justifie yet notwithstanding we are bound to observe the precepts of God as it is written if you will enter into life eternal keep the commandments Th. Gently good brother l Luth. in Serm. on Joh. 16.4 for thus you deny Christ and destroy faith attributing that to Divine commands or the law which is onely due and proper to God Furthermore I am almost induced to believe that you are an heretick whilst you attribute something to good works in our justification before God m Luther N. T. I say further Sir because the way is narrow you ought to be lowly and humble if you intend to passe for those that are loaded with good works are like those we see go pilgrimage to the reliques of S. James so incompassed with reeds that they cannot passe thither n Id. therefore if you come to heaven with a great bag full of good works you will be forced to lay them down for you cannot get in with them Pr. I confesse that good works are not looked upon as the impulsive cause of our justification and salvation yet for all that we are to take heed that we commit no bad ones Th. Very right Sir we do beware of sins o Catech. Heidel qu. 114. but much more of the law and good works onely heeding divine promises and our end Good God! What good can such miserable sinners as we do when as the most holy men who ever lived whilst they were in this life have had so small beginnings of obedience that you could not out of all their actions pick out one which did not deserve the just punishment yea the eternal punishment rather of Gods wrath then worthy of the reward of eternal life Go to therefore you Pedlers and Sectaries in religion with your good works and follow me who onely build my faith and help in the free grace and mercy of God p Luther of Capt. Babyl ch of Baptism For a baptized Christian is so rich that no sinnes whatsoever they be can rob him of his inheritance or impoverish him unlesse he fall away of himself from the faith All these are the very expresse words of Luther and Calvin and are these of your reformed Divines Pr. Yes but I perceive friend that you confiding in these and such like expressions have taken too much liberty to commit hainous sins therefore 't is necessary that you be instructed of that will of God by which he will be obeyed Th. You speak well Sir but don't you think that I have often thought of it truly I have and have often and much considered with my self about it for y Sturm of Predest Thes 18. pag. 117. I knew the will of God was twofold either Secret or Revealed So that God wills many things which he will not reveal z Id. Thes p. 31. as is clear by this instance a Perk. of Free-grace p. 45. God promulgated this edict by Moses to Pharaoh saying Let my people go when as the secret will of God and purpose was that he should not let the people go Neither b Calv. ad calumn Nebulon. ought this to seem a wonder to you because God has by his secret will decreed some to sin who by his revealed will he has commanded to do no evil Pr. Why so do you believe you perform the will of God when you commit iniquity Th. If c Sturm of Predest Thes 18. p. 17. you look after the hidden will of God whereby he has ordered all things to work for his glory wicked men do do the will of God but â—f you look to the revealed will of God wicked men do it not Pr. You say right therefore you are alwayes to be intent on the external revealed will of God because his hidden will you do not cannot know Th. Truly Sir these same two wills in or of God have alwayes made a great noise in my head and sounded very strangely in my ears d Pisc against Schafm for seeing God does not alwayes will what he e Dungan Pacif. fol. 56. does reveal to us to have willed and his revealed will to be call'd so but improperly his hidden properly furthermore f Calv. ad calumn Neb. pag. 161 to Art 7. that God should by his ineffable counsel will a thing to this end and make it for another and forbid that to be done which he wills to have done I was not very inquisitive about this revealed will Pr. How dare you belch forth such Blasphemies Th. I speak the very truth it self for when-as g Sturm of Predest Thes 1. fol. 3. the secret will of God is wholly onely and alwayes done and nothing happens in the world but God did before decree it nay when this hidden Decree of God is the necessary cause of all things so that God himself wills sin by the will of his bene placet I have alwayes counted it safe to follow the efficacious will of God lest otherwise I should take labour in vain Pr. h Ripert in Colloq p. 250. It is manifest that the Omnipotent God according to his secret Decree and bene placet would not have done what he has commanded to men in his revealed word and that i Id. pag. 252. all things as it appears