not make use of no not so much as to exempt and free themselves from that servitude of sin which is superadded to sin Originall As for Doctor Jeremy Taylor you should do well to stop his mouth first not by impotent and unworthy insinuations but by solid and convincing Arguments before you invite or provoke others of his minde to open theirs But why disown the Pelagians no more would you not persuade your Reader that Doctor Taylor is a perfect Pelagian and is not this suggestion as odious and uncharitable as the self-devised tale with which you charged Tilenus even now how then comes it to passe that so honest a man as Master Baxter is found guilty of it not against the poorest neighbour but against a very learned and worthy person though haply his enemy for telling him some truths that go against the grain of his interest Popularity or Ambition M. Baxter may remember a little Pamphlet intituled A Testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ c. subscribed by 52. Ministers his Brethren within the Province of London Pag. 4. with the 9. wherein amongst other abominable errours damnable heresies and horrid blasphemies they reckon this for one That Christ was given to undergo a shamefull death voluntarily upon the crosse to satisfie for the sin of Adam and for all the sins of all Mankind Now seeing the Pelagians are charged by the Ancients with this Doctrine that Christ did not die for all as appears by Saint Austin contra 2. Epist Pelag. l. 2. c. 2. Pelagiani dicunt Deum non esse omnium aetatum in hominibus mundatorem salvatorem liberatorem c. Suppose a man should return Master Baxters language upon his Party Those of you that are of the 52. Ministers mind in this speak out and disown the Pelagians no more How would they take it or how would Master Baxter interpret it This would be called a shamelesse calumny at least a perverse insinuation in Tilenus though it must passe currant for a piece of ingenuity and candor in himself But doth not Doctor Taylor in stating the Question that there may be no clamours against the person interested in either persuasion nor any offence taken by errour or misprision tell you It is not intended nor affirmed that there is no such thing as Originall sin for it is certain Further explicat p. 452 and affirmed by all Antiquity upon many grounds of Scripture That Adam sinned and his sin was Personally his but Derivatively ours that is it did great hurt to us to our bodies directly to our souls indirectly and accidentally So great hurt that the Doctor saith Pag. 431. in his Vnum necessarium That our Spirit when it is at the best it is but willing but can do nothing without the miracle of Grace He doth not stick in his Answer to the L. Bishops second Letter Pag. 101. to call it the Pelagian Heresie and saith it did serve it self by saying too little in this Article And in his Vindication to the Countesse of Devonshire Pag. 101. he saith I desire to be observed in opposition to the Pelagian Heresie who did suppose Nature to be so perfect that the Grace of God was not necessary and that by Nature alone they could go to heaven which because I affirm to be impossible and that Baptism is therefore necessary because Nature is insufficient and Baptism is the great channell of grace there ought to be no envious and ignorant lâ—â—d laid upon my Doctrine as if it complied with the Pelagian against which it is so essentially and so mainly opposed in the main difference of his Doctrine I do not insert this as if I had a minde to vindicate the Doctors opinion or espouse his quarrell he is of age to answer for himself but to give the Reader notice of the disingenuous practises used by this great pretender unto truth and Godlinesse in his unworthy defamation of some no lesse than in his undue vindication of others But for the Doctors honour and comfort M. Baxter puts him amongst very good company Saints Rest par 1. pag. 154. m. under this accusation viz. All the Fathers of the first two hundred or three hundred years and the plain truth is saith he till Pelagius daies all spoke like Pelagians And yet how this opinion can be true I understand not seeing S. Austin maintains his Doctrine against the Pelagians by the Authority of all the Fathers that wrote before him and condemneth that of Pelagius as a recent errour or novel Presumption However M. Baxter should do well to consider that the Manichees are at least as ill as the Pelagians and therefore he should take heed he runne not into the extreams of very many Calvinists who think they are never safe from the danger of this Charybdis till they fall into that Scylla And if I should say the Synod of Dort did so he would not spare to tell me as he