speak in the 9. 10. and 11. chapters Lastly we shall God willing make it appear in sundry particulars that these Adversaries by wresting of some things and omitting of others pervert the Apostles words to a strange sense how soever they think to get advantage by striking others first with that imputation And first though they account it plain and without difficulty that the Apostles meaning v. 5 6 is that not all the Israelits not all the children of Abrahams flesh specially not such as boasted of the observation of the Law were therefore in the state of salvation or should be saved yet in truth he plainly means another thing namely that all Israel all that were the seed of Abraham and children of the flesh were not that Israel that seed those children to whom the promise was made that is were not they touching whom God by his promise declared his purpose of election mentioned v. 11. For though all are saved that receiv the promise by faith and none by the works of the Law yet the Apostle in this place neither speaks a word of salvation as the effect of the promise but of election as the cause therof nor yet of mens receiving the promise by faith but of Gods making it according to election that so the purpose of God and promise manifesting it might stand according to election v. 11 that the word of God might take effect v. 6. even the word of promise At this time will I come c. v. 9 they are then called children of the promise not because they received but because the promise Sara shall haue a Son c. was made unto them according to the election of grace and stableness of Gods purpose v. 8. 9. 11 which promise also they did in time receiv by faith according to the election of that remnant from the rest the promise following the purpose of election and faith and salvation by it following the purpose and promise Though Israel that is all which were of Israel obtained not that which he seeketh for yet the election hath obtained it even the remnant of Israel to whom Gods promise is according to the election of grace in regard of which remnant according to election the word of God is effectuall and the promise fulfilled touching the yonger son of Rebeca of whose two sonns it was said before they were born or had done either good or evill the elder shall serv the yonger And as they truely affirm that neither birth nor works did prefer with God so I demand here what those works were by which Esau sought for justification The Scriptures expresly term him a prophane person that is a despiser of goodnes yea of his very birth-right which was a speciall legall priviledg How then sought he to be preferred with God and justified for birth or works Or how doth this example of Esau fit their imagined plain exposition specially to proue that the children of Abrahams flesh were not in the salvation who so much boasted of being Moses disciples in the observation of the Law when as the Law of Moses was not yet given nor the Law-giver born Their words following that God purposeth to prefer those that seek it by his free election through faith in Christ are true in themselvs but not in their sense Their meaning is that God purposed to saue them effectually that should beleev in Christ Iesus whereupon should be meant in this place onely such a purpose of God as was no more towards Iakob then towards Esau for God by their doctrine purposed to chuse Esau if he beleeved and not Iakob but upon his beleeving first But the Apostle speaks more then evidently of such a purpose of God as was towards Iakob particularly and alone excluding Esau. Besides the standing of this purpose and election are here noted as two distinct things of which election is the former and that according to which this purpose of God stands whereas they make them one and the same accounting election nothing but the purpose of bestowing salvation upon them that beleev Thirdly the Apostle cannot mean such a purpose and election as presupposeth faith in Christ which they would haue seeing he expresly affirms it to haue been when the children had done neither good nor evill Is to beleev in Christ to puâ— on the wedding garment by faith and obedience to submit to the righteousnesse of God which they will haue the condition upon vvhich election depends and the quality for which God elects the persons in whom he finds it are these to doe no good with with these men and is the doing of the contrary to doe no evill Lastly he saith not that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of vvorks but of faith as they say but not of vvorks but of him that calleth that is as followeth that vvill haue mercy on whom he vvill haue mercy By which it is plain that Paul doth not in this chapter as chap. 3. and 4 and Gal. 4 oppose works and faith but vvorks and Gods calling He should haue said for their purpose that the purpose of God stands not of works but of faith or of him that beleeveth and not as hee doth for the purpose of the Holy Ghost of him that calleth Shewing thereby his meaning to be in this whole discourse that the obtaining of righteousnesse or standing of Gods purpose in its actuall effect depends upon God alone according to three degrees here expressed first his gracious purpose of election in himselfe towards some secondly his free promise manifesting his purpose thirdly his effectuall calling in which his vvord of promise hath effect and his purpose stands firm and undisappointed notwithstanding the unbeleif of the body of Abrahams seed Their making Iakob and Esau types as they doe is like the rest or worse The Scriptures are not to be drawn from their natural simple sense without apparant warrant It is the high way to heresie to be bold in framing typical expositions And with what spirit these men are led this way appears by their expounding the parable Luk. 15 making the Iews the elder brother vvho sought salvation by vvorks and the Gentles the yonger in the offer of the Gospell seeking salvation onely by the free promise of God wheras the plain meaning of Christ is onely to avow his preaching to the Publicans and sinners resorting unto him against the pride and envy of the Pharisies those Publicans and sinners being Iews as well as the other Secondly I demand what it was in which Iakob typed out beleevers seeking righteousnesse by God and in which Esau typed out workers seeking justification by their own works The contrary in Esau is expressed in the Scriptures Lastly seeing it cannot be denyed but that Iakob as a faithfull and godly man was in time actually beloved of God and Esau as godlesse and prophane actually hated it must needs follow that God before the world was
debts except withall I be bound to pay them so neither is it Gods fault that men remain and periâ—h in that impenitency out of which they neither will nor can come without Gods speciall gift of repentance except it be Gods bounden duty as these men seem to make it to bestow that grace upon them The two places Esa. 5. 1. 2. 3 c. and Math 11. 21. 22 we will a little more particularly examine In the former where God saith he could doe no more to his vineyard then he had done he speaks onely of outward means as the text makes it plain I fenced it c. I would ask these men whether there be not requisite that the naturall vineyard may bring forth fruit something besides the fencing gathering out of the stones and the rest there mentioned It cannot be denyed that except besides and above all these God give the encrease by an inward blessing all planting watering and outward dressing whatsoever is nothing so is it in the spirituall vineyard much more though planted by Paul himself yea by Christ himself in the outward ministery And where God saith He expected sweet grapes but it brought forth wild v 4. we must not imagine as our adversaries seem to doe that God is deceaved in his expectation as men often are but onely that the Israelites did not perform that which God required and they ought Touching the repentance of Tyre Sidon First I would know how they prove that Christ speaks of other then legall repentance such as Ahab manifested in sack-cloth which was not from a godly sorrow for sin but from a servile fear of punishment Secondly eyther this repentance should haue been wrought by those mighty works alone or by them with other helps Mighty works alone cannot work faith repentance which must come by hearing instructions of the word which they serve to confirm unto men If Christ speak of his mighty works as means though not sufficient of themselvs yet availeable with other requisite helps he excludes not the spirits work but includes it But in truth the meaning of Christ seems to be no more but to reprove the obstinacy of Corazin in a form of speach like unto that Luk. 19. 40. If these should hold their tongue the stones would imediately cry out And as it were a vain thing hence to dispute about the speaking of stones so is it to gather any thing thence of the Tyrians repentance The meaning of the Lord here is not to commend the Tyrians at all but to upbraid the Chorazites and to shew their hardnes of heart to be greater then the others The like form of speach we haue to the like purpose Ezech 3. 6. And if so be there were in these Tyrians this pronenes to repentance if they had enjoyed the means which the others did but they wanted withall that God so desires the repentance salvation of all how came it to passe that God did not afford those helps unto them that were so prone and willing to have used them aright It seems the former case is now altered and that men might say to God that they would but he would not ADVERSARIES THeir invincible Argument servs onely to bewray their incurable disease in heaping together many Scriptures to prove that which no man doubts of namely that the works wrought in us by God are attributed to us also as the cleansing of our hearts c wherein yet they mingle with Gods truth their own errours and that in particular in affirming that God takes it to himself as a proper title to justify a sinner and yet that Dasaith he justified his heart DEFENCE FIrst if it be proper to God to justifie a sinner how is it common to David with him Secondly They slaunder David in making him say he justified his heart Could David forgiue the sin of his heart which God doth in justifying a sinner David Psal. 73. speaks of sanctification not of justification They ignorantly apply the Scriptures Psal. 108. 12. Psal. 118. 13. to Gods working grace in men being meant onely of his working deliverance for them They vainly and deceitfully affirm from Acts. 7. 51. 13. 46. that man may resist the grace of God wrought by his word and spirit The places speak not of any grace wrought by either of them The former speaks onely of resisting the spirit as the Authour of the word in the Prophets and others The latter of resisting the word of God not working but offering grace onely Besides they notably abuse those Scriptures cited in making them plainly to shew that man hath free choise to wit alike to work with God or against God in the work of his grace It is true that men whether receiving or refusing grace doe it freely and without compulsion but the latter freely of themselvs being left of God to themselvs the former freely by Gods speciall grace and spirit giving them and effectually drawing them to Christ. I say more effectually though not violently then any one creature can by violence draw another Oh that any made partakers of this free grace of Gods spirit dwelling in them should deny the powerfull work of it to establish their own freewill After Scriptures they come to experience And first they erre in thinking that liberty and necessity of sinning in wicked men cannot stand together It is certain that the more wicked either man or devill is he sinneth both the more freely and the more necessarily Their similitude of a mans drinking poyson is against themselvs so far as it is pertinent I would know of them how the drinking of poyson by any is unavoydable If they say because hee knows it not to be in his drink therin they grant that sins of ignorance are done unavoydably and yet not by compulsion as they conclude Secondly who would think that any after the profession of the knowledg and obedience of the Gospell which these men haue made so many yeares both in the Church of England and else where should so far apostate therefrom to Popery and Phaâ—isaism as to think it as easie a thing for a man yea though never so wicked to keep himselfe from all sin as from drinking of poyson which he knew to be in his cup For he that knows it not cannot avoyd it How grievously erre they in affirming that all men are able to keep the Law to wit without the least fayling all their life long in thought word or deed For this they plead in this whole Section that except it be possible for every man thus to keep the Law neither his conscience can accuse him nor God justly punish him for breaking it Neither doe the Calvinists hold as they barbarously speak unjustly slander that men commit evill by force of Gods providence or are decreed to doe evill or compelled to sin by power But they beleev as the Scriptures teach that all men
