of causes and I say your mistake is the not understanding of causes I do allow of as many distinctions of causes as the Scripture doth but I am not so simple as to make several causes of one thing to be diametrially opposed against each other as ye do but consentaneous to one another so that Gods declared cause is adequate to his essential meritorious or final causes My third mstake as you say is my not understanding the extent of the word all and the word world and in this you make a great puther and a stir to prove that the word World is taken many times for lesse then all Who knows not that but 't is sometimes taken for all as you and all men confess and in this case touching the death of Christ I am certainly assured 't is meant all as I have already evinced from John 12.47 Nay moreover you grant it for you also affirm that he dyed for all and therefore when you except against my large extending the word world it may be conceived you are a little out of your self if not I am sure ye are out of the truth For what man that is compos mentis would first assert that Christ died for all and for the world and then except against the places that prove it as not extending unto all because sometimes those terms in other cases extend not to all I hope you will see your folly and be ashamed 4. My fourth mistake you say is my not understanding Ezek. 33.11 where the Lord saith As I live I delight not in the death of a sinner For from this place I conclude you say all sinners and so indeed I do yea the worst and perishing sinners and so the text saith expresly Ezek. 18 ult. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth Who told you that God makes three sorts of sinners and one of them he calls sinners in a Gospel-sence have you eaten of the forbidden fruit if not how come you to know more then is written and more then is true that some sins and sinners are greater then others I do not deny but to divide sinners into so many sorts that exclude the greatest part of them from Gods desire of salvation to them I allow not but detest it as abominable I am sure God tells us no such thing in his word as that he would save onely sinners in a Gospel-sence But he either saith Sinners indefinitely or else particuliarly of such sinners as Mr. Hobsons wisdom excludeth as these Scriptures will abundantly testifie Jer. 25.3 unto 8. Jer. 35.12 unto 17. Chap. 29.19 Chap. 18.11 12 Chap. 6.16 17. Chap. 13.11 Isa. 48. 17 18 19. Where you may see he endeavoured with all earnestness even unto admiration to save not onely those that did accept but those also that refused Salvation and perished That all this was done out of true compassion to them doth appear 2 Chro. 36.14 15 16. That all this also was not a bare outward and helpless means which God used by his Prophets but a most efficacious powerful and prevailing means the Spirit of God going with the word of the Prophet and yet not received doth most manifestly appear in that remarkable place of Zechariah 7.11 12 13. as also Act. 7.51 This is yet farther confirmed and illustrated by the ever blessed Son of God in his most pathetical expressions of sorrow and grieffor and the shedding of tears over the miserable sons and daughters of Jerusalem who had unavoidably and full sore against his blessed will brought themselves into an irrecoverable estate by not knowing the time of their visitation when they were most gently allured and earnestly called upon it being now too late to reverse the Decree that was gone out against them I say yet did our Saviour weep for them Luke 19.41 and weeping he most affectionately breatheth forth this most blessed wish and desire for them O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace c. in which desire he is like unto God his father See Deut. 5.29 Chap. 32.29 Psal. 81.13 Isa. 48.18 Let all this be well weighed without prejudice and see then if you you cannot understand our Saviour as he speaks that is That he came not to call the righteous that is righteous indeed but sinners to repentance that is sinners indeed his designe into the world being more to amend that which was amiss to seek that that was lost and heal that that was sick then to those that were already in a good way and in a saveable condition that had not need of a Physitian Mat. 9.12 Mark 2.17 Whoever do but mark upon what occasion our Lord here speaketh these words they may with ease understand that he means worse sinners then Mr. Hobsons Gospel-sinners for our Saviour being at meat with Publicans and sinners in Levi's house the Scribes and Pharisees complain of it thinking 'tis like as Mr. Hobson doth that he was sent onely to the precise and Gospel-sinners which when our Lord perceived he said unto them They that are whole have not need of the Physitian but they that are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Next you say I mistake in putting one person for another as in Heb. 10.29 where the text saith Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing c. Now you say my mistake is That I take the word he for the party that treads the blood of Christ under foot whenas 't is meant if all were true as you say of Christ himself that was sanctified This fond and I think your own interpretation of this place is not onely against all the judicious learned but against the scope of the Apostle which is both to aggravate the punishment and the sin of the person here spoken of who trampled under his foot the blood of Christ which he aggravates by rehearsing the vertue of it and what it had done for him to wit sanctified him from his sins which the party wickedly how slighted and rejected though formerly had imbraced it and been sanctified by it and this right well agreeth with Saint Peter 2 Pet. 1.9 2.20 21 22. I am still filled with amazement that you should be so void of reason as to interperet Scripture after such a heedless manner as to confront all wise and learned men yea and the truth also Do you think it would aggravate the sin of the sinner to tell him that he hath trampled under his foot that blood which he had no benefit nor sanctification by but that blood by which Christ was sanctified or do you think that Christ needed to be sanctified by his own blood himself I am well aware that sanctification is sometimes taken for setting apart but sanctification by Christs blood is never
