untill the harvest Mat. 13.29 30. Answ Ans Truly Sir you have made a fair progress and are honourably preferred from being a common Trooper in the Kings party thus to become a Candidate to the Council of State yea not only to know their actings by the effects but to be made acquainted with their reasons of so doing the very mysterieâ— of State For here you determine of their resolves in not punishing which you phrasifie persecuting in matters of Religion and next you affix their reasons thereof Their resolves as you tacitely imply are not to interpose in matters of religion by way of punishment But Sir you are too precipitate in your conjectures or conclusions and this is grounded on a false Hypothesis namely that indulgence of Toleration Wherein if it might be lawfull for me to cast in my mite and make a gloss on such Edicts I should rather say that it is 1. Either that those that are approved may be known Or Act. 16.3 2. To bear with the infirmity of the weak as Paul caused Timothy to be circumcised and not to support the refractory Or 3. For the avoiding of offence as the Apostles in the Council at Hierusalem inhibited Act. 15.23 1 Cor. 6.12 strangled meats and bloud for though all things may be lawful yet all things are not expedient Or Mat. 19.8 4. For the hardness of peoples hearts as Moses permitted a bill of divorce Or as our Statute Law tolerated usury not approving of the fact but dispensing with the punishment but ab initio non-fuit sic rather I say should I make these favourable conclusions then hence to infer Toleration of Religion is indulged to some Therefore the Magistrate may not punish offenders in the case of Religion And the more easily am I enclined to be of this judgment because of these convincing Arguments 1. From the express law of God concerning blasphemers Num. 24.14 Num. 14.14 Deut. 13 5. v. 11.17 Deut. 18.20 1 King 15.12 2 King 11.16 and confirmed by a rule for the punishment of Apostates and inticers to Apostacy Deut. 13.5 6. the reasons whereof are given v. 11 17. Concerning false Prophets Deut. 18.20 2. From the examples of Kings and Prophets in the old Testament Asa took away the Sodomits 1 King 15.12 Jehojada Athalia 2 King 23.5 Elijah the Prophets of Baal 1 Kings 18.40 3. From the examples of the Apostles in the new Testament who inflicted punishment on severall persons both for life and limb Acts 5.5 Act. 13.11 Acts 5.5 At the word of Peter Ananias and Saphira were stricken dead Acts 13.11 Elymas the Sorcerer was smitten with blindness at the word of Paul which more remarkable acts of justice though they were done by speciall instinct being allien from their calling to inflict corporall punishment yet then how much more sutable were it for a Christian Magistrate to put in practice that authority God hath committed into his hands Neither doth it any whit elude the strength of this Argument to object that the Apostles used the Word and not the Sword Because it is thus far satisfactory that they inflicted corporall punishment on refractory transgressors 4. From the Office of the Magistrate qui custos est utriusque tabulae the safeguarder of both the Tables Rom. 13. yet in distinction from the Church Ministers and therefore Rom. 13. he is said to be ordained of God for their good not only corporall but spiritual and hence it is that he ought to vindicate the injuries done by those that profanely hinder the spiritual good and thereby disturbe the peace and unity of the Church of God 5. Thefts Murders Adulteries and other like crimes are daily rewarded with poenall and Capitall punishments and therefore much more ought Blasphemies Apostacies Perjuries c. be punished with some such like condign punishment and the rather for that the one are committed immediatly against the good of our neighbour only but the other immediately against the honour and glory of God by the one a loss is contracted to our bodies or fortunes but by the other a danger to our souls 6. From the very light and dictates of nature The Gentile Governors interessed themselves in matters of Religion and would never suffer their Gods to be blasphemed Exod. 8.26 Ex. 8.29 Shall we sacrifice the aâ—â—omination of the Aegyptians and will they not stone us Socrates was put to death for blaspheming the multiplicity of their gods yea the records of our own Scripture testifie so much Ezra 7.26 7. Yea the contrary hereof is obvious to every discerning eye by the late procedure of the highly honourable Court of Parliament against that grave Impostor and Blasphemer your brother Naylor wherein notwithstanding all your interests and overbold confidence you are forced to sit besides the Cushion 8. At least I would have said that there were some intrinsecall mysteries of State involved in that Edict of Toleration which it is not fit for you and me to pry into and adventure to give a reason thereof And thus having left your concealed assertion bleeding I proceed to your reasons which are as barren and empty of truth and honesty as they are full fraught with malice and ignorance The first tends to this purpose That the grave Senators of this Nation in whom resided the Legislative power did heretofore beat down truth instead of heresie being instigated thereunto by our fathers the Bishops which crime being espied by those now in authority they have therefore given a Toleration for any Religion Answ Well and wisely said In answer to which let me premise this protestation from the sincerity of my heart that notwithstanding my plain dealing with you in this business of the Contest yet I bear not the least grudge to your person but should be glad upon any just occasion offered do you the best office of love that lies within my compass But yet for all this I cannot without abundance of indignation see such a shrub such a worm such a nothing as you are to rake up the dead ashes of those honourable Patriots and venerable Prelates of this then flourishing Nation and so to bespatter them with your rancorous calumnies What man were our Nobility and Magistracy so besotted that they should be brought into a fooles paradise by the delusions of others Did they only see with the Bishops eyes and were they not quicksighted enough of themselves to discern between good and evill light and darkness truth and heresie Fie man fie I am ashamed of your insolence this sure is no better than Crimen laesae majestatis And for the Prelats who by a simple sarcasm you call your Fathers the Bishops cannot you see and read as in a lively character more piety zeal and sincerity in the words and works and lives of those reverend pillars of the Church than to say that they were acted by a spirit of delusion What think you of Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Farrar c.