as in a generall root was so conceived and brought forth by his mother in sin Secondly it is one thing to be conceived and born in sin another thing to be made of sin The former David affirms of himself the latter they vainly impute to us and refute in us with many words That Infants are under condemnation that is naturally guilty thereof hath been formerly proved that actuall faith in Christ is required for their reconciliation to God doth not follow hereupon Actuall I say for the seed of faith they haue and of all graces for but by Gods holy Spirit in them which carries all graces with it they cannot be holy and so not bee glorified if they be not holy first but that hereupon they need actuall faith is their saying without proof Actuall sins indeed require actuall faith but for sin in disposit on called originall why may not faith in disposition suffice through the mercy of God for the applying of it About the Infants of Sodom and Gomorrah they discourse marvellously as first in ranking them in their deaths with unreasonable creatures in theirs secondly in making them not onely innocent but godly also The Scriptures teach that besides the temporary death those Cities suffer the vengeance of eternall fire Let them proue children not to haue been of those Cities If God exempted them or any of them from that vengeance it was not for any condition cōmon to them with bruit beasts as they insinuate but with respect to Christ besides whom the Scriptures acknowledg no other Saviour nor no other salvation but by him ADVERSARIES TO a question moved by themselves What need Infants haue of Christ if they be not under condemnation they answer that through his redemption they liue and moue and haue their being and injoy all other earthly blessings with resurrection from the dead and glorification 1 Cor. 15. 12. DEFENCE THus they make Christ and Infants amends But how proue they that by Christs redemption they liue moue c The Scripture Act. 17 to which they haue reference is meant of the naturall life of all by Gods work of creation and providence which is nothing but continuation of creation and nothing at all to Christ as Redeemer The redemption for which Christ came is from sin and so from the curse due for sin as the Scriptures every where testifie The first Adam was made a living soule the last Adam a quickning spirit We haue therfore our naturall life motion and being common to Heathens with Christians by the first Adam our spirituall and glorious life by the second Lastly the Apostle saying 1 Cor. 15. 22 In Christ shall all be made aliue speaks onely of all beleevers as is evident v. 14. 17. 18. 19 who haue Christ for the first fruits and are Christs v. 20. 23. Are any Christs but Christians Is not the lump and the first fruits one Men should haue risen again though Christ had never come or been promised but to condemnation Our resurrection onely in regard of the glory of it is from Christs glorious resurrection And if Infants haue glorification from Christ then they haue the pardon of sinne from Christ also 1 Cor. 15. 17. 23 and therewith his Spirit dwelling in them for sanctifying and quickning them Rom. 8. 9. 10. 11. These men divide Chrst making him a King to some for glorification to whom hee is not a Priest for redemption by his bloud Next to a question by themselvs moved How wee must haue the Son they answer by keeping his commandements forgetting faith by which alone we receiv Christ from which followeth loue purity of heart and obedience Which faith hath more properly the consideration of a condition as a hand to receiv a promise then of an act of obedience to a commandment It is true being rightly understood which they add that repentance is of all sin to wit particularly of all sins known and generally of sins unknown For Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret faults said he that observed and knew his wayes better then either these men or I. Doe they think nothing amisse slips from them in thought word or deed or ever hath done whereof they doe not or haue not repented particularly Is their knowledge so perfect as they need not pray for further enlightning as Eph. 1. 17. 18 Are they certain they are ignorant of and erre in nothing in the Scriptures written for their bearning This their book sufficiently reproues their Pharisaicall dream of perfection Where speaking of Idolatry they affirm that God cannot bee worshipped after a false manner they expresly contradict the Scripture saying The people did sacrifice still in the high places yet unto the Lord their God onely Here was worshipping the true God and him onely and yet after a false manner in a respect The same the Apostle teacheth the Athenians The God whom you ignorantly worship declare I unto you When Papists direct their prayers to God the maker of the world and father of Iesus Christ hoping the rather to be heard by means of the Virgin Maries intercession who doubts but they worship the true God but in a false manner Neither doth Deut. 18. 20 proue the sin one of speaking in the name of a false God and speaking falsehood in the name of a true God but divers though both deserving death Next they in their wilde order come to treat of Faith where they affirm that no man can haue faith to justification before he haue repented If they had sayd that no man hath the grace or habit of faith before the grace of repentance it had been true God by the spirit of regeneration infusing the habits of all graces at once But that the act and exercise of faith in beleeving is before our repenting appears both by Scripture and common sense We liue the life of Christ wherof our repenting is a part by the faith of the Sonne of God God purifieth the heart by faith and justifies the ungodly by his faith In all which it is plain that faith hath the preheminence and first work So 2 Cor. 7. 10 Godly sorrow workes repentance Repentance then presupposeth godly sorrow Godly sorrow or whatsoever is truely godly must needs please God which without faith no man can doe but even every thing is sin Faith working that which worketh repentance must goe before it Secondly godly sorrow is not onely for the fear of punishment for so the devils are sorrie but for the offence of God specially Now none can be sorrie for his offending God except he loue God nor loue him except he know first that he bee loved of him in Christ in which faith consisteth We beleev therefore before we repent in the truth of the thing and order of causes though we can hardly discern this order in our own sense CHAP. VI. Of Baptisme IN the next place they come to
store-house of earthly good things and figure of heavenly These men therfore in this place unskilfully transform the fulfilling of an old promise into the making of a new Which they also confesse in effect in the very same place in saying that the promise that is the Covenant on Gods part was made to Abraham Gen. 17. The word everlasting Gen. 17. I urge not further to proue the Covenant with Abraham perpetuall then as the nature of the same Covenant carries it It was that by which God became Abrahams God and more he is or can be to none and that which Christ himselfe extends to the very resurection of the bodies of Abraham c. whos 's God the Lord was and is Two reasons I will annex to justifie mine exposition of the Prophet Ieremy and Apostle after him and to proue that by the old Covenant they meant the Covenant of the Law given on mount Syna The former from the opposition between the old and new Covenant expresly made in the generall and particularly insinuated in these words I will write my Law in their hearts and will forgiue their iniquity and remember their sins no more which was not according to but most unlike to the old Covenant or Law given on mount Syna written in Tables of stone and by which sin and transgression was not forgiven but quickned and encreased A second reason is for that the old and first Covenant opposed to that in Christ had ordinances of divine worship and a worldly Sanctuary or Tabernacle wherein was the Table and Candlestick c. which no man that beleevs the Bible can make doubt to be meant of the Law and Covenant given on mount Syna to and by Moses By the old Covenant is meant that of the Law by Moses on mount Sina unto which the other is opposed Their exception that Abrahams children of 8 daies old could make no covenant nor agreement is too childish to exclude them from it and that by which they should haue been in no covenant at all with the Lord nor hee with them new nor old Legall nor Evangelicall for they could make none It is not required that every one comprehended in a Covenant should actually stipulate or promise Witnesse the Covenant with Noah in which both all his seed and every living creature both foule and cattell were included It was therefore sufficient to bring Abrahams seed into the Lords Covenant that God in grace made and Abraham by faith received the promise that he would be his God and theirs That every faithfull man and his seed is as Abraham and his seed the Scripture proue in teaching that every beleever is of the faith of Abraham and walks in his steps For if Abraham did by faith receiv the promise that God would be his God and the God of his seed without which no promise had belonged unto them then where the same faith is for substance there is the same promise for substance to every beleever though a son of Abraham as following his example yet as Abraham himselfe in beleeving as hee did And this is most manifest in that by this very covenant God was not onely the God of Abraham and his seed Isaak but of Isaak and his seed Iakob and of Iakob and his seed the Patriarks and so successiuely not by fleshly descent of the children from their parents as they absurdly cavill but by spirituall and divine promise of grace which they ungraciously despise for their children because they cannot be doing something to God again by their free-will to require him withall Next comes to be examined that notable place Rom. 4. 11. Abraham received the sign of Circumcision the seal of the righteousnesse of the faith which he had being uncircumcised that he might be the father of all that beleev though uncircumcised that righteousnesse might be imputed to them also ADVERSARIES THeir evasion is that by faith here is not meant faith in the Messiah by which he was and we are justified but say they Circumcision sealed up Abrahams fatherhood of the faithfull that is was a seal of his faith in beleeving God that he should be the father of many Nations DEFENCE AND this faith say we was the faith of the Gospell and faith in the Messiah which the Apostle expresly saith was imputed to him for righteousnesse and by which he was justified as is plain from v. 17 I haue made thee a father of many Nations compared with v. 22 where he infers therupon even upon that faith And therfore it was imputed to him for righteousnesse Which also that it was the same in substance with ours now the words following manifest Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but to us also to whom it shall be imputed if we beleev in him that raised up Iesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our sins c. v. 23. 24. 25. This will yet the more clearly appear if we consider what is meant by these promises I haue made thee a father of many Nations and so shall thy seed be recited by the Apostle for the purpose in hand In these words I haue made thee a father of many Nations he opposeth many Nations to that one Nation of the Iews Of these many Nations hee was the father even of all that beleev though uncircumcised v. 11. And how a father By way of example that as hee was justified by faith in the promise of God and of the promised seed Christ even when he was uncircumcised So they beleeving the same promise of God in Christ now come of him though uncircumcised should in like manner be justified as he was Which is yet further confirmed where it is said that he is the father of all them though not of the circumcision that walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham which he had yet being uncircumcised Whence I gather that if we be justified by the same faith that Abraham was justified by and that he was justified by faith in that promise that then that promise was made of and in the Messiah Christ the blessed and blessing Seed as it is said So shall thy seed be and Abraham beleeved and he counted it to him for righteousnesse And again In thee shall all Nations or families of the earth be blessed Now of this faith the Apostle here speaks and of it he testifies circumcision to haue been a seal to Abraham It cannot be denyed but that the Apostle in this whole discourse speaks of faith to justification proving partly by the example of Abraham and partly by the testimony of David that we are justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law And to what end or with what order should hee thrust in an impertinent discourse of any other faith To affirm this is no better then to defame the Holy Ghost with equivocating Or to what purpose should he mention the
