of a horse is a horse c. and therefore by the name of the Son of man is understood him not which is simply a man as Adam was but him that is born of a man Adam was a man made not born and therefore he is called a man but not the Son of man It is observed therefore that the Hebrews in this their manner of speaking when they say thou art a son or child of disobedience a son of perdition c. that they assign as it were disobedience and perdition to be as the father and that thou art born of that and therefore that such expressions do not barely signifie that thou art disobedient but that thou wert born disobedient not that thou art in a perishing condition but that thou wert born a son of perdition not that thou art a sinner but that thou wast born a sinner So likewise in those words a child of wrath not that thou art obnoxious to wrath and condemnation because of thy sins but that thou art born a child of wrath guilty of eternal condemnation so much of the first The second thing considerable is how they were by nature the children of wrath The word nature hath several acceptations First sometimes it is taken for the substance and essence of a thing but thus acording to his essence and substance man is not a child of wrath because the substance is not sin though it be infected with sin Secondly for the first principle of motion and rest in every thing whether that principle be in the substance or that it be the natural quality and propriety of the thing And after this manner the first nature of man was good yea very good for in that the Lord did imprint a power of motion to that which was good to know love and worship God and thereby to have life everlasting but this nature was lost by the sin of Adam and instead thereof there succeeded a naughty quality whereby it comes to pass that there is no natural motion in us but unto that which is evil viz. against God and against his son Jesus Christ and no rest but in that which is not good This evil quality came by the temptation of the Devil and it is as a pestilence that hath infected both the soul and body of man man I say remaining the same in his essence and substance is infected with the venome of this evil quality so that he can effect or work nothing but that which is like himself because from this he is moved unto all actions Hence it is that there arise all the evil thougths in the mind all the perverse and distempered affections in the heart and all wicked motions and desires in the will And this corruption of the whole nature which is otherwise called concupiscence the Apostle cals in this place nature viz. the first principle or beginning of all evil actions and motions whether external or internal and therefore whereas this is sin it doth deservedly make such the children of wrath Thirdly nature is oftentimes taken for nativity or birth natura a nascendo because that every one being conceived in sins and born in iniquities Psalm 51.5 and that we are born ungodly and enemies to God and therefore most worthy that God should be angry with us and inflict eternal punishments on us and therefore in this sense likewise are we said to be the children of wrath i. e. rom our first conception and nativity and because we are descended from Adam and sinned in him and all are born children of wrath even infants likewise though they have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression i. e. actually Rom. 5.14 yet because they are born of sinful parents the infection becomes hereditary to them and they likewise children of wrath as well as others After this manner of speech is that of the Apostle Gal. 2. We which are Iews by nature i. e. Jews by birth and nativity And by this I hope the judicious Reader will find that I have both confuted your reasons and confounded your gloss so that the third absurdity will stick as close to your proposition as the spots do to the Leopard and now I shall have leisure to attend your motion in the removal of your quarters to the fourth absurdity which is this Then Paul was mistaken Rom. 9.21 in not assigning sin to be the cause of reprobation Answ Paul was not mistaken for he hath assigned continuing in sin and unbelief to be the cause of reprobation Rom. 9.32 and 11.20 and 1.2 6 28. Answ Sir this hath been your dealing in all this tract of reprobation wherein you make no distinction between non-election or negative reprobation which is before all time whereon your position is built and against which my undertakings are as you deliver it and whereof there is no cause assignable besides the good pleasure of Gods most holy will and that reprobation which is in time and whereof sin is the cause and whereunto those Scriptures by you quoted do answer which no man contradicts But yet this last reprobation or that in time is not immutable as is the other Jer. 6.30 Isa 1.25 Zac. 13.9 Ro. 11.23 for a man or a nation may be as reprobated silver today and yet refined from the dross to morrow they may be broken off to day and grafted in again to morrow for God is able to graft them in again But for that reprobation whereabout our dispute is as it is immanent in God and eternal so it is also immutable and unchangeable as is God himself And so I pass to the fifth absurdity which is this Absurd 5. The same Apostle then answered very unsoundly to these objections Rom. 9.13 19. The first is If God reprobated Esau because he hated him he was unjust The second ver 19. why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will for he might in one word have answered to both objections and said that sin was the cause of reprobating both Esau and Pharaoh but he saith the contrary ver 11. when they had done neither good nor evil Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated Answ To the first when I shall hear any say that God reprobated Esau because he hated him without assigning any other cause and prove it I shall say more to it and in the mean time I shall desire to have this question resolved Whether those that shal preach such doctrine As that God reprobated Esau because he hated him and for no other cause do not make God much like the envious Jews Ioh. 15.25 who hated the man Christ Jesus without cause Answ Sir for the resolving of your question and satisfying of the scruple I must tell you first that God is said to have hated Esau before he was born or that he had done either good or evil that is called hatred comparatively in respect of that love he shewed unto Iacob he may be said to hate him
