deep setled apprehensions of his gracious merciful lovely nature which indeed is the first work of true Religion and the very Master Radical Act of true Grace and the chief maintaiâ—er of spiritual life and motion 2. All these temptations are yet more effectually dispelled by considering this merciful Divine Nature dwelling in flesh becoming man by condescending to the assumption of our humane nature and so come near us and assuming the office of being the Mediatour the Redeemer the Saviour of the World 3. All our doubts and fears that proceed from our former sins have all a present rememdy in the fulness and sufficiency of Christs satisfaction even for all the World so that no sin is so great but it is fully satisfied for c. 4. All our doubts and fears that arise from an apprehension of Gods unwillingness to shew us mercy and to give us Christ and life in him arise from the misapprehension of Christs unwillingness to be ours or at least from the uncertainty of his willingness these have all a sufficient remedy in the general extent and tenour of the New Covenant From which principles our Divines do infer 1. A possibility of your salvation Ib pag. 43. 2. Nay though you were yet graceless you have now this comfort that your salvation is probable as well as possible you are very fair for it The terms be not hard in themselves on which it is tendred for Christs yoke yoke is easie his burden light and his commands are not grievous 3. Yea this exceeding comfort there is even for them that are graceless that their salvation is conditionally certain and the condition is but their own willingness But all this gives Desola us no satisfaction As to the greatest part of Mankind he finds in God a general unwillingness of their salvation for as if he were a cruel destroyer according to the Synod of Dort he cast them off without any vincible fault of theirs for the sin of Adam and out of an immutable hatred against them he decreed to with-hold from them all grace sufficient unto Faith and Repentance and hence it follows that Christ procured no such grace for them and consequently that his merit is insufficient * Distinctio qua Christus dicitur mortuus sufficienter non efficaciter pro omnibus vana est nom illud aut notat vice aut bono omnium mori sed nec hoc nec illud Ergo nullo modâ— c. Maccovius in Thâ—ol polem cap. 14. Qust 15. mihi pag. 98. And therefore if pardon and salvation be tendred to them it cannot be done seriously and in earnest but in mockery and delusion Hereupon he concludes that pardon and salvation being offer'd only upon such condiâ—ions as are impossible the obtaining them is so far from being certain that it is neither probable nor possible Lastly I have conjured him not to think of Gods mercifulness Mr. Baxter ib. pag. 18. with distinguishing extenuating thoughts nor to limit it by the bounds of our frail understandings for the Heavens are not so far above the Earth as his thoughts and wayes are above ours I bid him still-remember that he must have no low thoughts of Gods goodness but apprehend it as bearing proportion with his power As it is blasphemy to limit his power so it is to limit his goodness I advised him to consider that even under the terrible Law when God proclaims to Moses Ibid. pag. 17. his own Name and therein his Nature Exod. 34. 6 7. the first and greatest part is The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin And he hath sworn that he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinne but rather that he return and live For this he finds an evasion too out of Dr. Twiss where in Answer to the Text now alledged he replies thus As for that of swearing by himself that he wiâ— not for so the Translatour Vbi supra pag. 52 53. of Tilenus had rendred it the death of a sinner there is no such Text at all saith he the most Authentical Translation of our own Church reads it I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner And as Piscator observes A man may will that wherein he takes no pleasure like as a sick man takes no pleasure in a bitter Potion yet he is willing to take it to recover his health So is a man willing to lose a Limb though he takes no pleasure in it to save his life And then again as the words lie they are directly contrary to Christian reason for doth not God inflict death on thousands and doth not the Scripture testifie That God works all things according to the counsel of his will Ephes 1. 11. And albeit he takes no pleasure in the death of the sinner yet the Scripture is as express in acknowledging that God delights in the execution of judgment as well as in the execution of mercy I am the Lord which sheweth mercy judgment and righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord Jer. 9. 