according to God and his Decree infallibly and necessarily come to pass I go not about to deny nay I expresly hold this opinion in my judgement yet neverthelesse you ought to be the more sollicitous and careful over your self Th. I have read in Scripture Sir that Christ forbids all manner of vain sollicitousness of minde as to adde one cubit to ones height to make one hair black or white and others of these sorts Thence I judge I should do a great deal foolisher as well as more irreligious if I should presume to endeavour and strive against the decree and efficacious will of God Therefore you ought to confess with me that all operations humane commotions internal and external as well the bad as good whether of understanding heart or will have both their rise and efficacy from the force and impulse of Divine Providence so that they cannot but chuse whatsoever God shall will So that in Adams fall God had destinated his heart both to that end and action And hence it is l Calv. of Predest p. 842. that men can never will or do any thing but what God prompts them too whether it be good or evil so that he sometimes guides their hands sometimes holds them now turns them this way then that way and what way soever he pleases that they may effect whatever he has decreed which is only not to be understood of actions which are but of bad and evil likewise for m Calv. de locis praecipuis men sometimes like unto savage beasts run into all manner of viciousness yet for all this it often happens that they are so held in and curbed by an invisible and
punishment more to be feared to your Soul Therefore tell me now you are a going out of this world whether do you think you shall go Th. To heaven as well as you who art not much better than I. Pr. Do you think then you are as good and as honest as I am Th. Yes that I do and that I will prove out of your own proper Confession a Calv. Com. on Isa ch 64. v. 7. of his Institut l. 3. c. 12. dist 9 13 14. Ibid. c. 14. dist 9. one for all Your best works in themselves are filthy deformed detestable nay meer abominations and sins and like an unclean woman alwayes infected with filth and spots so that you are not accepted or esteemed of God for any of your works because that they b Belg. Confes art 24. deserve nothing but eternal punishment and that c Catech. Heidel quest 60. you altogether grievously sinn'd against all the Commandments of God neither have observed any one of them nay that you are altogether prone to all manner of malice and hatred both against God and your Neighbour In those printed Prayers at the end of your Psalter you confess worthy Sir your worchiness not onely to be blinde in your understanding but unapt to all good that it strayes from God follows its own vain imaginations that it daily sins and that most hainously and that it is by our Original Sin sometimes so corrupted and instigated that by reason of it there rise many and sinful thoughts which fight against God and your Neighbour so that many times you transgress the commands of God without intermission In brief you are a miserable sinner conceived and born in all sin and corruption prone to all evil unapt and averse to all good so that you have uncessantly by your sins throughout your whole life excited the anger of the Lord against you and according to his righteous judgement has deserved on thy self his eternal the more the pity Condemnation Your Conscience accuses you of this d Confes Belg. Art 7. nay your very sins witnesse against you so that being convinced you often groan under the sense of your corruption and desire to be freed from the body I will speak in short Since your being of little or no profit for e Teelings Dial. of Christian mans state p. 8 9. from your nativity you have been a childe of wrath and heir of Divine vengeance hadst communion with damned Devils when thou wast in thy Mothers womb full of all natural poison whence all evil actions proceed that you can do nothing more than sin yea when thou wast an Infant hadst thou but been tempted by the least occasion for you are naturally as propense to sin as the Serpent is to bite or sting and as is the Serpent odious to men not for the mischief it has done but the poison it carries about with it so even you are counted odious by God by reason of that poison of Original Sin in which you were born and conceived All this and much more of the same kind you say of your selves and have subscribed it with your own hand Nay you brand all those which deny to affirm these things with you by the name of Hereticks as Arminians Pelagians and such like Names and how would you take it if some one Shimei like should make it his business to reproach and assault you with dishonesty and maledictions