all the worthy men in the Nation unto the humor and conceit of a few men who for their comporting with the Religion of the times shall be sirnamed Orthodox which the said Beacon-firers do in effect very passionately suggest and commend unto the Parliament p. 11. and which were it put in execution according to the terms of the suggestion would certainly fire both Citie and Countrie as well as Beacons should me think argue the second Beacon not to be of your firing For you are reputed friends unto Jesus Christ and to the truth and consequently who can imagine that you should give any such advice especially unto a Parliament which is of an obstructive at least of a threatening import to the advancement and further discovery of Jesus Christ unto the world yea and which were it pursued by those to whom it is given cannot in greatest likelyhood but sort to an issue or consequence quite contrary to that whereunto it pretends I mean to a further propagating and spreading of errors and unsound Doctrines and Opinions in the Land and for the justification whereof there is neither footing nor foundation in the Scriptures For 1. Where doth the Lord Christ authorize any person or persons of what capacity soever to authorize or appoint any number of men whom they shall please to call Orthodox whether they be such or no yea or those which are such indeed to say unto the Holy Ghost nothing which thou revealest unto other men be it never so much for the glorifying of the name of God of never such worthy and sacred concernment unto the world shall publickly go forth into the world unlesse thou wilt reveal the same unto us also and make us partakers of the Vision as well as others Or doth not the Beacon-firers very passionately and importunely tempt men in authority to assume unto themselves such an exorbitant and prodigious power as this I mean to authorize a certain number of men who shall in their sence be Orthodox though according to the sence of as understanding men and probably according to the truth it self be as erroneous in their judgement as other men to word it is in effect at such a rate with the Holy Ghost 2. What ground is there in the Word of God for the investing of Edmund for example Arthur and William with a Nebuchadnezzarean power over the Press to stifle or slay what books they please and what they please to keep alive more then there is for the investing of Joshuah Peter and Tobiah with the same Or if the three latter be altogether as religious as judicious as learned as the three former by what rule of equity reason or conscience should they be more obnoxious in their writings and publication of them to the censure and disapprobation of these then these in their writings unto them Or by what rule delivered in the Word of God shall any man judge the three former either more religious learned or judicious and so more meet for the intrustment under consideration then the latter 3. Whether hath the Holy Ghost anywhere characterized or declared what qualifications are requisite and meet to be found in such persons who shall bee set over the Press and be intrusted with such a soveraignty of power as by which they shall be inabled to fill the world with books and writings for the advancement of their own faction or for the propogation of their own erroneous and perhaps dangerous conceits and on the other hand to suppresse whatsoever shall bee prepared by men of solid and sound judgements for the detection and eviction of their folly in such cases 4. Is not the granting of such a power over the presse as the Beacon firers in the great heat of their devotion and zeal sollicite the Parliament to vest in a certain number of men ill consistent with the interest and benefit of a free Common-wealth and of like nature and consideration with the granting of Monopolies Or may not the Commonwealth deeply suffer by the exercise of such a power in being thereby deprived of the use and benefit of the gifts parts experiments diligence and labours of many her worthy members 5. Who are in a regular capacity of power to nominate and appoint such persons to whom the said power over the Press ought to be committed If it be said the civil Magistrate 1. I would gladly know of the Beacen-firers who hath delegated such a power or authority unto him or in what part of the Word of God any such power is asserted unto him 2. Whether the said power over the Press bee an Ecclesiastick or civil power If it be the latter how are men set apart for the ministery of the Word of God and prayer capable of the investiture If it be the former how is the civil Magistrate in a capacity of conferring it or investing any man with it 6. If the Supream Magistrate in a State or Common-wealth be allowed a power to invest what persons he pleaseth with such a power over the Press as the Beacon-firers demand is it not to be expected that onely such persons shall be deputed to this trust by him which are of his own sence and judgement in matters of Religion and consequently who shall comply with a State Religion And are men of this character competent Arbitrators between persons of their own party and perswasion and those who are contrary minded to them in their contests about truth and errour And in case the Magistrate himself shall be unsound in the faith as men of this Order have no priviledge of exemption from errour more then other men nay they are under more and greater temptations then other men to be carried aside in their judgements from the truth if then I say the Magistrate be of an unsound judgement in things appertaining unto God shall not our Press-Masters be unsound also and consequently shall we not have errour countenanced and set at liberty and truth imprisoned and condemned to silence and obscurity 7. Shall not such men who shall undertake the administration of such a power by which the Press shall bee suffered to speak when they please and be compelled to keep silence when they please likewise run an extream hazard of fighting against God Or to reject and repel the Holy Ghost when he shall at any time be desirous to come forth by the way of the Press into the world with any new Discovery of Truth is this any thing lesse being interpreted then a fighting against God Or do they who know but in part universally or infallibly know when the spirit of truth and when the spirit of errour is desirous to come abroad into the world 8. Doth not a power of gagging the Press when men please carry a dangerous Antipathy in it to that Evangelical charge or precept imposed upon all men whereby they are commanded by God to try all things and particularly to try the spirits whether they be of God or no For if
you have published in your own name or Licensed for others but I could quarrel with somewhat therein at as good a rate of ingenuity if I judged the ingagement worthy of me as you have done at that passage of mine Yea and wring every whit as bad blood out of the nose of it as you have forced out of mine But for oversights hard expressions or doubtful passages in other mens writings otherwise then for the necessary defence of those Truths which God hath stir'd up my Spirit to plead and protect I have neither time nor mind to take any such cognisance of them Concerning my own writings so far as I find them justifiable for matter of truth and defensible I shall God willing pro virili stand up to maintain them against all Opposition and Detraction as fast as I shall come to understand what exceptions are taken against them What shall reasonably and in a Christian manner be excepted against any thing I shall make no Apology for but with a spirit of meekness own the oversight and onely endeavor the rectifying In case unjust Opposers shall rise up too fast or prove too many in number for me I must then be content to edecimate and turne my self onely to those that are counted Pillars and leave Punies-either to share with them in such answers and satisfactions which shall be given unto them or otherwise to take their pleasure in flying upon the wings of their own wind Sir I cannot suspect a want of so much civility in you as to deny water unto those for the washing of their faces who are bemired though casually and by their friends or that the publishing of these few harmless lines in order to my purgation will be matter of offence in the least unto you Thus desiring that the Father of Lights will give both to you and me and all others that desire to serve him faithfully in the Gospel of his dear Son light and not darkness for our vision I take my leave and rest Yours with a perfect Heart to serve you in our Great Redeemer J. G. Mr. Joseph Caryl's Answer to Mr. John Goodwins Letter SIR I Suppose you Printed and Published your Book with a willingnesse that it should be read and considered by all men and knew also that your opinion therein asserted concerning Universal Redemption and falling from Grace hath been as still it is opposed by very many For my own part I plainly professe to you that I have according to my measure held forth and maintained the contrary Doctrines not onely before I saw your Book but before ever I saw your face and so I judge my self bound to do as I have oppertunity till I see ground to change my opinion which as yet I do not no not by what I have found in your book As for that particular Passage of it which you say I have stigmatiz'd with a Brand of Ignominy as also caution'd my friends about it what you mean by stigmatizing I apprehend not All that I have said of it hath been but a manifestation of my dislike of it or that it is an argument of your highest confidence that the truth in that point to which it relates is on your side Now truly Sir if you call this stigmatizing it with a Brand of Ignominy I know not how to take it off notwithstanding all that you have written in vindication of it in the Letter you were pleased to send me And whereas you intimate your purpose to Print that Letter it shall I hope be no trouble to me unlesse for your sake if you do so Onely give me leave to caution you as a friend to consider well both with your self and with your friends Whether it be so comely