of the spirit of Adoption for love is strong as death And then I pray tell me what will all your publications tendences and conducements avail where God hath decreed to deny effectual grace and faith to believe what is so published But there is enough of this we shall have more to say to what follows whiâ—h is this And as God hath thus bound himself by his purpose decree and promise to the doing of the things aforesaid that so they must come to pass in their season and it being also his pleasure to let the sons of men enjoy a sufficiency of means while the day of grace lasteth to be used by them in order to their everlasting good so he giveth them liberty in the right use thereof in that day of grace to choose or refuse and it cannot be otherwise for a choice must needs be at liberty and if there were not a liberty given of God in these things then those expressions in Scripture were in vain as in Deut. 30.19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life Object But to this it will be objected that that which they might choose or refuse was the temporal or earthly Canaan Answ That there was such a thing intended in it I deny not but that was not all for in those typical things that did belong to them as they were the Children of Abraham according to the flesh there was held forth that which did lead them up to faith in Christ in order to their being children of Abraham also by faith that so they might be heires also of the heavenly inheritance and this the words immediately going before do prove being compared with what Paul had said Rom. 10. For as it is said Deut. 30. vers 14. the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it the very same word is said by Paul Rom. 10. vers 8. to be the word of faith which they preached and we find the like of Moses Heb. 11.24 25. He refused to be called the son of Phraohs daughter Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season also Luk. 10.42 Mary hath chosen that good part Answ Sir if by sons of men your meaning be to take them collectively and universally viz. all men of all sorts that they all enjoy a sufficiency of means in order to their everlasting good then I utterly deny it and I have formerly proved it contrary that whereas he shewed his word unto Iacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel yet he had not dealt so with other nations Psal 145.19 Matth. 13.11 Acts 16. for unto some it was given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven but to others it was not given the Spirit would not suffer the Apostle to preach the Gospel to the Bithynians and certainly you will never prove any such sufficiency of Grace tendered to every person all the world over unless you do suborn those silent Orators the Sun Moon and Stars to plead your cause by a discovery of what feats they have done and how many they have converted amongst the Indians Americans Antipodes and other unknown places of the world by their dumb preaching of the everlasting Gospel in order to the everlasting good of these forlorn creatures The next point I shall take notice of in this Section is the liberty of the will concerning which you spake before but somewhat lispingly like an Ephraimite Judg. 12.6 but now like a flesht Gileadite you speak with a full mouth and in plain English that it is in a mans liberty to choose or refuse things to their everlasting good And this indeed is that unknown Goddess to whom you sacrifice all the strength of your other Positions for if this liberty of will should miscarry all the superstructure of your other Positions must needs disshevell and moulder to powder I have not much to say unto it because you have said so little that choice must needs be at liberty And though I need not hunt after fresh work yet thus much I shall say that there was in Adams will besides the liberty thereof an habitual holy inclination to all that was good though with a possibility of embracing evil But that since the fall besides some kind of liberty an habitual vicious quality in man making him averse and froward in choosing the good Job 15.16 Pro. 2.14 prone and inclinable to embrace the evil so that man now doth naturally drink iniquity like water and make a pastime of doing evil and therefore as Adams will was truly good not onely in the actions but in the inward qualities thereof so our will is truely and properly corrupt not onely as to its evil actions but also the inward vicious disposition thereof And until such time as God is pleased to heal the disease and replant in our wills their primitive integrity they are utterly dead in sin captives and bondslaves of corruption So that however they have some liberty in naturall civill or externall spiritual things yet in regard of true grace and holiness they have no liberty at all to chuse that but are wholly enthralled unto sin according to that of the Apostle Rom. 6.20 When ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness and Rom. 8.7 The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be And therefore the man doth in plain terms give the lye to the Spirit of God speaking in the Scriptures that dares to affirm that a man in the estate of unregeneracy who without doubt is if any be a servant of sin and carnally minded is notwithstanding free unto righteousness and may be even of his own natural power subject to the law of God commanding him faith and obedience and that he hath a liberty and power to choose grace when it is offered strong arguments might be brought to overturn this power upside down but I am weary of what is already upon my hands For the objection that you offer let those vindicate it whosoever made it for my part I do not insist upon it but shall answer to that place by you quoted Deut. 39.19 after another manner And I do indeed conceive that this allegation is not any thing ad rem not at all to the business in hand For first Moses here speaks unto the Israelites not as then in a state of sinful unregeneracy but rather as in a state of grace for they were then the Church and people of God and he speaks unto them as they were a Church wherein because of their holy calling by the law of charity he accounts of them all as in a state of grace but if any were in a state of unregeneracy as doubtless there were he counsels them to choose life yet
analogous to the business in hand Yet I have not spared to set the whole down having proposed that to my self to be my method at first that so it might apppear that I had not put a slur upon any part of his writing which had any appearance of substance in it And yet in my answer hereunto I shall not confine my self to such strict terms as to pursue him so closely in his wildgoose chace through thick and thin over hills and over dales Ultra Garamantas et Indos and so to wait upon him in his crooked waies or follow him in his extravagancies he gleans up and patcheth together divers impertinent places of Scripture as Act. 4.10 c. Act. 13.16 c. Ioh. 9.28 c. Rom. 2.17 Gal. 4.22 Gen. 25.23 Obad. 10. Rom. 10.18 and Ier. 18.4 and 2 Thes 2.10 11. and from these to drain out the Apostles meaning in this place But my purpose is to keep me close to the words of the Apostle who best knew the meaning of the Spirit and who alone is sufficient to be his own interpreter and from thence to infer so much as to a rational man may give a full decision to the matter in controversie viz. that sin and unbelief is not the cause of Reprobation before all time but that it proceeds solely from the good pleasure of Gods most holy will to reprobate or pass by whom he pleaseth though this confident I might say impudent man saith he hath already proved the contrary But sure then it must be in one of his former printed volumes I am certain it cannot be found in this pamphlet But before I undertake to make an entry on the words I cannot over-slip one of his new discoveries whereof he desires the Reader to consider that the people that Paul speaketh to in these words Rom. 9.19 Thou wilt say unto me why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will c. were the Jews c. Sir may I be beholding to you for this your rare invention Your skill in Chorography it seems is not ordinary such a dull brain as I have did believe that Rome stood in Italy within the bounds of Europe but your dextrous art hath espied it out in Iudea within the climates of Asia many hundreds of miles distant from what I ever apprehended of it I pray Sir in your next inform me whether Rome stood in Ierusalem yea or no But what need I to wonder at thi for with such fopperies you gull your deluded Auditors who swallow down worse falsities then these without straining at such Camels For truly Sir I must tell you that you must help me to such a faith that can remove mountains in the twinkling of an eye nay cities too before I can yield to