24. Having proceeded thus far I saw so little probability of success that I resolved to have him treated with the best advantage I could and therefore I have call'd in your assistance that the Authority of your Office may add some weight and force to such Arguments as you shall think sit to produce for his Restitution And now Sir that you are acquainted as well with the Disease as with the Patient I beseech you to bestow a charitable visit upon him Diotrephes I will bear you company to his Chamber Samaritanus I am as good as my word you see my Desolatus my friendship is so fast and so unfeigned it will not suffer me to be long from you But here is another worthy friend of yours Mr. Diotrephes come to visit you I hope his Company and Conference will administer a great deal of satisfaction and comfort to you to his Charity therefore I commend you for a while Diotrephes Being inform'd that you lay under some pressures upon your spirit I took this opportunity to shew my readiness to do you the best office of kind ess I am able and now my prayer is That the God of hope would fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. Desolatus Sir you are very kindly welcome and I heartily thank you for your presence and your prayers though I have too much Reason to conclude that I shall reap no fruit or benefit by them Diotrephes Do not draw such uncomfortable Conclusions against your self I cannot think you have any premises from which such a Conclusion doth necessarily follow You know what the Psalmist saith of Almighty God He healeth the broken in heart and giveth medicine to heal their sickness and he lifteth up them that
Supernatural abilities and this sin of theirs being imputed to their whole off-spring the very same penalty is also derived unto them upon that account Paganus When sin is committed and a guilt contracted admit God be not tyed to his own Creature yet he may be tyed to his own natural equity to proportion the penalty to the crime and not to aggravate the affliction beyond the Creatures demerit And therefore if they became Delinquents in the person of another that the penalty may hold correspondence with the fault they should also receive their punishment in the person of another Diotrephes The punishment as I have already â—inted to you was imposed upon another person even upon the Son of God for God laid upon him the iniquity of us all and he was wounded for our than gressions he was â—ruised for our iniquities the chastisemâ—nt of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are Isa 53. healed Paganus But Sir I remember you said He died according to the Counsel and Purpose of his Father only for a certain seed which he had given to him The rest he did no redeem or die for and yet he commands them to believe in him and rely upon him and denies them power to do it too which I cannot but think to be extreme severity Diotrephes I told you before that the justice of God is excusable because He gave them power to believe in their first Parent in Adam and to this prodigality they must impute this their impotency Paganus The tenour of your Discourse hath led me to look upon Faith or which is all one Believing under this notion viz. A laying hold upon Christ the Mediatour as the means to help us out of sin and misery and if it be so I am apt to conclude That as Adam had no need so neither had he power though he had so much as was sutable to his condition in his state of integrity to lay hold on Christ And if I apprehend your sense aright Faith contains or implies a power to arise after our fall If therefore Adam before his fall had this power then after he was fall'n he might have elicited or drawn it forth to his restitution and so there should have been no need of that omnipotent and irresistible operation of God unto this work which for mightiness is not inferiour to the Creation of the World or raising up the dead as is pretended Besides the question is not concerning the Historical Belief of a Mediatour in case God had made the Revelation upon supposition of the fall as he did not but whether Adam had a power to believe in Christ savingly This he could not do because saving faith implies a renouncing of ones own works and a relying upon Christs merits and mediation for grace and pardon This in the state of Innocency Adam could not do because God had given him a command and tyed him in a Covenant to do otherwise And I observe that the Son of God hath sealed a new Covenant for Mankind with his own blood and he invites all men to subscribe it Now this is called I perceive a Covenant of Grace but as it is established upon better promises than the former so I find that more dreadful threatnings are annexed to it also I must profess my dissatisfaction herein I think it very hard that Almighty God after he hath deprived them of original righteousres for the sin of their first Parent which they could no way be guilty of but by his own positive constitution I say I think it very hard that after this he should engage them in a new Covenant and tye Mankind to new conditions and not vouchsafe a competent strength to perform them especially being tyed to this performance under a severer penalty and how this can be called a Covenant of Grace I profess I cannot sufficiently understand Diotrephes We sâ—tissie our selves in an humble submission to Gods incontrolable Soveraignty and a modest veneration of his most free Beneplaciture considering that the Redeemer himself doth check the objections of Repiners with this short reprehension Mat. 20. 15. Is it not lawful for me do what I will with my own And the Great Apostle of the Gentiles argues thus against such Disputants Rom. 9. 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth And ver 21. Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the sam lump to make one Vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour what if God willing to shew his wrath c. And this is that unfordable and unfathomable Abysse which put the wits of that great Vessel of Election to a stand and makes him cry out in an extasie of astonishment Rom. 11. 33. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his wayes past finding out Paganus If Almighty God intended his holy Scriptures which are opened for all men to examine for their instruction and benefit sure it is possible for a reasonable creature using his utmost diligence to gain some measure of understanding in them And truly if I be able to apprehend any thing the place you last mentioned affords as strong an Argument against you if you take the Context with it as one could imagine for what I pray is the ground of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Quae profundae divitiae sapientiae in co positae esse possunt quod Deus velit minimam hominum partem salvare maximam perdere Solum illud tantum in co locum habet Sic volo sic jubeo sit pro ration voluntas Episcop Rom. 11. 32. Is it not the contrivance as I may say of his Counsel whereby he designed a general mercy would they but embrace it to all Mankind without doubt you will be forc'd to acknowledge it with me if you reflect upon his Assertion that ushers in that Exclamation for this it is God hath shut them both Jews and Gentiles all up together in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all and then it follows O the depth c. And though 't is said in the other Text alledg'd He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he Rom. 9. 18 21. hardneth yet if you interpret that saying by a Collation of it with other places where he makes a further Declaration of his meaning you will find it comes far short of a pregnant evidence to serve your purpose for the Psalmist tells us The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and think upon his Commandments to do them Psal 103. 17 18. Exod. 20. 6. And by this great Apostle he hath sufficiently revealed what his will is in this kind even to have mercy to the salvation of them that believe * 1 Cor. 1. 22. And what Authority or Example can you produce to prove that ever God
this is the more unquestionably certain in that God hath from all Eternity irrevocably establish't these Decrees to illustrate and set forth the glory of his good pleasure Soveraign power mercy and justice Diotrephes I wish you would remember that great day of Revelation which will be a day of discrimination too when God Rom. 2. 5. Mat. 25. 32 shall separate the precious from the vile and divide the Sheep from the Goats you would be glad to find mercy of the Lord in that day * 2 Tim. 1. 1â— You must separate your self from the communion and practice of the wicked in this life if you would be divided from their portion in the life to come if you do not distinguish your self from them here you will never be distinguish't from them hereafter You must abandon the company of the wicked and associate your self with the godly and conform your judgment and opinions your life and conversation unto theirs and then Hebr. 4. 16. you may be sure to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need The Prophet Malachi tells you of a Book of remembrance Mal. 3◠〈◊〉 that was written before the Lord but for whom for them only that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name and they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Securus Sir I am sorry to see you so far inclinable to a dangerous Errour for you speak as if it were in mans power to See Dr. Wards Twelve Arguments in concione ad Clerum ad Phil. 2 13 contribute somewhat towards his own discrimination and if you think so it is evident you do at least favour the Popish Doctrine of Free-will if you have not perfectly espoused it And this you know is diametrically opposite to the Apostle whose words are these for who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive c Here we are instructed 1. Cor. 4. 7. Ut quas Deus nobis largitus est dotes meminerimus non nostra esse bona sed 〈◊〉 Dei bona saith Mr. Calvin * Instit l. 3. c. 7. n. 4. That what endowments soever Almighty God bestows upon us we must remember they are not our goods but Gods free gifts Non inscite Augustinus saith Mr. Calvin * Citante Amesio in sua Coron Art 4. mihi pag. 369. hoc testimonjo saepe contendit adversus Pelagianos quicquid excelleâ—tiae est in homimbus ex merâ gratuitâ ejus miserâ—cordiâ manare h. e. Austin doth often make use of this testimony of the Apostle against the Pelagians contending thereby that whatever excellency there be in men it flowes from the meer and free mercy of God So Peter Martyr also si quis propiùs accedat videâ—it Augustinum rectè admodum existimasse nam sicut inter Ministros Ibid. Ecclesiae non est nisi Deus qui unum donis coelestibus aliis praestare faciat ita in râ—generatione electione ac reparatione Dâ—us unus author est agnoscendus Austin was in the right for as amongst the Ministers in the Church 't is not Study Learning or Industry none but God that makes one to excell another in those Celestial Endowments so in the work of Regeneration Election and Reparation God is to be acknowledged the only Authour And Mr. Calvin makes this yet more evident in his Institutions Apud