or you to discover such an eagernesse in this cause that you cannot contain your self from publishing in Print what is spoken in private discourse among Friends concerning this or other Passages of your Book The Lord lead us into all truth and teach us how to walk in Love Yours in the truth to serve you in all Offices of Gospel Love Joseph Caryl Post-Script 1. To be read in Page 42. line 23. after these words Mr. Horn And why do you not demand of your Committee-man George otherwise called Doctor Kendal another of your three worthies why he hath not as yet answered Mr. Baxter who in your phrase hath charged him home to the life or rather indeed to the death of those foppish opinions and conceits of his which he encounters with as much ease and with like success as the fire doth the dryed stubble Yea why doe not you ask your third Committee-man and Champion Joseph why he hath not answered the same Mr. Baxters Epistle wherein he very gravely and Christianly yet roundly and smartly enough expostulates with him for helping into the world and this with approbation and applause such a book which well deserves to be hissed out of the world with indignation Post-Script 2. To be read in Page 47. line 10. after these words So still Yea there are such things found and have been discovered by others as well as by my self especially by Mr. Baxter and Mr. Hora in the writings of the three additional members of your Committee which according to the terms of your own regulation mentioned 12. of your Letter render them signally unmeet for a superintendency over the Press Mr. Baxter well nigh all along his Reply to Mr. Kendals Digression page after page evinceth him to be a man destitute of the truth void of judgement c. in very many things delivered by him in the said Digression And for Doctor Owen Mr. Horn hath in a just volume discovered his incompetency in the same kind FINIS Faults escaped in some Copies Epist. p. 3. l. 3. r. oculos p. 4. l. 15. r. failings l. ult. r. over-easie p. 7. l. 26. r. generality Book p. 1. l. 5. r. Nathanael p. 3. l. 21. r. creature p. 5. l. 15. r. Beacon-Firers p. 8. l. 11. r. be p. 10. l. 14. r. the p. 10. l. 20. r. work p. 14. l. 2. r. into p. 20. l. 6. r. black-friar p. 20. l. 8 r. Presbiterian p. 27. in the marg. r. errorum immaculatumque p. 28. l. ult. r. Pauls p. 34. l. 3. dele p. 35. l. 14. after below r. l. 15. after strong supply p. 36. l. ult. r. warie p. 40. l. 1. r. to l. ult. for with r. of p. 41. l. 24. r. if I did it not p. 43. l. 3. r. Co-adjutor p. 44. l. 7. r. spend p. 51. l. 33. r. ingenuously p. 54. l. 5. dele the p. 70. l. 12. after less r. a Nobis fratres suff cit conscientia nostra sed propter vos etiam fama pollere debet b In snspicione Hereseos nolo quenquam esse patientem Judg. 12. 6. a Promissiones itaque illae 〈◊〉 pro statis praesenti rerâ—â—â— sunt 〈◊〉 gende a Nunc auteÌ„ quia juxta sententiam Salvatoris volo operari cibum qui non perit antiquam divinorum voluminum viam sentibus virgultisque purgare Error mihi geminus infligitur corrector vitiorum falsarius dicor et errores non auferre sed serere b Ac Beatus Job qui adhuc apud Latinos jacebat in stercore et vermibus scatebat erroram integrum immacultumque gaudete a Pauca sunt enim quae proprie loquimur sc. de Deo plura non propriâ— sed cognoscitur quid velimus Aug. Confes. 11. c. 2. a See the 26. and last Chapter of my Redemption Redeemed a Cum et ed numero et de conditione ac differentiâ eorum qui manu-mitterentur curiose cavisset hoc queque adjecit me vinctus unquam tortusve quis ullo libertatis genere urbem adipis ceretur Sueton. Octav. §. 40. a I call your request Anti-Christian because a restraint of the Press is generally practised where Anti-Christ hath his Throne The same Engine was made use of by the late Prelacy to support their Kingdom of unrighteousness Is it meâ—t to bring in the methods and arrifices invented and practised by Satan for the support of his tottering State and Kingdom in the world into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ for the establishment of this as if it were not able to stand but upon Satans legs a Part. 2. p. 50. 54 a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Eph. 4. 8. See Master Baxter Preface Apologetical pag. 6. And again in his Prologue to Mr. Kendal p. 4. a 2 Tim. 2. a Mal. 2. 17.
borrow your Names to father so hard-favoured a Birth of their own The reasons why I cannot but a little at least demur whether the piece be yours or no are 1. Because I find in it most un-Christian falsification even that which some would call Forgerie 2. Because I find in it likewise such counsels offered Petition-wise to the Lord Protector and Parliament under a pretext of Godliness and zeal for Sion which are obstructive if not destructive to the prosperity and Sovereign interest of both 3. And lastly there is a sent or smell of such a spirit in the said Pamphlet which teacheth men to suppose that gain is Godliness I confess that notwithstanding any personal knowledg I have of you or any of you the Pamphlet may be yours under all the three characters of unworthiness now specified for I know none of you beyond the face and only one of you so far yet report hath so far befriended some of you in my thoughts that I am hardly able to conclude you all under the guilt of the shameful and un Christian enormities which dare look the Parliament and the world in the face out of those Papers For to touch the first in one instance only not having opportunity of making proof of more at the present Page 4. of the said Pamphlet this absurd passage is charged upon me in my Book of Redemption pag. 33 5. That in case any assureance of the unchaugeableness of Gods Love were to be found in or regularly deduced from the Scriptures it were a just ground to any intelligent man to question their Authority and whether they were from God or no Surely they who lay this saying to my charge may with as much honesty and conscience yea and with as much appearance of truth impeach David as guilty of saying There is no God Psal. 14. 1. or make the Apostle Paul to say Rom. 10. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus thou shalt be saved For though these words are to be found in these sacred Authors respectively yet the sence they make otherwise then in consort of the other words relating in their respective periods unto them was as far from their Authors meaning as the Heavens are from the Earth David was far enough from affirming that There is no God and Paul from saying that If a man shall with his mouth confess the Lord Jesus he shall be saved yet the words of which both sayings consist are extant in their writings In like manner the Beacon-Firers whoever they be you or others for I shall not charge you with the folly but upon better evidence commit the foul sin of Forgery in making me say in their pretended Transcription out of my Book that In case any assureance of the unchangeableness of Gods Love were to be found or could regularly be deduced from the Seriptures c. Whereas besides several other words in the sentence they leave out the characteristical word Such any Such assureance of the unchangeableness c. the word that is the Heart Spirit and Soul of the sentence that gives a most rational and Orthodox taste and relish to the whole Period and without which the passage contains no more my sense or judgment then theirs who forged the Transcription For my sence and opinion which I argue and assert in several places upon occasion in my said Book of Redemption as viz. p. 63. 64. and again p. 278. c. cleerly and expresly is that The Love of God as all his Counsels and Decrees is unchangeable and consequently that an assureance of this unchangeableness is regularly enough deduceible from the Scriptures and this without any prejudice to their divine Authority yea rather to the establishment and confirmation hereof So far am I either from thinking or saying that if in case any assureance of the unchangeableness of Gods Love were to be found in or could regularly be deduced from the Scriptures it were a just ground to any intelligent man to question their Authority c. Therefore they who have accused me especially unto a Parliament of such a saying have the greater sin That kind of unchangeableness of Gods Love the assureance of which I affirm were it to be found in or regularly to be deduced from the Scriptures would be a just ground to an intelligent and considering man to question their Authority c. I had imediately before described and besides sufficiently explained in the reason of the said assertion which I imediately subjoyn in these words Forthat a God infinitely righteous and Holy should irreversibly assure the immortal and undefiled inheritance of his Grace and savour unto any creature whatsoever so that though this Craeture should prove never so abominable in his sight never so outragiously and desperately wicked and prophance he should not be at liberty to withhold this Inheritance from him is a saying doubtless too hard for any man who rightly understands and considers the Nature of God to bear From these words it plainly enough appears that it is not any assureance of the unchangeableness of Gods Love as the Beacon-firers most un-Christianly and unconscionably suggest to the Parliament and indeed to the world which I conceive to be a just ground to any intelligent and considering man to question the Authority of the Scriptures in case it could either be found in or drawn from them but such an assureance hereof by vertue of which men turning aside from Christ after Satan from ways of righteousness and of truth to walk in ways of all manner of loosness and profaneness may notwithstanding with a secure confidence promise salvation unto themselves and that God will never take away his love from them And whether such an assureance of the unchangeableness of Gods Love as this were the Scriptures any ways confederate with it which far be it from every Christian Soul to imagine would not be derogatory or prejudicial in the Highest to their Authority let the Beacon-firers themselves or any other persons who make any conscience of putting a difference between God and the Devil judg and determine If I were a person prone to jealousie or desired to make any further breach upon mens reputations then only for the necessary reparations of the truth injured by them I could suggest this Query to the thoughts of men Whether it be not likely that they who thus palpably and notoriously have falsified the writings of one have not committed the same folly in the rest of their Transcriptions from the writings of others considering that it is a saying in the civil Law He that hath injured one hath threatened many and our Saviour himself He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much Luke 16. 10. But no more of this at present 2. That pernicious Counsel against the liberty of Printing and for the subjecting of all the learning gifts parts and abilities of