because he loved him less than he did Iacob Gen. 29.31 Thus Leah was said to be hated by Iacob comparatively with the love shewed to Rachel because she was less beloved then Rachel so he that serves two masters will hate the one and love the other i. e. will love him less then the other And thus God loves the reprobates less than he doth the elect but it cannot hence be concluded that the Lord doth absolutely hate any creature of his own making â—en 1.31 for they were all good yea very good and Wisd 11.24 thou lovest all things that are and abhorrest nothing that thou hast made T is true God hates sin because he made it not and this hatred hath an influx upon the sinner as he is a sinner because God made him not so But God hates not a non-elected person or a reprobate as he is a reprobate neither doth he condemne him or decree to condemne him for his negative reprobation which is Gods act Isa 55.8 but for his sin which is mans act Secondly I say that this hatred in God his wayes not being like our waies is not to be considered as to hold proportion with the passions and affections of men in their hatred For this confusion or indistinct consideration or comparison of divine things with humane is that great witchcraft that puts such a stumbling-bloâ—k in the way to the knowledge of things that we cannot discover the truth thereof with so discerning an eye as otherwise we might And therefore though I do attribute hatred to God yet that hatred in God anteceding reprobation or which is assigned as a cause of reprobation is nothing else but Gods absolute will of denying that special benefit of effectual grace and infallible direction unto eternal life and permitting some men by their own defective freewill deservedly to fall under the misery of eternal death And therefore in some sort I may say that the hatred of God is as much visible and doth as sensibly discover it self in the denyal of effectual grace as in the inflicting of the torments of hell For God the Father wounded bruised tormented the soul of his dear Son for our sins without any diminution of his love unto him But he never denied him effectual grace whereby he had an immunity from sin And therefore say some It is more desirable to have the benefit of effectual grace whereby we are preserved safe in the love of God than to obtain an immunity from the torments of hell Christ was not exempted from this last though he was never excluded from the former Thirdly I would here distinguish of the hatred of God as it signifies in him first his affection or secondly his effection if I may use such a word or otherwise the effects of his affection though I do confess that these affections as of love hatred anger c. are not properly in God but are attributable to him ex anthropopathia by similitude and resemblance First for the hatred of God as it is an affection so it doth precede Reprobation it being the will and purpose of God to deny grace to such whom he will not elect which is that whith we call reprobation Secondly the hatred of God as it signifies an effect to wit the execution of that hatred anger wrath inflicted on sinners and so it follows reprobation To summe up all in a few words that God bare less love to his creature Esau then to Iacob is manifest That that lesser degree of love which he bare to Esau may comparatively to that manifested to Iacob be called hatred That God may deny some grace to one that he bestowes upon another without injustice that equall grace is not given to Esau as to Iacob That those who from the love of God are not elected by a necessary consequence must be reprobated or not elected Ephes 1.4 5 6 7. 2.4 5. or loved with a lesser love The love of God was the cause of our election and therefore the lesser love or hatred the cause of our reprobation And now Sir if you peruse this what I have here said you may easily answer your own frivolous question And yet I must withal tell you that though I do affirm that God reprobated Esau or did not elect him onely because he would not it was not the good pleasure of his will so to do or it was his wil absolute not to do it that he denied that favour to him that he shewed to Iacob and so may be said to hate him without any external cause lookt upon as in Esau why he should be reprobated rather than Iacob neither of them having done either good or evil yet there was an internal cause of the hatred or reprobation namely the good pleasure of Gods most holy will for the manifestation of his own glory in his power and justice And therefore God cannot without blasphemy be compared to the envious Jews who howsoever they hated the man Christ Jesus without a cause yet God had a cause motive or incentive from within himself even the manifestation of his own glory in shewing his power and justice on those so reprobated which glory of his is more precious and to be prefered before the saving and preserving from the torments of hell the persons of all both men and Angels and yet withal I say that the vindictive punishment of God or positive reprobation which is Gods appointing to torments and hatred of God as it is an effect of the former is never inflicted without a just and meritorious cause viz. the sin of man And thus much to what you answer to the first objection to the second you write thus To the second I have already shewed that Paul directed his words to the Jew who rested in the law and made his boast of God and was confident that he was in the way of God and thence it was that he said thou wilt say unto me who hath resisted his will But Paul had more than the single term sin to assigne as a cause of their being reprobated blinded or broken off from their own olive-tree to wit a continuance in sin and unbelief and rejecting the means of salvation when the hands of the Lord were stretched forth unto them all the day long and yet they were a disobedient and gainsaying people Answ To this I have already answered pag. 115. that the words were directed to the Gentiles to which I refer the Reader And whereas afterwards you say that Paul had more then that single term to assigne as a cause of their being reprobated blinded broken off c. to wit a continuance in sin and unbelief and rejecting the means of salvation Sir this is but gratis dictum you onely say but cannot prove it shew me any such expression in this whole chapter wherein this text alledged lies yea or any where else in all the Scripture It is true those words of yours of the Lords hands stretched
