credendi the matter to be beleeved and the ground of beleeving that thing the objectum materiale formale fidei the matters to be beleeved are those precious truths of God which you name p. 13. and such like the ground of beleeving them is the revelation of God in his written word Nor can any one beleeve those truths with a divine faith as the truths of God Hoc verbum quod multis vicib is multisque modâ—â—olim Deus proserre voluâ—t visum est ei lem literis libris ad Ecclosie suae usum consignare unâ— codem sem per manente verbo etsi non uno modo tradito Riv. Cat. Oath Par. 9. â— unlesse he first beleevs that they are revealed and made known by God This Revelation of God hath alwaies been the foundation of faith and as the Apostle Heb. 1.1 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath afforded this at divers times after divers manners to his Church sometimes by a lively voice at other times by writing the authority of the revelation being the same the manner of revealing divers * But now since the truths of God were expressed in writing what is the grouad of your faith but this it is written and if you deny the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the words and say that they are not from divine inspiration you must of necessity also deny the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the matter and hold that the matter which you say is only the word of God is unworthy of a Christians belief I pray what course took Christ and his Apostles to prove their doctrinall assertions Mat 44.6.7.10 Mat. 1.2 Mar. 9.12 Mar. 11.17 Luk. 18.31.22.37 24 44 46. Joh. 10.34 Act. 13.33 15.85 Rom. 3.4 10.81 9.13 11.26 12 19. 14 11. 13.9 â—â— 1 Cor. 1.19 1 Cor. 1.31 1 Cor. 2.9 9.9 1 Cor 15.54 2 Cor 9.9 Gal. 3.13 4.22 Heb 10.7 1 Pet. 11.6 Mar. 15.28 Act. 8.32.35 Rom. 9.17 10.11 11.2 Gal. 4. â—0 1 Tim. 5.18 1 Pet. 2.6 Mat. 21.42 26 56 Luk. 24.27.45 Act. 17.2 11. 18.28 Rom. 1.2 16.26 1 Cor. 15 3. and the matters they taught but by the Scriptures and when they would render them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit for belief they evermore tell how it is written Consult with the places in the margin and you will finde that the matter substance precious counsells c. contained in the Scriptures are proved to be credenda things to be beleeved because they are written deny then the written word as you do in terminis to be the word of God and what formall object hath faith poor faith without a written word Yeeld your self to that evident Scripture Joh. 20.31 These things are written that yee might beleeve that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that beleeving ye might have lift through his name God makes these matters Christ is the son of God and life is to he had through his name to be the objects and matter of my belief but God makes the ratio or ground of my beleeving of these matters to be their revelation by writing See also Act. 14.24 Paul saith he beleeved all that was written in the Law and the prophets So Rom. 15.4 Things were written aforetime that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope So if you beleeve not Moses writings how shall you beleeve my words Joh. 5.47 6. Therefore doth not your sending me only to the counsels matter substance of Translations and Originals as the Word of God and your deniall that the written Word is such clearly shew That you send me not to that Word of God which the Scripture every where speaks of but to some other the Scripture using to call the written Word of God the Scripture and very often though in a Translation The command of Christ Joh. 5.39 is to search the Scriptures and were not they the written Word How readest thou Luk. 10.26 Vnderstandest thou what thou readest Act. 8.30 and what Scriptures were those the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by inspiration of God meaneth the Apostle neither Originals nor translation or both rather It were easy to shew how in this point of your deniall the Scriptures for the foundation as faith and Scriptures oppose you so likewise sundry holy and learned writers that have had occasion to touch upon the subject Let these following asserting the Scriptures for the word of God and so the foundation of faith and Christian Religion suffice for the vindication of the written word from the contempt you cast upon it a Quo plenius impressius tam ipsum quam dispositiones voluntates adiremus instrumentum adjecit literaturae si quis velit de Deo inquirere inquisitum invenire invento credere credito deservire Tertul. Apol. cap. 18. That we might go to God his counsells and will more fully and vigorously he added the instrument of writing if any would enquire of God finde him beleeve in him and serve him Tertullian b Non per alios salutis nostrae dispositionem cognovimus quam per eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc praeconiaverunt