preferment over the Presse who by the opportunity of their standing on this ground shall be in a good capacity to gratifie their friends and benefactors in their way But in this I shall spare you For a cloze I shall make this reasonable and Christian request unto you that in case you be fellow-fufferers with me and have not been privy or consenting to the framing or publishing of that unworthy Pamphlet intituled A Second Beacon fired c. you will publickly and in print wash your hands from the guilt hereof and declare unto the world that you had neither right hand nor left either in the inditing or venting of that Pamphlet Or if your consciences be not at liberty to accommodate you in this for by somewhat I have heard since I began this Epistle to you I am little lesse then all thoughts made that you are the true and not the personated Beacon-firers your selves that then you will with your own hands quench your Beacon on fire first by acknowledging publickly and in Print 1. That you have falsly accused me either of Blasphemy or of Errour and this unto his Highnesse the Lord Protector the Parliament the Nation and indeed to the whole world 2. That you have given unadvised councel to speak no worse of it for the oppressing the Christian and just liberties of the Commonwealth of England about printing by subjecting the whole Nation I mean as many in it as shall at any time intend or be desirous to publish any thing Presse wise unto the wills and pleasures of a few particular men 3. By delivering or presenting Copies of what you shall Print or cause to be printed upon both these accounts to all the same persons as well Parliament men as others or to as many of them as are yet living in or near the City to whom you not long since delivered Copies of that unhappy Pamphlet stiled A Second Beacon-fired If you shall with your own hands thus quench the Beacon which you have rashly and unchristianly fired I shall rest satisfied Otherwise you will compell me to do it after my weak manner for you by publishing the contents of these Papers which I have sent unto you I shall wait for your Christian Answer till the latter end of the next week The God of all Grace give you Wisdome and a sound understanding in the Gospel of his dear Son that you may be capable of knowing things that differ to your own comfort and peace Your very loving Friend in the Faith of Jesus John Goodwin From my Study in Swan Alley in Colemanstreet London Nov. 9. 1654. The Book-sellers Letter to Mr J. Goodwin ENDORSED To the Learned Mr John Goodwin at his House in Swan-Alley Together with the said Mr J. Goodwin's Animadversions thereon according to the respective Sections of it Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. I. SIR OVr weaknesse shall be as readily acknowledged by us as it is scornfully derided by you a but God who doth righteously conceal himself from lofty and crafty Sophisters b doth graciously reveal himself to Weaklings and Babes c We own that Book which you say was written by a son of Belial d because thore was one little word SVCH e mitted in transcribing a passage out of your Redempt Redeemed We cannot but admire this righteous providence f For you accuse us of falsification as Joseph's Mistresse accused him of wantonnesse whereof he was innocent and she was guilty g Mr. Goodwins Animadversion I. a Your weaknesse may be as readily acknowledged by you as it is scornfully derided by me and yet never be acknowledged by you at all yea as far as by the Contents of your Letter can be reasonably judged you are too far hardned in a conceit of your strength ever to acknowledge your weakness For your charge here is but an unchristian calumniating of my Christian intentions towards you in remembring you privately of your weaknesses nor do my words import any scornfull deriding either of them or of your persons for them Your Prophet and Amanuensis the Compiler of your Letter hath drawn you into a sinfull snare in the very beginning as he hath done unto twenty more in the sequel by occasioning you to subscribe such an insinuation of untruth b The word Sophister in the canting dialect of high Presbytery commonly signifies a person who levies such Arguments whether from the Scriptures or otherwise against any of their Tenents which their Prophets cannot tell how to answer In this sence of the word the Libertines Cyrenians Alexandrians c. might have termed Stephen a Sophister because they were not able to resist the wisdome and spirit by which he spake Act. 6. 9. 10. In like manner the Jews at Damascus might have called Paul a Sophister because he confounded them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} argumentatively proving or inforcing by argument that this Jesus is very Christ Act. 9. 22. The Prophets of the said school of high Presbytery have attempted to impose a like exotique sence upon several other words of frequent use amongst us They make the word Orthodox to signifie a man of their judgement whether rotten or sound the word Heteredox or erroneous a person differing in judgement from them though in the truth the word Blasphemy that which contradicts any of their notions or conceits about the Nature or Attributes of God this complex the Reformed Religion with them signifies that Systeme or body of Doctrine which they teach the word Arminian or Pelagian signifies such a person who holds that Christ tasted death for every man in the Scripture sence and again who holdeth in the Scripture sence that God would have all men to be saved and none to perish By Socinian they frequently understand a person that will not bruit it in matters of Religion by proud they sometimes mean him that will not stoop to the high Presbyterian yoke or to their judgement in other things My meaning is not that they intend or desire that the words or terms specified should in their writings or teachings be taken in the sences respectively mentioned but that truth cannot ordinarily be made of what they write or teach when any of the said words are used by them unlesse they be taken and understood in the said respective significations And by their usage of these and several other words upon the terms expressed they have wretchedly abused the simple and over-credulous world But I confesse that if I be learned as you please to stile me in the superscripcion of your Letter and yet a Sophister in the true and known signification of the word my condemnation is the greater and equal to a rich mans who is a common theef But it may be that was your complement and this your heart c Those Babes unto whom God graciously revealeth himself are not persons full of malice and revenge or who will justifie themselves in scandalous and publick misdemeanors nor who are alwaies learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth but such who are babes or children in malice who are tractable and teachable and easie to be intreated by the truth though otherwise they be men in understanding d This is an untrue charge like unto many others in your Epistle I do not affirm or say that your Book was written by a Son of Belial but onely suggested that such a thing might possibly be and that you might be abused in it as well as my self e Whereas you seem to extenuate the crime of your falsification by saying because there was one little word SVCH omitted c. I confesse the word Such is no word great of bulk or body but it was the spirit and life of that sentence of which you make a dead corps by separating it from it and without which as specificating that assurance of the unchangeableness of Gods love of which I there speak determinately you represent me as speaking that which is further from my thoughts or sence then possibly from your own And for you to pretend that it is one little word omitted as if it were the lesse in consequence because it is little in bulk or quantity doth it not bewray your great inconsiderateness The words no and not are each of them somewhat lesse then Such yet he that shall leave them out of nine of the ten Commandments of God shall of so many holy and just Commandments of God make alike number of horrid suggestions of the Divel Besides the difference between Sibboleth and Shibboleth consisting onely in an aspiration which as Grammarians inform us is lesse then a letter is farre lesse then that between any assurance and any such assurance yet did it cost many thousand men their lives a But besides the little word SVCH you omit many others in your said Transcription viz. all these in the beginning of the period yea that which is yet more I verily beleeve which words have some considerable influence upon the sentence Yea the truth is had you put in all these and the little word SVCH too unlesse you had moreover interpreted my meaning in this word which you might and ought to have done from what I had said before and from what follows after you had not dealt Christianly or fairly in the transcription For to take a sentence out of the midst of a discourse the meaning and right understanding whereof depends upon what goeth before and what comes after is not to represent the mind or judgement of the Author in such a sentence but with ambiguity and with the greatest probability of mistake Therefore whereas in your words immediately following you go about to justifie your selves from the crime of falsification in any degree the very certain truth is that you are falsifiers in a very high degree f. g It is indeed a righteous Providence that I should accuse you of falsification I beleeve that God put it into my heart to do it for the manifesting of your unworthiness first privately unto your selves and then upon your obduration and impenitency unto the world But that I should do it upon the terms asserted by you is no Providence at all but a broad-faced untruth affirmed by you and such an affirmation from you is indeed to be admired For whether I be a falsifier or no which shall be put to the trial anon it is as certain as certainty it self and hath been already proved in the sight of the Sun and above all contradiction that you are falsifiers according to your charge Therefore not Joseph with his chastity but Josephs Mistresse with her wantonnesse is your parallel You lay claim to innocency as Saul did to obedience when the Prophet Samuel charged him notwithstanding with rebellion 1 Sam. 15. 