such strength and Accoutrements as are left them according to the notice they have of the Prince his pleasure But being unable naked wretches as they are to subdue their Princes enemies He is informed that now he hath a just cause to fall upon them and take away their lives and accordingly Sentence is given and the fatal Block and Axe imploy'd for a present execution If any should complain that this were great severity towards poore wretches made miserable by their Fathers miscarriage which they could no way hinder or consent unto being no way privy to it Master Baxter is an able Advocate to justifie these proceedings He will tell us if one should say these men were appointed to death without any regard to their disobedience it was for their disobedience and neglect of duty that the Prince decreed to behead them as the Causes of their beheading though not of the Decree it self Here it will be seasonable to take notice of a subtile Distinction which some of this Party makes use of to maintain that Horrible Decree as Master Calvin calls it Antid p 38. and yet to free Gods justice Supralapsarians as they suppose from the imputation of Severity 'T is one thing say they to Predestinate and Create unto damnation another thing to Predestinate and Create unto Destruction God say they hath Reprobated and Created to destruction the farre greatest part of mankind without any respect at all to sin in them But he hath not preordained or doomed any one man to eternall damnation and the Synod makes a great use of this word Damnation without respect to sin coming between What is the ground of this opinion or Distinction When God condemneth the world He performs the Office of a Judge who pronounceth sentence upon the guilty and therefore he hath in that Capacity a respect to foregoing sin as the meritorious cause of that his sentence But when he doth reprobate to eternall Destruction he useth his Right of Dominion Vid. Act. Syn. Dort part 3. pag. 67. af as an absolute Independent and supreme Lord who being bound to none deals thus by his creatures without any intuition or sight of sinne and transgression in them as himself pleaseth Hence it is that so many men make the glory of Gods Power and Soveraignty †See the Assemblies Confess of Faith Chap. 3. Thes 7. rather then that of his Justice the end of Reprobation Finis Reprobationis est gloria Dei Nam sic Deus demonstrat Liberam suam potentiam jus Summum faciendi de suis creaturis quod vult say the Divines of Embden in their Suffrage De Artic. 1. Thes 2. Hypothes 4. Pag. 76. And that now mentioned Distinction doth inable the Supralapsarians to hold their own opinions and yet to subscribe to the Decrees and Articles that define Damnation to be in consideration of sin onely And this was a great help to accomplish that harmony and consent not so much of minds and meanings as of modes of Speech and Phrases which we find in that Synod And now is not this Decree notably Calculated to set forth the Glory of the Divine Attributes First God Reprobates and Creates the greatest number of men to destruction to set forth the Glory of his Soveraign Power so say the Supralapsarians And then that the Divine Justice may have her share in Glory order is taken by the same Decree which comprehends the means as well as the end †See Gomar Th. de Praedest disput 1604. Th. 23. and M. Norton ubi supra pag. 56 57. that sin shall fall in to make those persons guilty that they may be an object fit for Justice to triumph over under a sentence of condemnation And though this was a very common Doctrine amongst the Greater Lights as they were reputed of those Churches yet they were not troubled at them but at those that detected their enormity and consequently not those errours but these Persons that attempted their Reformation are ejected But doth this respect of infidelity and impenitency or other sins as the Causes of damnation though not of the Eternall Decree mend the matter or make it worse It seems to make it more plausible to inconsiderate Readers that look but superficially upon it But weigh it exactly and it renders the Doctrine much more absurd and repudiable For as hath been intimated it makes sin by Gods design to truckle †Quamvis enim peccatum in decreto reprobationis non spectavit Deus ut causam illius objectam habuit tamen permissionis illius rationem ut medii quod fini reprobationis subjecit ac subordinavit Gomarus in disput de Praed disp 1609. Thes 91 under this Decree of Reprobation as a necessary consequent and as a means subordinate to the execution of it so that according to this opinion the Reprobates are at first in our manner of apprehension inevitably destinated to destruction and then to sinne that