as 2 Chron 15.2 2 Chron. 15.2 The Lord is with you while you be with him and if you seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you God had promised them sworne to them that they should enter into Canaan but they brought up an evil report concerning that land they murmured against God who hereupon told them that they should not come into that land but wander fourty years in the wilderness till their carcasses were wasted and so they should know his breach of promise or altering his purpose as the margin hath it Had they made good their promise he would have made good his promise but because they brake with him in sinning he brake with them in punishing and so here was exact justice lex talionis The like we have Ezek. 16.59 I will even deal with thee as thou hast done which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant Having set this buttress to my first Argument and throughly fortified it against all your crooked engines I am now ready to attend to what you have to say against my second argument which is this If the Patriarch Iacob was elected meerly out of Grace without any respect had to any of his faith works or use of means then all others are likewise so elected for there is the one alike motive for the election of all as of one But Iacob was elected meerly out of the good will of God without any respect had to faith works or use of means at least for the moving of God to elect him Therefore all others are so elected Whereto you begin thus to answer First I cannot but mind those words that fall from his pen in the close of his argument at least saith he for the moving of God to elect him certainly either it was his mind to give out something as though the position had said that mens faith works and use of means did move God to elect then when the word works was not there at all for had it been in it without an explanation of it I should not have vindicated the position but as it is I must maintain the truth of it against all opposers whatsoever neither is there any thing in it as that faith or use of means doth move God to the electing of any men or else surely his heart smote him or his own conscience did accuse him that he had excluded the use of means wholly in the electing of men to life and salvation as if God had no respect to it upon any account whatsoever and yet should take pay for preaching as if it were a thing of great worth upon that account Answ Sir by your last I hoped to have found you somewhat conformable to the rules of Schools and to have denyed some one proposition for matter or the whole for forme but instead thereof you fall into a rambling discourse without either art or wit so that I am forced to follow you in your wildgoose-chace though it be somewhat immethodical And I now shall tell you this that these words for the moving of God to elect him did neither casually nor by check of conscience drop from my pen but very considerately for the better illustration of the sense of the Argument and therefore whatsoever your disclaimer is as that nothing is implied in the position whence to conclude your admitting of external motives in the object by way of condition qualification or thing prerequisite for or according to which God doth elect and thereby become a motive or incentive for Gods electing and so not singly and simply his bare and meer good pleasure Yet as I have by severâ—â— arguments made to appear in the defence of the former Argument that in reality of truth according to you faith embracing of the means c. are concauses or incentives for God to elect And why you should grumble as in this and several times after you do that I insert works with faith and use of means in my argument I know no cogent reason you can have for it for as for works whereby I mean a conformable walking according to the mind and will of Iesus Christ they being via regni Heb. 11.6 Heb. 12.14 they are every way as necessary unto salvation as faith it self is for as without faith it is impossible to please God so without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And therefore that I yoke the Papist with the Anabaptist I shall only say Matth. 20.13 14. friend I do thee no wrong tolle quod tuum est et vadâ— for ought I see you are no holier then they their foreseen works carrie as much colour of truth as your foreseen faith and both alike both of them necessary and concurrent to salvation but both of them and all things else out of God excluded from election his alone will and good pleasure being the sole rise and fountain why any is elected and yet as God doth elect unto glory and salvation as the end so he doth elect unto grace unto faith unto good works as the way and means conducing to that end You second what you have begun and say that the Patriarch Iacob and all others that are elect are elected meerly of grace without any respect had to their works if it be meant meerly the works of the Law but that Iacob or any other man or woman whatsoever is elected without any respect had to faith or use of means I do deny This to me seems a bold attempt and a plain contradiction that any thing should be meerly i. e. solely and singly of grace and yet with a respect had to faith and use of means If the Apostles Argument be good Rom. 11.6 If of grace then not of works because grace excludes all other things besides it self if it be meerly grace then certainly it must be as concluding here if of grace then not from any respect had to faith or use of means which last in plain English is nothing else but good works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 That same grace excluding all other things besides as to the decree it self of election Though I alwaies did and shall affirm that the same gracious God that so freely without any respect had to any thing in those he did elect did decree to save them So he did decree to save them by faith in his Son and through good works to bring them to glory The next thing you endeavour is to commit a rape upon Rom. 9. and to defloure the purity of that Scripture by your false gloss upon it which you dictate thus For the Scripture in Rom. 9.11 which is that which he bringeth to prove his Argument proveth no such thing but the contrary for although it was said to Rebecca before the children were yet borne neither having done any good or evil that the pâ—rpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of
to tender unto fallen mankind by his son Jesus Christ and did not look at any thing that was in the creature or should be acted by the creature as any motive by which he was drawn thereunto but the moving cause was the fountain of everlasting love that was in himself towards his poor perishing creature freely to enter into an engagement by purpose and decree and from that purpose and decree to make forth promises in the Scripture that are 1 Cor. 1.20 yea and Amen in Christ Jesus to the glory of God by us that all sort or kind of people that do embrace the means of salvation to wit the free tenders of grace in the Gospel and continue in the faith and way of Jesus with a single heart and humble mind to the end of their lives Matt. 24.13 shall undoubtedly be saved and God can as soon cease to be as that he should fail in making good these promises to that sort or kind of people aforesaid because they flow from his purpose and decree which is unchangeable like unto himself as I shall by the assistance of God hereafter make appear in the following discourse Answ Here I will intreat the intelligent Reader considerately to take notice how this merchant of rags endeavours to juggle with me and by acting the Gypsies part to play fast and loose with my first Argument for howsoever it is by me affirmed that Gods election is absolute in it self irrespectrive and irrelative as to the end viz. salvation to which there was no motive or incentive whether of faith foreseen or embracing of the means or continuing therein or any thing else yet withal as before hinted I do maintain that the same God that determined of the end did likewise decree unto such persons so elected fit and suitable means conducing to that end viz. that he would send his Son to become a propitiation for them that he would effectually call them by his Gospel that he would give them faith to answer that call by believing that he would justifie their persons and sanctifie their natures and keep them by his power through faith unto salvation And whereas he writes although mans believing and obeying the Gospel be not a motive incentive or procuring ground or cause for which God elects c. who would not think here but that this man meant plainely and honestly but tuta frequensque via est sub amici fallere nomen for mark what followes but it hath been the good will and pleasue of God to engage himself by purpose and decree to elect justifie and save all those men and women that did or should in time embrace the means of salvation Answ Here is his warping for see how he fumbles together the decree it self of salvation with the means for the execution of that decree no waies distinguishing but confounding election with justification and embracing of the means It is very true and it is a Gospel-declaration that God will save all those that he doth justifie and who do embrace the means in sincerity and truth Rom. 8.29 Eph. 6.24 But if he prove out of any part of the Bible from Genesis to the Revelation that God will elect all those that do or shall embrace the means of salvation I will give him the cause and cry peccavi and it is to be marked that we are about the point of election and not of justification and therefore all such proofs that speak onely of justification and not specifically of election are alien to the point For all the rest of his words if the grant may gratify him I will freely give him viz. that all sorts of people that do embrace the means to wit the free tenders of grace in the Gospel shall undoubtedly be saved But what 's this to the Argument of Election You further add But if by these words Then it is not upon Gods foresight of mens embracing the means but onely that the embracing of the means is not a motive or moving cause for which God elects then