you say there are many other passages of Scripture on which 't is founded I shall mention but two 1. that of the Apostle who cals preaching the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the administration of the Spirit which the Father expresses by verbum vehiculum Spiritus the word is the chariot in which the Spirit descends to us 2. that description of resisting the holy spirit which S. Stephen gives us Act. vii 51. by their being like the Jews which persecuted the Prophets which spake unto them which concludes the holy spirit to be given with the preaching of the Gospel else how could the rejecting and persecuting the one be the resisting of the other So likewise though you mention but one reason yet that is as constringent as many nothing but sufficiency of supernaturall Grace being competent to render him that is acknowledged naturally impotent unexcusable And therefore deeming that abundantly confirmed to advance it above a disputable probleme I proceed to the next Proposition the third which you rank under the style of Conjectures It is this § 52. That because the sufficiency of this General Grace notwithstanding through the strength of naturall corruption it might happen to prove uneffectuall to all persons God vouchsafed out of the supereffluence of his goodness yet ex mero beneplacito without any thing on their part to deserve it to confer upon such persons as it pleased him to fix upon without inquiring into under what qualifications preparations or dispositions considered a more speciall measure of Grace which should effectually work in them faith and perseverance unto salvation This you say you take to be the election especially spoken of in the Scriptures and if so then the Decree of Reprobation must be nothing els but the dereliction or preterition of the rest as to that special favour of conferring upon them this higher degree of effectuall Grace Against this you say you know enough may be objected and much more then you esteem your self able to answer yet to your apprehension somewhat less then may be objected against either of the extreme opinions § 53. Of this Proposition as being the first by you produced to which your caution seems to be due some things may in passing be fitly noted First that for the stating of that community which is here set down as the object of Election and reprobation and exprest by a generall style all persons this Caution is necessarily to be taken in that the proposition is not to be interpreted in the utmost latitude that the style all persons is capable of but as analogy with your former doctrine strictly requires for the generality of men preach'd to and so neither belongs to heathens nor to the Infants or Idiots or uninstructed among Christians but to those that having the Gospel revealed to them and sufficient grace to enable them to receive it are yet left in the hand of their own counsell whether they will actually receive it or no. § 54. Now of these which is the second thing to be observed in your proposition it is manifest that if as you suppose both in the former and in this Proposition they have grace truly sufficient afforded them then they want nothing necessary to a faln weak sinful creature to conversion perseverance and salvation and if so then by the strength of this Grace without addition of any more they may effectually convert persevere and be saved and then though what may be may also not be and so it be also possible that of all that are thus preach'd to and made partakers of this Grace no one shall make use of it to these effects yet this is but barely possible and not rendred so much as probable either upon any grounds of Scripture or Reason In the Scripture there is no word revealed to that sense or that I ever heard of produced or applyed to it but on the contrary in the Parable of the Talents which seems to respect this matter particularly they that received the Talents to negotiate with did all of them except one make profit of them and bring in that account to their Master which received a reward which is utterly unreconcileable with the hypothesis of Gods foreseeing that the talent of sufficient Grace would be made use of by none that received no more then so As for that one that made not use of it all that is intimated concerning him is that if his share comparatively was mean yet by the Lord he is charged as guilty for not putting it into the bank that at his coming he might receive his own with usury which certainly evinces that that lazy servant is there considered as one that might have managed his stock as well as the rest and that that stock was improvable no less then the other according to their severall proportions and so herein there is no difference taken notice of in favour to your Conjecture And in Reason it hath no sound of probability that of so great a number of Christians sufficiently furnished by God no one should make use of it to their souls health 't is evident in the Apostles preaching at Jerusalem and elswhere that at the first proposal of the truth of Christ to them and the Doctrine of Repentance whole multitudes received the Faith and came in and no doubt many of them proved true and constant Christians and it is not amiss to observe of the heads of Doctrine which the Apostles agreed to publish in all their peregrinations that they are of such force and were on that account pitcht on by them as might reasonably and probably with the supposed concurrence of Gods Grace beget repentance and new life in all to whom they were preach'd over the whole world and then what the Apostles deemed a rationall and probable means to that end there is no reason or probability to think should never in any produce this effect according to that of Athanasius that the Faith confest by the Fathers of Nice according to holy Writ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient for the averting of all impiety and the establishment of all piety in Christ To which may be applyed that of S. Augustine of the Creed Quae pauca verba fidelibus nota sunt ut credendo subjugentur Deo ut subjugati recte vivant recte vivendo cor mundent corde mundo quod credant intelligant These few words are known to believers that by believing they may be subjugated to God that by being subjugated they way live well that by living well they may cleanse their hearts that by cleansing their hearts they may understand what they believe And herein the all-wise providence and infinite mercy of God seems to be engaged who in the Parable of his dealing with his Vineyard Isa v. not onely expostulates What could I have done more to my vineyard which I have not done but also affirmeth that he looked it should bring forth grapes and