centum eadem ferè habetur concio A hundred L. 3. c. 24. n. 12. men hear the very same Sermon twenty of them do chearfully receive it with the obedience of faith the rest either do not regard it or deride it or explode and abominate it If any man alledge this diversity Quis enim te discernit inquit nunquid per haec dona quae omnibis sunt communia possit quippe dicere homo inflatus adversus alterum Discernit me fides mea justitia mea vel quid aliud talibus occurrens cogitationibus bonus Doctor inquit quid autem habes quod non accepisti Aquo nisi ab illo qui te descernit ab alio cui non donavit quod donavit tibi Aug. Citante Amesio contra Grevinch proceeds from the malice and perversity of the men this gives no satisfaction because the same malice had possest the nature of the others also if God had not corrected it by his goodness and therefore we shall alwayes be intangled if that of the Apostle doth not relieve us Quis te discernit Who maketh thee to differ from another Quo significat non propriâ virtute sed solâ Dei gratià alios aliis praecellere Whereby he signifies that it is not by any vertue or power of their own that some do excell others but by the sole grace of God Cur ergo teste Apostolo saith he Coronantur fideles Quia Domini misericordia non sua industria electi sunt vocati justificati Why therefore are the Idem l. 2. c. 5. n. 2. faithful crowned according to the testimony of the Apostle not in regard of any endeavour of their own but because by the mercy of God they are both elected and called and justified from whence it appears clearly that as there is no possibility so there is no need that a man should contribute to his own discrimination Diotrephes I confess a man is able to do nothing towards the differencing of himself but yet he is so frequently called upon to repent and believe that I cannot but conclude there is some duty incumbent upon him to this purpose Securus Sir this is all one as if you should say you grant the Premises but deny the Conclusion As for the giving or denial of Faith and Repentance Dr. Twiss tells us Herein we willingly profess that God carrieth himself absolutely throughout Vbi supra pag. 42. Hereupon he concludes that in the work of Regeneration We are meerly passive Ibid. p. 27. not only decreeing these according to the meer pleasure of his will without all consideration of ought in man but giving them also unto some and denying them unto others according to the meer pleasure of his will without the consideration of ought in man Why then should you tell me of any duty incumbent upon me to the procuring of these graces Can it consist with the wisdom or justice of God much less with his goodness to tye me to endeavour after them when he hath not suspended the bestowing them upon the performance of any such conditions but wills and hath decreed to give them absolutely Diotrephes I pray who tells you that it is Almighty Gods good pleasure to bestow Faith and Repentance absolutely without any condition performed on our part Securus I gave you the Authority of Dr. Twiss even now for it I will also add his Arguments for your satisfaction One of his invincible
pag. 18 19. in his Creatures misery it is impossible you should love him The love of our selves is so deeply rooted in nature that we cannot lay it be nor love any thing that is absolutely and directly against us We conceive of the Devil as an absolute enemy to God and men and one that seeks our destruction and therefore we cannot love him And the great cause why troubled souls do love God no more is because they represent him to themselves in an ugly odious shape To think of God as one that seeks and delighteth in mans ruine is to make him as the Devil and then what wonder if instead of loving him and delighting in him you tremble at the thoughts of him and flie from him As I have observed Children when they have seen the Divel painted on a Wall in an ugly shape they have seen the Divel painted on a Wall in an ugly shape they have partly feared and partly hated it If you do so by God in your fancy it is not putting the Name of God on him when you have done that will reconcile your affections to him as long as you strip him of his Divine Nature Remember the Holy Ghosts description of God 1 John 4. 16. God is love Write these words deep in your understanding Desolatus Sir Were the Authour you have cited present with me I would desire him to resolve me how he could demonstrate it that God is love as he hath described him to the Reprobates when he hath from all Eternity abandoned them to sin and hell-torments for his meer pleasure or to shew his Soveraignty and Power over them But you may be pleased to proceed in your own method of discoursing Samaritanus I doubt not to satisfie you in this particular before we part But I shall pursue that encouraging observation of St. Peter where I left you at our last conference That God is no Respecter of persons c. To which you made me no Answer and so I thought fit to withdraw my self from you Acts 10 34 35 Desolatus I remember very well the passage for Mr. â—iâ—trephes was pleased to revive the memory of it but as little to his purpose as to my comfort for as I told him Interpreters do put in such exceptions in their construction of that Text that it signifies nothing at all