him that calleth yet there is nothing at all about excluding faith or use of means for the Apostles drift in that very text is to exclude the works of the law that the Jews would dwell upon for justification that so he might set up faith in the room and place thereof which I shall have occasion to speak of hereafter In the mean while consider that Paul is so far from confusion in putting faith works and use of means altogether and shutting them all out of doors together as having no place at all in that great and weighty work of our election to eternal life as this Babylonian doth that on the contrary he in beating down the works of the law and casting it out from having any place at all in that thing viz. the election or justification of persons in the sight of God to eternal life doth in the 9th of the Romans together with many other sayings by him recorded in that Epistle and other of the Epistles written to the Churches of the Saints endeavour to set up faith and the use of means that is leading thereunto in the same things Answ The result of all this nothing amounts onely to this that the Apostle in that chapter his intended scope is to exclude works and to entertain faith in the stead thereof But truly Sir I am very jealous or confident rather that if you were well canvast about it that whiles you undertake to be a teacher of others 1 Tim. 1.7 yet you understand not what you say or whereof you affirm For this I so positively affirm Matth. 5.17 that as all works are not excluded from a justified person they being for necessary uses Tit. 3.14 Christ not coming to destroy the law but to fulfill it Rom. 8.3 and to cast down the merit of our works and to declare that they could have no justification by them as being weak through the flesh So neither is faith ushered in by Paul here in the room as you phrasifie it of works as by the excellency thereof it could justifie us before God much less be any waies instrumental to our election as this Athenian babler seems to innovate For whereas you contradistinguish the Law of faith spoken of under that term 1 Thess 1.3 and 2 Thess 1.11 to the law of works You must know that the Gospel is called a law of faith because the promise of Grace in Christ is propounded with Commandement that men believe it But now we deny that faith justifies us as it is a work which we performe in obedience to this law It justifies us onely as the condition required of us and as an instrument of embracing Christs righteousness no Sir it is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or the act of believing that hath any such efficacy for so it is a work of our own and so as much turned out of doors as any other of our good works Our believing being impure and but in part Lord I believe help mine unbelief and so altogether unable to justifie for that must be done by a perfect righteousness But whatsoever is here or any where else in Scripture spoken to the advance and honour of faith is to be understood of faith objectively i. e. Christ believed on by faith that doth supply to our perfect justification Isa 64.6 Phil. 3.8 when all the merits of our Righteousness are but as filthy raggs yea dung and loss compared with Christ So that it is not properly faith that is a believers evangelical Righteousness whereby he is justified but Christ set up as the brazen serpent and laid hold on by faith the souls organ and hand to receive him that is our Righteousness Ier. 23.6 the Lord our Righteousness and 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is made to us wisdome Righteousness But that I may more clearly rescue this eminent portion of Scripture out of such soule fingers who lay violence upon it and by their tricks of legerdemain make a Babylonish confusion of election with justification as this jugler doth here and all along as you shall find forcing upon election that which is peculiar to Justification not distinguishing the decree of election from justification which is onely the means for the execution of the decree the ordinary slur that this society of people would put upon us I shall by the assistance of Gods Spirit give you the genuine scope and sense of the Apostle in this Chapter In the former Chapter the Apostle had been treating of Justification in these three next Chapters he treats of Predestination but this is occasioned by way of Anticipation For against the Doctrine of Justification it might be objected If the Doctrine of Justification by faith alone were true then it would be received by the Jewish nation But the Jews disclaim that Doctrine at least the greatest part of them ergo it cannot be true The first Proposition the Apostle denies and answers to the reason of it teaching that not all the Jews are to be accounted the people of God who are partakers of the outward promises but onely those who do believe the promises of grace and that whereas they are but few that do believe and that most of the Jews do not believe this doth wholly rest on the secret will and Predestination of God who hath elected some unto salvation for the manifestation of his mercy and hath not elected or reprobated others according to his unfathomable justice Upon which Reprobation did depend the rejection of the greatest part of the Jews of that time and the calling of the Gentiles in their stead This is the general scope of this Chapter Now because a doctrine of this nature must needs be a stumbling-block of offence unto the Jews therefore in the five first verses he insinuates into their good opinion intimating his tenderest bosome-bosome-love unto them and extols them for many prerogatives wherein they did outstrip other nations and yet withall he expresseth his sorrow when he considers that they were rejected of God and appointed to destruction In the six and seventh verses he meets with an objection which in substance was thus If the Iews be rejected then the Covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed is of no effect But this is not so ergo not the other The Apostle here denies the sequel of the Major Proposition and renders a reason of such his denial by a distinction of a double sort of the children of Abraham viz. 1. Children of the flesh 2. Children of the Promise and thence informs them that the Covenant doth properly belong to the children of the Promise i. e. to the elect Jews Therefore howsoever the children of the flesh for the most part of them be rejected yet the Covenant of God remains sure and firm towards the children of the Promise i. e. towards the elect Jews This distinction he confirms by a special example of the two sons of Abraham viz. Ismael and Isaac whereof the first was onely