salvation unto all men for the same purpose that they should deny ungodlyness and worldly lusts and live soberly and righteously in this present world W. P. Sound Doctrine OR The Doctrine of the Gospel about the extent of the Death of Christ DEar friend I received your book in which you prerend to answer my fourteen Queries and ten Absurdities which how well you have done let the Godly wise judge that have read it I am amazed to take notice how consident you seem to be in so bottomless a business as you maintain and with what subtilty not to say fraud you pass over the energie and force of my Arguments without notice and how you pretend that 't is an opinion very dangerous to hold that Christ died for all alike and yet you your self maintaining he died for all as if he died more for one then another and as if he died to save onely some and dyed for the rest to damne them I pray where do you learn that distinction of dying for all but not all alike was ever such a thing heard of among any that had the use of their reason I desire no greater advantage against you then that you are constrained and so are all of your opinion to speak without Art without Scripture without Reason and against all the best of Antiquities The holy Scriptures do indeed most plainly tell us that Christ died for all as you have also quoted Joh. 3.16 16.33 2 Cor. 5.19.1 Jo. 2.2.1 Joh. 4.14 Heb. 2.9 but do any or all of these or any other say that he died not for them alike or that he died for some more then other I shall not take upon me to write an answer to all your impertinent allegations and particulars in your book because I judge 't will be a mis-pence of time and blotting of paper to no purpose And were it not that I feared my silence would occasion you to be wise in your own conceit I would not have troubled my self to make any Reply unto your feigned doctrine for I do not much fear that many considerate good and sober men will be misled by such groundless conceits But being perswaded that possibly some weak persons may be misled by the pretended holyness of your self and Doctrine therefore I did resolve to write an Answer to your book which if you will weigh seriously in the balance of truth I hope it may put a stop to the exorbitancy of your Judgment it being the most fit way yea the way of our blessed Lord Jesus to reduce mens vile conversations by first purifying their hearts by faith and he who is not first cleansed in the inside of his heart no marvel if his actions be unclean he that judgeth not rightly of Gods wayes no marvel if he order not his own aright if I judge that God may pretend the grace of the Gospel i.e. remission of sins and Salvation upon amendment of life unto all protesting to them all that he desires their weal and yet intends it onely to a few of them I say If I judge God may do thus and yet be just no marvel then if I do also deal so with men my self this opinion altogether indulging such a practise for we are to follow the example of God both in Justice and holyness and all other perfection and 't is notoriously known to all considerate men that the Doctrine of the Gospel in every part of it is calculated for the Meridian of Godliness that being the great design of God in the world by all the Doctrines and preceps of the Gospel to lay obligations upon men to be holy in their conversations now by this you may know Truth from Errour for that Doctrine whose natural tendencie is to excite and provoke men to good and godly life is most assuredly from heaven but that teaching or those opinions that so much as but incline men to or allow them in any unclean or unrighteous pathes as your Doctrine doth is certainly not from heaven but earthly sensual and devilish as will afterward more fully appear I shall now begin with your first thing You say page a that I did not propound my questions to be informed and therein you were very right for indeed I thank my God I was not diffident of but believing in them when I put them to you but I did it to inform you and to rectifie your and others Judgements that judge not aright of God You say That my Queries are founded upon a groundless supposition to wit that you do not hold that Christ died for all which you say you do but not all alike I answer My Queries have a good foundation for if you maintain Christs dying for all in no other way then your nonsensical way 't is all one as if you had said in terminis he had not died for all for if he did not die effectually for all at least so far as to open a door of salvation for one as freely as another to what purpose was his death and what benefit have most men by his death you say They are freed from the curse of Adam but is that all are you so carnal have you such ignoble thoughts of the ever-blessed God