yet your arguments no nor yet your uncivil and disparaging language But you drive me out of the field with your dust you confound me with your confused significations I cannot plainly perceive your meaning and when I think that I have it you have another at hand because it concerns you not a little to deal in obscurities and ambiguities and to have your reserves readie and places of retreat And you either cannot or will not perceive my meaning As here in the Section next following that which I thought had been plain enough to be understood you have so taken snatching one part from the other as to wring out an impertinencie from my words that never came into my minde that so you might have something to busie your self about Quintilian will have his Oratour so to speak not onely that he may be understood but so clearly and in such a manner that he cannot possibly but be understood even by those that are negligent in hearing and are minding other matters There he some and you may be one of them that through their wilfulness make this advice of his to be needfull and a verie difficult task too you are quick enough and ready to defend whatsoever it be you chance to say and you seem as backward to apprehend what anothers meaning is But I pray if you finde no tolerable sense in what you read look it over again and mark it better lest the fault be found to be in your self As for universal objective grace by whomsoever maintained it seemeth to implicate in the terms as doth the Catholick-Romane that is an universal particular Church To which purpose may briefly be considered wherein grace as it is grace consisteth Some will tell you that it is not grace because it is given to one and denied to another but because it is given to the unworthy But the elect Angels were confirmed by grace and yet were worthy so far as any creatures can be worthy And our Saviour Jesus Christ was full of grace and did partake of Gods favour in the highest degree yet withall was most worthy Others say that if it be grace it must be added to nature and natural parts or perfections Now this indeed is true of Gods grace shewed to man but doth no way agree to grace in general neither hath it any place in such grace as one man sheweth to another or as a king sheweth to one or more of his servants or subjects But you may say to me thus The subjects of a kingdome may be supposed even every one of them more or less obnoxious to the strictness or rigour of law for submitting to a forreiner invading or a domestick usurping if the king be pleased to pardon every one of them not excepting any this would be a great grace and yet is universal therefore there may be universal grace without any opposition in the terms To this I answer Although the grace of the king thus pardoning all his subjects be universal in some respect that is in respect of the persons yet it is singular in respect of the case or of the time and in respect of the kings carriage to his subjects otherwhile And if he should in like manner pass by all offences against him and his crown during his whole reign this semper-lenitas were not grace but an aberration in government and a kinde of injustice through excess of clemencie and remissness But Gods goodness in creating all things and his providence in governing and disposing all things these two shining forth from the beginning of the world to the end cannot be called grace as being no way singular For according to Scripture and common custome of speaking grace always implieth something singular or particular therein CHAP. XXI Rahab and Cornelius IN my second Edition because I see it might be questioned touching Cornelius I left him out and mentioned besides Rahab Naaman and the Ninevites And are these any better instances to prove that Faith hath been wrought by means of Gods works Jonas preached to the Ninevites and what Faith they had was by his means and Naaman was a Proselyte and desired so much earth from the land of Israel as might serve for an altar and resolved thenceforth to offer neither offering nor sacrifice to any but the Lord. Rahab was brought to her Faith by the works of God for Israel which she heard of before the spies came to her That which Rahab knew of the true God was made known by the Church as the Apostle speaks in another case Ephes 3.10 Whether by the Church as a glass or whether by the ministerie or teaching of the Church that was the school and not the school of the creatures in which she was taught God was pleased to work faith in her by the miracles she heard of so way was made for further instruction For proof that there is varietie of means to saving faith you send me to Rom. 2. If uncircumcision keep the Law it shall be counted for circumcision Whence you seem to argue thus Pagans Infidels uncircumcised may keep the Law and do as much yea more than some Jews or Christians that have the written word and Sacraments as varietie of means Answ There were many of the Gentiles who were Proselytes to the Jews Religion and remained uncircumcised who had the knowledge of the true God and walked in obedience to him Jews inwardly and in the Spirit which were better Jews than others who were circumcised and disobedient What gather you hence for varietie of means or from the other place following chap. 3. v. 21. The righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Where Law in the first place is taken strictly for the doctrine of the Moral Law whether written or natural as it stands in opposition to the Gospel and the righteousness of God without the Law is elswhere in other words called The Righteousness of faith without works or without works of the Law And in the second place Law signifieth the writings of