God hath predestinated some persons to salvation and some to damnation without any condition and that these persons the elect making never so great shew of wickedness and walking in the wayes of Belial are still elect and can by no means fall out of their election the other persons having never so many testimonies of godlâ—nesse and walking in the Church of Christ yet can never but be reprobates and if ever they fall away from the Church or truth that they were never truely of it We affirm that God predestinates none to salvation but with condition of the death of Christ and the persons coming to years of discretion faith and repentance and continuance therin to the end to goe before that their salvation nor to damnation but with condition of sin and impenitency therein to goe before that their damnation But our Adversaries being bold and presumptuous speak evill of the things which they neither know nor are walling to understand Onely these two things we further hold in this case First that the former conditions Christ and faith in him are Gods free gifts also infallibly and effectually obtained by the former persons the latter condition impenitency in sin the certain effect of Satans malice and their own corruption being left of God thereunto The second is that other reason why God hath of two alike corrupt in themselvs preordained the former to salvation by the former means and the latter to condemnation by the latter the Scriptures doe not acquaint us with then the meer pleasure of him who hath mercy on whom he will haue mercy and whom he will hee hardneth and who hath loved Iakob and hated Esau to wit in decree the children not bing yet born neither having done either good or evill Secondly we say not that the elect so remain though walking in the wayes of Belial but deny that ever they so walk after their effectual calling though through the remainders of corruption in some more strong then in others they haue not onely their common slidings but often their greater fals from which they recover themselvs by repentance the spirit alwaies lusting against the flesh and they in regard of the Law of their minde and spirituall man not allowing but hating the evill which through the sin dwelling in them they doe Neither on the other side doe the Reprobates ever shew any one much lesse many true testimonies of godlinesse though many seeming such oftentimes both in their own judgments of themselvs and other mens of them He that should challenge a man for affirming that it could not but be light at mid-day nor but be dark at midnight in comparison that he affirmed that it could not but be light at noon though the Sun should not be up nor but be dark at midnight though the Sun were not set should but use slaunderous cavillation even such and no better is their collection upon our assertion Where they add that as all mens estates are one by creation and one by transgression all being dead in sins and that as all are shut up in unbeliefe so he hath mercy on all to wit every particular person alike they mis-interpret the Scripture as hath been formerly shewed mistake the proportion of nature whether by creation or corruption with that of meer grace and are most impious against Gods mercy which they make all one towards Pharaoh and Moses Herod and Paul Besides it should follow hereupon that God hath mercy actually on all and every person in the world in taking away their sinnes and saving them for the Apostle whose words they cite speaks expresly of such an all as obtain mercy that way With like truth do they after affirm from Math. 13 that the sower soweth the seed of salvation upon all It cannot with modesty be denyed but there are and haue been many millions unto whom the Gospell the onely seed of salvation was never preached And as they begin so goe they on with this parable as being of them in whose mouth a parable is like the legs of the lame that are lifted up and like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard As first where by the good seed they understand the seed of salvation or Gospell and by tares false doctrines as if they know the minde of our Saviour better then he himselfe who expresly teacheth that the good seed are the children of the Kingdom so called because they are the heyres of their Fathers Kingdom in which the righteous are to shine forth as the Sun v. 43 and the tares the children of the wicked one which doe iniquity are to be gathered by the Angels in the end of the world and cast into the furnace of fire c. And if the good seed were the Gospell and the tares false doctrines as they transforming persons into things would make them yet is it untruely affirmed by them that the persons of them who receiv the good seed were no better then the other nor the persons of them who receiv the tares any worse then the other That both are alike to wit dead in sin when God offereth the Gospel we willingly grant and are glad to hear them confess but to say they are both alike when the one receivs the Gospell and the other refuseth it and receivs the tares contrary unto it is to say that the good ground and the bad are both alike For what makes them that are alike when the Gospel comes alike unto them not to remain alike stil And what is the reason why the one receivs it and not the other They say because the goodnesse of the Sower first sowed it and therfore he hath cause to praise him onely But say I this goodnesse is alike to both the two in sowing or offering the Gospels seed Whereupon it must follow that he who receivs this good seed hath no more cause to praise God the Sower then he that receivs it not for it is sowen alike on both in regard of outward offer but for the ones receiving of it rather then the other he hath cause to thank himselfe alone and his own freewill And indeed this is the mark at which all those Adversaries arrows are shot But the Scriptures teach us a further thing then these ungratefull persons will acknowledge which is that besides and aboue the offer common to both God giues the encrease to some without which all preaching is nothing even by opening of the heart to attend unto it as he did the heart of Lydia And as persons receiv the word of God into their hearts by his opening them first so in that his gracious work in them hee makes them which were before alike in spirituall consideration to become unlike and better then other and so more beloved then others for the godly qualities as they call them which he hath wrought in them Neither doth the Lord hate onely the works of wicked men as they say but
