Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	jesus_n	lord_n	1,817	5	3.2256	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85393	A fresh discovery of the high-Presbyterian spirit. Or The quenching of the second beacon fired. Declaring I. The un-Christian dealings of the authors of a pamphlet, entituled, A second beacon fired, &c. In presenting unto the Lord Protector and Parlament, a falsified passage out of one of Mr John Goodwins books, as containing, either blasphemie, or error, or both. II. The evil of their petition for subjecting the libertie of the press to the arbitrariness and will of a few men. III. The Christian equity, that satisfaction be given to the person so notoriously and publickly wronged. Together with the responsatory epistle of the said beacon firers, to the said Mr Goodwin, fraught with further revilings, falsifications, scurrilous language, &c. insteed of a Christian acknowledgment of their errour. Upon which epistle some animadversions are made, / by John Goodwin, a servant of God in the Gospel of his dear Son. Also two letters written some years since, the one by the said John Goodwin to Mr. J. Caryl; the other, by Mr Caryl in answer hereunto; both relating to the passage above hinted.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.; Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1655 (1655)	Wing G1167; Thomason E821_18; ESTC R202307	68,987	94

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

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

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

many things or many spirits of Doctrines be not suffered to come to the knowledge of men how shall they be able to try them Do not then the Beacon-firers by their counsel given to the Lord Protector and Parliament for the restraining of the Presse render that great commandement of God for the trial of all things of none effect 9. And lastly That great evill of the infectious spreading of errours and heresies in the Nation the prevention whereof the said advice given touching the Press pretendeth unto is not likely to be at all prevented but promoted rather by it should it he followed and put in execution For 1. As the saying is Quod licet ingratum est quod non licet acrius urit What Laws permit to do to do Men do not much desire But what restrained is to do They burn as hot as Fire And the Apostle Paul himself saith That Sin taking occasion by the commandement wrought in him all manner of concupiscence For without the Law Sin is dead Rom 7. 8. And little question there is but that in case the liberty of the Press shall bee by any law restreined they who otherwise would be but indifferent whether they published in Print their weak it may be their erroneous and wicked conceptions or no will be hereby admonished and provoked to do it though more secretly Stollen Waters are sweet 2. In case they shall by any such law of restraint be kept from venting their fond and uncouth notions by the Press or shall by the Masters of the Press bee prohibited the Printing of them they will by way of indignation and revenge be so much the more zealously diligent and intent to propagate them underhand and privately and probably gain many more disciples this way then by the other The prophane and vain babling of Hymeneus and Philetus fretted like a Canker although they wanted the opportunity of a Press for their propagation 3. When the generality of people shal understand that the publishing of such or such notions or Tenents hath been restrained and obstructed by those who shall exercise an arbitrary dominion over the Presse it will in reason both occasion them to think the better of them or at least to think that there is somewhat more then ordinary in them in one kind or other and consequently they will be awakened and stirred in their spirits to inquire more narrowly after them and to acquaint themselves with them So that in this respect also there is little like to be gained towards the suppression of errors and heresies by subjecting the Presse unto a Test 4. The setting of Watchmen with authority at the door of the Presse to keep errors and heresies out of the world is as weak a project and design as it would be to set a company of armed men about an house to keep darknesse out of it in the night season For as the natural darknesse cannot be prevented or dispelled but by the presence of light nor needeth there to be any thing either for the preventing or dispelling it but light onely So neither is it possible either to prevent or to remove errors and heresies which are spiritual darknesse but onely by shining spiritual light in the hea●ts and understandings of men neither needeth there any thing but this to effect either 5. Errors and Heresies the lesse they play in sight are like to defend themselves upon terms of more advantage and to lengthen out the daies of their continuance amongst men for the longer time For by this means they are kept from the clear and distinct knowledge of judicious and learned men who otherwise being both able and willing to perform so worthy a service both unto God and men would publickly detect and confute them And I verily beleeve that the printing of J. Biddles most enormous and hideous notions and conceits about the nature of God and some other very weighty points in religion will bring the judgement of bloody and deceitfull men upon them which according to Davids Award is not to live cut half their daies Psal 55. 23 For as the great Apostles reasoneth concerning such Teachers whom he calleth men of corrupt minds {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} injudicieus or without judgement about matters of Faith But saith he they shal proceed no further for their madnesse shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was so is it very reasonable to conceive and judge that the more generally and publickly any vile wicked or blasphemous conceit shall discover and manifest it self unto men it is so much the nearer to become the loathing and abhorring of all men Nor do the Beacon-firers argue like worthy men when from the numbers of unworthy books printed they infer the number of buyers and from hence conclude the number of persons either infected with or inclined to the errors contained and pleaded for in those books For who knoweth not that many men especially Ministers Schollars and learned men buy many books not with any intent to say as they say or to side in opinion with their Authors but partly to inform themselves concerning the spirits that come abroad into the world partly to rebuke and confute them upon occasion in case they see cause for it 6. And lastly for this The Gospel and the truth never flourished prospered triumphed at an higher rate in the world then when errors and heresies were no otherwise restreined punished or opposed then by those spiritual means which God himself hath sanctified and prescribed in this behalf as viz. by the effectual preaching of the Gospel the stopping of the mouths of the gain-sayers of truth by arguments of conviction and solid demonstration by casting out of their respective Churches and delivering up unto Sathan all such who after admonition and conviction shall persist in their errors and in the teaching and spreading of them But certainly amongst all the means Offices and Officers which the Lord Christ hath directed or established for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and acknowledgement of the son of God unto a perfect man c. neither restraint of printing nor Licensers of the Presse are to be found these are Apocryphal both Names and Things This for the second particular For the third and last He or they whether it be some other others or your selves who have represented you as the firers of the second Beacon and consequently the Authors of the advice given in the Pamphlet mentioned touching the monopolizing of the Presse do insinuate you as men who can be too well content that others of the same craft with you should suffer in their trade so you may advance in yours For it is not much to be doubted but that your desire is that such men as you count Orthodox should be recommended by you or by your motion interest to the high

