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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96265	A discovery, and confutation of the opinions, and practises of some false brethren, betwixt Bridge, and Lincolne: shewing how they agree in their opinions, with Pelagians; Papists; Arminians; in their practises, with Anabaptists. Wherein univerall redemption is confuted; and Gods absolute decree confirmed. / By John Wetherall, minister of Spridlington, near Lincolne. March 22. 1651. Imprimatur. John Downame.	Wetherall, John, minister of Spridlington.	1652 (1652)	Wing W1523; Thomason E661_1; ESTC R206761	53,660	88

it is not meet to take the Childrens bread and cast it to Dogs Mat. 15. 26. If any object that the Gentiles fell away from the Covenant I answer grant that of the Fathers yet their Children never heard of the Covenant therefore it is that the Prophet Isaiah saith of the Gentiles that neither God knew them nor did they know God Isay 55. 5. Universalist I pray thee speake in earnest how could the Americans Canibals and other Savadges have any Call No Pelagian it is not Nature No Semi-Pelagian it is not Grace and Nature we cannot so much as thinke a good thought 2. Cor. 3. 5. I conclude hence no Universall Call Absurd 4. Fourthly it followes from this Opinion of Universall Redemption c. that God is all Mercy and nothing else whereas the soveraigne end of all Gods Actions is answerable to his Nature which is not Mercy and Love alone but Justice also and therefore the right End of mans Creation is the manifestation of Gods Glory both in Justice and Mercy search the Scriptures and see if Justice also be not an Attribute of our God Absurd 5. Fiftly hence it followes that Predestination is for fore-seene Faith and Workes unlesse Gods Prescience discover something his Predestination Decrees nothing but after the fore-sight of Faith and Perseverance and the former Gift of Predestination to Glory must depend upon a later Gift of Faith quite contrary to the Word of God for either it is Gods will the Elect shall have Grace and the Reprobates no Grace given them or else they believe or not believe of their own Free Will this later is grosse Pelagianisme making Nature the beginning of Grace and if the former be granted that God fore-sees no Grace but what himselfe Predestinates to give nor no sin but what upon the witholding of his Grace the Reprobate will freely worke then it followes that God will and doth give Grace because first he hath elected and will give no Grace because he hath reprobated and there is no cause of either but Gods owne Will no fore-seen Faith or Workes Againe I reason thus the End is alwayes in intention before the Meanes primus intentione ultimus executione but Gods Will to elect men to Glory is the End therefore Gods Will to elect men to Glory goes before his Will to give them Faith and Grace therefore he Elects not after or upon the fore-sight of Faith and Grace therefore before he see Faith or Grace in Jacob which he will give him he purposes to give him Life Eternall But these men will give God their Faith and Good Workes in lieu of their Redemption by Christ against Isay 52. 3. Rom. 11. 35. I know they distinguish 'twixt the Antecedent and Consequent Wil of God Gods Antecedent Will to save every man although considering the sinnes of men he hath a Consequent Will to condemne some But this distinction makes the matter more absurd and salves it not for God is immutable his Will is one as he is one whatsoever he fore saw in any that himselfe purposed to worke if he foresaw Grace and the good use of Free Will in Jacob he purposed to worke it by infusing it what have we that we have not received 1 Cor. 4. 7. Every good and every perfect gift is from above James 1. 17. If he foresaw Sinne and the ill use of Free Will in Esau he purposed to worke it also Rom. 9. 13. 18. by witholding Grace and hardening and he not onely purposed to Worke that which he foresaw but to Worke and Effect it as the Means and as a subordinate Second Cause to bring man to the End apoynted from hence it follows that Faith Workes c. are onely Meanes ordained by God to bring us to the End not Causes of our Election I cannot tell how they can avoid the Papists Meritum è congruo and plaine Pelagianisme that maintaine foreseen Faith and Works for thus saith Pelagius Licet non secundum merita bonorum Operum tamensecundum merita bonae voluntatis datur gratia ratio Pelagii est alioqui Deus esset Acceptor personarum si sine ullis praecedentibus meritis cujus vult miseretur That is though Grace bee not given according to the Merit of our Good Workes yet it is given according to the Merit of our Good Will the Reason Pelagius renders is this else God should be a Respecter of Persons if he have mercy on whom he will without regard of foregoing Merits so that they are Cozens not far off if they be not neare Cozens to Papists and Pelagians that defend foreseen Faith and Workes all of them answer one another even as the Eccho doth the Voyce and they will wash away these blots when the Blackmore changeth his skin Pelagius Redivivus is now no newes Absurd 6. Sixtly hence followes Free Will I know they say that Gods Grace must goe along with our Will but this excuse is onely a Vaile or Vizard which hides their Pelagian faces that the ignorant People might not see them so that as Augustine said of the like