such Heathenish men of yeares as became Proselytes then of their Infants to be circumcised with them The ground of this errour in so many is that they understand not the true nature of the Gospell and Ordinances thereof The Gospell aymes not at the exacting upon man as made after Gods own image obedience due as a naturall debt from the creature to the Creator as the Law doth but considers him as a most miserable creature drowned in sin and altogether unable to help himselfe neither yet servs it and its Ordinances primarily to declare and manifest what man in right owes and performs to God but what God in mercy purposeth doth and will perform to man being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a joyfull message or glad tydings of salvation by Christ. So to apply this for the baptizing of Infants albeit they on their part can for the present make no manifestation or declaration of obedience or thankfulnesse or any other goodnesse yet sufficeth it for Evangelicall dispensation that God according to the Covenant of grace I will be thy God and the God of thy seed can and will make manifestation and declaration of his gracious minde of washing them with the bloud and spirit of his Son from the guilt and contagion of sin they also being bound in their times to reciprocall duties Let us not think scorn as proud free-willers doe of Gods taking both of us and our infants to be his people going before our or their taking of him to be our God But let us rather magnifie his mercie in this regard both towards us and them ADVERSARIES NExt they undertake to proue that Infants are not regenerate and so not to be baptized Their reason is because they haue not faith and repentance This Regeneration they define to be a turning from sin to God which they would proue from Rom. 6. 11. DEFENCE THE Apostle Rom. 6 speaks not of regeneration it self which is Gods work but of our living to God as an effect therof For as our naturall life is an effect of our first generation or begetting by our parents so is our spirituall life an effect of our regeneration by God and his Word and Spirit Turning from sin is mans work by Gods grace Regeneration is Gods work not mans So for Repentance they roav about it on all sides but scarse touch the true nature of it Repentance to wit Evangelicall required for Baptism in men of years is neither a sight and knowing of sin by the Law for that the wicked also doe nor a confessing of sin for that is outward and follows repentance in the heart nor a sorrow for sin for that goes before it nor a promise to forsake sin for that follows after it as an outward effect no nor yet properly an endevour to forsake it though that come nearest Repentance is properly a growing wise afterwards and changing of the minde from sin to God in the purpose of the heaâ—tâ— having an effectuall endevour to forsake sin accompanying it as the effect thereof Now their argumentation in this place that because Infants haue not faith and repentance to wit actuall and that in manifestation also which are the conditions required in men of years for their Baptism and the inseparable fruits of regeneration therefore they are not regenerate and so not capable of Baptism is as if some idiot would affirm that infants are not born nor to be reputed reasonable creatures nor endued with the faculties of understanding and reason because they make no manifestation thereof no more then bruits doe Their proofs against the Regeneration of Infants thus disproved I manifest the contrary as followeth Christ the Lord teacheth that except a man be born or as the word more properly imports begot again hee cannot enter into Gods Kingdom Either therfore regeneration is to be granted Infants or Gods Kingdom to be denyed them If any say this is meant of men of years onely the Text convinceth him which opposeth the first birth or generation which is of Infants to the second regeneration The first as v. 6 being of the flesh making them so born uncapable of Gods Kingdom without the second by the spirit Secondly they confesse else-where that all by Adams fall haue that weak flesh Rom. 8. 3 by which they cannot keep the Law c. Now I demand whether Infants to be glorified carry this weak flesh hindring thus effectually true holinesse into heaven with them or no If not as is certain then it must be purged out of their soules and hearts as the seat and subject therof But nothing can purge out that which is contrary to holinesse saue the holy Spirit of God the Spirit of regeneration which lusts against the flesh and is contrary unto it either therfore they must be regenerated or not glorified Thirdly the Scriptures teach that by the spirit of Christ which is the spirit of life for righteousnesse dwelling in us our bodies shall be quickned and raised up unto glory Children therefore by their grant being to be raised again and glorified by Christ must haue Christs spirit which is the spirit of sanctification and regeneration dwelling in them Lastly joyn with these things that all are by nature I say by nature with the Apostle not by act alone as say the Adversaries children of wrath having right to wrath as children to their fathers inheritance and therewith that baptism is the lavacher or washing of regeneration it will follow that children if to be freed from the wrath to come and glorified are to be regenerated and baptized also Christ saues and so glorifies his body onely which is the Church which he sanctisies with the washing of water and the word and there is one body and one baptism ADVERSARIES THeir Answers to the Scriptures brought for the baptizing of the Infants of beleevers follow To Act. 2. 38. 39. Repent and be baptized every one of you c. for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are a farre off even as many as the Lord shall call they answer that this is meant of such fathers of the Iews and their children and fathers of the Gentiles and their children as beleev viz. both fathers and children and that by children are oft meant men of yeares in the Scriptures specially Abrahams children DEFENCE THat such are sometimes meant wee grant but deny that meaning in this place And first by them a far off are not meant the Gentiles far off in state as Eph. 2 but the Iews far off in time as the originall carries it Besides neither was Peter himselfe as yet sufficiently perswaded of the calling of the Gentiles Act 10 neither if he had was it as yet seasonable to mention that matter to the Iews Secondly in saying the promise is made to you and your children hee speaks of some solemn promise made to them all and the same to haue its fruit and effect
he that the Spirit makes a materiall print in the soule as a seal doth in Wax Or not this onely that it helps to confirm and comfort a Christian inwardly in the loue of God and hope of salvation And are not the Sacraments outward helps of comfort and confirmation of a beleevers heart in the same loue of God and hope of glory Vpon the same ground that the Apostle cals it a seal inwardly we call them seals outwardly ADVERSARIES TO shew that the Covenant in question was the Covenant of the Law and old Testament and not the covenant of salvation and so Circumcision the seal thereof and not the sign and seal of life and salvation they discourse at large upon Gal. 4 and of the two seeds of Aoraham the one after the flesh unto which the covenant appertained whereunto circumcision was annexed DEFENCE FIrst they err greatly in denying the very Covenant of the Law to haue been the Covenant of life and salvation For the commandement was ordained to life And the man that doth the workes of the Law shall liue in them And if the Law promise not life and salvation then neither doth it threaten death and condemnation The Covenant then is of the same things but the condition divers The Law exacting perfect obedience of and by our selvs the Gospell requiring true faith and repentance which it also worketh in the elect Secondly it is most untrue that Circumcision was the sign or seal of the old Testament or Law taking it properly as they doe The Apostle expresly cals it the seal of the righteousnesse of faith opposed to the righteousnesse of works or of the Law of which more hereafter