doth not invite or occasion any Man to judge concerning any Saint or true Believer that he will or that he is likely so to fall but onely that it is possible for him so to fall Nor is such a judgement or thought as this concerning any Man yea or Creature whatsoever any jealousie or suspicion at all concerning him nor hath it any thing reflective or disparaging in it to the Worth Honour or Repute of that Creature how great and worthy soever he be concerning whom it is conceived it being no disparagement at all no not to the first borne of Creatures I mean to the Angels themselves not to partake or not to be thought to partake in any incommunicable property of God such as his unchangeablenesse is To look upon a Saint or a true Believer as one who may possibly Apostatize is but to looke upon him as being a Creature and not God nor would such an eye as this offend the greatest Angell in Heaven considering that he never gave nor is capable of giving any competent ground or reason unto any Man to look upon him with any other But to looke upon a Saint or true Believer especially when he hath given all the Christian satisfaction that reasonably can be desired or expected of his uprightnesse and sincerity as one that for ought we can tell or have any sufficient ground to judge the contrary may be an Hypocrite and rotten at the core is an high straine of Unchristian unworthinesse and what reason it selfe competently informed cannot lightly but abhor The Premisses concerning the subject yet in hand the Doctrine of Perseverance duly considered it fully appeares that that Doctrine which for these many yeares last past hath magnified it self in the Tongues and Pens of Men not onely or simply for a Truth but with many great Elogiums and titles of Soveraigne dignity as that it is a fundamentall Article of the Reformed Religion one of the principal Points or Heads of Christian Religion wherein the Reformed Churches have purged themselves from the Errors of Popery that it is the foundation of all true assurance of Salvation without which true Faith it self cannot stand that it contains that Promise of God which all Ministers of the Gospel stand bound to commend and inculcate with all diligence into all true Beleevers for their comfort with many such like studied and strained-for commendations this Doctrine I say in whose praises the Friends of it have risen up so early and lifted it up so neer unto the Heavens as hath been shewed upon a strict and unpartial enquiry and examination hath been found a meer Impostor an appearance of Satan in the likeness of an Angel of Light a Tenent which cannot stand in Judgment with the sound and wholesom Doctrines of the Gospel We shall further God willing shew unto you in how little request the said Doctrine of Perseverance was with those who are to this day counted Pillars of the Christian Faith in the Primitive and most exemplary times and likewise how unstable and uncertain if not unsatisfied also the greatest Friends and learnedst Abettors of it in latter times or at least those who are commonly taken for such have been in their Judgments about it In the interim we shall onely in order to the further clearing up of the truth against the mist of the said Doctrine give you a brief account from the Scriptures themselves of some Examples who with their own Declinings sealed the truth of that Doctrine which hath been maintained hitherto concerning the possibility of a total Declining in the Saints CHAP. XIV Exhibiting from the Scriptures some Instances of a Total Declining or Falling away from the Grace and Favor of God in true Beleevers THe Contents and undertaking of this Chapter is a surplussage or over-measure §. 1. to the Demonstration of the Doctrine under defence For to prove a possibility that true Beleevers may totally fall away it is not necessary to prove either that any such will so fall away this would be a very prâ—sumptuous engagement nor that any such are wont to fall away though this be extreamly probable and a borderer to that which is evident and unquestionable nor yet that any have actually and de facto so fallen away which is our present engagement but onely to evince the truth of such Grounds and Reasons whether from the Scriptures or from the nature and consideration of the things themselves from which being granted the said Possibility perfectly appeareth and becomes visible to the eyes of the judgments and understandings of men Nevertheless since the eviction of this assertion that some formerly Saints and true Beleevers have de facto totally fallen away is so pregnant a Proof of the Possibility that such may so fall away I judged it both worth my labour and the Readers consideration to present what the Scriptures hold forth upon that account Let us first insist upon the Example of David concerning whom no man I presume questioneth but that He was as true and real a Saint and Beleever before the Perpetration of those two horrid sins one upon the neck of another Murther and Adultery as He was after His Repentance of or for those Perpetrations For 1. that signal testimony of being a man according to Gods own Heart was given unto Him by God Himself before He committed these sins as appears from Acts 13. 22. compared with Psal 89. 20. 1 King 14. 8. In the first of these places it is said And after He had taken Him away He raised up David to be their King of whom He witnessed saying I have sound David the son of Jesse a man after mine own Heart which will do all things that I will This with the other places mentioned clearly speak of the frame and temper of Davids Heart and of the acceptableness of His Person unto God at the time of His anointing and investiture into the Kingdom whereas it is evident that the two great sins specified were committed by Him many years after he had been King Besides there are many pregnant Arguments in the Scripture of Davids integrity and uprightness before God before that great eclipse of the glory of them whereof we spake But we shall not need to insist upon any thing in this kind our Adversaries themselves in the cause depending generally acknowledg him to have bin a man truly godly and regenerate before the guilt of the two enormous sins mentioned clavâ— unto Him The Question is Whether He continued such truly Godly under the guilt of the said sins viz. from the time of the Perpetration of them until the time of His Repentance They affirm I deny and give this account of my Denyal in opposition to their Affirmation He that commits Murther and Adultery not onely against the clear light of His §. 2. Conscience but with delâ—beration and premeditated contrivance and remains under the pollution and guilt of these sins without Repentance is not a man truly godly or