and vomit out if there be any things worse than these upon you Pr. For the honour of God and the exalting of the superabundant riches of his grace I willingly confess my self guilty of all this nay God will that his chosen and faithful should be such sinners that they should not boast of themselves but f Calv. Instit l. 3. c. 14. dist 9. be humble which humility confists in this that we empty our selves of all goodnesse whatsoever Th. And of late I have believed this to be true too Sir and I did further judge if I may speak my minde in this case that I was forthwith to do no good my self for the further I was off from doing any good the truer I could confess my self to be void of all righteousness and goodness Pr. I would not have you so understand me as if God would have us to be sinners and not endevour to do good works but that 't is onely by his grace lest we should seek to be justified by our works Th. I believe the same yet and because I well know how deadly a sin it is to lean to good works for justification and see with what subtilties the devil does hunt men how with heresies he entraps men I have even lain aside doing good if I could onely leaning to the free grace of God Pr. Must you have your will and your judgement afore all others and interpret our doctrine no otherwise then if it were the cause of your perverse life Fy Fy. God intends this that men should not seek to be justified by works but faith Th. By faith what faith Pr. As our Catechism has it in the 60 question I believe onely in Jesus Christ through whom by faith I shall be justified before God My conscience accuses me of all these things that I have sinned most hainously against all the commandments of God that I have observed none of them and am now liable to all evil yet the good God without any merit of mine out of his own meer grace both gives and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction justice and sanctification of Christ as fully as if I had committed no sin yea as if I had performed all that righteousnesse and obedience which Christ either did or suffered in my own person as I apply this by belief to my heart Th. You say well Sir this pure and sound faith has been alwayes my faith and so that I am more perswaded I have alwayes stuck close to that Doctrine of the reformed Churches so that I have almost wearied God if it were possible with my prayers in which faith without any good works I persist Furthermore this was alwayes in my mind often in my mouth g Luthers preface to Galat. That it was the chiefest art of a Christian to know no law no good works no not a tittle as to justification h Luth. lib. of Christian liberty for a Christian neither wants works or the law after by faith he is freed from all laws i Luth. on 2. chap. to Gal. Id. de lib. Christian Faith is onely necessary to salvation other things we are freed from whether commanded or forbid Goodworks make not men good nor bad ones bad and as to unbelievers no good work profiteth to their salvation so on the contrary no bad action makes a man bad or condemns him but onely unbelief For where faith is no sin can hurt Pr. What then have you such an esteem of good works indeed we teach indeed that faith in Christ does alone
power of obeying in this faln corrupted condition God requires faith of all to whom the Word is preached but will not give faith to all to whom it is revealed Pr. You seem to me to have been alwayes of this opinion Th. I was not so wedded to this opinion till such thoughts as these ran alwayes in my minde that I was really of the number of the Elect. Pr. Do not presume rashly you too confidently pronounce your self Elect when from your Childhood you have been such a rakehell and have not to this day mended your course these are but small fruits or signs of your Election Th. O good Sir you must know that all z Calv. in Instit lib. 3. c. 24. dist 10. the Elect are not called so soon as born nor all at one and the same time nay before they are congregated to the Supreme Pastor they wander in the common desert of this world in sin and are neither known to others or themselves to be elected to life till the peculiar mercy of God keep and guide them a Musc loc com de Fide c. 7. Neither is God bound to any time when or persons which to call so that 't is for no one to doubt when he shall be call'd for no sin is so great as to â—inder when heaven calls Whence it appears clear as Noon-day I am not presently to despair if I have not lived so unblameably as you would have me Pr. Yet it was your duty as the Apostle sayes by good works to make your salvation sure Th. How came you to speak so unadvisedly Sir does our Election depend on good works I 'll prove it does not and further I am