else where shewing that the same Law was given foure hundred and thirty years after the covenant or promise to Abraham and his seed confirmed before in Christ through the peaching of the Gospel that they which are of faith might be blessed with faithfull Abraham How preposterous are these mens waies who will haue the seal so long before the Covenant Thirdly Circumcision was the seal of that Covenant by which Abraham and his posterity became the Lords peculiar people seperated from all the uncircumcised heathen unto him for his inheritance and therein blessed For blessed is the nation whereof the Lord is God the people that he hath chosen for a possession to himself and blessed is the people whose God is Iehouah Now will these gainsaying spirits have men blessed by the law whether God will or no Saith not the scripture that by the law all are accursed and that as many as are of the works of the law are accursed as being unable to keep it The Covenant then by which Israel became Gods people and therein blessed of which Circumcision was a sign and seal was not the Covenant of the law but of the gospell and so of grace and salvation by grace Lastly how wyde and wilde are they in expounding the allegory of Abrahams two sons Gal. 4 makeing Abrahams children after the flesh the Infants of the faithfull never considering the Apostles generall scope unto which the particulars are to be applyed Doth he in that place deal against the Infants of the Galatians or against the men of yeares though children in knowledg who had begun in the spirit but would be made perfit in the flesh that is would be justified by the law specially by circumcision in the flesh by which they made Christ of none effect and fell from grace Were they Infants to whom he saith Tel mee ye that desire to be under the law c. So where he addeth He that is born after the flesh persequutes him that is born after the spirit doth he mean that Infants are persequuters Or is not his meaning plain that such as glory in the flesh and in circumcision and other fleshly prerogatives and so despise the free promise of grace in Christ and them that rest under it as Ismael did both in truth of person and type of others are these persequuters at all times to be cast out with Ismael as having no right to the inheritance of grace or glory Are the Infants of beleevers to be cast out for their persequutions Out of what I marvail and for what persequutions These men in opening this Allegory or Parable verify that of the Wise-man As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard so is a Parable in the mouth of fooles That the Covenant Gen. 17. whereof circumcision was a sign was the same which we haue now in the Gospell we haue not onely said as they say we haue done but proved by so clear arguments as that had they onely set them down there had needed no further confirmation of them notwithstanding any thing that they could haue excepted But they haue cunningly passed them by in silence as if no such thing were in the book and doe onely repeat over and again the same things with great irksomnes specially to those that haue formerly confuted them ADVERSARIES BVT they tell us that the Covenant under the Gospell is a new and better Covenant then the old c. DEFENCE WE grant it but affirm withall that the Covenant with Abraham was not the Covenant of the law or old testament as they mean The Covenant with Abraham was confirmed of God in Christ that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles thorow Iesus Christ. The Covenant of the Law or old Testament was 400 and thirty years after and was added for transgression til the seed should come to whom the promise was made that is to detect and manifest mens sins and cursed state thereby that so they might fly the more earnestly to the promise of Christ the blessed and blessing Seed made formerly to Abraham Neither do the Scripture in this matter ever oppose Abraham and Christ but Moses and Christ. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth by Iesus Christ. So Hebr. 10 the Law of Moses and Covenant of the Son of God are opposed and Moses made the Mediator of the old testament and Covenant established in the blood of bulls and goats and Christ the mediator of the new by his own blood And I would know of these men where the law is ever called the law of Abraham as it is every where the law of Moses which law or old testament opposed to the new was written and engraven in Tables of stone and had therefore not Abraham but Moses the mediator of it Lastly for the ceremoniall part of the Law old Testament or Covenant the Authour to the Hebrews makes it plain that it was received under the Leviticall Priesthood having a worldly sanctuary and ordinances and divers washings for the purifying of the flesh but not of the conscience from dead workes whereas by the promise and Covenant to Abraham and his seed the blessing of justification came both upon the Iews in their time and Gentiles
is subject to his will and his will is that they should take the medicine The substance of their objection is that God will not and therefore cannot cure men otherwise then by their receiving the medâ—cine offered Christ and his benefits Very true God wâ—ll not nor can so doe by his revealed will which to us is the rule of his power But where they say that Gods power is subject to his will this must be otherwise understood then as they do conceiving it to be of that work of his will by which he appoints others what they shall doe whereas it is to be understood of that work of his will by which he appoints in himselfe what he will doe in or about others As where it is said The Lord is in heaven and doth whatsoever pleaseth him that is whatsoever he wils the meaning is not that he doth or that his power is ruled by what he commands others to doe but by his will or purpose of doing himselfe what pleaseth him God so wils the conversion of all to whom the Gospell comes as to command the same and to approue it where it is but hee wils the conversion of some namely the elect with another and further intention of will setting a work the power of his Spirit in their hearts effectually and as they speak irresistably to convert them by taking away their stony heart and giving them an heart of flesh and by putting his Spirit within them and causing them to walke in his statutes Gods power then is not subject to his commanding will alwaies to work alike where he commands alike but it is subject to his purpose of will in himselfe according to the good pleasure thereof to work or not to work by means of his commanding will The Arguments of proofe distinctly follow 1 Arg. To receiv Christ and his grace is to beleev in him this beleeving or faith by which we are saved is the gift of God and not of our selues So as not onely the medicine it selfe and offer of it but also the hand to receiv it with which is faith and a beleeving heart is Gods gift The Phisition offers and giues to the receiver the medicine but not the heart and hand â—o receiv it but God giues these also to them that doe receiv Christs justification and sanctification and salvation by him If it be said that God giues faith by preaching and exhortation to receiv it though he add no further work I answer that then God giues this gift and grace of faith as well and as much to them that receiv it not but remain still unbeleevers as to