anteà obedierant defecisse ac eam deseruisse in Gal. 3. 1. Not long after He had said before that seeking Justification by the Law they cast away the Grace of God and that Christ dyed for them in vain Here He adds that such Persons crucifie Christ who had formerly lived and reigned in them As if He should say you have not onely CAST AVVAY THE GRACE OF GOD it is not onely true that Christ dyed for you in vain but that He is most unworthily crucified by you or amongst you c Suprà dixit Quaerentes Justiciam ex Lege abjicere gratiam Dei item illis Christum gratis mortuum fuisse Hic vâ—â—ò addit quòd tales crucifigant Christum qui anteà vixit regnavit in ipsis Quasi dicat jam non solum abjecistis gratiam Dei non solum Christus frustrà vobis mortuus est sed turpissimè in vobis crucifixus Ibid. Afterwards The Righteousness of the Law which Paul here calls the Flesh is so far from justifying men that they who after they have received the Spirit by the hearing of Faith make a defection unto it are consummated by it i. e. are â—ade an end of and destroyed utterly d Adeò ergo Justicia Legis quam Paulus hic carneâ—â— vocat non justificat ut hi qui post acceptum Spiritum per Fidei auditum ad eam deficiunt eâ cansummentur hoc est fâ—niantur prorsus perdantur Ad Galat. 3. 3. To conclude upon those words Cap. 5. 4. Ye are fallen from Grace i. e. saith He ye are no longer in the Kingdom of Grace He that falleth from Grace simply and absolutely loseth expiation or atonement remission of sins righteousness liberty and that life which Christ by His Death and Resurrection hath merited for us e A gratiâ excidistis i. e. non ampliùs estis in Regno Gratiae Qui excidit à gratiâ amiâ—tiâ— simpliciter expiationem remissionem peccatorum Iusticiam libertatem vitam c. quam Christus suâ Mortâ— Resurrectione nobis emeruit Many other Passages of like import with these might readily be cited from this Author in His Commentaries upon this Epistle So that there is little question to be made but that Luther abounded in this sence viz. that Persons truly justified and in present Possession of that Righteousness Justification Life which Christ merited for them may yet fall away totally from this Grace and to destruction and that He looked upon the Galatians as Paul describes them in their different Postures first of Faith then of falling away as perfect instances to evince the truth of such a Doctrine I shall conclude the Chapter in Hand with a brief Survey of that place §. 17. formerly mentioned For some are already turned aside after Satan a 1 Tim. 5. 15 These words Calvin in His Commentaries upon them dilareth thus This expression after Satan is observable because â—o man can turn aside from Christ though it be never so little but He follows Satan For He reigneth over all who are not Christs Hence we are admonished how destructive a thing it is to turn aside from a strâ—ight course which OF THE SONS OF GOD MAKES US SLAVES OF THE DEVIL b Post Satanam Notanda loquutio quia nemo potest vâ—l tantillum a Christo deflectere quin Satanam sequatur Nam regnum in omnes habet qui Christi non sunt Hinc admonemur quam exitialis sit deflexio a recto cursu quae ex Dei filiis nos facit Satanae mancipia So that His sence upon the place cleerly is that the Persons here said to have turned aside after Satan were before this their turning aside the children of God and therefore true Beleevers and that by means of their turning aside and after it they were the Slaves of the Devil which implies â— total defection at least from Christ and their Faith I desire the Reader to take knowledg once more upon occasion of the passage now transcribed from Calvin that He was not so absolute or intire in His Judgment for an impossibility of a total Declining in the Saints as the Friends of this Notion commonly presume or as if He never expressed His Judgment to the contrary In the words lately cited He expresly grants and supposeth that of the Children of God men may be made or become the Slaves of Satan And that the Persons spoken of in the Scripture in hand were as He supposeth true Beleevers is evident from hence viz. that they are said to have turned aside or to have been turned aside after Satan If they had been unsound or Hypocritical Christians before they could not by falling into any other course of impiety be said to have turned aside or out of the way c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after Satan because men and women follow Satan as much as directly as close by walking in ways of Hypocrisie and rottenness of Profession as in ways of uncleanness or of any other unrighteousness whatsoever Therefore certainly the way out of which they turned aside to walk after Satan was the way of a true Faith and of a life answerable thereunto And that a turning aside after Satan imports a total deserting of Christ or a total deprivation and loss of that interest which a Person had in Christ before is richer in evidence then to need Proof Nor do I finde any one Expositor who casting up the expression findes it to amount to any whit less CHAP. XV. Declaring the Sence and Judgment as well of the Ancient Fathers of the Church as of Modern Reformed Divines touching the Point of Perseverance and so concluding the Digression concerning this Subject IT is a Vanity whereunto the Tongues and Pens of Learned Men being §. 1. once engaged and declared for an Opinion especially in matters of Religion are much subject unto to cast undue aspersions upon and so to create undeserved prejudice unto all such Doctrines or Opinions which are inconsistent with that Opinion which themselves are known to hold and to have maintained Amongst other weapons of this warfare the Arrow of this reproach is most frequently unquiver'd and let fly if men can finde that any Opinion which hath the least semblance or sympathy though but in sound of words onely with that which opposeth theirs hath either been held by any former Heretique or Person voted Erroneous or else opposed by those unto whose lot it is fallen to be sirnamed Orthodox they make an importune outcry against this Opinion I mean which opposeth theirs as if it were nothing but an old infamous Error held onely by Heretiques and Erroneous Men but stigmatized and cast out of the Church by the Orthodox long ago The truth is that neither the one consideration nor the other no not when they are real and not in pretence or presumption onely I mean neither the asserting of an Opinion by men in many things erroneous nor the dis-owning of it by