his Argument is true in every part of it but I have some cause to except against the sequel of his major proposition viz. then it is not upon Gods foresight of mens embracing the means not so much in respect of any untruth I find in it if his meaning be as aforesaid but the exception that I make against it is in respect of the terms of it because it varieth from the position not answering the expressions of it for the position doth not say that God elected men upon the foresight of their embracing the means but the substance that is in it is that God saw some men embracing the means those he elected and therefore if it had answered to it it should have spoken thus Then God hath not elected those men which he saw embracing the means of salvation and then it had been so palpably false that it must needs have been denied without any further trouble but as it is it may be a truth and yet proves nothing in the position to be false Sir what need all these frothy words to wast time and to spoile clean paper you know my sense is that the embracing of the means is not a motive or moving cause for which God doth elect and howsoever it is that you are ashamed to outface so much clear light of the Scripture which confirms this truth but that your pretence is that you except against my Argument in respect of the terms of it because as you say it varieth from the Position not answering the expressions of it The substance whereof is this that God saw some men embracing the means those he elected Therefore now I must deal plainly roundly with you and shall unkennel you our of yout fox-holes You know the Water-men on the Thames when they cry Westward Hoe they have their faces Eastward So whiles you here pretend against motives incentives or procuring causes of election yet in very deed and truth you are most mainly for them as I shall God assisting me make plainly to appear Sir possible it is that you may not dive into the bottom of this mystery of Iniquity nor foresee at such a distance as you are into the depth of this design and therefore may with the more confidence protest against and utterly disclaim all motives incentives or procuring grouds or causes why God elects any but ascribe all to the good pleasure of his will as in words you seem to assert But if we cast a reflexe eye upon this Heresie I mean for eternal causes of election as it was at first hatched by Pelagius though shortly after it was crushed by a Councel and next again revived in part by the Semipelagian Papists and at last refined and put into a new garbe by those Interpolators your correspondents the Arminians it will be very visible to all considerate men that howsoever in words you deny any moving cause in respect of election yet so long as
and means appointed of God for that end and one would think that this man were a little of my mind in this by what falleth from him in the close of this second Argument using these words at least for the moving of God to elect Sir If here where you make mention of any Instrumental cause you intend onely the Instrumental means of salvation then I joyne with you for as I have before asserted That as God hath decreed the end so likewise hath he decreed the means conducing to that end But as there is no external cause at all and therefore none Instrumental for which he doth elect before all time but all arising from within himself even his own love and good pleasure so when that decree comes to be put into execution in time then there are subordinate causes but all set on work by the first cause which is God himself but not as to election but all as tending to salvation And therefore that fell very advisedly from me when I said at least for the moving of God to elect where I place a vast difference between election and salvation God elects without respect had to faith works or use of means as to the decree but yet he saves with by and through faith works and use of means as in respect of the end 2 Thes 2.13 1 Pet. 1.2 You pack up these your fardles of exceptions thus Now if he do not hold that it is some cause by which men come to be more peculiarly interessed into the favour of God by believing then they are without believing why did he not rather say it must not be accounted any cause at all upon any account whatsoever But it is that which the Lord Christ hath said in Ioh. 16.27 which perswadeth me to be of that mind in that he hath said the Father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God and therefore If I should say that loving of Jesus Christ and believing in him were no cause at all by which we came to be chosen into the Fathers love I should sin against Christ in speaking contrary to his word But this is more then was in the Position and yet it is no more then truth Answ Sir now I will give you an account why I used that expression at least for the moving of God to elect my meaning was not that any man came to be interested into the first favour and love of God which is the good pleasure of his will immanent and eternal in himself more by believing then without believing For in election God lookt upon men as sinners enemies ungodly in their blood in a doleful plight and the objects of pity and compassion and not as on believers And therefore my words carried this sense that though there were no cause or motive at all why he should elect one rather then another because all were in an equally lost condition yet in the decree of election wherein there was a love unto and a purpose to save some he likewise decreed to save them by such means which in his wisdome he had ordained to be suitable for the attaining of the end so that salvation should have adequate causes for the effecting of it viz. faith works and use of means though election it self had none but singly and simply the love of God arising onely out of his own bosome And therefore it excluded causes as to election but did admit of causes as to the accomplishment of salvation For the rest of this paragraph of yours it trips up the heeles of all the former your seeming fair concessions and plainly discovers the secret guile and fraud of your heart For now you begin to speak plain enough saying If I should say believing were no cause at all by which we come to be chosen into the Fathers love I should sin against Christ Here indeed is plain dealing though all along before you have juggled with me and denyed all causes as to election And this indeed though you are not aware of it moâ—lders to nothing all your former exceptions which have still denied all causes motives c. And now you grant loving and believing to be causes and confirms every argument that I have raised and fortifies every of those absurdities that I have charged upon you as following upon your position to any of which you make not the least appearance of an answer But I tell you as before God in electing lookt upon men as in the corrupt mass and lumpe of perdition regarding nothing what they could be as of themselves for they must unavoidably be in a lost condition till by his own act transient flowing from that of Immanent in himself he made them believers by giving of them faith and all of this for the greater advance of his own free grace which he did not do to others For that place of Ioh. 16.27 brought to confirm their purpose I answer that the love of God hath a two-fold acception The first is amor benevolentiae which is the foundation and fountain of all the good his people have and receive t is the wombe that conceives and sends forth all the good things we do enjoy of which Ier. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love and so 1 Ioh. 4.10 we love him because he loved us first and of this no cause or reason can be rendred besides the good pleasure of his will The second is amor complacentiae when in time the Lord is delighted with the persons of those that he loved from eternity Ezek. 16.14 thy beauty was perfect through the comeliness I put upon thee Cant. 3.1 Behold thou art fair c. and thus the Lord crowns rewards and delights himself in those graces given to his elect ones and of this love of complacency is this text to be understood and not of the everlasting love spoken of Ier. 31.3 in electing of us before all time and whereof onely this controversie is And now gather up altogether and make up your accounts and see to what an excrescency of advantage your numerous exceptions against my arguments will amount unto and you shall find that the Summa totalis will be just o Hitherto have we fayled in that still river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God Psal 46.4 Psal 87.7 Rom. 11.33 and from whence all our springs flow viz. Gods electing of us to life eternal But now we are to lanch into that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that unfathomable gulfe of the wisdom and knowledge of God whose judgements are unsearchable and his waies past finding out viz. that of non-election or Reprobation Concerning which this Gentlemans Position did assert this viz. That God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation continuing in sin and unbelief yet haply not without the exact form of godliness but denying the power those he reprobated to everlasting destruction from the foundation of the world But In