postea per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuâ—um Irenaeus Advers Here 's lib. 3. cap. 1 vide lib. 3. c. 2. We know not Gods disposall or ordering of our salvation but by those by whom the Gospel came to us which they formerly preached afterward by the counsell of God delivered to us in the Scriptures to be the foundation and pillar of our faith Irenaeus c Singuli Sermones syllabae apices puncta in divinis Scripturis plena sunt sensibus Hier in cap. 1. ad Eph. The severall speeches syllables tittles points in the divine Scriptures are full of sense Hier. d Persuasisti mihi Domine Deus non eos qui crederent libros tuos quos tantâ omnibus serè gentibus authoritate fundasti esse culpandos sed eos qui non crederent nec audiendos esse si qui forte mihi dicerent unde scis illos libros unius veracissimi Dei spiritu esse humano generi ministratos id ipsum enim maximè credendum erat Aug Conf lib. 6. O my Lord God thou hast perswaded me not that they who beleeved thy books which thou hast founded with so much authority in almost all nations were to be blamed but those who beleeved them not and that those were not to be heard who might haply say to me whence dost thou know that those books were administred to man-kinde by the Spirit of the only most true God for this thing was chiefly to be beleeved Augustine e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chry. hom 1. in Mat. If it be blame-worthy to stand in need of the writing of the Scripture and not to imbrace the grace of the spirit how great a fault is it after the enjoyment of
scripturarum divinarum vacollabit autheritas is a necessary foundation for other subsequent graces that are required in the Christian Religion and without which foundation all godlinesse and religion would in a short time fall to the ground no theologicall grace can be without saith and faith cannot stand if the authority of the Scriptures fall If beleeving can be no foundation of Christian religion why doth the holy Ghost give to faith the name of foundation Heb. 6.1 In these words not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God none will deny that the beleeving the Scriptures to be the word of God is both the ground and an effentiall part of a right faith towards God And therefore if the Apostle calleth faith towards God a foundation he must needs imply that faith towards the Scriptures is a foundation You cavill at the Ministers for saying they testifie to the truth and to their solemn league and covenant Sion Col. visited p. 3. do they mean say you that they give the same testimony to their solemn league and covenant which they do to the truth I observe your scornfull estranging expression Answ Their Covenant You disclalm it it seems you had as good to throw it off in your lines as in your life The Covenant is the Sectaries Shiboleth he cannot speak it plain you deal with the Covenant as the Spaniel with the water when you were swimming for your lives it did bear you up but now you are got to shore safe as you think you shake it off Why is it that throughout this Section you do so undervalue the covenant Is it for the good it hath done to the kingdome or the hurt you fear it may do to you or do you desire to make it break because you cannot make it bend and change as often as your interest doth But to your question do the Ministers give the same testimony to the Covenant that they do unto the truth of Christ I suppose you love to testifie much alike to both As for the Ministers you cannot inforce an equalizing or a prelation of either to other out of these their words And to our solemn league and covenant AND was wont to be a note copulative not comparative And yet I suppose the Ministers testifie with the same integrity and unfainednesse to the one with which they do to the other But note this zealot Paramount for the truths of Christ he who by denying the Scriptures fears not to destroy the word of truth thinks his ears defiled when with the covenant the Ministers do but name the word Truth Like the hypocriticall Pharisees who feared not to be murderers of Christ and yet were afraid of defilemenâ— by going into the Hall Joh. 18.28 I know not what testimony the Covenant is capable of Sion Col visited p. 4. unlesse they will call a regular full and through observation of it a testimony to it the best part of this testimony consisting in going before one another in a reall not a verball reformation You answer your self Ans You say a reall reformation is the best testimony to the covenant True And therefore say I not the only testimony Secondly Doth a reall observation of the covenant hinder a verball testimony to it nay doth it not enforce it I might deservedly question my reality for God and his cause If I would not expresse that reality in words upon occasion given 'T is possible indeed for the verball profession to be without