words used by the Pelagians we would receive them without scruple but that they speak them whose meaning is well enough known unto us Initium Fidei Conversionis desiderium est ex nobis incrementum a Gratia the beginning of Faith and the desire of Conversion is of our selves the increase of Grace A●bitrium est ad hoc liberum ut velit vel nolit admittere medicinam the Will is free to will or nill the admission of the Medicine so say the Pelagians and the Arminians and our Universalists say Gods Grace must go along with our Free Will he hath a good wit that can distinguish betwixt these two I have read of one Melitides a naturall foole who could not tell whether his Mother or his Father brought him forth so these men cannot tell whether God begets them to himselfe or their owne Free Will begets them unto God I say therefore that God determines mans Will and yet it is Free still Gods Will is above ours flowes into it and moves it and yet the Will followes the dictate of its owne Intellect is freed onely from Constraint not from Necessity from which the Will of Angels is not free for they can do no evill they can doe nothing but that which is good And as a man by a device should let Birds flye and yet cause them all to goe to such a place as himselfe would so doth God rule the Will The Spirit of God at first findes nothing in the Will to helpe his Grace in the Conversion of a Sinner First Grace gives life to the dead Will and then the Will being revived becomes an Instrument of God both to apprehend his Grace offered and to worke forward with it but this by the Seede of Grace and New Life that God hath put into it not by the Nature of mans Will and as my Paper whereon I am writing retaines

that God from all Eternity before the world was made hath not onely fore-seene all things that could be or should be by his appointment or permission but also by an unchangeable Decree hath fore-ordained all things and persons to certaine determinate ends for his owne Glory and that neither the Saints were elected in Christ to infallible and persevering Grace and eternall Glory for their fore-seene righteousnesse nor the Reprobates refused or non-elected for their fore-seene wickednesse but both the one and the other were Predestinated to those their severall Estates according to the Councel of Gods owne Will which was not mooved by any thing hee foresaw in the parties but hee most freely Decreed according to his own pleasure absolute dominion that he hath over the Creature And this Decree of Gods Will is the first mover of all other wills and things in the creatures whereupon the smallest and most contingent or casuall things that fall out depend as upon their Universall Cause whose influence into the second causes directeth produceth inclineth and ordinateth them to their effects not by enforcing them by any constraint but by enclining them to worke according to their owne condition so as the sayd effects proceed out of them according to their own natures a contingent effect of a contingent cause and a free effect out of a voluntary and free cause This is the sum of that Doctrine which the Reformed Protestant Churches hold touching Predestination They place the Decree of God to order all things for his own glory as it is Pro. 16. 4. which is the end before the meanes that is before Creation the Fall Redemption c. but the Pelagians Papists Arminians Universalists place the means before the end as for example these say Mediatio Christi est Causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or externe movens respectu volitionis divinae in Electionis actu that is the mediation of Christ is the externall cause moving the will of God in the act of Election whereas the Reformed Churches say that the will of God is the sole cause of the mediation of Christ Christ is not subordinate to the very Decree it selfe of Election he is to the Execution thereof as it appears 1 Pet. 1. 20. Thus in the distribution of the causes of Salvation and Damnation our Adversaries turne them upside downe for they feigue a generall decree in God 1. To create man 2. To give a Law to his Creature with condition of life and death 3. To permit the fall 4. To redeeme all mankinde in Christ hence Universall Election 5. To call all mankinde so redeemed hence Universall Vocation 6. Upon their Faith or Infidelity he fixeth his Decree First say they God propounded equally to himselfe Jacob and Esau and loved the one no more then the other secondly he purposed to save him of the two that should do well and damn him of the two that should do ill thirdly he Decreed to give them both sufficient means of salvation whereby Esau may as well be saved as Jacob fourthly he Decreed to leave them both to the liberty of their owne Free-will to use or not to use the means fiftly he foresaw Jacob would Esau would not use the means sixthly hereupon he pronounced the Decree of Election to Jacob and of Reprobation to Esau thus Pelagians Papists Arminians Universalists These two last Remonstrants so the Germans call them and the name offends them not for this Sect pester'd them parts first and gave occasion to the States of the United Provinces to assemble that Synod at Dort whither at their instance came religious and learned men from other Reformed Churches as out of England Bishop Carleton Doctor Davenant Doctor Ward Doctour Goade Doctor Belcanquell c. I say