and setting up our own imaginations if not prejudices for the oracles of God If this were well thought of it would infallibly set a period to all further disputes on this subject And the proposition which I have last set down from you is so irrefragably convincing that I hope it may be successful to so good an end and all men that read it resolve it their duty to preach no other Decrees of God from Scripture but this that all that receive the Gospel preached and live according to the praescript rule thereof for that is to receive Christ as there he is offered to them as a Lord and Saviour shall be saved and all they that reject it when it is thus revealed or live in contradiction to the terms whereon it is established shall be damned This would probably change curiosity into industry unprofitable disquisitions into the search and trying of our own wayes and working out our own salvation § 39. To this proposition if it shall be granted you annex two Corollaries and I that have not onely yielded but challenged the undoubted truth of the Proposition can make no question of the Corollaries The first is this § 40. That it will be impossible to maintain the Doctrine of Vniversal Grace in that manner as the Remonstrants are said to assert it against the objection which is usually made by their adversaries how evangelical Grace can be offer'd to such nations or persons as never had the Gospel preached unto them § 41. The truth of this Corollary as of all other must be judged of by the dependence from the Principle the connexion it hath with the former proposition That spake of the Decrees as they are set forth in Scripture and of the condition required of them that are elected to salvation receiving Christ preached as he is offered in the Gospel and accordingly it is most evident that they that will found their Doctrine on Scripture must find not onely difficulty but impossibility to maintain the gift of evangelicall Grace which I suppose to be a supernaturall power to believe and obey the Gospel to those to whom the Gospel hath never been revealed What the Remonstrants are said to assert in this matter I shall forbear to examine because I design not to engage in any controversie at this time with any onely as on one side it is evident that their adversaries can receive no benefit by the objection the salvability of all to whom the Gospel is preached being as contrary to their Doctrine of onely the Elect as it would be if extended to the heathens also all Christians being not with them in the number of the Elect so on the other side I should think it strange that in our present notion of Evangelical grace for a strength from God to receive and obey the Gospel preached it should by the Remonstrants or any other be affirmed from Scripture that it is given or offered to those to whom the Gospel hath not been revealed S. Paul stiles the Gospel the power of God unto salvation and the preaching of it the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administration of the spirit and indeed the spirit is in Scripture promised onely to them who believe in Christ and therefore speaking of what may be maintained by Scripture and confining the speech to evangelical Grace the Universality of it can no farther be by that maintained to extend then to those to whom the Gospel is preached for if Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word i. e. preaching the Gospel it must follow they cannot believe and so have not Evangelical Grace or strength to believe without a Preacher § 42. And therefore I remember the Learned Bishop of Sarisbury Doctor Davenant in his Lent Sermon I think the last he preached before the King declared his opinion to be as for Vniversal Redemption so for Vniversal Grace within the Church and as for this he was I think by none accounted an Arminian so I never heard any that was of the Remonstrant perswasions unsatisfied with the scantness of that declaration but thought it as much as speaking of Grace in the Scripture notion of it evangelical Grace could with any reason be required of him § 43. As for the state and condition of heathens to whom the Gospel is not revealed and yet it is no fault of theirs that it is not as all those that lived before Christ and many since as it is evident the Scripture was not delivered to them nor consequently gave to us Christians rules for the judging of them so it is most reasonable which you add in your second Corollary which is this § 44. That into the consideration of Gods Decrees such nations or persons are not at all to be taken as never heard of the Gospel but they are to be left wholly to the judgement of God since he hath not thought fit to reveal to us any certainty concerning their condition but reserved it to himself amongst his other secret counsels the reasons of his wonderful and unsearchable dispensations in that kind To which I most willingly subscribe in every tittle and challenge it as the just debt to the force of that reason that shines in it that no man pass fatall decretory sentences on so great a part of mankind by force of those rules which they never heard of nor without hearing could possibly know that they were to be sentenced by them And this the rather upon four considerations which Scripture assures us of First