that destruction may be ushered in with the Formalities of a Judiciall Processe and a sentence of condemnation And yet after all the service this Distinction of Reprobation hath been prest to do them it proves to be but a Distinction without a difference upon the matter by their own confession It is but Docendi causa to help Learners that they consider a double Act one Negative the denyall of undue Grace which is praeterition the other Affirmative Compend Chr. Theol. pag. 26. the destination of due punishment which is Praedamnation saith Wollebius and so say the four Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis Purioris Theol. Disput 24. Thes 52. mihi pag. 308. In Anatome cap. 13. parag 3. Whereupon Molinaeus deals ingenuously and tells us plainly they come both to one reckoning as we say Reprobare ac velle damnare idem esse quemadmodum eligere idem est ac velle salvare To Reprobate and to will damnation are the same thing even as to elect is the same as to will salvation And though he styles the Synod Reverend and commends it for the celebrity and sanctity of it and again they give him thanks for his accurate judgement and consent in Doctrine yet in this he goes against the whole stream of them and in the 9. Parag. of that his Anatome he takes up an objection Non effugeret qui diceret Reprobatione non destinari homines ad damnationem sed tantum praeteriri an t non eligi If any one saith men are not destinated to damnation by Reprobation but are onely passed by or not Elected he shall not escape so saith Molin Nempe sic quaeruntur verba molliora quibus eadem res dicatur This is but a dressing up of an ugly Matter in finer and softer words Perinde enim est sive Deus destinet hominem ad damnationem sive id faciat ex quo damnatio necessariò sequitur For it is all one whether God doth destinate a man to damnation or doth that from which
being reviled reviled not again * 1 Pet. 2.21 with 23. Nay Michael the Archangel though he had the Devil for his Antagonist in that dispute yet he durst not bring against him a railing accusation Jude epist vers 9. Master Hickman may passe muster for a precious Saint as the present Accounts are made below but I am sure he can gather none of those flowers of Rhetorick from the Discourses of the Holy Angels that converse above He chargeth that Author with impudence in abusing the Triers but I must tell him on his behalf when such Schemes of Rhetorick are used as they may be with wonderfull advantage being not onely instrumentall to illustrate and adorn a Truth but also to make it the more pungent and take impression the abuse imagined to result from them is ever amongst wise men ascribed to him that takes the impudence to make the Application And whereas he saith further that the Synod of Dort which Tilenus writes against is a man made up of his own ugly clouts or to that purpose for I have no list to look upon his Scurrilous language I must tell you he shall find before he hath read these Papers half way thorow that those clouts as ugly as they seem to him are genuine parts of that Home-spun-stuffe which was warpt and woven and mill'd too by that very Synod of the town of Dort Neither hath Tilenus set this web upon the tenter-hocks nor torn any part to make ugly clouts of it but onely used that Liberty which is allowed to all Artists of this kinde fairely to cut out of the whole piece such Proportions as might best serve to cloathe his discourse in that fashion 't is now Represented in This is all I am willing to return to Master Hickman But because I perceive his Pamphlet hath raised a double scruple in you I shall adventure to apply something in order for your satisfaction First you say that his Evidence to prove the Anti-Arminian principles to be according to the Faith of the Church of England is so pregnant that it must needs beget a great prejudice in the minds of men against such as attempt the dissemination of another Doctrine To which I answer 1. Seeing these men have razed the very Foundations of the Church of England upon which it was establisht at the Reformation and made it their design to erect a new Fabrick upon the Platforme of a new Confession a new Catechisme a new Directory a new Government why should such a Seal of Secresie be stampt upon these Controversies alone why may not these be examined by some new Triers in order to a further Approbation before they be admitted to take place of Authority in this Church 2. If these Principles which you call Anti-Arminian were embraced as part of the Faith of the Church of England I might puzle you perhaps by asking you which of them the Supralapsarian or the Sublapsarian Principles But I intend to be brief and clear with you I say