets there are different Intentions in God in affording the Gospel which we know not of and we may say O the height and depth both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God c. No Creature knows the ground and reason why God in his Wisdom doth so order the Affairs of the World as he doth nor why the Gospel is sent to one more than to another especially the Word of his Grace to Salvation this only comes by Divine Counsel Acts 13. 26. To you is the Word of this Salvation sent Philad Truly Philetus you are one of those that stand in need of the same Caution as you give me for if you did not carry it at too great a height of confidence you would not take liberty to speak of God's Decrees and of the Transactions of Heaven as if you fully knew the Lord's Secrets or how dare you speak of such Decrees to be in God which he hath no where revealed in his Word nay which are contrary to it and so set the Secret Will and Revealed Will of God to wage Wâ—… one with the other and set the Decrees of God and his Commands at open defiance I do acknowledg that the way which God takes about the Government of the World and in his Wisdom c. as Rom. 11. 33. is an unfathomable depth and is so unconceivable and incomprehensible that it is above all comprehension of Men and Angels I also grant that it may be consistent both with the Wisdom and Mercy of God to vouchsafe a greater means of Grace Light and Knowledg and of Salvation to some more than to others Philet How can Persons be saved without Faith for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin and how shall they believe of him of whom they have not heard and how can any preach the Gospel as they ought except they be sent Some the Word of Salvation is sent to and not to others you know the Apostle was forbid to preach the Word in Asia Acts 16.
Men may be saved if they will which is so gross an Error that they must be very blind that cannot see it for if it was so Men might have Heaven for willing and none would go to Hell but it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth Mercy Rom. 9. 16. Philad That 's true if Men might have Heaven for wishing or willing few would be so fool-hardy as to go to Hell Who would but with Balaam die the Death of the Righteous Who would but have all Tears wiped away from their Eyes and live in Bliss and Glory if God would save Persons for their good Wishes and Desires and give them Heaven tho they never minded it all their days so as to please God they deserve to go to Hell that would not have Heaven upon this account that think Heaven not worth a Wish And as to your Scriptures the Apostle sheweth that the Jews had a Will to be saved and the reason why they fell short of Justification was not for want of willing or running but for not willing and running in a right way they sought it not by Faith but by the Works of the Law They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own Rom. 10. 3. so mist of Justification But surely this is not that Free-will you so much cry out of for where can you find such Free-willers that hold Heaven may be had for wishing for Philet But however you hold that you have naturally such a power and freedom of Will that when you would do good you can Philad 'T is a mistake we do not say we have it from Nature but from Grace for as we are in our depraved Nature we can neither do nor will ought that is acceptable and good but as in Grace we may for then to will is present with us yea and ever since the Promise was made that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head the Lord doth first or last enlighten every Man that cometh into the World vouchsasing such renewing of his Will and such a perpetual co-assistance to perform what shall be accepted if persons do not wilfully maliciously and finally resist his Grace so that none of our Sins can justly be charged upon any deficiency in him Our blessed Saviour tells them the Word was near them and in them and that he was the Light that enlightens every Man Yet if by Free-will you mean a single Power in the Creature to convert it self I know none this day in England that hold such an Opinion however I utterly renounce such an Opinion as vile it being to ascribe too much to humane Nature It must needs be a pernicious Principle for any to believe that a Man by the sole power of regulating of his own Will and Reason can obtain Eternal Salvation this would make the suffering of Christ altogether fruitless and I believe also that none hath any will or power of himself without God to do any thing that 's good or to attain to a supernatural End but by the Assistance of Divine Grace and therefore there is an absolute necessity of seeking and imploring the saving supernatural aid and help of the Spirit of that God from whom all our Abilities are derived to us And as to what you say we hold that when we would do good we can I say that through the Grace of God we may avoid many more Sins than we daily do avoid and do more good than we do tell me are any of us laid under a necessity of sinning cannot we forbear many Sins which we daily run into and do we really do what God by his Grace hath impowred us to do in our Duty to God and Man and in avoiding Sin If you say we can do no otherwise then is all your preaching vain yea ridiculous for if an irresistible Cause overpower us that we can do no otherwise no Man that is truly master of his own Reason will ever spend his time and strength to exhort any to repent of doing that which they could not but do or omitting of that which was never in their power to effect If you say that by the Grace of God we may do the one or the other you own Free-will as much as I. For this is the Free-will if we may call it so that I hold viz. That God Almighty hath of his Free Love and Grace imparted a measure of himself or endowed Mankind with those Abilities to perform whatsoever he requires of them and injoins them to God never gives a Command but he gives a Power or else their Disobedience shall not be their Condemnation if this be a vile Opinion then I confess I am vile for if God requires us to believe and yet administers not sufficient Grace and Strength to believe all our endeavours are vain and fruitless Men cannot make Brick till Srraw be given them for the Lord to prescribe Dutys to us and annex Penaltys upon the non-performance of them as to punish with Eternal Death all those that are disobedient to his Will and yet to deny his Grace and Assistance without which it is impossible to keep them this is to represent the Lord as I once said before too much like cruel Pharaoh that made the Lives of his People bitter to them by laying heavy Burdens in requiring the tale of Brick and yet denying Straw the fit Materials or as the evil Servant in the Parable stiled him a hard Master reaping where he hath not sowed Philet I tell you we are altogether passive in the Work of Conversion we are like Saws or Axes that cannot move any otherwise than the Hand guides or forces them Philad Your comparing Persons to Saws and Axes being altogether passive in comparison is a thing I do not understand for we are not Saws or Axes without Sense or Reason but by God's free Gift and his free Grace we have received Liberty and Ability to accept of his Love and to accept of his Mercy when tendred to us and to perform those things which God requires of us in order to our Salvation yea through the Lord 's assisting Grace which is never wanting to any but those that are wanting to themselves we have received such a Power as to inable us to perform the Will of God when the choice of Good and Evil is set before us Deut. 30. 19. Mar. No more than the Stones in the street Philad Why then Man can have no more Sin nor Righteousness in him than a Stone if Man in the Work of Conversion be like a Stock or Stone merely passive doing nothing then in Conversion Persons neither hear nor repent nor turn from Sin to the Lord nor believe in Christ and how any are truly regenerated without those I know not and if these are to be done in Conversion pray who is active in this Work if the Party regenerated be not And if by God's Free Grace Man