that as all men were dead in Adam so Christ died for all that were thus dead for every man even for those that deny him and finally perish which as it must needs extend and be intended by him that thus tasted death for them to the benefit of those that knew him not for if he died for them that deny him why not for them that are less guilty as having never heard of him especially when 't is not the Revelation of Christ to which the Redemption is affixt but his Death so the certain truth of this is most expresly revealed and frequently inculcated in the Scripture though nothing be there found of Gods decrees concerning them upon this ground especially that no person of what nation soever should have any prejudice to Christian Religion when it should be first revealed to him when he finds his interest so expresly provided for by so gracious a Redeemer who if he had not dyed for every man 't were impossible for any Preacher to assure an Infidel that he dyed for him or propose any constringent reason to him why he should believe on him for salvation To this it is consequent that whatsoever Gods unrevealed wayes are to deal with any heathen what degree of repentance from Dead works obedience or performance soever he accept from them this must needs be founded in the Covenant made with mankind in Christ which you most truly have established there being no other name under heaven
And that all these Decrees are according to our weak manner of understanding the way of Gods counsells salva coexistentiâ praesentialitate rerum omnium in mente divinâ ab aeterno antecedent to the decrees of Election and Reprobation To this also I fully assent both as to the truth and fulness of the expression in every part especially in that of Gods entring with mankind without any restraint the new Covenant founded in Christ of the conditionateness of the promises of that new Evangelical Covenant of repentance and new obedience together with faith in Christ making up that compleat condition of the antecedency of this Covenant in Christ and the command of publishing it throughout the world to the decrees of Election and Reprobation which seems to me to be expresly set down from Christs words Mar. xvi 15 16. And he said unto them Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shal be damned which evidently founds those two decrees in the precedaneous preaching and mens receiving or rejecting of the Gospel § 32. And when the Gospels are all so express in setting down that command of Christ to his Apostles of preaching the Gospel to all the world to the whole Creation i. e the whole Gentile as well as Jewish world and the travels of the Apostles witness their obedience to it and when the command of Christ is equivalent with a decree and his giving of that in time an evidence of its being by him predestin'd from all eternity it is very strange that this should be denyed or questioned by the Calvinists or the Arminians rejected by them when in effect they do but repeat Christs own words who if he gave command to publish the Gospel to all then must the publishing of the Gospel be matter of a general decree there being no other so sure a way of discerning what was ab aeterno predestined by God in his secret counsel as the Scriptures telling us what was by the Father or Christ in time actually commanded § 33. Thus far and no farther reach those which you own to be your present opinions and pronounce of them that you are so far convinced from the phrases and expressions frequent in Scripture that you cannot but own them as such And then let me tell you it were very happy that all men would agree in these and yet more happy it instead of more curious enquiries they would sit down and betake themselves uniformly and vigorously to that task which theâ—e data bind indispensably upon them and which is of that weight that it may well imploy the remainder of their lives to perform it to purpose I mean the work of Evangelical obedience the condition of the new Covenant without which the capability of pardon and salvation which was purchased for mankind in general and for every man shall never be actuated to any § 34. Beyond these therefore what you add you acknowledge to be but conjectures which though to you they seem not improbable yet you profess to maintain your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Scepticisme in them And if in any of these I should on the same terms of conjecture or seeming probability differ from you this still were fully to accord with you in the general viz. the suspension of belief and proceeding no farther then conjectures in these things What the issue will be shall now be speedily experimented by proceeding to a view of them remembring still that you propose them but as conjectures § 35. The first is That the object of the decrees of Election and Reprobation as they are set forth in the Scripture seemeth to you to be man preached unto Those being elected to eternal life who receive Christ as he is offer'd to them in the Gospel viz. as their Lord and Saviour and those reprobated who do not so receive him Herein I not onely perfectly agree with you but more then so I do think it an unquestionable truth which carries it's evidence along with it and so will be acknowledged by any that observes