suppose the act of believing could be divided into a thousand parts or degrees nine hundred ninety and nine of them are to be ascribed unto the free Grace of God and onely the one remaining unto man Yea this one degree of the action is no otherwise neither to be ascribed unto man then as graciously supported strengthened and assisted by the free Grace of God The Reader will finde none of these Positions contradicted by any thing affirmed or denyed in the Discourse I attribute as much as possibly can be attributed to the free Grace of God in and about the Act of Believing salving the attributableness of the Action unto man himself in the lowest and most diminutive sence that can well be conceived For certain it is that it is the Creature Man not God or the Spirit of God that believeth and therefore of necessity there must so much or such a degree of Efficiency about it be left unto man which may with truth give it the denomination of being his And they that go about to interess the free Grace of God in or about the act of Believing upon any other terms or so that the act it self cannot truly be called the Act of the Creature or of Man are injurious in the highest maner to the Grace of God at this main turn rendering it altogether unprofitable to the poor Creature who by the verdict of such a Notion should be left in his sins and never come to be justified For the Law of Justification is expresly this He that believeth shall be justified Therefore if it be not man himself who believeth it is unpossible that he should be justified He that shall ingenuously and unpartially compare the Doctrine of our Adversaries touching the Grace of God with that the substance whereof hath been expressed in the nine Positions lately exhibited will clearly find that this Grace is by many degrees more highly and with another manner of an Heavenly Magnificence advanced by the tenor and import of this Doctrine then of the other yea and that Nature is far more depressed and abased in the latter then in the former But 3. Some pretend that the Doctrines and Opinions maintained in such Discourses as this are only old rotten Errors rejected and thrown out of the Church by Orthodox men in all Ages But they who hedg up the way of men with such thorns as these to keep them from reading such Books as we speak of cannot but scratch yea rend and tear their Consciences with them Concerning the two Doctrines more largely handled in the following Discourse I prove upon a most pregnant account in the fifteenth Chapter for the one and in the nineteenth for the other besides many other places in the body of the Discourse that they were never rejected or cast out of the Church by any Council or Synod reputed Orthodox at least until the late Synod of Dort but were constantly taught by all Orthodox Antiquity are at this day more generally taught by the Lutheran Party of the Reformed Churches yea and have many full and clear Testimonies of their Truth from the Pen of Calvin himself and many others that are counted Pillars on his side 4. Some are brought out of Love with such Discourses as this by being informed that they are full of nice subtil and curious speculations and that the secrets of God are too narrowly and presumptuously pried into by the Authors of them To this I answer 1. If any man whether in the handling of the Doctrines we now speak of or of any other advanceth himself into the things which he hath not seen or above the proportion of his Faith let him suffer as a Transgressor of the Law of Sobriety I shall not be his Advocate For the Discussions managed in the Treatise ensuing I go no further then I feel the ground firm under me Or if at any time I come to a place that is soft and tender I tread light and charge no great matter of weight upon it Yet 2. Not to go up to the Mount when God calleth and offereth the kisses of his mouth unto us there under a pretence of danger in climbing is to reject the bounty of Heaven and to betray our richest opportunities for the making of our selves Excellent and Great in the sight of God and Angels and Men. 3. Things revealed in the Scriptures as well those of the most spiritual and sublime consideration which our Saviour calls Heavenly a John 3. 12 and the Apostle Paul sometimes the deep things of God b 1 Cor. 2. 10 sometimes strong meat c Heb. 5. 14 as well as things of a more obvious and facile import belong unto us and our children i. e. are our spiritual Patrimony which God our Father hath given us to maintain our selves honorably as viz. in Faith and Holiness in the World Every inch of such an Inheritance is worth the standing upon and contending for 4. Aristotle in his Moral Discourses somewhere observes that persons who are vicious or tardy in either of the extreams frequently censure him that is truly vertuous and steers a middle course between them as if he were an Offender in that extream which is opposite to the other extream wherein themselves are Delinquent So it is to be feared that many who complain of curiosity in speculation and of prying into the secrets of God are themselves dull of hearing of remiss and un-engaged spirits in the things of God and therefore call the most substantial and solid Discourses if they be of any considerable elevation and worthy those who are spiritual and men in Understanding by the unworthy name of nice and curious speculations 5. And lastly for this I confess that the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation and so of the extent of the efficacy of the Death of Christ and of the Interest of the Spirit of God in the Work of Conversion might have been managed and carried with far less appearance of curiosity had not the Controverters of the one side forsaken the solid Grounds and Principles of Reason in their Expositions of the Scriptures and obtruded upon the World such notions and conceits under a pretence of Scripture Authority because of an appearance of some words and phrases comporting with them the vanity and unsoundness whereof could not be sufficiently detected but by the light of some such strains of Reason which the minds and thoughts of men being not accustomed unto may at first very probably censure as more curious then safe more subtle then sound But the saying of Basil is worthy consideration at this Point Truth saith he is hard to be taken by hunting and must be found out by a narrow observing of her footsteps on every side d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And more especially the discovery of the Truth in the Controversies we speak of mainly depending upon the knowledg of the Nature of God and of the manner of his Actings which are matters of a very