therefore though those opinions were Canâ—ased as Problems of the School yet they were not intertained as Doctrines of the Church much lesse determined to be Articles of the Faith Oâ—e irrefragable Argument to this purpose is as good as ten thousand and it shall be this Doctor Whitaker having obtain'd the Bishops approbation to the Lambeth Articles and not discerning that the Alteration of certain words and Phrases in them had made them capable of a different sense and interpretation to what he intended in their first contrivance big with joy as he was at the apprehension of this conceited victory he addresseth himself to the Chancellour of their University the Lord Burleigh shews him the Theses and acquaints him with all that had been done in favour of his opinions as he thought and the rather because these Theses were drawn up in the absence of some that opposed him in that Convention But contrary to Whitakers expectation Artic. Lambethae exhibit Historia P. 4 5 6 7. that Great man and wise Counseller was extreamly distasted at this transaction and threatned that he would make the Authors repent them of it In pursuance whereof having declared to the Queen how her Majesties Authority and the Lawes of England were hereby violated he added as the very burden of his Complaint That it was no hard matter to discern what they aimed at who stickled in this attempt For saith he this is their Opinion and Doctrine That every humane action be it good or evill it is all restrain'd and bound up by the Law of an immutable Decree That upon the very wills of men also this necessity is imposed ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent that men could not will otherwise then they did will Which assertions Madam saith Burleigh if they be true frustrà ego aliique fideles Majestatis tuae Ministri quid in re quaque opus sit facto quid ex usu futurum sit Regni tuo suspensa diu consilia versamus cum de his quae eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio I and the rest of your Majesties faithfull Ministers do sit in Counsell to no purpose 't is in vain to deliberate and advise about the affairs of your Realm since in those things that come to passe of necessity all Consultation is foolish and ridiculous At this narration of the Lord Burleigh the Queen was much moved and sent for Whitgift and the Councell in her Majesties presence fell sharply upon him At last they came to the Question de Facto meaning the Absolute Decree Dogma uâ— ipsis videbatur bonis moribus Reique publicae adversum graviter exagitant and did vehemently charge that opinion as opposite to good manners and the Weal Publike The Result of this debate or rather Increpation was this The Arch-bishop begged pardon for his temerity and promised he would write to Cambridge that those Lambeth Articles might be supprest and never come to Publick notice If the Fundamentall point of all these Controversies and that upon which the rest do inseparably depend had had so ill an influence upon good manners in the judgement of this Sage Councell and tended so manifestly as they thought to the frustration of Law Counsell Government certainly such as now sit at the stern are so Prudent they will not be induced to believe that those opinions were ever Adopted into the Articles or Doctrine of This Church though there were alleaged many more instances of single persons that did Pretend to have it so And yet how invalid these Instances are otherwise might easily be demonstrated if I were not onely loath to exceed the limits of an Epistle but also confident that this work will be undertaken by a more accurate hand to the Readers abundant satisfaction As for you my worthy Friend if your scruple about this branch of Master Hickmans Book be not yet removed Let me offer one thing more to your
followers might be accurately examined and determined of by the Rule of Gods Word onely the true Doctrine established and the false rejected and concord peace and tranquillity by Gods blessing restored to the Churches of the Low-Countries This was the end of their Convention But what opinions were they that gave the Scandall to Arminius and his followers Were they not those of the rigid Calvinists and who were the Authors of that disturbance but those petulant Parsons that would not endure the Prescription of the wise Physitian nor suffer their Soars and Ulcers to be lanced 'T is true The weakest must to the wall and when 't is put to the Question Who they are that trouble Israel to be sâ—â— the Oppressor will have the casting voice But if the Character inserted in the Margin be true Illi scilicet Religionis ergô alii ministeriis suis aincti alii prescripti relegati extorres c. Nempe Hillenius