you that Paul here speaks to the Jews For if I may safely believe Paul rather then you it was directed to the Romans Rom. 1.7 for all that be in Rome and the Postscript written to the Romans from Corinthus Now who can be so ignorant as not to know that the Romans were Gentiles and not Jews and though in this chapter mention be made of the Jews his sorrow for them in respect of his near relation to them their ancient pedigree and great priviledges yet it is directed particularly to the Gentiles that they might make a holy use thereof So that your fabrick raised on so sandy a foundation your Babel consisting of a bare circumlocution of several texts of Scripture forced by you to speak what was never intended by the Holy Ghost in them it all moulders to powder But lest this may seem rather a tergiversation then an answer I will as I intended offer to the Readers view the genuine Analysis of the Apostle in this part of the chapter that so sorting it as collateral to your forced interpretation the judicious Reader may thereby censure whether is more suitable to the mind of the Holy Ghost yours or mine In the former part of this chapter the Apostle had been treating of the predestination of the Saints by the examples of Isaac and Iacob and now is he entred upon the doctrine of reprobation by the examples of Ishmael and Esau under which all Reprobates may be comprehended Of whom when he had concluded that it was not for any of their evil deeds but the meet good pleasure of Gods will that so rejected them and having proposed an objection to himself which carnal wisdome might alledge that if the matter were so then there was unrighteousness with God to deal so unequally with persons that were in all things in an equal condition He repulseth this objection as most absurd saying God forbid and withal he aggravates his protestation against such a conclusion as the charging of God with injustice by the testimony of God to Moses Exod. 33.9 I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy c. the reason whereof is drawn from Gods absolute and most free power that he hath over all his creatures to do with them what he pleaseth The same absolute sovereignty is likewise ratified by the example of Pharaoh in whom there is such a series and concatenation of acts of the divine providence in hardening and destroying and that written in such large Characters that all the future ages of the world might know that God is Lord Paramount over all the works of the creation and therefore that he may when and whom and where he pleaseth raise up some to be as potsheards that were made of purpose that his absolute power might be shewen on them as to shew mercy on whom he will so to harden whom he pleaseth This block being removed and thereby the point of absolute soveraignty being confirmed the Apostle now meets with another objection ver 19. Thou wilt say unto me why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will now from what the Apostle here objects it is palpable that in himself he concludes that it depends meerly on the will of God that some are Reprobated or not elected and thereby hardened and being hardened do unavoidably sin and perish For humane reason from what was said whom he will he hardens might conclude that the Apostles doctrine leads to an absurdity for if it must be so how can it be that God can justly complain of those which are hardened and so of those who are Reprobated when they do sin How may it be said can God complain and that for a double reason First because those who are hardened or reprobated when they sin they do onely such things as God doth will to permit by them to be done Secondly because those who are so reprobated and hardened they can do no other then thus sin if that unto that purpose they were so hardened and reprobated Now both of these things are very true neither doth the Apostle deny either of them But that which humane reason doth infer from thence viz. that therefore God cannot in justice find fault
we shall for the baptizing of infants And one caution more I desire to adde viz. that in the reading there be not sometimes a mistaking of that which is Tazwells for mine which yet I hope the sense will direct the understanding Reader to for else it is in many places not distinguishable either by difference of Characters nor by any other eminent mark These things thus premised Consider what I say 2 Tim. 2.7 and the Lord give thee understanding in all things J. R. The ERRATA PAge 1 Line 15. for ingenious read ingenuous p. 5. l. 36. for grave r. grand impostor p. 12. l. 16. for r. and. p. 15. l. 20. me r. we p. 17. l. 31 for delivered r. continued p. 18. l. 12. their 's r. yours p. 24. l. 22. equipend r. equipond p. 25. l. 6. after difficulty in your r. proof for the baptizing of women then we shall for p. 27 l. would r. wave p. 27. l. 15. Islington r. Osmington p. 31. l. 9. peribis nunquam r. redibis nunquam p. 41. l. 11. Faswell r. Tazwell p. 41. l. 29. objecto r. adjecto p. 44. l. 5. fumbles r. jumbles p. 45. l. 24. eternol r. external p. 57. l. 32. metti r. memento p. 59. l. 6. learners r. hearers p. 61. l. 29. seâ—t r. Close p. 62. l. 4. me r. one p. 63. l. 5. to wit r. to which p. 65. l. 29. certifie r. rectifie p. 67. l. 19. I curtail r. I shall curtail p. 67. l. 25. back r. bare p. 84. l. 11. for which r. but hath been p. 87. l. â— for a heavenly writ r. oh heavenly wide p. 92. l. 3. for refused r. refuted p. 94. l. 15. for much r. may p. 109. 11. Comma at understood and at consequently and for yet r. not p. 110. l. 27. for that r. the p. 115. l. 20. for affectati r. affectation p. 121. l. 40. then thus sin r. than thus to sin p. 133. l. 40. for rate r. rank p. 139. l. 18. for first r. force p. 139. l. 34. for child in infancy r. child dying in infancy p. 150. l. 17. for understanding r. undertaking p. 150. l. 24. for the word r. your words p. 251. l. 35. for to r. the p. 152. l. 14. for had preached r. had not preached p. 153. l. 38. for the r. that p. 156. l. 25. for those r. these p. 156. 36. for for r. from p. 162. l. 30. for infective r. infective quality p. 169. l. 5. for rom r. from p. 169. l. 15. for proposition r. position p. 197. antiquestion 12. to relate to Tazwels 6 Querie p. 203. l. 31. for indiscriminate r. indiscriminable p. 205. l. 8. for sin r. him p. 206. l. 44. for most r. mostly p. 208. l. 10. for truly r. onely Thomas Tazwells POSITIONS GOd did in all eternity before any thing was brought forth in order behold all things that should or would be as perfect as if they had then been in being God saw man created and man fallen Christ crucified and fallen man redeemed and also the means of salvation tendred God also saw some men embracing this means and some rejecting it as God saw some men embracing this means those he elected in Christ from the foundation of the world through sanctification of the Spirit to everlasting life So God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief yet haply not without the exact form of Godliness but denying the power those he reprobated to everlasting destruction from the foundation of the world Those whom God hath elected unto life and salvation shall never finally fall or come to condemnation the subtilty of Sathan the policie of man nor the corruption of nature shall never prevail against them Those whom God hath reprobated to condemnation shall never be saved Christs mercy and means shall never save them yet God is not the cause of mans condemnation neither Reprobation the cause of unbelief but mans destruction is of himself and unbelief of the devil All men are sometimes convinced of sin and the state of nature and are made alive by the work of the Spirit of grace to every man in the world God also giveth a Talent to every man and power to improve it but mans not improving it when receiving it with a power is the cause of mans destruction Christ hath redeemed all men from the first transgression and crossed the score of Adams sin yet the pollution of that sin is upon all men but not the condemnation also Adam did not fall for want of power but for consenting to Sathan not improving the power Christ hath laid his life and shed his bloud for every man in the world yet not intending thereby to save every man for Christ came to fulfill not to cross his Fathers Will and this is his Fathers Will never to save those whom he hath reprobated from eternity for disobedience and rebellion The first answer to Tho. Tazwells POSITIONS VVE cannot but wonder that the Grandees of this Nation have seemed as Acts 17.30 to wink at the spronting Errors of these times and not rather to have Cant. 12.16 killed the foxes while little and Esa 14.29 crusht the serpent in the root for doubtless they in their grave wisdoms do prudently foresee that such Meteors or Ignes fatui are more easily supprest by slightings and contempt then by strength of opposition neither will they honour the broachers or fomenters with any condigne punishment lest they should unjustly glory in a pretended persecution and so their rabble might the more increase under affectation of singularity for surely it is very visible to all exact observers that those who were the prime promoters incendiaries and blew the coals first of these strange opinions they have many of them either withdrawn from the heat of the contest and deserted the cause or else have changed their judgements or otherwise are so divided amongst themselves that many of them know not whom to follow whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas but leave their Conventicles to be gulled and deluded by the dregs of men such as wisemen would disdain Iob 30.1 to have set with the dogs of their slock an evident symptome that their kingdom is of no long time for standing for Matth. 