the limitation by you affixt to the subject of the proposition the object of the decrees as they are set forth in the Scripture For he that shall but consider that the holy Scripture is a donative afforded us by God and designed for our eternal advantages not to enable us to judge of others but our selves not to discover all the unsearchable recesses of his closet or secret counsels abs condita Domino Deo nostro but to reveal to men those truths which themselves are concern'd in would make no difficulty to conclude that the Scripture speaks onely of those to whom it speaks and as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. v. 12. What hath he to do to judge them that are without leaving them wholly to Gods judgement so doth the Scripture declare Gods dealing onely with those to whom the Scripture comes to whom some way or other whether by writing or preaching it matters not the Gospel of Christ is revealed § 36. This as it appears by innumerable evidences in the Scripture so it is put beyond all dispute by that even now recited text at Christs farewell Mar. xvi his commission to his Apostles and declaration of the fixed determin'd consequences of it an express transcript of Gods eternal destinations or decrees in that matter Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned In which words what can be the meaning of shall be saved and shall be damned but this that God hath decreed salvation and damnation to such Those therefore are the object of those divine decrees who are the subject of that proposition and those are evidently men preached to of which some believe and are baptized and those have their parts in the first decree that of election to salvation some reject the Gospel and believe not and those fall under the second branch that of rejection to Damnation § 37. Against the evidence of this no opposition can be made and to this it is undeniably consequent that all the Decrees whereof Scripture treateth are conditionate receiving Christ as the Gospel offers him as Lord and Saviour the former as well as the latter being the condition of Scripture-election and the rejecting or not receiving him thus the condition of the Scripture-reprobation § 38. As for any other which can be phansied distant from this and so all absolute Election or inconditionate Reprobation it must needs be resolved to be the meer invention and fabrick of mens brains without the duct of Gods Spirit in Scripture which if at least it hold not a strict analogy with that which the Scripture hath thus revealed to us will never be excused from great temerity and the sin of dogmatizing the rifling Gods secrets
effectuall work of Grace be not some natural quality of the man for if so then the efficacy of grace will be imputed to these natural or moral preparations which is grosly prejudicial to the grace of God and to the owing of all our good to his supernatural operations the answer is obvious and unquestionable that this I shall call it Evangelical temper is far from being natural to any corrupt child of Adam where ever 't is met with 't is a special plant of Gods planting a work of his preparing softning preventing Grace and as much imputable to the operation of his holy Spirit as any effect of his subsequent or cooperating Grace is which I challenge to be the meaning of those words of Christ Joh. vi 37. All that my Father giveth me shall come to me where such as these are first fitted by God and then by him are said to be given to Christ works of his finger his spirit and then by the authour of them presented to Christ as the persons rightly disposed for his discipleship and his kingdome in mens hearts and this work of Gods in fitting them is there called his drawing of them to Christ v. 44. and as there it is said that none but such can come to Christ so vers 37. all such shall come to him which is an evidence that the coming wherein the effectualness of the grace consists is imputable to this temper wrought in them by God And if still it be demanded why this is not wrought in all Christians hearts I answer finally that the onely reason the Scripture teaches us is because some resist that spirit that is graciously given by God and purposely designed to work it in them § 64. And if it still be suggested that some are naturally more proud and refractary and voluptuously disposed then others an effect of their temper owing oft to their immediate parents who may transfuse their depravations and corruptions immediately to their children as well as Adam hath done to us all mediately and so a greater degree of grace will be necessary to the humbling and mollifying them and a lower which might be sufficient for meeker tempers will be unsufficient for them and so still these are as infallibly excluded and barred out as if it were by a fatal decree passing them by in Massa this will be also satisfied by resolving that God in his wise disposals and abundant mercies proportioned according to mens wants gives a greater degree of preventing Grace to such as he sees to be naturally in greatest need of it or els applies it so advantageously by congruous timing as he knows is sufficient even to them to remove these naturall obstacles but all this to them as to others resistibly still and so as though it succeed sometimes