Moses in which Evangelical promises were many ways contained When you broach such new and scandalous opinions as you do it is not sufficient to refer to chapter and verse you should bring the words and shew wherein consists the strength of your argument or proof CHAP. XXII False conceptions Four instances I Did not quarrel with you as you say I did for making crueltie a false conception but for setting it in opposition to all mercie If you saw not this it was your own blindness whether wilfull or no I say not because I know not He taxes me with partialitie for putting four false conceptions into the same different character or else I know not wherefore I think indeed the subtillest of all our Readers is not able to finde out what should be the partialitie to include four false conceptions in the same different character And withall I think the meanest of all if he dare adventure
faith in the kinde of it hath a true being and is of good use and benefit and it is best for them that have it to hold what they have and not think of losing it for a better for though it be not justifying faith nor a part of it nor yet a degree of it yet is it a step towards it according to Gods ordinarie way of proceeding in the conversion of sinners and as a stock whereupon is engrafted saving Faith when God is pleased to make that Christian a member of the Church invisible who was before but a member of the Church visible And as in the vision of the great tree that figured the estate of Nebuchadnezzar the stump of it was left in the ground because God intended to restore him So there is more hope of good intentions towards him who preserveth in himself found principles of Religion though he be unsanctified than another who goeth aside in the by-ways of unbelief or misbelief And secondly as for faith temporarie it is not so called because it never endures but for a time but because it is apt in the nature and constitution of it to abide but a while and then to fail For in two cases a temporarie beleever doth not fall away 1. When persecution doth not arise nor any temptation on either hand for then he may persevere in his faith during his life 2. When it pleaseth God to make use of this common Grace as preparatorie to saving Grace and to indue the temporarie beleever with true justifying faith which is his meer gift not produced by the utmost of natural and civil persections but bestowed onely upon the heirs of life In a visible constituted Church God bringeth men home to himself ordinarily by Degrees working in them first that which is natural and that which is moral and then that which is spiritual And they which quench the spirit even in the common gifts thereof forsake their own mercies and are no friends to their own salvation though you seem to advise all men that are not as they ought to be to turn Atheists or Pagans for so they must do if they lose all their faith Pag. 135. Such were the Galatians they ran well were the sons of God by faith Yet the Apostle saith so manie of them as were justified by the Law were fallen from Grace In that place the word Grace doth signifie the Doctrine of Grace as 1 Pet. 5.12 This is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand in other places also where Grace is opposed to the Law and it is as much as if he had said You that are justified by Law are fallen from the Gospel or Doctrine of Faith You are revolted from the Covenant of Grace to the Covenant of works I answer therefore first The defection of a particular Church from sound Doctrine to errour or unbelief is no good argument to prove the revolt of a particular beleever from the habit of saving Grace no not so much as of any one individual person from sound doctrine for an erroneous generation might rise up in the stead of these who held the truth to their dying day And secondly It doth not appear that those Galatians who stood in Grace did now fall from Grace They did run well and now they did intermit their course not forsaking the right way but halting or stumbling in the way and doubtless were recovered by the Apostles admonition as he was perswaded they would be ch 5. v. 10. I have confidence in you that you will be no otherwise minded than yon have been Neither doth he speak absolutely in the words you bring but rather conditionally as if he had said thus if ye be justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace as he saith v. 2. if ye be circumcised So that from the Galatians there is no such abundant proof as you speak of The temporarie beleever is not said to have wanted truth of faith but root If they had no root then they had no truth of Faith but onely leaves of profession which Simon Magus had and many other who yet are said to beleeve But it is a heart of unbelief that causeth to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 It was the last sort of hearers and they onely that did receive the word in an honest and good heart that is the difference of this fourth kinde of hearers from the other three and must therefore be in the fourth onely and without such a heart they might have some faith but they could never have a justifying faith of which onely the question is The foolish virgins had oyl in their lamps else how could their lamps have burned or gone out But they took not oyl in their vessels to supplie their lamps they treasured not up the word of God in their hearts A Parable is as an instrument of Musick it is unskilfulness to strike besides the strings Oyl in their lamps is the profession of Christiantie in outward works and words Oyl in their vessels is inward Grace or Faith whence outward professon is maintained and supplied There was a difference from the beginning between the foolish