12.25 If a kingdom c. and if Satan cast out Satan c. What particular opinions these fanatick spirits do maintain besides rebaptization I have been hitherto blest from entring into their secrets Gen. 49.6 until this week a friend of mine presented me with a dish of their crude and unsavoury Positions no better then Coloquintida That I may well say of them mors in olla 2 Kings 4.40 death is in the pot but I conceive it well bespeaks what qualified persons they are from whence they come Similes habent labra lactucas like lips like lettices They dropt I believe from the pen of a younger brother in profession so that I resolve to wink at small faults and
but the meer good pleasure of Gods most holy and righteous Will who will do with his creature what he will do neither can any expostulate why hast thou done thus Esa 45.9 It is true that sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but yet not the causes of their reprobation that is solely and singly in the good pleasure of his Will Ephes 1.5 which I prove by these Arguments 1. Arg. That which the holy Ghost in the Scripture ascribes unto the sole will and good pleasure of God that we are not to assign other causes to But the Scripture assigns reprobation solely to Gods will Therefore For proof of the minor proposition see these texts Rom. 7.18 whom he will he hardeneth ver 20 21. Nay but O man who art thou that replyest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell unto honour and another unto dishonour ver 22. What if God willing to shew his wrath and make his power known endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted or made up for destruction Matth. 11.26 Even so O Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Matth. 10.15 Is it not lawful to do what I will with mine own ver 16. Many called few chosen Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked for the day of evil Rom. 9.11 12 13. for the children being not yet born ver 17. for this same purpose have I raised thee 2. Arg. That which is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation cannot be the cause of it But sin unbelief and rejecting the means is the efflux and consequent of Reprobation Therefore The major is as clear as the sun The minor proposition is proved from these texts Math. 11.25 26. I thank thee father c. for so it seemed good in thy sight He hid those things not outwardly but inwardly Ioh. 6.36 37. Christ to the Capernaites I said unto you that ye also have seen me believed not all that the father giveth me shall come to me signifying that they are not given to him of the father and therefore reprobated Ioh. 8.46 47. Christ to the Pharisees If I say the truth why do ye not believe me he that is of God heareth Gods word ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God i.e. ye are reprobates Ioh. 10.26 Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep i. e. not of the number of my elect Ioh. 12.39 40. Of the whole company of the Jews Therefore they could not believe because Esaias said he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts viz. God according to his decree Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardens and ver 33. Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence Rom. 11.7 8. the election hath obtained it the rest are hardened for God hath given them the spirit of slumber c. 1 Pet. 2.8 which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed 3. Arg. If sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means of salvation are the onely causes why God reprobates any then there is no such mystery in the decree of reprobation neither are Gods waies herein so unsearchable and past finding out but that the true and undoubted cause may be assigned But yet they are mysterious and unsearchable See Rom. 9.14 What shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God God forbid Rom. 1.33 34. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out for who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellour 4. Arg. If the foresight of sin and unbelief and rejecting the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation then these absurdities will unavoidably follow 1. That no child dying in infancy can possibly be reprobated 2. Neither such Gentiles or Turks Indians or Salvages that never heard of Christ who never enjoyed the Gospel nor ever had the means tendred to them for how can they believe in him on whom they have not heard Rom. 10. and how can they reject that which was never tendred unto them as many nations in the world who are strangers from the life of God Ephe. 1.12 3. If the foresight of sin should be the cause of Reprobation then the elect should be equally lyable to the decree of reprobation as the Reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams transgression Rom. 9.21 22 23 24. Iohn 15.19 20. If ye were of the world c. Ephes 2.1 2 3. children of wrath as well as others Rom. 3.10 and there is none righteous no not one 4. Then Paul was mistaken Rom. 9.11 in not assigning sin to be the cause of Reprobation 5. The same Apostle then answered very unsoundly to those objections Rom. 9.13 14. The first is if God reprobated Esau because he hated him then he was unjust The second ver 19. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will For he might in one word have answered to both the objections and said that sin was the cause of reprobating both of Esau and Pharaoh but he saith the contrary ver 11. When they had done neither good nor evil Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated Mal. 1.2 6. Hereby we confine Gods infinite soveraignty over his creatures to the narrow scantling of our subordinate power as though he might not do with his own what he lists without our controll and not make a vessel either of honour or of dishonour unless he were accountable to us for the reason of his so doing For the fourth and fifth Positions These may pass with a grain of Salt bating some impropriety in the expressions and I am not so at leisure to teach such men to express themselves after a Theological manner either in their teaching or writing For the sixth Thesis I must ingenuously confess it is such a Mystery or Paradox and so involved with seeming contradictions that I want an Oedipus to unriddle the meaning of it I have been a little acquainted with the opinions of the Pelagians Semipelagians Papists Arminians Socinians and Anabaptists and amongst them all can observe none of them jumping in with this mans judgement for thus he writes All men are sometimes convinced of sin and the state of nature What his meaning is by the state of nature I cannot divine If his sense be that every man is at one time or other convinced that by nature he is a child of wrath and disobedience and dead in trespasses and sins and so t is false for most men have not such convictions Next And are made alive by the works of the spirit by this all men should be