them that beleev yea more to many unbeleevers as having more and more excellent outward means then many that receiv it It is therefore absurd to say that God giues faith or to beleev unto him that never beleevs specially faith being such a gift as hath no existence but in the heart of him that beleevs 2 Arg. The Apostle elsewhere pronounceth all men either spirituall or naturall Of the naturall man he testifieth that he doth not nor can discern of themselvs the things of God but that they are foolishness unto him but of the spirituall that he discerns of such things and receivs them The naturall man he neither doth nor can the spiritual he both can and doth What is it then that of the natural makes the spiritual man that can doe these great things the bare publishing and proclaiming of this spirituall and gracious medicine in and by Christ Not so for too many alas remain naturall still to whom the Gospell of grace is very plenteously preached What then Is it his freewill to receiv it to whom it is preached Not so neither for his will is but the will of a naturall man who neither doth nor can discern and receiv the things of God till he become spirituall It is then Gods holy Spirit which he giues to one that hears the Gospell and not to another which makes one hearer spirituall and not another thereby changing both the will and whole man of him to whom he giues it 3 Arg. A third is taken from 1. Cor. 3. 6. 7. Paul plants Apollo waters but God giues the increase And Neither he that planâ—eth is any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the increase The Corinthians did too highly advance the Ministers by them factiously adhered unto as is evident setting them in Christs and Gods place the Apostle thereupon puls them down and sets them in their owne place shewing that except God and a further work then their preaching how sound and excellent soever all â—s nothing But by these mens device there needs no further work of grace from God then the gracious proclamation made by preaching to be received by mans free-will and so Gods further work of giving the increase is quite shut out 4. Arg. When the Iewes Ioh. 6. murmured at Christs words he to stop their mouths and to prevent his Disciples offence-taking sayth that No man commeth unto him except the father which sent him draw him If any say that God drawes men to Christ by the preaching of the Gospell it is true but not to the purpose of the place for so the Iewes were drawn that came not as well as they that came and beleeved There is then requisite that men may come to Christ or beleeue on him a further drawing then that by the outward preaching onely Not that God drawes men as horses draw a cart or by any violence or compulsion against or without their will but that he makes them by the inward work of his Spirit joyned with the outward word of unwilling willing effectually driveing away ignorance and rebellion and so enlightening the minde as to asâ—â—ns and the will to consent 5 Arg. Lastly these adversaries suffering their mercifull Phisition to go no further then the proclaiming offering of the medicine of grace to the sick of sin do therein make many despisers of all grace and goodnes so living and dying and perishing for ever more bound and beholden to God and his grace then many other the most faithfull holy and happy servants of Christ. The reason is plain for that many liveing and dying impenitent haue had the Gospell in a far more full and plenteous manner and measure published and preached unto them with all other outward motives and provocations of grace then many that truely beleev and repent These adversaries to the grace of God would make the faithfull servants of God more Pharisaicall then the Pharisees themselues with whom they consort in divers poynts of their faith The Pharisee that went up with the Publican into the Temple to pray yet thanked God that he was not like other men as extortioners unjust c. nor as the Publican But by these mens doctrine we should thank our selues â—f we be not like the wicked and gracelesse men and not God for God by
in Adam haue sinned and by sin lost the Image of God in which they were made so as the Law is impossible unto them by reason of the flesh and so cannot possibly but sin by reason of the same flesh raigning in the unregenerate and dwelling in all which these light persons expresly confesse in the sequel of this book and that this so comes to passe by Gods holy decree and work of providence answerable not forceing evill upon any but ordering all persons in all actions as the supreme Governour of all and that the wicked being left of God some destitute of the outward means the Gospell all of them of the effectuall work of the Spirit from that weak flesh and naturall corruption daily increased in them sin both necessarily as unable to keep the Law and willingly as having in themselvs the beginning and cause thereof the blindnesse of their own minds and perversenesse of their will and affections and so are inexcuseable in Gods sight Here with the lowd boasts of their large and undenyable proofs they joyn sundry errours As first in making the good things of creation to come from Gods grace viz. for salvation of which our question is The good things of creation the Scriptures account our own and of our selvs ever opposing them to the good things of grace to salvation Secondly they err egregiously in saying that what Adam had in creation and lost by transgression for himself and his posterity that is restored through Christ to wit to all for so the question is By this all should be restored actually into Gods favour haue his image repaired in them and be wholly free from that weak flesh making the Law impossible unto them With like perversnesse doe they misapply to all Adams posterity without difference that which the Apostle speaks of himselfe and other godly Ministers and Christians onely Rom. 8. 3. 4 2 Cor. 3. 5 Phil. 4 13 as any that pleaseth to peruse the places may see Lastly they most absurdly affirm that the flesh through Christ is able to fulfill the Law wheras we fulfill the Law no further then as we kill crucifie and destroy the flesh and lusts thereof by the Spirit ADVERSARIES TO the question Whether a man can doe any thing in the work of his regeneration they answer after much froath of words that faith and repentance is regeneration and that it is most plain as what is not to their peircing eye that even in the work of regeneration man may submit to it or hinder it DEFENCE AN ignorant assertion shewing the ground of their errour in not putting difference between Gods work and mans They may as rightly say that the life and motion of the childe is its begetting To regenerate is nothing else but to beget anew Doth the child beget it selfe Or doth not the parent onely beget it So God begets by the Ministery of the Word and man is begotten by him according to that of the Apostle Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him So Iam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth By these mens doctrine we should beget our selvs of our own will Begetting in creatures is both in nature and time before the being of the begotten Men then before they be must beget themselvs by their saying And as God regenerates and not man so doth man being regenerated beleev and obey and not God Wheras if faith and obedience be regeneration then God beleevs and repents seeing God regenerates Besides as the outward means of regeneration may be and are by too many hindred from working and made unprofitable So where God pleaseth to add to the outward means and motives of the Gospell the inward work of the Spirit of which Spirit we are born or begot anew of the Spirit I say though by the Word by the same Spirit which he puts within them he takes away first what might hinder thier regeneration even their stony heart and giving them a heart of flesh a heart to know God and putting his fear in their hearts and by putting his Spirit in them causing them to walk in his statutes he thereby regenerates them or giues them faith and repentance which they must haue before they can beleev or repent as the childe must haue life before it can liue or doe acts of life and must be generated or begotten before it haue life or being Regeneration therefore goes before faith and repentance This Head they shut with answering three Scriptures The first Math. 22 but mistaken for Luk. 14. 