them as in their simple Existence or Being it self Page 1. Cap. 2. Though there be as absolute and essential a Dependance of second Causes upon the first in point of motion action operation as of simple existence or being yet are not the motions actions or operations of second Causes at least ordinarily so immediately or precisely determined by that Dependance which they have upon the first Cause as their respective Beings are 7 Cap. 3. Concerning the Knowledg and Foreknowledg of God and the Difference between these and his Desires Purposes Intentions and Decrees and how these also are distinguished one from another 28 Cap. 4. Concerning the Perfection of God in his Nature and Being Some things clearly deducible from it particularly his Simplicity Actuality and Goodness of Decrees 40 Cap. 5. Four several veins or correspondencies of Scriptures propounded holding forth the Death of Christ for All Men without exception of any The first of these argued 73 Cap. 6. Herein several texts of the second sort of Scriptures propounded in the former Chapter as holding forth the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ are discussed 97 Cap. 7. The third sort or consort of Scriptures mentioned cap. 5. as clearly asserting the said Doctrine argued and managed to the same point 113 Cap. 8. The Scriptures of the fourth and last Association propounded cap. 5. as pregnant also with the same Great Truth of general Redemption by Christ impartially weighed and considered 120 Cap. 9. Entereth upon a Digression about the commonly-received Doctrine of Perseverance occasioned by several passages in the preceding Chapter avouching and clearly evicting the benefit peace and comfort of that Doctrine which teacheth a possibility of the Saints declining and this unto death above the other contrary unto it 154 Cap. 10. A Continuation of the former Digression wherein the texts of Scripture commonly alledged to prove the impossibility of the Saints declining unto death are taken into consideration and discharged from that service 177 Cap 11. A further Continuation of the former Digression wherein the Arguments and Grounds commonly insisted on in defence of the received doctrine of Perseverance are detected of insufficiency proved and declared Null 225 Cap. 12. The former Digression yet further prosecuted and a possibility of defection in the Saints or true Beleevers and this unto death clearly demonstrated from the Scriptures 268 Cap. 13. Grounds of Reason from the Scriptures evincing a possibility of such a defection even in true Beleevers which is accompanied with destruction in the end 299 Cap. 14. Exhibiting from the Scriptures some Instances of a total Declining and falling away from the Grace and Favor of God in true Beleevers 344 Cap. 15. Declaring the Sence and Judgment as well of the Ancient Fathers of the Christian Church as of Modern Reformed Divines touching the Point of Perseverance and so concluding the Digression concerning this Subject 365 Cap. 16. Several other Texts of Scripture besides those formerly produced in ranks and companies argued to the clear eviction of Truth in the same Doctrine viz. that the Redemption purchased by Christ in his Death was intended for all and every man without exceptiof any 403 Cap. 17. Declaring in what sence the former Passages of Scripture asserting the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ are as to this point to be understood and consequently in what sence the said Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption is maintained in the present Discourse 432 Cap. 18. Exhibiteth several Grounds and Reasons whereby the Vniversality of Redemption by Christ or Christs dying for all men without exception is demonstratively evicted 453 Cap. 19. Wherein the Sence of Antiquity together with the variableness of Judgment in Modern Writers about the Controversie under discussion is truly and unpartially represented 524 Cap. 20. The Conclusion Exhibiting a General Proposal or Survey of Matters intended for Consideration Explication and Debate in the second Part of this Work 562 CHAP. I. There is no created Being or second Cause whatsoever but dependeth upon the first and supream Cause or Being which is God and this as well in the second as in the first Act I mean as well in the Motions and Operations issuing from or performed by every of them as in their simple Existence or Being it self WE shall not need I presume to levy a dispute for the gathering §. 1. or geting in that tribute due to the Crown and Soveraignty of Being from all Beings besides which consists in an acknowledgment of his free bounty in calling them out of the abyss of vanity and nothing by the Word of his Power hereby taking them into part and fellowship with himself in his Prerogative of Being according to what was resolved by the counsell of his Will as meet to be dispeâ—sed unto every of them respectively in this kind Trees that are throughly and deeply rooted in the Earth will grow and flourish though the dew or rain from Heaven should seldome or never fall upon them but grasse and herbs and tender plants whose roots have but a slender and thin protection of their Element against the scortching violence of the Sun will soon wither and die away if the clouds of Heaven should not ever and anon drop verdure upon them and relieve them In like manner such notions and impressions in the Soul into which Nature is deeply baptized and mightily 〈…〉 ssest with their Truth are like to live and to maintain their interest and autâ—â—rity in men though not seconded or relieved by argument or dispute but those which have only taken a fainter and looser hold of the judgements and consciences of men are in danger of miscarrying and proving like the Corne upon the house top which as David observeth withereth before it be grown up a Psal 129. 6. unlesse they be timely yea and frequently encouraged back'd and strength by discourse That there is a Being which looks upon this Universe â—ith all the host of it as the workmanship of his own hands and that every creature or finite Being is lineally descended from him as their Great and first Progenitor are I conceive such principles of Light and Truth written in so fair and full a Character in the Tables of all mens hearts that even whilst they run they may read them yea and cannot lightly depose or suffer the losse of â—hem though they be not bound upon their judgments and consciences with any other bands of argument or demonstration then those of their own evidence and conviction Therefore what God hath made manifest and clear in men we shall not cast any suspition of darknesse or obscurity upon by making it matter of disputation And though the dependance of things in actuall and compleat Being upon §. 2. God for sustentation and support as well of their simple Existences and Beings themselves as of their Operations respectively which is the sence and substance of the Thesis propounded be not altogether of so pregnant an inspiration as dependance upon him for their