yet is frequently resisted § 65. By this means he that is proud and obstinate and continues and holds out such against all the softning preparations of heaven sufficient to have wrought a kindlier temper in him being so ill qualified for the holy spirit of discipline is not converted but hardened by the same or equall means of the word and grace by which the humble is converted and then replenished with higher degrees And when the Scripture is so favourable to this notion saying expresly that God chooses one and not the other gives more grace to one and from the other takes away that which he hath resists the proud when they refuse discipline speaks to them onely in parables because seeing they see not i. e. resist and frustrate Gods preventing graces and infinite the like why may not this rather be the Scripture-election then that other which seems not to have any at least not so visible grounds in it § 66. Should this be but a Conjecture too it is not the less fit for this place where our discourse hath been of such and the onely seasonable inquiry is either 1. which is of probables the most or of improbables the least such and that I suppose is competently shew'd already or 2. which may be most safe and least noxious in case it should fail of exact truth § 67. On which occasion I shall add but this that the onely consequence naturally arising from this Scheme is that we make our elections after the pattern of God choose humility and probity and avert pride and hypocrisie that before all things in the world every man think himself highly concerned 1. not to resist or frustrate Gods preventing Graces but chearfully to receive cooperate and improve them to pray and labour and attend and watch all opportunities of Grace and Providence to work humility and probity in his heart impatience of sin and hungring and thirsting after righteousness as the onely soyle wherein the Gospel will ever thrive to begin his discipleship with repentance from dead works and not with assurance of his election and salvation to set out early and resolutely without procrastinating or looking back Luk. ix 62. and 2. if he hath overslipt such opportunities to bewail and retrive them betimes lest he be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and 3. whatsoever good he shal ever advance to by the strength of Gods sanctifying and assisting grace to remember with the utmost gratitude how nothing hath been imputable to himself in the whole work but from the beginning to the end all due to supernatural Grace the foundation particularly that which if it be the most imperfect is yet the most necessary part of the building and the sure laying of which tends extremely to the stability of the whole laid in Gods preventions cultivating our nature and fitting us with capacities of his higher donatives And what can less prejudice nay more tend to the glory of his grace then this § 68. Whereas the other Scheme as it takes special care to attribute all the work of conversion to Grace and withall not so to limit that communicative spring as to leave any destitute of a sufficient portion of it in which respect I have nothing really to object against it if it could but approve it self by Gods word to be the Truth so when it bears not any such impress of Divine Character upon it it may not be amiss to consider Whether he that is perswaded that the sufficient Grace is such as may and as some set it God sees will never do any man good without the addition of his superesfluence which he affords to few and that if that come it will infallibly do the work if it come not he is so past by as to be reprobated by God may not have some temptations to despair on one side and not do his utmost to cooperate with that sufficient Grace which is allowed him and so with the fool in Ecclesiastes fold his hands together till he comes to eat his own flesh or els to presume on the other side and expect securely till the coming of the congruous good time of Gods choice which
apostacy now become the son of perdition was by God given to Christ and therefore he came to Christ i. e. was converted which also his being lost his very Apostacy testifies for how could he Apostatize from Christ that was never come to him From hence it seems to me necessary either to interpret your speech of final perseverance as if none were effectually converted but such who persevere which as it belongs to another question that of perseverance to which you after proceed and not to this of reconciling irresistibility and free will so it would seem to state it otherwise then I perceive you afterwards do or to avoid that to understand no more by Judas and Peter then any other two names suppose Robert and Richard John at Noke and John at Stile as you since tell me your meaning was the one converted effectually i. e. really the other not when both are supposed to have the same outward means of conversion equally applied to them § 82. Now to the question thus set of any two and supposing what hath been granted between you and me that the outward means are accompanyed to both with a sufficient measure of inward Grace My answer you discern already that the Discrimination comes immediately from one mans resisting sufficient Grace which the other doth not resist but makes use of In