sign of Circumcision as a seal of faith if not of that faith of which he treats For wheras it might be objected that if Abraham were justified by beleeving before he was circumcised as is said v. 3. 9. 10 then what needed hee after to haue been circumcised The Apostle answers v. 11 that hee received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousnesse of faith vvhich he had yet being uncircumcised which faith v. 9 vvas reckoned to him for righteousnesse that by it the covenant of grace between God him might be confirmed as covenants among men formerly agreed upon are by the seals thereunto annexed Lastly who endued with common sense and modesty can deny that by the righteousnesse of faith wherof Circumcision was a seal is meant the righteousnes which is by faith as v. 3 Abraham beleeved God and it vvas imputed to him for righteousnesse and v. 9 faith vvas reckoned to Abraham for righteousnesse which righteousnesse of faith in this whole discourse he opposeth to the righteousnesse of works by the Law as is expresly to be seen v. 3. 14. 15. 16. But now what say our Adversaries to these things as men in a maze and not knowing how to finde the way out goe sometimes backward sometimes forward and sometimes leap unorderly from one place to another so doe they in expounding this Scripture In their out-leaps about Abrahams fleshly children I shall not need heere to follow them Where after they say that Circumcision was a seal of Abrahams faith in beleeving God that he should be the father of many Nations and that this was imputed to him for righteousnesse they say as much as we do or desire they should But where they say in the very same place that hee received not circumcision to seal up his faith in the Messiah they goe backward most dangerously to bring in a faith to justification imputed for righteousnesse which yet is not in the Messiah Was righteousnesse ever or is it imputed to any for justification but by faith in Christ then promised now exhibited The reason insinuated by them is a pleasant one namely for that Abraham had faith in the Messiah 24 years before he was circumcised Whereas on the contrary it could not haue been a seal of such faith except hee had had the faith before whether longer or lesser time it matters not but is as it pleaseth him who bestowâ—th both the one and other Signes and Seals are not to be set to blankes neither doe they make things that were not before to be but serv onely to confirm things that are These things thus cleared the Reader must be requested not to measure our arguments from Abraham and Isaaks circumcision to the Baptism of Infants by the crooked line which these men draw between them but by the right rule of sound reason applyed as followeth in three particulars First that the Covenant unto which Circumcision was annexed was the Covenant of the Gospell and not of the Law and old Testement as they take it For then it could not haue been to Abraham the seal of the righteousnesse of faith any way but of unrighteousnesse and condemnation every way for righteousnes is not by the Law which worketh wrath and by which sin revives and becomes exceeding sinfull And surely it is more then strange that any beleeving the Scriptures should beleev that the Lords Covenant made with Abraham and so with Israel in him by which he took them to be his peculiar people from among all other peoples because hee loved their father and them by which they were a blessed Nation having Iehovah for their God in remembring of which covenant with Abraham c. he so often shewed them mercy and did them good and in time gaue his Son Christ to saue them from their enemies and lastly by which Covenant they shall again be called when the fulnesse of the Gentiles is come in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written There shall come out of Syon a Deliverer and shall turn away ungodlinesse from Iakob For this is my Covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins As concerning the Gospell they are enemies for the Gentiles sake but as concerning the election they are beloved for the fathers sake for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance that this covenant of loue and mercy making them blessed which are taken into it and procuring the giving of Christ and of salvation should be the covenant of the old Testament and Law Of the Law I say and old Testament which is the ministery of death the letter that killeth which worketh wrath was added for transgression by which sin reviveth and all die and are accursed What is this else but to bring the currant of gracious mercy into a channell of severe justice and to curse where God blesseth as Balaam purposed to haue done Secondly we conclude hence that the Church of the Iews and Church now is one in substance though diversly ordered one Uineyard in which there are both grown trees and yong plants one Kingdom which was taken from them and given to us the branches of one oliue tree holy in the same holy root Abraham from which most of them were broken off for unbelief and we by faith planted in their place one body and therefore having Infants in it now as then and the same therefore to be baptized there being also one Baptism as one body as they were circumcised of old Baptism as elsewhere I haue proved at large to their silencing in that point comming in the place of Circumcision Thirdly that all their disputes against Infants Baptism because they cannot manifest faith and repentance are but the same quarrels which might haue been picked of old against Infants Circumcision That there was something in Abrahams circumcision extraordinary is true for he first received it for his posterity and for the Proselytes with them which joyned themselvs to the Lord so was there also in his faith as he was the father by example to all that should beleev after him Their prophane assertion that faith was required of none to wit men of years for circumcision I haue formerly disproved How can it come into the hearts of reasonable men that the Lord in whose eies the prayers sacrifices and all other services of ungodly men were so abominable should like of their circumcision Lastly for Abrahams children of the flesh according to their misunderstanding of them they were by nature children of wrath as well as others and had thereby no more right to circumsion then the Infants of Sodom It was of grace and not of nature that they were within Gods Covenant Of Gal. 3. and Rom. 9. we haue spoken at large formerly and of their misconstructions of the Apostles meaning Lastly we neither run as they say nor goe to the old Testament Law or Moses for the baptizing of Infants but to
is subject to his will and his will is that they should take the medicine The substance of their objection is that God will not and therefore cannot cure men otherwise then by their receiving the medâ—cine offered Christ and his benefits Very true God wâ—ll not nor can so doe by his revealed will which to us is the rule of his power But where they say that Gods power is subject to his will this must be otherwise understood then as they do conceiving it to be of that work of his will by which he appoints others what they shall doe whereas it is to be understood of that work of his will by which he appoints in himselfe what he will doe in or about others As where it is said The Lord is in heaven and doth whatsoever pleaseth him that is whatsoever he wils the meaning is not that he doth or that his power is ruled by what he commands others to doe but by his will or purpose of doing himselfe what pleaseth him God so wils the conversion of all to whom the Gospell comes as to command the same and to approue it where it is but hee wils the conversion of some namely the elect with another and further intention of will setting a work the power of his Spirit in their hearts effectually and as they speak irresistably to convert them by taking away their stony heart and giving them an heart of flesh and by putting his Spirit within them and causing them to walke in his statutes Gods power then is not subject to his commanding will alwaies to work alike where he commands alike but it is subject to his purpose of will in himselfe according to the good pleasure thereof to work or not to work by means of his commanding will The Arguments of proofe distinctly follow 1 Arg. To receiv Christ and his grace is to beleev in him this beleeving or faith by which we are saved is the gift of God and not of our selues So as not onely the medicine it selfe and offer of it but also the hand to receiv it with which is faith and a beleeving heart is Gods gift The Phisition offers and giues to the receiver the medicine but not the heart and hand â—o receiv it but God giues these also to them that doe receiv Christs justification and sanctification and salvation by him If it be said that God giues faith by preaching and exhortation to receiv it though he add no further work I answer that then God giues this gift and grace of faith as well and as much to them that receiv it not but remain still unbeleevers as to them that beleev yea more to many unbeleevers as having more and more excellent outward means then many that receiv it It is therefore absurd to say that God giues faith or to beleev unto him that never beleevs specially faith being such a gift as hath no existence but in the heart of him that beleevs 2 Arg. The Apostle elsewhere pronounceth all men either spirituall or naturall Of the naturall man he testifieth that he doth not nor can discern of themselvs the things of God but that they are foolishness unto him but of the spirituall that he discerns of such things and receivs them The naturall man he neither doth nor can the spiritual he both can and doth What is it then that of the natural makes the spiritual man that can doe these great things the bare publishing and proclaiming of this spirituall and gracious medicine in and by Christ Not so for too many alas remain naturall still to whom the Gospell of grace is very plenteously preached What then Is it his freewill to receiv it to whom it is preached Not so neither for his will is but the will of a naturall man who neither doth nor can discern and receiv the things of God till he become spirituall It is then Gods holy Spirit which he giues to one that hears the Gospell and not to another which makes one hearer spirituall and not another thereby changing both the will and whole man of him to whom he giues it 3 Arg. A third is taken from 1. Cor. 3. 6. 7. Paul plants Apollo waters but God giues the increase And Neither he that planâ—eth is any thing nor he that watereth but God that giveth the increase The Corinthians did too highly advance the Ministers by them factiously adhered unto as is evident setting them in Christs and Gods place the Apostle thereupon puls them down and sets them in their owne place shewing that except God and a further work then their preaching how sound and excellent soever all â—s nothing But by these mens device there needs no further work of grace from God then the gracious proclamation made by preaching to be received by mans free-will and so Gods further work of giving the increase is quite shut out 4. Arg. When the Iewes Ioh. 6. murmured at Christs words he to stop their mouths and to prevent his Disciples offence-taking sayth that No man commeth unto him except the father which sent him draw him If any say that God drawes men to Christ by the preaching of the Gospell it is true but not to the purpose of the place for so the Iewes were drawn that came not as well as they that came and beleeved There is then requisite that men may come to Christ or beleeue on him a further drawing then that by the outward preaching onely Not that God drawes men as horses draw a cart or by any violence or compulsion against or without their will but that he makes them by the inward work of his Spirit joyned with the outward word of unwilling willing effectually driveing away ignorance and rebellion and so enlightening the minde as to asâ—â—ns and the will to consent 5 Arg. Lastly these adversaries suffering their mercifull Phisition to go no further then the proclaiming offering of the medicine of grace to the sick of sin do therein make many despisers of all grace and goodnes so living and dying and perishing for ever more bound and beholden to God and his grace then many other the most faithfull holy and happy servants of Christ. The reason is plain for that many liveing and dying impenitent haue had the Gospell in a far more full and plenteous manner and measure published and preached unto them with all other outward motives and provocations of grace then many that truely beleev and repent These adversaries to the grace of God would make the faithfull servants of God more Pharisaicall then the Pharisees themselues with whom they consort in divers poynts of their faith The Pharisee that went up with the Publican into the Temple to pray yet thanked God that he was not like other men as extortioners unjust c. nor as the Publican But by these mens doctrine we should thank our selues â—f we be not like the wicked and gracelesse men and not God for God by
their saying hath not done so much for many of us as for many of them who haue enioyed more excellent outward means of grace offered then many of the others Oh you the followers of these guides yea you the guides your selvs call to remembrance the dayes of your ignorance and prophanenes specially divers of you before your first conversion to the Lordâ— and consider whether you were not deeper rooted in sin then many others who yet haue not received the grace which you haue done to beleev and repent and giue the glory to Gods grace and not to your own free-will that you beleev repent and obey rather then they Be not unmindfull of this unspeakable mercie of God towards you aboue others equal and aboue you in the enioying of outward means least it come to â—o appeare in time that you were never indeed partakers thereof ADVERSARIES NExt they come to shew what Election is laying down for that end at large the Parable of the mariage of the Kings son Math. 22. and infisting specially upon the Lords conclusion vers 14. Many are called but few are chosen inferring thereupon that it was the Kings will and pleasure that all the bidden guests should come and bring their wedding garment DEFENCE THE Scripture we acknowledge and their inference but both affirm and haue proved that besides and aboue this will of God in bidding and inviteing the guests common â—o those that came not and that came and to those that came with and without the wedding garment there was a further work of Gods pleasure and will towards the Elect vessels of mercie setting awork his powerfull spirit in their hearts to make them willing to come and that furnished as they ought And so oft as these men as they doe it very often doe urge the will of God that men should beleeve repent and be saved so oft the Reader must call to mind this distinction First that this will of God extends but to such persons as to whom the Gospell the onely means of inviting men is preached Secondly that towards those that do effectually beleeve and repent there is also a further degree of Gods good will and pleasure according to which he reveales unto them effectually heavenly things opens their hearts to attend to the things spoken and gives them to beleev and repent upon their hearing as the peculiar fruit of their eternall election Their spiritual sense also of the parable I acknowledge But whereas Ereunetes sees that Election consists in the wedding garment and righteousnesse of Christ which is Christ himself whom the faithfull do put on by faith and obedience He sees that which is not to bee seen and sees not that which is plain enough Who having common sense will say that Christ and his righteousnesse and the chusing of a man or his election are all one Christ is not our election but he in whom we are chosen or elected Neither is our putting on of Christ by faith and obedience our election as they unskilfully make it Election is Gods work not ours for it is God that clruseth us and not we our selues but the putting on of Christ by faith and obedience is our work by Gods grace and not Gods God doth not beleeve and obey but we by his grace Now before we come to refute their opinion about Election hereafter layd down more plainly but here more confusedly with certain scriptures rather heaped together then orderly brought for their purpose it is expedient we examine a distinction brought by them of this divine Election by occasion of an objection from Ephes. 