stand in as much or more need of the Physician then others but those that are truly and sincerely righteous Therefore this Scripture holds no intelligence with that interpretation of the other which is now under censure But 2. Be it granted for truth that things and persons sometimes receive appellations §. 37. only from an appearance of what they are called or from the opinion of Men judging them such yet such a line of interpretation as this is not to be stretched over what Scriptures we please nor indeed over any but where the manifest exigency of the Context calls for it Otherwise we shall entitle Men to a liberty of substituting shadowes and appearances only instead of realities and substances of Truth where and when they please and so to turne the Minde and Counsells of God in the Scriptures upside down The Contest of old between Hierome and Austine about Pauls reproving Peter Gal. 2. is of notable consideration to the businesse in hand Hierome pleaded that when Paul reproved Peter at Antioch he did it not seriously or in good earnest but affirmed that these two Apostles out of a kinde of prudent Charity agreed to make a shew of a Contest between them when as indeed there was none But how gravely and copiously doth Austin declare against and argue down such a licentiousnesse of interpreting The Scripture saith he plainely saith that Peter was worthy reproofe or to be condemned If then we shall take this liberty or boldnesse to say that indeed and in truth he did not amisse but only dissembled for the sake of those that were weake then the Apostle Paul lyes in saying that he was worthy blame or reproofe Admit this saith this learned Father and down falls all the Authority and certainty of the Scriptures a Mihi enim videtur exitiosissime credi aliquod in libris Sanctis esse mendacium c Aug. Epist 8. vid. Epist 9. 14. praecipue Epist 19. For if they speake that which is false in one place who can make it good that they speake Truth in another This is the briefe of that famous dissertation between those two Worthies in the Christian Church From whence it may appeare of what dangerous consequence it is to expound that which the Scripture simply and plainely delivers as a Truth as spoken by way of appearance or humane opinion only when there is no apparant necessity inforcing such an Exposition And if there be some places which will beare or which call for such a figurative and Catacresticall Interpretation as this they are but few and those which are must be discerned and distinguished from others by the manifest exigency of their respective scopes and imports the least jot or title of which character is not to be found in the place in hand For 3. And lastly most evident it is as hath been formerly also observed §. 38. and as many Expositors more then enough addicted to the contra-Remonstrant opinion themselves acknowledge that the Apostles intent here is to set forth the most hainous and horrid indignity of the sin of these false Teachers in denying their Lord by this aggravating consideration that they deny such a Lord who bought them Now if it be supposed that this Lord really and of love and good will to them and out of a desire to free them from misery bought or redeemed them the consideration is of great pregnancy and force to demonstrate horrible ingratitude and impiety in them to deny Him But if on the contrary it be supposed that he did not indeed buy them with any intent to free them from their misery but only make a shew of such a thing or only do that which might occasion Men to think or to believe that he did so this manifestly easeth and qualifies the guilt of their sin in denying him and so is manifestly repugnant to the Apostles scope For to make a shew of love only or to doe that by which other Men may be invited to think that a reall kindnesse is done for such or such a Man when as indeed there is nothing done of any such consideration nor ever intended to be done doth no wayes oblige this Man in thankfulnesse unto him who accommodates him upon no better terms but is rather a just ground of an harder and worse opinion of him If it be replied yea but these false Teachers knew nothing but that they §. 39. were truly and really bought by Christ and that out of a desire of saving them nor had they any sufficient reason to judge otherwise Therefore their sin in denying him is no wayes eased upon this account that he did not indeed buy them with any such intent or desire because 1. Men are bound to judge as they have reason to judge and 2. are bound to act or practise according to their judgements I answer There can be no sufficient ground for any Man to believe that which is false nor ought such a thing to be believed at least with confidence of belief or with any such belief upon which he shall stand bound to ingage in any material and weighty Action or Practise Therefore if Christ did not really buy these false Teachers they could have no sufficient ground to believe that he did at least to believe at any such rate of confidence as rather to suffer the losse of any considerable good then deny it If it be againe replied A Man may stand bound to adventure much upon probabilities in many cases though there be no certainty or truth in that which upon such probabilities he doth believe I answer possibly a Man may indeed stand bound in point of wisdome or prudence in some cases to adventure much in a simple consideration upon probabilities only but not in point of Conscience As for example a Merchant or other Man may stand bound in point of wisdom to adventure some considerable part of his state in a way of Trade beyond the Seas upon probabilities only of a gainfull returne though even in this case upon a more exact consideration it will appeare that such a Man doth not make this adventure upon any meere probability one or more but upon that which is certaine For the probability of a good returne in this case is a certainty to him he knowes certainly and beyond all doubt or question that it is a thing probable or likely that he shall receive such a returne though he knowes not certainly but only probably that he shall indeed receive it Now the true ground upon which the Merchant adventures is not the knowledge that he shall or will gaine by his adventure for it is unpossible for him to know this but the knowledge and consideration of the likelyhood of his gaining which as hath been said he may and doth know and that certainly You will upon this say it is like The false Teachers in the Scripture §. 40. in hand had or might have had such a certainty as this