the reall but not possible for the reall to be without the verball but you say the covenant is not capable of a verball testimony to it Alas poor Covenant It seems thou maist be well thought of but not well spoken off Thou maist be capable of a verball opposition and deniall as of being called an old almanack out of date but not of a verball approbation Thy wound is broader it seems then thy plaister But Thirdly How is it that you plead so much for the reall observation of the Covenant I fear not to further the reall but to hinder the verbal I dislike your pâ—ng of zeal for a reall reformation you plead for it only to get the greater advantage against it your heat of zeal for the covenant is like that of some herbs hot in the mouth cold in the stomack To inrich their title they add Sion Col. visited p. 4. As also against the errours and heresies c. Tell not the Ministers of loving rich titles Ans either for themselves or their books your boasting of your selves is as ridiculous as nausecus I pray who are they that assume to themselves or have beâ—owed upon them these titles in print The richly â—nointed A Preacher to the two greatest Congregations in England A heart the best headed and a head the best hearted of all the sons of men A man that hath the gifts and graces of ten thousand rare men met in one Men who look upon the word of Christ as impartially as men made of flesh and bloud are like to do in any juncture of time that may fall out Are not these swelling words these are enriched titles Mat. 21.28 Phil. 2.3 doth this savour of the spirit of Christ and his Gospel he was lowly in heart and bids each to esteem other better then themselves But they add against errours They had need for you are daily adding to errours But this touching of errours is the touching the apple of your eye and the gainfull occupation of your silver shrines 'T is observeable that all along in your book you give not the Reader the least intimation of a dislike of any particular errour though never so damnable mentioned in all the Catalogue Only in your 〈◊〉 age you tell the world that errouts are a great grief to 〈◊〉 heart and that you oppose them in your Ministery 't is a good to beleeve it as to go where 't is done you dare not come neer an expression of dislike to errours by twelve score and now the Ministers expresse their zeal against them how doth your render nature make you weep for Tammuz But there is no further matter if consequence in these words against the errours heresies Sion Col. visited p. 4. and blasphemies of the times c. then in the foregoing words A testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ Therefore these passages are broadly Tautologicall To rectifie you The Ministers in testifying for the truth c. Answ owned the Confession of faith and the doctrines of truth heâ—d forth in the Scripture and in saying against the errours beresies c. they disclaim and discover the things that are opposite unto them they have not the Sectarian art to be friends to truth and to be silent when errours that destroy truth are broached to look toward heaven and earth at the same instant The two fore-mentioned branches are therefore as far from being Tautologicall as you from being either Logicall or
distinctnesse your writings throughout have more of words then matter and yet more of mud then either But At your command I shall consult the pages wherein you would be thought to say The Scriptures are the Word of God In the former as also pag. 17. where you seem to be most full in declaring your sense You say to this purpose That you grant the matter and substance of the Scripture The gracious counsels to be the Word of God as That Christ is God and man that he died that he rose again c. You are come to a high pitch of ingenuity I assure you These things you having said you thinke you may lawfully charge the Ministers with craft and wickednesse for setting down barely that conclusion of yours pag. 18. Questionles no writing whatsoever whether Translations or Originals are the foundation of Christian Religion 1. But what will please you The Subscribers are in some strait how to content you when they only set down the conclusion and result of your words you say they deal wickedly because they expresse no more and when they cite a whole page you say they doe it that they may represent you to the Reader for a man of monstrous and prodigious errours one of which cannot be expressed or contained in fewer words then would fill a whole page Yet on the other side If they pitch only upon the errour you say they cite your words barely and suppresse craftily your sense 2. Though the Subscribers did set down this your Conclusion without reciting your long-winded passages which you premise yet deserve they not this your reviling Div. author of Scrip p. 18. as if they had wrong'd you For the conclusion being