torments from both of which it follows that sin and unbelief is the cause of the adjudication to hell and eternal torments and that by the decree of God but is by no means the cause of the decree it self that singly proceeds from his good pleasure And as it is an undoubted truth that God as he never saves any adult person but such as are penitent and studious of good works so he hath not decreed to save any but such so qualified with repentance and good works whence we argue that repentance and good works are truly the causes of salvation 2 Thess 2.13 and that by the decree of God who hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth but it doth not thence follow that repentance and good works are causes of the decree for upon that account election should be dependent not onely upon faith foreseen as you would have it but likewise upon good works as antecedent to it which hitherto for ought I see you have not that impudence to affirme The like must be said of reprobation That as he never damns or decrees to torment and adult person but such as are impenitent unbelievers and rejecters of the means so he hath not decreed to damn any but such so qualified and whence the like Argument may likewise be taken up that impenitent unbelief and rejecting of the means are truly the causes of damnation Heb. 11.6 Heb. 12.14 and that by the decree of God who hath declared that without faith it is impossible to please him and that without holiness no man shall see the Lord But it doth not thence follow that impenitence unbelief and the rejecting of the means are the causes of the decree reprobates were not sinners at least in existence when the decree of non election or reprobation first pâ—â— upon them which was from all eternity as the elect were not penitents at the first instant of their election in the mean time God hath not decreed to adjudge any but sinners and unbelievers unto eternal torments as he hath not decreed to reward any with eternal life but penitents For what God doth or permitteth to be done in time the same and no otherwise hath God decreed to be done or permitted to be done before all time so that the prevision of sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means did no more antecede negative reprobation then the prevision of repentance and good works did antecede the decree of election So that I hope reasonable men will or may now judge that I have reconciled the enmity that your dim deluded sight had imagined and broken down that partition-wall which your Panick fears raised between these two positions and by the good hand of God have so reconciled your supposed difference between them that they go neer like Hippocrates twinnes hard â—n hand together though that the one ordine naturae not temporis have a priority before the other to which the last is subservient So that now I am at liberty to attend to what you will say to my first Argument which is this That which the holy Ghost in Scripture ascribes to the sole will and good pleasure of God that we are not to assigne to other causes But the Scripture assignes reprobation soley to Gods will Therefore To which you answer His Major proposition he bringeth nothing at all to prove for proof of his Minor he alledgeth these Texts Rom. 9.18 20 21 22. Mat. 11.25 Matth. 20.15 16. Rom. 9.11 12 13 17. Answ to which I answer The Scriptures which he quoteth and all that he can find in all the book of God cannot prove his argument for it is false in the Minor proposition therfore the Scripture cannot prove it for 1 Ioh. 2.21 no lye is of the truth although the Scripture doth speake of the will of God as a cause concerned in mans reprobation in having his eyes blinded and his heart hardned and the like yet the Scripture doth not assign it solely and singly to the will of God without assigning it to any other cause but on the contrary it doth assign the continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means of salvation as a cause thereof Answ I pray learned Sir what need I prove the Major that is unquestionable even to you i. e. would you have me beat the ayre and fight against mine own shadow No Sir t is the Minor that sticks in your sides so that you cannot breath out any one thing in a probable way of contradiction to any one of those texts by me alledged Yet with a face as full of impudence as ignorance you adventure to say but do not to which I answer c. This passage of this Doctor-like undertaker calls to my mind a Doctor of Oxford whom I well did know and to this day he is well remembred for it by some who in an University sermon of his falling upon a point of controversie wherein he found Bellarmine his adversary uttered words to this effect I will saith he confute him in two words mentiris Bellarmine and marke I pray whether this Gentleman tread not in the same steps he begs the question by saying it is false therfore the Scripture cannot prove it And what doth he do less than give the lye to the Spirit of truth when by his own confession the Scripture ascribes reprobation to the will of God which though afterwards he palliates by saying that it doth not assigne it solely to the will of God but that sin unbelief are concomitant causes yet he might have shewed some ingenuity in alledging of such places of Scripture which had done as he did say that so there might have been some appearance of an answer and not that Pythagoras-like his ipse dixit should be taken for currant coyne when as I am certaine it is but counterfeit but to give the lye and that to his betters as I am informed is as ordinary a dish with him as his dayly bread Well Sir but to attend your procedure which is thus But whereas he saith that sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but not the causes of Reprobation I do understand that the decree of God which was before time resteth for the ground thereof more peculiarly in the will of God without assigning other causes to it than reprobation it self which is the execution of the same purpose and decree of God in time â—â—en and where the continuance in sin and unbeleif and the rejecting of the means of salvation is found in men Answ Here like a Sorbon Doctor speaking ex cathedra you tender your simple sense of the decrees of God wherein your mistake is supposing that we confound the decrees of God with the execution of those decrees which is not ours which hath been your errour all along For this reprobation which I
to say such a thing was not exprest in the position those who are acquainted not onely with the Anabaptists but likewise with the Arminians and Socinians of both which you have a tange know so much You say it is not expresly which doth admit that it is comprehended in it implicitly which is as much as I look for if it may be deduced thence Howsoever the best of it is that I have reum confitentem that rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief are in some measure the cause of Reprobation but where you have proved these to be the causes he that hath eyes to see let him see I am sure I cannot find it You conclude what you have to say against this Argument thus 3. To the Scripture which he quoteth out of Rom. 9.14 I have spoken to it already and to that in Rom. 11.33 34. it speaketh not at all to that particular business of Reprobation but of that great love and tender respect that God yet hath to Israel for their fathers sake as doth appear from ver 25. and so forward and of the great things which shall be done for them in the latter dayes when their deliverer shall come out of Sion and shall turn away ungodliness from Iacob which great work of God in respect of the manner of it is much mysterious inasmuch as there is so much of the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God that his judgements to us are unsearchable and his waies therein past finding out until the fulness of time shall come that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Isa 11.9 the Lord shal set again his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Shiner and from Hamath and from the Islands of the sea c. ver 11. to the end But here I must break off from saying any more of these things at present for my leisure will not serve and it is likely this man will call this Millenarianism as he calleth the other Pelagianism Answ T is very right Sir you have spoken to that place of Rom. 9.14 but at so pitiful a rate and to so little purpose that the Reader will find it would have stood more with your credit if you had holden your peace And for that place of Rom. 11.33 34. howsoever it mentioneth not Reprobation yet it is a solemn conclusion of the things before delivered in the ninth tenth and eleventh Chapter For the Apostle having spoken of many difficult points as Election Reprobation rejection of the Jews calling of the Gentiles recalling of the Jews and having answered many questions prevented many cavils satisfied many doubts he now sets a period to this discourse with a sad exclamation O the depth c. whereby he signifies that he was driven into a wonderful admiration of the wisdom and knowledge of God in the administration of his love to the elect and displeasure to the Reprobate As a man wading into a deep river that is not fordable when he comes up to the neck and feels the water begins to heave him up and his feet to fail him cries out O the depth c. and goes back so the Apostle having waded so far as he could by the leading of the Spirit in those unfordable mysteries and being almost swallowed up with admiration at Gods administrations unable to pass any further into that bottomless gulf he silenceth himself because the Spirit ceaseth to give him further discoveries and resolves to enter upon no more questions but to admire the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God