20 23. And he that taught you to talk of admiring that which you expresse as a righteous Providence taught you to speak prophanely and not as men awfully sensible of the Majestique Holiness and power of God Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. II. To the first of your three censures then We answer that when you relate the judgement of the reformed Churches concerning the unchangeablenesse of Gods love toward his regenerate Children a You your selfe are guilty of a most notorious falsification which your Letter tempts us b to call forgery because you forge a vile opinion and you are excellent at that kind of forgery c and then lay a bastard of your own begetting at the Churches doors and would perswade the most chast Protestants that they must father your own hard-favoured Monster Are not you ashamed to stain paper with such slanderous Cavils d Did any of those learned men against whom you write ever assert the unchangeablenesse of Gods love to Apostates to men that are never so desperately wicked and prophane in his sight though they continue never so long in their outragious wickednesse e Mr. Goodwins Animadversion II. a Here again you falsifie a fresh laying to my charge that which I know not no nor yet your selves you should have done well to have pointed at the place in my writings where I relate the judgement of the reformed Churches concerning the unchangeablenesse of Gods love towards his regenerate children For I do not remember that I have related the judgement of any of them all touching this head of Doctrine but onely of the reformed Churches of Saxony and this I relate in their own words p. 394. of my Redempt Redeemed In the same page I refer indeed the Reader to another Authour who hath made a collection of the sence and judgment of more of them whose relations and collections in this behalf if you can disprove you may do it if you please but if you discover any thing amisse in him which I presume you cannot you must have a conscience by your selves to lay it to my charge However it had been requisite for you upon such a charge as this to have directed me where I shall find the judgement of the reformed Churches in the point related in conformity to your sence and desire for I am far to seek in this that so I might have compared my report hereof with the said judgement declared and laid down by these Churches themselves For in case I should find that I had mis-reported it I should not consult your example for a justification of my error but the example of David which teacheth me to confesse my sin and to flee to the golden Altar of repentance for my sanctuary So that that most notorious falsification of which you would make me guilty is but another most notorious falsification of your own you can prove nothing of it against me b However I marvel you should say that my Letter tempts you to call it Forgery He that calls a spade a spade doth not tempt another to call an hatchet a spade c No Gentlemen as Elijah answered King Ahab who charged him with troubling Israel I have not saith the Prophet to him troubled Israel but thou
of witnesses Behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy Mat. 26. 65. Be you more confident if you can or more zealous in the expressions of your confidence that there is Blasphemy in my Books then the High Priest with his Associates were that that Lamb of God blasphemed Nor doth Mr. Goodwin in any of his Books maintain the Apostafie of the Saints but condemneth it as a most hideous sin Or if your meaning be that in some of his Books he evinceth by the Scriptures by arguments impregnable by Authorities numerous and these of the best by frequent experiments a possibility of the Saints Apostatizing I subscribe the charge and shall not put you to prove it In the mean time whether Calvin doth not maintain the Apostasie of the Saints as well as Mr. Goodwin let himself be consulted in those few places and passages in his writings which are transcribed by me Page 387. 388. 389. of Redemption Redeemed Therefore here again you are out of the way of speaking truth d Who you mean by SVCH Apostate Saints You remember the word SVCH to very little purpose here for you had spoken of none before and who you say it is no wonder if they be enslaved in journey-work to Apostate Angels when you tell us it is like we may consider of the saying mean while it shall pass for a nihil significat and so escape upon better tearms then all your Letter besides Onely I cannot but wonder a little that YOV should talke of SVCH Apostate Saints who deny all possibility that Saints should turn Apostates e I have more need to put on bowels of pitty then arme my self with patience to hear you tell a story with a conceit of lifting up your cause to Heaven by it of which first you have no knowledge whether a word of it be true or no Secondly which if it were true from first to last would rather be a blot and prejudice to your cause then any matter of honour For first If you remember who made King James the Defender of your Faith you have small cause to like your Faith the better for his Defending it Secondly Nero's hatred and enmity to the Christian Religion turned rather to a Testimony unto it then to any matter of disparagement or disrepute But you are I perceive of that generation of men who love to be of the Kings Religion be He or it what they will I wish for your sakes that your honesty may turn to as good an account unto you before God another day as that in my Brother Bertius as you call him which your story calls knavery And as for the Hanging you speak of I beleeve that some of your Arch-Teachers I will not say the Architect of your Epistle-Fabrique for Carolizing and Scotizing and playing yea and nay with the Parliament was far deeper in the merit of such a penance call it by the name of knavery or what you please then Bertius was Book-Sellers or Be Firers §. IV. Be pleased in cool blood to consider that the Protestants do maintain That the chosen people of God are Elected to Faith and Godliness a and to Perseverance in both and Such is the unchangeableness of Gods Love towards them that they are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. The purpose of God according to Election shall stand b and therefore they shall stand Rom. 9. 11. We depend upon Gods Faithfulness and not upon our own Heb. 10. 23. The Gifts and Calling of God are without Repentance Rom. 11. 29. Mr. Goodwins Animadversions IV. a It seems you think you have over-het my blood by making me to bear your burthens of unjust revilings and reproaches But if this be your thought surely you judge your request here made unto me viz. to consider in cool bloud c. very difficult of performance But I have been so long a Bearer of the burthens of men that the work doth not much trouble or distemper me Therefore I shall here hearken unto you consider with the best of my understanding what the Protestants do maintain But I fear that neither you nor your Prophets are competent to inform me Besides if I were never so well satisfied herein yet I must cleave to and profess what Paul and Peter the rest of the Hagiography maintain not what this or that Protestant maintain For that there is not idem sensus eadem mens amongst Protestants about the point you here speak of is too well known to be any knowing mans question If there be some that hold as you say that Gods chosen people are elected to Faith and Godlinesse they are none of the best considerate unlesse by Faith and Godlinesse they understand increase in Faith and Godlinesse in which sence the word beleeving is used 1 Joh. 5. 13. and frequently elsewhere and so holy for further holy or perseveringly holy Eph. 1. 4. with many the like and by being chosen to these and to perseverance in them such a kind of chusing on Gods part which doth neither necessitate nor include or suppose any thing that doth in time necessitate those who are thus chosen either to a progresse or increase much less to a perseverance in them With such Protestants who thus conceive of Gods Election unto Faith and Godlinesse and perseverance in them I fully concur in judgement so far If your Prophets tell you that there are no Protestants of this judgement they either bewray their ignorance herein or a much worse principle As for the two texts of Scripture 1 Pet. 1. 5 and Rom. 9. 11. how irrelative they are to your cause unlesse it be by way of opposition and consequently how impertinently they are here cited by you I have sufficiently declared and proved elsewhere the former pag. 185 186. c. of my Redempt Redeemed the latter pag. 97 98 and again pag. 132 133. c. of my Exposition of the 9th to the Romans Whereas you say you depend upon Gods Faithfulnesse if your sub-meaning be that I do otherwise as it must be if you write by the same Law by which you censure and condemn me in my writings you put me into a Bears-skin and lay a Bastard of your own begetting at my door I trust the language pleaseth you well being your own But whereas you adde and not upon our own if by your own Faithfulness you mean either your own Faith or your perseverance in it if you have no kind of dependance upon it it seemeth your judgement is that you may be as well saved without it as with it If this be your sence I confesse I am not herein of your mind You may be rectified in your judgements if you please about the mind of the Holy Ghost in Rom. 11. 29 by perusing the 55. of chap 8. of my book of Redemption and reading forward to the end of this chapter Booksellers or Beacon-sirers §. V. We are assured of the unchangeableness of Gods counsels by