and the wise and between their lamps which were not alike provided for and thence it was that the one sort went out and the other continued burning That it was true oyl that was quite spent and burnt out as good as that which the other virgins had to feed their lamps withall is a consideration belonging not to the scope or intention of the Parable but to the frame or constitution of it But have you the confidence to maintain that they had truth of faith when yet you say The word of God was not in their hearts The house that fell had no good foundation because they did not do what they heard You might rather have said they did not what they heard because they had no good foundation Action is rather the superstructure than a ground-work But if they did not do what they heard then they had not true faith for true faith is always operative and attended with works otherwise it is but the counterfeit of faith What need of warning true beleevers to take heed of falling or of fearing offence taking if they were out of all danger of taking offence and falling the Apostles implie no such impossibilitie of their falling Exhortations to a mixt societie or congregation must be so delivered as to fit one sort of hearers as well as another and to be usefull to all In the Epistles that the Apostles wrote to the Churches in which were good and bad when they speak to the good they speak as if they were all such and when they direct their speech to the bad they often speak so as if they were all bad I desire you would remember this rule whensoever you fetch any argument of this kinde from the manner of the Apostles writing to any societie of Christians and if you had thought of it now you would
other men to beleeve onely implicitly as the Church beleevs which is the thing I lead my parishioners from Three Symbols or Creeds were wont to be proof sufficient of a good Christian and Catholick You here would have but one and that one the word of God as every man shall differently understand it And I do not remember that ever I heard before now the word of God called a Creed Because I named Removers of land-marks that their fore-fathers had set you said I condemned you for such you seem now to acknowledge your self such for certainly no limits there are of the Christian Churches if the Creeds be not The implicite Faith of the Romanists is a Resolution and Profession to be of the Churches belief though in the mean time it be unknown what that is An assent in gross to all that the Church propoundeth to be beleeved and though Faith be in Scripture called Knowledge yet say they it is better defined by Ignorance than by Knowledge This implicite Faith being upon the matter nothing but a good opinion we have of our teachers may be a good disposition or preparation to Faith but Faith it self it cannot be And can your conscience suffer you to make the world beleeve that when a Church shall compose a Confession of Faith taking care the people be taught it and exacting conformitie thereto and imposing penalties upon such as shall depart therefrom that this is onely the implicite Faith of the Romanists Or to tell a good Christian that hath been instructed in the Doctrine of the Church of England who knows it and beleevs it to be the Truth That it is a point of Popery to beleeve as the Church beleevs I hope there are but few that will not soon discern the mischief and the consequence and the fallacy of such instruction Sect. 9. I told you formerly that you used this word all as a helve or handle wherewithall to cut down the trees of the forrest To this say you now Sect. 9. An acute charge like helves or handles that use to cut I thought you might be so acute as to take my meaning without my further rehearsal of the Fable that is so well known A man that wanted a helve for his ax came and begged one of a certain goodly wood or tuft of trees promising to trim and prune them having obtained it did therewithall cut the trees down to the ground He could not cut them down without a helve but with an helve or handle he did it For there is no remedy but you must give us leave to put this particle with to any thing that is an instrument whether conjunct or separate or that is instrumental He that felleth an oak doth it with his arm and with the strength of his arm as well as with his ax You write with your ink and with your hand and with your pen the ploughman will tell you that he turns up the soyl with his oxen and will you tell him again that oxen do not use to turn up the soyl Thus while you hunt after such minutes and minims as these are and miss them too thinking you have caught a flie when it is but the shadow of it you let pass the substance of the accusation which I brought against you and that is this You come to Scripture and thence you take this word all pretending by the help of that to preach the Gospel more sincerely and more profitably than others generally do running without their message But you frame it and stretch and wrench it in such a manner that you corrupt and overturn the chief points of the Covenant of Grace Tertull. de Pudic. cap. 16. Est hoc solenne perversis alicujus capituli ancipitis occasione adversus exercilum sententiarum instrumentitotius armari that is With one place or sentence or point of belief that is of various and doubtfull acception perverse men think themselves sufficiently armed and furnished to oppose the greatest part of the Bible Sect. 10. I said that we may not think that Luke meant contrary to Pauls doctrine That he fraudulently suppressed Your discourse tending to accord the words of Luke with Pauls doctrine because it was somewhat tedious and vain as I thought it and especially because it belonged to