the result of the premisses if your conclusion be crazie and hereticall your premises must needs be so too and therefore the setting of them down would not have helped you at all and if the conclusion be not hereticall why doe you not defend it against the accusation of the Subscribers which you neither doe nor dare to doe but only send the Subscribers to the thirteenth page leaving the poor eighteenth to mercie 3. Suppose you had in the thirteenth page written the truth therefore ought you not to be blamed for writing errours in the eighteenth page Nay ought you not the rather to be blamed Suppose that found truths were laid on the top of your book might you not be blamed for laying rotten errours at the bottome Satan knows that the one must make the other vendible and the Subscribers did but labour herein to spoil his mercat 4. I suppose the subscribers did not set down your sense concerning the divine Authority of the Scriptures in the thirteenth page because it had no relation either clear or doubtfull to the passage in this eighteenth page For in the thirteenth page you say you assert the Scriptures to be the word of God and here in the eighteenth page you come with your Questionlesse no writing whatsoever whether translations or originalls are the foundation of Christian Religion But you seem to complain that you who have granted the Scriptures i.e. the gracious counsels matter substance of them to be the word of God should be blamed though you say Questionlesse no writing whatsoever is the foundation of Christian religioâ— but mistake not for though you have granted what no Papist nay what no christian in a sense did ever yet deny yet upon what ground have you granted even this you give the reader nothing to shew for this grant but only your good nature and ingenuity you tell me pag. 13. that you beleeve the precious counsells matter and substance of the Scripture to be of divine authority but though you beleeve so yet what ground give you me to beleeve so with you none I am sure p. 10. Div. Autho. where you deny both the English Scriptures and the Hebrew and Greek Originals themselves to be the word of God Div. Autho. p. 10. Nor give you me any ground to beleeve with you that the counsells of the scriptures are the word of God in p. 12. when you say That they who have the greatest insight into the originall languages yea and who beleeve the Scriptures unto salvation Div. Autho. p. 12. cannot upon any sufficient ground beleeve any originall copie under heaven whether Hebrew or greek to be the word of God with a world of such stuff Nor give you any ground to beleeve the matter counsells c. of the Scripture to be the word of God p. 18. where you say Questionlesse no writing whatsoever whether translations or originalls are the foundation of Christian religion much lesse in that of Hag. p. 38. where in regard of the mortality of words you make the meaning of the originalls impossible to be certainly understood nay by all these passages of yours you hinder me from beleving as much as in you lieth that the matter substance counsells c. of the Scriptures are the word of God for how can any beleeve the matter substance c. of the Scripture to be the word of God when as he must be uncertain whether the written word or Scriptures wherein that matter is contained are the word of God or no I suppose when you say that the matter of the Scriptures represented in translations and originals is the word of God p. 17. you suppose that it should be beleeved for such but upon what ground ought I to beleeve it I hope you will not say because a province of London-Ministers saith it is to be beleeved nor barely because the spirit tels me is to be believed for the word of God 2 Pet. 1 19. for the spirit sends me to the written word and bids me by that to trie the spirits and tells me I must beleeve nothing to be from God or for my own eternall good but what I finde written I therefore desire to go to the written word as revealâ—d by God for the building my confidence upon the counsells and matter of the Scriptures as pardon through Christ c. But then J. Goodwin tels me this written word is not Gods word nor are any writings in the world Originals or Translations to be lookt upon as such If so they must be the word of vain man and so I have no more to shew for the precious truths that Christ died for sinners and lost man c. then mans word I pray consider what are become of your disciples to use your own phrase their soul provisions their hope of eternall blessednesse when as thus you deny the written word How doth my soul pitty your poor deluded followers who have such a soul starving or soul-poysoning shepheard set over them the Lord knows I hardly write these things with dry eyes Whereas therefore you send the subscribers and readers to your pages alledged I shall do the like and desire them to take notice that you make no distinction between the res credenda and the ratio