torments from both of which it follows that sin and unbelief is the cause of the adjudication to hell and eternal torments and that by the decree of God but is by no means the cause of the decree it self that singly proceeds from his good pleasure And as it is an undoubted truth that God as he never saves any adult person but such as are penitent and studious of good works so he hath not decreed to save any but such so qualified with repentance and good works whence we argue that repentance and good works are truly the causes of salvation 2 Thess 2.13 and that by the decree of God who hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth but it doth not thence follow that repentance and good works are causes of the decree for upon that account election should be dependent not onely upon faith foreseen as you would have it but likewise upon good works as antecedent to it which hitherto for ought I see you have not that impudence to affirme The like must be said of reprobation That as he never damns or decrees to torment and adult person but such as are impenitent unbelievers and rejecters of the means so he hath not decreed to damn any but such so qualified and whence the like Argument may likewise be taken up that impenitent unbelief and rejecting of the means are truly the causes of damnation Heb. 11.6 Heb. 12.14 and that by the decree of God who hath declared that without faith it is impossible to please him and that without holiness no man shall see the Lord But it doth not thence follow that impenitence unbelief and the rejecting of the means are the causes of the decree reprobates were not sinners at least in existence when the decree of non election or reprobation first pâ—â— upon them which was from all eternity as the elect were not penitents at the first instant of their election in the mean time God hath not decreed to adjudge any but sinners and unbelievers unto eternal torments as he hath not decreed to reward any with eternal life but penitents For what God doth or permitteth to be done in time the same and no otherwise hath God decreed to be done or permitted to be done before all time so that the prevision of sin and unbelief and rejecting of the means did no more antecede negative reprobation then the prevision of repentance and good works did antecede the decree of election So that I hope reasonable men will or may now judge that I have reconciled the enmity that your dim deluded sight had imagined and broken down that partition-wall which your Panick fears raised between these two positions and by the good hand of God have so reconciled your supposed difference between them that they go neer like Hippocrates twinnes hard â—n hand together though that the one ordine naturae not temporis have a priority before the other to which the last is subservient So that now I am at liberty to attend to what you will say to my first Argument which is this That which the holy Ghost in Scripture ascribes to the sole will and good pleasure of God that we are not to assigne to other causes But the Scripture assignes reprobation soley to Gods will Therefore To which you answer His Major proposition he bringeth nothing at all to prove for proof of his Minor he alledgeth these Texts Rom. 9.18 20 21 22. Mat. 11.25 Matth. 20.15 16. Rom. 9.11 12 13 17. Answ to which I answer The Scriptures which he quoteth and all that he can find in all the book of God cannot prove his argument for it is false in the Minor proposition therfore the Scripture cannot prove it for 1 Ioh. 2.21 no lye is of the truth although the Scripture doth speake of the will of God as a cause concerned in mans reprobation in having his eyes blinded and his heart hardned and the like yet the Scripture doth not assign it solely and singly to the will of God without assigning it to any other cause but on the contrary it doth assign the continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means of salvation as a cause thereof Answ I pray learned Sir what need I prove the Major that is unquestionable even to you i. e. would you have me beat the ayre and fight against mine own shadow No Sir t is the Minor that sticks in your sides so that you cannot breath out any one thing in a probable way of contradiction to any one of those texts by me alledged Yet with a face as full of impudence as ignorance you adventure to say but do not to which I answer c. This passage of this Doctor-like undertaker calls to my mind a Doctor of Oxford whom I well did know and to this day he is well remembred for it by some who in an University sermon of his falling upon a point of controversie wherein he found Bellarmine his adversary uttered words to this effect I will saith he confute him in two words mentiris Bellarmine and marke I pray whether this Gentleman tread not in the same steps he begs the question by saying it is false therfore the Scripture cannot prove it And what doth he do less than give the lye to the Spirit of truth when by his own confession the Scripture ascribes reprobation to the will of God which though afterwards he palliates by saying that it doth not assigne it solely to the will of God but that sin unbelief are concomitant causes yet he might have shewed some ingenuity in alledging of such places of Scripture which had done as he did say that so there might have been some appearance of an answer and not that Pythagoras-like his ipse dixit should be taken for currant coyne when as I am certaine it is but counterfeit but to give the lye and that to his betters as I am informed is as ordinary a dish with him as his dayly bread Well Sir but to attend your procedure which is thus But whereas he saith that sin and unbelief and the rejecting the means are just causes why God decrees such persons to hell and eternal torments but not the causes of Reprobation I do understand that the decree of God which was before time resteth for the ground thereof more peculiarly in the will of God without assigning other causes to it than reprobation it self which is the execution of the same purpose and decree of God in time â—â—en and where the continuance in sin and unbeleif and the rejecting of the means of salvation is found in men Answ Here like a Sorbon Doctor speaking ex cathedra you tender your simple sense of the decrees of God wherein your mistake is supposing that we confound the decrees of God with the execution of those decrees which is not ours which hath been your errour all along For this reprobation which I
infallibility is that whereby God doth certainly and infallibly foresee the futurition of all things for whereas the foreknowledge of God cannot be deceived as resting on an immutable decree therefore whatsoever he necessarily foreknoweth the same must necessarily come to pass Act. 15.18 known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Thirdly necessity of coaction or compulsion is that wherein any patient by violence is compelled by an external agent to do this or that which otherwise he is unwilling to do so Matth. 27.32 they compelled Simon to bear the cross of Christ so Luk. 14.23 at the great supper the guests are compelled to go in that the house might be filled so Acts 26.11 Paul compelled some to blaspheme These things thus premised I do hence infer that if the decree of God did produce such an effect as from a proper cause thereof as the continuance in sin and unbelief and the rejecting of the means of salvation by way of coaction or compulsion so that though they would they could not do otherwise then well might you fall into that admiration Where is the tender mercy of our God! But the decree of God leaves not men under such necessity of continuance in sin c. as though it either compelled men or sollicited any unto sinning but those that sin sin as voluntarily and sin is acted as freely by them according to their own perverse wills and desires as though there were no such decree or foresight of God at all And yet it is very true that sins do come to pass according to the decree of God by a necessity first of immutability in as much as they are permitted determined directed and limited by the eternal decree of God which is as himself immutable Secondly by a necessity of infallibility in as much as the foreknowledge of God concerning such future things cannot be deceived But they do by no means come to pass by any decree of God necessarily inforcing infusing perswading or soliciting to sin But Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum all of your complexion are not equally capacitated to digest such notions and therefore Qui potest capere capiat he that is able to receive it let him receive it If these speculations be too sublime for your thick noddle blame not me for it And for that portion of Scripture by you cited it hath come under consideration already and hath received a full answer pag. 17. to which I must refer the Reader onely I shall adde this That non-election or negative Reprobation doth not contract the mercy of God into such strait terms but that every man in the world hath some share in it though not an equal share And if Gods mercy and love may be understood secundum effectum and not secundum affectum I would have you find out any creature in the world which hath conferred so many and so great effects of mercy and love upon his young ones as God did upon Cain Iudas or any other Reprobate and then I le give you leave to say that our Doctrine of Reprobation is destructive to the tender mercies of God No Sir the decree of Reprobation as it relates to the permission of sin in those non-elected argues no want at all of mercy in God though it import a denegation of some mercies even the top and height and bowels of his tender mercies which God had he been so pleased might have bestowed on them but Ratinabiliter negatur quod nulla ratione debetur and with this I shall relax my shoulders from the burden of this gravamen and so proceed to the next which is but the second part to the same tune For thus you write Secondly If God hath brought forth such an effect as a continuance in sin and unbelief c. by his decree before man had any being so as that the greatest part of men must be eternally damned for doing but what they must do and cannot neither ever could do otherwise Then where is the truth of God who hath said Ezek. 