the Promises and Covenant of God a By the seals annexed to the Covenant by the earnest given to assure the bargain by the Witnesses to confirm that last Will and Testament of special and saving grace Which Testament is further ratified by the Oath of God and heart bloud of Christ We are assured of all this not onely by Christs death but by his life for Christ saith to every soul that he hath quickned by special grace as he said to all his disciples but Judas the Son of perdition b Because I live ye shall live also Jo. 14. 19. God saith to all whom he brings under the power of the Covenant of grace I will be your God and ye shall be my people I will and ye shall I will not depart from you and ye shall not depart from me I will not ye shall not c Such an unchangeableness as this true Protestants such as Edward Arthur and William d do maintain Such an unchangeableness as this you do oppose e Such an unchangeableness as this the Scriptures do hold forth and yet you cannot upon this or any other account prove the Scriptures of the old and new Testament not to be the pure word of God though you have a cursed Art in Swan-Alley to undermine the authority of the Scriptures even when you do most pretend to defend them f It is a black Art g leave it for your juggle is discovered your folly manifested and your book about we had almost said against the Scriptures would have been wast paper had not some Anti-Scripturists brought them up h we can purchase some of your works at a good easie rate already but we beleeve the Cooks will help you away with some of them next moneth to defend Geose and Turkeys to lay up spice and underlay their pies i and therefore we think your works need not be called in Mr. Goodwins Animadversion 5. a If you be assured of the unchangeablenesse of Gods counsels by the several means you here enumerate I am glad for your sakes that you are in so Christian a posture God of his Grace keep you in it b But whereas you exempt Judas from amongst the Disciples to whom Christ said Because I live ye shall live also I know no sufficient ground you have from the Scripture or otherwise to do it For certainly Judas was included in another saying from the same lips of grace which imported as high a favour as this And Jesus said unto them verily I say unto you that ye who have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the Throne of his Glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Mat. 19. 28. If you please to peruse Chrysostomes exposition of this place which you may find faithfully delivered pag. 360 361. and again 373 374 of my Redemption Redeemed you will find him looking upon Judas as a son of the Kingdome for a time which opinion of his I give notice to be together with the ground and reason of it approved by Peter Martyr who was alwaies untill now judged a Protestant yea and not the least amongst those that are called Orthodox from whose pen likewise we took knowledge upon the occasion of that golden rule That the promises of life and salvation made by God unto particular men are to be understood with reference to the present state and condition of things with them a But if Judas was excepted as you say your cause is neither the whiter nor blacker for it c God indeed speaks as you here say I will be your God and ye shall be my people unto all whom he brings under the power of the Covenant of grace but first this proves not that he speaketh not the same thing unto others also Nor do you nor can you prove that the whole Nation of the Jews to which this promise was jointly and indifferently made Levit. 26. 12. were all in your sence brought under the power of the Covenant of Grace 2. The performance of this promise even where it is made or applied to such persons as you speak of is suspended upon their obedience and perseverance in it 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. Whereas you mention another promise in these words I will not depart from you I find it not at least in your terms in all the Scripture I suppose you look at Jer. 32. 40. But how far the heart of this passage is from your cause is demonstrated at large pag. 219. 220 221 c. of my Redempt Redeemed By the way is it not a rank impertinency in you to think to stop my mouth or satisfie me by a bare citation of such texts of Scripture as if they countenanced the way of your errour which I have upon a diligent and narrow enquiry evinced above all reasonable contradiction to have no Communion therewith at all d e Your Edmund Arthur and William may very probably maintain such an unchangeablenesse as you have described for I think that in many points they maintain they know not well what And the description which you have made of your unchangeablenesse hath neither head nor foot in it And whereas you say that I oppose it you again oppose the truth in so saying For according to the best construction among many that can be made of your words I assert it as well as you The men you speak of may be Protestants at large but this is no character of their Orthodoxisme Besides concerning that unchangableness which I suppose you would describe if you knew how the publick confessions of several Protestant Churches do manifestly contradict it as you may inform your selves if you please by a perusal of pag. 394 of my Redempt Redeemed and by pursuing the directions there given Therefore let us heare no more of this Fable f. g. In this you speak truth though to little purpose that I cannot upon the account you mention nor any other prove the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament not to be the pure Word of God Nor have I lift up either heart or hand to any such proof though you after your manner diabolize me so to have done That which I have anywhere asserted as to this point is onely this or to this effect that we are not bound to own for the Word of God or as any part of it whatsoever every ignorant or heedless person who was employed of old to transcribe the Old and New Testament for the best pen-men are seldom the greatest Clerks did insert in their Transcriptions nor yet what every Printer of later times hath through carelesness or mistake thrust forth in their Printed Copies of the Scriptures into the world Jerome in his latter Prologue upon Job complains that for his labour and faithfulness in correcting the enormous Translations and Transcriptions of the ancient Scriptures he was charged with a double errour one that when he corrected things amiss he was a Falsifier the other that
and cite madly They who speak maliciously and contrary to the light of their own consciences against their brother are very near neighbours to him that shall speak against the Holy Ghost Therefore it concerns you as well if not much more to take the advice you give then to give it Booksellers or Beacon-firers §. XI As for your Committee a of three Orthodox Pastors Edmund Arthur and William we will inlarge them if you please with three more John George and Joseph and then there is a Committee of Six make your exceptions against them if you can and take you your Joshuah Peter and Tobiah into your own consociation We wonder at your boldness in calling the power of the Protector Parliament a Nebuchadnezzarean power b but we wonder more that you should invest Doctor Whichcote Doctor Cudworth and the rest of the Doctors of Cambridge with a Nebuchadnezzarean power over Bookes and Opinions c and yet deny it to the Protector and the Parliament you cannot answer that to a Committee And we wonder most of all at your boldnesse and sawcinesse with the God of Heaven when you invest the Doctors of Cambridge with an Autocratorical Majesty d and affirm that Nebuchadnezzar had the self-same investiture 1. Consider that this is the basest kind of Flattery 2. The grossest Blasphemy to attribute that which is proper to God to the greatest or best of men for you your self do acknowledge that Autocratorical Majesty is peculiar to God onely where you deny second Causes to be Autocratorical Wee wish that you had a better heart and a better memory e Wee hope the Cambridge Doctors will not take that glory to themselves which you ascribe to them least they be as Wormeaten in their intellectuals as Herod was in his body if they aspire above the order of second Causes f Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XI a Nay stay a while you Ante-date the power of the men whom it seems you would have for your Presse-masters in stiling them a Committee God in his just judgement upon a sinfull Nation may permit them to be invested with such a power too soon but as yet I suppose you have not procured a Dedimus potestatem for them Whereas you challenge me to except against them I suppose they are not Exception-lesse unlesse their perfection be Hyper-angelical But as to a Magistrality over the Press my exception against them is 1. That they know but in part and therefore must needs be ignorant if not of many yet of some of the things of God and which concern the eternal salvation of men In which respect they are likely to obstruct the publishing of truths of highest concernment unto the world in case they be ignorant of them 2. Their present judgement considered I judge them ignorant of or at least declared enemies unto many grand and important truths of the Gospel And that my judgement in this particular is according to truth I have satisfied many and said enough to satisfie you and all your party were you not so near of kin to him who having inconsiderately affirmed that there are twelve Commandements and being admonished of his mistake and prompted to say there are ten replyed I have said there are twelve and I