so great an help not to gain by it but to despise the writings as if they had been laid before us in vain and thereby to draw upon our selves greater punishment Chrys f Homin's qui intra Ecclesiae pomaeria sunt de scripturae authoritate non quaerant est enim pâ—incipium Quomodopossunt esse discipuli Christi si doctrinam Christi velint in dubium vocare quomodo verae Ecclesiae membra si de fundamento Ecclesiae dubitare velint Quomodo id sibi probari petent quod ad probanda alia semper assumunt Gerb. loc Com. Tom 1. de S. ser p 7 Sect. 10. Men that are within the pale of the Church make no question of the authority of the Scripture for it is a principle How can they be the Discioles of Christ if they will call the doctrine of Christ into question how can they be members of the Church if they will doubt of the foundation of the Church How can they desire to have that proved which they make use of to prove all other things by Gerhard g In fidei controversiâ—s dijudicandis nec ab Hebraeis nec a Graecis pendere volunt Papistae multiplicatis quaestiunculis quaesivit Iesuita omnem sacrae scripturae fidem a judicio humaâ—o suspendere de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scripturae quâ—â— habemus dubitationem omnium mentibus â—â—jâ—â—unt ut his atheâ—mi radimentis homâ—â—es a vert Dei cognitione abstractâ—s facilius Antichrist dominationi subjiciant Andr Rivet Q 4. de scrip Tom. 1. In determining of controversies of faith the Papists note this M. Goodwin will not stand either to the Hebrew or greek originals and Baily the Jesuite by multiplying questions hath sought to make the belief of the holy Scripture to depend upon mans judgement and they cast doubts into all mens mindes about the authority of the holy Scriptures which we have that by these rudiments of Atheism they might subiect those men to the power of Antichrist whom they have drawn from the knowledge of the true God Andr. Rivet I shall conclude with desiring you in the fear of God to consider whether that complaint which the learned Rivetus makes of Albertus Pighius sute not too evidently with your self whom as Rivet saith uttered such blasphemous expressions as these explicent scripturarij * Explicent scripturarij isti unde nobis certum est haec esse Moysi scripta que sub ejâ—â— nomine legimus si videremâ—â— quiâ— ceâ—tos râ—d deret Mâ—ysi tam multis seculis mortui esse scriptamaâ—â— haec fimilia querebat a nâ—bis prophâ—us iste quae quorsu 〈◊〉 nemo potest ignorare nifi quâ— sponte vult decipâ— Rivetus ubisupra and he saith that the Papists are herein worse then the tradi tores who for fear delivered their Bibles to the Heathen to be burnt Sion Col. visit p. 12. isti c. let these that stand so much for the written word tell us how we can be certain that these are the writings of Moses which we read to go under his name and how can they assure us that these things were written with Moses his own hand who died so many years agoe He concludes with calling this Albertus Pighius a prophane fellow and saith that he that seeth not whether these things tend is willing to deceive himself I verely fear and without any breach of charity that these scripturarij especially of the presbyterian judgement shall not finde that favour from Joha Goodwin that a Sectarian Antiscripturist hath found in his Hagiomastix in which calendar he was highly Sainted Was it in the integrity of your hearts and to discharge your duty conscienciously that you must needs make it an errour or heresie to say that it were needlesse for Satan to blinde the eyes of naturall men if they had not eyes to see and to receive the glorious light of the Gospel when it is declared unto them But there you stop you do not proceed to the next words which have a most horrid aspect Men are not blinde for want of eyes but for want of light and when light or truth is discovered to them they have faculties suitable fit and apt to receive it But what kinde of blindenesse call you that to be in the dark and to have good eyes 't is a blindenesse that can neither in a spirituall or a naturall respect be cal'd a blindenesse the blindenesse of a naturall man is such as argueth a perishing of the power of spirituall seeing or discerning according to the Apostle he cannot know the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2 14 Conversion is the restoring of sight not of light only the opening of the eyes not the bringing of light to them who have eyes already Act. 26.18 raising up and putting life into a dead man and not the unbinding or the unfittering of a living Ephes 2. The words which you deny to be an errour viz. 