23 which as it is frivolously objected if by any so is it easily answered The second is Ioh. 6. 44. No man can come to me except the Father draw him This is not meant say they of violent compulsion True nor yet onely as they would haue it of outward teaching by heavenly doctrine For thus the Father drew many that came not to Christ whereas hee speaks here of such a drawing as is peculiar to them that come to him who shall never hunger v. 35 and whom he will in no wise cast out v. 37. He speaks not therefore of the outward teaching onely but withall and principally of the inward teaching of the spirit as Esa. 54. 13 Ier. 31. 33. 34 1 Ioh. 2. 27. The most of them whom the Father drew by heavenly doctrine that is to whom Christ preached murmured at him v. 41 this hee reproues vers 43 vers 44 takes away the offence which might arise at the consideration of the small effect which his words had with many considering what he testified of himselfe v. 39. 40 shewing that such was mans perversenesse in spirituall things as that except God to the outward word adjoyned the inward work of the Spirit thereby drawing him his obstinacy could not nor would not be tamed nor he turned to God Lastly to Phil. 2. 13. It is God that works in you both the will and deed after much impertinent discourse and many errours mingled among they answer that God doth this in men by reasons and perswasions that they would chuse life and avoyd death And first they conclude without and against reason that if the regenerate haue power to resist they haue power not to resist which is as if a man should say if a fool can doe foolishly then he can doe wisely or the like Secondly it is a slander upon the Calvinists that they are divided in this point or that any of them affirms that the elect though unregenerate cannot resist good Whilst they are unregenerate they can doe nothing else but resist in spirituall things But God in time as he hath decreed by the spirit of regeneration overcomes their corruption and works in them not to resist but willingly to follow him that calleth them Thirdly I would know what they mean by these phrases of Gods sending his word and spirit to
work our regeneration and again of God by the power of his word and spirit shewing man the benefite of life c. If they consider the spirit onely as the Authour of the word speaking in the men of God why doe they not say the Spirit and the Word rather then as they do the Word and the Spirit Or how doth God send the spirit thus understood to work regeneration in men If they answer that God is ready to giue the spirit and so doth to them that will receiv it first to be ready to giue is not to giue or send secondly they should understand that to be willing to receiv spirituall things is a main fruit and effect of regeneration and therfore not a cause as they mistake For the will thus holily bent presupposeth the understanding divinely enlightned whose direction it follows and without which going before it is blind and brutish Neither can a man possibly will a thing but as he understands it to be good for him If the understanding be divinely inlightned and the will holily bent then the whole man is before regenerated that is begotten before of God by the spirit of regeneration In truth they but speak of Gods sending his Spirit to work in mans regeneration as Senacherib by Rabsakah spake of Gods sending him against Ierusalem He to cover the pride of violence and they to cover the pride of free-will in bending it selfe of itself to receiv grace offered To conclude this Head referring the Reader to the Arguments of conviction formerly laid down I onely add thus much that if God onely bend the will by perswasions of promises and threatnings and works not otherwise then by force of reasons and by using strong arguments and perswasions as they expresly affirm then that whose contrary both the Scriptures and experience confirms would ordinarily come to passe namely that the wise and prudent should haue heavenly things revealed unto them and discern them much more easily and effectually then babes and weak persons and so should be converted sooner then they specially sooner then harlots and light persons considering how much better they mind and understand arguments and reasons of all sorts then the other We therfore conclude with the Apostle that God works in us both the will and the deed not onely by his word working on us but by his Spirit working in us not onely by sending Paul to plant by propounding strong arguments of perswasion but also by giving the increase by the most effectuall work of his Spirit inlightning the eyes of the understanding to see the force of those arguments opening the heart to attend unto them and so writing them in the same heart and most inward parts as they cannot be blotted out CHAP. V. Of the Originall estate of Mankinde THE main question here to be discussed is whether all Infants sinned in Adam and so be guilty of death and condemnation naturally and without mercy in Christ or not This I will proue God willing against them answering and disproving what they bring to the contrary and that in their own order as followeth ADVERSARIES INfants had no life nor being as Adam had at that time when God gaue the Law to Adam and therfore no Law was given unto them and therfore sinned not nor were guilty of condemnation DEFENCE I Grant that infants had then no life and being as Adam had to wit actuall and distinct but affirm that they had both after a sort and as the branches in the root Odegos the guide of the blinde as Rom. 2. 19 affirms pag. 114 that mankind was in Adam in bodily substance they had therfore being in Adam after a sort namely so far as they were in him If they had being in Adam any way they had life also in him for nothing in Adam was dead but all living their being therefore so far as it was in him was a living being We reade Hebr. 7. 9 that Levi payed tithes to Melchisedeck in Abraham But how could this be might one say seeing Levi had then no life and being The Apostle answers that he was in the loyns of his father Abraham when Melchisedeck met him And reason teacheth that none can doe any act but he must first be nor doe it otherwise then as he is Levi therefore then had a kind of being and that living and reasonable also as he performed that act of paying tithes He in Abraham as a particular root Mankind in Adam as in a generall root 2 That Infants had a Law given them I thus proue First the word of God Gen. 2. 