making away themselves or destroying their own lives though there be no absolute Decree of God to secure them in this behalf the Naturall desire of self-preservation which God hath planted in them easily over ruling by the Power and Strength of it all motions â—or dispositions towards self-destroying which are wont to arise from such occasions in like manner the strength of that inclination or desire which is or ought to be and very possibly as hath been Proved might be in the Saints to save their Soules and consequently to preserve themselves from apostasie is sufficient without any such Decree in God as was mentioned to secure them both from all danger and from all feare of apostatizing to destruction notwithstanding all weaknesses or infirmities that they are subject unto The truth is that the infirmities and weaknesses of the Saints as such are so far from being any necessary or just ground of fear unto them that they shall fall away that the sence and acknowledgement of them are most cleer pregnant and effectuall Antidotes and Preservatives against falling away For he that is inwardly and truly sensible of his own weaknesse and inability to stand will especially being a Saint or Believer most certainly depend upon him for strength who is both able and willing to supply and furnish him upon such terms 3. And lastly upon the former accompt and for a close of this Chapter §. 36. I answer that if the Doctrine of falling away be so uncomfortable unto the Saints as the objection pretends the truth is as we have in the Premisses of this Chapter made it to appear they are not much relieved at this Point by the Received Doctrine of Perseverance For this Doctrine as hath been shewed scarce suffereth any man to believe upon any Rationall competent or sufficient grounds that he is a true Saint or Believer yea and doth little lesse then tempt him to such things which are exceeding apt and likely to fill him with feares and questionings touching the truth of his Faith And what great comfort can it then be unto him to hear or believe that true Believers cannot fall away or perish whereas the other Doctrine leaveth them a good latitude of competent ground whereon to judge themselves true Saints and true Believers nor doth it deprive them of sufficient ground on which to secure themselves both against the danger and against all feare of the danger of Apostatizing or falling away to Perdition This Doctrine therefore of the two is questionless of the more benevolous aspect and influence upon the Peace and Comforts of the Saints CHAP. X. A Continuation of the former Digression wherein the Texts of Scripture commonly alledged to prove the impossibility of Saints declining unto Death are taken into consideration and discharged from that Service BEing occasioned and after a sort necessitated for the securing of §. 1. some passages of interpretation Cap. 8. being of main concernment to the Principall cause undertaken in this Discourse to ingage home in the Question about Preseverance I should according to ordinary Method and that hitherto observed in the traverse of the maine Doctrine first have argued my Sence and Judgement in the Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assertively and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by answering such Objections whether from Scripture or otherwise which are wont to be levied by Men of contrary judgement in opposition thereunto But finding by experience that weaker men through too much fulnesse and aboundance in their own sence in matters of Controversie and this chiefly by meanes of some Texts of Scripture running still and working in their heads which in sound of words and surface of Letter seeme to stand by them in their Sence and Notion are under a very great disadvantage either for minding or understanding such things which are spoken unto them for their information in the Truth I thought it best for their relief in this case to invert that Method in the present Dispute and first to endeavour to take from them those weapons whether of Scripture or argument wherein they trust and afterwards present them with such other Scriptures and grounds which are Able Pregnant and Proper to build them up and establish them in the Truth We shall not tie our selves to any Rule or Prescript of Order in bringing §. 2. those Scriptures upon the theatre of our Discourse which men of differing judgement in the cause in hand are wont to plead in defence thereof themselves as far as I have observed observing none but shall produce them one by one as God shall please to bring them to mind unlesse haply two or more of them by reason of affinity or likenesse in Phrase or import may commodiously enough be handled together Most of the places compelled to serve in this warfare I finde scituate in the New Testament The first that commeth to hand is that of our Saviour unto Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it a Mat. 16. 18 From hence it is argued that those that are once built by Faith upon the Rock Christ or upon the truth of the Gospell are not in danger or in a possibility of being prevailed against viz. to destruction by all the Powers of darkness whatsoever I answer 1. That this promissory assertion of Christ the Gates of Hell shall not prevaile §. 3. c. doth not necessarily respect every individuall and single Person who de praesenti is a Member of his Church so as to secure him of his Salvation against all possible sins or wayes of sinning whereunto he may or can be drawn by Satan but may well be understood of the Church in generall i. e. considered as a body of men separate and distinguished from the world Now the Church in this sence may be said to stand and be secured against all the Power and Attempts of the Devill though not only some but even all the Particular Saints of which this body consists at present should be prevailed against by Satan to destruction Because the ratio formalis or essence of the Church in this sence doth not consist in the Persons of those who do at present believe and so are members of it for then it would follow that in case these should die or when they shall die Christ should have no Church at all upon the Earth in as much as nothing can be without the essence of it but in the successive Generation of those who in their respective times believe whether they be fewer or whether they be more whether they be such and such Persons or whether others As suppose there be not now one drop of that Water in the chanell of the River of Thames as it is like there is not which was in it seven years since yet is it one and the same River which it was then and so put the case there be not one Person now alive in any