and have you forgotten Joh. 3.17 Joh. 1.7 That all men might be saved and the many other places might be named wherein the Lord declares his desire to have all saved bâ—ing grieved and troubled in spirit when they will perish according to these Scriptures Ezek. 18.32 Chap. 33.11 Jer. 4.19 Judg. 10.16 Luke 19.41 You make such a confused work in your proofs for Christs dying for all as I never heard First you will not have it proved from these places Joh. 3.16 2 Cor. 25.19 c. because you say the word World is taken diversly in Scripture Sometimes for the whole sometimes for a part sometimes for the wicked and sometimes you say also for believers also but that 's false that the word World is taken many times for less then the whole I know and you needed not so have belabored your self to prove it What if it be meant for less then all sometimes yet sometimes it doth include all as you also confess and whensoever the death of Christ for all or his desire to save all is spoken of in this case it must be meant all for several good Reasons and Considerations as you shall hear afterwards onely take this one to chew upon in the mean time 'T is taken from Joh. 12.47 where our blessed Saviour saith If any man hear his words and believe not he will not judge him that is now rendring this reason For I came not to judge the world but to save the world By the word World here which Christ came to save and not to judge cannot be meant onely believers if at all but such as hearing do not believe or else the text will not be sense nor will the latter part be a reason to prove the affirmation in the
so taken but for cleansing and therefore you cannot maintain that Christ sanctified and cleansed himself by his blood unless you hold that he did as the Priests under the Law who offered first for themselves and then for the people and then you must hold also that he as they had sin of his own and then you will be found directly against Gods word Heb. 7.27 for he was without sin Fifthly my fifth mistake you say is That I am not converted nor acquainted with the power of God in Scripture but what if it shall appear at the last day that I am converted and do know the power of God in the Scriptures aright then Mr. Hobson will be mistaken and so much until then for that mistake My Sixth mistake you say is my confining my judgment of Gods essential will to his revealed will in his word and actions for that 's your meaning in fewer words But I do not see how you can make it appear to be a mistake but a sound truth for if I must not judge that God is grieved and troubled and angry when he saith he is how then shall I know and be assured he loves me when he saith he doth If I must not believe his meaning to be according to his saying how then shall I know that he means believers shall be saved since he doth but say so And though his general declaration in his word be that good and holy men shall be saved and wicked damned yet according to your fond conceits he means to save the wicked and condemn the just In the next place page 89 you come you say to answer briefly to my queries and absurdities and so I think you do briefly answer them indeed and so brief as that 't is next unto none if not worse then none for you refer me unto your false positions formerly laid down by you and therefore I will make no reply to you in this at all as deserving none my 14 Queries and 10 Absurdities standing yet in full force I shall therefore here set them down again in the conclusion of this work partly that the Reader may judge how well you have quitted your self in your answer and partly because you have fraudulently recited them presenting them to the Reader in as ugly a dress as you could There remains yet onely one thing more to be done that is to answer to your Absurdities which you say will necessarily flow from my judgement 1. Absur. The first is you say I deny the prerogative of God as if he had not power to do with his own as seemeth good to him I Answer it is false I deny him not any prerogative over his creature which he doth challenge for he may do with us as the potter with the clay i.e. advance some to places of honour in the house and dash othersome in pieces or make them vessels of dishonour but that is if they be marred in his hands and will not make vessels of honour not else he were an unwise potter that would challenge that priviledge over his clay for to dash it in pieces when 't is made as he would have it see Jer. 18. 2. Absur. Secondly you say I do as much as give Christ the lie because he saith He had finished the work that the Father gave him to do I Answer in this you shew much ignorance for men are not saved by Christs death onely but by faith therein and obedience thereunto but this hath been more fully handled already by me to which I refer you 3. Absur. Thirdly you say I do exceedingly undervalue God and the riches of his grace and love c. I Answer you mistake now one person for another for this is to be meant of your self that pinfold the grace of God into a narrow compass whenas I extend it unto all the world and all generations 4. Absur. Fourthly you say I lay injustice upon God because I say he condemns some for whom Christ died I Answer It were injustice to condemn them if Christ did not die for them for not believing on Christ there is great reason to condemn them if Christ died for them and yet they refuse him and their own salvation notwithstanding 5. Absur. Fifthly you say I change the nature of causes putting the effect before the cause I Answer Here again you mistake