and means appointed of God for that end and one would think that this man were a little of my mind in this by what falleth from him in the close of this second Argument using these words at least for the moving of God to elect Sir If here where you make mention of any Instrumental cause you intend onely the Instrumental means of salvation then I joyne with you for as I have before asserted That as God hath decreed the end so likewise hath he decreed the means conducing to that end But as there is no external cause at all and therefore none Instrumental for which he doth elect before all time but all arising from within himself even his own love and good pleasure so when that decree comes to be put into execution in time then there are subordinate causes but all set on work by the first cause which is God himself but not as to election but all as tending to salvation And therefore that fell very advisedly from me when I said at least for the moving of God to elect where I place a vast difference between election and salvation God elects without respect had to faith works or use of means as to the decree but yet he saves with by and through faith works and use of means as in respect of the end 2 Thes 2.13 1 Pet. 1.2 You pack up these your fardles of exceptions thus Now if he do not hold that it is some cause by which men come to be more peculiarly interessed into the favour of God by believing then they are without believing why did he not rather say it must not be accounted any cause at all upon any account whatsoever But it is that which the Lord Christ hath said in Ioh. 16.27 which perswadeth me to be of that mind in that he hath said the Father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God and therefore If I should say that loving of Jesus Christ and believing in him were no cause at all by which we came to be chosen into the Fathers love I should sin against Christ in speaking contrary to his word But this is more then was in the Position and yet it is no more then truth Answ Sir now I will give you an account why I used that expression at least for the moving of God to elect my meaning was not that any man came to be interested into the first favour and love of God which is the good pleasure of his will immanent and eternal in himself more by believing then without believing For in election God lookt upon men as sinners enemies ungodly in their blood in a doleful plight and the objects of pity and compassion and not as on believers And therefore my words carried this sense that though there were no cause or motive at all why he should elect one rather then another because all were in an equally lost condition yet in the decree of election wherein there was a love unto and a purpose to save some he likewise decreed to save them by such means which in his wisdome he had ordained to be suitable for the attaining of the end so that salvation should have adequate causes for the effecting of it viz. faith works and use of means though election it self had none but singly and simply the love of God arising onely out of his own bosome And therefore it excluded causes as to election but did admit of causes as to the accomplishment of salvation For the rest of this paragraph of yours it trips up the heeles of all the former your seeming fair concessions and plainly discovers the secret guile and fraud of your heart For now you begin to speak plain enough saying If I should say believing were no cause at all by which we come to be chosen into the Fathers love I should sin against Christ Here indeed is plain dealing though all along before you have juggled with me and denyed all causes as to election And this indeed though you are not aware of it moâ—lders to nothing all your former exceptions which have still denied all causes motives c. And now you grant loving and believing to be causes and confirms every argument that I have raised and fortifies every of those absurdities that I have charged upon you as following upon your position to any of which you make not the least appearance of an answer But I tell you as before God in electing lookt upon men as in the corrupt mass and lumpe of perdition regarding nothing what they could be as of themselves for they must unavoidably be in a lost condition till by his own act transient flowing from that of Immanent in himself he made them believers by giving of them faith and all of this for the greater advance of his own free grace which he did not do to others For that place of Ioh. 16.27 brought to confirm their purpose I answer that the love of God hath a two-fold acception The first is amor benevolentiae which is the foundation and fountain of all the good his people have and receive t is the wombe that conceives and sends forth all the good things we do enjoy of which Ier. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love and so 1 Ioh. 4.10 we love him because he loved us first and of this no cause or reason can be rendred besides the good pleasure of his will The second is amor complacentiae when in time the Lord is delighted with the persons of those that he loved from eternity Ezek. 16.14 thy beauty was perfect through the comeliness I put upon thee Cant. 3.1 Behold thou art fair c. and thus the Lord crowns rewards and delights himself in those graces given to his elect ones and of this love of complacency is this text to be understood and not of the everlasting love spoken of Ier. 31.3 in electing of us before all time and whereof onely this controversie is And now gather up altogether and make up your accounts and see to what an excrescency of advantage your numerous exceptions against my arguments will amount unto and you shall find that the Summa totalis will be just o Hitherto have we fayled in that still river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God Psal 46.4 Psal 87.7 Rom. 11.33 and from whence all our springs flow viz. Gods electing of us to life eternal But now we are to lanch into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that unfathomable gulfe of the wisdom and knowledge of God whose judgements are unsearchable and his waies past finding out viz. that of non-election or Reprobation Concerning which this Gentlemans Position did assert this viz. That God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief yet haply not without the exact form of godliness but denying the power those he reprobated to everlasting destruction from the foundation of the world But In
nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas Corpora c. Having taken counsel of his pillow by his second thoughts he hath transformed the terms of his position by putting it into a new dress and at his peril be it if it prove to his own disadvantage The Position is new moulded thus God saw some rejecting the means to wit the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel continuing in sin and unbelief denying the power of godliness those he reprobated to everlasting destruction but the foresight of God did not nor doth necessitate the thing seen To which my answer was Answ This hath the like unsoundness in it as the former of Election there being no other ground or reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelieving no other rejecting of the means but the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy Will who will do with his creature what he will do neither can any expostulate why hast thou done thus Isa 45.9 It is true that sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but yet not the causes of their Reprobation that is solely and singly in the good pleasure of his will Ephes 1.5 His reply is this especially to that Text of Ephes 1.5 This Scripture saith nothing at all of Reprobation or mans destruction but of the Predestinating or appointing of believers to the Adoption of children by Jesus Christ Answ T is very true Sir that the letters and syllables of that word Reprobation is not in terminis exprest in that text cited of Ephes 1.5 but if by a necessary and an unavoidable consequence it may be thence concluded I hope it will be as sufficient as though in express words it had been so declared The words are recorded as for the comfort and encouragement of elect believers in beholding of the certainty and stability of their Predestination and Election resting in the bosome of God and the counsel of his will So likewise to keep them in an humble posture and engage them to a continual duty of thankfulness that when as they were in the same corrupt mass and lump of perdition with others the worst of men yet the Lord meerly out of the good pleasure of his will and from no other argument or motive out of themselves did fix his love upon them and predestinated them to the Adoption of children But was there not then the same good pleasure of his wil in the preterition non-election or not predestinating to the Adoption of children the rest that were past by who in respect of themselves were in as great and as good a capacity of partaking of any indulgence as those that were elected and what will this then amount unto but to be non-elected which is the same as to be Reprobated according to the good pleasure of his will I presume all the art you have cannot assign a medium between the decrees or at least make two decrees of predestinating of some men and the not predestinating of others but that if some men were not predestinated or not elected they must thence necessarily be reprobated He give you a familiar instance Suppose ten men for the evil deeds that they have committed be arraigned indicted convicted and adjudged to death but that immediately before the time of execution an act of Grace or special Pardon issues out from the supreme Magistrate and relaxes and freely remits the punishment to five of those ten I hope you may hence safely conclude that the other five shall be executed So let us suppose that the number of mankind are two Millions of men If out of these by the eternal and unchangeable decree of God one Million onely be infallibly appointed and ordained to eternal life they being all alike equally culpable and liable to eternal wrath and death who can deny but that the other Million are also as absolutely comprised under that sentence of eternal death whereinto they had hurled themselves as the decree of predestination or election saves some of meer good pleasure so the same decree of preterition non election non predestination leaves the rest where it found them weltring in their own gore and so reprobates them I hope you will not with the Papists in another like kind make a limbo non praedestinatorum seu non electorum such as shall neither go to heaven or hell And this of the decree of God before all time But when it pleaseth God who separated such from the mothers womb to reveal his Son unto them in time Gal. 1.16 then it is after this manner He brings his elect ones to eternal life by giving of theâ—â— faith repentance and perseverance and the manner of Gods permitting the non-elect to run themselves on the rock of eternal death is by leaving them in their own natural blindness and perverse enmity of their own imbred corruptions and nor supplying them with any restraining assisting or saving grace being not bound unto his creature so to do without which they must unavoydably wallow in their own mire and out of which they are never able to extricate themselves but are justly by God suffered to continue in their infidelity and impenitency Farther I say that the formal decree of election contains an absolute and an eternal decree of preparing of effectual grace for those that are so elected But the formal decree of negative Reprobation or non-election an absolute eternal decree of not preparing this effectual grace for those who are so pretermitted From whence is plain that the divine prevision of faith works and use of means in the elect so likewise the