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die and not that he should turn from his waies and live Now if this man should undertake to resolve this question and be true to his own principles he must say there can be no other reason assigned for it either of sin or unbelief and the rejecting of the means but meerly the good will and pleasure of God But God himself whose word I shall believe before this mans arguments hath said Ezek. 18.32 I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth And if this be not sufficient yet lest men should distrust him he confirmeth it in Ezek. 33.11 say unto them As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn ye turn ye why will ye dye Oh house of Israel Answ Let there be a transposition of the words mercy for truth in these two gravamens and then see whether the subject matter be not the very same I must therefore desire the Reader to receive satisfaction unto this from that before written which howsoever calculated for the meridian of mercy yet may generally serve as an Antidote against all his Gravamens There remains therefore little else to be done as to this onely to examine his texts of Scripture wherein he insists much upon such expressions that the Lord hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth or in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live c. Now the mind of the Prophet in this place is to stir up such as had declined from God to returne unto him by true repentance and because their iniquities were so many and their offences so great that justly they might have despaired of remission mercy and grace therefore doth the Prophet for the better assuring of those that should repent affirm that God delighteth not in nor willeth the death of the wicked but of what wicked doth the Prophet speak this Doubtless of such wicked that truly should repent and in the death of such wicked God doth not nor never will delight But he delighteth to be known a God that sheweth mercy grace and favour to such as unfeignedly call for and desire the same how grievous soever their former offences have been But such as continue obstinate in their impiety have no part nor portion in these precious promises for them will God destroy and them will he thrust by the power of his word into that fire that never shall be quenched Secondly suppose I say that the death spoken of here is to be extended no further then a temporal death and I am sure it is more then you are ever able to prove that properly and directly it can be applied to eternal death and what will that avail you then as to matter of damnation Thirdly t is true
his end though that be not done which he requireth of us What you write of the means that they were of such a nature and tendency had they not been abused to bring forth those good things that God said he looked for c. I grant it true in respect of the outward means viz. soyle fruitful place fenced stones gathered choycest vine planted tower built and a wine-press in it But all these were but outward graces common to all the Israelites alike for there was that unum necessarium wanting viz. the inward working of his holy spirit in their hearts by changing of their natures and making of them new creatures taking away their stony hearts and instead thereof giving of them hearts of flesh Ezek. 11.19 and 26.26 without which all the other outward means though elevated to the top of Pisgah will prove altogether ineffectual Your progress holds yet further after this manner But that it doth sometimes seem good in the sight of God to hide the things concerning the kingdome of God and the name of Jesus from the wise and prudent men of this world according to the Scripture by him quoted out of Matth. 11.25 26. I freely grant as he did hide these things from the men of Corazin Bethsaida and Capernaum as a great woe unto them or as the just and righteous judgement of God upon them because they repented not for proof thereof read ver 20. and so downwards Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done Because they repented not and it doth appear that as mighty works were done amongst them and great means given forth of God by Jesus Christ unto them the greater is their condemnation because they embraced it not Answ I wonder Sir what your meaning is to take cognisance of a text of Scripttre by me quoted and yet not to give the least colour of answer to it but onely to pervert the scope of the place and the truth of the thing 1. The scope of that portion of Scripture is an expression of a consolation wherein Christ supports himself as in reference to the Incredulity of the Jews The consolation is raised from the good pleasure of Gods will which had so appointed it It seemed so good unto thee which you altogether obscure without taking notice of it 2. The truth of the thing is by you concealed which rests principally in the distinguishing of persons into two ranks and that arising meerly from the will of God it so seemed good unto him 1. Because to some it is said that it is revealad to others not and that not so much by the preaching of the Gospel for that was common to them both alike but by the inward illumination of their minds by the spirit of God 2. Because the discrimination that is made in the rendring of it to some and hiding of it from others is attributed to Gods separating those parties in the decree of election and reprobation 3. The prime and chief cause of that separation is placed in the good pleasure of Gods will which is the alone foundation and cause of election and non-election Eph. 1.4 5. Rom. 2.11 c. And upon this account was it that the place was by me quoted and so by you slubbered over And the like fair dealing I find in that which followes in your English thus And thus I do confess that God giveth to men the spirit of slumber darkeneth and blindeth their eyes not outwardly but inwardly as this man hath said and also hardeneth and maketh fat their heart but not from before the foundation of the world or from eternity as some do vainly imagine but as the just and righteous judgement of God upon them in time when they come to shut their own eyes and harden their own hearts against the truth in their day of grace see the words of Christ Luk. 19.42 saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Also read and consider well for the better clearing of this truth Ps 81.11 to the end Luk. 13.34 35. Rom. 1.24 to the end and mind well the 26. ver for this cause God also gave them them up to vile affections and also ver 28. and even as they did not like to believe God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind And in this sense I do not deny but that sin unbelief may be an effect and consequence of reprobation but this reprobation or being given over of God to a rep obate mind is not solely and singly to be ascribed to the will or decree of God from before the foâ—ndation of the world without any other ground or cause being assigned thereunto by the holy Spirit in the Scripture for there we may see that mans default in not improving what he hath received oâ— may obtain if he be not wanting to himself in good eaâ—nest to seek the grace that God doth so freely tender to the sons of men by Jesus Christ in the Gospel is a cause of it Answ Sir you that have such rare notions who ere did imagine that God from eternity should give men up to a spirit of slumber darkness and blindness of mind that he should harden and make fat hearts T is but one of your slanders which your dull-sighted proselytes will to easily swallow Yet this I do affirm that what you say that God doth all these things in time as a just and righteous judgement So I say all these things did God decree that he would do or permit to be done before all time for there is no new Immanent act in God but all whatsoever he in time doth or that he doth permit others to do those very samethings are so decreed by God to be done and likewise so decreed to be permitted to be done by others Ruminate on this and for the rest I may dismiss without contradiction having not much to say to reprobation in time Your next objection that you make to your self is this Obj. But this tendeth to the exaltation of the creature Ans That indeed is that false report that is cast upon us in these dayes and upon the truth that we profess but I know not what gâ—ound they have for it except it be this because we sometime use the word self in our speaking or writing but upon that acâ—ount they may as well say that Peter was a Free-willer or one that exalted the creature because he said Acts 2.40 save your selves from this untoward generation and also they may as well charge the same upon Paul because he said 1 Tim. 4.16 Take heed unto thy self and to thy doctrine continue in them for in so doing thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee But we are so far from setting up any wisdome strength or power of our own that we do aâ—knowledge that we 1 Cor. 4.7 have
unbelief Answ Though this be all yeelded yet the truth that I profess is never the more prejudiced I shall therefore hearken to what you further say But there is one text yet in the rere of all the rest that are mustered up for the proof of this Argument which I cannot well pass by without speaking something to it lest it should be said that there was some strength in it which I knew not how to remove the text is 1 Pet. 2.8 which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed Answ Alas grave Sir are you now at last grown so consciencious as to hold your self obliged exactly to answer all my allegations or do you think you have here espied an advantage I am very certain that there are but few of all those places I have cited that you have medled with at all but put a slur upon the most of them but none of all that you have satisfactorily answered Let your whole pamphlet be surveyed and judgment given upon it whether you have given but the appearance of an answer to any one text by me presented and now do you come with such pretences that there is no such strength in it but that you knew how to remove But let us hear what your wisdome wil say to it To which I reply first by demanding who it is that can be disobedient in doing what they are appointed to do by God himself Now if those that live and dye in unbelief were appointed of God so to do then where is their disobedience are they not as much obedient as those that live and dye in the faith for they do no more then what is appointed them of God to do and then do they not equally and alike do the will of the Father and then would they not be the brethren and sisters of Christ Matth. 