another place I did onely note by the way in brief But that you did in seeming-satisfaction to your self at least make them agree well together I did not omit to give notice in these words though he thinketh he can reconcile them And when I said thus much it is most evident that I did not fraudulently suppress what you did though I did not needlesly express how you did it But when you said It is safer to stick to Paul than to Luke it was scandalously spoken of you and an odious comparison if you do indeed beleeve all holy Scripture to be divinely inspired why should you prefer one writer of it before another You appeal to me Whether in case Luke doth disagree with Paul if it be not safer to stick to Paul who says If we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel than we have preached let him be accursed But the Apostle doth not make comparison betwixt himself and any other Apostle or pen-man of holy Scripture for he joyns himself with them if we he sets not himself above others but names himself together with others the better to establish that Gospel which he together with others had taught Here is nothing of sticking to Paul more than to Luke but of sticking to the doctrine once delivered against any other doctrine that should be taught by any whosoever upon what pretence soever imaginable Sect. 11. May I not stick to his sayings and yet say they be hard to be understood But when you answer the arguments brought against you out of such chapters by saying those chapters are hard to be understood then you do not stick to his sayings so as by them to be concluded or to suffer an end to be put to the Controversie That which is urged out of those places against the Universalists is easie and evident you make use of the difficultie of them for an answer to put off and elude that which is plain and not obscure or difficult The matters of doctrine delivered by S. Paul may be hard to be understood that is hard to be received digested and entertained by loose unsettled persons many difficulties and intricacies there may be not easily cleared shall this render the proof invalid that such doctrines there are If you should out of S. Pauls Epistles defend Justification by Faith against a Papist you would not accept it for an answer if he should say thus That is one of those things the Apostle Peter speaketh of hard to be understood which some hereticks have wrested towards libertie and profaneness as if therefore there were no necessity of godliness or good works The rejection of the Jews and calling of the Gentiles The abolition of
the Law of Moses were matters hard to be understood by the Jews and in which were many perplexities yet were plainly delivered by the Apostle The impossibility of Apostates repentance and renovation was plainly taught yet attended with difficulties and wrested by the Novatians So is the final period of the world foretold in holy Scripture yet are there many obscurities about it and many errours The Resurrection of the dead is fully and manifestly declared and confirmed yet because it was hard to be understood and beleeved it was wrested to this sense as if it were already past whether interpreted of rising from the death of sin or any other way These particular doctrines now by me named are by divers diversly conjectured to be intended by S. Peter as well as that doctrine to which you apply his words Gods gracious and free Election likewise final Perseverance are evidently taught by the Apostle Peter 1 Epist ch 1. ver 2 and 5. as well as by the Apostle Paul Rom. 8.29 30. and in the chief part of the ninth chapter And because these things are hard to be yeelded to and hard to be received and because there be many things belonging thereto that are secret and unfathomable let not therefore that which is plainly taught be either denied or in such a manner interpreted and perverted that it amounts to a denial You and yours have so gone to work that to an ordinarie capacitie the chapter spoken of is made scarce intelligible You say God decreed not to choose particular persons but to choose all such as beleeve the promises of the Gospel and to refuse all such as seek justification by works whereas certainly had there ever been any such decree made then Paul had never been chosen who was a law-worker as you call it So were many of the Jews and Pharisees who yet were brought to life eternal And whereas the Apostle teacheth Election and Salvation to be Not of man that worketh willeth er runneth but of God that sheweth mercy you have so wrested it that now it is Not of man that willeth or worketh but of man that beleeveth and continueth in Faith and Repentance to his lives end And indeed if Election be of such as such who persevere in Faith and Repentance then is Election of workers in respect of their works namely Beleeving and Repenting and Persevering which are works all of them belonging to Gods law And thus have you overthrown your own doctrine which you have devised wherewith to overthrow the doctrine of S. Paul Sect. 12. It is one thing to look boldly another that it may do so Humane frailties hinder not Christian boldness But he that saith I may look boldly doth there-withall and in so saying look boldly indeed Now you made your book look boldly whether it might do so or no when you taught it to say in the Preface that it might look your worst Adversaries boldly in the face And although he that hath humane frailties may look boldly yet his humane frailties may not and if he saith they may he doth then justifie his frailties And thus much for your Preface or first Chapter CHAP. II. The word Creatours I Shall put him in minde where he may read it in Ainsworth upon Psal 149. The Christian