1. 4. which is that election is either in the decree or purpose of God onely or else effectually and particularly made as they speak This distinct on in a good sense but not in theirs is good and true For God elects men before the world or before they be in his decree and purpose onely But it must withall be considered that this election is also in Gods purpose actuall and particular before the world Nothing in God is potentiall bâ—t all actuall Otherwise there should be imperfection in God as all potentials are being to be perfected by their actualities They should therefore say that Gods election of some particulars was onely in his decree before the world and is by him in time brought into actuall execution And here also it must be minded that whereas all the question in effect amongst all is about election as before the world and in Gods eternall decree they in effect passe that wholly by and onely treat of it as God in time puts that in decree in actuall execution Now though their reasoning of election here be full of confusion and contradiction as any judicious Reader may see â—â—d such as out of which their meaning can hardly be pickeâ—â— yet this is plain that they will haue it to depend upon the condition of faith and repentance going before affirming expresly that those persons in whom God findeth faith and obedience them he electeth to salvation in his son of meer mercie for the quality which he findeth in them But now wherein this election properly stands they neither shew us nor understand themselues as is plain by their crosse and unconstant assertions of and about it wherein yet they are so peremptory and bold as if they carried all by plain demonstration of undoubted truth What course then are we to hold with them Considering it is with them as Salomon speaks of the harlot who was lowd and stubborn whose feet aboad not in the house but she was now without now in the streets and laying wayt in every corner I haue no other way but to pursue them into and hunt them out of every corner where they lye in wayt to deceive First then for Math. 22. Many are called but few chosen It must be noted that there are three degrees of mens calling to Christ. The first when the Gospel is preached but the so called refuse wholly to answer come so were the first guests called The second is when men are perswaded to come after a maner and in some shew but without truth of faith and repentance and so he came who wanted the wedding garment The third is when men come in true faith and obedience as they ought and so the rest of the guests came Of this third and last degree of calling the Apostle speakes saying Whom he predestinated them also he called whom he called them also he justified and whom he justified them also he glorified This cannot be sayd of either of the two former sorts of called but of the latter onely And for the Election here spoken of it may well be understood of the eternall election in Gods decree the fruits and wholsome effects whereof this unprepared guest shews himself not to be made partaker of though he participated of the outward calling even to the making of some shew of that which in truth
he wanted And as the Apostle affirms of the Ephesians that they were elect of God in Christ before the foundation of the world in regard of the faith and holines appearing in them so might the Lord well say of this and other his like hypocrites and unsanctified ones that they are not of the number of the elect or chosen in Gods eternall decree so far as their present state manifests Neither is it the meaning of the Lord in those words simply to reprove him for not having on a wedding garment but for coming thither and not having it on Friend how comest thou hither not having on a wedding garment and so to warn others to make sure their election and not to content themselues with the shew of obedience without inward truth And taking the words thus they make for our and against their opinion Or take the words as meant of the actual execution of election and that in the largest sense so as in the same be cōprehended whatsoever God doth in time for the effectual procuring of a mans salvation as of the giving of Christ for him of the Gospell to him and by it faith and holinesse and the spirit of adoption and so glory in the end and we say all this he doth according to his eternall purpose of election effectuall onely in those who are made partakers of the inward calling and wedding garment thereby and not in all that are called outwardly For known unto the Lord are all his workes from the beginning of the world Whatsoever God doth in time that he purposed to do from eternitie as he doth it But take election as these men do in most places and which seems likewise to be their meaning upon best advise for that first work of mercie in God by which he actually and particularly as they speak chuseth persons to salvation they erre with great error in holding that this election is for the qualitie which God findes in persons and upon the condition of faith and repentance going before and that God onely chuseth and electeth where he finds faith and obedience to his son For first the Apostle teacheth Eph. 1. 4. that we are chosen in Christ to wit as the mediator and meanes of communicating all spirituall blessings with us before the foundation of the world was layd that we might be holy and unblameable in loue before him This is meant our adversaries granting it of the decree of election the meaning therefore must needs be that God hath from eternity decreed to elect or chuse us in time actually not because we should or would be holy as these men perversly imagine but that we might be holy As God from eternity purposed to chuse men so hee chuseth them actually in time But he purposed from eternity to chuse men that they might be holy and therfore actually in time chuseth them that they might be holy and unblameable before him and therfore not because they are holy or beleev and obey Gods actuall chusing therfore goes before our actuall faith holinesse repentance and obedience as the cause and follows them not as an effect as they mis-judge The same is confirmed from v. 5 where we are said to be predestinated to the adoption of children by Iesus Christ With which joyne that Rom. 8. 30 Whom he predestinated them also he called and whom he called them also he justified and whom he justified them also he glorified To be elected to wit in decree and to be predestinated in the good part as here are the same in substance onely we are said to be predestinated in respect of the supernaturall ends and means leading therunto unto which God in time bringeth us and to be elect or chosen in respect of others from whom God selecteth us Now if we be predestinated of Christ to the adoption of children then not because we are children or beleev which are the same Ioh. 1. 12. To this purpose it is that the Lord so oft by Moses beats upon this that he chose the Israelits to be his people out of his loue to them and loue and promise to their Fathers excluding all other motiues and placing the cause of his chusing them in himselfe alone and his loue and the stability of his purpose and promise Moses testifyeth that God chose them that they might be a holy and peculiar people unto the Lord But these men will make God begin at the other end and chuse men because they are an holy and peculiar people that is having faith and repentance going before Ioyn we with this that in the Psalm Blessed be the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy courts we shal be satisfied with the goodnesse of thy house of thy holy Temple Faith then and holinesse are not the fore found conditions for which God chuseth a man but the actuall conferring and giving of them according to an eternall purpose is the very actuall chusing of him even that by which God severs elects selects and chuseth him out of the masse of the wicked Every mans common sense will teach this All are of themselues and by nature sinners and subject to wrath Now what is it for God actually to chuse some from the rest but to bestow that upon them actually and effectually by which they differ actually from the rest which is faith and repentance God doth not therfore as these adversaries imagine chuse upon condition of faith and repentance going before but doth by the very bestowing of these graces of faith and repentance which others want chuse elect select and sever actually from others the elected from eternity in his decree Lastly by the crosse doctrine of these men we should chuse God before God chuse us for by beleeving and obeying we chuse God to be our God and for this by their crooked rule God after chuseth us to be his people Thus proud flesh will needs be before hand with God But Christ our Lord leads us another way saying You haue not chosen me but I haue chosen you to wit first which he speaks not onely of their Apostolicall but of their Christian state also as the words following make it plain that whatsoever ye shall aske of the Father in my Name hee may giue it you Vnto the state of faith and obedience onely doth this promise appertain Their assertion thus disproved wee will come to their proofs which are partly impertinent and partly against themselues The first is The Lord chuseth to himselfe a righteous man The place which is Psal. 4. 3 they note not for what purpose they best know but all may know it is grosly perverted a◠not being meant of Davids election to salvation but to the Kingdom of Israel whose glory that way his adversaries would haue turned unto shame but all in vain v. 3. But consider we this choise in proportion to the other and see what followeth Gods
actuall chusing of David to the Kingdom of Israel was that by which he had first actuall right to that Kingdom to which he had right before onely in Gods decree and of which afterwards he had possession So Gods actuall chusing of a man to the Kingdom of heaven is that by which he hath first actuall right to that Kingdom to which he had no right before saue in Gods decree Gods chusing a man therfore actually as they speak to the Kingdom of heaven is the very giving of him faith and holinesse for by these he hath this actuall right to eternall life and glory If therfore Gods chusing men actually opposed to his chusing them in decree be his giving them actuall faith and repentance then their faith and repentance goes not before Gods choise but on the contrary his chusing before their beleeving The giving of the grace by God must needs goe before the having of it by men With like successe they quote Rom. 9. 25 and â— Pet. 2. 10 c. which haue no shew of ground whereon to build their assertion that God chuseth men actually and particularly because they beleev and repent but most firm foundation for the contrary truth Men become Gods people and beloved actually by actuall faith and repentance which before were his and beloved onely in the purpose of his will according to election Rom. 9. 11. 13 and elect according to Gods foreknowledge 1 Pet. 1. 2 God therefore actually chusing men and making them his people and beloved which are all one by giving them to beleev and repent their beleeving and repenting cannot goe before his chusing them but the contrary The giving of the gift is in nature before the having and using of it by him to whom it is given and therefore â—ods chusing them which is his giving them faith and repentance is before their beleeving and repenting The next place being Rom. 11. 5. 7 they set down craftily thus v. 5 If they seek righteousnesse by faith and these are thâ— the elect according to the election of grace The words of the Apostle are So then at this time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace and v. 7 the election hath obtained it and the rest were hardened The thing obtained was the righteousnesse of God and of faith the wedding garment the righteousnesse which Israel obtained not because they went about to stablish their own righteousnesse but the election obtained it by beleeving even that remnant wherof Paul was one according to the election of grace What can be more plain against these men Or how can any more directly crosse the Apostle then they doe The Apostle saith we obtain the righteousnesse of faith which is the wedding garment according to the election of grace They say we obtain the election of grace according to the wedding garment and righteousnesse of faith and obedience The Apostle saith the election obtains the righteousnesse of Christ by faith they say the righteousnes of Christ by faith obtains the election turning Gods work upside down that they may establish their own Besides this proud exaltation and Babylonish building of mens works against Gods grace for if it be of obedience as they say then of works to wit the works of obedience the Apostle v. 6 clean overturns saying If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise works is no more works In alledging from 2 Pet. 1. 