these Remonstrants that oppose our Doctrine of Predestination being of the same minde with them that defend Universal Redemption they say thus I 'le use their owne words Deum Amesius de Elect. pag. 11. aeterno immutabili decreto in Jesu Christo filio suo ante jactum mundi fundamentum statuisse ex lapso peccatis obnoxio humano genere ill●s in Christo propter Christum per Christum servare qui Spiritus Sancti gratia in eundem Filium ejus credunt in ea fide fideique obedientia per eandem gratiam usque ad finem perseverant that is God in his eternall and immutable Decree in Jesus Christ his Son before the foundation of the world did determine out of lapsed mankinde to save those in Christ for Christ and by Christ who by the spirit did believe in that his Sonne and persevere in that faith and obedience of faith by grace unto their lives end Now in this Thesis of theirs are these five things 1. The Act or Decree it selfe 2. the Object 3. the End 4. the Condition 5. the Foundation First the Act or Decree it selfe and that they say is two fold 1. Generall by which God Decreed to save all that would believe and persevere the 2. Particular by which hee did Decree to save certaine persons whom he foresaw would certainly beleeve and persevere unto the end some of them call these two Gods Antecedent Consequent Will or generale particulare pronuntiatum Thus they make you may see two Wills in God against the Spirit of God which saith God is in one mind Job 23. 23. The second thing considerable in their Thesis is the Object of this Decree which they are forced to confesse all the members of Christ are not they cannot tell how to include Infants because they want faith and perseverance nay they include in the Object of this Decree onely such as have lived and persevered all other are excluded that are yet alive untill they persevere to the end so that by this Opinion they must first have Faith and Perseverance before God can fix his Decree which is a fearfull thing to affirme for so they are not Pre-destinated but Post-destinated they are forc'd therefore to a further absurdity that is to distinguish betwixt an incompleat which they say is common to all the faithfull and a compleat Election which is proper only to such as persevere The third thing to be considered in their Thesis is the End of this Decree and that they say is salvation and glory contrary to the expresse words of Scripture which saith not we are Predestinated to Glory onely but also to Holinesse or a godly life and to the Grace of Adoption before we can attain to Glory as it is plaine Eph. 1. 4. 5. He hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World that we should be Holy c. In the Decree of Predestination there is first What 2. by What 3. to What the first Man the 2. Grace the 3. a Godly Life and after it is ended Eternall Glory The 4. thing is the Condition required in this Decree of theirs wee say it is the Good Pleasure or the Will of God without any Condition

wee are Predestinated according to the Good Pleasure of his Will Eph. 1. 5. But the Condition in their Predestination is fore-seen Faith and Works Tenendum ex Scripturis veram Conversionem praestationemque bonorum operum esse conditiones praerequisitas ante Justificationem That is we hold true Conversion and Good Works to be Conditions required before Justification so saith Arminius in that Epistle before his Discourse on Rom. 7. And Nic. Grevincho is of the same minde he seekes to prove it out of the words of S. Paul I have fought a good fight c. But if Good works be Conditions required before Justification then it follows they are required before Election there is one and the same Cause of both Thus they even out God Almighty from having any hand in his own Decree and put all into the power of foreseen Faith and Workes whereas the Scriptures say that we are not Predestinated for Faith but to Faith and Good Workes as I shall prove afterward The fifth thing in this Decree of theirs is the Foundation that they say is Christ and so do we but in this we differ they call Christ the externall Cause moving God to make this Decree of Election whereas we say the Will of God onely was the Cause why Christ became our Mediator and Redeemer the Mediation or Redemption of Christ was not the Cause of the Will of God Thus the Controtroversie betwixt the Remonstrants or Universallists and the Reformed Protestant Churches about Election was stated at the Synod of Dort The second Thesis of the Remonstrants or such as hold Universall Redemption at the same time which they would have defended against the Reformed was this Proinde Jesus Christus pro omnibus singulis mort●us est atque id ita quidem ut omnibus per mortem crucis reconciliationem peccatorum remissionem impetravit ea tamen conditione ut nemo illa peccatorum remissione fruatur praeter hominem fidelem Ames de Redemp pag. 116. That is the Remonstrants or Universalists furthermore affirme that Jesus Christ died for all and every one and that so as he obtayned Reconciliation and Remission of Sins for all but on this Condition that none obtain this Remission or Reconciliation but the Faithfull I might open this Thesis of Redemption as I did that other of Election but it is so plaine I need not the Sum of the Controversie betwixt the Protestant Churches and Remonstrants or as wee call them Universalists came to this or to these three Heads 