doth Tilenus here that he speaks bitterly of them Why bitterly Some men are so tender of their very errours that they are ready to complain Truth bites them when she doth but imploy her tongue to lick their soars in order to their healing All other mens Gall and Copperas it seems doth corrode and fret but Master Baxters is purely Balsamical But is it all Gospel that was said by Saint Austin or the Synod of Dort Harae saith Augustinum tam varium fuisse in fervore disputationis hujus ut passim nec secum nec cum Scriptura conciliari possit De grat lib. arb lib. 2. cap. 14. You dissent from the first as much as Tilenus and the Canons of the later are no Authentick Text with you unlesse you may be allowed to make your own exposition So you professe in your Confession of Faith concerning Artic. 1. Sect. 12 Art 3. Sect. 12. 15. Art 5. Sect. 9 Pag. 25. 10 11 13. And having cleared your self of the imputation of Arminianismâ— you proceed in these words So I shall think that those who go as much on the other hand and differ from the Synod one way as much as the Arminians did the other way remain censurable as well as they and soon after Yet let me adde this Pag. 27. lest my seeking to satisfie the offended may draw me into guilt Though I have voluntarily my self professed my consent to those severall Canons and Confessions of Faith but this is upon liberty taken to explain what Phrases you dislike in them and putting your own sense upon them and therefore you might very well subjoyne what followes Yet for the Synod of Dort the Confession of the Assembly yea or the Larger Catechisme without some correction I do hereby protest my dissent against the so imposing them to a word upon all Ministers that no man that cannot subscribe to them shall be permitted in the Church whether our confession were intended for such a necessary Test I know not well But that the
wills seriously that All men be saved Some say yes As Martinius who saith There is a common Love of God towards all mankinde being faln whereby he would seriously have all men to be saved De Art 2. Thes 1. And the Divines of Wedderau God in calling the Reprobate wills their conversion and salvation seriously with a will approving it though not effecting it Ibid. pag. 152. Lubbertus saith We do not teach that God simply would not have all men to be converted and saved neither do we teach that God feigneth or would not seriously the conversion of all or that he hath contradictory wills But we teach that he seriously wills all mens conversion and salvation in respect of approbation and his rejoycing in it Act. Syn. Dor. par 3. pag. 13. m. But the Divines of Embden on the contrary say Hence ariseth another question Whether God according to his good pleasure seriously wills that all men should be saved The Remonstrants affirm it every where But we deny it Part. 2. pag. 74. Quaest 13. The Deputies of the Synod of Groning say That generall will of God desiring and intending the conversion and salvation of all is the fiction of mans brain and transformes God into an impotent man who desires that all men should be saved but is not able to effect it Ibid pag. 7â— p. m. Shall we try these Divines with another question Whether the Reprobates be called unto salvation seriously or no Sibrand Lubbertus is for the Affirmative as was now alleadged and so are the Synod in their Decrees where they say That as many as are called by the Gospel are called seriously For God by his word doth seriously and most truly declare what is acceptable to him namely that those that are called come unto him and moreover doth seriously promise to all such as come to him and believe in him rest for their soules and life eternall Cap. 3. 4. Art 8. The Brittish Divines say Those whom God doth thus affect by his Spirit using the means of his Word those he doth truly and seriously call and invite to faith and conversion De. 3. 4. Art Th. 3. p. 128. in explicat We must judge by the nature of the benefit offered and the cleare word of God of those helps of grace which are administred unto men and not by the abuse and event Seeing therefore that the Gospel according to its own nature cals men to repentance and salvation seeing the excitations of Divine grace tend the same way we must conclude that God doth nothing here feignedly This is proved by those serious and patheticall Beseechings 2 Cor. 5.2 19. We beseech you in Christs stead that ye would be reconciled unto God Exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 We exhort you not to receive the grace of God in vaine Expostulations Gal. 1 6. I wonder you are so soon removed from him that hath called you unto the grace of Christ Promises Apoc 3.20 Behold I stand at the doore and knock if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in unto him c. But this Doctrine will not down with the Deputies of the Synod of Gelderland we had their invincible Syllogismes before whereof the Minors are these 1. God calls not all men to salvation 2. God doth not command every man to believe in Christ 3. Christ calls unto him the thirsty c. onely But they deliver their mind more roundly upon the third Article For whereas the Remonstrants do argue that these two things are very repugnant That God would have a man to be saved and yet should not give him what is necessary to enable him to convert and believe without which salvation is not to be had To this they Reply That it seems no lesse repugnant to them that God should call one to salvation and yet not communicate salvation to him Whence we conclude say they Seeing God does not give to all that are called that which is necessary that they might convert and believe and he could give it if he would therefore he would not communicate salvation unto all men and therefore neither would he call unto salvation All that are outwardly called nay seeing God calls All to salvation whom he calls therefore as many as are not called unto salvation are not called of God that is to say those to whom he will not give what is necessary for them that they may convert and believe Et mox And by this means we shall preserve the Dignity of the Divine Calling Act. Syn. Dord part 3. pag. 163. To this agrees the Declaration of the Judgement of the Deputies of Groningen The sound of Preaching doth promiscuously reach the ears of all men but in effect it calls them onely whom God hath elected to eternall life For Vocation doth properly belong to them by God's Ordination Ibid. pag. 208. p. May we take the confidence to examine their sweet accord in one thing more Are any dispositions required unto Faith and Conversion or not What say those Divines to this Probleme There are some externall works ordinarily required of men before they be brought to the state of Regeneration or Conversion which are wont sometimes to be freely done sometimes freely to be omitted of them as to go to Church to heare the Word and such like This is the judgement of the Brittish Divines Part. 2. pag. 128. Thes 1. Thes 2. They say There are some internall effects praevious to Conversion or Regeneration which are stirred up by the power of the Word and Spirit in the hearts of such as are not yet justified such are the knowledge of the Divine will sense of Sin sear of Pain thinking of Deliverance some hope of Pardon And pag. 131. This Spirituall birth doth presuppose the soule to be stirred up by the Spirit using the organ or instrument of the Word To the like purpose do the Divines of the Palatinate deliver their Judgement in this Point 'T is certain they say that some Acts of Sorrow Contrition Acknowledgement of sin c. do precede Faith and Conversion in a man that is to be regenerated whiles by the Ministery of the Law and Gospel he is prepared to receive Grace Ibid. pag. 137. p. And so the Divines of Geneva The salutary sense and feeling of sin joyned with a thirst after the remedy a good hope softnesse of heart hatred of sin and flying unto God these are latent effects of the holy Spirit preparing and drawing a man by little and little to the grace of Justification and unto Regeneration Ibid. p. 155. Thes 2. But with the Hassian Divines this is pure Remonstrant or Arminian Doctrine and therefore they reject this as Heterodox That a man in the state of sin before Faith and the Spirit of Renovation hath or may have any zeale care or study to obtain Salvation and that he may heare God's word be grieved for sin desire saving grace and the Spirit of Renovation and that this is
nationall Church I know not but what ever they are I am confidâ—nt I shall be able to answer them out of your own doctrine delivered in your Disputations of Right to Sacraments 5. That the new Creation another expression as you acknowledge Treatise of Conversion pag. 8. to describe Regeneration may be repeated sundry Scripture instances will evince As Ezek. 18.31 Make you a new heart and a new spirit and that of David who certainly had this new creature or the new creation wrought in him once before Psal 51.10 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me And to whom doth the Apostle direct his Epistle to the Ephesians Ephes 1.1 but to the Saints and faithfull in Christ Jesus Cap. 4.24 Yet he exhorts them to be renewed in the spirit of their minds To put on the new man as was said above 6. Repentance you say signifieth the same work upon the soul as Regeneration doth What shall we turn Novatians No iteration of Repentance neither Why was that title given to Repentance by Tertullian Hierom and the rest that followed why did they call it Secunda Tabula post Naufragium Concil provinc Colon. mihi pa. 121. a. b. Prima tabula qua subnixi ex diluvio peccatorum tam in Adam veluti stirpe quam postea malè vivendo quacunque tandem ratione contractorum enatamus Baptismus est post quem acceptum si rursus naufragium fecerimus nulla pro peccatis nova hostia restat sed tantum superest haec secunda tabula Poenitentia quam si gnaviter donec vita superstes est apprehenderimus ac apprehensam persequuti fuerimus non dubium quem rursus ad salutis portum pertingemus quamlibet etiam pericalosi sint in quos postea incidimus peccatorum scopuli It is not onely possible for the vessels of the Regenerate to leak and let in a litttle salt water but they may run against the rock of Presumptuous sinne and make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience 1 Tit. 1.19 for that is the dammage sustained by their miscarriage who are embarqued upon the bottome of Christianity as S Paul tells us and this plank of Repentance is thrown out by speciall indulgence and grace to such to preserve them from immersion and utter ruine and transport them again to the desired haven of eternall happinesse The institution of the discipâ—â—ne 〈◊〉 R pentance or as the Antients call it Pâ—nnance imports no lesse And the Practise of the Ancient Church confirms it The Apostle delivers up the Incestuous Corinthian to Satan to what end for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5.5 That is saith Deodati to macorate and pull down the body extreamly even to death iâ— God would have it so as oftentimes by means of the aforesaid things viz. excommunication Annot. in Engl. with its attendants in those first daies of the Christian Church horrours anguishes of spirit and torments of body death did follow and at his last passage if the sinner did shew a lively repentance he was loosed from those bonds of excommunication and readmitted into the peace of the Church and into the Grace of God and so died with comfort eased and relieved with the publick and private prayers of the faithfull Finis excommunicationi propositus non est excommunicati exitium sed salus Beza not minor ut videlicet hoc remedio dâ—metur ipsius caro ut dâ—sâ—aâ— spiritui vivere Whence it clearly appears that in the judgement of these Learned men grovnded upon the Scripture such as lay under the sentence of excommunication were not in a state of justification and consequently that by the use and practise of this wholesome Discipline they were to be regenerated and brought forth as it were anew unto it And this was the end of the same Censures inflicted upon Hymenaeus and Alexander who had actually repelled a good conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 and 20. And this was no more than was contained in the commission upon the donation of the Power of the Keyes Mat. 18.18 Joh 20.23 What ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained I am not ignorant that there is an extemporary Repentance †1 Joh. 1.9 this was signified Lotione pedum Joh. 13.10 as Meisner calls it in order to the continuall expiation of intercurrent sins in the bloud of Christ sins of ignorance and infirmity of inadvertency and sudden surreption which the regenerate daily fall into Luk. 15.7 who yet are said in respect of the change of state to need no repentance But there is a Solemn repentance after enormous wasting sins commonly called Mortal sins Why was this instituted and to be performed with so much discipline of severity as we find it practised by the Apostle and the Primitive Church for 7 9 13 years together upon one and the same person before his restitution to thâ— peace of the Church and the grace of God and hopes of pardon but to signifie that such persons had extreme need of such a Repentance as might import a change of state whereby they might be recovered again after a fall wherein they were given for lost and this is called repentance unto salvation 2 Cor. 7.10 That this Discipline should be instituted onely for the use and benefit of such as never were regenerate and I cannot see what else is to be alleaged to avoid the force of the argument for a second Regeneration is so ridiculous to imagine that I presume no rationall man will offer to affirm it To conclude this argument then Whosoever may Repent and be converted and be renewed and sanctified and become a new creature a second or third time he may be twise or thrise Regenerated But a poore sinner may repent and be converted and renewed and sanctified and become a new creature a second or third time Ergo. The Major Proposition is undeniable because Repentance Conversion Renovation Sanctification and Regeneration do all signifie one and the same work upon the soul as is acknowledged not onely by Bucan and the Professors of Leiden Buc. loc com 30. p. 294. Synops disp 32. thes 2. p. 420. Treatise of Conversion pag. 7. but also by your self The Minor is evident by the proofs alleaged I shall but adde what is said by the Provinciall Councell before named touching this matter of Repentance after grosse sins Remedium sanè in Ecclesia summè necessarium Vbi supra quo sublato quantula quaeso hominum pars fuerit quae post baptismum nullius peccati aut etiam criminis sibi conscia vitae aeternae participationem sperare queat Vt nulli nobis immaeniores Haeritici unquam fuisse videantur quà m Novatiani qui tam necessarium animae medicamentum medio tollere conati
ipso facto put in the order of men certainly to be damned Damnation being the unavoidable execution of that Decree whereof Preterition and Predamnation are but severall †Synopsis Purioris Theologiae Disp 24. th 49 52. Respects I must therefore preferre to such collusion the ingenuity of those men who speak their opinion fully out and tell us that all the Dispensations of Grace administred to these Non-elect are designed but to make them the more inexcusable You alleadged above in the words of the Synod that it is not through any insufficiency or defect of the sacrifice of Christ that men Perish in their Infidelity and may not as much be said in respect of the Devils that it is not through any defect or insufficiency of Christs Sacrifice that they are damned eternally The Reason is the same for both according to the Principles you go upon namely because God wills to have it so And I wonder with what confidence you can tell the Non-Elect and them you must be supposed to speak to the Elect not being concerned in it as you do in your popular Sermon of Making light of Christ Pag. 52. That It were better for him he had been a Turk or Indian that never had heard the name of a Saviour and that never had salvation offered to him For such men have no cloak for their sin Joh. 15.22 Besides all the rest of their sins they have this killing sin to answer for which will undo them And this will aggravate their misery That Christ whom they set light by must be their Judge and for this sin will he judge them Oh that such would now consider how they will answer that Question that Christ puts to their Predecessors Mat. 23.33 How will ye escape the damnation of Hell or Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Can you escape without a Christ or will a despised Christ save you then If he be accursed that set light by Father or Mother Deut. 27.16 What then is he that sets light by Christ c. How I say can you say this unlesse you lay better grounds to glorifie Gods Justice in punishing the Non-elect for their Infidelity For by that Doctrine the most part of the Christian world are so farre from being design'd a benefit by the exhibition and tendries of Christ to them that they receive far more hurt by it and so their condition is rendred a great deal worse than that of Devils to whom Christ was never offer'd For the most they could say of Christ was to expostulate or cry out Art thou come to torment us before the time but these may complain that though there was as little benefit intended them by the offer of Christ as the Devils to whom he was never tendred yet it did serve to aggravate their sin and made them guilty of infidelity and liable to a greater condemnation Be not startled at thi news if it seems so to you for it is the very Doctrine of Gomarus This is the difference Thes 31. de praed Disput 1604. saith he betwixt the Reprobation of men and Angels that the Angels never have Christ tendred unto them but unto men he is tendred often outwardly in the word and inwardly by the Spirit that being convinced of Infidelity and a stubborn heart they may by that means be rendred the more inexcusable Now I Conjure every Christian Reader as he tenders the Glory of our ever Blessed God and the Honour of his most Holy Ordinances and the eternall Salvation of mens precious souls sadly to weigh and consider the pernicious influences of such a Doctrine that his understanding may be awakened to apprehend and his will inclined to entertain more solid practicall principles of Divinity that every mouth that utters such wickednesse may be stopped For certainly this cannot be the purpose or purport of Gods Generall love towards mankind in sending his Sonne to die for them and be preached unto them †See and consider Joh. 3.16.17 And now Master Baxter perhaps will rub up his memory a little better What! Doth neither Tilenus nor Master Pierce nor the Remonstrants ascribe one jot more to the death of Christ for all than this amounts to Doth that Grace of Christs purchasing which they account sufficient rise to no higher a pitch no not so high as to put them into a possibility of being restored by Christs mediation into at least as good a condition as that of Devils This is a very strange story But God be thanked there is no truth in it The difference is so wide betwixt the two Parties in this Point that nothing can well be wider For 1. Sufficient Grace in your sense is that which never did and never will and never can bring salvation unto any man for let him use his utmost diligence to cooperate with it it will not it cannot sanctifie him being not through the Receivers default but of its own kind and nature uneffectuall◠For thus the Professors of Leiden speak of it Concedimus omnes illos c. Censura in Confess cap. 17. par 3. Pag. 235 236. We grant that all who are called by the Gospel are sufficiently called that is God is not obliged in justice to call them otherwise then he doth call them and by that Calling they are sufficiently deprived of all pretence of excuse before Gods Tribunall if they be not converted because the fault of their non-conversion resteth in themselves onely This is their definition of sufficient Grace and the Compiler of this work was the Synod I shall referre the Reader to the Remonstrants Descant upon this Definition in their Examen Censurae cap. 17. parag 3. But sufficient Grace in the Remonstrants sense which is like to be Master Pierce's and Tilenus his sense too is Gods Grace which bringeth salvation unto All men to whom it hath appeared Tit. 2.11 For they say To the end man may not onely be able but also freely and heartily willing to performe the Divine commands God willeth to do all things on his part necessary to the effecting of both in him that is he hath determined to conferre such Grace upon sinfull man whereby he may be rendred fit and able to perform all that is required of him in the Gospel and in their next Thesis God therefore when he calls sinners by his Holy Gospel Confess Remon c. 17. Thes 1. he bestows upon them Grace not onely necessary but also sufficient to performe faith and obedience the Requiries of the Gospel 2. They do not deny but God may and many times doth conferre Imparia Paribus Paria Imparibus Potiora Pejoribus They acknowledge God hath not past any Decree whereby he hath debarred either Himself of Liberty to bestow or men of a Possibility to receive such severall Dispensations And although they confesse there is a sufficient calling Ibid. Thes 3. which yet is uneffectuall yet they say the reason
one full and perfect Medium conducing infallibly to their End as concerning the Elect Act. Synod Dord par 2. p. 118. m. and those Good workes are Ingredients likewise that help to make up one ful and perfect Medium conducing infallibly to their End as to the Reprobates as is shewed out of Perkins Szegedine and Norton elsewhere When therefore these men deny that Mankinde is under such an unavoidable Necessity to good or evil they do but impose upon the unwary Reader and abuse him with equivocations and Fallacies and herein it lyes They make Liberty to consist in a spontaneous motion or Lubency and a freedome from the Necessity of Coaction and violence and when you charge them with this Opinion that Man is under an unavoidable Necessity to do good or evil in this sense they will as stifly deny it as Master Baxter doth They are under no such Necessity they will say meaning they are not compelled by violence But if you presse them with a Necessity of Immutability which is no lesse unavoidable then the other whether arising from Gods irresistible operation as in the conversion and perseverance of the Elect or from his ineluctable Decree as in the Government of the Reprobate towards their Finall doome this Necessity they will not they cannot deny For the truth of the first branch i. e. in respect of Gods irresistible operation See P. Molinaeus amongst the Acts of the Synod par 1. pag. 295. m. The British Divines par 2. pag. 132. Thes 2. The Hassiens pag. 145. Thes 3. Those of Wedderau pag. 150. p. m. Those of Embden pag. 169. thes 59 60. and pag. 185. Quest 26. and Sibrandus Lubbertus par 3. pag. 157. m. For the other branch i. e. an unavoidable Necessity arising from the Immutable Decree you had it even now from the Divines of Wedderau ubi supra where they adde Multa fiunt necessario c. as above Many things come to passe of Necessity upon supposition of the Divine Decree which are done freely in respect of mans will Thus they say the Jews crucified Christ necessarily and yet freely Necessarily because being delivered by the determinate counsil of God they took him and with wicked hands fastened him to the crosse and slew him Act. 2.23 Yet freely because with a full Lubency and a deliberate or interpretative will they sought to slay him as the Evangelicall Story wttnesseth And this Multa must be extended to Omnia to All sins as well as that or some others else the rest shall be exempted from Gods Decree which is absurd Will a spontaneitie alleviate the Necessity of sinning or the Perdition that follows it Let me put a case to M. Baxter Suppose a Prince intending the ruine of such a Noblemans Posterity makes a Law that whosoever associate themselves with Strumpets and are not reclaimed by one or two Admonitions shall be Rackâ— alive and have their bones broken and their bowels and heart torn out of their bodies and burnt before their faces And yet underhand takes order to Caresse such persons and give them opportunity and entertainment amongst Harlots with plenty of wine and ravishing aires of Musick to take them off their Guard and applyes charms and Philters to work upon their Phantasie bloud or spirits till those persons are no lesse drunk with lust and passion than with wine M. Baxter is sent once and again to admonish them and he saith unto them Sirs I desire you to consider what a severe yet a very just law is made against this Luxury wherein you live You have a most gracious Prince that tenders your wellfare and takes care by my Ministery to reduce you from that exorbitancy which otherwise will bring you to utter ruine I earnestly beseech you to recollect your selves and reform your lives and manners that you may be restored to your Princes favour whom these crimes have so highly exasperated I pray as you tender your lives reflect upon the horrour of the punishment awarded to such vices c. But the men inthral'd by the witchcraft of the foresaid Artifice which is still applyed to them do hugg their unlawfull pleasures and defie the threatned torments till the houre comes that summons them to the dreadfull execution which all men that understands the whole processe of the businesse bewails with bitter lamentations But then in steps M. Baxter to justifie the equity of the sentence that is past against them and he aggravates their guilt and taking no notice of those underhand practises by which these forlorn wretches were captivated to this misery he tells the sad Multitude of Complainers that the proceedings are very just for they knew the Law and he had taken pains to informe exhort and admonish them in the bowels of his tenderest compassion and he is sure they had the naturall faculty of Freewill and they lay under no Necessity that compel'd them to those leud courses for they pursued them with a kinde of Lubency and alacrity and therefore the infliction of their sufferings was very just and warrantable I am very loth to make the application For to fancy that the Decrees of the most wise just and holy God have any such influence or any Aspect that looks that way were horrid blasphemy And if there were any such Decrees made in heaven Almighty God should for his honour sake rather give Master Baxter a Fee to hold his peace than to divulge them And yet they have been divulged by men of no small account amongst the Calvinists As God denies the Reprobates his Grace that they cannot but sin so also hath he destin'd them to this condition that of their own nature they cannot but commit diverse wickednesses Zanch. de Nat. Dei pag. 554. And we doubt not to confesse that by the immutable Reprobation a necessity of sinning is incumbent upon the Reprobate and of sinning even unto death without Repentance and of suffering eternall punishment for it pag. 571. alia edit 743 744. Piscator to the same purpose in Notis ad Duplic Vorst pag. 2l7 Although the rebellion of the Reprobates depends upon the antecedent absolute and irresistibly efficacious will of God yet by this they cannot nor ought to be excused from the fault of Rebellion Also pag. 223. When God necessitates man unto sin that he may punish him for sin he doth justly because he hath power to govern man as he list By this it appears how little reason Master Baxter had to say as he doth in his following Invective All this is such a self-devised tale that no honest man should have been guilty of against the poorest neighbour or enemy much lesse against a Party and a Synod of so many truely learned and worthy men Answ 1. What Self do you mean Self-Will or Self-Richard Mutato Nomine I am sure 't is justified by Zanchy-Self and Piscator-Self and why I may not adde Synod-Self too I see no reason but your Selfs-denyall which in this case ought not to