'T is a needlesse thing for Satan to blinde if they have not eyes to see are very false for notwithstanding Satans making us blinde we are blinde of our selves according to Scripture which saith that naturall men cannot know the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 and yet that the God of this world hath blinded them 2 Cor. 4.4 when the Scripture saith that a naturall man is carried captive by Satan 2 Tim. 2.26 doth it therefore follow he is not a slave to sin because to Satan Satan may keep men in blindenesse and slavery and make men more to please themselves in both but its certain that we are both slaves to sin and blinde in sin also Where or in what clause or phrase of this ensuing period Sion Coll. visted p. 12 13. lies the errour or heresie If God should not make men capable of beleeving I mean indue men with such principles abilities or gifts of reason judgement memory or understanding by the diligent improvement whereof they might come to be convinced of a readinesse and willingnesse in God to receive them into favour upon their repentance upon which Conviction true repentance and turning to God ALLWAIES follows they which are condemned would have their mouths opened against God and furnished with an excuse The Parenthesis I suppose is innocent The consequence If God should not make men capable c. is built upon this principle that a plea for want of power for performance is an excuse in the case of non-performance You have in the setting down of your innocent parenthesi shewn your self very nocent and deceitfull for as if your conscience had taken your former assertion ill at your hands you left cut that word ALLWAIES in your late Pamphlet which word the subscribers charged you with in their testimony and would clearly have carried the sense thus grace and conversion infallibly follow upon mans improvement of his naturall abilities First For your consequence that if God should not make men capeable of beleeving upon that
naturall men may doe such things whereunto God hath by way of promise annexed grace because they may beleeve c. Friend Fear you not God Did not your hand shake and your heart tremble when you wrote that the Ministers set down these words for the Error Doubtles men are naturall before they are spirituall For your position that naturall men may doe such things whereunto God hath by way of promise annexed grace how should I rejoice could I hope that the reason why you conceald it in Sion Coll. visit was remorse I observed a little before that you left out the word alwaies in setting down that Error the same with this in other words cited by the subscribers in their Testimony A naturall man by his naturall principles may attain that conviction which conversion alwaies follows I adde to what there I said I suppose by your naturall man who you say doth things to which God hath annexed acceptation you mean the same man that the Apostle speaks of Rom. 8.8 The man in the flesh now that man cannot please God Opera Anglica na contra junguâ— pag 8.8 Fateor non param nihi do uit dogma planè imptum a pertè Pelogia num obtruâ—i nostrae scholae c. sed Hominem posse ante justificatione a dum adhuâ— a Christo do nino est alâ—â—us impius facere bona opera quae fint Deo ita grata ut bis operibâ— Deus moveatur ad coâ— creadum plenam ad se coâ—versiâ—en Rivet Disp pag. 155. though your naturall man doth things acceptable to God Invert not Gods and natures order first let the tree be good and then the fruit But know if you still remain obdurate that your good friend Mr Bucer hath no more patience toward you but in down right terms calls you Pelagian for saith he 't is an impious and a Pelagian opinion that a man before justification and while out of Christ should be able to doe good works so acceptable to God that by these works God should be moved to bestow conversion upon him Only I confesse the learned Rivet p. 155. of his disputations with a little more moderation calls you among the rest a pargetted Pelagian If I rightly English his words incrustantes Pelagianismum And I pray consider how little you want of meritum de congruo But you prove your position That naturall men may doe such good works c. most lamentably because 't is possible say you they may beleeve But how then say I can they doe things accepâ—able to God before they beleeve if you make beleeving the reason of their acceptation And who knows not but that naturall men may beleeve viz. that they are such subjects as God works upon so as to make them beleevers but prove that they are able to beleeve while they are naturall men Help him logick let fallacia a bene divisis ad malè conjuncta be well heeded how should your poor people know your fullaâ—ies when you know them not your self They make me an Erroneous offender Sion Col. visit p. 16. for saying that to beleeve first that God is secondly that he is a rewarder of all those who diligently seek him is all the faith which the Apostle makes absolutely necessary to bring a man to God Heb. 11 6. Answ Still you would fain have the Scripture