10 that this election must be made sure they as before craftily conceal part of the Apostles words which being laid down as the Text hath them overthrow plainly their errour The words are Giue diligence to make your calling and election sure He joyns calling and election together they leav calling out And herein I commend them as the master did the unrighteous steward for doing wisely though not honestly For who knows not that Gods calling us goes before our answering him by faith and obedience as the cause therof God cals and also elects men to faith and obedience and not for them The Apostles meaning is that the faithfull should use all godly care for the establishing and confirming of themselvs in the grace of God to which they were formerly called and chosen The like prophane boldnesse they use towards 1 Thess. 1. 4 where for the Apostles text Knowing beloved your election of God or Knowing beloved of God your election they put their own glosse The houshold of faith the Church of God are the elect of God The Apostle v. 4 mentions his knowledg of their election and v. 5. 6 the ground of that his knowledg and perswasion which was their faith and obedience by receiving the Word by him preached They were not therefore made elect of God by faith and obedience but therby known for such by men Col. 3. 12 makes against them also where their election is mentioned as a reason to moue them to put on bowels of mercy and all goodnes As indeed the gracious purpose of Gods election with his effectuall calling followeth and manifestâ—th is the onely Evangelicall motiue to all earnest study of obedience Their assertion following that Election is not of particular persons but of qualities is monstrous and most crosse to the Scriptures which never mention election of qualities but alwaies of persons Is the meaning of Christ Math. 22. Many are called but few chosen that many qualities are called and few chosen What quality but of sin and misery sees the Lord in them whom he calleth Or how can qualities be either called or chosen to grace or glory Christ tels his Disciples that he had chosen them out of the world If they were chosen out of the world which lyeth in wickednesse and hates the good for what good qualities trow we were they chosen If they were chosen out of the world and so were of the world before they were chosen out of it how had they faith and obedience for which these men wil appoint God to chuse them or else not That we are Gods generation viz. by creation is true but impertinent Of â—ods working good qualities in men by his word and spirit and of their resisting or not resisting we haue spoken and shall speak else where Rom. 8 29 makes for them as the former places shewing plainly â— that our predestination or election goes before our calling our calling before our justification our justification before our glorification The note in the English Testament upon Ephes. 1 is the same which the Synode at Dort and all Evangelical Churches professe Onely these mens errour is in their not putting a difference between Gods decree to saue and his actual saving of them that beleev whether by justifying or glorifying them Gods chusing a man whether in decree from eternity or by actuall and effectuall calling and calling of him out of the state of
haue not known them The Heathens therfore if we will giue credit to the word of God had not the knowledg of Gods word so not of the Gospel which is most hidden as being of supernatural revelation onely Of the same Gentiles the Apostle testifieth that God in times past suffered them all to walk in their own wayes that is did not manifest Christ unto them for faith in his bloud and repentance through him but onely his power and God-head giving them rain from heaven and other bodily blessings to witnesse the same With this accords that elswhere The times of this ignorance which had been amongst the Gentiles before Christ God regarded not or winked at but now commandeth all men every where as well Gentiles as Iewes to repent The Apostle opposeth the time now in which he preached to the former times and shews that God now and not in times past called all to repentance by the preaching of the word To conclude the same Apostle expresly teacheth that there is no salvation but by beleeving in the name of the Lord Iesus by the preaching of the word and Gospell by preachers sent of God for that end But now for any to say that every particular person in the world hath had or hath the word of the Gospell preached unto him by a preacher sent of God for that purpose were an assertion of him whose impudencie better deserved a club then any grounds that possibly he could lay a refutation considering both the infallible experience of all ages and testimony of scripture to the contrary and that there were places even in the latter end of the last Apostles time where Christ had not been named nor spoken of Next follows to be examined their exposition upon Rom. 9 in the introduction whereunto they mingle truth with errour They deal craftily in bearing the Reader in hand that the disputation of Paul herein is hard and the matter darkly handled that so they may turn the thoughts of the Reader from it or at least dim them with prejudice against that plain and evident truth of Gods free election and reprobation joyned therewith Both which things he sets down most clearly though the reason of the Lords different dealing towards them that are in themselves alike he makes unsearchable and determines in the free purpose of his will if men did not trouble the pure and cleare water of Gods sanctuary with the foul feet of their corrupt glosse They also erre in makeing this one of the places in Pauls Epistles of which the Apostle Peter speaketh 2. Pet. 3. 16. Peter doth not say neither wil the Greek text beare it that there are things hard in Pauls Epistles but that in those matters in his Epistles to wit about the day of the Lords comming and the dissolution of the heavens and elements and the new heavens and new earth promised were things hard to understand c. Their perverting of the Scriptures which they lay to the charge of others both in the Epistles of Peter and Paul and every where else wee haue formerly disclosed Neither do we affirm as they here charge us that God reprobates either the greatest number or any as they understand and elsewhere expound themselves that is predestinates them to condemnation without any condition Hee predestinates none to condemnation or which is all one purpose to condemne none but for sin freely by them to be practised as the fore-going condâ—tion and onely deserving cause of condemnation Neither say we as they slander us that God denieth means of salvation to men because he would haue them perish but as the Apostle reacheth that he hardens by that and other his holy dispensations whom he will that he might shew his wrath and make his power known upon the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ADVERSARIES LEt us now come to their exposition The scope say thâ—y as of the whole Epistle so of this chapter is that not the Law but the Gospell is the power of God to salvation and that we are not justified by the workes of the Law but by faith even that faith which Abraham had DEFENCE AS the proper and particular scope of divers parts of this Epistle is divers so do they misse of the drift of this particular chapter which is not as they conceive to prove justification not to be by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Christ in the Gospell But to shew that the first and highest cause why of all mankinde faln in Adam one is cleared and another not is onely the good pleasure and free wil of God and not mans deservings and yet that God in so choosing or electing one before another doth nothing unjustly as shall appeare in the particulars hereafter to bee explained and may in the mean while be gathered by these three generall reasons First for the Apostle when of purpose he handles the matter of justification by faith chap. 3. 4. doth so oft and againe iterate and inculcate the terms of Faith and Iustification almost in every verse whereas here he never so much as once mentions either of them in the disputation it selfe which is to the end of vers 24. where he descends from the matter of election to the calling of the elected both of Iewes and Gentiles Secondly it is unreasonable to conceive that the Apostle having in the third and fourth chapter so fully handled and so expresly concluded that matter of Iustification by faith and not by works and chap. 7. the effect and end thereof Peace with God and perseverance to salvation and chap. 6. the matter of sanctification and chap. 7. the imperfection of that sanctification in this life and chap. 8. the afflictions of the faithfull and their perseverance notwithstanding to the death should now again without any occasion and against all order return to the same matter of justification so fully handled and ended before This might wel agree with these mens wandrings in this their treatise but agrees not with the wisdom either divine or humane wherewith the Apostle was furnished Much more absurd is it to imagine that having formerly handled that subject matter of justification so plainly as he hath done chap. 3 and 4. he should returne to handle the same matter so darkly and obscurely as all the adversaries to the truth and fautors of this conceit are compelled to confesse he hath done in this place Thirdly if this were the Apostles proper drift what needed he to have made such deep protestation of his hearty sorrow for the Iewes as he did more in this place then in the former where he handled that matter more clearly then here It was in truth no other thing that moved the man of God to these sad and sorrowfull protestations then to remov the offence which might be taken at the Iews rejection and calling of the Gentiles in their stead of which and the highest cause thereof hee was now to
according to which he himselfe works in loue or hatred not of that according to which he commands and appoints men to worke These men in truth confound all things setting mans will where Gods should stand God saith on whom I will they say on him that himselfe wils or seeketh as he ought c. The same Idol of mans wil they advance set up v. 16 where in stead of Gods shewing mercy they put mans beleeving mercy The Lord by willing and running v. 16 excludes whatsoever is of or in man and either within or without him and draws all to himselfe alone In the stead of God shewing mercy they put themselvs and their free will receiving mercy by God offered as the proper cause of difference between man and man The 17 vers For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh c they handle very sleightly saying something such as it is about Gods hardening Pharoahs heart but not medling at all with the place according to the coherence which it hath with the words going before unto which yet the Holy Ghost strongly tyeth them in saying For the Scripture saith c. And herein they are in truth wise in their generation These words must needs answer to the latter part of the objection of unrighteousnesse with God in hating that is as they interpret it in rejecting such as seek righteousnesse by the works of the Law as did the fleshly Israelits But wherein I wonder did Pharaoh so How sought he justification by the works of the Law Who so professedly despised the God therof saying Who is the Lord that I should obey his voyce Did they see that this example of Pharaoh and their exposition of the place could not stand together and therfore chose to cut off the coherence so firmly tying the words together rather then to let fall their preconceived erroneous exposition Whatsoever they intend herein we know it is brought for an example of Gods absolute but righteous power of hardening rather then another whom he will and not whom he finds most deserving it for whom finds he not too much deserving it if he would deal in like manner with all as it is said whom that is which rather then other he will he hardneth v. 18. And let it be diligently minded that the Apostle here opposeth Gods shewing mercy to some and his hardening of others and not his shewing mercy to some and his condemning of others The adversaries by Gods shewing mercy would haue us understand his saving of such as beleev and repent And then on the contrary by Gods hardening should onely be meant his not shewing mercy to but punishing condemning such as doe not beleev nor repent But we know that the not hearing God voyce not beleeving and repenting follow upon hardnesse of heart Wherupon the Lord promiseth that in the day of his mercy and pittie he will take from his people their stony and hard hearts And so touching Pharaoh the Scriptures expresly shew that his hardnesse of heart was the cause of his unbeliefe and disobedience Whereupon I conclude evidently that the Apostle here speaks not of such a mercy onely as follows faith as the Adversaries would haue him but as goes before it also as he speaks of such a hardening as goâ—s before unbelief Note we here also that the Apostle in this place propounds Gods will as the cause of his dealing diversly with divers persons and not of his saving such as are to be saved after a divers manner from that which some namely the carnall Israelites imagined ADVERSARIES NOW to return to them They lay down a question thus What is the meaning of the hardening of Pharaoh And in their answer wholly passe by God as no doer in the businesse They make Pharaoh a doer in hardening his own heart which is true and Satan a doer in hardening Pharaohs heart and this is true also but God no doer but a sufferer only in giving him up that is as else where they expound it in leaving him to himselfe and to Satan to be hardened DEFENCE BVT first the Text imports a further thing in God whom it brings in thus speaking For this same purpose haue I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee and that my name might be declared through all the earth Is Gods raysing up which is his hardening v. 8 nothing but his letting a man lie still and fall down lower then he