continuing in sin and unbeliefe in the nonelect doth not nor cannot go before the forementioned decree as you vainly imagine but are concomitant and coordinate in and with the decree and that when some are predestinated and elected to the Adoption of children out of the good pleasure of Gods will Eph. 2.12 Others are not predestinated not elected but reprobated according to the same good pleasure of his will and still remain aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope and never made partakers of the joy of the elect Pro. 14.10 From the canvassing of this text you proceed to another but with the like success of which thus you dictate Neither is that In Isa 45. at all to the purpose for it speaketh not at all of Reprobation or mans eternal destruction but of Gods calling and raising up Cyrus to subdue nations before him and that he would direct all his waies that he should build his City and let go his Captives and it was his will so to do and therefore woe be unto him that should strive with his maker to go about to hinder or frustrate the designe of God in that thing as doth appear from ver 1. to ver 15. Answ Sure Sir whatsoever mine is I am sure this is little to
all in their several generations had tasted of death and for a more full manifestation hereof he distinguisheth mankind into infants and those of ripe years wherein he affirms by the effect that not onely those that were of ripe years had died who had sinned in their own persons but even infants who had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression i. e. who had committed no actual sins in their own persons for which they should suffer death which is the wages of sin even they likewise had died Rom. 6.23 as having brought into the world with them the guilt of Adams transgression and therefore it could not be denied but that sin was likewise in them So that you that undertake to be a Proctor for all infants for ought you have proved from this text you will leave them all in a sad condition if a more sufficient Advocate may not be found to to plead their cause Another reason there is which you would fain have to be received from the authority of Christ himself Luke 18.16 Of such is the kingdom of God for the salving whereof I must open the words which do evidence that the Disciples had a prejudice and a cruell one too against infants thinking as the Anabaptists do that they understood nothing of Christ nor of the kingdom of Grace but Christ rebukes them and instates infants of believing parents as members of the visible Church Of such is the kingdom of God Now we cannot think that Christs meaning is of such as such is the kingdom of God as if all infants whether Jew or Gentile Turk or Pagan belonged as subjects to the visible Church for then the infants of all the heathens should be covenanted members of the Church visible and yet their parents are without the viâ—â—ble Church and when they should grow to age they should without any scandal be excommunicated which were monstrous to affirm much less can the invisible kingdom of God be of such as if all infants because infants were actually saved but all that our Saviour intends is Of such i. e. of such in covenant-relation is the kingdom of God of such subjects i. e. infants as well as others So that our Saviour did herein hold forth the common interest of the whole species of infants within the visible Church their common interest in Christ that he is a Saviour of them as well as a Saviour of the aged But to conclude thence of such Therefore all such is an unheard of non sequitur We find salvation entailed upon qualifications of Graces but not upon any age or period of life But that whether it be for matter of election or of reprobation young as well as old are lookt upon as in the corrupt lump and out of which some are elected the rest are left and so not elected which is to be Reprobated You have one reason more for the defence of your assertion that no child dying in infancy c. And that I conceive you offer by way of anticipation to what might be objected from Rom. 5.15 2 Cor. 5.10 16 17 18 19. concerning the imputation of Adams sin to all his posterity and thus you state it that when all shal appear before the judgement seat of Christ every one shall receive according to what he hath done in his body but not to receive any thing as a punishment for what hath been acted in the body of another And I pray Sir tell me you that are so accurate the reason of your limitation why none shall receive any thing as a punishment of that which hath been acted in the person of another but that we may receive a reward for the good which hath been acted in the person of another where if the text by you cited 2 Cor. 5.10 be that rule you walk by it should hold for good as well as bad But perhaps you foresaw the instance that would be given in against you in that man Christ Jesus from the acting of whose person in his own body all other bodies that do expect or hope for any reward of all their labours of love they do participate Joh. 1. Ezek. 16.14 for of his fulness have we all received and we all are made perfect through his comliness that he shall put upon us and by his obedience shall those that are justified be made righteous And therefore my good friends this is but gratis dictum Rom. 5.19 and you do herein grosly suborn and abuse that place of the Apostle to serve your base ends this sure is no better then the devils juggle Matth. 