Alcmariâ c. Tu quoque aliique tui similes aut libellis infames aut concionibus tribunitiis Conventiculis schismate seditione ac rebellione adversus Illust Ordd. Decreta ac Magistratuum Edicta insignes Hos tu totidem quasi religionis ac professionis vestrae Martyres habe in Canonem refer non invideo nec vehementer nego si quidem ista est religio Populum mendaciis splendidis decipere ac dementatum in Pastores ac Superiores suos concitare in alienas Ecclesias ac Ministeria involare quod tu de Samuele Antipa Borriis vesiris agnoscis Loca publica per vim occupare Clausira publico sigillo munita effringere Senatui vim inferre Ordd. Edicta atque Interdicta palà m violare omnia turbare Haec dum vobis impunè licent Superiorum sive indulgentia sive metu jam istos videre est precarium in vos imperium trahere At si hâc non succedit via si eorundem authoritate toties laesâ ista maledicendi ac malefaciendi libido vestra coercetur ferocitas comprimitur tuique unius vel alterius exemplo alii deterrentur sisiuntur ut verbo dicam cuneus cuneo pellitur tum verò vos audire est vim ac persecutionem quam aliis intentâstis quiritantes Martyria vestra praedicare Grevinch Absiersio Caelumn Adr. Smoutii pag. 42. which Grevinchovius hath given of them I shall referre it to the judgement of the Reader whether it doth not more then a little resemble a Disturber both of Church and State But the impartiall Synod is Assembled and upon the invocation of Gods holy name bound by Oath that they would hold the Sacred Scripture as the onely rule of their verdict and demeane themselves in the hearing and determining of this cause with a good and upright Conscience Act. Syn. ubi supra And in the Frontispice of every Chapter of the Decrees or Canons they insert this Title A Rejection of the Errors wherewith the Churches of the Low Countries have now a long time been troubled Would not any man expect upon so solemne an undertaking especially having made it their method as well to reject such Errors as to assert their own Doctrine that those should be rejected amongst the rest that teach Reprobation to be decreed in order of nature before Creation The greatest part of mankinde to be created to destruction That by the force of Gods irresistible Decree it is impossible but Man should sin That whatsoever comes to passe whether good or evill does come to passe by the force of Gods irresistible Decree That Mans wickednesse is not the cause of God's will of abandoning man to hell but on the contrary that God's will is the cause of that wickednesse That 't is not absurd to say that it may be a capitall sinne to do the true and primary will of God That seeing Adam is the cause of sinne and God the cause of Adam how it can be that God should not be the cause of sin That God doth incite lead draw command impell harden deceive men unto wicked actions and effect sins that are most enormous Such horrid and blasphemous opinions as these are frequent in the Writings of Calvin Beza Piscator Martyr and many others and yet herein we have altum Silentium these Doctrines never troubled those Churches nor the tender Consciences of this Synod They are so good friends with these Opinions they never disturb their peace at all 3. This is not all when Bogerman the President of the Synod had entertained but a suspicion that the Remonstrants would detect the enormitie of these opinions and the shamefull errors that had been broached by those so admired Names forgetting his solemn Oath to lay all prejudice and affection aside and examine all matters to be debated according to the onely rule of God's word he fell into so great an agony of Passion that it was discernible in his very eyes and countenance as if they had touched the very apple of his eye Yet the Synod obliged by the conscience of the same oath never gave him the least rebuke or check for this palpable indication of Partiality as the perspicacious Author of that Judicious Antidotum †Bone De. us quam vehementer afficiebat ipsum levissima talis suspicio qui viri oculi quis vultus quis ardor animi quartae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Antidotum p. 31 hath observed and put upon record for us Ibid. p. 32. 