will say so still But thirdly and lasty and somewhat more particularly what think ye of him formerly touched with Carolizing Scotizing and playing fast and loose with the Parliament Is not he one of the six if not of the three I know you would have your Committee Honorable and untainted from the one end of it to the other The Emperour Augustus was very tender in admitting any person to enjoy the least degree of the Romane liberty who had ever been in bands or upon the rack a If you do not like this tang of the Bell you must not blame me but your selves who pull'd the Rope so hard by the hand of your challenge sent unto me to make my exceptions if I could. I fear some body forgot the old saying Ipse crimine vacare debet qui in alterum paratus est dicere I may have cause indeed to wonder at your boldness in sining but have you any cause to wonder at that which is not I no where call the Power of the Protector and Parliament a Nebuchadnezzarean Power And yet understanding the word Power of an executive Power onely which the Latines more properly call potentia and not of an Authoritative regulated or juridical power commonly signified by the word Potestas he that shall not estimate their Power to be Nebuchadnezzarean in my sence of the word under-valueth it You pretend here again to wonder and this with a greater wonderment then your former at what no wise man would wonder at all Do you not wonder that men should speak or understand any thing Or that all men are not either Horses or Mules Or do you wonder that men in speech should sometimes use metaphors Are there no such doings in those parts of your Common-wealth of learning which you are wont to frequent and visit do none of your Prophets speak Metaphors at any time Your Cavil at my investing Doctor Whichcote Doctor Cudwoth c. with a Nebuchadnezzarean Power over books and opinions is extreamly childish and futile It may be I should not be able to Answer the high misdemeanor of using a Metaphor to such a Committee as you would obtrude upon me and others But before a Committee of wiser mens chusing I make little question of my purgation But in saying that I Invest the Doctors you speak of with a Nebuchadnezzarean Power over books and opinions you falsifie by retail though not by whole-sale For 1. I do not anywhere use the expression of a Nebuchadnezzarean Power in all my Epistle to them Nor secondly do I invest them with any power priviledge prerogative or the like but only declare or affirm them to be invested already d It seems you are set upon the pin of wondering a seat whereon wise men do not ordinarily sit and the first-born of all your wonderments is at a very strange thing indeed were it not in the retinue of things that are not viz. my boldness and sauciness with the God of Heaven when I invest the Doctors of Cambridge with an Autocratorical Majesty But will ye not next wonder at the boldness and sauciness of David with the God of Heaven for ascribing unto Magistrates the name of Gods Psal. 82. 1. Psal. 86. 8. and much more of those other Penmen of the Scriptures who so frequently call the Idols of the Heathens by the name of Gods also Or is it more boldness or sauciness with God as your unbandsome or ill-sounding expression is to ascribe unto men not simply as you after your manner suggest an Autocratorical majesty but with limitation and explication an Autocratorical majesty OVER BOOKS AND OPINIONS then it is to ascribe unto them the plain and express Title and Name of Gods Besides your charge of my investing
them with this Majesty carries the print of a false singer in it as was lately said Nor is it any better then a putid of silly cavil not worthy the Genius of a School-Boy of ten or twelve years old to charge me with the grossest Blasphemy because I ascribe unto the University an Autocratorical majesty over Books and opinions in such a sence as I declare and explain in the period immediately following at large Nor would your Committee of Licensers should the Parliament indulge you in your Anti-Christian a request about them which I trust is found among the Absits of all considering men be able to accommodate you in your expectations or desires if they should not invest them with such an Autocratorical Majesty over Books and Opinions as I ascribe to the Doctors of Cambridge Should then the Parliament be guilty either of base flattery or of the grossest Blasphemy in case they should invest them with such a power over Books and Opinions as that which I Rhetorically term an Autocratorical Majesty Or have not I every whit as much ground of hope that there will be found none at least no wise men who will take that power and glory to themselves without which Licensers of the Presse cannot be established to do their work effectually and with authority as you have to hope that the Cambridge Doctors will not take that glory to themselves which I ascribe to them When you insinnuate indeed as good as say right-down that I my self ascribe unto God that Autocratorical Majesty which I ascribe unto men vestratim facitis you do like your selves and not like unto men honestly considerate Do I anywhere ascribe unto God an Autocratorical Majesty over Books and Opinions But he that commits sin I see is the servant of sin e Whereas you wish me a better memory then that which I have I fear you would be better satisfied if it were worse But I shall not burthen you with this jealousie Nay if you be reall and Christian in your wish I most heartily concur with you in it And by way of recompence for your good affections to me most cordially wish you a better understanding which I know will accommodate you as much as a better memory will do me f Your Prophets are they who aspire above the Order of second Causes when they claim a Lordship and Dominion over mens faith and undertake to prescribe what must be taught and beleeved by men And if your notion here be true this probably may be the cause why they are in your affectate Metaphor so Wormeaten in their intellectuals Booksellers or Beacon-firers §. XII 3. To your 3 reason concerning Qualifications the Holy Ghost doth set down such Qualifications both Negatively and Positively as would fit men to oversee a Presse though printing was not invented some hundreds of years after the Canon was perfected 1. Negatively They are not fit to oversee the Presse who are men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth a void of judgement or delivered over to areprobate sence 2. Positively they are fit who hold fast the wholesome form of sound words the mystery of faith and Godlinesse and have their sences exercised to discern both good and evill b Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XII a If men of corrupt minds or destitute of the truth be not fit men to oversee a Presse I doubt you must contract the number of your Committee of Six or else admit of men not fit according to your own rule for the service b Again if they and onely they be fit who hold fast the wholesome form of sound words certain I am that your Committee of Six are not fit for they hold fast an unwholsome form of words and teach many unsound Doctrines which are not according to Godlinesse the unsoundnesse and ill consistency of several of these Doctrines with the interest of Godlinesse I have demonstratively shewed and proved in sundry places of my writings Nor have all the Mercury water that hath been applied nor all the scrapings and scratchings and scrubbings that have been used been able to cleanse or clear those Doctrines from these stains and blots By the way though it be true that the Scripture doth mention such qualifications and characters of men both negative and positive as you speak of in reference to other occasions and imployments yet by what authority or warrant do you make them competent to qualifie for such an Apocryphal office as you call the over-seeing of a Presse Are not you men who abhominate to make use of your own wits reasons or judgements in matters of Religion especially to trust unto them Or can you prove from the Scriptures that your qualifications were ever intended or meant by the Holy Ghost for the designation or characterizing of persons meet to make Oversee-ers of Presses Or is your Office of Presse-over-sight an alien to Religion and irrelative to it Besides what warrant have you but onely from your selves and your own reasons when you undertake to qualifie your Presse-masters with those qualifications from the Scriptures which you expresse to lay aside and leave out others which are delivered there upon the same or like account with those insisted on by you Why do you not require in your Overseers of the Presse that they be as well blamelesse husbands of one wife given to Hospitality not given to wine not greedy of filthy lucre not covetous c. as men who hold fast the wholesome form of sound words which by the way is no Scripture qualification this no where termeth forms wholesome but words or Doctrines onely Notwithstanding this Section of your Letter hath this that it is the calmest of all the 22. Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. XIII 4. To your 4th all things are not free in a free Common-wealth that Christian Commonwealth must expect to be ruined which allows men a liberty to blaspheme Jesus Christ or corrupt his Gospel a 5. To your 5th be pleased to read the 13th of Deuter. the 13th of Zachary and the 13th to the Romans and draw conclusions from thence for your satisfaction b 6. To your 6th The Religion owned by our State is the Christian Religion c Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XIII a What you mean by a Christian Commonwealth what by this Commonwealths allowing men a liberty to blaspheme Jesus Christ or corrupt his Gospel I professe ingeniously I understand not If by the former you mean a Nation or State wherein Christianity at large is more generally professed that which you speak here of a Christian Commonwealth you might as well have spoken of an Anti-Christian But I pray tell me did you ever know or hear of a Commonwealth which was either Christian or Anti-Christian that did allow men a liberty to blaspheme Jesus Christ or to corrupt his Gospel Or doth it follow that unlesse a Committee of Presse-Masters be established in a Commonwealth this Common-wealth must needs allow men a liberty to blaspheme or corrupt as you say Or have the