4. to mince so much of a text as will serve his turn and to leave out the rest so to delude the Readers I pray use fairer play in your next and deal above board The next thing I observe of your alike fair dealing is about that text 1 Cor. 15.22 that all die and go to the dust in the first Adam in that all have sinned or in whom all have sinned Rom. 5.12 and here sure the dust so flies in your eyes that all the skil and labour you can take will never wipe it away For first you do confess that all Infants as well as others sinned in Adam and why should you not alike confess from that very place Rom. 5.18 that therefore judgement upon all to condemnation should pass upon infants as well as others but probable it is that here your meaning is that Adams first transgression whereon I shall have occasion more fully to answer when I come to examine and resolve your postscript of Queries till when I shall dismiss this paradox and shall apply my self to enquire into the mind of God in that text by you cited Ezek. 18.20 the soul that sinneth it shall die the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father c. Upon which your comment is by death in this place is meant eternal death that which is the portion of the wiâ—ked for their wickedness for as for the temporal or natural death that is the portion as well of the righteous as unrighteous and therefore from this place you suppose it clear that no soul shall eternally be cast into the lake for the sin of another i. e. for Adams sin But I pray Sir what think you first of the sufferings of Christ both in his soul and body â—am 1.12 Isa 53.3 there was no sin inherent in himself neither of original nor actual sins yet was there never any sorrow or sufferings like unto his and therefore called a man of sorrowes which though they were not eternal in respect of duration yet were they eternal according to the nature and essence of them and in respect of the dignity of the person being God-man they were equivalent to any or all of those sufferings which are eternal for time and continuance and yet all this was undergone not for the satisfaction of any sin in himself but for what sins were acted in the
forth all day long were spoken to the Israelites Rom. 10.21 But to Israel he saith But in what place soever sin or unbelief or rejecting of the means are mentioned as any cause of Reprobating blinding shortning or cutting off it is spoken onely of reprobation in time which is but the execution of that decree which was determined before all time and about which immanent act of God and not these transient is our present debate And so I leave both these objections as yet unresolved by you and standing in as full force for any thing that you have thereunto answered as when they were first endited by the Holy Ghost penned by his holy Apostle Paul Give in an answer to it in the heavens if you can for you are never able to do it here upon earth And so I proceed to the sixth and last Absurdity which is this Absurd 6. Hereby we confine Gods infinite soveraignty over the creatures to that narrow scantling of our subordinate power as though he might not do with his own what he list without our controll and not make a vessel either to honour or dishonour unless he were accountable to us for a reason of his so doing Answ We confine not Gods infinite soveraignty over his creatures to any subordinate power in man whatsoever neither doth any principle that we hold tend to the limiting the holy One of Israel in the least in the disposing his creatures any otherwise then it seemeth good in his good will and pleasure to do as hath been by me already made to appear For as I have already granted so I say yet again that God might have left his creature man in that lost condition that his own sin had brought him into and needed not to have been countable to any for a reason of his so doing But it was meerly the good will and pleasure of our God to be moved onely from that fountain of love that was and yet is in himself to give forth his Son Christ to dye for all and tast death for every man and that all whatsoever was in man or acted by man did not merit the least drop of the bloud of Christ but by the grace of God it came freely and he might have withheld that great mercy from his creature and needed not in the least have been countable to any for a reason of his so doing but through that good pleasure of God the Lord Jesus is that lamb of God that was in the purpose and decree of God Rev. 13.8 slain from the foundation of the world which purpose and decree of God was put into execution in the fulness of time for our everlasting good and notwithstanding we could not in the least have looked for these things from God as a debt yet it hath been the pleasure of God by grace to send his Son into the world and to make known the mystery of his will in these things and freely to give us an account or shew unto us a reason of his so doing which will appear plainly in the resolving those following questions by the express words of the holy Spirit in Scripture without either inference or comment Quest 1. Wherefore did God give his onely begotten Son or send his Son into the world Answ That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Ioh. 3.16 and that the world through him might be saved ver 17. Quest 2. Wherefore did Iesus Christ come a light into the world Answ That all men through him might believe Ioh. 1.7 and that whosoever believeth in him should not abide in darkness Ioh. 12.46 Quest 3. Wherefore was Iesus Christ delivered to death Answ For our offences Quest 4. Wherefore was he raised again Answ For our Justification These and many more of this nature that might be mentioned are laid down in Scripture as grounds and reasons whereby it hath been the pleasure of God to be accountable unto us wherefore he hath done these great things for us not in order to the limitation of himself to any subordinate power in us but in order to the accomplishment of his own will and pleasure for our good And so in like manner Gods disposing of his creature in making vessels of honour or dishonour is not in respect of any confinement of his soveraignty over his creatures to any subordinate power in us but the confinement of himself therein is to his purpose decree and promise which must stand and cannot be disannulled So that the question now is not What God might have done with his creature being once at liberty but that which we are to take notice of is How he hath disposed or doth dispose thereof as having freely and voluntarily bound and ingaged himself thereunto by purpose decree and promise Isa 14.27 for the Lord of hosts hath purposed and who shall disannul it his hand is stretched out and who shall turn it back So that what God for ought that we know might have done with his creature being once at liberty cannot now by him be done he having bound himself as aforesaid Take but this one instance for the further illustration of this to be a truth God might if it had been his pleasure to have kept himself at liberty for ought that we know have destroyed the world with the waters of a flood since the flood that was in