Churches never forbad us to read Eccles 12.1 in the Hebrew tongue or to turn it into English according to its proper force or Idiome You have helped me where to finde the word in our language but that it is found in our Church I cannot admit for you know that Ainsworth was a professed Separatist from the Church of England It was somewhat boldly done of him to turn it so who yet in his Title professed to explain the Hebrew words but it was far more boldly done of you to learn the children at the very first to speak so As you have helped me to the notice of one so will I in lieu of him help you to the notice of another whom perhaps you have not yet observed or if you have I dare say you never before took notice of one of his places which he hath added to yours and Ainsworths It is Th. Br. of N. in a small tract published last year His fourth instance is in these words Eph. 2.12 And ye were without Gods in the world so it is in the Greek plurally but it is falsty tran slated God singularly as if there were but one God in the Trinity I hope there is a mean on this side the Tridentine Restraint without such libertie as many men affect who are afraid that they shall not be known but pass in obscurity and not be counted more learned and judicious than others are if they do not mend and alter something or other though it be without exception generally received and of long continuance AEneas Sylvius before he was Pope or Cardinal or Bishop was Secretary to Frederick the Emperour and having indited some letters at his first coming to the employment he sent the copy to a Bishop then living at the Court who procured him that preferment desiring him to examine it and alter what he should finde needed alteration who soon after returned him again his copie in sundry places blotted but no way bettered having put out divers words here one and there another placing such in their stead as were no way so fit and proper and when the Secretarie asked him the reason and what he misliked in those words that he thus corrected Atqui said the Bishop non vidisse me scripta tua suspectare poteras si nihil immutatum reperisses you would have thought I never read or perused your writing had you received it again just such as you sent it to me I could wish that those men who are forward to show their diligence and their skill in the learned languages or perhaps their ignorance as it hapned in the instance I now gave you by mending the vulgar version would innovate in matters of less moment for these be indeed above any profanae vocum novitates I know it is one thing to teach that such a point of Faith is implyed in such an Hebrew Idiom another thing to teach children and common people to use the plural number upon pretence of drawing the Church to the Scripture Christian Churches forbid not to read Eccles 12.1 in Hebrew but they are against rendring every word just as it is in that language as their practice doth plainly witness And would you indeed that the English Bible should begin in the same manner and with the same pretence that you began your Catechisme withall The Gods created heaven and earth I hope you would not and yet you are in the way to it And though you teach your scholars at your fourth Question to answer There is but one God yet if they be wonted to read or hear that word in the plural and be used so to speak will they not go near to forget your Answer in your Catechisme and
cause why he receives not benefit by Christs death but may it not be said withall that he receives not benefit by it because it is not given him to beleeve But I innovate from Scripture I wish you would once leave your wonted manner of making people think you keep your self more punctually to Scripturd than others do Let the words of Moses be considered Deut. 29.4 The Lord hath not given you ◠heart to perceive and eyes to see Though great signes and miracles were wrought before their eyes yet they perceived them not because God gave them not to perceive Let those words of our Saviour be considered giving the reason why his heavenly doctrine was revealed to some and not to others it was not onely because some gave better ear then others did but So it seemed good in thy sight Matth. 11.26 and those words of his Joh. 10.26 You beleeve not because you are not of my sheep as I said unto you Sheep that is say you elswhere meekened and made docible then look to the 16. verse Other sheep I have which are not of this fold the I must bring Were the Gentiles yet uncalled meekned and made docible already No. By sheep therefore are meant elect such as belonged to God by election without reference to any sheep-like disposition found in them before they were brought In Gods counsel they appertained to his flock according as the elect in Corinth are called his people Acts 18.10 I have much people in this citie not with reference to any frames or qualities they had before they were called And I pray marke those words as I said unto you but where was that said that we may the better gather the meaning of what is said here I will refer you who would be thought not to swerve the least from what you finde in Scriture to Joh. 8.47 and Joh. 6.36 Ye have seen me and beleeve not All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me To come is to beleeve and they come whom God doth give and none else and they whom God giveth were his Joh. 17.6 Thine they were and thou gavest them me These be the causes you finde in Scripture no other frames and dispositions why one beleeveth and another not Sect. 3. You lay down considerations touching Gods giving Faith The sum is this He giveth Faith to all that hear the word as well to them that beleeve not as to theem that beleeve as he