12.50 Let those that have understanding judge Sir I will give you for your better satisfaction the scope of the place and that will a little conduce to gain the sense of the words The Apostle in this same verse partly confirms what he had delivered concerning Christ ver 4. viz. that he was a living stone chosen and precious and partly he prevents an objection which might arise from the in redulity of the greatest part of the Jews and chiefly of the Scribes and Pharisees This scandal he removes by the commemoration of a prophecy of David Psal 118.22 whereby to signifie that they ought not to be offended with the incredulity of the Jews as a thing so strange as never to have been expected whereas it was foretold by David and that by a special instinct of the Holy Ghost 2. And to the confirmation of the same he adjoynes another prophecy of Isa 8.14 And lastly the same scandal he utterly cashiers by a declaration that such was the will of God that it should be so whi h as being most just and holy all the people of God are bound to acquiesce in and this he clears ve 8. when he saith that those unbelievers who are offended at the Gospel were appointed unto this very same thing The like expressions are found 1 Thes 5.9 God hath not appointed us to wrath and Rom. 9.17 for this same purpose have I raised thee and ver 22. vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and Iude 4. of old ordained to condemnation And this of the scope now for the sense of the words 1. We do not say they were appointed as if we did maintain that God had decreed to infuse oâ— instil unbelief into them for all men are by nature unbelievers and disobedient to the truth Adams disobedien e had exposed them to and left them in such a connative state of unbelief and disobedience that they were never able to shake off nor rid their hands and hearts from untill God by his immediate hand had spâ—inkled them with pure water and washt them clean and therefoâ—e there needed no new infusion to make them do that to which you say they were appointed to do their own contracted original depravation woâ—ld carry them on fast enough to that without any other or new intervenient act of God No Sir Gods acts are all holy and just they were appointed to that unbelief and disobedience not that God would work it in them But that he had decreed and so appointed to leave them in that unbelieving and disobedient condition whereinto man at first had freely precipitated himself whereby he had so captivated all his posterity that they being deprived of the glory of God and God likewise having decreed to permit them to fall into gross actual transgressions from which he was no way obliged to preserve them and hence it is that here it is said they are appointed to it because God had decreed not to prevent it none of this disobedience or unbelief came to pass either God not knowing of it or wanting power to hinder it but God for the setting forth of his own glory in the manifestation of his justice upon such immorigerous subjects he had decreed to permit that unbelief and disobedience and so it was appointed 2. Neither do we say that there was any precept or command whereby God did require that unbelief or disobedience No the purity of his most holy nature doth most severely forbid it but this it is that we assert that the just God had appointed or decreed not to give them faith which is an undeserved grace Eph. 2.8 not to give them the spirit of obedience for that is a disobliged mercy and yet without whose gift of themselves they could do nothing Ioh. 15.2 Phil. 2.13 and that positively likewise he had decreed that when they were refractory and disobedient against the Gospel in a righteous way of judgement more grievously to blind and harden them so punishing sin with sin and in the end and issue of all to give them the wages which they had earned that so they might reap what they had sowen and receive the fruits of their own labours viz. hell and destruction and so all of this was appointed because decreed to be done or permitted to be done Therefore you do but dally and play with the words and make a mock of the language of the holy Ghost when you write If those that dye in unbelief were appointed of God so to do then where is their disobedience are they not as much obedient as those that live and dye in the faith Good Sir this obedience that you dream of that so much perplexeth your brains supposeth a command to that unbelief that disobedience which we utterly deny T is true this we do affirme that there doth proceed a decree and that not positive but negative viz. a denyal of such grace as by which they might be inabled both to believe and obey the Gospel And that grace being wanting to them how shall they believe how can they obey and yet all this is no other then God in his secret
9.21 22 23. Ioh. 15.19 Ephes 2.1 23. Children of wrath as well as others Rom. 3.10 and ver 20. None righteous no not one 4. Then Paul was mistaken Rom. 9.11 in not assigning sin to be the cause of Reprobation 5. The same Apostle then answered very unsoundly to those objections Rom. 9.13 19. The first is If God Reprobated Esau because he hated him he was unjust The second ver 9. Why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will for he might in one word have answered to both objections and said that sin was the cause of reprobating both Esau and Pharaoh but he saith the contrary ver 11. When they had done neither good no evil Iacob have I loved and Esau have I hated 6. Thereby we confine Gods infinite soveraignty over the creatures to the narrow scantling of our subordinate power as though he might not do with his own what he list without our controll and not make a vessel either to honour or dishonour unless he were accountable to us for a reason of his so doing Answ 1. I cannot but take notice of his evil dealing in the making of his Arguments that he should make no less then ten Arguments against two Positions and not one in all the ten that answers to either of them now as I have said before I must be constrained to say yet once more that the Position doth not say that foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejection of the means of salvation be the causes of Reprobation but the Position saith God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation to wit free tenders of Christ in the Gospel continuing in sin and unbelief c. which word continuing is forgotten and not mentioned in all the Arguments but I must not abate him that expression Continuing lest I should be guilty of letting the truth suffer through my negligence for if he had put in that expression into his Argument and framed his Argument accordingly to have answered the Position as it lyeth there could not one absurdity have followed but yet I shall examine your absurdities particularly to see whether they follow from the Position or any thing that we hold or whether they will all prove to be absurdities yea or no. Answ There are a sort of beggers that give them what you will to yield to their craving natures yet they are never satisfied Some of our children are of such pettish and peevish dispositions that answer what you will to their wanton fancies yet they are never contented Sir take it not amiss that I must rate you with one of these two though I have given you ten to two the least of which might have been satisfactory to a rational man yet nothing will convince you but that you are stil grumbling that my answers and Arguments hit not your positions because I bring not every several word of your Positions into my Arguments severally therefore you say they are not framed against what you do hold Sir before this I did not conceive that the rules of arguing limited men to such punctilioes of words but if that any thing might be necessarily deduced from the Positions besides the bare letters and words of the Position it might have been a warrantable way of argumentation let the word continuing be put into any or every of the Arguments and you will get nothing by it nor will it abate any of those absurdities I have already marked out to flow from your doctrine If the subtilty of any of your party have drawn out and stated your Positions so as to lye at the catch for a starting-hole when you feel your selves pincht by an Argument it will prove but a jadish trick to shift your necks out of the collar by saying such expressions are not in the position or this contains not all that is in the position Howsoever it is these your concessions and owned by you as they are stated by me will convince you that though your position be God saw some men rejecting the means of salvation c. and those he reprobates c. yet your reserved meaning is that the foresight of sin and unbelief and the rejection of the means of salvation be the cause of Reprobation and indeed what can be less collected thence God saw some men rejecting of the means of salvation those he reprobates and why did he reprobate those that did reject the means rather then those that did embrace the means of salvation but onely for this because they did reject the means so that the rejecting of the means according to you must be the cause of their Reprobation and hence it is that p. 33. of your Pamphlet you set down these words in a great and distinct character because they receive not the love of the truth and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions But I will quarrel no more about words but see how you will shake off those absurdities laid at the door of your position But hereby the way let it be taken notice of that you have not swept the door of your former position clean from those absurdities which cleave fast unto it but you have skipt them all over because in deed they were too hot for your fingers onely you make an adventure to have a fling at the sixth absurdity flowing from that former position by comparing it with the first that flowes from this concerning which thus you write Absurdities answered And I shall compare the first absurdity as he calleth it with that sixth or last absurdity which he putteth to his sixth Argument in answer to the second position viz. God saw some men embracing the means of salvation those he elected in Christ c. and there he giveth out as if such an absurdity must needs follow that no children dying in infancy could be saved saying what then would become of children dying in infancy before they had the use of faith or works or any embracing of the means which never had being to act and to this he saith that such an absurdity as this must needs follow that no child dying in infancy can possibly be reprobated Now whether two such different things can follow these two positions I shall leave to the judgement of others that have understanding Answ Sir if any Lyncean eyes can spy out the least inconsistency or contradiction between those two absurdities laid to your charge to say they clash one against another according to your principles ce do quemvis arbitrum I appeal to any that hath understanding to judge And yet you have not so much confidence as to make out this your supposed enterfering you onely speak to the absurdities apart thus To the first of these he seemeth to make their election to eternal life very doubtful if at all possible and the ground or reason is because that children dying in infancy have not the use of faith or works Answ T is true Sir I do so according to