faithful to him The question is of the continuance of our Love to him John 8. 31. If ye continue in my Word c. John 15. 9 10. As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue ye in my Love And if ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love Now if there were no danger of losing their Love to Christ there were no need for Christ to exhort them to keep his Commands in order to their abiding in his Love But this place shews that Christ having loved his own he loved them to the end of his days 't is not said of their days but all the time of his abode in the World here 's nothing of the final perseverance of the Saints how desperately wicked soever they be but what if the Lord should so set his Love upon these his beloved Disciples that were given him out of the World by his Father that maugre all the Frailties of the Flesh and the Temptations of the World and the Devil yet none of them should be lost but that they should be carried on through all Difficulties to the fruition of Eternal Glory Doth it prove that because some shall never fall that therefore no true Believer can fall away Pray consider the Parable of the Prodigal Son the lost Groat the lost Sheep doth it not shew that a true Believer may be lost and being lost may be found Moderat I believe God hath elected a certain number to Salvation and those that are given out of the World to Christ he will not fail to keep them to himself but will by interposing Grace so preserve them that they shall never perish But the others that Christ died for upon condition of their repentance believing and persevering therein to the end I dare not say but some of these may believe for a time and that with a true Faith believe and yet fall away so as to perish these times have afforded many sad and shaking Examples of this kind and I am not strictly certain of my perseverance and so not fully or strictly certain of my own Salvation Philet O what an uncomfortable Doctrine is this of falling from Grace Philad This Doctrine doth not destroy all Christian Comfort but a Life of much Christian Comfort may be had out of it seeing it is the unchangeable Purpose of God to give Life and Salvation to all those that shall persevere in Faith and Holiness to the end and that if they will but quit themselves like Men abstain from all foolish and hurtful Lusts and not wilfully stab their own Souls nor pull Misery upon their own Heads they shall be happy And what tho true Believers may be under a possibility of perishing yet seeing God hath through his bounty vouchsafed unto them so rich and such full proportion of Means thereby to prevent their perishing and to preserve them from Apostacy so that they need not apostatize or perish except they themselves please why should it abate any of their Comforts or Hopes of Salvation because under a possibility of perishing Men may possibly fall into the Fire and be burnt or into the Water and be drowned from the top of Houses and be dashed in pieces yet no Man lives ever a whit the more uncomfortable because under a possibility of suffering these Evils because they know God hath given them Reason and Understanding to preserve them from these things The Apostle Paul knew that he was under a possibility of being a Cast-away 1 Cor. 9. 27. yet how chearfully and at what an excellent rate of comfort did he live I am perswaded saith he Rom. 8. 38 39. that neither death nor life nor things present nor things to come c. The assurance he had that upon a diligent use of the means which God of his Grace had vouchsafed to him he should prevent his being a Castaway made him live at that height of confidence and courage which he did What can no one injoy comfortable hopes of Heaven unless they have a full and perfect assurance of the continuance of the Love of God to them how loosely and profanely soever they live and that if they commit all manner of Sin and Wickedness affront Heaven defy the Almighty laugh Jesus and his Gospel to scorn yet they run no hazard of losing their Souls Indeed such a Doctrine as this and such is the Doctrine of Absolute and Unconditional Perseverance contributes to the peace and comfort of the carnal part in Men and indulgeth to them a liberty of Sin but no Child of God that hath received of that Spirit whereby it can cry Abba Father either wisheth or desires Heaven or Salvation but in the way of holiness and upon that condition which the Lord Christ injoyned it John 15. 10. Nor is it possible that any Man should have comfortable hopes of Heaven or any assurance of being saved unless he hath through Grace discharged those Duties to which the Blessing and Privileges are therein promised This is the Foundation whereupon through Christ to build our Hopes and Comforts and not that God loves us for we know not what reason and that we cannot possibly sin our selves out of his Love but he will infallibly bring us to Heaven no but saith the Apostle 1 John 2. 3 5. Chap. 3. 18 19 20 24. Chap. 5. 18. hereby we know and are assured that we are in God and that he loves us But how comes Persons to this why if we love him and keep his commandments which if we do we shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. But I must beg your excuse at this time I cannot stay only I desire you to consider this one thing concerning falling from true Grace If we consider Faith and Regeneration in themselves they may be lost because nothing in it self is unchangeable but God it cannot be said of any but God that he cannot lie and if so then all Men may lie and that Lie may be our ruin for ought we know Rev. 21. 27. And tho I do not doubt but that there is a State of Grace attainable in this Life from which Persons by the Grace of God shall never fall yet I would not have you affirm of your selves or any others that you cannot fall how wicked soever you live but rather remember we all stand but by Faith and therefore ought not to be high-minded but fear working out our Salvation with fear and trembling not lest God should forsake us but lest we should forsake God FINIS