for Doctor Owen to shut and his most satisfactory answer would be to acknowledge as much If he would make this Answer he should deserve the commendation of a recte respondes But my Answer to you upon this question is that I have publiquely engaged my self death sickness or other occasional intrusions not preventing me to answer more considerable men and more considerable Arguments then he or his are a It is meet that his betters should be served before him Besides some of his own judgement in the controversies have no such opinion of what he hath written as to think that it needs much answer The reason hereof I conceive to be because his Answers more generally stand upon such odd uncouth wild and reasonless principles and notions in which the generality of his own Party can neither find sap nor savor nor well tell what to make of them Yea if all hearsays be Orthodox Mr. Vice-Chancellor himself his Co-adjunctor against the Truth hath notwithstanding pull'd in his Horns again which he put out to such a length in his Quaint Encomiastique of him prefixed before his former Book entituled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} reserving as it seems upon better advice his high thoughts for his own writings But the consideration now mentioned in reference to Doctor Kendal is another reason why an answer to his Book may be spared without any great detriment or loss to the cause Yea upon the same account an answer given to it though never so satisfactory and full would yet amount to no more then onely to an Answer Ad hominem Others of his judgement would be little satisfied or convinced by it because it would not reach their apprehensions One thing further is that could I but entertain the one half of that opinion concerning his Theological abilities which by several strains in his writings I perceive he admits of himself I could not but consequentially suppose that he were able to Answer all his own Answers and upon competent studie to discover the nakedness of all he hath written in the controversies depending between him and me Yea my present apprehensions of the learning parts and worth of Docter Owen are such and so high that I really beleeve would be ingeniously and with the best of his understanding apply himself to the work he could pluck up by the roots all he hath planted and make Hey and Stubble of those answers and discussions which now I question not but he desires should bee esteemed Silver and Gold by his Friends and Party Notwithstanding as to Doctor Kendal if what he hath written in answer to me be too hard for himself to answer I shall at my first leasure be willing to help him upon this condition that he Re-print his Books and cause all his Froliques as himself termeth them all his unseemly jears all his childish and frivolous cavils all his windy and importue insultations and triumphs with abundance of other rubbidge not fit for any man to be troubled with but himself to be left out Lastly what Doctor Kendal hath written needs the less Answer because in the eye of an intelligent and observant Reader he hath rather confirmed then infirmed or confuted the arguments of his Adversary by giving the stress and strength of them the go-by well nigh all along spending his Attillery upon Phantasms of his own conception and maters very irrelative to his cause As for Doctor Owens blameing me it is like his act in blaming me is more blame-worthy then that for which I am blamed by him They who have had time to looke into his Book find more then a few blame-worthies in it Yea these two great Hyperaspists and Champions of your cause have by one Horn both been pushed to the Earth and overthrown both Horse and man d It is I confess very probable that neither my self nor any other in my behalf will ever be able to return an Answer satisfactory either to you who are not capable of an Answer truly so called or to such of your party who judge it more honorable to persist in an error and this unto death then to seem to have erred but I suppose an Answer hath been lately given though brief yet satisfactory to the life your own phrase to all considering and un-prejudiced men Booksellers or Beacon-firers §. X. You are pleased to tell us in your Letter to us that you could make a further breach upon our reputations if you would examine our Transcriptions out of the writings of others a Sir if you have a mind to maintain Mr. Biddles Blasphemies or adopt them into your association let us feel the dint of your two edged tongue b But we passe to your second charge You say we give pernicious counsel to the Parliament and advise them to authorize some men Sir-named Orthodox to word it with the Holy Ghost What is this but to charge the Blasphemies and Heresies of these times upon the Holy Ghost c The Lord rebuke thee thou false tongue Consider that text sadly If any man speak a word against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him Mat. 12. 32. Mr. Goodwins Animadversion §. X. a Here again you falsifie I do not tell you in my Letter that I could make a further breach c. but onely that it is not unlikely but that having dealt foully by me you have not dealt much more fairly by others which being found would make a further breach upon you Concerning Mr. Biddles Blasphemies I beleeve and beleeve it to be the sence of many others that I have laboured and this publickly more abundantly in opposing them not onely then you all but then all your six Commissioners elsewhere boasted in your letter Therefore whereas you talk of my maintaining these Blasphemies and adopting them into my association you do but teach those who know the truth to undervalue you and to look upon any thing you say as lesse considerable b If my tongue be two-edged it holds so much the better resemblance with that two edged-sword that came out of the mouth of the Lord Christ Rev. 1. 16. It is much better to have one tongue two-edged then to have two tongues or one tongue without any edge at all c Is the not authorizing some men to word it with the Holy Ghost to charge the Blasphemies and Heresies of the times upon the Holy Ghost To say that Abraham begat Isaack is it to charge Sarah with being an Adultresse I perceive you are no good Consequentialists Or have the Parliament hitherto in not authorizing men to word it in my sence with the Holy Ghost charged all the Blasphemies and Heresies of the times upon the Holy Ghost When you take me with a false tongue as I have done you ten times over if you will not forgive me then imprecate against me as you do now without any cause at all The Lord rebuke thee thou false tongue You wish me to consider sadly that which you propose

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

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

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 rer●●● sunt 〈◊〉 gende a Nunc autē 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 propri● 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 me●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.