whose mind i. e. his will and pleasure is no waies to be known of us but by the effects and consequents And I pray learned Sir did I alledge this place to any other purpose then that whereas you and other bold baiards will desperately undertake to assign reasons and external causes for those immanent actings of God we do with fear and reverence ascribe all to the good will and pleasure of God because by that and no way else hath he discovered himself in his word We do plainly see by the effect of it that it was his will so to be else had it not been and therefore we say it was appointed and ordained to be so by his good will and pleasure as for other reasons or causes we see and know none and surely Sir you limit this too narrowly straitning it to the recalling of the Jews which would the scope and purpose of the Apostle beare it yet would it serve sufficiently for my purpose neither should I make any scruple thereby of your turning Millenary for to that and a hundred more of other unstable doctrines are such men of your temper inclined unto being constant onely in inconstancy persisting in nothing but change But whereas you seem to put Millenarianism into the scales as to poise against Pelagianism Sir herein thâ—s far I shall discover my judgement upon them both that a man may be a Millenary I mean in so much as the reign of Christ upon the earth for a thousand years and yet with a charitable interpretation hold all the Articles of the Christian faith and so be eternally saved I know many learned good and gracious men have been of that judgement but for Pelagianism their doctrine is so gross in the whole lump yea so destructive to and inconsistent with the fundamentals of Christian Religion that to be a Pelagian in all their known profest tenets and to live and die so I do much doubt whether any one of them can be saved But what have I to do to judge another mans servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth Rom. 14.4 I have enough to do to attend my own calling but in the mean time to wait what great matters will flow from your wisdom in the rear of all I mean what you have to say to my fourth and last Argument which is as followeth Arg. 4. If the foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation then these absurdities will follow 1. That no child dying in infancy can possibly be Reprobated 2. Neither such Gentiles or Turks Indians and Savages that never head of Christ who never enjoyed the Gospel nor ever had the means tendred unto them for how can they believe in him of whom they never heard Rom. 10. and how can they reject that which was never tendred unto them as many nations in the world who are strangers from the life of God Ephes 2.12 3. If the foresight of sin should be the cause of Reprobation then the Elect should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation as the Reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams Transgression Rom.
and Iohn 12.19 the Pharisees say of Christ Behold the world goeth after him and Mat. 8.34 the whole city went out to meet Christ and Act. 2.5 men of every nation under heaven For as I said before how can it stand with common sense and right reason that in so small a tract of time those inhabitants of the utmost skirts of the world as America Peru Scythia Tartary Brasil Mexico China and other corners of the unknowne world should hear that joyful sound when as neither the Acts make mention of any preregrination to those places nor any Ecclesiastical history gives intelligence thereof yea and when as to Fathers who lived four or five hundred years after Christ both the Indies were then unknown unto them yea and when they came to beat first discovered there appeared not the least footsteps of the knowledge of the true God And therefore the sense can be no otherwise then this that whereas before the coming of Christ the word and promises and oracles of God were appendent onely to the Jewish nation now Christ being manifested in the flesh Acts 17.30 he commandeth all men every where to repent now none were excluded every nation aswel as the Jews might have a share of Christ crucified and according to the commission received from Jesus Christ they should preach the Gospel to them so far as in reason might be expected from so small a company as did undertake that charge and many places of the world they had then gone through And Sir to what you say that if there be such Turks and Gentiles that never heard of Christ if he hath been amongst such he should have preached Christ unto them I must tell you for your better information that the Gospel of it self is not preachable to all had not God expresly commanded Ionas to preach to Niniveh he had not sinned if he had preached to them Sir it is a special mission that gives warrant unto any when and to whom to preach those glad tidings which is not so common to all but peculiar to such where God hath a people to be gathered according to the purpose of election Act. 18.10 Act. 16.7 Mat. 10.5 Act. 16.6 Rom. 10.15 Jer. 23.21 in other cases they are inhibited though they had determined to preach it the Apostle assayed to go into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not yea their commission is limited they may not go into the way of the Gentiles and into the city of Samaria not to enter the Holy Ghost forbids them to preach in Asia and how then shall they preach except they be sent We see by experience in those of your gang that there is a running and no sending And I pray tell me how could any thing of God or Christ in the time of the law be discovered to any in a saving way when as the purpose of God that way was limited to the narrow scantling of the Jewish nation Psal 147.19.20 Amos. 3.4 He shewed his word unto Iacob his statutes and judgements unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any nation c. You onely have I known of all the families of the earth c. No Sir such prankes of preaching the Gospel where they have not a special mission would suit far better with such Itinerants as you are to proselyte the Indians the onely mischief would be this Mat. 23.15 that when you had proselyted them they would be twofold more the children of hell then they were before By what afterwards you write you seem to tread the mizmaze viz. that we receiving what knowledge we have of such upon a report of some history or travellers and therefore that they may hear what we are and do aswel as we hear what they are and do Sir if you look about you there is not the like reciprocal reason for the one as for the other Those travellers you speak of of ours are men of parts and ingenuity and through long pains and difficulties have made new discoveries of several parts of the habitable world but who are the inhabitants surely a people of a strange temper constitution and condition rather like beasts nay Devils than men I mean for some of them nay such as the Prophet speaks of Ezek. 3.5 a people of a strange speech of a hard language and whose words thou canst not understand Canibals Satyres who do really worship the Devil And tell me how shall these reject the means who stand in no capacity to receive it and surely Sir if your will and judgement have so much of obstinacy in them as that they canot take impression by an historical faith of what is delivered from persons of an undoubted integrity I shall much doubt how it will be pliable to the entertayning of a justifying faith He that is unfaithful in the least will be unfaithful also in much Luke 16.10 according to your own instance And to what you say that if they did but delight to retain that God in their knowledge whom we worship and the Lord Jesus Christ in whom we believe But I pray tell me how is this possible for them to have this delight you speak of when perhaps they never heard of the true God nor his Son Jesus Christ and next by whom is any such delight wrought in the hearts of any people but onely by God himself who hath already denyed it to them in his decree And therefore what other means they do enjoy which would require their faithful improvement of them and of their knowledge therein I know of none and if you have found out any if you please to set it down in plain English it will prove a greater discovery then that of America it self unless you mean those constant dayly lecturers the sun moon and stars which in a dumb language preach out the glory of God But the quickest-sighted of all the Astrologers could never read any thing of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the firmament of heaven 1 Cor. 1 23. which is to the Iews a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness the Scriptures wholly ascribing the knowledge of the mystery to the Son of God revealing it from the bosome of the Father and to the Spirit of God but utterly denying so much as a thought of it to any of the greatest or wisest of the world yea unto the blessed Angels themselves 1 Pet. 1.12 But you further say But put case it be granted for Arguments sake that they never heard of Christ why then saith the man how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard from Rom. 10. and how can they reject that which was never tendered unto them Why then I say again how have infants faith for they never heard of Christ as they are new born infants and I say likewise that if those Gentiles he speaketh of never heard of Christ nor yet could notwithstanding all that they could do in the use of that means they