Lord Protector and the Parliament all this while wherein they have established no such Committee allowed men a liberty to blaspheme Jesus Christ or to corrupt his Gospel Therefore doubtlesse you do not understand your selves Nor can any man make sence and truth of your words with the least pertinency to your cause Nor do I well understand what you mean by Blaspheming Jesus Christ and yet lesse what you mean by corrupting his Gospel You and your Prophets have odd notions and conceits about Blasphemy Scarce any truth can be held forth which thwarteth or falleth foul on any of your tenents or Doctrines but this Antipathy by you is turned into Blasphemy And whether by corrupting the Gospel you mean the mingling of any errour though never so light or small with gospel truths or whether such a corrupting it which wholly destroies the nature and blessing intended unto men by it or whether a corrupting it to such or such a degree between these two extreams who can so much as steadily conjecture The truth is that I know very few who are greater corrupters of the Gospel then your greatest Champions When you say that all things are not free in a free Common-wealth do you speak to any purpose Or doth it follow from hence so much as by a dream of a consequence that therefore the Press ought not to be free because all things are not free Behold the natural face of your arguing in a glasse All things are not lawfull for men to do therefore eating when they are an hungry or drinking when they are thirsty are not lawfull b The three thirteenths you here point me unto I have already read at least thrice over respectively and have drawn conclusions from them to my full satisfaction against yours And if you please to see what conclusions I have drawn from them and what grounds I have laid upon which you also may draw the like I shall direct you to my respective arguings and explications of them The first of your three places you shall find examined by me at large in my treatise intituled Hagiomastix from 34. to the end of 41. Your second in a small discourse written upon that text of Scripture onely intituled a Postscript or Appendix to the former discourse Your third and last in the said discourse from the beginning of 45. to the end of 50. Between these Scriptures taken conjunctim and divisim and between your cause you will find a very cold Communion c Your Answer to my sixt reason is very little and yet to less purpose For 1. What do you mean by The Religion which the State owneth 2. What do you mean by the Christian Religion For this latter first The Religion owned and professed by Anti-Christian States is at least in a sence the Christian Religion Yea they have as much confidence if not more of the truth and soundnesse of their Religion as any Protestant State can have of the Religion owned and professed by them Secondly I would know what you mean by the Religion which the State owneth that so it may be considered not so much whether it be but how and how far and in what sence it may be called the Christian Religion First if by the State you mean either all those onely that have part in the Rule and Government of the Nation or else the great Body it self and Bulk of the Nation who can distinctly and in particular tell what Religion it is that is owned or that ever will be owned by either That Religion or that System of Tenents or confession of Faith which was composed and drawn up by the late Assembly of Divines and others at Westminster is not it seems owned or is not like long to be owned by the State in either acception of the word For the State in the former sence is in Travail with another Religion I mean another Confession or Profession of Faith which when they shall have assented unto and Authorized there is little question but the State in the latter sence will more generally own also If a man should repair to every particular member of the State in the former sence and much more in the latter and desire his sence and judgement distinctly touching his Religion and what he particularly holdeth in such and such points there is little question to be made but that in many things at least he should meet with the exemplification of the Proverb quot capita tot sensus quot homines tot sententiae as many men so many minds Yea in case the respective members of the State in the former sence shall joyntly and unanimously subscribe and Authorize any confession of the Faith which shall be formed either by themselves or by any number of Ministers or others this will amount to no proof that therefore the same Religion especially in all points is owned by them For it is a most true saying that Fides est in sensu non in verbis a mans faith consists in that which he meaneth not in the words which he speaketh And who knows not but the same words may have different interpretations and senses put upon them Therefore in case a State shall publiquely own and Authorize a model of Religion or Confession of Faith that shall be presented unto them I shall be very little the neerer hereby to know of what Religion this State is unless each particular member of this State shall further distinctly and particularly explain his sence touching every Article or head of Doctrine therein The truth is that to a State Religion it may be aptly said Belluae multorum es capitum nam quid sequar aut quem A many-headed Beast thou art for what or who May I with peace and safety for my Guide allow I confess men may be very unhappily and beyond the forecast of their own Genius inspired in the composing and drawing up a Catechism or Confession of Faith But I judg that hardly can either be formed or contrived in such words but that in case I may be allowed my own sence and construction of them I can subscribe them Book-Sellers or Beacon-Firers §. XIIII 7. To the seventh You do but repeat the Blasphemy which you darted against Heaven in your first Argument For we never desired the Parliament to suppress any truth revealed by the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures but to suppress Blasphemies and Heresies a Mr. John Goodwins Animadversion XIIII a What Gentlemen suppose I had charged you with desiring the Parliament to suppress truths revealed by the spirit c. had this been blasphemy darted against Heaven Are you Heaven or any the Inhabitants thereof I cannot but here tell you that such importune and horrid assumings as these on the one hand and such abominable untruths and slanders one following in the neck of another like the waves of the Sea on the other hand are not so much as the way thither but to a far differing place For I know cause to
testimony also of several Divines of the Protestant party as considerable as well for piety and parts of learning and sound judgement as any of their fellows You may see somewhat more then a little upon this account in my Redempt Redeemed pag. 397 398 399 400. d This is a most notorious slander I never taught any man to renounce all interest in the active obedience of Christ Yea I have constantly taught and asserted the absolute necessity of it to render him a justifier of the ungodly and Savior of men My sence in this point is plainly laid down in several places of my Treatise of Justification a Nor are you Christian in the latter part of your charge I no where affirm that Christ needed not to have shed one drop of his bloud for us these are words of your falsification My words in pag. 16. of my Redemption Redeemed to which you refer me are these The Salvation of the world doubtlesse did not depend upon the actualor literal dying or cruoifying of Christ but partly upon the Councel and good pleasure of God to deliver him up unto death in order to this end partly upon the readinesse and perfect submission of will in Christ to suffer death in case any man or men should be found that would inflict it upon him Of this my Assertion I give a sober and Christian account at large in the sequel of the discourse How wide the difference is between the notion and import of these words and that affirmation which you unworthily charge upon me an intelligent person may readily apprehend e This also is a most wretched and daring calumny Never in my daies did I deny the imputation of Christs all sufficient satisfaction I onely denied that most sencelesse and Anti-Scriptural sence of this imputation which was taught by some Ministers about the City but in a regular and true sence I alwaies affirmed it and accordingly declare my self in the second part of my book of Justification pag. 53. 57. f If you had prayed Davids prayer Psal. 119. 