and brimstone which is the second death a Rev. 21. 8. or in saying that no unclean thing shall enter into it the new Jerusalem neither WHATSOEVER worketh abomination b Verse 27. or that without are Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers c Verse 15. c. Certainly blood desileth a Person as well as a Nation or Land d Num. 35. 33 when it is unrighteously spilt in it and maketh as well the one as the other unclean until it be attoned And for the sin of Adultery it is sufficiently known that the Holy Ghost presents it almost every where as polluting and defiling So that David during His impenitency aforesaid was cut off from all right of entering into the new Jerusalem both by the general irregularity of uncleanness as also by the particular incapacities of Murther and Adultery 5. If David were a true Beleever during the time of His departure and §. 4. absence from God then may the testimony of former and by-past works of righteousness be accepted by way of proof for the truth and soundness of any mans Faith against the testimony of later and more-present fruits of unrighteousness against it If so then 1. No man that hath approved himself a good Christian formerly ought upon any change whatsoever upon the most Unchristian miscarriages that can be imagined to be judged an Apostate from Christ or consequently be upon any justifiable grounds cast out by the sentence of Excommunication from any Church of Christ whatsoever Which supposed No Church duly and regularly deporting it self in the admission of Members are in any capacity of using the said spiritual Sword in any case or upon any occasion whatsoever For certain it is that no person who either is or ought to be judged by the Church a true Member of Christ ought by this Church to be cut off from his Body or to be delivered unto Satan and as certain it is that no person ought to receive admission into any Church which is not looked upon by this Church as a true Member of Christ 2. The said Position admitted for truth whereas the Apostle James demandeth What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say He hath Faith and HAVE not Works e James 2. 14. He might as well or rather have said and hath not had works For by the Tenor of the said Doctrine though a man wants present works or works of a later edition or performance whereby to shew or manifest the truth of his Faith unto men yea though his later works give never so pregnant or loud a testimony against the truth of his Faith yet if he can but say and make proof that formerly though never so long before he hath been fruitful in well doing this must be looked upon as sufficiently demonstrative of his Faith Which is notoriously contrary to the manifest bent and scope of the Apostles discourse in that place 3. If the case were so that mens former works if good must be heard against their later works though never so bad there is no place or possibility left either for Hypocrisie or Apostacy amongst men especially not for this latter For no man is to be judged an Apostate but He that declines from the Faith of Jesus Christ which sometimes He professed and gave sufficient ground unto men by his works to conceive and judg that He really was possessed of and held So then if such a mans former good works be still to be judged valid in their testimony concerning the goodness of his Faith how evil and vile soever his after-works shall be evident it is that such a man ought not to be esteemed an Apostate but a Perseverer in the Faith though his ways and actions should degenerate into the highest strain of wickedness or ungodliness that can be imagined 4. And lastly for this that Passage from God Himself by His Prophet Ezekiel formerly opened But when the righteous turneth away from His righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall He live All His righteousness that He hath done shall not be mentioned in His TRESPASS that He hath trespassed and in His SIN that He hath sinned in them shall He dye a Ezek. 18. 24 this passage I say plainly evinceth that the estimate which is to be made of men in point of righteousness and unrighteousness and consequently of Faith and Unbelief is not to be made by the import or rule of their former works but of their latter no not though the former have been many and the latter but few For the Text saith In His Trespass in the singular number that He hath trespassed shall He dye implying that any one sin of that kinde of sins which the Scripture calls abominations whilest unrepented of translateth him from life unto death casteth Him into the state and condition of an Unbeleever 6. And lastly If Davids Repentance after the Perpetration of the foul and horrid sins mentioned was not simply necessary to His Salvation and consequently Himself during His impenitency a man of death Gods sending His Prophet Nathan unto Him to awaken Him and raise Him up by Repentance will be found to have little Grace Love or Mercy in it or at least far less then such a necessity of His Repentance supposed would derive upon it Evident it is from the Tenor of the Message which the Prophet brought from God unto Him that His Repentance did not exempt Him from Temporal Judgments Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife and hast slain Him with the sword of the children of Ammon Now therefore the Sword shall never depart from thine House Thus saith the Lord Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own House and I will take thy Wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy Neighbor and He shall lie with thy Wives in the sight of this Sun For thou didst it secretly but I will do this thing before Israel and before the Sun b 2 Sam. 12 9 10 c. From whence together with the event every ways answering as the process of Davids History makes manifest it is clear that Davids Repentance did not sanctuary Him from troubles in the flesh and outer man no not from such which were very sore and grievous to be suffered Nor can it be said that it did deliver Him from the wrath which is to come in case it be supposed that He was a true Beleever immediately before and at the time of His Repentance because this supposed He was not liable unto this wrath nor in danger of suffering it in which case His Deliverance from it is to be ascribed not to His present Repentance but to His precedent Faith Nor can it be said that Gods sending Nathan unto David upon such §.