to my advantage God it seems hath â—ull'd out a set number of persons without regard to any good quality in them upon whom he hath immutably decreed to confer his grace and they shall be insuperably conducted unto glory for all the rest who make up the far greater number not a whit worse than those he hath pass'd them over and decreed to give them neither grace nor glory but to let them fall and that not by a bare permission into sin and to leave them in that sin to their final condemnation and this for the glory of his Soveraign Power over his Creatures If I be not of that set number do I what I will or can I shall find no acceptation at the hands of Almighty God Samaritanus Can you be induced to subscribe to such interpretations of Scripture you may with as much colour of Reason say That when our Saviour commands us when we pray to say Our Father which art in Heaven c. His meaning is we should not say it at all or when the Apostle saith Let every soul be subject to the Higher Powers that his meaning is we should take up Arms against them St. Peters sense is clear enough that Gods respect is not so much to the naked Entities or Beings of men as to their persons so capacitated or qualified He that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him To this man will I look saith the High and Lofty One as you Isa 66. 2. heard even now To this purpose the Lord in his Expostulation with Cain saith If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted That is without doubt thou shalt Gen. 4. 7. Desolatus But the Scriptures do assure us That God loveth first * Rom. 10. 20. and maketh himself known to those that make no inquisition after him * John 15. 5. Psal 59. 10. and without Christ and his grace man can do nothing* Samaritanus You say the very truth the God of our mercy doth prevent us as the Psalmist hath it But the love of God is exhibited to us in holy Scripture two manner wayes either as Antecedeâ—t which goes before Faith and Repentance or as Consequent which follows the obedience of Faith God bears a general good-will to Mankind before he loves them with a love of complacency and out of that love of good-will though he doth not grant them salvation immediately yet he affords them light and means to lead them to salvation This love is so great that the Apostle saith of it God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us It was through Rom. 5. 8. the bowels of the mercy * Luke 1. 78. Tit. 3. 4. of our God that this day-spring from on High did thus visit us But upon the intervention of our Faith when we entertain this light and receive Christ into our hearts there follows a love of complacency in God towards us which embraceth us as in the Neighbourhood of salvation of this love our Saviour speaketh John 14. 23. If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our aboad with him Desolatus But the disposal of men as to their final state of salvation or damnation the Apostle makes it an Act of Gods Soveraign Power Rom. 9. 21. Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour Samaritanus The Wiseman who ere he was that wrote that Book tells us of the Potter That employing his labours lewdly he maketh a vain god of the same Clay Sure God cannot do Wisd 15. 8. so similitudes therefore must not be stretch too far * Nasus nimium non est emungendus ne sanguis eliciatur Dr. Prid. Lect. 8. de Salut Eth. But suppose the Potter could give life and sense to his Vessels and perpetuate that life to millions of Ages should he meerly to shew his Soveraign Power over them inflict uncessant and excessive torments upon them what opinion would you have of such a man Would you not think it an Act of extream cruelty contrary to that natural love which every Creature beareth towards its own production and contrary to natural equity thus to torment the harmless Desolatus I must confess I could have no good opinion of such a person in such a case for exercising so much inhumanity Samaritanus If this were Gods practice a man might justifie himself upon the account of such a President It could be no sin for a man in such a case
the Apostles discourse and the thing he labours so much to make good Desolatus What use then doth the Apostle make of it having so fully asserted and proved it Samaritanus The use he makes of it is this To declare that in the present Age under the Gospel God was likewise of his meer grace and favour pleased to invite and call men unto Faith and upon their Faith to Adopt them into the priviledge of his children and this not out of râ—spect to any mâ—rits in them for so many and so great generally were their transgressions that they deserved nothing but perdition Therefore this their Election unto grace and the means of salvation proceeds not of works but of â—im that callâ—th since God when he might have damn'd them justly among other sinners was pleased notwithstanding Rom. 9. 11. to call them unto Faith and believing upon that Call to choose them for his children And this is that Election of Grace to which at least the Apostle alludeth Rom. 11. 