a can or a will I mean power or desire that there is neither of them in professed Christians Phil. 2.13 but what is of Gods own working who giveth both to will and to do according to his good pleasure And as for the heathen instead of doing or any desires thereunto as to good there is nothing but backwardness indisposition aversness yea an enmity against any thing that is really good at least in a saving way But alas what persons or cause is there in the world that are so base and degenerate that cannot suborne some luxuriant tongues to plead their case though never so abominable I have now done with this and so proceed to hear what you can speak for your selfe in the defence of the position from the third absurdity which is this The third absurdity If the foresight of sin should be the cause of reprobation then the elect should be equally lyable to the decree of reprobation as the reprobates themselves they all being alike in the corrupt mass and lump of Adams transgression Answ See how he minceth his argument that he may bring forth absurdities from his own expressions and then father them upon us In the front of his argument he putteth in unbelief and the rejecting of the means but leaveth out the word continuing and now he hath thrust out all except it be this one single term Sin that he may bring reprobation to eternal destruction to the narrow scantling of Adams transgression but that shall never be granted by me until I see a better proof for it than he hath yet brought and I can allow him more Scriptures then he hath set down to his argument Iob 14.4 and 15.14 Psal 51.5 all which together with the Scriptures he bringeth do I confess prove that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with Sin and I deny not but that this pollution or corruption is in a measure from Adams transgression but that any ones being reprobated to everlasting destruction in the lake of fire which is the second death is for Adams transgression I deny for although all the fruits and effects of that sin in the first Adam do accompany us untill we come to the dust from whence we were taken which is Gen. 3.16 17 18 19. Womens sorrow being multiplyed and their conception and bringing forth children in sorrow together with the curse that is upon the ground for mans sake so as that man must eat of it in sorrow all the dayes of his life eating bread in the sweat of his face being accompanied with pain and sickness which are the companions of death till he return to the ground for out of it was he taken for saith God dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return and this was the sentence of that condemnation that God hath pronounced against the first Adam or 1 Cor. 15.27 earthy man and we being then in him when the sin was committed and the sentence pronounced we have our part with him in these things as our portion in this life for the original sin or first transgression But the holy Spirit in Scripture doth no where declare as I could ever yet find nor as any one could ever yet shew me that mans reprobation to the second death is for being in Adams sin nor for sin in their own persons no nor yet for unbelief simply so considered but for continuing in sin and unbelief For if they do repent confess and forsake their sins they shall find mercy and be saved as hath been already proved and if the elect should continue in sin and unbelief and not repent and believe or imbrace the means of Salvation they should be equally lyable to the decree of Reprobation as the reprobates themselves and there would be no difference but they in repenting believing and embracing the means of salvation fall under the unchangeable decree of Gods election so as they cannot miss of salvation as hath been already shewed Answ Truly Sir before this I did not rightly apprehend where the shooe did wring but now I find that it is Original sin that pinches you so sore that you cannot well endure the name of it which had I foreseen I would not have minced any thing in the Argument no not so much as the continuing in sin for howsoever it is that we affirm that Original sin is an hereditary disease which every soul brings with it into the world yet it leaves not a man suddenly no not when he is regenerate but continues to the end of a mans dayes It is the very last enemy of ours that death destroyes so that in respect of this Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet dici beatus Now what you have to say against our doctrine of Original sin I find not much in this your discourse for this you grant First that the whole lump of mankind is polluted with sin and which pollution as you say flows from Adams transgression And secondly that all the fruits and effects of that sin do accompany us till death there is onely then your bare denial that eternal death is not the reward or wages of this sinful pollution the contrary whereof is incumbent on me to prove to make my charge good against you with that third absurdity Now to prove that the first sin of Adam was ours not because he is our father by nature though that be a ground of the imputation also but because he is such a father by Covenant and law the law and Covenant of works being laid in pawn in his hand we are to understand that there be three parts in Original sinne 1. First a partaking of the first sin of Adam we all sinned in him Rom. 5.12 14 15. 2. Secondly the want of the Image of God Rom. 3.23 called the glory of God or original righteousness 3. Thirdly Concupiscence or a bentness or proneness of nature unto sin Rom. 7.7 14 17 23 24. As to the first Adams sin is ours really and truly not so much because it is ours as because it is imputed to be ours by God who so contrived the law of works as that it should be made with Adam not as a single father or person but with Adam as a publique person representing all mankind and having our common nature as a father both by nature and law which came from the meer free-will of God He was as the root and stock of all mankind Rom. 5.19 By one mans disobedience many were made sinners i. e. morally and legally but not physically and personally the fruit and effect of which is death and damnation for Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death not onely temporal or natural death but as the Apostles Antithesis necessarily carries it spiritual and eternal death in opposition to eternal life acquired by Jesus Christ the second Adam Yea and the whole series and purport of the Apostles discourse Rom. 5.12 to ver 19. carries this clear that every mouth may be stopped
run out as leaking vessels and 2 Tim. 2.21 purge themselves from error sin and uncleanness shall be vessels unto honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work And we do find in the Scripture that all those actings of God in a way of mercy in order to the everlasting good of his creature come from him with abundance of willingness freeness and delight for he is a God that delighteth in mercy Mich. 7.18 Answ Sir you onely speak here of Gods not consining himself to any subordinate power but you prosecute not the point as it is laid to your charge We with the Sctiptures do affirm Gods absolute purpose or the good pleasure of his most holy will is the alone cause of non-election or Reprobation and not the rejecting of the means to wit the free tenders of Christ in the Gospel and the continuing in sin and unbelief are not the causes as you assert pretending that if these be not assigned causes then God would be unjust or unmerciful to the creature hereupon we say that if God may not do with his creature what seems best to him in his own eyes without rendring a reason of his actings but that his attributes must be called into question this is to limit and confine the infinite soveraignty that God hath over all the creation and to suffer worms and dust to controll majesty But to this Sir hitherto you have said nothing To what you say of that place 2 Tim. 2.21 that it is the good will and pleasure of our God whosoever they be that delight to embrace the means of salvation and purge themselves from error sin and uncleaneness shall be vessels unto honour is very true and