Therefore without controversie the sence of the Nicene Fathers in the mentioned Passage of their Creed was that Christ became Man and suffered death for all Men without exception Now this Nicene Creed as is well known to those that are a little versed in Ecclesiastical History was attested and subscribed by the three Oecumenical Councils next following the first at Constantinople the second at Ephesus the third at Chalcedon Nor do I remember that it was ever censured or rejected by any Council or Synod esteemed Orthodox I shall not insist upon that Epistle of Cyril of Alexandria an Author lately mentioned written to Nestorius the Heretique approved by three General Councils in which Epistle Christ is expresly termed the Saviour of us all g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gerardus Johannes Vossius a late Protestant Writer of good Note a diligent Searcher into and unpartial Relator of matters of Antiquity reporteth that by a Synod assembled at Mentz in the year 848 of which Rabanus Maurus was President and at which Haymo was present Goteschalcus the Monk was condemned who amongst other erroneous Opinions held That they who perish although they sometimes beleeved and were baptized yet were not redeemed by Christ but onely Sacramentally or as far as the sign of Redemption reacheth nor ever separated from the mass of perdition h Cujus inter dogmata erat eos qui pereunt â—t si prius credi derint baptizati suerint non nisi signo tenus redemptos fuisse à Christo nec unquam à perditionis massâ fuisse secretos Gerar. Joh. Voss Hist Pelag. lib. 6. Thesi 12. The same Author addeth further that soon after this Moguntine Synod there followed a Council of the Church of Rhemes and of many other Bishops in France whereof Hincmarus a learned man in these times was President this Council He saith approved the Judgment of the former touching their censure of Goteschalcus Yea He proceedeth and saith yet further that the Church of Lyons although in many things it rather inclined to Goteschalcus then to the two late mentioned Synods yet in the Particular in hand it approved the Sentence of the said Synods In a large Transcription which he exhibiteth from the Acts of this last Synod he citeth words to this effect How then when they are baptized in the Death of Christ and are washed from their sins in HIS BLOOD is that true Renovation and true Purgation wrought if they yet remain in the mass of Damnation and Perdition concrete and not severed i Quomodo ergo in eis perficitur dum in Morte Christi baptizaÌ„tur in ejus Sanguine à peccatis abluuntur vera innovatio vera muÌ„datio si adhuc in damnationis perditionis massâ concrâ—ti non discreti detinentur Ibid. He speaketh as appears all along the Discourse of such Persons who finally apostatize and perish Therefore the clear sence of this Council also was that those who are washed from their sins in the Blood of Christ and consequently who were redeemed by Him may notwithstanding perish The same Doctrine as the same Author reporteth was approved and further established by another Synod held at Valentia in France consisting of the Bishops or Ministers of the fore-mentioned Church of Lyons and of two other Churches who professed that they did beleeve it as a thing meet to be held with the firmest belief that as some of those who are truly regenerate and truly redeemed are eternally saved by means of their continuance through the Grace of God in their Redemption so that others OF THEM because they would not abide in the safety of that Faith which they once received and chose rather whether by embracing corrupt Doctrine or by wickedness of life to reject and MAKE VOYD THE GRACE OF REDEMPTION then to preserve it are never able to arrive at the fulness of Salvation or to attain eternal Happiness k Item firmissimé tenendum credimus quòd omnis multitudo fidelium ex aquâ spiritu regenerata ac per hoc veraciter Ecclesia incorporata juxta DoctrinaÌ„ Apostoli in Morte Christi baptizata in ejus sanguine á peccatis abluta quia nec in eis potuit esse vera regeneratio nisi fieret vera Redemptio cum in Ecclesiae Sacramentis nihil sit cassum nihil ludificatorium sed prorsus totum verum ipsâ sui veritate ac sinceritate subnixum Ex ipsâ tamen multitudine Fidelium RedemptoruÌ„ alios salvari aeternâ salute quia per gratiam Dei in suâ RedeÌ„ptione fideliter permanent alios quia permanere noluerunt in salute fidei quam initio acceperunt Redemptionisque gratiam potiús irritam facere pravâ Doctrinâ vel vitâ quà m servare elegerunt ad plenitudinem salutis ad percaptionem aeterna Beatitudinis nullo modo pervenire c. If my Library would hold out it is like I might be able to produce other §. 14. Councils and Synods besides these insisted upon interessed in the same Doctrine which these as we have heard avouched for Orthodox But the joynt Testimony of those which have been produced is I suppose matter enough and proper enough to stop the mouth of that whether ignorant or worse-conditioned Calumny which traduceth the Opinion or Doctrine of General Redemption as if it were an old rotten Popish Opinion that had been from time to time rejected and thrown out of the Church by all orthodox and sound Men. The truth is I have not in all my reading which I confess is of no considerable compass for my years to my best remembrance met with the censure or rejection of the said Doctrine in the Acts or Records of any one Council or Synod whatsoever unless haply it be in the Acts of the nuperous Synod of Dort For to a man of an erect Judgment and whose spirit hath more of God and of a man in it then to suffer it self to be yoked with prejudice or base partiality reading and weighing some Passages in the Records of this Synod it cannot lightly but be a matter of some difficulty and which will cost him some of his thoughts to resolve himself clearly what the Resolutions of this Synod were touching the extent of the gracious Intentions of God in or about the Redemption purchased by Christ at least in case these Resolutions of theirs be onely estimated by their expressions Do not such Sayings as these distinctly sound Universal Attonement by Christ God commiserating MANKIND being fallen sent His Son who gave Himself a price of Redemption FOR THE SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD And a little after Since that Price which was PAYD FOR ALL MEN and which will certainly benefit all that beleeve unto Eternal Life yet doth not profit all Men c. Again So then CHRIST DYED FOR ALL MEN THAT ALL AND EVERY MAN might by the mediation of Faith through the vertue of this Ransom obtain Forgiveness of sins and eternal Life I know