1. whether by the Death of Christ there was an Impetration which had no Application 2. whether this Impetration did equally belong to All 3. that none had this Impetration of Christ certainly applied or to be applied to them in the Eternall Counsell of God but God had Destinated his Son to death before hee had Destinated any to be saved by his Death and this Grace of Christs Redemption was as it were spread abroad in the ayre indetermined to any every man might catch it that could by Faith These men seem to feign to themselves a Grace as it were some garment hanging in the ayre which every man may put on that will but these be the devices of mans wisedome the holy Scriptures speake otherwise Pet. Mart. part 3. pag. 51. as translated by Ant. Marten These things the Remonstrants or Universalists affirmed and all these the Reformed Protestant party denied Now from these Opinions that Predestination was not the Decree of God to Elect some and passe by others that God had certainly Elected none but upon Condition That Christ died for all and every one c. I say from these Absurdities it followes Absurd 1. First that God would have All men that is every particular man to be saved contrary to the Scriptures for if God will have all to be saved wherefore are they not saved Will God have all to be saved and can he not have his Will This Opinion is against the Omnipotency of God by it Gods absolute Will the Will of his good Pleasure may be defeated and not accomplished which is a desperate shift contrary to the truth flat opposite to the word of God which saith our God hath done whatsoever pleased him in Heaven and Earth Psal 135. 6. who hath resisted his Will Rom. 9. 19. God is in one minde who can turn him and what his soule desireth that he doth Job 23. 13. Indeed the Declarative or Revealed Will of God is not alwaies fulfilled but his Absolute Will and Good Pleasure is alwaies fullfilled a Christian Catechised in the Principles of Religion cannot make the Impotency of mans will to prevaile against the Omnipotency of God or conceive his purpose may be disappointed or his Absolute Will frustrated by any thing in us Absurd 2. Secondly it follows from these Opinions that there is an Universall Election of all and every man a witlesse conceit for if all men Universally be appointed to Grace then there is no Election or Choosing of some he cannot be said to Elect that Chooseth all and if onely some bee appointed to Grace as it must needs be in Election then is not Grace Universall it is flat against the word of God for Christ avoucheth plainly that fewer are chosen then called Mat. 22. 14. He saith moreover that all which are given him shall be one with him and have life everlasting John 17. 2. 11. But all men shall not be one with him and have life everlasting therefore all are not given to Christ of God the Father all mens names are not written in the Booke of life Apoc. 20. 15. the Kingdome of Heaven is not prepared for all Mat. 25. 35. Christ never knew some Mat. 7. 23. And whereas they build Universall Election upon the largenesse of the Promise if they believe upon the like ground they may as well make an Universall Decree of Reprobation whereby God Decrees all men to bee damned indefinitely if they doe not believe Absurd 3. Thirdly it followes that there is an Universall Vocation for Universall Grace hath these three parts Universall Election Universall Redemption and Universall Vocation which is quite opposite to the word of God for from the Creation till Christ one part of the world was a People and received into the Covenant the other and that the greatest part of the world was no People and out of the Covenant The Church at first was shut up in the Families of the Patriarchs and in the Family of Abraham it was entailde on Isaac the world afterward was divided into the Jew a Church and the Gentile no Church till the comming of Christ therefore it is that the Prophet Isaiah called the Gentiles Prisoners Isa 49. 9. Hosea calls the Gentiles a People that had obtained no mercy at all Hos 2. 23. Peter saith that in times past the Gentiles were not esteemed a People 1 Pet. 2. 10. Christ denied the woman of Canaan the Request for her Daughter upon this distinction

himselfe hath fore-appoynted 6. God ordereth all these sinnes to his owne Glory and the good of his Elect. For the most sinfull Actions of man tend to the manifestation of Gods Glory either as Acts of mercy to the godly in whom sinne produceth punishment punishment Repentance Repentance Faith Faith the Favour of God and the Favour of God Life and Salvation or as Acts of Justice to the Wicked in whom sinne produceth punishment punishment hardnesse of heart hardnesse of heart incredulity incredulity hatred of God and hatred of God death and destruction All which is manifest in the different effects which sinne produced in godly David and in ungodly Pharoah as for example Davids Murther and Adultery occasioned Reproofes and Corrections from God 2. Sam. 12. Psal 6. Psal 22. These corrections and punishments wrought sorrow and Repentance in Davids heart Psal 5. that Repentance Faith and trust in God Psal 30. Psal 31. Psal 52. Psal 23. That Faith and Trust obtained Love and Favour from God Psal 27. and that Love and Favour an assured hope of Life and Salvation Psal 12. But Pharaohs oppressions provoaked God to send his judgements and plagues upon