was before Besides the end which was the glory of Gods power and name shews God to be a worker Every end must haue an efficient or working cause The glory of God was not the end of Satans work nor of Pharaohs work and therefore of Gods work in it Thirdly God hardened Pharaohs heart by sending Moses and Aaron unto him as by an occasion though not a cause as the Law is the occasion of sin and the Gospell the occasion of strife and variance Fourthly God deprived Pharaoh of the use of common sense and reason otherwise it could not haue been that after so many experiments by him taken of Gods powerfull hand against him and for the Israelits he should so furiously as he did haue followed them into the middest of the Sea Lastly besides and aboue all these God in whose hands the hearts of Kings are as the rivers of waters to turn them whether he will hardened Pharaohs heart by ordering his pride cruelty and contempt of God to this effect of obstinacy appearing in his most desperate course without which powerfull and unerring hand of God all the former notwithstanding it might haue come to passe that Pharaohs heart might haue been softned by the miracles and means used and so Gods word which before had foretold his hardening might not haue taken effect which is contrary to the truth and drift of the Apostle in this place God therefore was not onely a sufferer but a doer in the hardening of Pharaoh ADVERSARIES THeir next question is How consider you these words Who hath resisted his will v. 19. Vnto which they frame this untoward Answer viz. that those Iews seeking salvation by those works of the Law did not resist Gods will and so gaue him no cause to complain DEFENCE NOthing lesse as we haue shewed and shall further manifest by and by from the Apostles answer v. 20. The meaning is plain The words v. 19 Thou wilt then say unto me why doth he yet finde fault for who hath resisted his will are an objection against that which immediately went before whom he will he hardeneth Now against this it may colourably bee objected that if God hardens whom he will hee hath then no reason to complain of mens being hardened in disobedience for Who can resist his will if he will harden them A piece of an eie is sufficient to see the plainnesse of this exposition and coherence Their discourse then following that God would saue all and haue all repent amend and beleev
also the workers of iniquity not with a passion of the mind as hatred is in man but with a holy will to punish the violation of his righteous Law And though with a generall loue of the Creator to the creature he alwaies after a sort loue the persons of men as being his generation yet he loues as is meet the honour of his holinesse more then the happinesse of his creature having violated and prophaned it without repentance They further bewray their ignorance where they think to mend the matter in saying that God hates the persons as weapons and instruments of those wicked qualities Where hath God ever so spoken or any other man before them The godly qualities or graces of knowledge faith loue patience and the like are the spirituall armour and weapons of godly men the members also of men are called the weapons of righteousnesse or unrighteousnes for that with them they practise perform the works thereof But to say the persons are weapons and instruments of the qualities is to put the person in the hand of the weapon to be used by it wheras on the contrary all know that the weapon and instrument is in the hand of the person and to be used and exercised by him They here in desiring the Reader well to observ what they haue said as being a most blessed truth are loath that their nakednesse should not be seen in their spirituall drunkennesse ADVERSARIES NOW for the words of the Apostle to which they return after so long wandring their comment is They went out from us c. that is say they Those lying spirits those persons who had once the spirit of truth in them went out from the Apostles and other Saints And again those lying spirits and Antichrists in mens persons went out c. and were never of the truth the summe of all being that lying spirits and Antichrists in mens persons went out of the truth DEFENCE A Riddle better fitting H. N. then the professours of the truth in simplicity It behoues us therefore a little to insist upon the Text opening it according to the Apostles meaning and ours with him and first proving against them that by those that went out are not meant the lying spirits in the persons but the persons themselues And first these words They went out from us or better from out of us shew that those out-goers were formerly of them in a respect else how could they haue gone out from them But lying spirits were never of the Apostles and Saints but the persons sometimes were Secondly hee saith not as they corrupt the Text If they had been of the truth but of us nor they would hane continued with it but with us nor but they are not of it but they were not of us all carrying it to persons so and so qualified Thirdly Is it to be conceived that the Apostle would complain as heere he doth that lying spirits did not continue with the Churches Fourthly in saying They went out of us that it might be manifest that they were not all of us he shews that by their out-leaps something was manifested which was hid before But it was plain before to the Apostles and Saints that lying spirits were not of the truth He speaks therefore of the persons of hypocrites whom by this their professed defection God discovered Fithly in saying they were not all of us he insinuates that some of them were What some lying spirits of the Spirit of truth No but that not all the persons that formerly professed the truth with them were true members of Christs body which they were Lastly v. 20 He makes an opposition between them of whom hee writes and to whom But yee What yee spirits and so v. 28 little children that is little spirits All may see with what spirit these men are led He then speaks of the going out of persons not of spirits as they mean but being indeed Antichrists as v. 18 in regard of their spirits and doctrines for which they pretended the spirit of Christ. That which they add of the spirit of Hymeneus together with his person being in fellowship with Paul is like the rest By his Spirit it seems they mean his faith in saying faithfull Hymeneus was of the truth erroneous Hymeneus was never of it Hath the faith of a person fellowship with the Saints Or did Hymeneus his faith sometimes hold faith and a good conscience and after put them away Or are not these things plainly spoken of the person of men Paul speaking that of Hymeneus and others which hee knew in regard of outward appearance and not that which he knew not of the inward truth in the heart The meaning of Iohn is plain enough that these Antichrists went out of the Church not by making any seperation or schism from it as some thinke for they still continued in the outward fellowship preaching and prophesying and deceiving but in it by heresie and prophanenesse contrary to that outward profession of faith and holinesse which they had formerly made by which their defection they shewed that they were never truely regenerate and inwardly and indeed living members of the body but having been hypocrites at their best God so ordered that they should hereby discover themselvs For had they been indeed of the number of the faithfull they had so continued to the end Which truth this Apostle confirms further ch 3 very evidently saying whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin For his that is Gods seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God He doth not say as some would haue him he cannot sin or commit sin that is giue himselfe to sin as the wicked doe whilst the seed of God remains in him or whilst hee is born of God but for or because this seed of the new birth remaineth in him One observation I will here annex and so conclude this Head It cannot be saith Christ but offences will come And of all offences none is greater and which more wounds the tender heart of a weak Christian then when he sees such as by their former profession and appearances haue purchased to themselvs the opinion of piety and godlinesse to apostate and fall away from that their former profession either to grosse errour or prophanenesse This occasions him to suspect Satan by suggestions of unbelief furthering him herein that there is not in the course of Christianity that power of grace stablenesse and true comfort which it promiseth This stone of offence which Satans malice casts in the way Gods spirit removeth in providing that where there is in the Scriptures either mention or insinuation of mans falling away from the grace of God there is withall commonly an item given in the same place that such persons were never effectually sanctified but hypocrites at their best whatsoever they seemed either to others or to themselvs Thus where some at the first
in Adam haue sinned and by sin lost the Image of God in which they were made so as the Law is impossible unto them by reason of the flesh and so cannot possibly but sin by reason of the same flesh raigning in the unregenerate and dwelling in all which these light persons expresly confesse in the sequel of this book and that this so comes to passe by Gods holy decree and work of providence answerable not forceing evill upon any but ordering all persons in all actions as the supreme Governour of all and that the wicked being left of God some destitute of the outward means the Gospell all of them of the effectuall work of the Spirit from that weak flesh and naturall corruption daily increased in them sin both necessarily as unable to keep the Law and willingly as having in themselvs the beginning and cause thereof the blindnesse of their own minds and perversenesse of their will and affections and so are inexcuseable in Gods sight Here with the lowd boasts of their large and undenyable proofs they joyn sundry errours As first in making the good things of creation to come from Gods grace viz. for salvation of which our question is The good things of creation the Scriptures account our own and of our selvs ever opposing them to the good things of grace to salvation Secondly they err egregiously in saying that what Adam had in creation and lost by transgression for himself and his posterity that is restored through Christ to wit to all for so the question is By this all should be restored actually into Gods favour haue his image repaired in them and be wholly free from that weak flesh making the Law impossible unto them With like perversnesse doe they misapply to all Adams posterity without difference that which the Apostle speaks of himselfe and other godly Ministers and Christians onely Rom. 8. 3. 4 2 Cor. 3. 5 Phil. 4 13 as any that pleaseth to peruse the places may see Lastly they most absurdly affirm that the flesh through Christ is able to fulfill the Law wheras we fulfill the Law no further then as we kill crucifie and destroy the flesh and lusts thereof by the Spirit ADVERSARIES TO the question Whether a man can doe any thing in the work of his regeneration they answer after much froath of words that faith and repentance is regeneration and that it is most plain as what is not to their peircing eye that even in the work of regeneration man may submit to it or hinder it DEFENCE AN ignorant assertion shewing the ground of their errour in not putting difference between Gods work and mans They may as rightly say that the life and motion of the childe is its begetting To regenerate is nothing else but to beget anew Doth the child beget it selfe Or doth not the parent onely beget it So God begets by the Ministery of the Word and man is begotten by him according to that of the Apostle Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him So Iam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth By these mens doctrine we should beget our selvs of our own will Begetting in creatures is both in nature and time before the being of the begotten Men then before they be must beget themselvs by their saying And as God regenerates and not man so doth man being regenerated beleev and obey and not God Wheras if faith and obedience be regeneration then God beleevs and repents seeing God regenerates Besides as the outward means of regeneration may be and are by too many hindred from working and made unprofitable So where God pleaseth to add to the outward means and motives of the Gospell the inward work of the Spirit of which Spirit we are born or begot anew of the Spirit I say though by the Word by the same Spirit which he puts within them he takes away first what might hinder thier regeneration even their stony heart and giving them a heart of flesh a heart to know God and putting his fear in their hearts and by putting his Spirit in them causing them to walk in his statutes he thereby regenerates them or giues them faith and repentance which they must haue before they can beleev or repent as the childe must haue life before it can liue or doe acts of life and must be generated or begotten before it haue life or being Regeneration therefore goes before faith and repentance This Head they shut with answering three Scriptures The first Math. 22 but mistaken for Luk. 14. 23 which as it is frivolously objected if by any so is it easily answered The second is Ioh. 6. 44. No man can come to me except the Father draw him This is not meant say they of violent compulsion True nor yet onely as they would haue it of outward teaching by heavenly doctrine For thus the Father drew many that came not to Christ whereas hee speaks here of such a drawing as is peculiar to them that come to him who shall never hunger v. 35 and whom he will in no wise cast out v. 37. He speaks not therefore of the outward teaching onely but withall and principally of the inward teaching of the spirit as Esa. 54. 13 Ier. 31. 33. 34 1 Ioh. 2. 27. The most of them whom the Father drew by heavenly doctrine that is to whom Christ preached murmured at him v. 41 this hee reproues vers 43 vers 44 takes away the offence which might arise at the consideration of the small effect which his words had with many considering what he testified of himselfe v. 39. 40 shewing that such was mans perversenesse in spirituall things as that except God to the outward word adjoyned the inward work of the Spirit thereby drawing him his obstinacy could not nor would not be tamed nor he turned to God Lastly to Phil. 2. 13. It is God that works in you both the will and deed after much impertinent discourse and many errours mingled among they answer that God doth this in men by reasons and perswasions that they would chuse life and avoyd death And first they conclude without and against reason that if the regenerate haue power to resist they haue power not to resist which is as if a man should say if a fool can doe foolishly then he can doe wisely or the like Secondly it is a slander upon the Calvinists that they are divided in this point or that any of them affirms that the elect though unregenerate cannot resist good Whilst they are unregenerate they can doe nothing else but resist in spirituall things But God in time as he hath decreed by the spirit of regeneration overcomes their corruption and works in them not to resist but willingly to follow him that calleth them Thirdly I would know what they mean by these phrases of Gods sending his word and spirit to