blessing of God upon our prayers and endeavours To what purpose els were it for Ministers in their Sermons usually to press motives to stir up men to labour to get Faith Love c. and to propose means for their better direction how to get them II. Whence you say it seemeth to you further probable that Faith and all other inherent Graces as they may be with Gods blessing attain'd may be also lost again by sloth negligence and carnall security and therefore you cannot but doubt of the truth of that assertion which the Contra-remonstrants do yet averre with great confidence That Faith once had cannot be lost and other the like The distinction that they use as a salvo in this Question of a true and temporary Faith signifieth say you little or nothing for it at once both beggeth and yieldeth the whole Question It 1. beggeth the question when it denyeth that Faith that may be lost to be true Faith and withall 2. yieldeth the question when it granteth a temporary Faith which term is capable of no other construction then of such a Faith as being once had is afterwards lost It is one of the Articles of our Church that after we have received the holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given § 93. In these two there is nothing for me to question and as little to add to them unless I annex what I suppose you did not think needfull the express consent of Scriptures and Fathers whereon our Churches Article must be resolved to have been founded In the old Testament the examples of the Angels in Heaven of Adam in Paradise and in a remarkable manner of two to whom God had given eminent testimony 1. David in the matter of Vriah an odious murther added to adultery and continued in impenitently till after the birth of the child the blemish whereof still sticks to him and remains upon record as an allay to all his excellencies now that he is in heaven 2 Solomon whose heart was by his multitude of wives and concubines taken off from God and debauched to Idols no way being left us to discern whether ever he returned or no unless his Ecclesiastes be a declaration and fruit of his Repentance And as these and many other examples even of that whole Old-Testament-church the Jews make this evident so the words of Ezekiel are express both for totall and finall falling away If the righteous turn from his righteousness in his unrighteousness shall he die § 94. The new also is parallel in the example of Peter thrice with time of deliberation between and after express warning from Christ and his resolute promise to the contrary denying and abjuring of Christ whose return from this fall with bitter tears is called by Christ Conversion and the sin upbraided to him thrice after his resurrection Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me more then these in reference to his confident undertaking though all men should deny thee or be offended yet will not I. And if the argument from Christs express words formerly produced be of force then is Judas one of those that was by God given to Christ and came unto and believed on him an example of the blackest sort testifying to this sad truth That a believer and Disciple of Christ may betray him to his Crucifixion and die in desperation § 95. To these two instances the former greatly aggravated with circumstances the latter finall and of the highest degree imaginable It is not needfull to add more els it is obvious to increase the catalogue with those that were polluted by the Gnosticks by name Hymenaeus and Alexander who putting away a good conscience concerning Faith made shipwrack and again Hymenaeus and Philetus who fell off so far as to the denyall of any future Resurrection of whom the Apostle there speaking saith if God peradventure will give them repentance and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil looking on their estate as that of lapsed believers and though not utterly hopeless yet extremely dangerous And this exemplified in whole Churches Apoc. ii and iii. which are therefore threatned present destruction if they do not speedily return § 96. To which purpose the Texts in the sixth and tenth to the Hebrews are unanswerable In the sixth that it is impossible i. e. extremely difficult for those that were once enlightned c. if they fall away to renew them again unto repentance adding the similitude of the reprobate earth whose end is to be burned From which how distant is the Doctrine of those that either imagine it impossible for such to fall away totally or if they are fallen away not to be renewed again to repentance In the tenth also t were vain to make so severe interminations against those who sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth as we read v. 26. if there were no possibility of so sinning but especially the 38. verse is remarkable The just shall live by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if he the just shall draw back my soul hath no pleasure in him explicating v. 39. what drawing back he speaks of even drawing back unto perdition and that is finall as well as totall and both it seems very possible as every where appears by the exhortations to him that thinketh he standeth to take heed lest he fall when if he do It had been better never to have known the way of righteousness then after he hath known it to turn from the holy Commandment and this in such a degree as is exprest by returning to the vomit and wallowing in the mire the acts and habits of the foulest sins in forsaking of which their conversion consisted § 97. The Testimonies of the Fathers are too long to be set down and indeed unnecessary to the confirmation of that to which the Scripture hath testified so plentifully especially since it is not it cannot be denyed by the contrary-minded that Saint Augustine the onely fautor of their cause in the point of decrees and effectuall Grace granteth possibility of falling both totally and finally from a justified estate and useth it as a means to prove his absolute Decrees I now proceed to your third and last proposition in these words § 98. Yet I believe wee may securely admit the doctrine of perseverance of Gods elect and the certainty thereof so as it be understood 1. Of their finall perseverance onely leaving roome for great perhaps totall interruptions and intercisions in the meane time 2. Of the certainty of the thing certitudo objecti in regard of the knowledge and purpose of God but not of any undoubted assurance that the elect themselves have thereof certitudo subjecti as wee use to distinguish them there being a great deale of difference between these two propositions it is certain that the elect shall not fall away finally and the elect are certain that they shall not fall away