me for your self for I have already proved 't is you put the effect before the cause 6. Absur. Sixthly you say I strike down the great design of God c. I Answer I maintain his design I hope in his saving of good and Godly men and reprobating obstinate and wilfull sinners other Election and Reprobation I know none from the holy Scriptures if you do it may look grim upon you perhaps in the day of account 7. Absur. Seventhly you say My opinion destroyes it self c. I Answer See what confidence will do poor man because you have not truth on your side you are fain to make up your arguments with confidence and repetitions how often have we had this that Christ hath satisfied for the sins of the Elect when as he hath in your sence satisfied for no mans sins that is so as that they are pardoned without any condition in them see Matth. 6.14 You make a stir about the sin of unbelief that Christ hath satisfied for that I deny not but that he hath satisfied for that as much as for any other that is to speak plainly he hath done so much for all sins and for all mens sins that if they continue not in unbelief and hardness of heart they may have remission of sins one as freely as another other satisfaction hath he made none for any persons whatsoever as hath been already proved Now dear friend I beseech you for Christ Jesus sake read my Book without prejudice and be not wedded to your own opinion for it is most certainly a rotten foundation and will deceive you at last I beseech you search the Scriptures and beg of God to give you light that your poor soul may not be deceived nor God so sadly dishonoured or abused by bringing him and his eminent acts of love grace power and justice under the controwle of your low and Novel opinions For the prevention of which it shall be the dayly prayer of him who in sincerity can say He is a real lover of your soul William Pedelsden FINIS FOrasmmuch as there be many persons that reading Mr. Hobsons Book and my short Answer to it may yet remaine unsatisfied and be in doubt which of us is in the truth in the points now in controversie I thought it expedient for the benefit of all as well as of Mr. Hobson to take some pains about the clearing up of the riches of Gods love to all mankind his desires to save them that yet wilfully perish the way and manner of saving them and how Election and Reprobation standeth and on what they do depend and how the most
his Son and his Spirit to relieve the miseries and wants of man to forgive sins to impute righteousness and to give life to such as obey his Son and his Spirit And Man to humble himself for his sins to God his Creator to believe in Christ his Redeemer and to yield himself to be led by the word of God and Spirit But here are two things affirmed which may seem to require proof First that the Covenant of Grace was made with all Mankinde Secondly that he supplieth by his Spirit whatsoever is needful to the keeping of this Covenant on the behalf of man who is confest impotent in himself through his former fall These two shall by Gods assistance be sufficiently proved afterward when I come to speak of calling and free will In the mean time let this suffice First that we finde here in the day of the first publishing of the Covenant all Mankinde in Adam and Eve receiving the promise of the Gospel at the same time that they received their penances which we see to be universal to all their seed it is therefore more then probable that promises should be taken as universal since the wise do say Ampliandi favores Secondly that we finde left after the fall remains of some part of the Image of God as life understanding of good and evil liberty of will in natural and civil things conscience accusing or excusing c. Which though they were given at first by Creation and so belong to nature yet the staying of them to remain in man after his fall was of Grace both to make him capable to contract and Covenant withal and also to be some beginnings and principles in order to his restauration but since these alone are not sufficient to make him able to rise again or recover righteousness it is decent to think of God who doth nothing imperfectly and who in Covenanting is no hard Master that he would supply by his Spirit whatsoever was needful more to the keeping of that New Covenant upon which dependeth the eternal woe or the eternal happiness of the party Covenanted with CHAP. V. Of Calling by the Word and Spirit CALLING is the Revelation and Proclamation of the riches of Gods Grace in the Gospel to all sinners commanding repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act. 20.21 and promising of forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting to all that obey Act. 2.38 39. Calling consisteth of two essential parts both which are requisite to make up one whole and perfect work of calling i.e. the outward preaching of the word and the inward operation of the Spirit accompanying the word There are many and too many that distinguish calling into two kindes one outward of the word onely another inward of the Spirit joyned with the word That they say is ineffectual This effectual That common to the Reprobate This special and peculiar to the Elect That never obeyed with truth of heart This never disobeyed This Doctrine is to be examined before we give it a let-passe For my part I distinguish not two callings but compound one calling of the word and Spirit as it were of a body and Soul supposing it to have in it self power to bring forth effect in all that are under it and if it do not so the cause not