him these plagues they hardned Pharoahs heart that hardnesse of heart caused incredulity that incredulity the hatred of God and that hatred occasioned Pharaohs ruine and destruction in the red Sea as it is Exod. 14. Yea the goodnesse of God made the very drunkenesse and incest of Lot the incest of Judah the malice of the Jewes the treason of Judas and the injustice of Pilate Meanes of mans salvation yea even Adams Fall the fountaine of sinne and misery in man was by the wisdome of God made a meanes of greater happinesse to the Godly then his perseverance and continuance in Innocency could have been For if life had been given as a reward of our just Workes so the wittiest of the Schoolemen Scotus then our Worke being finite could not have merited an infinite reward the enjoyment whereof but one minute had passed our merit whereas life eternall being now conferred upon the faithfull not by way of Debt but by the Free Grace and Mercy of God this infinite Gift is proportioned not according to the meane merits of the Receiver but according to the goodnesse of God the Giver So that even Sinne it selfe on this manner that I have shewed may be said to be of God Let a man spur forward a lame Horse in that he moveth forward the Rider is Cause but that he halteth he himselfe is the cause When we see the Sun Beames shining through a Glasse the Light is from the Sun the Colour not from the Sun but from the Glasse For talis Actio cum tali defectu is not of God as sinfull Actions have in them formalem rationem peccati and are opposite to the Rule of Gods Law so God neither is nor can be the Causer of them yet is he the Cause of that inward or outward naturall Action wherein this defect of mans Will is found Entitas pravae actionis cadit in Voluntatem Divinam yet man hath not onely potentiam in se liberam but liberum usum potentiae not onely free power but also free use of his power as it appeares in Thieves Adulterers and the like who when there is danger doe not yet after do commit such sins God is no Enforcer in sinfull Actions yet may he be a Decreer or Permitter suffering persōs not elected to fall volūtarily into sins to continue volūtarily in thē to their lives end for thē to undergo endless misery in another life God decreed the permission disposing of sin which he fore-saw upon his permission would be but he did not decree the effecting or Existence of it that it should be it more appertained to Gods Omnipotent Goodnesse to draw good out of evill then not to suffer evill to be And as in bad so also in good Actions God not onely fore-sees that a man will use his Free-Will well but wils and preordaines that he shall use it well It is true that men justified by Gods Predestination by their endeavour and deliberation may be said to determine themselves to good Workes I say after Justification but it is God that moves and makes them thus to determine themselves and doe all these things with a Free Will This is a sure Rule a man doth not that good thing which by Grace he is able to doe unlesse God make him to doe it as he hath made him able to do it if he will Ad perseverantiam in Fide Gratia non opus est nova speciali Gratia sufficit ad hoc vel quod Naturà habemus vel quod semel per Spiritum adepti sumus to perseverance in Faith and Grace there needes no speciall Grace Nature or Grace once received is sufficient for this None have beene so bold to say thus but the old Pelagians and later Semi-Pelagians It is true that Christ saith of sinfull Jerusalem How often would I have gathered thy Children together as an Hen gathereth her Chickens and yee would not Mat. 23. 37. But he willed togather them not Voluntate beneplaciti which cannot be resisted but by his revealed Will using the meanes which might had man not falne have beene effectuall that impotency in our Wills comes not from the Creator but from man that fell from his Creator and the Will is now starke dead as to good Actions untill it be enlivened by God This damnable Doctrine that all men were redeemed by Christ but not made free because God distributeth his gifts according to the carelesnesse of such as came to receive them was an old rotten Heresie buried many hundred yeares since and raised up againe by the Devill to disturbe the peace of the Church in our dayes To drive this nayle any further were needlesse had I Men to deal with but my Adversaries many of them are such Beasts as fought with Paul at Ephesus therefore yet once over againe all this I have sayd shall bee poved both by evident Reasons and out of the Word of God For 1. I say God foresees all Contingent Effects to come in his own determination of the Causes thereof and therefore seeing the Contingent Operation of our Will hee determines it to the Effect 2. Els there should bee two severall beginnings of one and the same Effect in as much as Mans Will should begin to work as soon as God and concur to the Effect willed as principally as God 3. The Will of Man is but Gods Instrument the Hatchet the Hammer whereby God hewes out his own worke but every one that useth any Instrument moves applies and determines it to his own will 4. The Will of Man is but a secondary subordinate Cause under the first Cause which is God and exceeds not the measure of second Causes but if it were not determined by the first Cause it should be all one with the first Cause it selfe Second Causes are alwaies