4. When Maccovius Professor of Franequer in Freisland had not onely asserted and disseminated by his Writings the most horrid opinion of all that ever had been written about Predestination by Zuinglius and Piscator and moreover in the very Synod undertook against his Colleague Sibrandus Lubbertus to maintain that God wills sinne that he ordains men to sinne as it is sinne that God in no wise would have all men to be saved and many things of the like import declaring openly that if these things were not maintained they must forsake their chief Doctors who had taught those things and fall in to the opinion of the Remonstrants What said the Synod to this bold Supra-Creatarian Did they sequester or displace him No but accounted him for a pure Orthodox Divine guilty neither of heresie nor erroneous doctrine as it was declared by the publick testimony of the Synod and so they dismissed him with a wholesome and friendly Caution to forbear such forms of speech as might give offence to tender eares and could not be digested by persons ignorant and uncapable of so great mysteries and that he would not set light by those distinctions of Divines who had deserved well of the Church of Christ 5. That which is beyond all exception we finde in the very Acts of the Synod Sess 107. Act. Syn. Nat. Dord 233. part 1. That Gomarus declared publickly that he could not approve of the Judgement of those Belgick Professors concerning the object of Predestination that he thought they must determine Man to be
then Obedience yet I doubt many of your rigid Anti-Arminians would not teach so Why not thus By Grace †Eph. 2.8 Chap. 4.32 through Faith for Christ his sake Or if you will Secundum opera but not Propter opera by no means works are via ad Regnum but not Causa regnandi The way unto the kingdome of Heaven but not the Cause of reigning there and therefore let it be according to their workes and not for their works For if your For be Causalis respectu Consequentis and not onely Rationalis respectu Consequentiae it hath Popery in the belly or at least a piece of the Grotian Religion and though Bellarmine makes it a point of his Beliefe yet Amesius cannot digest it Bellarm. Enervat Tom. 4. pag. 208. This obedience as the fruit of Faith you say is not a Meanes or Antacedent to God's Decree but to our Salvation This is ORTHO-DORT indeed But you might have said the same of the sins of the Elect as well as of thei◠Faith and Obedience For they are all alike Ingredients to make up that One full Medium as concerning the Elect They are part of the Means or Antecedent in order to the Execution of that Decree as you have heard before out of Master Perkins and Master Norton And would not this be very wholesome Doctrine to teach your people that God had a regard to the Permission of sinne in them and their severall falls though into most heinous wasting crimes to serve for Fatherly chastisements as well as to their Faith and Obedience to make up the full and intire Means or Antecedent in order to the execution of the Decree of their Election Master Baxter goes on with his exceptions He calls that Secluding all the rest from saving grace which the Synod calls but Praeterition and Non-Election and Reliction What a trabiliary and hypocondriac Passion suggested this exception to him Is saving grace attainable or within the reach of these Non-Elect Relict Gomarus hath Abject Past-Byes If not why do you carp at the word Secluded you have a mind to find a knot in a bull rush if you could tell how But to let you see it was not a word invented or made use of by Tilenus to the Prejudice of your Party you may find it used by some of them before him Et si Deus ab aeterno certos quosdam ad communionem salutis in Christo Elegit alios vero ab ta EXCLUSIT pro suo beneplacito Zanch. in Misel tract de Pradest Sanct. c. 1. in Thesib de Instit. Dei Thes 8. And Calvin Instit lib. 3. c. 23. Sect. 1. in pr. Quos ergo Deus praeterit reprobat neque alia de causa observe that nisi quod ab haereditate quam filiis suis praedestinat illos vult excludere I hope you will allow Exclusit and excludere to be very near of kin to Secluded and so I leave it But Master Baxter hath a severer censure for Tilenus in his following words He unworthily feigneth them to say that God appointeth them to eternall damnation without any regard to their impenitency or Infidelity when they professe that it is propter infidelitatem caetera Peccata that he decrees to damn them as the Causes of damnation though not of the eternall decree Why then Tilenus said true They were appointed without any regard to their Infidelity c. Ay but he regarded their Infidelity and other sins as the Causes of damnation Your meaning is that those sins are the means or Antecedent as your expression was a little before in order to the execution of this Decree And so are their very best works by the Doctrine of your Party who speak consonantly to their principles Statuere possumus bona opera Praedestinationi quandoque quandoque etiam reprobationi inservire Praedestinatio per illa gloriam Dei illustrat quoad reprobationem sunt nonnunquam rationes quare gravior reddatur Lapsus Qui enim à Deo deficiunt cum ab illo fuerint ornati bonis operibus ut gravius