to arise from the Calling but from the called that obey not 1. For declaring of this point we are to consider that the Spirit doth not go with the word to make the hearer perform that which he can do already by natural strength for the Spirit is given to help where nature faileth as to keep waking and to be attentive for that which men can bring of their own strength God expecteth to finde and to meet one cause therefore why to many the Spirit is not present to the word is when they are not present to the word through their sottish carelesness Secondly it must not be thought that the concurrence of the word and spirit is as it were natural necessary and inseparable but voluntary and arbitrary in the will and good pleasure of God to such as heartily pray for it for themselves and others hence the Church of Christ prayeth before Sermons for the illuminations and power of the Spirit to come with the word Another case then where the Spirit is not co-working with the word many times is when it was not duly and diligently asked Thirdly there are men that are past grace to whom the Spirit is not present with the word such as for their former neglect and contempt of the time of their visitation when God did call them are now given up to blindness and hardness and have the light of the Spirit and the dew of grace held back from that word which is preached in their hearing by accident Fourthly it must not be thought that the Spirit goes with the word to work any grace in any person whatsoever but according to the order of divine providence who dispenseth his grace wisely which is thus to be declared we are to distinguish the word that calleth the persons that are called and the operation of the Spirit by the word the word is either the Law or the Gospel The Law hath two parts and so also hath the Gospel a Commandment and a Promise 2. The persons called by God in the Gospel are all manner of sinners but convicted terrified wounded full of compunction and self-condemnation wrought in them by the Spirit in the preaching of the Law Matth. 11.28.3 The operations of the Spirit upon these men by the ministry of the Gospel are First to open their eyes to see the marvelous light of Gods mercy to sinners of the infinite love of Christ in dying for sinners of the powerful gifts and graces and aids of the holy spirit to help and relieve the impotency and misery of sinners to the end that by this light this opinion may be begotten in them that it is possible for them to be recovered Secondly to pour into their hearts hope or to stay them from desperate sinning or sorrowing Thirdly to inspire the grace of prayer at least to wish or desire Oh that they might be so happy as to escape the wrath to come and recover the love and favour of God! Fourthly to give them repentance that is to sorrow for sin past with a godly sorrow and to purpose to break off sin and to cease from further offending God Fifthly to work in them faith that is to run to Christ and to cast themselves into the arms of his goodness and power to be saved by him These graces in this order the holy spirit is present and ready to work by the Gospel upon a sinner convicted humbled and prepared by the Law And look what portion of power the Spirit had in the Law upon an unregenerate man to humble him the same hath it in the Gospel upon the humbled to work in him hope and him hoping to win to wish and pray
and to him praying to give repentance to him repenting to instill faith and so to justifie him being justified by faith Now think not that the Spirit is present in the preaching of the Law to an unregenerate man to give him strength to new obedience presently because it is present then to convince and condemn his wickedness The spirit is not present in the preaching of the Gospel to a man yet not penitent to work in him peace joy love though it be present to work these in the believer for if it should work these in him before faith it should work contrary to the word The Summe of all is this The Spirit of God is annexed to his word for such gifts and operations as to which the hearer is a fit disposed subject there is an order in the divine working wherein there are things antecedent preparatives to things subsequent which antecedents if they found no place and were not admitted the subsequent are then suspended Hence is there so frequent and just separation of the Spirit from the word by the great Pastor of our souls who walketh in the midst of the Churches Thus much for the declaration of this point for confirmation of it I alledge all the Elogia of the word of God as Psal. 19. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul c. Heb. 4.12 The Word of God is quick and powerful Joh. 17.17 Sanctifie them by thy truth thy word is the truth c. But that calling is the same to them that obey not as to them that obey I shall urge these two places more Mat. 22.14 Many are called but few are chosen here many are distributed into two sorts some that are called and not chosen some that are called and also chosen for these few chosen are a part of those many called so that the whole many are put under one and the same calling which calling is not by the outward word alone for from that calling arise none chosen therefore the calling was by the word and spirit common to both and the few chosen excelled not in calling but in something else to wit in obeying the calling to come when others refused or in coming worthily in a wedding garment according to the parable The other place is Matth. 