good in that sense it was intended by the Spirit of God but neither true nor good in that sense it is by you applied and made use of For first of all you suppose that it is in their own power to purge themselves from error sin and uncleanness whereas this is Gods peculiar work to purge us from our sins and purely to purge away our dross and to wash us with clean water and to turn us to himself and then we shall be sure to be turned all our strength to performe such a taske is else altogether insufficient Your second couchant error here is that you conceive this purging of themselves will hereby make them vessels of honour but I say this their purging was no cause at all of their being vessels of honour but it was onely a means of the discovery of it wherein they might have comfort and consolation Before even from all eternity by that decree of election they were out of that lump of perdition made vessels unto honour or vessels of mercy which God had afore prepared unto glory but when the times of refreshing come Rom. 9.21.23 Gal. 1.16 Heb. 9.14 and that the Lord is pleased to reveal his son in them and that such his secret decree comes to be put in execution in time by God his giving of faith and repentance and purging their consciences from dead dead works to serve the living God then they shall be vessels unto honour unto their own comfort and to the good example of others Such a manner of speech there is Ioh. 5.8 Herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my Disciples Now they were his Disciples before but the meaning is that by bearing of fruit they should approve themselves both to their own consciences and to the world besides that they were the Disciples of Christ Neither is that which follows altogether so sound where you write But on the other hand in respect of what he doth in the making forth of his justice in the punishment of his creature for sin and impenitency he doth it not until he is provoked thereunto even 2 Chron. 36.16 untill there is no remedy for the Lord is Psal 19.1 and 145.8 slow to anger and of great mercy and hath Ezek. 33.11 no pleasure in the death of the wicked And therefore although that the embracing of the means repenting and believing in Jesus Christ be no procuring ground or cause of any the least mercies we do enjoy yet the continuing in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation is a procuring of punishment see Ier. 2.17 Hast thou not procured this unto thy self in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way also ch 4.18 thy way and thy doings hath procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it reacheth unto thine heart Answ Sir though it be very true that the continuing in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation be the procuring cause of punishment in time but not the cause of the decree of negative reprobation before time Yet where you say that God doth not make forth his justice in punishing until he be provoked Sir I cannot allow you so much to take this universally For tell me if you can how those infants had provoked God in the general deluge Gen. 7. when they were swept away with the rest of the wicked world or those infants in the combustion of Sodom Gen. 19. how had they communicated in pride fulness of bread and idleness with the rest of the citizens or what confederacy was there in those infants in the rebellion of Corah Numb 16. that they descended likewise with their fathers into the pit or how had those women been a provocation whose wombes were shut in the case of Abimelech Gen. 20. 2 Sam. 24.17 or those sheep the people of Israel what had they done when they suffered that havock by the pestilence when seventy thousand men were destroyed No Sir in many cases there is no visible provocation besides the original depravation of corrupt nature which through the want of original righteousness doth justly deserve wrath and punishment In some it is not for any sin either in them or their Parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in them Joh. 9.3 But for other cases take the rest and make the most of them And now to fill up your pamphlet and for want of better stuffe you obtrude upon us a leathern tale of your own observation and this it is And I can yet remember when I have been a hearer of these men which have taken unto themselves the title of Clergy as if they onely were the heritage of the Lord and none besides them speak much to this purpose that God was abundantly more prone to shew mercy than to execute wrath and have earnestly prest their hearers to the use of means calling upon them to be careful to come to Church as they call it and to heare sermons saying thou dost not know when Gods time is therefore give attendance to the means If thou art careless in coming and wilt come but now and then thou mayest be
being kinds of spiritual death and a degree of eternal death and so Adam was spiritually dead whiles he lived as the damned are said to live in death 1. Whether the scope of the Apostle in 1 Cor. 15. from v. 35. to ver 51. be not onely to shew with what manner of bodies we shall arise viz. incorruptible glorious powerful and spiritual but no mention at all either of natural or spiritual death 2. Whether that in that treatise of the resurrection he doth not prove by an Antithesis that as we have our animal or natural life from the first Adam by a natural generation so we have our spiritual life from the second Adam Jesus Christ by a spiritual regeneration but that the order and manner thereof is this we have and enjoy first our natural life by propagation but our spiritual life afterwards by infusion of the spirit 1. Whether the Almighty power of God is not as much exerted in raising of a sinner from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness as it was either in the bringing of Christ from the dead as Eph. 1.20 or in the raising of the body of dead Lazarus from the grave 2. Whether that in both those resurrections viz. either to a spiritual life or to a natural life such who are so raised are not alike passive in their resurection contributing nothing of themselves as to their resurrection 3. Whether that such as do ascribe a liberty to the will for the choosing of good when it is tendered in the outward proposalls of the Gospel do not attribute too much of power and strength and sufficiency to themselves contrary to these places 2 Cor. 3.5 Phil. 2.13 1. Whether God the Father had any other end or designe in giving of or sending his son into the world but onely that he should give eternal life to as many as were given to him of the Father Ioh. 17.2 who were not every mothers son in the world but a peculiar people Tit. 2.14 and to those he shewed his love being his own Ioh. 13.1 and for those he laid down his life Ioh. 15.13 and unto those did he manifest his fathers name Ioh. 17.6 and for those he prayed Ioh. 17.9 and for their sakes was he stricken Isa 53.1 and for their sakes did he sanctifie himself Ioh. 17.19 1. Whether any other than the elect can in any warrantable construction be understood under the term of this word world in these places following viz. Rom. 11.12 2 Cor. 5.19 1 Ioh. 4.14 Ioh. 1.29 Ioh. 3.16 17. Ioh. 4.42 Ioh. 6.33 51. 2. Whether can be understood any other than the reprobate of the world in these places following viz. Ioh. 14.17 22. Ioh. 15.18 19. and 16.20 23. and 17.9 14 25. 1 Cor. 11.32 2 Pet. 2.2 5. 1 Ioh. 3.11 13. 3. Whether the flesh of Christ when dead or Lazarus in the grave were able to resist the omnipotent power of God when either Christ was quickened by the spirit 1 Pet. 3.11 or when the word of command was spoken Lazarus come forth Ioh. 11.43 1. Whether the Scriptures by way of allusion do not make an alike proportion between the necessity of the putting forth an omnipotent power which cannot be resisted Rom. 9.19 in the converting of a sinner unto God or giving them to believe Phil. 1.29 and the raising of one from a natural death to a natural life See Eph. 1.19 20. Rom. 6.4 13. and 8.11 and 11.15 1. Pet. 1.21 2. Whether cannot Omnipotency which said at first let there be light and there was light and gave a creature being out of nothing say as well let there be a will unto conversion and there shall be such a will and by an invincible perswasion remove all reluctancies and oppositions in the will 3. Whether whatsoever God doth or permitteth to be done in time he did not decree to do or permit to be done in the same manner measure and circumstances of time place and persons as they are done before all time 4. Whether that upon a supposition that Peter Paul Iames Iohn c. are absolutely and actually justified and saved in time did not God decree absolutely and actually to justifie and save them before all time 1. Whether those words in the Gospel