gave the Israelites Manna lying before them upon the ground they might take it if they would if they would not take it they might leave it Man 's not having doth not argue Gods not giving The sluggard cannot say God gave him not provision when he might have had it would he have laboured for it And where is now that malicious and standerous Adversary that dareth to accuse you as if you taught that Faith is not Gods gift God gave Faith to Judas but he would not take it as he giveth the slothfull man bread that starveth for want of it because he will not stretch forth his hand to labour He likewise gave Faith to Peter as he giveth to the diligent hand that maketh rich With you or in your doctrine To give is no more than to offer but in good common and ordinary sense That which is offered may be rejected but that which is not received cannot be said to be given And still you presuppose that man hath always spiritual life and can come when he is called and can take what is tendred to him and can eat what is set before him Whereas if you did not innovate from Scripture you might learn and teach others How Faith which is said to be Gods gift is the chief part of that spiritual life by which a Christian liveth and that very hand by which he receiveth and layeth hold of Gods promises and that appetite of the soul by which it longeth after the heavenly bread And untill this be obtained all that is said or done or propounded by way of Object to mans heart is no other than appositiones epularum circumpositae sepulchro as messes of meat set upon a grave or a banquet that is offered to an idol that can neither eat nor smell I am sure you innovate and invert the Apostles words who saith thus It is not of him that willeth but of God that sheweth mercy But you say to this effect That this man is saved and not another it is not of God that sheweth mercie for he sheweth mercie to all but it is of man that willeth and accepteth his mercie It is not of God that giveth but of man that taketh for God giveth to all that will take And when the Apostle Paul saith thus to Timothy if God peradventure will give them repentance his meaning must be but this If it pleaseth God to propound to their minds such reasons and arguments that would prevail with those that are disposed as they ought to be A thing which Timothy himself might do well enough But when he saith Sifortè if peadventure he intendeth some singular and rare matter and of great difficulty scarce to be hoped for not a common gift vouchsafed to all that hear and are outwardly called It is well said it is given to you to beleeve or suffer but it follows not that God either did not or would not have given the same to others in the serious listening to him in the means and Spirits concomitancie therewith given All that come are drawn it follows not all that are drawn come But who giveth the serious listening you speak of Who giveth eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to perceive Whatsoever your concessions be or how far soever you yeeld you take care not to endanger nor part with your beloved Principle though never so rotten It must be of man that willeth and of man that listeneth why one beleeveth and another not The Spirits concomitancy therewith given they should speak of this that hold any such thing needfull beside the word for producing faith but you draw so deep of the Socinian lees as to count them breeders of Fanaticks that hold it I deny not but there is a working of the spirit of God which causeth some degree of illumination and conviction in the hearts of the hearers ordinarily but not universally for some hear and understand not their hearts being like the high way the seed that is sowen the wicked one catcheth away and it taketh no manner of place at all and in the Acts of the Apostles some beleeved others doubted a third sort mocked But though there be ordinarily such a working of the spirit accompanying the word yet I utterly denie that this is always accompanied with that saving and quickning power or efficacie which causeth true faith and is sufficient to salvation for it were sufficient and universal if it were able to remove mans rebellious disposition and were granted to all then all men would be saved
onely of Divine honour and in things heavenly or relating thereunto And what other honour could I mean than Divine yea how could you otherwise take me when I expressed what I meant by any when I added though for the duration temporary and transitorie for such are all the honours which he mentioneth I hope you do not take temporarie for temporal That the preposition In in honorem To honour doth not import a permanent condition you would prove from Isai 14.2 Where people are taken in servos in ancillas for servants and handmaids Must they therefore be ever so may they not be made free But 1. In servos denotes a state or condition which is more than aid or choise means towards an estate as you made it And 2. Bondage your own instance is a state permanent and final during life It is true that a slave may be made free it is possible but it is accidental to slaverie not of the nature of it And strangers were not released at the year of Jubilee as the Hebrew bondmen were but their bondage did abide from one generation to another The potter makes a vessel for honour that is his final end yet it may be marred on the wheel and he may turn it and make another vessel Jer. 18.3 4. The Apostle Rom. 9.20 21. sheweth Gods absolute power to dispose of men finally as it best pleaseth him by the likeness of a Potter that out of the same lump of clay frameth one vessel to honourable use another to dishonourable the similitude is taken out of Isai or at least is the