perswaded that the Elect may fall b Zanch. in Mâ—scel p. 329. into great and hainous sins as Adultery Murther nay sometimes into such errours by which sometimes partly sometimes wholly the very foundation of Salvation is turned topfie-turvy or otherwise against their Conscience to sin foully and grievously c Ruard Acron Explic. Catech. qu. 53. fol. 137. against any of the Commandments of God but all these things hinder little or nothing For d Wilhel Teeling in dial de statu hom Christi pag. 44. God will not damn any of the elect though they sin because the foundation of their safety lies in his eternal act of their election neither can a thousand nay the sins of the whole world nor all the Devils in Hell destroy one of the Elect Our sins may harden our hearts weaken our faith but cannot quite destroy it nor extinguish the Spirit of God utterly So that God damns none for their sins whom he has adopted in Christ Pr. What then you did not fear to be damned Th. No not I a jot for who are e Toss de Praedest cap. 3. Zanch. de nat Dei l. 7. q. 1. predestinated cannot be cast off for ever because once elected by the immutable Decree of God and again because whom Christ loves he loves unto the end Pr. But you ought to have turn'd and conform'd your self according to the will of God that you might have obtained the remission of your sins Th. For any thing I understand you have even the same conception of f Smout in Script consent fol. 12. the New Covenant as of the Old which was placed in the condition of Works as if we would constantly believe and do this and thus God would again do for us so and so c. which rule is diametrically opposite to the New Covenant conditions g Id. fol. 31. God makes a New Covenant with us and promises us not onely when we are without any but have strayed a long way from the condition whilst we wallow in the midst of sin h Id. fol. 46. Behold God forgiveth sin before he renews the heart and does both these before we have done any good nay whilst we are in our sins and do profane his Name Hence 't is abundantly evident i Gesel probat fol. 33. that God does prosecute all his Elect with a singular eternal gracious and saving love before they believe or repent For truly as the Synod of Dort k Acta Synodi cap. 1. Art 9. sayes Election is made not from any foreseen faith obedience fanctity or any other good quality or disposition as a pre-requisite cause or condition in us that we should be thus elected but are chosen to faith and obedience so that Election is the cause from whence all good works flow and from hence faith holiness all spiritual gifts flow and at last life it self as the fruit and effect meerly of it Pr. Whither do you intend to protract this Dispute hold your tongue and leave this disputing think with your self how far the night is spent and how nigh your life is to its period and be more sollicitous how you may be saved when you shall depart this life Consider those words of St. Paul 1 Cor. 6.10 Nor thieves nor drunkards shall inherit the Kingdom of God yet you must possess it if you be saved Th. Do you think you can shew your self a Physician to my sinful sick Soul Pr. Believe in Jesus Christ mourn for your sins beg a blessed change from God an happy hour wherein he may give you the remission of your sins and life everlasting Th. What must I believe that I may believe in Christ aright Pr. You must believe that Jesus Christ by his Death and Passion merited the remission of sins and life eternal and that for you particularly This is commanded you in the Gospel Th. Whatsoever the Gospel says is it true or false Pr. 'T is truth it self Th. Has Christ by his Death and Passion purchased these things for all Pr. l Pisc con Schafm disp de Praedest pag. 12. Although humane Reason and in good men has thence taken scandal and some of the Evangelical Doctors much rage rail when they hear any teach that God would not have all men to be saved but onely such and such and Christ is not dead for all but we firmly believe on either side and that from Scripture it self so that I may assert in plain words m Perk. de Spir. desert p. 3. God has constituted no Mediator for the reprobated for Christ is the Redeemer of the Elect onely and not of others Th. Is not Christ then dead and made n Polan Explic. quar in Relig. diff p. 154. q. 4. an offering for Reprobates Pr. I pray Sir if you be one of Christs elect Sheep why do you thus patronize the Reprobate and Damned Reade the judgement of the Synod of o Synod of Dort c. 2. art 8. Dort that will teach you that this was the free counsel gracious intention of God the Father of the precious death of his onely Son to effect grace and Salvation in all the Elect giving them alone justifying faith and by it infallibly bringing them to heaven that is God