peccant ita etiam acerbius puniuntur We may resolve that good works do serve to the furtherance sometimes of Predestination and sometimes of Reprobation Predestination doth set forth the glory of God by them and in respect of Reprobation they are many times the means to aggravate Relapses into sin For they who doe fall from God when he hath adorned them with Good works as they do more grievously sin so are they also more severely punished Loc. Com. De Reprob Pob 1. p. 122. f. saith Steph. Szegedin 2. But doth not your Decree of Reprobation in good earnest make provision for those sins in order to the illustration of Gods justice when he shall condemn them An attentive Reader may remember something alleadged above to this purpose But not to leave it unto conjecture in a matter of so great moment I shall give you Master Nortons words out of his Orthodox Evangelist pag. 56. f. 11. The and of God in the Decree saith he is himself for the manifestation of his glory in a way of Justice upon the Reprobate The creation of man mutable the permission of sin the punishing of him justly for sinne make up one full and perfect medium that is meanes conducing to this end as concerning the Reprobate Remember 't is the constant and unanimous Doctrine of the Calvinists that the Decree includes the means as well as the end And this is the very Doctrine of Gomarus held forth in the Synod not detested nor rejected nor disowned nor silenced for it is inserted amongst their Acts. Part. 3. pag. 24. Thes 2. you had it fully in the former passages Hereupon the Divines from the Correspondence of Widderau doe conclude in the Name of those Churches to this purpose Act. Syn. Dor. part 2. pag. 154. f. Quid ergo an peccata fiunt necessario ita est sane si nempe intelligas necessitatem illam quae pendet à gemina hypothesi decreti scilicet permittentis finis boni What then are sinnes committed necessarily yes so it is if you consider that necessity which depends upon a double hypothesis that is to say the Decree not ineffectually for so they hold of permission Permitting and the Good end intended The case then in short may be thus illustrated A Noble man commits Treason for which his Prince seizeth upon all his estate to the utter undoing of his posterity These being disabled to purchase Armes and other accommodations for the warres according to that equipage that becomes their Noble extraction the Prince makes a Decree of two branches 1. Negative That none should assist or supply their needs 2. Positive That they shall lose their heads but this shall be for neglect of duty or disobedience which that they may be found guilty of they are summon'd to appear in person as becomes their Noble birth and his Eminence to fight his battails These unhappy persons appear with
to a capacity to consider and make election 2. He makes man more sinfull that places the originall fountain of his uncleannesse in his own heart than he that derives that uncleannesse unavoidably to him through forreign channels from a spring head that was opened at a great distance from him not onely befoâ—e he had power to oppose or protest against it but before he had a being 3. He makes man more sinfull who makes his sin personally voluntary and of his own free choise than he who makes it necessary and unavoidable ab extrinseco The Reason is that in all these Cases the one doth aggravate the other doth extenuate the sin But to proceed He that provides a faire and sufficient excuse for Mans sin doth make man lesse sinfull than he that provides none but chargeth all his sin with all the aggravations of it upon his own will The Calvinists do the first the Remonstrants the last That God doth for the sin of the first Parent punish man with an impotencie or utter inability to believe and obey and after that mulct of impotencie inflicted that he doth require of him the Act of faith and obedience which cannot be performed without a new power He that delivers this Doctrine makes man excusable The Reason is there can be no better excuse for the omission of a duty than an utter inability to perform it and if he to whom the duty is supposed to be due hath inflicted that inability by way of punishment before the obligation of the duty is of force in all reason such an obligation is to be void and of none effect For example A Prince commits a son to prison for his Fathers treason which he will needs intail upon him gives order the man be put in irons and secured under custody and this is the Reprobates case being tyed and bound in the chaine of Adam's sin and kept in thraldome under the power of the world and Satan afterwards he causeth proclamation to be made to summon that prisoner to attend him at his Court