12.41 The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgement with this Generation and shall condemn it c. from whence I reason thus if Jonas preacht to the Ninivites without the spirit how did they repent if Jesus preacht without the same spirit how is he greater then Jonas nay how is he equal in the power of preaching and if they that disobey be not equally called with them that obey how can these rise up in judgment against them when their answer is ready We had not the same calling with you ours differed tote genere you were partakers of an heavenly calling we but of an earthly you were called by the voice of God speaking to your hearts we but by the bare voyce of men speaking to the ear If God had moved and excited us as much as he did you we would have done as well as you But God will not give occasion for them thus to speak for he will so effectually provide for all them that perish that they shall have no excuse Rom. 1.20 2.1 Therefore I conclude that the distinction of outward and inward of effectual and ineffectual calling are vain for these reasons also First because it giveth unworthily the name of calling to the bare outward preaching of the word which may be a commanding but not a calling a commanding as of the Law but not a calling as of the Gospel seeing that the word of the New Covenant comes to call men to repentance and faith for their recovery after notice taken of their impotency to rise again of themselves It seems an insulting mock and not a call to say to sinners Turne repent believe and live unless there be some grace prepared for them whereby they may be able to repent and believe Secondly because it attributeth the effect of obeying the calling to the kinde of calling it self as onely to one cause to wit the operation of the Spirit as if many causes did not concur to produce one effect and as if obedience to the calling of God were not an act of the will of man under the ayd of the Spirit of God as if the aid of the Spirit were never refused nor the grace of God never received in vain For though God be Almighty and able to draw all second causes unto his part and side yet he doth not use to disturbe or cross the nature of causes nor the order of things which himself hath established Thirdly because this distinction makes Gods Covenant to differ from all Covenants in humane affaires I mean even that which is essential to a Covenant for in a Covenant each party hath something to perform but by this distinction God is supposed both to provide infallibly to have the conditions fulfilled and also to fulfil his own promises whereas all that he undertakes for us is to make the conditions possible and not to be wanting in his help so far as is needful for us CHAP. VI Concerning the question of two equally called VVHen two persons are equally called and one converteth and the other no these both being supposed possible who is it that puts the difference God or man I answer that 't is man that puts the difference and not God I ground this answer first upon the righteous judgement of God Because God judgeth not his own acts but the acts of men secondly because every righteous judge findes a difference and doth not make any between party and party Who put the difference between the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel but themselves both alike instituted in religion by their father God a true witness testified of Abels gift as better then Cains Heb. 11.4 Who put the difference between Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar as to their nature both were men as to their dignity both were Kings as to their cause both held the people of God in captivity as to their punishment both were mildly admonished by chastisements what then occasioned their different ends nothing else but that one of them sensible of Gods hand groaned under the memory of his own iniquity the other by his own free will fought against the most merciful verity of God Suppose two persons be equally tempted by the beauty of one-fair body whereof one yields to the temptation the other perseveres what he was before what else appears in these but that onely that one would and the other would not loose his chastity The difference between the Ninevites repenting at the preaching of Jonas and of the Jews not repenting at the preaching of a greater then Jonas if God put it how shall they rise up in judgement and condemn these But that which makes it so horrible to pious ears to say a man makes
Sound Doctrine OR The Doctrine of the GOSPEL about the extent of the Death Of CHRIST Being A REPLY To Mr. Paul Hobson's pretended Answer to the Author's Fourteen Queries and ten Absurdities With A brief and Methodical COMPENDIUM of the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures clearing up the riches of Gods love to all mankinde and his desires to save them that yet wilfully perish Also Of ELECTION and REPROBATION whereon they do depend and how the Objections against the Truth hereof may be Answered Whereunto is added The fourteen Queries and ten Absurdities pretended to be Answered by Mr. Paul Hobson but are wholly omitted in his Book LONDON Printed for Richard Moon at the seven Stars in Paul's Church-yard 1657. To the Church of Christ at NEWCASTLE in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ THe grace of our Lord be multiplied upon you all and strengthen you in every good word and work You may remember that one Mr. Paul Hobson who professeth and preaches up that faith which teaches a man to doubt whether Christ died for him or no did write a little book by way of Answer to