would that Christ by the blood of his Cross by which he ratified the new Covenant should effectually redeem out of every Tribe People Language and Nation those and those onely which were elected to Salvation from eternity and were given to him of his Father giving them likewise faith and spiritual gifts which he acquired by his sufferings Th. Are all men elected Pr. No p Pisc contra Schafm Thes 115. p. 119. Buc. L. C. de Praedest q. 46. for God meerly out of his own will without any respect to future impieties ordained the greatest part of mankinde to utter destruction Th. Now at length tell me seriously from your heart what you think of me am I of the Elect or no Why do not you answer Speak out and speak plain hide not truth under the ambiguity of words neither let your tongue dissent from your heart for they ought not to be divorced but speak candidly for 't is necessary that I know this If I am a Reprobate I should believe a lie for Christ has purchased nothing for Reprobates if I am Elect I follow the truth and not a lie Now to follow the truth is a work of the Gospel therefore before I do any thing else I will know whether I am elected or not Pr. q Perk. de Praedest p. 89. Gomar de Praedest Thes 4. Dungan Pacif. p. 68. Whosoever is within the pale of the Church is bound to believe that he is redeemed by Christ the Reprobate as well as the Elect yet each after a peculiar manner the Elect is bound that believing he may possess the benefit of his Election the Reprobate is bound to believe from the intention of God he may have the less to plead for himself and therefore r Gomar de Predest Thes 21. Christ is offered to Reprobates not that they should be saved but that being convicted from the incredulity and refractoriness of their hearts they may want all manner of excuse Th. Will you say God would have Reprobates to believe that which is a lie and damn them eternally too if they will not believe it and what hinders but it is so for s Nic. de Schure in Instit after he has once resolved to damn them he may do it which way he pleases Pr. Pray Sir leave off these niceties we have more need to pray to God that he would save your Soul Th. If you will be praying pray for your self for my part I will not spend time and labour so idlely If I am reprobated 't is impossible to acquire Salvation though I should spend a thousand years in praying for the Decree stands so sure t Polan in Doct. de Praedest pag. 139. that as the Elect cannot be reprobated so the Reprobated cannot become Elect for Reprobation is as immutable in respect of God reprobating as man reprobated What good can prayers do then On the contrary if I am elect God has destinated me to salvation from Eternity u Donteclock Instruct de Predest p. 93. and all whom God has ordained to salvation from the foundation of the world are brought to it by the Almighty Power of God that the purpose of Election might stand sure that it is impossible for them any way to perish This has been alwayes my belief according to which I have lived and the Synod of Dort have so confirmed me in it that I would sooner be burnt than depart an hair from it And as God x Cap. 1. Art 11. himself is most wise immutable omniscient omnipotent so that Election by him made can neither be changed revoked or broken nor the Elect perish or their number admit of addition or subtraction 'T is granted y It. cap. 5. Art 4. moreover that the Elect sometimes by the permission of God fall into grievous sins as David Peter and other Saints and they do offend z Art 5. God by such sins and incur the guilt of death grieve the holy Spirit destroy the exercise of their faith wound their consciences and many times lose the sense of grace for a while God nevertheless for the immutable Decree of his Election does not in sad failings quite take his Spirit from them neither does he suffer them to fall a Art 6. so low as to fall from the state of Adoption or Justification or to sin unto death or against the holy Ghost so that he should utterly desert them and leave them to perish infallibly for ever So that they obtain not any thing by their owne worth and strength but of the meer bounty of God b Art 8. that they neither fall totally from grace nor unavoidably into Hell But what is more than all this when as both internal and eternal Reprobation is the operation of God which does not really differ from the essence of God himself why may not we discourse and descant of Election c Polan in Doct. de Predest 'T is granted on all hands that Reprobation as well as Election does not really differ from the Essence of God and therefore it is God himself who in himself is altogether immutable and far be it from