this should I add no more there could be no difficulty because as it is from corruption and liberty to do evil that meeting with the resistibility of this sufficient grace that one resists it so it is wholly from the work of Grace upon an obedient heart that the other is converted And so this stating ascribes all the good to the work of Grace i. e. to that power which by supernatural Grace is given him and all the ill to man and his liberty or ability to resist § 83. But from what hath been said there is yet more to be added viz. that the obedience of the one to the call of Grace when the other supposed to have sufficient if not an equal measure obeyes not may reasonably be imputed to the humble malleable melting temper which the other wanted and that again owing to the preventing Graces of God and not to the naturall probity or free will of Man whereas the other having resisted those preparing Graces or not made use of them lyeth under some degree of obduration pride sloth voluptuousness c. and that makes the discrimination on his side i. e. renders him unqualified and uncapable to be wrought on by sufficient Grace and so still if it be attentively weighed this attributes nothing to free will considered by it self but the power of resisting and frustrating Gods methods which I should think they that are such assertors of the corruption of our nature should make no difficulty to yield him but that they also assert the irresistibility of Grace and that is not reconcileable with it yielding the glory of all the work of conversion and all the first preparations to it to his sole Grace by which the will is first set free then fitted and cultivated and then the seed of eternal life successfully sowed in it § 84. If the Remonstrants yield not this you see my profession of dissent from them if they do as for ought I ever heard or read which indeed hath been but little in their works that I might reserve my self to judge of these things without prepossession they doubt not to do you see you have had them misrepresented to you But this either way is extrinsecall and unconcernant to the merit of the cause which is not to be defended or patronized by names but arguments much less to be prejudged or blasted by them § 85. You now add as a reason to inforce your last proposition That although the Grace of God work not by any physical determination of the will but by way of moral suasion onely and therefore in what degree soever supposed must needs be granted ex natura rei possible to be resisted yet God by his infinite wisdome can so sweetly order and attemper the outward means in such a congruous manner and make such gracious inward applications and insinuations by the secret imperceptible operation of his holy Spirit into the hearts of his chosen as that de sacto the will shall not finally resist That you say of the son of Syrach Fortiter Suaviter is an excellent Motto and fit to be affixed as to all the wayes of Gods providence in generall so to this of the effectuall working of his Grace in particular § 86. This for the substance falls in with the last of those which you so cautiously set down for meer conjectures seeming to you not improbable And so here you continue to propose it 1 as that which God can do and thus no Christian can doubt of it 2. by the one testimony which you tender for the proof of it the words of Ecclesiasticus strongly but sweetly which though it be there most probably interpreted of the works of Gods providence not particularly of his Grace so if it were most fully expresses their thoughts who building on the promise of sufficient Grace and the way of the working of that by moral suasion will apply the fortiter to the sufficiency and the suaviter to the suasion and yet resolve what frequent experience tells us that those that are thus wrought on strongly and sweetly too and as strongly and sweetly if not sometimes more so as they that are converted by it are yet very very many times not converted § 87. Here therefore the point lyes not whether God can thus effectually work upon all that he tenders sufficient grace unto nor again whether sometimes and whensoever he pleaseth he doth thus work for as this is the most that you demand so this is most evident and readily granted but 1. whether all are effectually converted and persevere and so are finally saved on whom God doth work thus sweetly and powerfully attempering the outward and inward means applications and insinuations by the secret imperceptible operations of his spirit and that in a congruous manner I add time also 2. Whether his doing thus is such an act of his Election as that all to whom this is not done shall be said in Scripture to be left past by and reprobated § 88. If thus it is not onely can be and if it may be convincingly testified by any text of Scripture that this really is the Scripture Election it shall be most willingly and gladly yielded to But till this be done 1. that other Scheme which I so lately set down may be allowed to maintain it's competition against this and 2. it is to be remembred from the premises that the glory of Gods Grace in every one's conversion is abundantly taken care of and secured without the assistance of this 3. that the ground of the Anti-remonstrants exception to the Arminian