things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned No Sir it is the peculiar work of the Spirit to regenerate and convert Lydia's heart was opened Acts 16. Mat. 13.3 Rom. 1.16 before she so diligently attended to Pauls words The word of God that brought forth fruit did not make the ground good but it was so before by the special working of that Spirit The word which is the power of God to salvation doth not make believers but God first makes them so by sanctifying of their natures and giving them to believe Phil. 1.29 The word of God in Regeneration hath no greater force or power then the word of the Prophets and Apostles had in raising of the dead which had no other operation then to be tanquam signum as a sign of the thing done or as a moral instrument for there is no lesser power requirable in the recovery of a poor soul from a spiritual death to a spiritual life then there is from a natural death to a natural life And therefore as it is Gods peculiar to raise from death to life natural so it is his alone prerogative to raise from a spiritual death to a spiritual life The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Ioh. 5.25 Yea the same power is exerted in the work of Regeneration or the new creation as was at first in the work of the old creation 1 Cor. 4.6 no less then an hand of omnipotency in them both and therefore not communicable to any creature From all of which I shall hence infer that if it be Gods peculiar work to regenerate and not the word in the hearing of it and that Regeneration is principally necessary to give us ingress into heaven Joh. 3.3 Mat. 5.8 God may then as well regenerate infants by his secret power unsearchable to us though they neither hear nor understand as he doth those that are of riper years by so weak an instrument as the word and Gospel is which hath no such inherent power in and of it self Secondly this your assertion labours of another sickness viz. a false supposition that nothing but actual sins expose men to the danger of being cast into the lake of fire whereas the truth is That original sin or that hereditary pravity we brought with us into the world deriving it from our parents Psal 51.5 who conceived us in sin hath so much of filthiness and uncleanness in it that God may justly cast a new-born infant into the lake of fire for it unless it be washed clean by the blood of Jesus who is the alone way the truth the life Joh. 14.6 and through whose alone merits we have an access into the Holy of Holies into which place are admitted onely these whose names are written in the Lambs book of life Rev. 21.27 Luke 10.20 Rev. 20.15 whose names are written in heaven registred there in the eternal immutable decree of Gods election unto life all the rest whose names are not there recorded infants as well as others are cast into the lake of fire which is the second death But enough of this at present I shall be sure to meet you again more about this when you lay out your strength against original sinne Another thing which you give out in the nature of a reason why infants cannot be damned is viz. for that their not having of faith will never be charged upon them as sin Sir suppose I grant so much and so likewise what you produce out of Rom. 4.15 as a confirmation or rather as a reason of your reason for where no law is there is no transgression both may be very true as set disjunctively but as you have woven them both into one sentence they may not be true nor applicable to your purpose for herein you vary your terms that which you write takes notice of sin the text speaks of transgression wherein I conceive sin and transgression are not terms convertible for though every transgression of the law be a sin yet every sin is not a transgression of the law as in the case now before us for original sin though it be a sin properly and really yet it is not a transgression of the law as personally acted in and by the infants but as imputatively and as a defect of original righteousness So what you further say by way of illustration that there can be no law to infants as such and sin is not imputed where there is no law I grant you as to infants now in existence which law might require the exerting or putting out of any act or duty which their minority is uncapable to receive or to perform But I must withall tell you that as Adam as a publick person as a root and stock received Grace righteousness and holiness for him and his even for those in his loins so he received a law to him and his even the Covenant of works do this and live which law was incumbent not onely on Adam himself but likewise on all those that were in his loins So that infants now are born under a law and their want of original righteousness and that for the defect thereof their being conceived and born in sin and uncleanness shall be a deserving cause of their just condemnation What you bring forth in evidence to what you here aim at viz. Rom. 5.13 sin is not imputed where there is no law is so far from answering your desire that it cuts the throat of your assertion For the clearing whereof its expedient to search into the mind of the Spirit by the scope of the place The Apostle in this Chapter is prosecuting that grand point of Justification by faith in Christ and ver 11. laies down this that we have received attonement by him whence he makes this corollary ver 12. that as by the first Adam sin and death entred into the world so by Iesus Christ righteousness and life are restored to us But ver 13. he meets with an objection that sin is not imputed where there is no law where he argues after this manner If all have sinned in the loins of Adam then those likewise have sinned who lived before the law was given by Moses but before the law was given there could be no sin because where there is no law there is no transgression as Chap. 4.15 and therefore all have not sinned in Adam Now here the Apostle denies the assumption or minor proposition affirming the contrary that sin was before the law given by Moses constantly affirming that howsoever it was not imputed i. e. reckoned or accounted or reputed to be sin yet indeed and in truth sin was then in the world and this being of sin in the world before the law ver 14. he proves by the effect viz. death was then in the world and that all had sinned because that
he pleaseth and it shall prosper in the thing whereto it is sent Amen so be it Thomas Tazwels QUERIES Counter-questioned SIR when at first I surveyed over your bundle of Queries I was divided in my thoughts whether it was fittest for me to undertake an answer to them yea or no T is true I did not conceive that they were proposed by such a one that breathed after satisfaction for then I had been bound in conscience because directed to me to have given a direct account for the resolution of a troubled spirit but I was better acquainted with the temper of such Scepticks Seekers Queristers the top of whose Religion consists most what in abstruse Questions But that which caused this distraction in me was the calling to mind Solomons advice Prov. 26.4 5. Answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou also be like unto him And Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit So that which way soever I did address my self I was sure to be gored by one of the hornes of that Dilemma Therefore I did the rather make choice of a middle way neither directly to answer to any of your queries nor yet to leave any of them unresolved but when I apprehended them as captious Questions more to try abilities then to expect satisfaction I thought it best to follow our Saviours example Mark 12.13 Who when the primates of the Pharisees had sent unto him certain of that sect with the Herodians to catch him and intangle him in his words they began first by insinuation Master we know that thou art true and carest for no man for thou regardest not the persons of men but teachest the way of God in truth Secondly by question Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not shall we give or shall we not give But Christ who was privy to the secret guil of their hearts desiring a penny to be brought him askes them this question Whose is this Image and superscription they say Caesars then saith he give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods so that he makes no direct answer but by a Question The like may you see Mark 11.28 29. when the chief Priests and Scribes askt of Christ by what authority dost thou these things Iesus answered I will also ask you one question and answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things c. The like course I shall take with you I have not positively delivered my judgement to any of your queries but for the resolution of them have set down antiquestions to which if you give a direct answer according to the Scripture you must then needs answer your self to all those of your own queries So that making Christ his practise a president to my self I shall both follow his example and withall observe the wise mans direction both to answer a fool in his folly and yet not to answer a fool in his folly viz. implicitly and consequentially to answer by a question but positively and directly not to answer to the words 1. Whether it can be proved from the word of God that the fall which we had in the first Adam were any further than to the dust from whence we were taken 2. Whether it be not improper to say that we died in the first Adam a spiritual death when the Scripture doth say that that was not first which was spiritual but that which was natural and afterwards that which is spiritual 1 Cor. 15. 