5. Desolatus I desire you would give me a view of the Apostles Discourse upon this subject in one short entire summ that I may the better comprehend it Samaritanus I shall do it most readily because I know it will be of much advantage to your understanding of the point You apprehend already that the Apostle is disputing with the Jews whose privileges were very glorious and they knew it well enough To them pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the Promises Theirs were the Fathers and of them as concerning Rom. 9. 4 5. the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever By so many signal acts of Grace they concluded God had tied himself so fast to them that they must needs inherit the Blessing Though their zeal in adhering to the Law was blind and pertinacious yet they plead their Title to righteousnesse and Life upon that account and resolve they shall be Heirs as is intimated Rom. 4. 14. Otherwise they alledged God should unjustly cast away his own people Rom. 11. 1. and cancell his own Promises and make his word of none effect Rom. 9. 6. and so become unfaithful yea if he should adopt the Gentiles who were no way zealous of the Law and besides as they thought greater sinners than themselves if God should adopt them to be his children upon their faith and submission to the Gospel and reject those his antient people who did so earnestly contend for the honor of his own Law and would seek * Rom. 9. 31 32. Gal. 5. vers 2 3 4. for righteousnesse and life no where else but from the observation of that If God should deal thus if he should after this manner prefer the unworthy Gentiles before the Jews who at least were not more unworthy he should become unrighteous too as well as unfaithful as is implied Rom. 9. 14. To this the Apostle replies 1. In general that the Law of Moses as it abstracts from Faith in Christ could not bring in Justification unto life by reason of sin which had over-spread all * Rom. 3. 9. 10 the 22. and that it was never intended to that purpose Rom. 3. 19 20 23. But that such Justification was to be obtain'd upon the accounts of Grace and consequently by Faith which doth establish Grace and not destroy it Rom. 4. 16. and that this Dispensation of Grace for Justification unto life was extended freely to All Nations Gentiles as well as Jews without difference This the Apostle asserts Rom. 3. 21. to the end And in the next Chapter he proves both branches by instancing in Abraham who 1. was not justified by the Law but by Faith Rom. 4. 3. c. and 2. he was justified while he was in the condition of a Gentile uncircumcised Whence he concludes that the Blessedness of Justification unto life doth belong also to the Uncircumcision that is to the Gentiles Rom. 4. 9 * See chap. 10. throughout c. And this was Gods constitution four hundred and thirty years before the Law of Moses was given as the Apostle alledgeth in handling the same Controversie to the Galaâ—ians * Gal. 3. 17. Vide Calv. Instit lib. 4. c. 16. sect 13 14. This is St. Paul's reply in general Then 2. more particularly he tells them though God did now cast off them for their unbelief who were formerly his renowned people yet he could not justly be charged with unfaithfulness * Rom. 3. 3. or breach of promise therefore Because when he promised he would be the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob and the God of their Seed he did not renounce his own Supream Right and Power in all times to restrain and determine * And the scope of the Apostle in his Dispute with the Jews is to prove that the Faithful were designed to be that Seed Rom. 4. 11 12 13. and Rom. 9. 8. at his own pleasure the signification and Title of that their Sâ—ed to whom and to what manner of persons he would Thâ—s Liberty God always reserv'd to Himself and exercised it in the Family of Abraham preferring Isaac before Ishmael his elder brother Rom. 9. 6. to 10. And more signally he used this lâ—berty in the Family of Isaac whereof those Twins that had done nothing to disâ—riminaâ—e themselves being yet in their Mothers womb that this his liberty and good-pleaâ—ure might be established He freely preferr'd the younger before the elder vers 10 to 14. And these present proceedings of Gods providence in accepting the Gentiles upon their submission to â—he Fâ—ith and rejecting â—ou for your unbelief which you so much dispute against This saith the Apostle is but the same exercise of His Supream Right and Power who had proclaimed to Moses your great Leader I will have * Rom. 9. 15. mercy on whom I will have mâ—râ—y And this is the very point he pursues and presses the equity of so hard on Gods behalf in the rest of that Chapter And this is a perfect account of that Election and Reprobation which are there handled by the Apostle And as this Reprobation cuts off the Jews no longer than they continue in unbelief Rom. 11. 23. so that Election comprehends the Gentiles no longer than they continue in the Faith Rom. 11. 22. Desolatus Sir I thank you heartily for your pains in unfolding that which to me especially of late hath been such a hard Chapter But Sir there are some Texts which trouble me because they seem to import and many learned men do so interpret them that some men are under an absolute Decree of Reprobation and that the sins for which they are at last condemned come to pass by Gods most efficacious Decree Ordinance Dr. Twisse ubi supra p. 90. pp. 95. f. and Pre-determination and if it be so then their damnation and the sin that procures it are inevitable And