the dayes of Noah but since it hath been the pleasure of God freely to enter into a Covenant with all flesh Gen. 9.9 10 11. yea with every living creature and to make a promise that all flesh should be cut off no more by the waters of a flood neither should there any more be a flood to destroy the earth therefore now he cannot destroy the earth so any more because he changeth not neither can lye Answ My good friend I cannot look upon you as a licentiate Chirurgion but rather as an upstart mechanick Mountebank who though you profess by a tedious tautology to plaister up the wound given to your Position by this Absurdity yet it sticks as close to it as a bur to your garment neither can it be cured or removed by any thing you have applyed for you do but daub with untempered morter a multitude of words will never do it I would rather have one solid convincing Argument then a whole volume of such nonsense and impertinencies as you have surfeited me withall And therefore in answer to what you would say I deal thus plainly that I do resolve not to pursue you in this your rambling discourse you have served us here with a dish of cockcrowne pottage whereupon if I should insist to frame an answer it would but wast my most precious time and nauseate the Reader for from this to the end of your Pamphlet there is nothing of new but a recapitulation and vain repetition of what hath been spoken to over and over again and fully answered Onely one thing about the liberty of the will which
your rambling discourse and frivolous Queries for it is very visible and yet against the disswasion of some friends I have willingly gone thorow with it not so much in any hopes that I had for the recalling of a back-slider by a better information of him for t is too well experienced that men of your jump they will sooner precipitate themselves into a hundred new errors then to retract one an easie observation will clear this for a truth But indeed the greatest motives I had for the undertaking of this task were First the glory of the most high God that his precious truths might not be perverted by your lies but that his glory might shine all the world over as well in the execution of justice as manifestation of mercy and that in both he might be all in all and all his works of creation might be subservient to his good pleasure and most righteous will The next thing I had in mine eye was a tender love I bore to a number of poor simple souls whom you had dipt and plunged into your faith and were almost jurati in verba magistri receiving your crude dictates as so many Oracles and for their sakes did I likewise draw this burden on myself that by unkennelling you out of your Fox-holes I might uncase you and turn your inside out and so disfranchise you of all those strong holds and subterfuges wherein formerly you trusted 2 Tim. 3.6 and therewith deluded and led captive many silly women laden with sins for most of that sex were your over-credulous Auditors that so they beholding your nakedness they might be ashamed for leaning on and trusting to such bruised reeds as your rotten Positions were And now I have done one word of advise I have to give you which is this that neither you nor any of your comrads should be much sollicitous for any reply unto my writings for it is already by me resolved that whatsoever your further undertakings shall be in this kind or howsoever you shall be a provocation to me yet I will not Serram trahere not bandy words any more with you nor shew my self so effeminate as to strive for the last word for so there would be no end of making of books Eccles 12.12 and if this that I have written will not do it I conceive no less then an Omnipotent hand will ever be able to alter your judgement Besides I have wasted so much precious time on you already that now I must endeavour to redeem it and that so these controversal points being laid aside I may with more intention bend my studies Psal 9.10 2 Tim. 4.6 not onely for the discharge of my particular calling in dispensing of the Gospel of grace but also since I have almost attained the period of mans age and therefore in natural account the time of my departure being at hand it will be of more concernment to me to spend the remainder of my spare time in this my short pilgrimage in acts of practical devotion and to wave polemical contests that so setting before my eyes that great account that must be past before that great Tribunall I may consider before hand how I may do it with joy and not with grief Heb. 13.17 But if you or any else shall object against me that I have been too harsh in dealing so homely and roundly with you personating rather a ranting Quaker then a sober Divine all that I have to say for my self is this and yet I hope this is satisfactory enough to the wise and judicious that my plain dealing proceeded not from any enmity I bear to your person God he knoweth it for I shall be still ready to do you any office of love but meerly out of an indignation that I had against your writings which did so deeply intrench upon the Majesty of God and his glorious Attributes Yet in this life I acknowledge and therefore I rather pity then malice you there is not an equal discovery to all men in a like measure but to some more to some less the Talents are not distributed by God after a Geometrical proportion all are not teachers there must be some hearers for the Oeconomy of the Church of God But sure my hopes are that if you belong to God that in some of those whereabouts our contest hath been where you have been otherwise minded then my self Phil. 3.15 that God will reveal even those things unto you Col. 3.4 1 Cor. 15.54 Elias cum venerit solvet omnia When Christ who is our life shall appear in his glory and that this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality though now we may be of different judgements and jar and wrangle amongst our selves yet then if we appertain to Christ both you and I shall be made real friends and mutually agree in the harmonious consort of that heavenly quire in singing the songs of the Lamb saying Rev. 15.3 great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy waies thou king of Saints Now unto this King eternal 1 Tim. 1.17 immortal invisible and truly wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS