twigs or lesser branches should prove dry and sere and so be easily broken off So may a Mountain remain unmoved yea and unmovable though many handfuls of the lighter and looser earth about the sides of it should be taken up and scattered into the ayr like dust In like manner the main Body of a Discourse may stand entire in its solidity weight and strength though many particular Expressions Sayings and Reasonings therein that are more circumferential and remote from the center should be detected either of inconsiderateness weakness or untruth Yea in some cases one Argument or Plea may be so triumphantly pregnant and commanding that though many others of the same engagement should be defeated yet the cause protected by it may upon a very sober and justifiable account laugh all opposition of contrary arguings to scorn I acknowledg there are some Expressions and Passages in the ensuing Discourse as in Cap. 1. Sect. 9. and elsewhere which upon the review I my self apprehend obnoxious enough to exception yea and which had my second thoughts been born in due time should have been somewhat better secured But I trust that ancient Law of indulgence in such cases as mine which very probably may be some of your own also is of Authority sufficient in your Common-wealth to relieve me O pere in longo fas est obrepere somnum i. e. On him that sits long at work Sleep Without disparagement may creep Neither need I suspect or fear any of that unmanlike Learning amongst you which teacheth men to confute Opinions by vulgar votes and exclamations We know that this Sect or Heresie is every where spoken against i Acts 28 22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. had no influence upon Paul to turn him out of the way of his Heresie And for those Mormolukes or Vizors of Arminianism Socinianism Popery Pelagianism with the like which serve to affright children in understanding out of the love and liking of many most worthy and important Truths I am not under any jealousie concerning you that you should suffer any such impressions from them You know that that great Enemy of the Peace and Salvation of men who of old taught the Enemies of God to put his Saints into Bears skins and Wolves skins so preparing them to be torn in peeces and devoured by Dogs hath in these latter times secretly insinuated and prevailed with many of the children of God themselves to put many of his Truths such as they like not or comprehend not into Names of Ignominy and Reproach to draw others into the same hatred and defamation of them with themselves I have somewhere observed that this method of confuting and suppressing Opinions against which men have had no competent grounds of Eviction otherwise was at first invented by the subtil Sons of the Synagogue of Rome k Divine Authority of the Scriptures page 202 203 and elsewhere shewed by several instances that it is familiarly practised by them The truth is that you have no such temptation upon you as particular and private men have to flee to any such polluted Sanctuary as that mentioned to save your Names and Reputations from the hand of any Opinion or Doctrine whatsoever For you so far I presume understand your Interest and Prerogative that for matters of Opinion and Doctrine you are invested with an autocratorical majesty like that which was sometimes given unto Nebuchadnezzar over men whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down l Dan. 5. 19 By the joynt suffrage of your Authority your Interest of Esteem amongst men being so predominant you may slay whâ—t Doctrines what Opinions you please and what you please you may keep alive of what Tenents you please you may make the faces to shine and of what you please you may lay the honor in the dust If you will justifie who are they that will not be afraid to condemn if you condemn who will justifie Only Gods eldest Daughter Truth hath One mightier then you on her side who will justifie her in due time though you should condemn her and will raise her up from the dead the third day in case you shall slay her However if the Doctrine commended in the Discourse now presented unto you shall commend it self in your eyes also for a Truth far be it from you to hide your faces from it because at present it labors and suffers reproach in the World considering that you may very suddenly take away the reproach and partake your selves of that Honor which you shall cast upon it Should such an University as you fear the reproach of standing by a Truth Jesus Christ is not ashamed of the Bodies of his Saints living or dead though in both conditions vile and contemptible in the eyes of men knowing that he hath power in his hand to cloath them with glory and immortality when he pleaseth and that this glory when vested in them will be an high augmentation of his own Brethren unto you I may truly say with Paul to his Philippians that I have you in my heart m Philip. 1. 7 I can look upon you with an eye of good hope as a generation of men anointed by God with a spirit of Wisdom Knowledg Zeal and Faithfulness to bring on the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell and this by repairing the breaches and decayed places in the Body of the Doctrine of Christian Religion which since the first raising and compleating of it by Christ and his Apostles partly through the ignorance and insufficiency partly through the oscitancy and remissness of those to whom the guardianship and custody thereof have been committed by God in their successive generations hath been lamentably dismantled mis-figured and defaced and this well-nigh in all the integral and principal parts of it more or less In so much that a man who truly and clearly apprehends what this Doctrine was and yet is in her purity and native frame and shall compare it with the Systeme or Body of Divinity which under this Notion is commonly taught and held forth amongst us will hardly be able to say this is the Doctrine of Christ For whosoever shall engage himself with that diligence throughness and unpartialness of Enquiry which become those who run for so high a prize as an incorruptible Crown of Glory to consider what is ordinarily delivered and more generally received amongst us not onely in and about those great Points of Election Reprobation Redemption the efficacy and extent of the Grace of God and Perseverance of the Saints but also about many other Heads of Christian Doctrine as about Faith Justification the Sufferings of Christ the Intercession of Christ Repentance Good Works Baptism the state and condition of the Dead until the Resurrection with sundry more and shall with like diligence consider what the Scriptures teach concerning these Particulars respectively will
which now suffer the ignominy and reproach of Arminianism Socinianism Pelagianism c. shall be found to be the Truths of the ever-living God sorrow and shame and confusion of face will be a portion at least of the portion of thâ—se who have crowned them with the honor of such Martyrdom The day will declare it because it shall be revealed as by fire Some pretend that all disputes in matters of Religion wherein the received Doctrines or Tenents generally held in those places where such disputes are commenced are opposed tend to the unsetling and disquieting the minds and consciences of men and minister occasion unto many to abandon all care and thoughts of Religion as containing little in it but matter of uncertainty and doubtfulness of disputation and upon this account very passable as they suppose are professed enemies to such Disputes But to this we briefly answer 1. That it is much better that mens judgments and consciences should be for a time disturbed then that they should always remain setled upon the lees and dregs of any rotten and unsound opinion We lately shewed how perilous Error is to the precious Souls of men God never dealt more graciously by the Earth then when he shook the Heavens by sending the Messiah of the World to turn the state of Religion as it were upside down in the midst of it David acknowledged unto God that it was good for him that he had been afflicted that so he might learn his statutes a Psal 119. 71 And so many I beleeve have and happy were it had more the like cause to say it It is good for us that we were sometimes shaken in our judgments and consciences that we might learn the Truth 2. They who are offended that there should be arguings and disputes to and fro about the things of God and matters of Religion seem to be either discontented that the things and counsels of God should be so spirituall or remote from the common or first apprehensions of men that all men should not at once understand them or else loath that they who are in the gall of any bitterness by being intangled with error should be delivered We read that Paul frequented the Synagogue for the space of three months together disputing and perswading the things concerning the Kingdom of God b Acts 19 8 And afterwards that for two years together he disputed dayly about matters of the same nature and import in the house of one Tyrannus c Ver. 9. 10 3. and lastly Had it not been for disputes in matters of Religion the pillars of Antichrists Throne had not been shaken to this day Vpon occasion of those frequent disputes in Germany aâ—out matters of Religion in Luthers days a Magistrate and Judg of the Popish party said If it comes to matter of dispute our whole mystery will be confounded d Si Disputetur totum nostrum mysterium destruetur Sculpet Annal. Decad. 2. p. 384 And as Wisdom saith All they that hate me love death e Prov. 8. 36 So may sober and through examinations and discussions of the mysteries of our faith say All they that hate us love darkness love error love danger yea and death also As for the allegation of those who pretend all controversies and disputes about matters of Religion to be malignant to the Civil Peace and therefore judg it an high point of State-policy to discharge their Coasts of them as the Gadarens did of Christ it is not worthy an answer in as much as it savours more of Atheism and profaneness then of reason or Christian policy For it is an express Order from Heaven directed unto all Christians to contend and that earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints f Jude v. 3 Now to restrain the members or subjects of a State from doing that which God upon whom the peace safety and prosperity of all States so entirely depend hath so expresly enjoyned them to do is without all peradventure to consult not the joy or peace but the sorrow trouble ruine of this State Other pretences of a lighter and looser notion it is like there are by which some are made such affectionate and effeminate Proselytes to the opinions rejected in this Treatise that they cannot bear the gentlest or softest ayr that breathes cool upon them But I am already beyond the line of an Epistle and therefore shall not pursue the chasâ— of such enemies any further I crave leave only to add a few words concerning the change of my judgment in the great controversie about the death of Christ with the rest depending hereon by way of answer unto those who labour to represent my present judgment in the said points as little valuable or considerable because it sometimes stood a contrary way Though I know nothing in the allegation subservient in the least degree to the end and purpose therein mentioned but â—ather much against it yet let me say 1. That however sin and an evil conversation are just matter of shame and disparagement unto a man yet Repentance and amendment of life are truly honourable Nor do I know why it should be of any more disparaging an interpretation against any man to reform his Judgment then his life neither of which can be done without a change in either Nor 2. can I resent any such conformity with my never-sufficiently-admired adored Saviour which consists in an increase of wisdom for herein he is reported to have increased in the days of his flesh g Luke 2. 52 any matter of prejudice or disparagement either to my self or any other man Though he indeed was never prevented with error yet was He post enriched with the Truth in many things A man can hardly if possibly grow in Grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord h 2 Pet. 3. 18 without out growing himself in judgment and understanding from time to time without rectifying and making streight many things in his mind and thoughts which were crooked before 3. That chosen vessel Paul never quitted himself like a man never consulted peace and glory to himself untill he built up that Faith which sometimes he had destroyed Nor was his Authority or esteem in the Gospel and in the things of Jesus Christ ever a whit the lighter upon the ballance because he had sometimes been a Pharisee 4. I desire to ask the men that make the change of my judgment a spot of weakness or vileness in it whether themselves were always in the same mind touching all things with themselves at present If so it plainly argues that their thoughts and apprehensions now they are men are but such which are incident unto children And if since their coming to riper yeers they have always stood and are resolved always to stand by their first thoughts and apprehensions in all things it is a sign that their judgments reside more in their wills then their wills in their judgments and
of their Crucifying him should be Forgiven them i. e. should not be imputed unto them by way of bar to their Repentance either by any suddaine or speedy destruction or by a delivering them up to such a spirit of obstinacy or obduration under which Men seldome or never repent which was also the sence of Stephens prayer for those who stoned him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lay not this sin to their charge c Acts 7. 60. So from Christs Prayer for all those that should believe in him that they might all be one as the Father and He were one and as the Father was in Him and He in the Father d Joh. 17. 21 22. it cannot be concluded that therefore there should never fall out any difference in judgement any dis-union in affection between the Saints because there is neither between him and the Father the intent of this Prayer being only this that God would vouchsafe gracious and plentifull means unto them as well for the uniting of them in judgement as affection not that he would necessitate or compell them into either of these unions either by such means or without So againe when he Prayeth to the Father to keepe his Disciples from evill a Joh. 17. 15. it cannot be gathered that therefore they never sinned or never did that which was evill or if it be to be understood of the evill of suffering as some conceive that they never suffered Therefore 2. To the Scripture cited for proof of the said Proposition And I knew §. 29. that thou hearest me alwayes b Ioh. 11. 42. I answer that the cleer sence of these words is that Christ knew and doubted not but that God the Father perfectly knowing the secret of his heart and soul in every Prayer that he made unto him had formerly and would still accordingly answer him and gratifie him in every thing according to the true intention of his Prayer He knew that what he prayed for absoutely God the Father would absolutely grant and doe and what he prayed for with or under a reserve exception or condition that he would grant and doe where and as far as such a reserve exception or condition did not take place and interpose Whensoever he prayed for the Fathers concurrence with him to work Miracles for the confirmation of his Doctrine he prayed absolutely and consequently was heard absolutely the matter and letter of his Prayer was never denied unto him in such cases but when he prayed that the Cup which he afterwards drank might passe by him without his drinking it though he prayed thrice and that very earnestly as the Text saith yet because he prayed this Prayer with a Reservation desiring what he prayed for only conditionally and with submission to his Fathers Will and the great exigency of Mankinde these standing in opposition to what he prayed for it was not granted unto him Now certaine it is that Christ never prayed for the absolute Perseverance of Believers in their Faith yea it is no wayes likely that he would have prayed for it as he did I mean with so much seriousnesse and affectionatenesse of spirit if God had absolutely Decreed the giving of it unto them whether he had prayed for it or no. Therefore 3. And lastly concerning His praying for Peter that his Faith might not faile which is all the strength of the minor proposition I answer 1. That from hence it apparantly followeth that therefore Peters Faith §. 30. was in danger of failing or might have failed had not Christ interceded for him and consequently that God had not absolutely decreed the Perseverance or non-failing of Peters Faith or of the Faith of any other Man Otherwise what efficacy can we ascribe to the Prayer of Christ for Peters Faith Or how can it be known upon what account Peters Faith was preserved whether that of Christs Prayer or that of Gods Decree for the non failing of it 2. Neither can it be proved that Christ Prayed that Peters Faith might never faile totally but only if so much that it might not faile upon that particular and sore rentation which He knew would soone after come upon Him It is evident from the Context that this was all if not more then all that Christ Prayed for on the behalf of Peters Faith And the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy Faith faile not and when thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren c Luk. 22. 31 32. Now then to infer from Christs Prayer that Peters Faith might not faile by or under a particular temptation that therefore it could or should never faile is a straine of no better Logique then it would be to conclude that those who were with Paul in the ship never died because God made a Promise unto Paul that He would give their lives unto Him a Act. 27. 24. as for that Voyage 3. If it be by the vertue and efficacy of Christs Prayer for Peters Faith that the Faith of true Believers can never faile then was the Faith of all true Believers before this Prayer made by Christ obnoxious unto a failing If this then neither was there nor is there any peremptory Decree of God concerning the non failing of the Faith of Believers If so then is there a possibility that their Faith may faile For whatsoever is possible in respect of the nature of the thing and of second causes sufficient to produce it may very possibly come to passe where no Decree of God to the contrary obstructeth the possibility Now our adversaries themselves acknowledge that the Faith of true Believers is in it self faileable and in respect of severall causes destructive to it might perish 4. Nor is it so cleer from the tenor of Christs Prayer intimated by him §. 31. that He prayed against the totall failing of Peters Faith under the said temptation much lesse against the finall failing of it afterwards but most likely it is that what He Prayed for was only this that Peters yeelding to the tentation or his being overcome by it might not extinguish his Faith upon any such terms but that he might and should eft-soones recover it by Repentance If this were that which Christ Prayed for on His behalf then might His Faith faile totally under the temptation as Ambrose amongst the Fathers conceiveth that it did notwithstanding Christs Prayer though not finally And that Peters Faith did indeed faile totally by the force of the temptation seemes very probable at least from those words of Christ to Him when thou art CONVERTED strengthen c. Men are not said to be CONVERTED a gradu ad gradum sed a specie ad speciem i. e. from a lesser degree of Faith to a greater but from unbelief unto Faith And besides that Peter upon His deniall of Christ was untill His Repentance in the state and condition of those