29. before your drawing up of this Article I judge that God would have heard you and removed from you the way of lying For certainly never did any word passe from my lips of any such tendency or sound as here you are not afraid to fasten on me That Catholique {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} credere you speak of I alwaies abhorr'd and set my self with the best of my strength and understanding against it Yea I argued against that opinion from time to time which maketh Faith to justifie by vertue of the relation which it hath to Christ upon this very account and ground viz. because of that affinity it hath with the notion of a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} credere Nor did I ever teach men to trust in their own trusting It is very like I may have taught them to trust that upon their beleeving or trusting in God thorough Christ they should be saved you are unsatiable in traducing g All my Anti-Scriptural Blasphemies may have been detected by Mr. Jenkin and yet nothing to be seen by any man Mr. Jenkin according to the Proverb when he went about to detect my Scripture Blasphemies sperans fragili den tem illidere in Solidum impegit thinking to strike his teeth into that which soft met with that which was too hard for them to enter Poor man instead of detecting my Anti-Scriptural blasphemies he detected his own ignorance and perverseness of spirit h Mr. Jenkins Detections and the two Doctors Discoveries are birds of the same feather or rather feathers of the same bird The Grashopper weighs a Talent of Lead in comparison of them They may for a time serve to build up men in errour and obduration against the truth But he that captived captivity a will detect all such detections and discover all such discoveries in his season Book-sellers or Beacon-firers §. XXI 8. The Agreement subscribed by your Church which saith that our faith and repentance is the cause of our Election a is such an absurd Disagreement to sense reason and Scripture that we cannot but adore the Justice of God who hath smitten your intellectuals and your phantasie the glory of your proud felf b and phantastical admirers c with such effectual and grosse delusions d that we wonder you your self do not take notice of it You see your Errors are so innumerable that we can scarce find heads enough whereunto they may be commodiously reduced And we have heard of a great Rabbi who was converted from Cards and Sack Possets to Errors and Blasphemies e but we spare you f Mr. Goodwins Animadversion XXII a You begin this Section with another Sacrifice unto the Father of lies instead of sacrificing to the Father of Lights The Agreement you speak of doth no where say that our Faith and Repentance are THE CAVSE of our Election But what saith it as to this point it speaketh on this wise Our Brethren holding with us as hath been noted that there is no Election of persons but in time though the Decree of Election be from Eternity we cannot conceive what should or can reasonably determine the time when this Election should be made at least in persons living to years of discretion but onely their Faith in the first raising it in the soul and that VPON their beleeving and not before they are numbred amongst the Elect of God Is here any thing that sounds like a making our Faith and Repentance the cause of our Election No both the compilers and subscribers of this Agreement resolved the Election of all those who are Elected into the gracious and good pleasure and Will of God Only we are taught by the Holy Ghost to look upon our selves as Elect according to the foreknowledg of God the Father through the Sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 2. and that God from the beginning hath chosen us unto Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and beleif of the truth 2 Thes. 2. 13. But though we look upon our selves as Elect or chosen by God through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth yet we judg not either the work of Sanctification wrought by the Spirit of God in us or our Faith or belief of the Truth to be either the the ground or meritorious cause of our Election but the condition only We acknowledg no cause taking the notion of causality properly of our Election but the Grace Wisdom and good pleasure of our good God onely as we suppose your selves do b You charge us with horrid untruths and with such Tenents which never came neer us and then pretend to adore the Justice of God in smiting our Intellectuals Is not this an horrid prophanation and taking the most Sacred Name of God in vain Our Intellectuals through the Grace of God have been opened enlightened and enlarged to see the truth as
this his affection towards him and consequently loveth him with the same love as great as rich as dear under all these horrible pollutions and most accursed abominations as he either would or could have loved him with in case he had all this while walked in the greatest innocency and uprightnesse of heart and life before him Now then this is that which I affirm that to attribute such an unchangeableness of love unto God as this which maketh him to love an obstinate and obdurate sinner a worker of all manner of abominations with the same affection wherewith he loveth a just holy and good man a worker of all righteousnesse is of a blasphemous import to those glorious Attributes of his his Righteousness and Holiness For if the case were thus with God should not the world have cause to demand with those in Malachy Where is the God of judgement a Or what is there or can there be of a more diametrical opposition unto righteousnesse then equally to respect and love the most unrighteous with those that are most righteous or unto Holiness then to honour those that are most polluted and abominable as much as those that are holy Nor can you here pretend that I wrong your Doctrine of Perseverance to the value of the least hair on your head by making it a Patronesse and Protectrix of such an unchangeablenesse of love in God as that now represented because evident it is that without such an unchangeableness supposed the said Doctrine will neither have footing nor foundation to support it For though you and others Patrons of this Doctrine understand your selves and be-friend your Doctrine better then to express or represent it unto the world in those black and dismal colours wherewith I have now drawn the pourtraicture of it or to describe the unchangeableness of love in God which must be the Basis and Pillar of it in such tearms as it hath been described by me yet there is nothing more pregnant and notorious then that your soft and silken and most tender expressions of it being regularly and according to the exigencie of truth interpreted and drawn out of these collusive involutions amount every whit to as much or more in deformity and A theologicalness of notion as any expressions used by me do import For certain it is nor do I remember that I ever met with a denial of it amongst the greatest Defenders of your Faith in the point of Perseverance that he that truly believeth may possibly fall and that within a very short time after this his believing into the greatest and foulest sins that the nature of man is lightly incident into as drunkenness adultery murther envy malice covetousness oppression idolatry c. yea and from the time of his first falling into them may continue and hold on in the practise of them for many years together yea possibly to the very approaches of death without repentance Onely you teach indeed but by humane not divine inspiration neither that such persons I mean once believers in case they fall into such sins as those now mentioned or the like yet never miscarry in the great businesse of Salvation but by an high hand of Grace from God are always brought back unto repentance before their death However upon the former supposition it clearly follows that your Doctrine of Perseverance cannot stand without the rotten prop of a Supposal of such an unchangeableness of love in God which is palpably and in the eye of a very ordinary understanding of an highly disparaging and blasphemous import to his Righteousness and Holiness In what sence the Scriptures hold forth an unchangeableness in God and so in all his Attributes and particularly in his Love I declare once and again upon occasion in my late Book of Redemption page 63 64. And again page 278 279. and page 205 206. c. Elsewhere as viz page 318 319. and p. 330. c. I demonstratively prove your Doctrine of Perseverance to be at open and manifest defiance also with another great Attribute of God his Wisdom Yea when I look narrowly into the purport and tendencies of this your Doctrine I cannot over-rule my thoughts but that they will be very jealous that it is accessary to far the greatest part of those abominations at this day raging amongst us Antinomianism Enthusiasm Familism of the dangerous and vile opinions and practises of those called Seekers and of those bred of the dregs and retriment of all these the Ranters and generally of all the coolings declinings backslidings and of all other foul and sad miscarriages amongst Professors Sir I have looked upon you as the glory of the London Ministery and do so still notwithstanding the contest of your judgment against mine about the Doctrine of Redemption and the questions relating hereunto Yet give him leave who is possibly looked upon by you as by many others as the reproach and shame of this Ministry to say this unto you that those two opinions the one of a peremptory personal Election from Eternity the other of a peremptory and necessitated perseverance of the Saints genuinely interpreted do upon the matter wholly dissolve the usefulness and necessity of your Ministry the former in relation to persons yet unconverted the latter in respect of Beleevers For first if there be a certain number of men peremptorily designed by God to Salvation all others as peremptorily excluded what need either the one or the other regard either your Ministry or any other mans The former shall be infallibly and irresistibly converted and so saved whether you or any man else preach the Gospel unto them or no If so Fortis ubi est Ajax where or what is the necessity of the greatest Preacher under Heaven in respect of them The latter notwithstanding all the possible relief that you by your Ministry can afford them will and must inevitably perish Yea all the good that you are capable of doing unto these by your Ministry is onely to help them deeper into Hell Secondly if those who already beleeve shall certainly and against all possible interveniences persevere in faith unto the end what if the Ministry of the Gospel and they were quite parted They should run no hazard of losing their Crown hereby This great Truth viz. that your Doctrine of Perseverance frustrates the Ministry in reference unto the Saints I prove at large and I suppose beyond all reasonable contradiction Page 301. 302. 339. c. of the book formerly mentioned Where also I tear in pieces the Fig-leaf of that pretence that the Ministry of the Gospel notwithstanding the perseverance of the Saints be supposed absolute and unfrustrable is yet a means for the effecting or procuring of it But Sir concerning the passage recited wherein you pretend to finde so much danger that you judge it necessary to arm your Friends with a Religious caveat against it I verily beleeve that there is scarce any Page in any of those books which either