the fourteen Queries and ten Absurdities which I presented unto him Which book I thought I was bound to answer for the sake of truth because he doth labour by so many subtilties to overthrow the very foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ And indeed had there not been an urgent necessity compelling me thereto I should not have undertaken such a task being I confess very unable to manage so great a work in such a publick manner which I have done though according to truth and my best endeavours yet not without some fears lest my weakness should disadvantage the righteous and undoubted cause I have in hand I had also another discouragement upon my spirit when I considered how many most excellent works are now in Print already about this subject so far transcending what I could say Notwithstanding I was perswaded to adventure upon this consideration That if I should have buried all in silence many of the Lords people might have stumbled and fallen from the truth of the Gospel and the adversaries thereof would have triumphed and so have hardned their necks more and more against the light of the glory of God shining forth to all the world in the face of Jesus Christ I desire you dear Brethren to accept this my small and first work of this nature in right good part and seriously peruse it over with an attentive eye I have endeavoured as much brevity as would stand with plainness If any thing at first reading seem-strange to you read it over again I have not willingly erred in any thing in this work that I know of I desire you to shroud this little Tract under your protection for it is not like to be the safer for being innocent I mean i' th' world it was not the modesty of Susanna that was able to secure her from the inditement of the Elders and 't was the innocency of Joseph that made his Mistriss pronounce him guilty But ye unto whom God hath given a spirit of discerning between truth and errour I trust will defend this little book because it labours to deffend the truth I pray God of heaven to encrease in you all vertuous and sound Principles that from thence may spring and also encrease a holy and Godly conversation more and more until we come to be perfect before our God in Sion This is the earnest request of Yours in the Lord Jesus W.P. To the Reader Courteous READER DAyly experience makes me sensible that the Devil never wanted cunning inventions to court men to the imbracing of false Doctrine and most commonly such false Doctrine whose natural tendency is to carry on the great design of Satan in the world to wit ungodliness and unholiness of life and conversation For he always labours to counter-plot the Alnighty in all his designs We may observe throughout the whole stream of Gods word Gods great design is to destroy the works of the devil that is sin and to make men holy to the end that he might make them happy Now Satan that arch-enemy of mankind be seeketh above all things to hinder this work for by hindring righteousness he knows he shall hinder the happiness of Gods creatures and because he well perceives that Gods design is to promote the work of righteousness in all people that so he might make all happy Satan there projecteth alwayes to counter-plot God labouring to promote sin in all that so he might promote the misery of all men So large as Gods love extendeth in endeavouring to save even so far also doth the envy of the Devil extend in his endeavors to damne And for as much as God hath tied himself that he will not work Physically upon man nor irresistibly but by gentle perswasions upon hopes of glory and feares of punishment and the devil hath not power to work otherwise then by alurements and promises and threatnings which he is not able to perform I say because God will not and the devil cannot work upon man otherwise then by perswasions therefore it comes to passe that all men are neither saved nor damned but onely those saved that are willing to let the Lord work on them and also are willing to work with him in purifying and cleansing themselves from sin and onely those damned that refusing Gods work do yield themselves to the working and works of Satan Now these things though they are most plain truth and do sure right well with good reason justice and equity yet they are much opposed by too many in our dayes whose â—eal is too great for their knowledge I desire thee most Kinde Reader to read this little Book seriously and weigh it 〈…〉 the balance of Truth and sound Reason and see wheâ—◠〈◊〉 I have not spoken to thy reason and search those Scripâ—â—â—â—â— which I have quoted if they be not to the purpose in 〈◊〉 and whether my design be not to magnifie the amplitude of Gods grace to sinners by which they are undoubtedly excited to amendment of life upon a sure and certain hope of glory and not upon any uncertain sound of the Gospel As they do that limit the general promises of the Gospel unto a few onely and without condition making an unknown and secret decree of Election to be the ground of their faith and so 't is no marvel if their faith be unstedfast and full of fears and doubts when the foundation of it is no better But I will detain thee no longer from the book itself lest I should make my Porch too big for the Cottage to which it leadeth But I commit thee to the guidance of God in the reading hereof that thou mayst not onely be brought to the acknowledging of those truths herein contained but also and chiefly that thou mayest in the power and and strength thereof live according to that grace of God which bringeth his