17. In the day that thou eatest of the tree of knowledge of good and evill thou shalt die the death shew that whom God threatneth with death to them he gaue the Law The punishment Gen. 3. 17. 18. 19 reacheth to all Adams posterity and so the threatning and by consequence the Law Secondly the Apostle teacheth Rom. 2. 15 that the Law is written in the hearts of the Gentiles according to which Law of nature written in their hearts though they had it not written in tables of stone as the Iews they shall be judged at the day of the Lord v. 15. 16. 17. These Gentiles cannot be imagined to haue this Law thus written any other way then as God in the beginning created Adam and all mankind in him after his Image in righteousnesse and holinesse in which respect also they are said to doe by nature the things contained in the Law having also a naturall conscience in them which without a Law were vain Vnder which generall Law binding the reasonable creature to faith and obedience in all things in disposition before use of discretion and in act afterwards the particular Law Gen. 2 is conteyned and to be referred unto it Thirdly if infants haue reasonable soules then haue they the faculties of understanding and will though not the actuall use of them as men haue This understanding cannot be conceived by any to be without all disposition and pronenesse either to the knowledg of God or to ignorance errour and doubting of him nor this will to bee without all disposition and inclination to will according to or against Gods will As the yong whelps and cubs of Lyons Beares and Foxes haue in their naturall and sensitiue faculties a pronenesse and inclination to raven and every beast pronenesse to the things of its kind after actually performed and practised by them so haue infants necessarily in their reasonable faculties a disposition one or other to understand and will things specially such as concern God by reason of the most naturall necessary and indossolible relation between the reasonable creature and the Creator and that specially in those most noble faculties The objection from Rom. 7. 1 hath in it no colour of truth for neither are there any such words that the Law is given especially onely which must be added to them that know it neither doth the Apostle there intend
at all to shew to whom the Law was given or not but onely that the Christian Church at Rome specially many of them being Iewes as appears chap. 16 to which he wrote was not ignorant of the Law whether generall or particular to which he had reference in that place To Deut. 11. 2 besides things answered by Mr. Ainsworth I adde that Moses there excludes not onely infants but many grown men as appears v. 3. 4. The other two places Matth. 13. 9 and 1 Cor. 10. 15 exclude too many mens of years also considering how few haue ears to hear or understanding to judg aright of spirituall things For the third head and that all sinned in Adam it is so plain from Rom. 5 as they haue nothing at all to answer though they object the place onely they bring certain other Scriptures in such a manner as if they would disproue one Scripture by another And indeed what exposition can be given or evasion found considering the expressenes of the words As by one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne so death passed upon all men for that or as the originall hath it in whom all men haue sinned So v. 19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners c. If they say as some doe that all are made sinners by imitation onely they are clearly confuted first by daily experience in which it is plain that children comming to some discerning will lie filch and revenge themselvs though they never heard lie told c. It is alas too evident that they bring this corruption into the world with them Secondly by the Apostles words v. 19 For as by ones mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If wee bee made unrighteous onely by imitation of Adams sin and not by his performing it as our root naturally then we are made righteous onely by imitation of Christs righteousnesse and not by his performing righteousnesse and fulfilling the Law for us as our spirituall root in which wee are grafted by faith Lastly these Adversaries grant that by Adams sin all his posterity haue weak natures by which when the commandement comes they cannot obey and liue but sin and so die Rom. 8. 3. Can they which are accustomed to doe evill doe well Or will these men never leav their godlesse custom of corrupting the words of the text for advantaging of an evill cause For flesh which the Text hath they put nature wheras it is without all question that by flesh the Apostle there understands properly sin and sinfull flesh as he expresly calleth it and as is plain in the whole context v. 1. 2. 4. 5. 6. 7 c. In all which hee opposeth the flesh to the spirit and the sinfull life of the one to the righteous life of the other And I would know of these deep Divines what but sin could possibly make Adams posterity unable to keep the Law This flesh or nature as they will haue it must be contrary to this good and holy Law and resist it And is not that properly sinfull and unholy which resists and is contrary to that which is good and holy Lastly this enemy to the Law of God in a man must be in his soule And what else can it be then a disposition in the understanding to ignorance and errour touching God and heavenly things and an inclination in the will and affections to evill Which is as properly sinne as their acts and effects are properly sinfull Infants therefore bring sin properly into the world with them Two things they here object First that Christ often accounts children innocents as Math. 18. 3. 4 19. 14. I answer first not as they mean that is such as haue in them nothing vertuous or vitious good or evill but as being humble and without pride and such as unto whom the Kingdom of God and his blessing did appertain Secondly He speaks not of all children but of those of and in the Church Their second objection is that our soules being the subjects of sin are created of God imediately But to this objection they that referrs the soules originall imediately to Gods supernaturall and indeed miraculous work do giue divers answers which these Adversaries should haue refuted Amongst others Mr. Ainsworths answer is worthy the consideration But let us consider their proofs for the soules immediate creation The first is Act. 17. 26 Of one bloud God made all mankind c. But this place makes rather against them seeing the body alone makes not mankind but the soule with it by which specially the man is The next place is Heb. 12. 9 whence they gather that Adam is the Father of our bodies and God the Father of our Spirits But first the Text neither mentions Adam nor can agree to him in the state of creation seeing in that estate there was no use of correction Secondly it saith not the fathers of our bodies but of our flesh nor the father of our Spirits but of Spirits And the meaning seems unto me with due respect had to other mens different judgment onely to be this that if we giue honour to men our carnall or fleshly fathers chastening us as they think good how much more owe honour to our spirituall father chastening us for our eternall good And surely God in his kinde is the father of the whole man not of the soule onely So is man in his kinde the father of the whole man and not of the body onely Lastly seeing the drift of the place is to shew that God as a father chasteneth his sons which he loveth and on the contrary that they that are not chastened are not sons and so haue not God for their Father I see not how the Apostle can speak of the creation of soules seeing in that respect wicked and godly children and bastards haue God alike their father The Preacher ch 12. 