He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned was not a secret kept hid from the Angels themselves especially for the clear manifestation of it untill that Christ was manifested in the flesh 2. Whether those words are not held forth onely as a Gospel-declaration how a man may know himself capacitated for salvation viz. by believing and that it is no wayes mentioned as to be the substance of the decrees of God though whatsoever therein comes to pass was in reality decreed by God 3. Whether the foreappointing or determining of men to a certain end be not the substance of Predestination 4. Whether all men be not foreappointed or predestinated to a certain end 5. Whether there be any such decrees to be found in the whole Scripture he that believeth shall be elected or he that believeth not shall be reprobated 6. Whether believing be not the effect or part of the execution of the decree of election from eternity and not a cause or a condition drawing after it the decree of election 7. Whether not believing rejecting of the means of salvation and continuing in sin and unbelief be not faults voluntarily proceeding out of the wicked hearts of men who are reprobated from eternity not foreseen as causes of their negative reprobation but onely as causes of their positive reprobation or judicial condemnation 8. Whether that upon a supposition that there were no other decrees of election and non-election then this He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned might it not so come to pass there intervening no irresistible power of God but man left to the supposed liberty of his own will that either no man might be saved or else that no man might be damned 1. Whether God may not in righteousness judge such to blindness who have put out their own eyes 2. Whether God may not in righteousness expect a return of that talent to him which he at first committed to man and if man hath misimployed it or squandred it away may not God in righteousness judge and condemn man for it 3. Whether man in the state of innocency had not a power to do whatsoever God did require of him 4. Whether that power was not onely given to Adam himself but likewise in him to all his posterity had they continued in obedience to the command of God 5. Whether Adam lost not that power both to himself and all his posterity by eating of the forbidden fruit and therefore it is said that in him we have all sinned Rom. 5.18 19. 6. Whether are not the Saints carried on to believe by the Fathers drawing of them to Jesus Christ Iohn 6.44 yet such a
actually saved for if in Christ 1 Cor. 15.22 all are made alive that are alive and that he that is alive liveth unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 then as Christ himself such dye no more sin hath no more dominion over them Rom. 6.9 for they live unto the Lord Rom. 14.8 and 1 Joh. 3.9 his seed remaineth in him Being born again 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Next And Christ rendreth the light of the Spirit of Grace to every man in the world It s true we have some expressions Ioh. 1.9 that Christ lighteth every man that cometh into the world but that is to be understood of the common light of nature or the actings of reason as the two next following verses do evince for the world knew him not and his own received him not they had not the spirit of grace and faith for 2 Thes 3.2 all men have not faith But how doth Christ tender the light of the Spirit of grace to every man surely after that ordinary manner that God hath sanctified to wit the preaching of the Gospel for Rom. 10.14 faith cometh by hearing and how shall they hear without a Preacher then that is apparently false for it is too well known that there are many thousand thousands in the world yea divers nations which never enjoyed the blessing to hear of Christ or the Spirit of grace but Ephes 1.12 lived without a God in this world and at last shall go Psal 49.19 unto the generations of their fathers and never see light If the meaning be that Christ tendreth the light of the spirit of grace inwardly and after an extraordinary manner this is but petitio principii as they say in the Schooles a plain begging of the question without any proof of Scripture or probability in common reason Nay it is flat against the Scripture for Luke 16.19 they have Moses and the Prophets they are to hear them Esa 8.26 to the law and to the testimony c. 2 Pet 1.19 We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place Next God also giveth a Talent to every man and power to improve it but man not improving it when received with a power is the cause of mans destruction Now what weight this talent bears with this Dictator or what power is given unto frail men to improve it and how far and to what or whom either of these talents or power is extended when he hath better studied the point and comes to understand his own meaning if he please then to communicate it he shall be sure to receive a further answer but in the mean time by way of Anticipation if his sense be as I conjecture through his clouded and dark expressions That God hath afforded sufficient means of grace and power to improve that means to every man whereby they may come to the knowledge of the truth and so be saved then I utterly deny it and my ground of such denial rests upon these ensuing Arguments 1. Arg. If God do purposely for the raising of his own glory harden some blind others and make fat the hearts of many then a sufficient means of salvation nor power to use the same is administred to all indifferently But God doth blind some hardens others and makes fat Therefore The major or first proposition is undeniable because blinding hardening and making fat is destructive to the use of means The minor or second proposition is proved from these express texts Ex. 4.21 and 7.3 and 14.4 Rom. 9.18 whom he will he hardeneth Ex. 9.16 and Rom. 9.17 even for this same purpose have I raised thee up Ioh. 12.40 he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts c. Esa 6.9 Rom. 11.7 election hath obtained it the rest are blinded Esa 6.10 make the hearts of this people fat 2. Arg. If God willingly suffers Nations to walk in their own wayes and winkes at or lets them alone in their sins and ignorance then God doth not exhibite a sufficiency of means nor inables them with a power of acceptation of life and salvation But the first is true therefore the latter For the proof of the major is unnecessary for the minor see Acts 14.16 and 17.30 3. Arg. If the preaching of Christ crucified in the doctrine of the Gospel be the onely ordinary sufficient means to bring men to life and to salvation and that many nations never enjoyed that means then God hath not afforded a sufficiency of means to all men but the first is true therefore the latter That the Gospel is the onely ordinary means Rom. 10.14 How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard c. Acts 4.12 there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Ioh. 14.6 No man cometh to the Father but by the Son 1 Ioh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 Tim. 2.5 One mediator between God and man the man Christ Iesus Now that many nations want this means t is too evident and therefore no sufficiency The Seventh Position That Christ hath redeemed all men from the first transgression and crost the score of Adams sin I cannot well interpret what this dreamer means for if his sense should be by way of limitation in all men to all the elect of men then I imbrace his Position and should much enlarge it But I suspect worse that he covertly denies the being of original sin secretly insinuating that the death of Christ hath blotted out Col. 2.14 that hand-writing that was against us from any further imputation of Adams sin or obligation unto punishment onely the guilt and pollution thereof still remains inherent in us However it is I will shoot at rovers and adventure an argument or two in defence of the truth 1. Arg. That unto which the Scripture doth apply the name and nature of sin deserving punishment that without controversie must be sin indeed But unto original sin both the name and nature of sin are applyed in the Scripture Therefore For proof hereof see Psal 81.7 Rom. 5.12 14 16 19. Ioh. 3.6 Rom. 7.7 8. and 8.13 Iam. 1.14 2. Arg. If temporal death hath been the lot of every one which yet hath not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression then there is original sin still in being in respect of punishment for Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death and every sin is either actuall or originall but temporal death hath been the lot of many who yet have not sinned actually Rom. 6.14 and this we may see instanced in the death of Infants which die without actual sin Therefore The last Position is Christ hath laid his life and shed his bloud for