counted hereticall with your self but the Subscribers know how to distinguish between these two the holy Scriptures and your hereticall scriblings Your self not the Subscribers make you the Erroneus offender but not for these words viz. To beleeve that God is and that he is a rewarder c. is all the faith which is necessary to bring a man to God but for your saying immediately going before which you were afraid or ashamed to repeat viz. That all the world even those that have not the letter of the Gospel have yet sufficient means granted them of beleeving these two viz. That God is and that he is a rewarder c. You affirming that they who have only the heavens the Sun Moon and Starres to preach the Gospel unto them they also have reason sufficient to judge the same judgement with them who have the letter of the Gospel for they have the Gospel say you the substance and effect of it the willingnes of God to be reconciled to the world preached unto them by the Apostles aforesaid the Sun Moon and Starres What stuffe is here Have all the world sufficient means of beleeving these two 1. That God is Heb. 11.6 2. That he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Had you understood that place of Scripture you would not have said so for the faith or belief there spoken of is evidently such a faith as whereby a man may come to God with acceptation The words are set down by the Apostle to prove that without faith no man can please God For faith he No man can acceptably come to God unlesse he beleeve that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him strongly inferring that whosoever doth beleeve that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him doth come to God in a way of pleasing him Judicious Calvin tells you thus upon the place Haec est ratio cur citra fidem null a Deo placeat quia nullus unquam accedit nisi qui credit Deum esse statueâ— remuneratorem esse omnibus qui eum quaerunt And a little after he saith the Apostle meaneth not that men should be perswaded that there is some or a God but he speaks this of the true God De vero Deo hoc praedicat and this reward is not to be referred to the dignity of works but to faith Haec remuneratio non ad operum dignitatem vel pretium sed ad fidem refertur Calv. in loc And Paraeus upon that place will inform you that those two heads of faith That God is and that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him are not to be understood Philosophically but Theologically that the eternall God is Father Son and holy Ghost and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him Evangelically by faith in Christ with the benefits of the Gospel pardon adoption sanctification glory c. And can Heathens by the Sun Moon and Starres doe this can they by the light of nature beleeve a trinity of Persons in unity of Essence if they doe they are better then your godly persons Hag. pag 36 who you say are holy and walk with God and yet beleeve not that God is one in three persons Ad coâ—nitieneâ— Deâ—per createras ex naturae lumine non aliter ducimur nisi quatenus Deus est earum principium causa non auâ—em earum â—ausa nisi per divinam suam cirtutem omnil us 〈◊〉 â—oâ—warem 〈◊〉 per creaturas cognitionem consequinon valemus nisi eam quae patri 〈◊〉
spiâ—â—â—i â—â—â—cto sâ—t communis quoâ—â—â— perâ—reaturas ad cognoscendam personarum 〈…〉 non possâ—m a pâ—râ—â—â—gere Gâ—â—â— de Trin. None saith Gerard can be led to the knowledge of God by the creatures but only so farre forth as God is their cause Now God is their cause by a divine power common to the three persons therefore by the creatures we can onely attain to knowledge of those things which are common to the three Persons wherefore certainly by the creatures we can never attain to the knowledge of the distinction of persons Name one heathen who did most diligently search into nature that did by the inspection of the creature know there was a trinity of persons And can the heathens by the works of creation have the discoveries of a mediator and have Christ made known to them and beleeve in him I am sure you never learned this of the Apostle Dicimus fideâ— in Christum non semper requiri ad justificationem sed fidâ—â— sâ—â—pliciter ut restatur Apo stolus Heb. 〈◊〉 in quo etâ—â—n additur 〈◊〉 â—idem 〈…〉 dam reqâ—â—â— credere quâ—â— Deus sit quod sit remâ—nera â—t illoruâ— qui ipsum quaerunt de fide verò in Christum nulla vel â—inima fit 〈◊〉 Râ—fot lib. de sat Christâ— cap. to p. 17â— who saith that faith comes by hearing Rom. 10. Or are you of Smalcius his judgement who faith that faith in Christ is not alwaies required to justification but faith simply and he proves it out of this very Scripture that you have here alledg'd Heb. 11.6 for the faith of heathens Sir blame me not if I be jealous of you as of one that favours socinianisme Sure I am you must either hold that heathens must attain faith in Christ by the enjoying of sun moon and starres or that the faith of the 11. of Heb. 6. which you say the heathens doe attain by the sun moon and startes is not a faith in Christ and then welfare Smalcius In your next I pray manifest your judgement herein Or of whom learned you this opinion that they who have only the sun moon and starres Impossibile est pervenire ad sidem pervenire ad aeternam vitam nisi audieris evargelium idque adminisâ—ratum per hominem nam de praedicatione Evangelij Paulus hic lâ—quitur quam dominus per Apostolos suos ado inistravit Bucer in Rom. 10. Act. Synod Artic. 