7 speaks of the manner of the creation of the first man Adam onely but no more proues that our soules or spirits are created by God imediately then that our bodies are made of dust immediately That ch 8. 8 hath no colour of proof in it Against our fourth and last assertion that all by Adams sin are guilty of death Rom. 5. 12 they cavill that we were not in Adam to bring any soule to hell for the breach of that commandemant Thou shalt not eat Where first to passe by their incongruity of speech they free Adam himselfe from the guilt of condemnation of which our question is as well as his posterity by that his sin seeing it brought not him himself to hell But secondly for the thing it selfe They grant acording to the Scriptures that death as a part of the curse came over all Adams posterity for his sin And will they then deny that eternall death was also due by the same law of justice Is
as in a generall root was so conceived and brought forth by his mother in sin Secondly it is one thing to be conceived and born in sin another thing to be made of sin The former David affirms of himself the latter they vainly impute to us and refute in us with many words That Infants are under condemnation that is naturally guilty thereof hath been formerly proved that actuall faith in Christ is required for their reconciliation to God doth not follow hereupon Actuall I say for the seed of faith they haue and of all graces for but by Gods holy Spirit in them which carries all graces with it they cannot be holy and so not bee glorified if they be not holy first but that hereupon they need actuall faith is their saying without proof Actuall sins indeed require actuall faith but for sin in disposit on called originall why may not faith in disposition suffice through the mercy of God for the applying of it About the Infants of Sodom and Gomorrah they discourse marvellously as first in ranking them in their deaths with unreasonable creatures in theirs secondly in making them not onely innocent but godly also The Scriptures teach that besides the temporary death those Cities suffer the vengeance of eternall fire Let them proue children not to haue been of those Cities If God exempted them or any of them from that vengeance it was not for any condition cōmon to them with bruit beasts as they insinuate but with respect to Christ besides whom the Scriptures acknowledg no other Saviour nor no other salvation but by him ADVERSARIES TO a question moved by themselves What need Infants haue of Christ if they be not under condemnation they answer that through his redemption they liue and moue and haue their being and injoy all other earthly blessings with resurrection from the dead and glorification 1 Cor. 15. 12. DEFENCE THus they make Christ and Infants amends But how proue they that by Christs redemption they liue moue c The Scripture Act. 17 to which they haue reference is meant of the naturall life of all by Gods work of creation and providence which is nothing but continuation of creation and nothing at all to Christ as Redeemer The redemption for which Christ came is from sin and so from the curse due for sin as the Scriptures every where testifie The first Adam was made a living soule the last Adam a quickning spirit We haue therfore our naturall life motion and being common to Heathens with Christians by the first Adam our spirituall and glorious life by the second Lastly the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 15. 22 In Christ shall all be made aliue speaks onely of all beleevers as is evident v. 14. 17. 18. 19 who haue Christ for the first fruits and are Christs v. 20. 23. Are any Christs but Christians Is not the lump and the first fruits one Men should haue risen again though Christ had never come or been promised but to condemnation Our resurrection onely in regard of the glory of it is from Christs glorious resurrection And if Infants haue glorification from Christ then they haue the pardon of sinne from Christ also 1 Cor. 15. 17. 23 and therewith his Spirit dwelling in them for sanctifying and quickning them Rom. 8. 9. 10. 11. These men divide Chrst making him a King to some for glorification to whom hee is not a Priest for redemption by his bloud Next to a question by themselvs moved How wee must haue the Son they answer by keeping his commandements forgetting faith by which alone we receiv Christ from which followeth loue purity of heart and obedience Which faith hath more properly the consideration of a condition as a hand to receiv a promise then of an act of obedience to a commandment It is true being rightly understood which they add that repentance is of all sin to wit particularly of all sins known and generally of sins unknown For Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret faults said he that observed and knew his wayes better then either these men or I. Doe they think nothing amisse slips from them in thought word or deed or ever hath done whereof they doe not or haue not repented particularly Is their knowledge so perfect as they need not pray for further enlightning as Eph. 1. 17. 18 Are they certain they are ignorant of and erre in nothing in the Scriptures written for their bearning This their book sufficiently reproues their Pharisaicall dream of perfection Where speaking of Idolatry they affirm that God cannot bee worshipped after a false manner they expresly contradict the Scripture saying The people did sacrifice still in the high places yet unto the Lord their God onely Here was worshipping the true God and him onely and yet after a false manner in a respect The same the Apostle teacheth the Athenians The God whom you ignorantly worship declare I unto you When Papists direct their prayers to God the maker of the world and father of Iesus Christ hoping the rather to be heard by means of the Virgin Maries intercession who doubts but they worship the true God but in a false manner Neither doth Deut. 18. 20 proue the sin one of speaking in the name of a false God and speaking falsehood in the name of a true God but divers though both deserving death Next they in their wilde order come to treat of Faith where they affirm that no man can haue faith to justification before he haue repented If they had sayd that no man hath the grace or habit of faith before the grace of repentance it had been true God by the spirit of regeneration infusing the habits of all graces at once But that the act and exercise of faith in beleeving is before our repenting appears both by Scripture and common sense We liue the life of Christ wherof our repenting is a part by the faith of the Sonne of God God purifieth the heart by faith and justifies the ungodly by his faith In all which it is plain that faith hath the preheminence and first work So 2 Cor. 7. 10 Godly sorrow workes repentance Repentance then presupposeth godly sorrow Godly sorrow or whatsoever is truely godly must needs please God which without faith no man can doe but even every thing is sin Faith working that which worketh repentance must goe before it Secondly godly sorrow is not onely for the fear of punishment for so the devils are sorrie but for the offence of God specially Now none can be sorrie for his offending God except he loue God nor loue him except he know first that he bee loved of him in Christ in which faith consisteth We beleev therefore before we repent in the truth of the thing and order of causes though we can hardly discern this order in our own sense CHAP. VI. Of Baptisme IN the next place they come to