Baptism in which they think themselvs in their element as a fish in the water And beginning with Iohns Baptism they will haue it so called as Paul cals the Gospell his Rom. 1. 16 But they mistake It was so called because Iohn was under God the first both instituter and exerciser of it By their rule Iohn Murton might be called Iohn Baptist. Secondly they err in saying Baptism is repentance for the remission of sins c. Repentance goes before Baptism Repentance is inward the Baptism outward of which our question is God giues repentance Men confer Baptism Repentance is mans work for it is man that repenteth by grace Baptism considered as inward is Gods work as outward the Ministers under God They affirm p. 169 that the baptizing or washing of which we speak is an action of the hand Is repentance so with these men Indeed that repentance upon which they rebaptize is rather the work of their hands then of Gods The Scriptures alledged pag. 129. 130 shew what is required of men of years before they be baptized but are misapplyed as a bar to the Infants of beleevers Divers of them might more colourably though alike untruely be brought to proue that no infants could be saved as else-where hath been shewed them Their answer to the objection pag. 130 is but the fencing of their own stroak We willingly acknowledge that the doctrine and practise for baptizing men of years brought to beleev by preaching and unbaptized before is perpetuall This was the state of the persons instanced and this alone the places cited doe proue ADVERSARIES AGainst the baptizing of Infants they alledg that there is neither commandment nor example nor true consequence for it in Chrsts Testament which is perfect c. DEFENCE THE perfection of Christs Testament we avow and that the estate of the Church under the Ministery and Institution of the Apostles those great Maister-builders was most perfit as otherwise so in respect of Ordinances But in saying that we grant that there is neither commandement nor example for baptising infants they take their own presumption for our grant We grant that the Scriptures no where say in expresse terms Baptise infants or that Infants were baptised But withall they should consider with us that whatsoever can by just consequence be drawn out of the Scriptures expounded in their largest extent is conteined in them first els how could it truly be drawn out of them whatsoeuer then can be drawn by true consequence out of a commandement is commanded in it though not expresly yet truly and aswell as if it were expressed Else how could all duties towards God and our neighbour be commanded in the decalogue called the ten commandements Surely not except things be commanded which are not expressed if by consequence they can be gathered Else how could Christ say frō Deuteronomy It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue Whereas the word onely upon which the speciall weight of Christs answer lyeth is not expressed but the thing onely included thence to be truely necessarily collected But let us trace their foot-steps in disproving manifestly our consequences and taking away clearly all our objections to every mans conscience in the sight of God If bold promises may bee taken for due performances And first in observing what Baptism is they again untowardly confound the inward and outward Baptism Which though they ought not to be separated by Gods appointment yet are too oft by mans default and should alwaies by us be distinguished the outward as the work of mans hand as themselvs elsewhere confesseth from the inward as the work of God alone the former being with water the latter with the Holy Ghost as Iohn expresly distinguisheth his baptizing and Christs that came after him The meaning of the English Primer and of Vrsinus they mistake They speak of the inward and outward Baptism joyntly wheras our question is of that which is outward and in mans power to giue or with-hold So the faith and repentance which they require in persons to be baptized is actuall indeed in men of years but in Infants onely in disposition Neither doth Ursinus simply say that the Sacraments are no Sacraments in an unlawfull use as they cite him but that they are not Sacraments but to them that receiv them with true faith onely they haue benefit by them In like manner the Apostle tels the Corinthians that their comming together was not to eat the Lords Supper that is not for the better as v. 17 else they did eat the Lords Supper outwardly So elsewhere Hee is not a Iew which is one outwardly neither that circumcision which is outward in the flesh that is not that wherein God took delight else he was a Iew and that was circumcision after a sort I demand of these Rebaptizers whether Simon Magus being baptized by Phillip and yet remaining in the gall of bitternes and without all part in the ministration of the Gospell and so whether those false brethren creeping in unawares and being without doubt baptized by the Apostles or others had that inward and greater Baptism or no If not as is plain how were their Baptism a Sacrament in the lawfull use And if God gaue any of them repentance afterward were they to be baptized anew as being unbaptized before because they wanted the inward and greater Baptism when they received the other I suppose no even in these mens judgments If any object that the fault here was onely in the baptizeds unfitnesse in Gods sight he saith truely but must withall remember that notwithstanding the inward and greater Baptism wanted which by their ground should haue made a meer nullity of the other And note heerewith as of speciall consideration that Baptism is most corrupted by an unworthy receiver since both the Baptism is ministred and the baptizer ministreth for the baptizeds sake who being impure himselfe all things are impure unto him and that his baptism no baptism of the Lord to him in right use but rather a prophane usurpation till by his faith and repentance God afterwards giving them it become the Lords baptism to him for the confirmation of hi◠faith in the bloud-shedding of Christ for his sins Neither is it requisite that we proue as they require of us that Infants haue faith and repentance but let them proue which they presume but proue not that the actuall having and manifesting of these graces being conditions requisite for men of years are to be exacted of Infants if they be admitted to Baptism May they not as reasonably and charitably conclude that Infants are not to eat because they worke not from 2 Thess. 3 and are to be damned because they beleev not from Mark 16. 16. And was there not that required at Abrahams hands for his circumcision which was not required at Isaaks for his Or not more of
such Heathenish men of yeares as became Proselytes then of their Infants to be circumcised with them The ground of this errour in so many is that they understand not the true nature of the Gospell and Ordinances thereof The Gospell aymes not at the exacting upon man as made after Gods own image obedience due as a naturall debt from the creature to the Creator as the Law doth but considers him as a most miserable creature drowned in sin and altogether unable to help himselfe neither yet servs it and its Ordinances primarily to declare and manifest what man in right owes and performs to God but what God in mercy purposeth doth and will perform to man being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a joyfull message or glad tydings of salvation by Christ. So to apply this for the baptizing of Infants albeit they on their part can for the present make no manifestation or declaration of obedience or thankfulnesse or any other goodnesse yet sufficeth it for Evangelicall dispensation that God according to the Covenant of grace I will be thy God and the God of thy seed can and will make manifestation and declaration of his gracious minde of washing them with the bloud and spirit of his Son from the guilt and contagion of sin they also being bound in their times to reciprocall duties Let us not think scorn as proud free-willers doe of Gods taking both of us and our infants to be his people going before our or their taking of him to be our God But let us rather magnifie his mercie in this regard both towards us and them ADVERSARIES NExt they undertake to proue that Infants are not regenerate and so not to be baptized Their reason is because they haue not faith and repentance This Regeneration they define to be a turning from sin to God which they would proue from Rom. 6. 11. DEFENCE THE Apostle Rom. 6 speaks not of regeneration it self which is Gods work but of our living to God as an effect therof For as our naturall life is an effect of our first generation or begetting by our parents so is our spirituall life an effect of our regeneration by God and his Word and Spirit Turning from sin is mans work by Gods grace Regeneration is Gods work not mans So for Repentance they roav about it on all sides but scarse touch the true nature of it Repentance to wit Evangelicall required for Baptism in men of years is neither a sight and knowing of sin by the Law for that the wicked also doe nor a confessing of sin for that is outward and follows repentance in the heart nor a sorrow for sin for that goes before it nor a promise to forsake sin for that follows after it as an outward effect no nor yet properly an endevour to forsake it though that come nearest Repentance is properly a growing wise afterwards and changing of the minde from sin to God in the purpose of the heaâ—tâ— having an effectuall endevour to forsake sin accompanying it as the effect thereof Now their argumentation in this place that because Infants haue not faith and repentance to wit actuall and that in manifestation also which are the conditions required in men of years for their Baptism and the inseparable fruits of regeneration therefore they are not regenerate and so not capable of Baptism is as if some idiot would affirm that infants are not born nor to be reputed reasonable creatures nor endued with the faculties of understanding and reason because they make no manifestation thereof no more then bruits doe Their proofs against the Regeneration of Infants thus disproved I manifest the contrary as followeth Christ the Lord teacheth that except a man be born or as the word more properly imports begot again hee cannot enter into Gods Kingdom Either therfore regeneration is to be granted Infants or Gods Kingdom to be denyed them If any say this is meant of men of years onely the Text convinceth him which opposeth the first birth or generation which is of Infants to the second regeneration The first as v. 6 being of the flesh making them so born uncapable of Gods Kingdom without the second by the spirit Secondly they confesse else-where that all by Adams fall haue that weak flesh Rom. 8. 3 by which they cannot keep the Law c. Now I demand whether Infants to be glorified carry this weak flesh hindring thus effectually true holinesse into heaven with them or no If not as is certain then it must be purged out of their soules and hearts as the seat and subject therof But nothing can purge out that which is contrary to holinesse saue the holy Spirit of God the Spirit of regeneration which lusts against the flesh and is contrary unto it either therfore they must be regenerated or not glorified Thirdly the Scriptures teach that by the spirit of Christ which is the spirit of life for righteousnesse dwelling in us our bodies shall be quickned and raised up unto glory Children therefore by their grant being to be raised again and glorified by Christ must haue Christs spirit which is the spirit of sanctification and regeneration dwelling in them Lastly joyn with these things that all are by nature I say by nature with the Apostle not by act alone as say the Adversaries children of wrath having right to wrath as children to their fathers inheritance and therewith that baptism is the lavacher or washing of regeneration it will follow that children if to be freed from the wrath to come and glorified are to be regenerated and baptized also Christ saues and so glorifies his body onely which is the Church which he sanctisies with the washing of water and the word and there is one body and one baptism ADVERSARIES THeir Answers to the Scriptures brought for the baptizing of the Infants of beleevers follow To Act. 2. 38. 39. Repent and be baptized every one of you c. for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are a farre off even as many as the Lord shall call they answer that this is meant of such fathers of the Iews and their children and fathers of the Gentiles and their children as beleev viz. both fathers and children and that by children are oft meant men of yeares in the Scriptures specially Abrahams children DEFENCE THat such are sometimes meant wee grant but deny that meaning in this place And first by them a far off are not meant the Gentiles far off in state as Eph. 2 but the Iews far off in time as the originall carries it Besides neither was Peter himselfe as yet sufficiently perswaded of the calling of the Gentiles Act 10 neither if he had was it as yet seasonable to mention that matter to the Iews Secondly in saying the promise is made to you and your children hee speaks of some solemn promise made to them all and the same to haue its fruit and effect