me to ask how God can be mutable Pr. Good God! what a sad hearing is this Can a man proceed so far as to be burthened with sin and misery as you are and yet will not call upon his God Th. I would sooner Sir sing that excellent Hymn made by Bernard Biscop heretofore Preacher at Oyen in Gelderland now Preacher at Vtricht till my Chamber rung again Pr. If that man has made a Hymn 't is necessary it be good for he is one teaches all Orthodox Doctrine Let me hear it Th. Hearken diligently the melody of it shall answer to the 103 Psalm You shall briefly perceive in it the universal Rule of my Belief according to which I intend to live and die I. PRaised be God who before I was born nay ere the World was predestinated me to Salvation not according to the Faith or Works which I should have or do in this life but according to his own infinite mercy II. Blessed be God who by the immutable counsel of his own Will has called me inwardly by his Spirit and outwardly by his Word who has inwardly inlightned my minde and corrupt senses by his Spirit and will more and more inlighten them III. Who has freed my base erring will the servant and store-house of sin so that I desire onely to walk in the wayes of the Lord onely to be able is wanting IV. Blessed be God who by his Omnipotent Spirit and Divine Word cooperating has implanted a firm faith in my heart such a strong faith which though by crosses and whatever is worse may be bended and yield yet cannot break V. Who shall seduce the Elect of God Who shall separate me from his love in Christ Who shall pull me out of his Omnipotent Hand Neither the Devil or Death or deadly sins shall be able by all their strength to force away my Crown VI. That good God who has begun a good work in me for his mercy sake will carry it on and perfect it even unto the end even to the end of this miserable life 'T is the Lord my God who will do this that I may persevere being alwayes guarded as it were a Prince by his Spirit Jaylor Pray make an end will you I have enough of these Disputes and Rhymings Is this one of your godly Hymns This is a Song indeed befits a Rogue and deserves singing by none but a Club of Whores and Rogues met at a Bawdy-house Your faith and your manners are even much alike Th. Even jeer on good-man Rogue as much as you will yet I esteem it for an excellent Hymn and were I to die I would sing it on the top of the highest Round of the Ladder before that of Ex profundis Domine c. Out of the deep O Lord c. The Composer of it was one of the Orthodox Contra-Remonstrants Not long ago he being called out of a little Village into the City of Vtricht he there so abundantly well argued for and defended this Hymn that there it was received into the Orthodox Church as really consentaneous to Scripture Jaylor Is this that same Orthodox Doctrine about which these Provinces are so devillishly troubled and pester'd Which that it may be had in holy reverence with the Church Synods and Souldiers use all their Authorities Truly it is a very pretty thing Pr. Sirrah you ought to hold your tongue of such things concerning which you know no more than a Dog Look to it what you say and leave to calumniate the Church and her Doctrine or it shall go worse with you for ere long you shall be so far from being head Jaylor that you shall scarce be admitted to run of a Rogues errand Jaylor If these be your best Arguments Mr. Parson yours is not so certain and good a Religion as you talk for For all your hot words I 'll tell you but thus much that you may very well know that I understand you have done little or nothing for all your many words to the turning this poor Soul from sin and translating him from death to life nay which is worse he is now much more hardned than before Indeed I have heard much of your opinions before but never believed it till now where I have been an eye and ear-witness of all is come out of your mouth Is this your Reformed Religion in good sooth If you had call'd it the Deformed Religion you had hit it as that which is not able to effect any thing of it self unless to stir up security in men and give them an occasion nay spur them to go on in sin Therefore Mr. Parson because you cannot profit this sick sinful Soul any thing by your Doctrine you may walk for I 'll light my Candle and go fetch another who shall contradict your Institutions and be of another-guess Opinion who I suppose will far sooner and surer bring a man to sorrow for his sin and a better life Pr. Do what you please so that you take it for granted you shall not thus scape unpunish'd Jaylor Do what you can I esteem this mans Soul more than your favour In the mean while though you shew your envy and bitterness too much But however God give you good night FINIS