the Covenant of the Gospell solemnly made with our father Abraham long before the Law was given the old Testament established or Moses born Their discourse about Rome is vain except they can proue that the outward baptism there administred though unlawfully is not to be reteyned by such as unto whom the Lord afterward vouchsafeth the inward baptism of his spirit and so answer our Reasons to the contrary which they haue and haue had so long time in their hands These things thus cleared it remaines we come in the next last place to examine their defence of that their own unhallowed baptism in use amongst them formerly proved by me a mere nullity by their grounds and practise set together Their ground is that baptism unlawfully ministred is no baptism their practise that he who ministring his gift poorely as their manner is doth convert in truth pervert another may also baptize him without any speciall calling For foundation of my proofs I laid down these two Rules 1. There is no lawfull baptism but by him that hath a lawfull calling to baptize 1. Thess. 4. 11. Heb. 5. 4. 5. And unto this they assent 2. Onely he hath a lawfull ordinary calling to baptize and extraordinary they challeng not who is called therto by the Church This their first rebaptizer Mr. Smith had not neyther haue they that now administer baptism amongst them neither doe they account that more is requisite for power and right to baptize then a personall gift of teaching and making thereby one of their Proselites and supposed converts Whereupon it follows that they themselvs being baptized by such as want a lawfull calling are not lawfully baptized and so by the verdict of their own quest unbaptized persons Their defence they begin with the perverting both of my words and meaning very unhonestly in setting down the state of the question which yet seems not strang unto me considering their licentious dealing in like sort with the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures They frame the question whether any but Pastors or Elders may baptize and my charge upon them that they are unbaptized because they want Pastors But where haue I so spoken or how gather they that to haue been my meaning had it so been why could I not as easily haue said that none but Pastors for of baptism by others Elders which labour not in the word and doctrine we approve not may lawfully baptize as that none but such as are lawfully called by the Church may baptize which are my words My meaning was not to deny that a Church wanting Pastors may appoint a member able to teach though out of office to baptize for which much may be said and hath been by some so minded Which though I doe not simply approve of yet neyther did neither had I occasion ro deal thereagainst but onely against the wilde course of these All-alikes of whom any that can wrest a few Scriptures intended of men of yeares onely against the baptizing of Infants to the corrupting of some simple man or woman thinks himself another Iohn Baptist as their practise and profession manifests Now whether they haue thus altered my words and perverted my meaning out of bold rashnes as being more hasty to answer then to understand their adversarie or out of cunning for their advantage the Lord and themselvs bee Iudges Onely this any may see and I shall make appeare that the most and most colourable of their Arguments are against their misconceaved and not mine intended sense which gives occasion to suspect that they haue rather been cunning then carelesse in the thing ADVERSARIES LET us come to the particulars and first to their first and main ground and foundation of their course which is that members and Churches of Christ are made both by faith and baptism and not by the one onely DEFENCE THIS their foundation in respect of baptism is sandy seeing it servs but to signifie and confirm what was before but makes nothing to be that was not The Scriptures being many cited by them are partly impertinent and partly against them some of them expresly and the rest truely Some of them indeed speak of being baptized into Christ and into his death and into one body with him and make baptism a foundation but mean not 〈◊〉 to shew that men are made Christian soules by baptism as ignorant persons think and speak but onely that they are confirmed and furthered thereby in that which they were before Some of the places joyn with baptism the Lords Supper others the laying on of hands which yet rather is meant of the doctrine then ministration of those things Now doe they conceaue that such as were no true Christians before are in part made Christians by the Lords Supper and laying on of hands When the Scriptures affirm any thing of an ordinance they must be interpreted according to the nature of the ordimance As where Christ saith of the bread This is my body or of the rock And the rock was Christ or the Apostle here that we are baptized into Christ and draw neer unto Christ by baptism and the like we must understand the speaches as sacramentall so far as they are applied to ordinances that is as intending those things for signes and seales and means of confirmation and not otherwise Others of the Scriptures brought by them are so plainly against them as it is marvail that in setting them down they thought not of the Lords answer to the evill servant Luke 19. 22. For example Math. 28. 19. Go teach or as they well turn it make all nations disciples baptizing them c. The Apostles then were first to make to wit by their teaching disciples that is Christians and after to baptize them Is it not the Scriptures constant voice and these mens plea true in it self but to a wrong end that men must first beleeue and repent and upon manifestation thereof be baptized Are not they that beleev and repent Christians with them Otherwise How doe they baptize them But thus it is with men in all sects that are lead by passion and appetite more then reason they doatupon some one thing truly or apparantly good and labor aboue measure to magnifie it esteeming all things without it as nothing Thus these men esteem of baptism others of Church government others of seperation others of imposition of hands by Bishops And so according as men haue advantage by particulars or suffer for them or are otherwise prejudiced towards them they set high valuation upon them But as grace teacheth us to acknowledg better things in Christians then any outward ordinances so must wisdom warn us not to ascribe too much to any one as fond folks use to doe to the person or thing which they affect Math. 18. 20 is against them To be gathered together in Christs name there presupposes a Church state So is Io◠4. 1. Christ made and baptized disciples they were made disciples by preaching