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
be all usefull till the thing be done and then indeed as to the doing or not doing that they are not usefull but their second season of usefulness comes in in case it were a sin Exhortation to Repentance c. and that is as much as can be or need be pretended to and this is fully competible with Gods seeing certainly from all eternity whatsoever shall come to pass in time His seeing it supposing it done though for the manner of its being done that were contingent and if so then is it not certain to be before it happens but it is certain to be when it is and it first is in order of nature before it is seen and its being already seen before it be done depends onely on the immensity of Gods presence and sight which reacheth out to all that ever shall be so that that which is future to us he is present to it and in that sence though he sees it as future t is yet present to him § 16. Your third inconvenience is that by this the damnation of such or such men is as fixed and unalterable as though they were reprobated from all eternity and it is as ill in respect of me if I must inevitably be damned by my own free will as if I had been sentenced to Hell by Gods decree and in respect of God worse for he must be deprived of the free exercise of his omnipotence because he cannot make that not to be which he foresees will be and brought under a Stoicall Fatality and so be an helpless spectatour of what anothers will is pleased to effect I answer if by such and such men you mean such or such individuall entities without respect to their qualifications or demeanures then all your consequence as it is inconvenient so it is false for from Gods seeing ab aeterno that Judas will be reprobated it follows not that he sees he will be reprobated but for his willfull Treason But if you mean by such or such men men so or so qualified i. e. finally impenitent then 't is true but not inconvenient that finall impenitents should from all eternity be reprobated And speaking of these in this sence 't is true which you add that it is as ill in respect of the person i. e. finall impenitents meaning by as ill as sad and penal nay 't is more sad and penal to be reprobated for final impenitence which I am guilty of by my own free-will then it would be to be onely by Gods decree involved in it my willful culpable guilt being some addition to my misery and as long as God is just it being expectable that those punishments will be sharper which I bring on my self by the exercise of my free will then what comes on me by a decree grounded no way in my actions And so still this is no Inconvenience But if you mean by as ill that which hath as little mixture of Gods goodness towards me then your consequence is false for to Gods seeing Judas reprobated and his seeing it ab aeterno it is no way consequent that he gives him no power to escape Damnation viz. Grace to be able to stand and not fall or Grace to recover if he will make use of it but the contrary rather follows For how can God see him damned for the betraying Christ and not repenting and returning unless this were done wilfully by him sins of weakness and ignorance finding mercy as in the case of Saul persecuting the Church and unless he were first a Disciple of Christ and so were illuminated and assisted by Christ and if he were so then he had this power and Grace or might have had it if he were not wanting to himself and if so then this was not so ill to him in this sense of which now I speak as to have been irrespectively reprobated and never vouchsafed this Grace § 17. So when you say It is worse in respect of God and prove that because he must be deprived of the free exercise of his omnipotence there is no truth in that consequence or the reason of it For Gods omnipotence consists not in being able to make both parts of a contradiction true that were in the very attempt a departing from veracity a falseness a sin and so the greatest impotence and so most contrary to omnipotence And such is that which alone your consequence and the reason of that supposes making that not to be which he foresees will be for by the latter part of that expression you mean that which from eternity he sees to be done and then to be done and not to be done is in terminis contradictory And this impotence or not being able to cause the same thing at once to be and not to be is far from all notions of Stoical fatality that I ever heard of els sure all rationall creatures must be Stoicks for they all resolve that what is cannot not be and as far from making God an idle helpless spectator of what anothers will is pleased to effect for his providence and assistence and efficacy belong to other things not to the making that not to be when it is but to the preventing it before it came giving Grace sufficient preventing restraining exciting c. ordering it and disposing of it to his own wise ends when it is done and punishing the doer justly if he repent not to which he is also ready to give Grace if he humbly ask and seek and knock for it All this is supposed to be done by God and so God is no helpless spectator and all this is reconcileable with the effects being wrought by our free will as long as Gods grace works not irresistibly § 18. Here I remember that of S. Augustin de Civ l. 5. c. 10. Nullo modo cogimur aut retenta praescientia Dei tollere voluntat is arbitrium aut retento voluntatis arbitrio Deum quod nefas est negare praescium futurorum this is expresly contrary both to the Calvinists pretension on one side and the Socinians on the other § 19. Your fourth inconvenience is that then God never purposed to save all mankind If by purposing you mean decreeing and by saving actually bestowing heaven upon them then that consequence is true but not in the least wise inconvenient for God never decreed to save final impenitents and such are many of mankind after the giving of Christ but on the contrary hath sworn such shall not enter into his rest The saving of mankind which God decreed is the redeeming them and giving them Christ and Grace and making them salvable and being deficient in nothing toward that end to those that will make use of it As for the other notion of Salvation it is no where said that God purposed that in the notion of decreeing but onely that he so will'd as to desire it and to give sufficient means of effecting it but those means proportioned to rational agents and so