same that the Prophet there useth Chap. 45. v. 9. Wo to him that striveth with his maker shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it what makest thou whether it be meant of Cyrus who though a great Monarch yet was wholly at Gods dispose for the work that he had in hand or whether it was spoken to check the peoples impatience that thought long for their deliverance and to make them willing to abide Gods leisure S. Paul applyeth it to Predestination and the eternal state of men in the life to come This is most evident by that which goes before and follows in that discourse The same similitude you may finde used also in Ecclus 33.12 13. Some men he blesseth and exalteth and setteth near himself some he curseth and setteth low and turneth out of their places As the clay is in the Potters hand to fashion it at his pleasure so is man in the hand of him that made him I pray take you heed that you be not like to Balaam who though he knew Gods minde or purpose yet because he liked it not would needs go and inquire again if possibly he might be brought to speak according to his own desire You would fain have the Apostles words refer to the eighteen chapter of Jeremy where indeed is spoken of a Potter and the clay in his hand but quite to another purpose namely this A Potter when he is framing any one earthen vessel upon the wheel can with the turn of his hand make quite another of it and not that which he began to make Amphora coepit institui currente rota cur urceus exit as on the contrary sometimes he that thinks to write but a few lines when his hand is in writes a long discourse currente rota dum urceum cogito Amphoram fecit nanus said one that wrote much more than he thought to have done So saith God by his Prophet there if I intend to bring and be bringing evil against a Nation upon their Repentance I can and will upon the sudden turn away the evil that was hastening towards them And if I promise and begin to do good for a people to plant and establish them if they in the mean time prove disobedient to me I can instantly turn my intended mercies into judgements and destroy in stead of building them You may easily discern a difference betwixt thefe two namely the Power or Liberty that a Potter hath to make several vessels to several lasting uses as it pleaseth him which the Prophet Esay and the Apostle Paul speak of And the Power or Facility that he hath to make or mar one and the same vessel before it be finished which is spoken of in the Prophet Jeremy And let not the Vorstian Divinitie so blinde your eyes that you cannot distinguish betwixt Gods promisse threatnings exhortations to Repentance and revealed will which is dayly resisted on the one hand and on the other his hidden purpose which always takes effect or his secret will that never is resisted and cannot be disappointed 2 Tim. 2.21 If a man cleanse himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour must either signifie that he that is not so may be made so A man is made a vessel of honour 1. By Election from the beginning 2. In time By Vocation and Sanctification he therefore that through Gods Grace cleanseth himself may know he was elected a vessel to honour so that in these words the Apostle doth but repeat in effect what he said before v. 19. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquitie as if he had said In a great house are vessels of several sorts some to honour some to dishonour known onely to God who knoweth who are his who not If any man be desirous to be certified that he is a vessel made to honour Let him forsake iniquitie let him keep himself free from the defilements of sin for by this Gods purpose according to Election is executed and also assured to them that are heirs of life CHAP. XX. Whether the works of God do preach Chists mediation AGainst your opinion that Heathens were in some sort Christians and the Rain Sun-shine and other worldly blessings do preach the Gospel to them I brought some Arguments which you endeavour thus to put off Sect. 2. Gods works may manifest what men take no notice of The Sun doth shine though I do not see it and a man may speak what no bodie hears I will briefly shew you the vanitie of this your allegation 1. That which God is said indeed to manifest is indeed made known to most men in the world As the heavens declare the Glory of God so there is no Nation of what different speech or language soever where their voice is not heard And 2. The Doctrine of your Catechisme was that Gods works do bring a man to Faith in Christ and your Quest 154. with the Answer is this Quest How doth God speaking in his works conduce to Faith Answ Inasmuch as they evidence God and what is to be known of him to us they evidence to us which cannot be unless we hear and see and they dispose the heart to receive more clear Revelation Can that dispose the heart which the heart doth not perceive This Answer of yours you say sect 3. passes currant without exception amongst the Answers of his commendation