3. Whether there need to be any talk at all of any wisdome power or strength of our own when it is by all granted that we have our life and being in Iesus Christ and have nothing that we have not received 4. Whether God the Father have any other end or designe in giving of or sending his Son into the world but onely that the world through him might be saved 5. Whether the elect are at all in the Scripture demonstrated under any such term as that word world 6. Whether the Lord Iesus Christ doth use or exercise any other power in bringing of men and women to believe to the saving of their souls but that which may be resisted or rejected 7. Whether Gods decree before the foundation of the world be any other thing but that believers should be saved and unbelievers should be damned 8. Whether God can be said to judge the world in Righteousness and yet condemn those for unbelief which never had power to believe 9. How can the Saints be said to judge the world righteously if they are carried on to believe by a power that they cannot resist and those that are to be judged by them cannot believe for want of the same power 10. Whether if the salvation of some and the condemnation of others be necessitated by the decree of God without any respect at all to obedience or disobedience then to what end is it said in the Scripture of truth that men did or might choose or refuse 11. Whether is unbeliefe the cause of Reprobation or Reprobation the cause of unbelief 12. Whether it be not sin to say that the secret will of God is not according to his revealed will 13. Whether that opinion which some men hold concerning God be not damnable namely to say that God declareth in his word that he would have all men to be saved by his Son and yet never intendeth that they should be saved 14. Whether there be any Gospel to be preached to that man or woman for whom God never intended salvation in the death of his Son and if there be any then I would know what Gospel it is and who they are that should preach it 15. Whether condemnation to the second death or lake of fire was ever threatned but for personal rejection of the means afforded 16. Whether those that perish to eternity might not have been saved had they in their day improved the means afforded 17. Whether any can believe that Christ dyed for him upon a Scripture-account except he believe that Christ dyed for all 18. Whether Gods opening a door of salvation to all the Sons of men will not make his righteousness appear glorious in judgement 19. Can man be said to refuse that which he never was in a possibility to receive 20. Doth Christs bemoaning persons in the state of unbelief plainly argue they might believe 1. Whether we did not all sin in Adam as Rom. 5.18 19. 2. Whether the desert and reward of that sin be not death eternal as well as temporal as Rom. 6.23 where eternal death from Adam is placed in opposition to eternal life by Jesus Christ 3. Whether there was not in Adam immediately upon the eating of the forbidden fruit inward terrors and feelings of Gods wrath and thoughts that he was cast off and forsaken of God as Gen. 3.10 wherein the truth of that threatning was really accomplished Gen. 2.17 these
who gave up themselves as a sacrifice for the testimony of the truth as it is in Jesus Or what make you of those nearer within our own cognisance as of Jewel Bilson Morton Usher Hall Davenant the glorious Lights of this Nation in their Generation and the splendor of Europe to all succeeding ages Can your goose quill dash out their lustre and make their memorials to rot No I cannot endure that such a mushrome as you are should detract from their learning piety and intergrity for as Learning hath no greater enemy than a Dulman or an Ignoramus so piety and honesty find no greater adversaries than a prophane walker or licentious liver For your second Reason doubtless it is the Prerogative Royal of Jesus Christ to rule in the Consciences of men alwaies provided they be consciences orderly regulated and that instead of Jesus Christ in the conscience the strong man armed Luk. 11.21 2 Cor. 11.14 that is the devill be not there who often transforming himself into an angel of light pleads conscience when alas in many it is nothing else but wilfulness or affectation of singularity and then he ought to be unroosted and the man reduced to conformity notwithstanding his plea of conscience It is not every pretender to Conscience that is to be indulged with an immunity from coaction or coercion For suppose a man irregular in his course and conversation or that in other things he hath a Cheverill conscience and can swallow down a Camell shall this mans plea of conscience be accepted in case of Religion Or suppose a man in the opinion that he holds or practices that he useth making a plea of conscience for his so opining and doing shall yet be imperious scornfull proud turbulent self-conceited these are strong presumptions of what spirit that man is of No such who have a just plea and title to conscience and priviledges thereof they are meek lowly humble jealous over their own hearts thinking others better than themselves And that with all he fasts praies hears reads using all possible means better to inform him that so if it be possible he may keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace That Text of Scripture which you bring to evidence what you would have makes but little for your purpose if without inforcement it may speak the mind of Christ wherein though I might say that parabolical argumentations prove no more than for what they were first spoken Yet to take our Saviours interpretation the tares are children of the wicked one i.e. the devill and then from thence with as much strength of argument we may conclude that no thief nor murtherer nor adulterer nor any other malefactor is to be punished or removed before the end of the world any more than he that blasphemes the name of the high God give a reason against it he that can why a Heretike should receive any more indulgence from that Text than a notorious Malefactor But doubtless the scope of our Saviour in that parable is to signifie unto us the lot and condition of the Church of God in this life and that there can be no expectation of an universall purity in this life but that there will be still tares amongst the wheat bad men will be intermingled amongst the good neither can they be totally rooted out till the end of the world And as that Text doth not inhibite reproofs from the ministry towards evill workers Rom. 13. so neither doth it restrain punishment from the Magistrate for he beareth not the sword in vain And one thing is remarkable that Christ who forbad the plucking of the tates up did not yet forbid the Magistrate to hinder the sowing of them but that in his wisdome and godly care he may put a restraint both upon the Pulpit and Press from such incendiaries that promote and propagate such uncouth doctrines and opinions without any prejudice to the liberty of conscience And thus from your Text I come to your Conclusion whiâ—h is And therefore they have tolerated all Religions that 〈◊〉 peaceably in the Common-wealth except Popery and Preâ—â—â—y whose principles and actions also have been made appear to be against the present Government They have as you say tolerated such Religions and I wish from my soul that they may not repent too late of such Toleration for if we may judge of things by the issues and events there were never heard of the like hideous and horrid blasphemies in any age of the world more than since Toleration was on foot They might perhaps whisper them before but now they speak them with a full mouth So that England which not long since was accounted as an immaculate Virgin and so the glory of the world for soundness of Doctrine and purity of Conversation is now lookt upon as a Babell and confusion of opinions and the sink of all Heresies And one thing I cannot let slip without some observation that such are concerned in this Toleration who live peaceably in the Common-wealth and whose principles and practices are not inconsistent with the present Government I am much amazed then how it comes to pass that your sect of all others the Anabaptists I mean should come to have any share in this indulgence since that of all heresies that ever I have read or heard of there is not any one that carries such a diametricall opposition and direct antipathy against the publike peace of a Common-wealth as do the principles and practises of the Anabaptists I would not willingly if I know mine own heart bear false witness against my neighbour no though mine own interest were concerned in it much less against a society of men and that especially in the case of God And therefore what I write are either collections from your own Authors or from men who are of unquestionable authority and fidelity in their relations And first for their principles and therein I shall give you only but a taste as 1. That it is not lawfull for a Christian to bear the office of a Magistrate with the safety of a good conscience now in the times 〈◊〉 the New Testament if he do they put the question whether such a one can be saved 2. That the office of a Magistrate extends only to the duties of the second Table 3. That it is not lawfull for a Christian to go to warfare nor to have imposed upon them any watches or wardings 4. That it is not lawfull for a Christian to bear any arms offensive or defensive either for the defence of his Country or himself or to offend his enemy 5. That it is not lawfull to go to law 6. That it is not lawfull to take an oath before a Magistrate 7. That it may be lawful to have more wives than one at one time 8. That it is not lawfull to punish any Malefactor with death 9. That there ought to be a community of goods I willingly overslip their other more horrid opinions as