though the former Decree for his restraint continues in full force irreversibly and in case he doth not make his appearance which that Prince his own order and warrant unrepealed hath made impossible for him this poore prisoner is sentenced to have his present and unavoidable misery augmented by the accession of new and greater torments Now in this case whether this prisoners non-appearance at Court for disobedience I cannot call it ought to be accounted a crime or rather held altogether excusable and a misery the more to be pitied in that it is unavoidable I leave to every unbiassed judgement to determine But this is according to the Doctrine of the Calvinists as is evident from what hath been said above 2. He that saith no man whether Elect or Reprobate can abstein from sin unlesse he be kept back from sinning by a speciall internall and in the intention of God effectuall grace administred every moment He when man doth sin renders him excusable The Reason is because his excuse resteth upon the defect of that Divine Grace which defect depends upon the sole will of God and which what ever it was in Adam is not now in the power of man to hinder But that the Calvinists say this needs no other evidence than what hath been alleaged already Therefore they make man lesse sinfull I confesse in another sense you may be said to make man more sinfull as he that puts away his wife is said in the Phrase of Scripture to make her commit Adultery Mat. 5.32 For 1. the Non-elect you make in this sense disperately sinfull giving them too just an occasion to take up that resolution of those wretches mentioned Jer. 2.25 c. 18.12 There is no hope but we will walk after our own devises and we will every one doe the imagination of his evill heart Why should I attend upon Gods Ordinances reade hear pray endeavour to mortifie lusts and appetites and keep a good conscience in all things seeing these will if not render me liable to a soarer judgement and greater condemnation but make me inexcusable and not conduce at all to my salvation I being left in an utter incapacitie for that injoyment and happinesse by Gods eternall and immutable preterition 2. As this Doctrine makes some men All the Non-elect more desperately sinfull so it tends to make others Presumptuously sinfull for as no sin of theirs could hinder their election that Decree for their salvation being irrespectively made in their favour from all eternity so no sins how many or how enormous soever as was shewed above can hinder their finall perseverance that being an infallible and necessary effect of the said Decree of Election and so all the sins of persons under that Decree are reckoned but infirmities or castigations proceeding from Gods paternall love as M. Perkins saith that shall never be able to excusse the spirit of Grace but serve rather to promote and confirm it and likewise to advance their Glory And yet notwithstanding your Doctrine makes them thus p esumptuously sinfull so fu l is it of contradictions that it makes them lesse sinfull too for he whose sins cannot exclude him from the kingdome of heaven certainly is lesse sinfull than he whose sins do exclude him from it else God should not judge men according to their works But the sins of the Elect whether Adultery Murder Perjury Incest or the like cannot exclude them from the Kingdome of heaven and yet the sins of the Non-elect their Adultery Murder Perjury Incest and the like do exclude them If you say this is not from the nature of the sin but from Gods speciall indulgence and favour I reply God hath made but One Rule for all sorts of men and it is peremptory Gal. 5.19 20 21. The works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery fornication uncleannesse lasciviousnesse idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkennesse revellings and such like of the which I tell you that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdome of God Now I demand Are the sins which the Elect do at any time commit such sins as these yea or no Is their Adultery drunkennesse sedition heresie such as these here mentioned by the Apostle If they he not such then the Elect even when they do the same Fact for nature quality and substance with the Non-elect are notwithstanding lesse sinfull than they are which is the thing to be proved If they be the same for heinousnesse then by this Generall Rule they must exclude them out of heaven For he that doth these things whatever he be shall not enter there This is further confirmed by that Rule in Logick That an universall Negative may be simply converted See Doctor Jackson 10. B. of the Comment p. 3162. If no Tree can be a Man then no Man can be a Tree If no Adulterer no Incestuous