wrought upon any otherwise than suadendo which I Englished by perswading and you now say I confound suadendo with persuadendo counselling with perswading I answer whatsoever difference there is betwixt suadere and persuadere in some Latine writers for it is not in all we have in our language but one word for both and that is perswasion for suasion is no English And 2ly Brandius the Translator of that Conference doth in the very next place before use the word persuadere and persuasio thrice within the compass of one sentence in the very same signification with suadet in the words that I alledged pag. 310. praeter alia omnia persuadendi dona quibus alii aliis praest are possunt rogamus fratres quando volumus persuasionu rationes inter se conferenao ponderare agatne ille fortius in persuadendo qui aeterna incorruptibilia dona promittit co quitantum temporalia corruptibilia Illud est discrimen inter allicia Dei Satanae I alledg the words at large the rather that withall it may be seen how little they ascribe to God in the conversion of a sinner even as much as is in the object which he propoundeth and no more And 3ly It is nothing materiall to our enquiry whether the counsell be followed or no whether it be suadendo or persuadendo by perswading or by counselling the question is What or how much is done by him that doth either counsell or perswade The counsell given is the same whether it be followed or not followed Who determines the will to follow the good counsell that is given The Apostle saith Phil. 2.13 God worketh in us to will so say you too by giving us good counsell to follow but if that be all he worketh it in us according to our good pleasure and not of his good pleasure as the Apostle there addeth Perswasion say you doth it with the perswasible but who maketh them perswasible The work of grace is to open the deaf eare and to make the stubborn and refractory become willing to hear and obey Having alledged Cameron by way of scorn for so I take it Sect. 1. In your third you bring him in again saying Deus ista omnia facit persuadendo God doth all these things by his perswasion but in in the same page he saith God in this life worketh Charity in us as he doth in the life to come sic ut fieri non possit ut non amemus So as that it cannot be otherwise but that we must love him and after in the 75. page Those who are converted are so illuminated Ut non possint non converti that they cannot but be converted Is this your Illumition and perswasion Sect. 3. I thought the new spirit and heart had followed Faith Regeneration is an entire work though in appearance and to our apprehension some things go before and some other follow As faith is a Principle of spirituall life so is it withall a part of spirituall life As the life in the Heart is a part of Naturall life and withall a principle of Naturall life So Faith goeth before the new frame as a part of the new frame CHAP. XXVII No man can hear of himself Sect. 2. LEt the Reader view my Answer and judge of my Reviewers honesty when he thus wrote where say I they are both alike without any difference so called Nay I say quite otherwise for in saying of the latter it is a gift brought to us by the word of God which I say not of the former I expresly put a Difference Let the Reader judge hardily and spare not I am willing withall let him look narrowly and tell what he findes whether in you or in me either of Dishonesty or of Sycophancy Your Answer in the Catechisme was this As the ability to hear the Gospel outwardly is of Gods gift so the word outwardly heard brings to men by the gift of God power of more inward hearing and attention Hereupon I noted thus To hear outwardly and to hear inwardly are in this answer called both alike without any difference Gods gift and as far as we may guess by his words here and in other places both of them are of like extent thus far that look where he giveth the outward hearing he giveth the inward also Whatsoever the means be by which he conferreth the gift still the one is his gift as well as the other he giveth this no more than he giveth that which way soever he giveth it May they not both be said by you to be his gift without difference and yet be given by somewhat different means But you must be born withall for writing thus if you have nothing more solid to bring forth If the power to hear with inward intention be an act of special Grace why doth our Saviour fault some for stopping the ear lest they should hear it was not the outward ear they stopped with their fingers but their inward with their oppositions to God and if that was not opened no ground to stop it The will is corrupted as well as other faculties of men unregenerate so that they lie under a natural and a voluntarie corruption As it is a natural corruption so they cannot hear and obey their ears are stopped as it is a voluntarie corruption so they are willingly disobedient and stop their own ears A prisoner that is besotted with his manner of life and his companions and preferreth it before his libertie may say I will not come forth and you cannot thence prove that he may come forth if he will CHAP. XXVIII Of falling from Grace Sect. 2. HE adds such a faith as is feined and unsound may belost and truly I think it is not worth the keeping no loss in loosing such a faith seeing if kept it would do a man no good A man may lose it for the better even for a righter faith But I am perswaded that is not it which the Apostles and Christ warn men of and bewailed or feared any for that they should lose what made them but Hypocrites Hy pocrisie is a moral crime An Hypocrite is a dissembler He that takes upon him and personates what he is not But if you will extend the term so far as to comprehend such as want saving Grace and are not yet made partakers of spiritual life howsoever otherwise morally qualified and conforming in duties of Religion or if you will put the case of one that is an Hypocrite indeed in the common sense If he loseth his faith he doth not lose that which made him an Hypocrite though he loseth that notwithstanding which he was such But as an Hypocrite is not so bad as a vitious and openly profane and ungodly person so an unsound faith is better than none a faith historical or temporarie better kept than lost Although you very rashly as I suppose not deliberately do here teach to the contrarie For I pray observe well first that Historical faith is a true