2. Col. Hag. art 2. Ad Arg. 5. pag. 179. Sion Col. visiâ— p. 17. Ans c. to preach the Gespel unto them have sufficient means of beleeving Certainly Mr Bucer never was your Master who on Rom. 10. saith It 's impossible to attain to saith to aeternall life unlesse thou hearest the Gospel and that admiâ—istred by man for Paul here speaks of the preaching of the Gospel which God administred by his Apostles But whose scholler are you now Friend you are to blame to put me out of my old way for I would fain have found a schoolmaster among the Arminians for you but the truth is you have now outgon your Masters They indeed say that God calls all with a common calling by which men may be made fit to hear the Gospel in which salvation is offered c. but they never dream'd of a Gospel by Sun Moon and Starres nay when pressed at the conference at Hague to shew the universality of the preaching of the Gospel though they have many shifts and cavils yet this of your Preachers never came into their minde Let all my sayings be drawn together and the rigidest extraction made there will be found the same spirit of errour if yet it were errour in Mr John Ball Intituled A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace pag. 44. of 〈◊〉 â—â—â—course I cannot wonder that you who would fain father your errours upon Scripture are in this kinde industrious also to abuse holy and learned Mr Ball lay not your egges of errour in Mr Balls nest thinking that by the warmth of his reputation to have them hatched The words of Mr Ball are these No man is hindered from beleeving through the difficulty or unreasonablenes of the command or through his own simple infirmity as being willing to beleeve but not able which inability deserves pity but he doth not beleeve because he will not What is here that gives you the least countenance in your errours Mr Ball saith and that truly that unwillingnesse to beleeve hinders a man from beleeving but he doth not say that any man of himself can be willing for pag. 226. having asserted that man is unable to beleeve and in the same page that it is of grace to be inabled to beleeve he presently adds that mands not further from beleeving then desire to beleeve Mr B. grants that it's mans fault that he dissents from grace calling him but where saith he it is in mans power to consent to grace calling him and if he will not say so he cannot be of your faith who maintain that man hath ability to beleeve and may so improve his naturall abilities that conversion alwaies will follow and if man had not power to beleeve God were unjust to command it Mr Ball blames mans unwillingnesse to beleeve and you like an acute logician thence conclude mans sufficiency 'T were easie to shew as great a dissonancy between you and Mr Ball in this point as there is an harmony between you and the Remonstrants Take it in these four or five passages 1. You say Div. Auth. p. 168. That if man should be deprived of all ability to beleeve and yet God should be still moving and perswading men to beleeve this would be harder then injustice it self As for a King to cause a mans leggs to be cut off and yet command him to run a race And you say that mans inability to do any thing that God commands is a very fair and reasonable excuse for not doing it Div. Auth. p. 201. But Mr Ball saith pag. 245 246. of the Cou. of Gr. That an impossible thing to us may be and is the object of Gods command and of his desire Nay in the same place the Lord commands and desires the conversion of many obstinate impenitent persons who have the means of grace whom for their present contempt he doth blinde and harden If impossible be not the object of Gods will in this fence viz. impossible in respect of maâ— he that by custome in evil hath contracted an habit that he cannot but sin should not offend and he that is carried with the most violence of minde to evil should be least evil pag. 247. he saith that God may justly withhold the graces of his spirit from those that are invited in the Ministery and pag. 248. The Lord doth earnestly again and again call upon impenitent and obstinate sinners to repent and beleeve when as yet in his just judgement he hardens their hearts that they cannot repent And whereas you call mans inability a fair excuse for not