it is easier for these men to repeat over the same things many times then once to justifie them ADVERSARIES TO the Scriptures record that little children were brought to Christ that he might lay his hands on them and pray or blesse them and that wheras his Disciples would haue hindred them from him even upon the same ground without doubt upon which these men excludes them he being therewith displeased bids suffer them to come unto him for that of such is the Kingdom of heaven and takes them in his armes and blesseth them and to our collection hence they answer first that He saith not that Infants are of the Kingdom of heaven that is obeyers of the Gospell but that they that will enter into the Kingdom of heaven must become as little children for of such c. And that his mayn end was to declare the innocent estate of Infants and to teach all to be like unto them by conversion and withall that Christ baptized them not and lastly that his blessings are manifold to Infants in their creation life and bodily benefits DEFENCE LET us examine the particulars First they presume but cannot proue that onely such are of the Kingdom of heaven as obey the Gospell Shall Infants which they affirm else-where be glorified in the Kingdom of heaven and yet are they not of it There are not two Kingdoms of heaven but one begun in grace and perfected in glory Secondly they to make more colourable their erroneous construction of the Evangelists words and Christs work about those Infants cite for Math. 19 and the like places Math. 18 that so the slight Readers such as their Disciples are might conceiv that Christ had no other meaning in the other places by us alledged then in that by them and that he spake not of a child personally but in condition as David was Ps. 131. Wheras in that place Christs meaning was to reprov the ambitious contentions amongst his Disciples by the contrary disposition in a childe which he therfore took and set in the midst of them but in the other his purpose was to shew what interest the children of the Church had in him and in his blessing for which they were brought unto him by their parents Against these depravers both of the word and work of God I thus argue That which the parents which brought their infants desired that the Lord did for them But it is plain that their desire in bringing them was that he might pray for them and blesse them as the Scriptures expresly teach he did But say they he baptized them not True for hee baptized none though actuall beleevers It sufficeth that he did that by which he declared that they had right in him and in his blessing and that it was his will they should come unto him Let them shew a way how they can now come to Christ saue by Baptism Or how they can haue right in his blessing and yet haue no right in his bloud-shed and in Baptism for the signifying and applying it They add that Christ healed the sick and gaue bodily blessings of life growth in stature and the like But as it is meerly and vainly imagined that these children were brought for the healing of any bodily diseases so are we taught expresly by the Holy Ghost that Christs blessing them was not for bodily benefits but because the Kingdom of heaven was of such that is appertained to them and to such as they were ADVERSARIES TO our next Argument taken from the circumcision of Abrahams infants they answer First there is no commandment for baptizing of Infants now as there was for circumcising them then Secondly that that commandement was for males onely children or servants though unbeleevers Thirdly that circumcision was to be performed onely on the eight day so as there is no proportion between Circumcision and Baptism DEFENCE HEE that pleaseth to reade the former passages between them and us which they haue in their hands but answer not shall see how weightlesse this exception is and how we haue proved against them that the Church of Israel and ours is one in substance the covenant the same which God made with them in Christ to come and with us in Christ come in the flesh and withall how our Baptism succeeds their Circumcision They trifle in objecting the Legall difference of daies and sexes which the Scriptures expresly teach to bee abolished Are not Pastors now the Lords Ministers as the Levites were of old and their successors therein and yet are they not tyed to any certain Tribe as they were Is not our Lords Supper the same in effect with their Passeover Both the one and the other the mysticall eating of the Lamb of God Which yet is not tyed to any certain day or month as was the former Lastly they err grievously in saying that unbeleeving servant and children were commanded to be circumcised The Lord would haue all the wicked cut off from his people and would he haue unbeleevers received unto them Hath God entred Covenant with unbeleevers to be their God as he hath done with all to whom Circumcision appertained Was it the seal of the righteousnesse of faith and yet due to the faithlesse Rather then these Adversaries will admit the seed of the faithfull to be of Gods people now they will haue very Infidels and Vnbeleevers of old to haue been of his peculiar ones If their heresie were detestable who made the God of the Law worse then the God of the Gospell surely theirs is not light nor small who thus contumeliously speak of him in his people which he took neer unto himselfe and whose God he became and of that speciall Ordinance by which he differenced them from the prophane world as holy unto him in which they interest the unbeleevers and unholy ADVERSARIES NOW followeth our main foundation that as the infants of Abraham and of the Israelites his posterity were taken into the Church-covenant or covenant of life and salvation as they call it and rightly in a true sense with their parents and circumcised so are the infants of the faithfull now and to receiv accordingly the seal of Baptism to which they say and proue as they say that neither Circumcision was nor Baptism is a seal of the Covenant of salvation but the spirit of promise which is ever the same DEFENCE THeir dispute from the seal of the Spirit to proue that there is no other seal is as if a man should deny all teaching direction and comfort by the Word and Sacraments because the Spirit teacheth directeth and comforteth the faithfull This point I haue else-where proved at large against them neither are they either able or doe they goe about to giue any shew of answer and yet without modesty they repeat their former bare sayings fully answered and refuted Where the Apostle 2 Cor. 1 and Eph. 1 4 speaks of the seal of the spirit means
he that the Spirit makes a materiall print in the soule as a seal doth in Wax Or not this onely that it helps to confirm and comfort a Christian inwardly in the loue of God and hope of salvation And are not the Sacraments outward helps of comfort and confirmation of a beleevers heart in the same loue of God and hope of glory Vpon the same ground that the Apostle cals it a seal inwardly we call them seals outwardly ADVERSARIES TO shew that the Covenant in question was the Covenant of the Law and old Testament and not the covenant of salvation and so Circumcision the seal thereof and not the sign and seal of life and salvation they discourse at large upon Gal. 4 and of the two seeds of Aoraham the one after the flesh unto which the covenant appertained whereunto circumcision was annexed DEFENCE FIrst they err greatly in denying the very Covenant of the Law to haue been the Covenant of life and salvation For the commandement was ordained to life And the man that doth the workes of the Law shall liue in them And if the Law promise not life and salvation then neither doth it threaten death and condemnation The Covenant then is of the same things but the condition divers The Law exacting perfect obedience of and by our selvs the Gospell requiring true faith and repentance which it also worketh in the elect Secondly it is most untrue that Circumcision was the sign or seal of the old Testament or Law taking it properly as they doe The Apostle expresly cals it the seal of the righteousnesse of faith opposed to the righteousnesse of works or of the Law of which more hereafter else where shewing that the same Law was given foure hundred and thirty years after the covenant or promise to Abraham and his seed confirmed before in Christ through the peaching of the Gospel that they which are of faith might be blessed with faithfull Abraham How preposterous are these mens waies who will haue the seal so long before the Covenant Thirdly Circumcision was the seal of that Covenant by which Abraham and his posterity became the Lords peculiar people seperated from all the uncircumcised heathen unto him for his inheritance and therein blessed For blessed is the nation whereof the Lord is God the people that he hath chosen for a possession to himself and blessed is the people whose God is Iehouah Now will these gainsaying spirits have men blessed by the law whether God will or no Saith not the scripture that by the law all are accursed and that as many as are of the works of the law are accursed as being unable to keep it The Covenant then by which Israel became Gods people and therein blessed of which Circumcision was a sign and seal was not the Covenant of the law but of the gospell and so of grace and salvation by grace Lastly how wyde and wilde are they in expounding the allegory of Abrahams two sons Gal. 4 makeing Abrahams children after the flesh the Infants of the faithfull never considering the Apostles generall scope unto which the particulars are to be applyed Doth he in that place deal against the Infants of the Galatians or against the men of yeares though children in knowledg who had begun in the spirit but would be made perfit in the flesh that is would be justified by the law specially by circumcision in the flesh by which they made Christ of none effect and fell from grace Were they Infants to whom he saith Tel mee ye that desire to be under the law c. So where he addeth He that is born after the flesh persequutes him that is born after the spirit doth he mean that Infants are persequuters Or is not his meaning plain that such as glory in the flesh and in circumcision and other fleshly prerogatives and so despise the free promise of grace in Christ and them that rest under it as Ismael did both in truth of person and type of others are these persequuters at all times to be cast out with Ismael as having no right to the inheritance of grace or glory Are the Infants of beleevers to be cast out for their persequutions Out of what I marvail and for what persequutions These men in opening this Allegory or Parable verify that of the Wise-man As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard so is a Parable in the mouth of fooles That the Covenant Gen. 17. whereof circumcision was a sign was the same which we haue now in the Gospell we haue not onely said as they say we haue done but proved by so clear arguments as that had they onely set them down there had needed no further confirmation of them notwithstanding any thing that they could haue excepted But they haue cunningly passed them by in silence as if no such thing were in the book and doe onely repeat over and again the same things with great irksomnes specially to those that haue formerly confuted them ADVERSARIES BVT they tell us that the Covenant under the Gospell is a new and better Covenant then the old c. DEFENCE WE grant it but affirm withall that the Covenant with Abraham was not the Covenant of the law or old testament as they mean The Covenant with Abraham was confirmed of God in Christ that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles thorow Iesus Christ. The Covenant of the Law or old Testament was 400 and thirty years after and was added for transgression til the seed should come to whom the promise was made that is to detect and manifest mens sins and cursed state thereby that so they might fly the more earnestly to the promise of Christ the blessed and blessing Seed made formerly to Abraham Neither do the Scripture in this matter ever oppose Abraham and Christ but Moses and Christ. The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth by Iesus Christ. So Hebr. 10 the Law of Moses and Covenant of the Son of God are opposed and Moses made the Mediator of the old testament and Covenant established in the blood of bulls and goats and Christ the mediator of the new by his own blood And I would know of these men where the law is ever called the law of Abraham as it is every where the law of Moses which law or old testament opposed to the new was written and engraven in Tables of stone and had therefore not Abraham but Moses the mediator of it Lastly for the ceremoniall part of the Law old Testament or Covenant the Authour to the Hebrews makes it plain that it was received under the Leviticall Priesthood having a worldly sanctuary and ordinances and divers washings for the purifying of the flesh but not of the conscience from dead workes whereas by the promise and Covenant to Abraham and his seed the blessing of justification came both upon the Iews in their time and Gentiles